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.
