Halloween in Los Angeles - 1920s Part Five

Halloween 1928 - While most Los Angeles restaurants and clubs entice patrons with 'gamboling hobgoblins', 'fun, frolic and noisemakers!' and a 'confetti dance at midnite' - one locale gave a thumbs up to bad taste. Cliff Dwellers Cafe on Beverly promised 'Squaws and braves go on warpath tonight. It will be a massacre!'. The Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood held their annual 'Hallowe'en' party with all the 'ghosts, goblins and Jim cracks that go with an old fashioned Hallowe'en'. I'm still scratching my head on the 'Jim crack' reference. The definitions for Jim crack/gimcrack that I've found refer to cheap and showy objects of little or no use (the thesaurus lists: gawdy, tawdry, trashy, tacky and tasteless). I assumed the Roosevelt (which would host the first Academy Awards in May 1929) was a little classier than that but perhaps movie stars preferred to 'slum' in beautiful surroundings. More mischievous merriment included a group of about 80 school children hurling a supply of eight cases of tomatoes at motorists passing by the intersection of Fairfax and Melrose. Just off of Melrose in the 600 block of Kingsley Drive, there was a report of a hose inserted under the front door of a home and turned on. Neighbors hearing a noise investigated and found a flooded living room, the water was turned off and the police were called.


Halloween 1929 - Blossom Room at the Roosevelt Hotel classes things up finally. Their Halloween Frolic features the music of George Olsen and 'It' Girl Clara Bow in attendance to present a trophy to the winners of the dancing contest. The Elite features special menus for Halloween - stuffed filet of sole au vin blanc, broiled French lamb chops, veal Porterhouse saute, sirloin steak a la minute, prime ribs of beef au jus, etc. Frankly, the only Halloween-like thing on the menu looks like its orange sherbet. The hygienic Green Lantern Fountains (more on them later) went all out for their first Halloween, creating a special combination of vanilla and orange ice creams that when you slice it 'each serving shows the golden pumpkin center'. The day after Halloween saw Santa's elves descend on the toy department at The Broadway on Fourth and Hill. The children (still probably high on sugar) were told that 'Santa has been so busy getting his toys ready this year that he can't possibly reach Los Angeles before Thanksgiving Day, so he sent just hundreds of his little Merry Workers to look after things until he arrives.' This bit of news taught me two things.
1. That its not just a recent phenomenon that the public has been pushed into the Christmas season earlier in the year.
2. That Santa is perfectly capable of making all the toys himself and needs a little chatter-free time to gear up for the holidays.

Halloween in Los Angeles - 1920s Part Four

Halloween 1926 - The Switzer-land Club in upper Arroyo Seco Canyon held their annual Halloween party complete with elaborate decorations, games and dancing. The pier parties in Venice were fairly quiet this year due partly to a rumor among small boys that a 48-hour jail sentence awaited any mischief makers. For the thousands of attendees to pier events there were only twenty-five arrests, including four who 'used too much liquid in their festivities.' Other liquor raid arrests across the city included twenty people (including three women) in Redondo, Santa Monica, Belvedere and Watts. During the Belvedere arrest six five-gallon stills were found in operation along with ten gallons of whisky and nineteen barrels of mash. Apparently it was great sport to remove 'for sale' signs from vacant lots as the police department was brought in by the Los Angeles Realty Board to 'exert every effort to the end that property damage and rowdyism be reduced to a minimum' on vacant properties.

Halloween 1927 - Sebastian's Cotton Club in Culver City promised a gigantic Halloween celebration that included: forty festive dancers, singers, actors and entertainers in four great revues, souvenirs and ham and eggs at sunrise. Dancing till 4 a.m., open all nite. The San Fernando City Jail was the site of a party held for an exclusive gathering of forty 'small boys with door-bell ringing tendencies' ranging in age from 10 to 16 years old. They were put to work popping corn and eating the results. This Halloween showed a 25 percent increase in the number of arrests in the city for drunkenness - 106 over the course of the weekend - including five women.

Halloween in Los Angeles - 1920s Part Three

Halloween 1924 - Thousands descended on downtown streets to celebrate. Early in the evening a red-haired 'Charlie Chaplin' ran amongst traffic and tried (unsuccessfully) to climb into the car of two beautiful young women. A 200-pound man dressed as a 'bottle baby' lead quite a crowd through the streets as he carried a huge bottle of milk. The Biltmore threw a swell shindig, it's ballroom and foyer decorated in orange and black. A highlight of the event was a novelty 'radium dance' complete with ballet girls in burlesque witch costumes, their bodies coated with phosphorus and carrying mechanical black cats.

Halloween 1925 - In Los Angeles all 950 police officers on the day watch were ordered to stay on duty throughout the night to 'prevent all destruction of property and undue annoyance of persons by those celebrating the occasion'. The Sheriff's 'dry squad' put quite a damper on festivities in Culver City by arresting fifteen Halloween revelers at the Green Mill and Nightingale cafes on Washington Blvd. The piers all celebrate. The Ocean Park Pier, in celebration of its first Halloween, gave special prizes (to the best costume I'm assuming). The Edgewater Club held a dinner dance for members with the Edgewater band providing the music. The Venice Pier ballroom once again hosted yama yama girls, Spanish dons, sheiks and assorted clowns. Chief of Police Andy Davilla welcomed all who sought a 'good, clean, wholesome time' but had no patience for 'the element which will insist on breaking laws.' By the end of the night more than sixty celebrants in Venice had been arrested for intoxication, reckless driving and disturbing the peace. With Venice and Culver City feeling the pinch why wasn't their any news of arrests in its sinful sister city, Vernon?

Halloween in Los Angeles - 1920s Part Two

Halloween 1922 - Venice is still going all out for Halloween. This year's 'Spooks Frolics' featured pumpkin lanterns, corn stalks, hobgoblins, yama yama girls, madcap musicians and revelers engaging in all sorts of 'weird and startling dances, special music settings and electrical effects.'

Halloween 1923 - Venice's celebration this year is called Black Magic at Midnight and 'bubbling cauldrons send forth mystic vapors which will materialize and take on the shapes of bats, gnomes, spooks and elves.' To all Halloween celebrants the Chief of Police warns that the destruction of property, and the placing of explosions are car tracks, will not be tolerated.

Halloween in Los Angeles - 1920s Part One

Halloween 1920 - a big spooks' ball is held at the Venice dance pavilion where modern witches in the form of black and orange yama yama girls mingled with goblins, fairies, elves, clowns and enjoyed joker bands. Many of film's elite (Tom Mix, Roscoe Arbuckle, et al) motored down to Tijuana where Baron Long's Sunset Inn promised Halloween frivolities, and of course booze, as 'a "spirited" program is assured in the Mexican village.'

Halloween 1921- dine and dance spot the Cinderella Roof at 6th and Olive held a Halloween Carnival complete with novelty hats, souvenirs and Rudy Wiedoeft's Famous Cinderella Orchestra. The Halloween menu included crab cocktail, hearts of celery, ripe olives, clear green turtle in cup, boned squab, chicken in nest, stuffed tomato, waldorf salad, neapolitan ice cream, petit fours and demi-tasse - all for the sum of $3 including couvert. Equal to about $36 in 2010. Thousands of costumed revelers thronged the streets of downtown. Every policeman on patrol became a "friend of the public" and watched the pleasure-seeking crowd with smiles instead of frowns. The Ambassador Hotel spent more than $1000 (equal to approximately $12,000 in 2010) on Halloween decorations and management supplied fortune-telling 'witches' to their guests.