Disaster In The South Bay (Southern California) - 1960s

In 1961, less than a year after my parents were married, they moved to the "South Bay" area of Southern California.  (The South Bay encompasses multiple cities, including Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, San Pedro, and quite a few others.)  My parents lived in the South Bay for eight years, and during that time, my dad photographed multiple "newsworthy" events.

This first photo shows a shipwrecked Greek freighter, the S.S. Dominator.  The ship was originally an American liberty ship, built during World War II, and launched as the S.S. Melville Jacoby.  After the war, the ship was sold into commercial service, and changed hands and names multiple times.  She was sold one last time in 1953, with her name being changed to the S.S. Dominator.  On March 13, 1961, she was on her way from Los Angeles to Vancouver, when she ran aground off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes.  My dad took this photo of the ship, but it's undated, so I don't know how long the ship had been out there in the water at this point.

These next two photos are from The Los Angeles Times.  This one appears to have been taken not too long after the shipwreck occurred.

I'm also not sure of the date on this one.  Incidentally, the S.S. Dominator was never completely salvaged, and pieces of the wreckage can still be found today, both in the water and on the shore.

On August 23, 1964, an airplane crashed in the 450 block (456) of Palos Verdes Boulevard, in Redondo Beach.  The plane was a "converted" P-51 World War II fighter.  Both the pilot and his one passenger, were killed instantly in the crash.

My family lived just around the corner from the site of the plane crash (on Calle Mira Mar), so it would have been within walking distance for my dad to get to the site.  The incident also attracted many other local residents.

The corresponding black and white photos in this post are from The Daily Breeze newspaper.  Reportedly, flames from the wreckage "reached as high as 20 to 30 feet in height, and burned intensely."

A repairman on a telephone pole can be seen in a couple of my dad's photos.  Maybe some of the telephone and power lines had been damaged during the crash?

 

 

One of the plane's wings took out part of a cinder block wall.  FYI, that's the Pacific Ocean we are seeing off in the distance. 

 

 

Many of the apartment buildings directly across the street from the accident (including the ones seen in my dad's first "plane crash" photo), were torn down in the 1970s, and replaced with the "Village Palos Verdes" condominiums.

My dad walked around to the street behind the crash site (Camino de Encanto), and took this next photo....apparently from someone's backyard.  I hope he asked for permission!

A reporter from The Daily Breeze newspaper also took a photo from the same backyard.  We can see the same two men from my dad's photo, hanging out in the backyard.

Just one year earlier (1963), and in the same neighborhood, a trash collection truck had crashed through a wall in the backyard of my family's home.  I guess walls just weren't safe in this neighborhood!

The road was higher on the other side of the wall.  That's why the truck came through the wall at that level.  It did not become airborne prior to hitting the wall!

The Madrona Marsh is a natural wetlands in Torrance, CA, and can be seen in this modern-day aerial photo (from The Daily Breeze).  At one time, the marsh extended further north, beyond the street that runs along it's current northern border.  Unfortunately, the city allowed the sale of that part of the marsh in the mid to late 1980s, and let developers build townhomes (the structures with the red tile roofs) on the former wetlands property.

In February of 1967, heavy rains caused the marsh to overflow onto the neighboring streets.  My dad took these photos on Madrona Avenue, at the point where Monterey Street used to intersect it.  When the north end of the marsh was destroyed for development, Monterey Street was realigned and a new street, "Plaza Del Amo," was created just to the south of it.

Those older apartment buildings visible in the distance are still standing today.

I attempted to merge the previous two photos.  It worked fairly well, but it's not perfect.  The wires between the telephone poles don't "connect."  On the far left is a building with signage on it's backside which reads, "Magic Chef."  This large building contained a Magic Chef Supermarket (which eventually became a Ralph's Supermarket) and a Thrifty Drug Store, and was a part of the original Del Amo Shopping Center built in the early 1960s.  That building still sits on the edge of the current mall property, but now appears to be mostly vacant, with the exception of a "Last Chance Store" (discount store) taking up a small portion of the space.

I decided to include this photo, even though I had already posted it back in June of 2018.  This photo of the Goodyear Blimp was taken in March of 1968, back when it used to make it's home at the Torrance Airport.  Apparently, there was a fairly large fire burning in the distance.  Not long after my dad took this photo, the blimp was relocated to it's current home in the City of Carson, alongside the 405 freeway.  

By the way.....Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

Father's Day In The Parks (Long Beach & South Bay Edition!)

It's time for another Father's Day In The Parks post! Today's photos were all taken by my dad at various Southern California attractions, specifically in Long Beach and the "South Bay" area.

These first three were taken at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The Queen Mary was a Cunard-White Star Lines ocean liner that began service in 1936. After being retired and sold to the City of Long Beach for $3.45 million, she departed South Hampton on October 31, 1967 and arrived in Long Beach on December 9, 1967. This first pic was taken in March of 1968, just a few months after her arrival.

The next photo was taken five years later, in 1973. By this time, the ship had been operating as a tourist attraction for a couple years (since May 1971) and as a hotel for a year (since November 1972). In the background, we can see the Long Beach Convention Center. This was before it received it's massive wrap-around whale mural from the artist, "Wyland."

This shot was taken ten years later, in 1983. After the ship arrived in Long Beach, the ship's three smokestacks were taken off in order to remove equipment from the ship's front engine room and all of the boiler rooms. At that time, the smokestacks were discovered to be badly deteriorated, so they were replaced with replicas.

Now we're just a little further west, in the City of Torrance. "Rideland" was an amusement park that sat at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Ocean Avenue. It closed in the late sixties/early seventies. A McDonald's and a Taco Bell replaced the amusement park and are still standing today, although an "El Burrito Junior" has now moved into the old Taco Bell building.

Being a lover of trees, I am happy to report that the tree across the street (Pacific Coast Highway) in the photo below, still exists! Today, it stands in front of the Pacific Ocean Center, a little shopping center that was built in 1966, just one year after these pictures were taken.

The little amusement park was just a few blocks from the Torrance Airport. The Goodyear Blimp had made it's home there back in the 1950's, and then again for a short time from 1967 to 1968, when it was then moved to it's current home alongside the 405 freeway in the City of Carson. It appears there was a fire burning in the distance, at the time my dad took this photo!

Moving just a little bit south to the coast, our final destination is Marineland of the Pacific, on the beautiful Palos Verdes Peninsula. Marineland had a two-level observation car that offered excellent views of the park below, the rolling hills of Palos Verdes, and the Pacific Ocean. These photos were all taken in the summer of 1966. Marineland of the Pacific had opened in 1954, and ended up closing in 1987.

I know I mentioned this in one of my previous Marineland posts, but I'm going to mention it again! Sea World's owners bought Marineland in order to acquire it's killer whales (Orky and Corky) for their killer whale breeding program in San Diego.

When they purchased the park in December of 1986, they made a public statement saying that Marineland would remain open and that they were going to renovate it. However, soon after the purchase went through, they said that they were not going to keep it open after all, but they would keep it open through the Easter/Spring break, so that people would have one last chance to visit.

They ended up closing the park just before President's Weekend in February, more than two months earlier than they had announced. The animals were then packed up in trucks in the middle of the night, and relocated to Sea World in San Diego. Orky and Corky had actually been transferred, prior to the park's closing. Corky was pregnant at the time she was moved and shortly after she arrived at Sea World, she miscarried. Orky died the following year. The new owners also reportedly poured concrete into the drains at Marineland, so that the park could not be reopened. Such a sad ending to the park's 32-year history!

So as to not end on a sour note, here is one more pic from Marineland. I'm wondering if the trainer had a fish in his mouth here. I don't think I can see one, but it would make sense. Otherwise, I think he would have his hand out and not be bent over with his face so close to where the dolphin/porpoise was going to jump. And isn't the old "holding a fish in the mouth trick" something that they used to do at marine parks, back in the day?

Happy Father's Day Weekend to all of the dads out there!