Category Archives: Uncategorized

Friday, May 27, 1988 was a clear, cool day in Redondo Beach, with temperatures near 70 degrees. It was getaway day for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and hundreds of diners, tourists, fishermen and others were visiting the Redondo Beach pier. At 1:40 pm, the Redondo Beach Fire Department received its first call: “Station 1.Continue reading “The day the Redondo Beach pier went up in flames”

Christian Ludolf Ebsen, Jr. – better known as Buddy – was born on April 2, 1908, in Belleville, Illinois. His dad, Christian Sr., was a Danish choreographer who once owned a dance studio in Illinois, and ran another one when the family moved to Orlando, Florida in 1920. That’s where Buddy and his sister, Vilma,Continue reading “Actor and Palos Verdes Estates resident Buddy Ebsen’s rich career”

Del Conte’s Restaurant became a revered institution in Torrance during its 30 years of doing business on Pacific Coast Highway. But it wasn’t the first restaurant to occupy the site. A horse breeder named Jack Rogers  first recognized the potential of the site at 2900 PCH, just south of the Torrance Municipal Airport. In 1957,Continue reading “Del Conte’s in Torrance kept its customers happy for three decades”

The roots of satellite television stretch back into the early 1980s, when cable and set-top boxes were dominating the market. The earliest form of consumer satellite TV, called television receive-only, or TVRO, became viable when the Federal Communications Commission ruled on Oct. 18, 1979, that consumers could operate the large satellite dishes without a license.Continue reading “DirecTV transforms the television broadcasting industry”

Harry H. Dolley vividly recalled the day he opened Torrance’s first drug store when asked about it by the Torrance Herald in 1936. “It was bathtubs that brought me to Torrance,” he said. Dolley was born on Nov. 6, 1988, in Hagerstown, Indiana, and had lived in the South Bay since graduating from USC withContinue reading “Dolley Drug Co., one of the first businesses in Torrance”

  Charles Williams Nash , the man who founded the company that brought the automobile industry to El Segundo – if only briefly – was born in Illinois in 1864. After driving his first car in 1897, Nash became hooked on the new technology. In 1908, he co-founded the Buick Motor Co. together with DavidContinue reading “Nash-Kelvinator brings the auto industry to El Segundo following World War II”

The Hermosa Beach Community Center, one of the beach city’s most recognizable public structures, plays a central role in the city’s life. The landmark building at 710 Pier Avenue, near Pacific Coast Highway, began its existence as one of the city’s first public schools. “Where there is no vision the people perish,” the motto onContinue reading “Pier Avenue School in Hermosa Beach becomes the city’s community center”

Semipro baseball once thrived in Torrance, back in the days when large manufacturing plants such as Union Tool and Columbia Steel employed thousands of workers, and baseball became a prime form of recreation and entertainment for the factory hands. The city even had its own semipro team, the Torrance Bluebirds, an all-star group featuring theContinue reading “After a brush with extinction, Torrance Park’s Kendall Field thrives”

Sports team nicknames have become increasingly controversial in recent years. American Indian groups have expressed disapproval of  the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo as well as the “tomahawk chop” chants used by Atlanta Braves and Florida State Seminoles fans. The Stanford University Indians became The Cardinal way back in 1972. But it’s the Washington RedskinsContinue reading “Gardena High School commemorates the last of the Mohicans”

When was the last time it snowed, really snowed and stayed on the ground, in the South Bay and Harbor Area? Unlike some Southern California areas near foothills that do receive snow from time to time when the level drops to the lower elevations, the South Bay and Harbor Area rarely gets a dusting ofContinue reading “When was the last time real snow fell in the South Bay / Harbor Area?”