May 11-12, 2024: Beach Blogging: Guest Posts from Elsa Devienne and Jamie Hirami

[Releasedon May 11, 1964, “I Get Around” would goon to become the first #1hit for The Beach Boys. To celebrate that sunny anniversary, thisweek I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of beachtastic texts, leading up to this multi-part Guest Post featuring two of our up-and-coming BeachStudiers!]

First, I can't BeachStudy in 2024 without highlighting Elsa Devienne's awesome new book, Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in 20th-Century Los Angeles. You shouldn't need anything more than that title to make you seek it out, but just in case, Elsa shares:

"Think of this book as the Beach Boys meets Chinatown meets Blade Runner meets Baywatch. There's real estate battles, presidents strolling on the sand, beatniks playing the bongo drum, black bathing beauties, evil Malibu beach homeowners and, of course, climate change coming to ruin the fun of everyone!"

Second, I wanted to re-share a great prior BeachStudying Guest Post from Jamie Hirami:

[Jamie Hirami is a PhDcandidate in American Studies at the amazing Penn StateHarrisburg program, where she’s writing a dissertation on VeniceBeach which promises to break significantly new ground in American materialculture and cultural studies. This Guest Post is just a glimpse of what’s tocome!]

[NB. Iwrote that bio when this post originally aired in 2014; I’m not sure what Jamieis up to these days, but I’m willing to bet it’s impressive!]

Freak Beach.  Muscle Beach. Silicon Beach.  Coney Island ofthe Pacific.  Slum by the Sea.  Venice Beach, aneighborhood of Los Angeles, goes by many monikers.  None of those nicknames reference theoriginal plan that founder Abbot Kinney, heir to a tobacco fortune, envisionedin 1898 when he bought out his real estate partners for the southern portionland that also originally encompassed Santa Monica: a resplendent, middle-classseaside resort and town, which would cater to its clientele with Chautauqua’sand other elements of high culture. Ultimately, mass and popular cultures shaped its direction as anamusement destination while the counter cultures of the mid-twentieth centuryinfluenced its modern reputation as bohemian community. 

Modeled after Venice, Italy, Kinneytransformed the marshy land into a series of navigable canals along which,early visitors could buy real estate for single-family home development.Venice-of-America officially opened on July 4, 1905 to a crowd of about 40,000people.  Kinney’s grand culturalintentions culminated in a 3,400 seat auditorium built for educational lecturesand cultural performances, which closed after one season.  Instead, visitors flocked to the pier, bathhouse,beach and other amusements.  In fact,rides and games proved to be so much more popular than the Chautauquaexperience, that in January 1906, he opened the hugely popular midwayplaisance, which included exhibits and freak shows from the world’s fairs inPortland and St. Louis.

By the time Kinney died in October1920, Venice’s original luster had greatly diminished.  The canals did not drain properly, creatingmurky and dirty waterways, and the national trend for boardwalk amusements, ingeneral, faded.  Years of opposition bythe growing permanent residents and clergy to boxing matches, alcohol, dancing,and more sordid amusements was capped by a hugely destructive fire that causedover a $1 million in damages.  In 1925,the City of Los Angeles annexed Venice, filling its famous canals in 1929 tomake room for roads. 

Over the next forty years, Veniceremained an outwardly run-down version of its former self, but in its place, avibrant counter-culture fomented cultural growth.  It became a Southern California hotbed forthe Beats; a hippie commune during the Sixties; and it embraced transients,hustlers, artists, and performers. 

Today,Venice’s increasingly gentrified neighborhoods have put homeless andhomeowners, hustlers and shop-owners, and low-income versus high-incomeresidents at odds, but it still maintains a fierce stance against themainstream.  In 2007, Abbot Kinney Blvd.(the main commercial thoroughfare) opened its first chain store—Pinkberry—causingan uproar among residents and local shop owners who petitioned people to boycott the chain.  Three years later, it closed because it wasunderperforming.  More importantly,Venice still maintains ties to its popular culture beginnings with numerous sidewalkperformers, a freak show along theboardwalk, and a voyeuristic outdoor gym amongother diversions.  Venice Beach, throughits varied history, remains, at heart, a destination that caters to popularamusements.

[Nextseries starts Mondy,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other beach histories or stories, or BeachStudiers, you’d highlight?]