Category Archives: Uncategorized

Specialty Restaurant Corp. of Anaheim chose a novel way to break ground for its latest restaurant, The Proud Bird, at a ceremony before LAX officials and members of the press on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 1966. LAX general manager Francis Fox was tapped to drive a tractor to break the ribbon, eschewing the traditional giant pairContinue reading “The Proud Bird restaurant”

The events that sparked the Aug. 31, 1970 riot in Wilmington actually began in East Los Angeles the day before. On Saturday, Aug. 30, a peaceful antiwar demonstration sponsored by the Chicano National Moratorium Committee took place on Whittier Boulevard in Los Angeles County territory in the heart of the Mexican-American community. After the demonstrationContinue reading “Wilmington riot erupts in 1970”

The first King Harbor sign at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach went up in 1967, shortly after the King Harbor project was completed. (King Harbor was dedicated on Nov. 19, 1966.) After a couple of years, the city decided to go with something a little more flamboyant. OnContinue reading “Redondo Beach’s gateway sign”

Though he is known in his myriad iterations throughout the roadsides of America as “Muffler Man,” the large statue that stands astride the San Diego Freeway in Carson always has been known by the handle of “Golf Man” by South Bay residents. The statues, used as eye-catching roadside advertisements for businesses, were manufactured beginning inContinue reading “Golf Man becomes Porsche Man in Carson”

Around noon on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1966, nine anteaters from Ecuador arrived at Dobrick’s Pet Center in Redondo Beach. By Wednesday morning, all of them were gone. They had been placed in an outdoor cage at the pet store. Store manager Howard Newman told the Daily Breeze that the animals apparently had escaped during theContinue reading “Anteaters invade Redondo Beach!”

Monorail systems have tempted South Bay municipal planners ever since E.G. Lewis proposed one from downtown Los Angeles to Palos Verdes in November 1921. Lewis, who had the option to buy Frank Vanderlip’s 16,000-acre Palos Verdes ranch, envisioned a monorail system from downtown L.A. directly to the Palos Verdes property, with a branch running fromContinue reading “How monorail systems became the road not taken in the South Bay”

For years, the “Red Barn” in Rolling Hills Estates was considered to be the oldest man-made building on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Estimates for the year it was erected vary from sometime in the 1890s to around 1904. It was built on the 16,000-acre cattle ranch then owned by Joatham and George Bixby, and managedContinue reading “Rolling Hills Estates and the Red Barn”

Four North American Rockwell employees took off in a revamped B-26 World War II-era twin-engine Martin Marauder from LAX shortly after noon on Saturday, May 10, 1969. The plane carried highly classified government electronic engineering equipment for testing purposes. Shortly after takeoff, the men knew something was wrong. The right engine cut out almost immediately.Continue reading “Classified research plane crashes into El Segundo apartments in 1969, killing 6”

Gardena mechanic and auto wrecker-turned-filmmaker Henry Bernard Halicki heard about a Torrance train derailment one morning in 1973, and immediately decided it would make a great opening for his first feature film. He rounded up a crew and headed to the site, convincing authorities there to allow him to film a quickly improvised scene. SoContinue reading “H.B. “Toby” Halicki makes a film and a phenomenon”

Until a municipal courthouse opened in Inglewood in 1947, the bulk of legal matters arising in the South Bay had to adjudicated in downtown Los Angeles courts. That meant that long trips downtown as a matter of routine for attorneys and litigants. The Inglewood municipal court didn’t even handle criminal cases until 1958, so thoseContinue reading “Torrance’s courthouse didn’t come without trials”