Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie, a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.
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This linen postcard is a full colored image of the Mountain of the Holy Cross in Colorado. It describes the altitude being 13,996 feet while Wikipedia says it’s 9 more feet at 14,005. It received its name because of the shape of the cross made when the snow’s filled the deep recesses of the mountain.
The postcard was sent from Colorado Springs to De Kalb, IL. in 1935. The address of the recipient is crossed out multiple times in pencil with different addresses and even a new state of Ohio written in.
The message reads:
Sunday evening. Colorado Springs, Col.
Dear Hazel: I have been to California on a nice trip. I was in Los Angeles and Glendale most of the time. I went to Catalina Island and the Expositions at San Diego, too. We saw the “Spit and Argue” Club at Long Beach. We also took in the Pike. We saw “Orchids To You” at the Grauman Theatre. We heard Aimee Semple McPherson too. I can see Pikes Peak from our hotel. Love, Viola
As usual, I incorporated Newspapers.com in my searches of which I am an affiliate for because well, it’s awesome to be able to look up things from decades ago to match up with what I’m holding in my hands now.
I’m approaching this card maybe a little differently than the other postcards I’ve read from. Viola mentions so many different places she’d visited and I was just curious to see what kind of news reports were going on around her at the time in the various places she visited around July of 1935.
And one story in Los Angeles on July 29 was about a woman by the name of Hazel Juehling. She was caught with 2 stolen watches after having driven into a garage that the police had already been watching in connection with suspected robberies that were going on.
So, when Hazel showed up, the police searched her car finding 2 watches they believed to have been stolen from women who’s purses were stolen. She was looking at 2 to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Another story titled, “Archery Devotees in Tournament.” It goes on to say, “Experts with the bow and arrow from all parts of the United States assembled today for the 55th National Archery Association Tournament at the University of Los Angeles. Left to right are Diana Bolling, Connecticut women’s champion, and June Knight film actress and archery enthusiast.”
Now, the clipping is not the best photo, but they’re wearing dresses and I’m pretty sure they’re wearing heels.
The next place mentioned is Glendale and I saw an article reading, “Policeman’s Chest Won’t Stay Put on Arrival of Twins. At 4:55 a.m. yesterday Policeman Ross J. Gray expanded his chest with pride. He had become a father of a five-pound nine-ounce son. At 5:45 a.m. his swelling broke out of his vest. He also became the father of a daughter, five pounds and 10 ounces.
Catalina Island was listed next and I’d done another episode involving a bit about Catalina Island in the episode where I talked about the 1936 sample pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum I have. So I’ll share that link in the show notes if you want to check that out.
When searching for Catalina specific stories, I saw a photo of two young women in bathing suits standing on a deck over the water and it says, “Mae Clarke of the films, and her sister Lorraine, take their vacation on Santa Catalina Island.
Another little story is a photo of a little boy looking up at a massive 341 lb. swordfish caught at Santa Catalina Island. It was posted under, “First of Season.” The fish was caught by A.C. Brode, a veteran sporting angler at the time.
Next we have the, “Exposition at San Diego.” It was a World’s Fair held to help San Deigo’s economy. The first fair was May 29, 1935 to November 11, 1935 so Viola was there near the very beginnings of it.
Tickets were regularly priced at $1.50 and I found an article titled, “Are You Going to the Fair?” It was in the paper offering tickets for $1 so long as you clipped the coupon which read, “The Bearer Made a Purchase In This Store” and there was a place for the store to then stamp, proving something was purchased. So, there was just over 50 stores named on the ad and as long as you bought at least one thing, you got in for $1.
Another one from the Exposition was called, “Film Exhibit at Fair Said Highly Popular.” It was an exhibit showing people how films were made. They said it brought in over 120 thousand people over 51 days. Also saying, “The puppet show, in which all puppets are replicas of movie stars, has also proven a big attraction.”
Viola wrote how they’d seen the “Spit and Argue Club” at Long Beach. And in 2010, the L.A. Times looked back on how a bunch of retired, tobacco chewing guys would hang out, outside the Long Beach Hotel. The name apparently came to be when a woman was complaining about how all they did was, “Spit and Argue.”
It eventually became basically a destination for people drawing hundreds into the thousands. It took place in Long Beach at Rainbow Pier. And while I don’t have any physical items pertaining to the club, there are quite a few listed online in various places of postcards specificallly. The imagery I kept seeing was that of Rainbow Pier with lots of people on the deck and cars all around.
And the back of the card that I keep seeing said, “An Open Forum of friendly discussions takes place on a large platform on the Rainbow Pier, daily throughout the year. Here anyone is privileged to take the stand and air their views or debate on matters of general interest, whether political, social, religious or otherwise.”
Such gatherings weren’t without their problems. After WWII things grew more heated with a focus on communism vs anti-communism and saying the club had been infiltrated by the KKK.
An interview in 1970 with Selah Brickman, who was 90 years old at the time said, “I came from Kiev in the Russian Ukraine to get away from the Czar to find freedom and free speech. Here, yes, they are here! But our members are old now. When the wind blows, they get cold. They stay home. No one chews tobacco anymore. No one spits here at our club.”
The next place Viola talks about is when she says they, “took in the Pike” which was an amusement park attraction in Long Beach that opened in 1902 and closed in 1979.
A 15 minute short movie by the name of “Life Hesitates at 40” was filmed at the Pike. I found it over on YouTube and noticed Carl Switzer from “Our Gang” which became “Little Rascals” had a small non-speaking part in the movie. So I’ll link to it. He was adorable in that.
Viola said they saw “Orchids To You” at the Grauman Theatre and I found an article stating, “Two romantic comedies have been booked to open Thursday on the new double-feature program at Grauman’s Chinese and Loew’s State theater with Orchids to You being one of them.
Next Viola says they heard, Aimee Semple McPherson who was a Pentecostal Evangelist using broadcast media to reach bigger audiences and garner donations. She was the Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell of her time. The story about Aimee is pretty interesting and full of all kinds of drama especially early on in her career so I’ll leave links so you can check that information out.
Lastly Viola mentions Pikes Peak and that she could see it from her hotel, which definitely gave me all the Tina Fey vibes.
She doesn’t say which hotel and I’ve never been to Colorado Springs or Colorado for that matter except to catch a connecting flight, so I’m not sure of the layout, but I found a website about historic hotels in Colorado and the only one saying it was in Colorado Springs that would have also been around in 1935 is the Broadmoor. Could that have been it?
So, thanks to Viola who had no idea I’d be talking about her travels 91 years later, for giving me a reason to see what was going on around her in 1935 and learning about things I would never have thought to look up otherwise.
Thank you for joining me as I shared a snippet of the past. I’d love to know if it connected with you in some way. Did it spark a memory or make you see something differently? If so, consider sharing it. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional info, links, and ways to connect. It’s not nostalgia, it’s human. Until next time, may you find something worth holding onto
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pinny please
