A LOOK BACK:

One of the most fondly remembered annual events that used to be in Huntington Beach was the annual twins convention.

Residents would begin seeing double around Main Street a few days before the Labor Day weekend when sets of twins began arriving for the Southern California annual twins contest.

Started in 1935, the popular Huntington Beach event would bring sets of twins from all over the southland to participate in our unique event that was put on well into the 1950s.

This week we are going back to remember the fifth Annual Twins Convention on Labor Day in 1940 that saw more than 150 sets of twins participating for prizes.

D.W. “Boxie” Huston and William Gallienne had an extensive planning campaign to make this event the biggest and best attended.

Gallienne began early in the year to send invitations out to former participants on earlier twins contests.

One of those invitations went to the family of 2-year-old twins, Georgia and Marion Morrison, best known as Montebello’s famed “airplane” twins.

Huston and his committee of Chamber of Commerce members came up with the idea of having the twins arrive here in an airplane and be landed at our seashore airport located near Pacific Coast Highway and Newland.

Another invitation went out to then-California Gov. Culbert Olson’s redheaded twin sons, Dean and John.

By mid-August everything was in readiness for the big event including a dedication of our pier that had been damaged by a storm the year before.

Richard Beeson, the city park superintendent, and Charlotte Eader, came up with the idea of decorating the stage of the open air beach bowl with a pair theme in decorations that included pear designs.

Warren Bristol was placed in charge of photographing the twins and an invite was sent to Movietone News to cover and film the event to be shown in movie theaters across the country.

Gallienne invited Squire Duree and Bess Wilson Settle of Long Beach as guests of honor.

They had originally conceived the idea of a twins convention and had the first one in Long Beach before moving it here to become a Huntington Beach tradition.

Huston invited the Rev. R. Anderson Jardine, the English minister who married the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to take part in the ceremonies.

Invitations were sent out to movie stars Lola Lane and Frank McHugh along with the 1-year-old twins, Arlene and Barbara Lande of Hollywood, that appeared with Lane and McHugh in the movie “Four Mothers.”

To arrange for these stars to appear here, Gallienne had lunch in Hollywood with Warner Brothers Publicity Manager Joe Weston and over lunch a deal was made to bring the four down here to Huntington Beach.

Shirley Patterson was named one of the judges of the twins contest.

She held the titles of Miss California and was Pasadena’s 1940 Tournament of Roses queen.

Our chief of police, Don Blossom, had arranged for additional officers to handle the huge crowd they hoped would jam the beach and surrounding open air beach bowl by the pier.

A parade would be part of the event with all the sets of twins either walking or riding down Main Street to the beach bowl.

Huntington Beach Mayor Marcus McCallen and Chamber of Commerce Secretary William Gallienne took turns introducing the twins on the outer stage of the bowl.

For two hours there was a steady procession of diverse pairs, from twins in baby buggies to seniors in wheelchairs, to twins in elaborately decorated costumes, to twins in bathing suits.

Barbara Ann Chamness, the daughter of Councilman Lee Chamness, presented actress Lola Lane with a bouquet of roses.

Blythe and Bethe Teeter of Long Beach were named the prettiest girl twins while Melvin and Murray Gabbert of Los Angeles were judged the handsomest boys older than 12 and Clark and Gay Hamilton of Huntington Beach were named the handsomest boys younger than 12.

Ellen Teeter and Helen Dubois, 84, from Alhambra were named the oldest twins and 6-week-old Leana and Deana Todd of Fullerton the youngest.

Each set of twins was presented a photograph of themselves to take home as a souvenir by Warren Bristol.

Local photographers took eight reels of film of the festivities to be shown at a Chamber of Commerce meeting.

It would be nice if the city could hold a reunion of all the twins who are still alive who participated in these annual twins contests.

This story was a little harder for me to do for this is the last “A Look Back” column in the Huntington Beach Independent as the paper takes on a new look.

I would like to thank the following people who are no longer with us for a lot of the information that appeared in the columns: Gordie Higgins, Orville Hansen, George Arnold, Eileen Arnold, Rusty Shepard and Art Hermann.

I would especially like to thank Tony Dodero for the opportunity of letting me tell the stories of the people, places and events that have shaped our city in the last 100 years.

I especially would have liked to have thanked the one who I feel was the greatest news reporter Huntington Beach ever had, Robert Barker, and for all the encouragement he gave me.

I would also like to thank all my readers who have endured reading my column for the past 12 years.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident.