CRAZY NOTIONS (Summer of 1925)

More about Santa Rosa in the summer of 1925. See INTRO for overview and index.

*
 Another joy in reading the old newspapers is regularly finding nutso ideas that Serious People claimed were absolutely true or were about to happen, no doubt about it. Gentle Readers today are left scratching their heads wondering if the editors completely believed this stuff or were just presenting it as something for subscribers to cluck about over the breakfast table. July 1925 was typical with three real corkers:

1925dressesA state official told the California Board of Education “athletics and boy games were ruining the feminine figure.” Dr. Robert Stolz, state superintendent of physical education, was apparently concerned that as a result of “essentially masculine athletics” such as track and field, basketball and baseball, the “graceful curves of the feminine form have been gradually drawn into a cylindrical tube, bifurcated at the bottom, and topped by an inverted saucepan.” If the trend isn’t reversed, “women will lose their femininity. Feminine symmetry and balance of figures are in danger, if girls continue to indulge in strenuous athletics.”

The Ku Klux Klan said it was planning to create a nationwide radio network. The article pointed out that there were already evangelical and political groups with affiliated stations (or a single high-power superstation) but this would the first time an organization would would control all broadcast content. It’s difficult to interpret how seriously the Press Democrat this news. In those years many in the North Bay were Klan kurious and thought they were probably another fraternal society not much different than the Freemasons or Odd Fellows.

A committee of geologists and mining engineers announced the U.S. had passed peak oil production in 1923, and we would henceforth be importing all of it until we invented a new synthetic form of it.

NEXT: REEFERS AND CANNERS

K. K. K. SEEKING RADIO STATION SYSTEM IN U. S. – The Ku Klux Klan is among the organizations that will seek broadcasting licenses from the department of commerce when and if additional wave bands are provided this fall, it was understood today.

It was reported about a year ago that extensive plans for a system of stations throughout the country were under consideration by the Klan but the difficulty of obtaining wave-lengths caused temporary abandonment of the project. More recently the matter has again come before the Klan with several of the higher officials strongly supporting it. Among the states suggested as possible homes for the Klan are New Jersey, Indiana, Texas and several other of the southern commonwealths.

The Klan chain of stations, if the plans are carried out, would be unique in the United States broadcasting field. Also several fraternal, religious and political organisations maintain a single plant at their headquarters. No body of this nature has ever considered a group of stations that would cover all or a section of the country.

The expense of such a group of plants, together with the cost of maintenance and operation, is ordinarily held to be prohibitive and many klansmen, supporting the general movement to get on the air are expected to urge that a single station be erected to serve the Klan. (July 3)

SAYS PRODUCTION OF OIL REACHED PEAK 2 YEARS AGO – Assert that the oil fields of the United States probably passed their ultimate peak of production in 1923, the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, in a special survey made public today, declared the country must look to increased oil importations and then to the development and use of substitutes for oil products.

Petroleum products apparently have entered upon a final phase of slow and gradual decline, with consumption increasing more rapidly than supply, said a report by a committee of geologists and mining engineers to R. M. Catlin, president of the society…

…Only two oil pools in the United States are now producing over 100,000 barrels a day – the Long Beach in California, and the Smackover in Arkansas – the engineers found. Not all the big pools in the country have been discovered, they explained, but the probability is that the record output of 1923 will not be exceeded unless several large undiscovered pools or new producing sands in old districts are brought to peak production within a single year. (July 12)

ATHLETIC GIRLS LOSE FIGURES EXPERTS SAY BUT IS IT IMPORTANT – Dr. Robert Stolz, state superintendent of physical education, in his annual report to the State Board of Education, said that athletics and boy games are ruining the feminine figure. He went so far as to request that girls in public schools and universities be prohibited in indulging in essentially masculine athletics. To basket ball, outdoor and indoor baseball, handball and certain track and field events, Dr. Scholz attributed the present lack of feminine symmetry and balance.

This report brings up the question as to what is the “perfect form, nobly planned.” Perhaps Dr. Stolz knows, but to the unofficial observer of womanly charms, the form divine is as shifting as the sands of the desert. What is today, tomorrow is not. The curves of yesterday are straight-lined today, yet feminine charm persists, and there is no noticeable decrease in the records of marriage and birth registrations.

The official observer may know, but he cannot prove his case by the past decade, because it has been no longer ago than that, that boys games for girls became the general rule on the school grounds and in the gymnasiums. In that ten years the graceful curves of the feminine form have been gradually drawn into a cylindrical tube, bifurcated at the bottom, and topped by an inverted saucepan.

Deploring the entry of young women into athletic contests and certain track activities. Dr. Stolz voiced his objections thus: “The emotional and physiological needs of women differ from those of men and should be developed along other lines than the present tendency, or women will lose their femininity. Feminine symmetry and balance of figures are in danger, if girls continue to indulge in strenuous athletics.” (July 26)

Read More

REEFERS AND CANNERS (Summer of 1925)

More about Santa Rosa in the summer of 1925. See INTRO for overview and index.

*
 If it wasn’t for the reefers, Santa Rosa would have been a sad, sad place during the 1920s. Prohibition had nearly wiped out Sonoma County’s wine industry and Santa Rosa’s downtown was a quiet place now that our dozens of saloons were either closed or pouring nothing stronger than sarsaparilla. The only bright spot in the local economy was fruit.

Not until I completely read an entire month of the 1925 Press Democrat did I come to understand the scale of the fruit processing business that passed through Santa Rosa. Sure, there were canneries here and some growers were turning to new high-tech processors that dehydrated fruit or made it into syrups, but most of what wasn’t canned was quickly shipped East – and in incredible numbers. That July eight train cars of Gravenstein apples were sent off to England. Every day 40-50 railroad cars full of pears from Mendocino and Lake counties arrived here, where the produce was transferred to Pacific Fruit Express refrigerator cars commonly called “reefers.” (What, you thought it meant something else?)

The real surprise was that the canning operations here were so large they were handling fruit from outside the North Bay. That July, peaches and other fruit were imported from Sutter county near today’s Beale AFB, and likely other places. Yes, it was seasonal work but it extended longer into the year and must have employed far more people than I ever knew.

NEXT: THE BUILDING KNOWN AS THE FORMER

1925reefercar

LONDON TO GET COUNTY APPLES – Eight cars of fancy packed Gravenstein apples are being packed at the J. F. Miller and Sons plant here for export to London. The shipment, constituting the largest order for the export trade yet filled in Sonoma county, will be rolling toward the seaboard within a week. (July 10)

PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TODAY FOR BEST POTATOES – Preparations have been made for the accommodation of a large crowd at the Potato Day celebration tomorrow, when a picnic, program and display of potatoes grown by the 23 members of the Pleasant Hill Potato Club will be held at the Pleasant Hill schoolhouse… (July 18)

CANNERY TO START PEACH RUN MONDAY – The local cannery will begin tomorrow morning the handling of a big run on peaches. Several cars at Tudor, Yuba [sic] county, and other loads of the fruit are due to arrive here today from the orchards cars will continue to arrive here for several weeks. The cannery has completed the packing of berries and plums. It is expected a big lot of pears will be canned. (July 26)

$250,000 PEAR CROP HARVEST ON AT UKIAH (July 31)

Read More

THE BUILDING KNOWN AS THE FORMER (Summer of 1925)

More about Santa Rosa in the summer of 1925. See INTRO for overview and index.

*
  Of all the places demolished during the urban renewal debacle to clear land for the downtown mall, the ones mourned most heavily are A) the California Theater B) the Occidental Hotel and C) the Elks’ Building. What? You don’t know about the Elks’ Building? Maybe that’s because it was called the former Elks’ Building for most of its existence.

The main part of the building was completed in July 1925. It was on the west side of A street, running a full block wide between Fourth and Fifth streets. The architect was Frank T. Shea who also designed St. Rose church and had been the architect for the city of San Francisco from 1893-1897. As seen in the drawing below, this was to be a classic Beaux Arts design although as the inset 1941 view shows, the final design was more conventional. Besides retail space at street level, it had a gym, bowling alley and locker room plus a very large meeting hall. There was a women’s room for relatives of club members while their menfolk upstairs enjoyed three-martini lunches (what is this Prohibition of which you speak?) as they made city, county, and courtroom deals.

The Elks lost the building to foreclosure in 1933 and it took the insurance company nearly a decade to find a new owner. It seemed the stores were rarely vacant and hosted a procession of the usual barbershops, tailors, coffeeshops and luncheonettes. The rooms upstairs were used as offices, Dr. Bogle’s medical clinic and a post office mail sorting center. Even during the worst of the Depression the cavernous 6,000 sq. ft. hall was often rented for large meetings and celebrations. There were serious discussions in the 1930s the city should buy it to create a long-desired civic auditorium and then later of making the whole building a courthouse annex. After WWII the upstairs became best known as the “Skyline Terrace Ballroom,” Santa Rosa’s sort-of nightclub with live music on Thursdays and other times when a C-list big band toured the area. When that finally closed there were still dances held regularly.

In Press Democrat articles and ads it continued to be identified as the “former Elks building” though 1954, which gives it the curious distinction of being known for (at least) 21 years as its FORMER self, far longer than the eight years when the Elks actually owned it. Thus any reference to the location was meaningless to out-of-towners not versed in Santa Rosa history.

It was demolished August 1974 (the Aug. 30 PD had photos) but the details were not easy to confirm; there were no more mentions connecting it to the Elks. I found the information by skimming the papers for that year, which, of course, brought its own rewards. Behold my new favorite PD headline: “Blaze of gunfire over pickle salad” (June 21, 1974).

NEXT: HAUNTING TALES

elks

LODGE WILL TAKE OVER HOME AUG. 1 – Dedication and formal opening of the new $270,000 home of the Santa Rosa Lodge of Elks will take place as a New Year’s function on January 1, 1926, according to plans now being made by the lodge, it was announced last night by Dr. S. S. Bogle, chairman of the building committee… The lodge room will be 50 by 80 feet and the auditorium of the same dimensions will have a stage 20 by 40 feet. There will also be a gymnasium, bowling alley and shower baths, as well as club rooms handsomely equipped. The main entrance – from A street will open into a reception room to be maintained for the use of the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the members. This will always be at the disposal of the women, just as the club rooms are open to the members… (July 10)

Read More