Pop Surf Culture — Laguna Beach
Saturday, February 21st, Brian Chidester and Domenic Priore + the Boardwalkers will be at Stories Book Store to sign their new book, Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Boom, from 6-9pm. Pre-1970 surf movies will screen throughout the building and live surf instrumental music will fill the air. Come to Stories at 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (Echo Park). ABOVE: Catherine Deneuve learns to surf in France.
Way Out in Laguna Beach
There are few roads leading in or out of the sleepy beachside community of Laguna Beach, making it a repository for many 1920s artists and counter-culture activists from nearby Los Angeles who settled the charming cottages tucked along the Laguna’s rolling hillsides. During the late ’50s and early ’60s, Laguna Beach nurtured a handful of key artists from the surf community. Today, the trajectory of characters has changed in Laguna Beach, as the town is one of the wealthiest places in North America. The more experimental artistic impulse has moved out to Laguna Canyon. Still, many colourful examples from the Modernist era remain in Laguna Beach. In our ongoing quest to unveil the story of SoCal’s indigenous surf development, the Dumb Angel Blog visits Laguna Beach.
--Brian Chidester and Domenic Priore, 2/10/2009
The Mediterranean vibe of Laguna Beach, California, bordered on the left by Pacific Coast Highway.
In the old days, on the way to Laguna Beach via Pacific Coast Highway, you HAD to stop by the country health food store – the Orange Inn (est. 1931).
A shot of the Orange Inn shortly before the encroachment of development in the area.
Just south of the Orange Inn, a vagabond beachside neighborhood existed.
Down the road a little further, you reached Laguna Beach.
One of the first areas you run into is Crescent Bay, among the best body surfing spots in California.
Laguna’s nicest feature is the marine life preserve with sea urchins and rock formations all up and down the coastline.
The aqua colour of the ocean in Laguna is one of the few places in California that actually looks like Hawaii.
Coming down out of Crescent Bay, you run into a small commercial area, featuring cafes, art galleries and pottery shops.
The spiritual center in this area was (until a year or so ago) the Jolly Roger Restaurant, which overlooked the main beach boardwalk.
The Jolly Roger crest at the entrance is a classic piece of Laguna arcana.
Hawaiian shirt genius and impresario Waltah Clarke (who recorded the old-time Waikiki Beachboys in 1962) had boutiques in a number of exotic locations, including Laguna Beach.
The legendary Wardy surfboard was also a product of Laguna Beach.
One of the greatest surf instrumental acts to come out of the early 1960s was Laguna Beach’s Dave Myers & the Surftones, who recorded this brilliant album for Del-Fi Records.
Business card for when the group went garage-punk with the single “Come on Luv” on Harmony Park Records.
Dave Myers on stage at Harmony Park Ballroom in Anaheim, with custom-made guitar. (Photo courtesy of Pam DeLacy)
Dave Myers & the Surftones perform the bohemian surf tune “Aquavelva” from the Hangin' Twenty! album. Myers started out in the late ’50s as a folk singer at Laguna’s Café Frankenstein.
Café Frankenstein’s Burt Shonberg created poster art for surf filmmaker Don Brown’s Surfhouse, on Broadway in Laguna Beach.
Here’s a business card from the Beat Generation coffeehouse once located at 860 South Pacific Coast Boulevard. Owner Doug Myres was in the first L.A. folk group, the Gateway Singers. Artist Burt Shonberg and writer George Clayton Johnson (Logan’s Run, The Twilight Zone) were co-owners. The place ran from 1958-62.
The exterior of Café Frankenstein, with Burt Shonberg art.
Burt Shonberg (left) and Doug Myres (right) hang outside at the Café Frankenstein.
Out in back of the Café Frankenstein was a small bookstore specializing in banned literature and a handmade leather sandal shop, run by Connie Vining and Michael Schley, who took over Café Frankenstein in 1960.
Barbara Kellogg posed nude in front of the stained glass window inside the Café Frankenstein.
Apparently, some kids were peering inside and told their parents what was happening at Café Frankenstein. The police hauled the owners, the model and the photographer to jail, but all charges were eventually dropped.
Sid Soffer managed the Café Frankenstein from 1958-59 before opening his own coffeehouse, the Blue Beet in Laguna Beach. In 1962, Soffer moved Sid’s Blue Beet up to Newport Beach, where it still operates to this day. See our older entry titled: Dumb Angel's Potpourri Vol. 2.
Surf legends Miki Dora and Dewey Weber advertise “The Laguna Look.”
Artist Bill Ogden started out with Surfing Illustrated in 1962, and ended up drawing comics, maps and ads for all the great surf magazines of the ’60s. By the end of the decade, he was doing poster art for the Sandals (“Theme from The Endless Summer”) and Laguna Beach record store, Sound Spectrum.
An overlooked tiki restaurant exists in Laguna, named after the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.
Tiki relief from the Royal Hawaiian.
The original interior of the Royal Hawaiian; Brian Chidester with his mum and dad.
Around the corner is the Laguna Beach Art Museum.
The Laguna Beach Art Museum often features incredible surf and hot rod exhibitions. Here Domenic Priore poses with Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s The Surfite. John Van Hamersveld's poster for The Endless Summer looms in the background
Brian Chidester with the surfboard from the film Ride the Wild Surf (1964), which was displayed at one of the Laguna Beach Art Museum’s exhibits.
Breakfast joint, the Cottage, embodies the low-key atmosphere of old Laguna Beach.
Inside the Cottage is a foyer tribute to local legend Eiler Larsen, a.k.a. the Laguna Greeter.
Get the message?
Laguna Beach runs rampant with examples of Modernist architecture built in the 1950s, during the town’s main growth period.
Near where the Café Frankenstein once stood is the Stand, a health food eatery that opened in 1967.
Fresh-squeezed juices, smoothies and fish taco platters are the house specialties.
A typical Pacific Coast Highway roadside motel in Laguna features a Modern rotunda pool, enclosed in glass.
The Orange Inn, still funky in its new location, in the center of town.
A good turkey sandwich from the Orange Inn.
The Laguna Greeter was truly an icon. For over fifty years, the sandaled Greeter stood on Pacific Coast Highway and waved to throngs of folks entering and sight-seeing around Laguna.
This statue stands out in front of what used to be the Pottery Shack, and is now a restaurant.
The exterior of Sound Spectrum Records, owned by Jim Otto since the 1960s. The store used to advertise in The Los Angeles Free Press and was an outlet for tickets to psychedelic concerts all over the Greater Los Angeles area.
The interior of Sound Spectrum maintains some of its original posters on the walls.
Most impressive is this 1968 shot of the Yardbirds.
Allen Ginsberg and Mother Earth still remain an essential part of the Laguna record store fabric.
Corridor in Sound Spectrum Records, painted by Bill Ogden.
Relief of Bill Ogden artwork inside Sound Spectrum.
Thalia Street Surf Shop is like a beautiful oasis in the otherwise obnoxious world of present-day surf culture.
Stepping inside Thalia Street brings many cool aesthetic pleasures, such as this Primo Beer tiffany lamp from the early 1970s (Five Summer Stories era).
A sample of Thalia’s sidewalk surfboards.
It was a very good year -- Surfer magazine’s 1963 calendar (here on the wall inside Thalia Street Surf Shop).
The obligatory Duke Kahanamoku tribute wall at Thalia.
Surfboard logo design display, with skateboard flank, inside Thalia Street Surf Shop.
Mondrian-style longboard hangs over the general atmosphere at Thalia.
Superb Rick Griffin knock-off displayed inside Thalia Street Surf Shop.
One good reason we came to Laguna Beach this evening.
Associated with Thalia Street Surf Shop is the Surf Gallery, host to the John Severson art show on this night. Severson was the original editor of Surfer magazine during the 1960s, and prior to that made incredible surf movies, including Surf (1957), Surf Safari (1959), Surf Fever (1960), The Angry Sea (1962), Going My Wave (1963) and Pacific Vibrations (1969).
The Duo-Tones -- featuring Paul Johnson (of the Belairs) and Gil Orr (of the Chantays) -- play acoustic surf instrumentals at the John Severson art show.
Author Domenic Priore (left) with artist/filmmaker John Severson (center) and art dealer/Rick Griffin book author Gordon McLelland (right).
John Severson’s artwork remains true to the original soul of surfing from its more bohemian days.
More cool Severson action.
Samples of new Severson watercolour paintings.
Severson captures the essence of stoke.
Severson’s interpretation of the San Clemente Pier in woodblock.
Ink drawings of waves and beaches by John Severson.
As we leave Laguna Beach, a tip of the hat to its ancient movie house and optimistic sense of nightlife.
Swim-trunks logo with the word "Laguna" in a beatnik hand-drawn font.
RECURRING BALBOA THEME
With each Dumb Angel blog, we revisit the town of Balboa (in the Newport Beach area), where much of the original impulse for surf music came from. If this is your first time reading a blog here, make sure you check out all of our past blogs and catch up on the story-arc of this cool Southern California community.
A Balboa, California watercolour from a 1930s issue of Westways magazine.
Often overlooked in the Balboa scheme of things is Lido Isle, where Henry Mancini once lived.
Stop in to a Lido Isle watering hole sometime… in the past.
Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking Lido Isle.
Pre-Balboa, the Stuft Shirt had three locations throughout Southern California. Here is their earliest logo (see photos of the Stuft Shirt from previous Dumb Angel blogs, including this photo, plus another color picture, a comic book drawing, and a great ad with a Stuft Shirt rendering
A ’50s shot of the Balboa Pharmacy and Balboa Pavilion on Main Street.
1920s shot of the Balboa Pavilion.
During the 1960s, there was a small beach near the Balboa Pavilion.
People love their little jetty dock in Balboa.
The view from Balboa Peninsula out towards Balboa Island.
The earliest shot known of the Rendezvous Ballroom on the beach at Balboa.
A 1920s ticket stub for the Rendezvous Ballroom; note the great detail with bands like “The Manhattans” and ’20s staple “Makin’ Whoopee!”
The entranceway to the Rendezvous Ballroom, circa 1941.
Balboa’s prime moment was during the tenure of the Stan Kenton Orchestra at the Rendezvous Ballroom during the early 1940s. You could take the Pacific Electric Red Car down from Los Angeles and have a wild night.
Kenton’s band on the beach at Balboa. Luminaries such as bassist Howard Rumsey, drummer Shelly Manne, trumpeter Shorty Rogers, guitarist Laurindo Almeida, percussionist Jack Costanzo, singer June Christy and many others broke out of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Gerry Mulligan was an arranger for the group as well.
Inside the Rendezvous Ballroom at its most swingin’.
Hanging from the rafters, people in Balboa are diggin’ the Stan Kenton band.
Dancefloor action at the Rendezvous Ballroom, 1940s.
Lindy Hop is all the rage in Balboa, right outside the Rendezvous Ballroom, across from the beach.
In 1961, Dick Dale & his Del-Tones became the house band at the Rendezvous Ballroom. This is where surf music emerged to become the most popular music style in Los Angeles from 1961 through 1963.
The crowds at the Rendezvous Ballroom during the surf music era danced the Surfer’s Stomp, here to the Rhythm Rockers on stage.
Two surf-era flyers for the Rendezvous Ballroom.
A final cool logo for the Rendezvous, with San Luis Obispo surf music gods, the Sentinals (“Latin’ia” and “Tor-Chula”) headlining. The Righteous Brothers are the opening act; they also broke from the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa.
1965: Is there any question as to what is so appealing about Los Angeles this year?
Four entities represented in one fell swoop. May Co. department stores, Catalina sportswear, Ban de Soleil suntan lotion and the Beach Boys’ new album for '65, The Beach Boys Today!
Way Out in Laguna Beach
There are few roads leading in or out of the sleepy beachside community of Laguna Beach, making it a repository for many 1920s artists and counter-culture activists from nearby Los Angeles who settled the charming cottages tucked along the Laguna’s rolling hillsides. During the late ’50s and early ’60s, Laguna Beach nurtured a handful of key artists from the surf community. Today, the trajectory of characters has changed in Laguna Beach, as the town is one of the wealthiest places in North America. The more experimental artistic impulse has moved out to Laguna Canyon. Still, many colourful examples from the Modernist era remain in Laguna Beach. In our ongoing quest to unveil the story of SoCal’s indigenous surf development, the Dumb Angel Blog visits Laguna Beach.
--Brian Chidester and Domenic Priore, 2/10/2009
The Mediterranean vibe of Laguna Beach, California, bordered on the left by Pacific Coast Highway.
In the old days, on the way to Laguna Beach via Pacific Coast Highway, you HAD to stop by the country health food store – the Orange Inn (est. 1931).
A shot of the Orange Inn shortly before the encroachment of development in the area.
Just south of the Orange Inn, a vagabond beachside neighborhood existed.
Down the road a little further, you reached Laguna Beach.
One of the first areas you run into is Crescent Bay, among the best body surfing spots in California.
Laguna’s nicest feature is the marine life preserve with sea urchins and rock formations all up and down the coastline.
The aqua colour of the ocean in Laguna is one of the few places in California that actually looks like Hawaii.
Coming down out of Crescent Bay, you run into a small commercial area, featuring cafes, art galleries and pottery shops.
The spiritual center in this area was (until a year or so ago) the Jolly Roger Restaurant, which overlooked the main beach boardwalk.
The Jolly Roger crest at the entrance is a classic piece of Laguna arcana.
Hawaiian shirt genius and impresario Waltah Clarke (who recorded the old-time Waikiki Beachboys in 1962) had boutiques in a number of exotic locations, including Laguna Beach.
The legendary Wardy surfboard was also a product of Laguna Beach.
One of the greatest surf instrumental acts to come out of the early 1960s was Laguna Beach’s Dave Myers & the Surftones, who recorded this brilliant album for Del-Fi Records.
Business card for when the group went garage-punk with the single “Come on Luv” on Harmony Park Records.
Dave Myers on stage at Harmony Park Ballroom in Anaheim, with custom-made guitar. (Photo courtesy of Pam DeLacy)
Dave Myers & the Surftones perform the bohemian surf tune “Aquavelva” from the Hangin' Twenty! album. Myers started out in the late ’50s as a folk singer at Laguna’s Café Frankenstein.
Café Frankenstein’s Burt Shonberg created poster art for surf filmmaker Don Brown’s Surfhouse, on Broadway in Laguna Beach.
Here’s a business card from the Beat Generation coffeehouse once located at 860 South Pacific Coast Boulevard. Owner Doug Myres was in the first L.A. folk group, the Gateway Singers. Artist Burt Shonberg and writer George Clayton Johnson (Logan’s Run, The Twilight Zone) were co-owners. The place ran from 1958-62.
The exterior of Café Frankenstein, with Burt Shonberg art.
Burt Shonberg (left) and Doug Myres (right) hang outside at the Café Frankenstein.
Out in back of the Café Frankenstein was a small bookstore specializing in banned literature and a handmade leather sandal shop, run by Connie Vining and Michael Schley, who took over Café Frankenstein in 1960.
Barbara Kellogg posed nude in front of the stained glass window inside the Café Frankenstein.
Apparently, some kids were peering inside and told their parents what was happening at Café Frankenstein. The police hauled the owners, the model and the photographer to jail, but all charges were eventually dropped.
Sid Soffer managed the Café Frankenstein from 1958-59 before opening his own coffeehouse, the Blue Beet in Laguna Beach. In 1962, Soffer moved Sid’s Blue Beet up to Newport Beach, where it still operates to this day. See our older entry titled: Dumb Angel's Potpourri Vol. 2.
Surf legends Miki Dora and Dewey Weber advertise “The Laguna Look.”
Artist Bill Ogden started out with Surfing Illustrated in 1962, and ended up drawing comics, maps and ads for all the great surf magazines of the ’60s. By the end of the decade, he was doing poster art for the Sandals (“Theme from The Endless Summer”) and Laguna Beach record store, Sound Spectrum.
An overlooked tiki restaurant exists in Laguna, named after the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.
Tiki relief from the Royal Hawaiian.
The original interior of the Royal Hawaiian; Brian Chidester with his mum and dad.
Around the corner is the Laguna Beach Art Museum.
The Laguna Beach Art Museum often features incredible surf and hot rod exhibitions. Here Domenic Priore poses with Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s The Surfite. John Van Hamersveld's poster for The Endless Summer looms in the background
Brian Chidester with the surfboard from the film Ride the Wild Surf (1964), which was displayed at one of the Laguna Beach Art Museum’s exhibits.
Breakfast joint, the Cottage, embodies the low-key atmosphere of old Laguna Beach.
Inside the Cottage is a foyer tribute to local legend Eiler Larsen, a.k.a. the Laguna Greeter.
Get the message?
Laguna Beach runs rampant with examples of Modernist architecture built in the 1950s, during the town’s main growth period.
Near where the Café Frankenstein once stood is the Stand, a health food eatery that opened in 1967.
Fresh-squeezed juices, smoothies and fish taco platters are the house specialties.
A typical Pacific Coast Highway roadside motel in Laguna features a Modern rotunda pool, enclosed in glass.
The Orange Inn, still funky in its new location, in the center of town.
A good turkey sandwich from the Orange Inn.
The Laguna Greeter was truly an icon. For over fifty years, the sandaled Greeter stood on Pacific Coast Highway and waved to throngs of folks entering and sight-seeing around Laguna.
This statue stands out in front of what used to be the Pottery Shack, and is now a restaurant.
The exterior of Sound Spectrum Records, owned by Jim Otto since the 1960s. The store used to advertise in The Los Angeles Free Press and was an outlet for tickets to psychedelic concerts all over the Greater Los Angeles area.
The interior of Sound Spectrum maintains some of its original posters on the walls.
Most impressive is this 1968 shot of the Yardbirds.
Allen Ginsberg and Mother Earth still remain an essential part of the Laguna record store fabric.
Corridor in Sound Spectrum Records, painted by Bill Ogden.
Relief of Bill Ogden artwork inside Sound Spectrum.
Thalia Street Surf Shop is like a beautiful oasis in the otherwise obnoxious world of present-day surf culture.
Stepping inside Thalia Street brings many cool aesthetic pleasures, such as this Primo Beer tiffany lamp from the early 1970s (Five Summer Stories era).
A sample of Thalia’s sidewalk surfboards.
It was a very good year -- Surfer magazine’s 1963 calendar (here on the wall inside Thalia Street Surf Shop).
The obligatory Duke Kahanamoku tribute wall at Thalia.
Surfboard logo design display, with skateboard flank, inside Thalia Street Surf Shop.
Mondrian-style longboard hangs over the general atmosphere at Thalia.
Superb Rick Griffin knock-off displayed inside Thalia Street Surf Shop.
One good reason we came to Laguna Beach this evening.
Associated with Thalia Street Surf Shop is the Surf Gallery, host to the John Severson art show on this night. Severson was the original editor of Surfer magazine during the 1960s, and prior to that made incredible surf movies, including Surf (1957), Surf Safari (1959), Surf Fever (1960), The Angry Sea (1962), Going My Wave (1963) and Pacific Vibrations (1969).
The Duo-Tones -- featuring Paul Johnson (of the Belairs) and Gil Orr (of the Chantays) -- play acoustic surf instrumentals at the John Severson art show.
Author Domenic Priore (left) with artist/filmmaker John Severson (center) and art dealer/Rick Griffin book author Gordon McLelland (right).
John Severson’s artwork remains true to the original soul of surfing from its more bohemian days.
More cool Severson action.
Samples of new Severson watercolour paintings.
Severson captures the essence of stoke.
Severson’s interpretation of the San Clemente Pier in woodblock.
Ink drawings of waves and beaches by John Severson.
As we leave Laguna Beach, a tip of the hat to its ancient movie house and optimistic sense of nightlife.
Swim-trunks logo with the word "Laguna" in a beatnik hand-drawn font.
RECURRING BALBOA THEME
With each Dumb Angel blog, we revisit the town of Balboa (in the Newport Beach area), where much of the original impulse for surf music came from. If this is your first time reading a blog here, make sure you check out all of our past blogs and catch up on the story-arc of this cool Southern California community.
A Balboa, California watercolour from a 1930s issue of Westways magazine.
Often overlooked in the Balboa scheme of things is Lido Isle, where Henry Mancini once lived.
Stop in to a Lido Isle watering hole sometime… in the past.
Pacific Coast Highway, overlooking Lido Isle.
Pre-Balboa, the Stuft Shirt had three locations throughout Southern California. Here is their earliest logo (see photos of the Stuft Shirt from previous Dumb Angel blogs, including this photo, plus another color picture, a comic book drawing, and a great ad with a Stuft Shirt rendering
A ’50s shot of the Balboa Pharmacy and Balboa Pavilion on Main Street.
1920s shot of the Balboa Pavilion.
During the 1960s, there was a small beach near the Balboa Pavilion.
People love their little jetty dock in Balboa.
The view from Balboa Peninsula out towards Balboa Island.
The earliest shot known of the Rendezvous Ballroom on the beach at Balboa.
A 1920s ticket stub for the Rendezvous Ballroom; note the great detail with bands like “The Manhattans” and ’20s staple “Makin’ Whoopee!”
The entranceway to the Rendezvous Ballroom, circa 1941.
Balboa’s prime moment was during the tenure of the Stan Kenton Orchestra at the Rendezvous Ballroom during the early 1940s. You could take the Pacific Electric Red Car down from Los Angeles and have a wild night.
Kenton’s band on the beach at Balboa. Luminaries such as bassist Howard Rumsey, drummer Shelly Manne, trumpeter Shorty Rogers, guitarist Laurindo Almeida, percussionist Jack Costanzo, singer June Christy and many others broke out of the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Gerry Mulligan was an arranger for the group as well.
Inside the Rendezvous Ballroom at its most swingin’.
Hanging from the rafters, people in Balboa are diggin’ the Stan Kenton band.
Dancefloor action at the Rendezvous Ballroom, 1940s.
Lindy Hop is all the rage in Balboa, right outside the Rendezvous Ballroom, across from the beach.
In 1961, Dick Dale & his Del-Tones became the house band at the Rendezvous Ballroom. This is where surf music emerged to become the most popular music style in Los Angeles from 1961 through 1963.
The crowds at the Rendezvous Ballroom during the surf music era danced the Surfer’s Stomp, here to the Rhythm Rockers on stage.
Two surf-era flyers for the Rendezvous Ballroom.
A final cool logo for the Rendezvous, with San Luis Obispo surf music gods, the Sentinals (“Latin’ia” and “Tor-Chula”) headlining. The Righteous Brothers are the opening act; they also broke from the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa.
1965: Is there any question as to what is so appealing about Los Angeles this year?
Four entities represented in one fell swoop. May Co. department stores, Catalina sportswear, Ban de Soleil suntan lotion and the Beach Boys’ new album for '65, The Beach Boys Today!
posted by KJAN @ 6:41 PM
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