The year 1935 in review

A LOOK BACK

Well, we made it through another year, and it’s time to take stock

of how we spent the year.

Many of our newspapers and magazines will offer stories of the

past year, and we will also look back. But as you can guess, not to

2002. We’ll look all the way back to 1935.

When our residents started the year, they were full of hope. But,

our city lost one of its most prominent citizens in 1935 when

longtime Postmaster Walter Clapp passed away suddenly on Jan. 2.

If you think our tree society’s idea of planting trees around town

is something new, then you weren’t here on Jan. 28 of that year when

Frank Bundy suggested a massive tree planting program for Huntington

Beach to the City Council. He even suggested changing the town’s name

to “Palm Beach.”

Now don’t you guys there up in City Hall get any ideas of changing

the name of our city.

Huntington High School student Lois Treece sang the lead in the

school’s production of Victor Herbert’s comic opera “The Red Mill”

along with the glee clubs and the school orchestra on Feb. 8.

On March 19 the Rev. James “Sunny Jim” Hurst of the Church of

Christ (First Christian Church) was taken to the hoosegow for

stealing a mitch cow along with many other prominent citizens as the

Huntington Beach De Molay took over city government for one day.

Two petitions were signed on March 25 by 121 Eastside residents

who wanted a direct route to the Main Street business district from

their homes and a direct path to Ocean Avenue (Pacific Coast

Highway).

The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) proposed building a

$500,000 commercial radio station on the east side of Beach Boulevard

on April 4. They never did, but we have a lot of cell phone repeaters

there today.

Now here’s something you don’t see very often. On April 11, the

mayor and City Council took a stand and kept it. Mayor Tom Talbert

and his fellow council members told the state and the oilmen “ no

royalty, no drilling” in the tideland drilling battle. The oilmen

tried to have the mayor and council recalled, but it failed.

May 6 was the day of the groundbreaking ceremonies for the new

$52,000 post office building at Olive Avenue and Main Street. That

building is still there today for us to enjoy.

Delbert Eugene Burry became the first president of the now

combined Business Men’s Assn. and the Huntington Beach Chamber of

Commerce on May 24.

As summer approached, the tidelands battle continued to heat up.

The 13th of June saw plans for a $81,000 sewage disposal system.

We all know what we did on July 4th as we watched the parade go

by.

Our governor at the time, Frank Merriam, vetoed the tidelands bill

that would have given our city part of the oil revenue the state

collected on July 20.

Huntington Beach News editor Jim Farquhar fired back an editorial

to the San Bernardino Sun’s newspaper on Aug. 1, when that paper had

said that the oil wells ruined our city and the state should not pay

attention to the beauty of our town. Farquhar’s editorial became

known as “Hermit of the Hinterland” and was reprinted in many

newspapers of the time.

Standard Oil Co. cut the price of crude oil in half in September

-- something I wish OPEC and the rest of the world’s oil producers

would do today.

The Huntington Beach High Oilers won the National Night League

softball championships for 1935 in front of 6,500 fans on Sept. 17,

and on Oct. 1 the Oilers won the night ball crown over the Colton Red

Lions, an easy win.

October saw members of the Huntington Beach American Legion attend

Legion Day at the San Diego Fair.

The Rev. Luther Arthur began a series of sermons on prophecy at

the Baptist church at 6th Street and Orange Avenue.

Hurricane winds struck Huntington Beach at 60 mph on Oct. 22,

toppling 19 oil derricks and causing millions of dollars in damages.

The steel and wooden derricks were no match for this windstorm.

Also in October, Huntington Beach resident E.C. Willhite received

severe burns to his arms and hands while saving a dog that had gotten

in a sump of hot oil.

On Nov. 28, our city received word that its application for a

$36,000 federal grant was approved. This money would go toward the

building of the sewage disposal system.

Huntington High’s lightweight football team was elated over its

winning the Southern California title over Colton’s Tri-County champs

13-0 on Dec. 6.

Huntington Beach won the best decorated city award in the “Forty

Miles of Christmas Smiles” lighting contest, which included beach

cities from Long Beach south for 40 miles on Dec. 23.

When Christmas Day arrived, our civic organizations delivered more

than 50 baskets of food and clothing to the homes of those in need.

And that concludes the year 1935. Those were just some of the

things that took place here in Huntington Beach.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington

Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at

P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.