Los Angeles Travel Art in the Golden Age - Trans World Airlines

Trans World Airlines is the third national airline I'll be looking at which called Los Angeles home in the 1960s. It was a golden age of advertising, the Jet Age as airline companies switched to jet engines, and vacation travel became cheaper and easier. 

Unlike United and American, who were also formed by merging regional airlines in the pre-WWII era, TWA no longer exists. Like United and American, TWA formed in an era where cargo was the main air business. The postmaster general wanted bigger airlines to give airmail contracts to, and thus Transcontinental Air Transport combined with Western Air Express to form Transcontinental & Western Air. 

Back when it was Transcontinental and Western Air, TWA was known as The Lingbergh Line as Lucky Lindy had a hand in the running of an "airline run by flyers". The Lindbergh route which started service in 1930 was one of the first all-plane coast to coast services. It took 36 hours with an overnight in Kansas City. 

These early trips to San Francisco through Los Angeles helped paved the way for LA as a travel destination. By 1940 TWA had four daily flights going west: the Sun Pacer, the Sky Chief, the Thunderbird, and the Grand Canyon. Still with an overnight in Kansas City, the Thunderbird also made stops in Pittsburgh and Chicago before arriving in Los Angeles the following day. 

1941 saw TWA add Boeing 307 Stratoliner service, the first commercial aircraft with a pressurized cabin allowing for flight at an altitude of 20,000 feet. TWA had five such planes, with the war effort requiring faster long distance travel. Same day arrival in Burbank for New York was finally possible. 

This bit about Burbank is something else I just learned. These 1940s flights weren't coming into Westchester, they were coming in at Burbank and Glendale. In 1939 Burbank's Union Air Terminal had 16 departures a day: eight on United, five on Western, and three on TWA. American Airlines used Grand Central Airport in Glendale as its base of operations. The switch down to LAX happened around 1946. 

Howard Hughes gained a controlling interest in the company in 1941, and went after Pan Am's designation as the sole international commercial airline. In 1946 TWA changed it's name to the Trans World Airline to advertise this new international serive, with Cairo the first overseas destination. Soon TWA was advertising Polar Route service from Los Angeles to Europe taking a jet stream "over the top". 

This poster is dated circa 1956, definitely after 1950 when TWA officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines (added the s). The illustrator was Bob Smith (not the singer). It has the palm trees and a mission to invoke Southern California, as well as the golden sky. David Klein also had a golden sky design with a mission during the era which is much more progressive. 

This one is pretty great, with the abstract golden sun, the birds flying into this Mexican inspired design, the golden sky and the bells of the mission tower. There are even palm trees in the background, but a more interesting spiky version. This Klein art collection puts the poster at circa 1959, but the Jets line makes me think it could be further into the sixties when TWA became the first all jet airline. There's another popular David Klein Los Angeles travel poster from that era. 

  
Here we get another bit art, depicting the Hollywood Bowl. The searchlights have the Los Angeles night sky in various shades of blue, and the patrons in the bowl are represented by glowing stars. 

There's also a version of that poster with fares and flights superimposed. The daily SuperJet flights left once in the morning, once in the evening, and then a red eye flight. With both posters advertising SuperJets, I imagine they're both from around the same time in the 60s. 

TWA was also a title sponsor at Disneyland, with the TWA Moonliner the tallest structure in the park's Tomorrowland. The Moonliner stood outside the Rocket to the Moon ride, which later became the Mission to Mars in 1975. The Moonliner only lasted until 1967, as the Apollo project had gone in a different direction than the rockets imagined in the 1950s. This would be one of the ongoing problems with Tomorrowland which was redesigned in 1967, and then again in the 90s, consistently finding its future predictions had become outdated.

The Disneyland-TWA poster also depicts the park's other lands: the Jungle Cruise of Adventureland, Sleeping Beauty's Castle of Fantasyland, the Fort of Tom Sawyer Island part of Frontierland, and Main Street Station representing Main Street USA. 

Disney needed to shuttle people from all over the country to his theme park, so an airline partner was necessary from the beginning. Inside these brochures were maps of the park and paragraphs on each land. 

Los Angeles Travel Art of the Golden Age - American Airlines

Switching from United Air Lines to American Airlines (one word, not two) we get to highlight another design legend from the Mad Men era in Massimo Vignelli. This designer who once remade the New York subway map fully bought into the minimalist modern movement of the times when he came up with a new corporate identity for American Airlines in 1967. 

Once again in Helvetica, the new identity streamlined not only the typeface but the eagle as well going into the 70s. Previous versions of the eagle logo had more detail, and help us date the various posters we'll look at today. Between 1962 and 67 the bird has more realistic looking feathers and it's in a red circle. From 1945 to 62 there's a fully detailed bird with layers of feathers. Let's start with a poster featuring Vignelli's typeface: 

I love it when Los Angeles travel posters use gold tones, like the city is constantly bathed in the light of sunset. The poster pays tribute to the Spanish past (a common theme in earlier Los Angeles travel posters was missions), but by using actors and ersatz buildings it ties into the Hollywood movie culture as well. The poster also manages to squeeze in the requisite palm trees. I absolutely love this poster, late 60s just before the more psychedelic 70s.

 Here's an example from that 70s era. Abstract art has made its presence felt in the advertising world, and here the Hollywood Bowl, city hall, and foreground palm trees are being invaded by multicolored orbs. It's even got sunset happening concurrent with dark of night. It's far out, man. 

That brief period in the 60s with the circle logo produced this watercolor gem with some abstract elements. The golden sun and palm trees are prominent in the top half of the poster, which features a busy urban scene (the name of that structure in the center escapes me). The bottom half has a lazy marina scene, which looks like Avalon Cove but certainly is meant to invoke all the lazy marinas around LA county. 

Further back in that era between 1945-62 we have a scene overlooking Los Angeles with the hills in the background and foreground. Palm trees line the foreground hill and there appears to be a Hollywood premier happening down on the ground. Hollywood premiers used to be big tourist attractions, with grandstands set up along the street so fans can watch stars arrive. Common of earlier air line travel posters, there's a plane in the upper corner to reinforce the mode of transportation. 

American began bringing passengers cross-country from New York to Los Angeles beginning with the introduction of the Douglas DC-3 in 1936. This advertisement for a new DC-6A cargo plane would date to 1947, with the copy claiming to get from New York to Los Angeles in nine and a half hours (there was a stop in Dallas/Fort-Worth). Imagine, suddenly you could send a package from New York in the morning and have it delivered in Los Angeles the following morning. 

Our poster with the Hollywood premier likely comes from the post-war 50s when American grew to be the largest Airline in America (a title held until United merged with Capital). It's fun to see how the art evolved in advertising Los Angeles, but the tropes remained the same: movies, sunshine, and oceanside relaxation. 

Los Angeles Travel Art of the Golden Age - United Air Lines

Photo collection LAPL

Mad Men has often inspired me to take a look into the past, and it's no different with the upcoming final season. The trailer is all about the Mad Men characters embracing the Jet Set age with a psychedelic flourish, and that has inspired me to try and see that era through the medium Mad Men has as its center - advertising. 

Mad Men is set in the golden age of advertising, an era that directly corresponds to the creation of the Helvetica font. This sans-serif typography was released in 1957 by the Haas Typefoundry and designed by Swiss designer Max Miedinger. The font was supposed to be neutral with great clarity and no intrinsic meaning. Perfect, then, for an era of magazines, television, and vacation travel. 

Helvetica print ad

This is relevant information when trying to date travel posters. The destination art from the 60s is full of Helvetica, and then in the 70s the art starts to take on hippie influences. The poster art of the 60s is a bit more classic color pencil. Go back to the Clipper plane era and you lose the Helvetica. Now, let's take a look at some travel art. 

United Air Lines - Los Angeles by Stan Galli 1960

This is the poster that inspired this entire post. Stan Galli is a well known artist who lived to the ripe old age of 97. He went to art school in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and starting in 1952 did illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post.

I love so much about the poster. The texture of the gold background, the silhouetted palm trees, the bikini-and-sunglass clad perfectly-tanned-blonde woman (off to the pool no doubt), and the way her entire pose suggests motion. It's a statement about relaxation while at the same time suggesting action and life. We get a variation on the same theme here in a more general Southern California poster. 

Southern California via United Airline by Stan Galli

Los Angeles has been a stop for United Airlines since as far back as 1933. The airline also had stops in San Francisco and Seattle. This North-South route would go West-East from San Francisco to Salt Lake City to Chicago to New York. 

I love the moments when one form of technology overlaps with another. In this case we see an air route named the way train routes were. No one taking the cross coast trip today would think to call it "The Hollywood" but there it is in all its glory. The flight lasted eight and a half hours, which we've gotten down to about five hours these days. Passengers were served stuffed squab and filet mignon (on an airplane, imagine!) . 

The Southern California poster looks to be earlier than the Los Angeles poster with a smaller United Air Lines word mark. Between 1954 and 1961 that squashed sans-serif italic font was used, and then in 1961 when United merged with Capital Airlines the switch to Helvetica was made. It's interesting that pre-1960 posters seem to always use Southern California (in this example with Southern in much smaller print). Then the Dodgers moved west in 1959 and suddenly Los Angeles was sellable all on its own. 

Disneyland - United Air Lines

Of course, selling Los Angeles and Southern California vacations goes hand in hand with Disneyland. This looks to be from the same era as the Los Angeles poster, and the ride depicted is the world famous Jungle Cruise with Sleeping Beauty's castle in the background. 

United was the official airline of Disneyland (as the poster indicates), but the airline sponsored the Enchanted Tiki Room not the Jungle Cruise. The Tiki Room opened in 1963, and was sponsored by United for their first 12 years after which Dole became the title sponsor (and still is). Not only did United get to associate with Disneyland and Los Angeles, but the Tiki Room allowed them to associate with another popular 60s destination: 

Other posters from the 1960s era series: 

No wonder Seattle had a World's Fair and built the Space Needle in the 60s, it was still getting regionalized on travel posters.

The easiest way to age the posters is to look at the A in Air Lines. The 60s era posters have the pointy A of Helvetica, while the previous generation's A has a flat top (look at the Southern California poster as an example). Here are some examples of the earlier posters. Not sure how many of either set were the work of Stan Galli, but there is a consistent look to both eras: 

Philippe's

Photo collection LAPL

The Chew today paid a visit to one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles, Philippe's. The originator of the French Dip sandwich, the legend goes that when making a sandwich for a fireman named French, the top bun fell into the au jous, and the fireman took it anyway. The next day he came back with a whole bunch of buddies wanting to try this fantastic accident.




Just off Ceasar Chavez Blvd (which becomes Sunset) near Union Station, Olvera Street, and Chinatown it's an essential part of any stop in downtown Los Angeles. It's also a favorite before or after a Dodger game, with the stadium just up the road on Sunset.

When Anthony Bourdain visited Phillipe's with the LA roller derby girls, they told him the lamb is the best, though the roast beef is the standard. Either are fantastic, but it's the atmosphere that sells Phillipe's for me more than anything. There's still sawdust on the floor (a preventative mess that makes spills easier to clean up) and the cigarette counter has been converted to candy and merchandise sales. Coffee was still a dime up until a year ago, and it's still cash only.

Yay Philippe's!

California and Los Angeles Politics - A History

Photo collection LAPL

This blog has always been a personal project to me, so you'll have to indulge me for a moment as I do a somewhat pedantic trod through the history of political parties in the United States. Ultimately, I hope to arrive at Los Angeles' political history.

At the time of Los Angeles' incorporation on April 4, 1850, the modern political party system had already solidified. In 1797 Tennessee was admitted as a state, and Andrew Jackson was one of its original Representatives in the House. He then served a year as state Senator before resigning and becoming judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Jackson became a major general in the Tennessee militia in 1802.

Jackson became famous for fighting the "Red Stick" Indians in the War of 1812, with the help of Davy Crockett. After the war, Jackson went back into politics as a senator from 1823-1825. He was involved in the controversial Presidential Election of 1824 when the House had to chose the President because none of the candidates managed a majority of electoral votes.

Jackson's second Senatorial term was the 18th United States Congress. This was a time of chaos.

One of the two original political parties in the United States was the Anti-Administration party. They favored states rights and farmers, and opposed the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson became their champion and they formed the Democratic-Republicans or Jefferson-Republicans. They won three straight elections.

The Federalist party collapsed, leading to an influx of candidates to the Democratic-Republicans. When the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts as President he was affiliated with the Democratic-Republicans, but the 18th Congress led to a bunch of factions.

Jackson's followers became the Democrats. They fought against elite and business interests, and stuck up for the white farmer. Poor Southern farmers became the party's base, and so the party was pro-slavery. For much of the history of the Democratic party, it was considered egalitarian and pro-Southern racism.

Adams' followers became the National Republicans also known as Adams Men, Anti-Jackson, and Anti-Masonic. Adams lost the bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, then they ran Henry Clay against Jackson's bid for re-election and lost again.

This party eventually became the Whigs, who were supporters of business and markets, economic modernization, and social reform. It was the party of the North, where all the banks were, and eventually collapsed under the issue of slavery. The abolitionist faction of the party became the Republicans.

The previously mentioned Henry Clay of Kentucky was able to negotiate compromises as a Senator that staved off Civil War for 40 years. These included the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which established the Missouri Compromise Line above which slaves could not be held, and the Compromise of 1850. John C. Calhoun, Clay's Democrat colleague from South Carolina, argued that white slaveowners were the real oppressed minority to ensure war took place.

All this history informs any discussion of early Los Angeles politics. California was admitted to the union by the 31st US Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850. This concerned the admission of new land won in the Mexican-American War (during with Davy Crockett died defending the Alamo).

Slave states in the South wanted to admit California as two states, with Southern California admitted as a slave territory. The Compromise of 1850 lopped off part of Texas' tip (creating Oklahoma's panhandle) so that Texas could be admitted as a slave state. Texas also gave up some Western lands to pay off debts. It also allowed California to enter the union intact as a free state. New Mexico and Deseret (nee Utah) were denied entry and remained territories.

So it should be somewhat surprising that California's first two Senators were Democrats, after all that was the pro-slavery party. Senators before the 17th amendment were appointed by state legislatures. California elected two Representatives on a general ticket, a Democrat and an Independent.

Well the two men only served two months, before the 32nd Congress was formed. Also, they couldn't have been more different. William M. Gavin who served four terms (non-consecutive) was known in Washington D.C. as a determined Southern sympathizer. John C. Fremont later became the first Republican Presidential candidate with the slogan "Free Soil, Free Men, and Fremont" The Free Soil party had opposed the expansion of slavery into the new territories.

You might recognize Fremont's name, he's got a bunch of streets named after him as well as a city in Northern California.

Gavin was re-elected, but Fremont was followed by John B. Weller - a Lecompoton Democrat (pro-slavery). California continued to elected Representatives on a statewide At-Large basis until 1865.

By that point, the country was four years into the Civil War. California was a Union state without slavery. The Republicans had elected their first President, Abraham Lincoln, and it became the popular party in Congress.

Formed around abolitionist Whigs, it was the party of the North. This also made it associated with business and financial interests, industrialization, and social reforms such as Prohibition and Women's Suffrage.

John Conness, a Republican, was a Senator for California from 1863 to 1869. He introduced a bill to establish Yosemite National Park, voted to abolish slavery, but also advocated for Chinese immigration and civil rights. California's other senator was a National Unionist/War Democrat; they wanted a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy. Unsurprising then that California had three Republican Representatives in the 39th congress.

The earliest Congressional District map I can find for California is from 1899. Notice how Los Angeles  is in a district that stretches up the coast to Santa Cruz, while Orange County is in a district with the central valley.

In 1899 California had two Republican Senators, and all seven districts had Republican Representatives. The second district along the Nevada border originally elected a Democrat, but he resigned and was replaced with a Republican.

Republicans dominated national politics after the Civil War, with only Grover Cleveland winning as a Democrat. Politics of that time had moved on from slavery into a debate on the medal standard for currency. Farmers and the poor represented by Democrats like William Jennings Bryan wanted a dual gold-silver standard to make debts easier to pay off. Bankers represented by Republicans wanted the opposite.

You can see how the basic economic principles of the parties have remained the same, which the social policies have changed to meet the needs of their constituency. The rise of unions after the turn of the century made Democrats the party of labor as well as farmers. As labor became a multicultural enterprise Democrats had to become the party of tolerance in the North, which lost them the Democrats in the South who are now a Republican base. This of course leads to a fractured Republican party serving two masters.

After the 17th amendment Senators were elected by the people, and California elected a Democrat named James D. Phelan who lost a re-election bid over his "Keep California White" campaign posters. It's 11 representatives were a mixture of Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives.

This 1911 Congressional District map has Los Angeles with two Representatives (a Prohibitionist and a Progressive (who was replaced by a Republican when he resigned)). Orange county is no longer connected with the Central Valley, but with the desert areas along the Nevada border.

The Great Depression cost the Republicans their good standing with the public, as they were largely blamed for causing it. The party had survived two post-Civil War panics, but after 1928 was the last year the Republicans would win the White House without a Bush or a Nixon on the ticket (Bush Sr. was Reagan's VP, Nixon was Eisenhower's).

It was a democrat from New York who changed everything. New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt united farmers, labor unions, academics, and minorities into the New Deal Coalition. Here's where the old Democratic Party starts to end and the new Democrats emerge.

Los Angeles has continued to grow exponentially and now has districts 11-18 (six Democrats and two Republicans). While the Democrats have begun to embrace minority workers, they still have the stink of racism on them. California's Democrat Senator at the time, William McAdoo, is endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan. That tinge of racism won't be shaken off until the 1960s when the Democrats support the Civil Rights movement.

Labor in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, as well as the two large public universities, has given California a solid Democrat base, but state has gone Republican in several elections since the New Deal. California actually went for Richard Nixon over John F Kennedy.

Los Angeles, however, went for Kennedy. The parties now are actually closer than they were at the turn of the century because of the crossover on social issues. Electoral maps pre-George W. Bush tend to be a landslide for one candidate or another and California went along with the winning party.

I lack a conclusion. Los Angeles politically is controlled by labor and minorities, and that continues to be the Democrats. It wasn't always that way, and it's fun seeing LA going from one of a few coastal counties in one district at the turn of the century to where it is today.

Arden Ice Cream Takes a Trip Through Yester-LA

This is one of those entries where I'm not sure where it's going to go. I know it involves Ice Cream and a wagon. That's all I've got to go on. But I saw a neat picture, and I need to find the story.

The city of El Monte sits in between the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel rivers. It's a little oasis in the San Gabriel Valley. The name El Monte means the meadow or marsh or the wooded area. The perfect place perhaps to raise some cattle.

In 1904, Arden Farms was founded in El Monte, California. It was the first certified milk dairy in California. It was a state of the art facility for bottling milk.

Milk is California's largest agricultural commodity, in a state where agriculture is the number one industry. The history of milk legislation tends to be driven by fake milk products. In 1878 it was made illegal to sell oleomargarine (now just known as margarine) under the name of butter. In 1895 the California State Dairy Bureau was founded to prevent the sale of fraudulent butter and cheese.

In 1905 the Sanity Dairy Law was passed, prohibiting the sale of milk produced by unhealthy animals or under unsanitary conditions. Arden Farms was one year ahead of the curb.

Arden became a household name up and down the Pacific Coast in 1930 when they merged with California Dairies Inc. which was created by Western Dairy Products of Seattle to operate properties in California.  Western Dairy Products ran ice cream outlets in the pacific northwest.

When I first talked about agriculture on this blog, I mentioned that orange juice was heavily advertised to allow orange growers to have use for any surplus produced. The same argument can be made for luxury dairy products like ice cream. If you can increase the number of dairy products, you grow the dairy business into the huge industry that it is today.

Photo credit LAPL

I do love when a photograph can bring it all together. The building in the background is the Warner Downtown theater on 7th and Hill. The movie is Roman Holiday, the 1953 film that launched Audrey Hepburn's career. Paramount released The War of the Worlds just before Roman Holiday, perhaps that's why Roman Holiday was playing at the Warner. 

Remember (in case you didn't click the link) the Warner Downtown Theatre was originally a Pantages Theatre was designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca in a Greek Revival style in 1919, opening in 1920. 

Anyhow, the horse drawn wagon is being used to advertise Arden's newest ice cream flavor: Texas Pecan. I'm sure it was a prop from some western or another, and certainly there must have been a place to get some Arden ice cream nearby. 

Photo credit LAPL

Hey look! It's Cliftons! That's actor Lock Martin standing out in the crowd underneat the Clifton's sign, most famous for playing the robot in The Day the Earth Stood Still. They drove all around downtown, spreading the good word of this new ice cream flavor. Martin even came in and said howdy to the girls in the Arden ice cream plant. 

Photo credit LAPL

Of course, Arden wasn't without competition. Carnation was also a major west coast dairy operation. Balian ice cream company actually sued Arden in 1955 for lowering Arden ice cream prices purposefully in just Los Angeles trying to drive out the smaller creameries in the city.

We learn a little bit more about Arden in this court case. It was one of the largest dairy firms in the west in 1955. It owns one of the largest ice cream plants in the United States, which you see in the photo above. 

Los Angeles Olympic History - The Games Themselves

Last time out, I spent my time trying to describe the preparations necessary to host the events. How Agricultural Park was full of brothels and casinos, and the temperance movement lead by the Methodists at USC got the property transformed into Exposition Park and how Los Angles used the Olympics as a reason to transform that area. As has been my standard here, I focused on the structures erected, because they can be photographed and I like the pretty pretty pictures.

I didn't talk much about the games themselves. I talked about the Coliseum and the Swim Stadium and the Armory and the Olympic Auditorium and the Rowing Stadium, but I didn't talk about what happened inside of them. Well the LAPL has inspired me to look into what happened during the games themselves.

Heikki Savolainen of Finland on Vaulting Horse. Photo: LAPL

Here we have an Heikki Savolainen of Finland on the Vaulting Horse. The Finns took third in the team all around competition, and Savolainen took bronze in the individual all around competition. The individual all around took four days to complete.

The word gymnasium came to English in the late 16th century (Enlightenment) from the Greek word gumnazein meaning exercise naked. This from the word gumnos meaning naked. 

The ancient Greek gymnasium was a place to train for public games (although today it can be a place to train just for yourself). The athletes trained nude so that their athletic bodies could be admired, and as a tribute to the gods. 

With it came the word gymnaste meaning a trainer of athletes (though it now refers to the athlete). Every gymnasium had a palaestra, from the word palaiein meaning to wrestle where wrestling, boxing and the like would take place. 

I mentioned the Enlightenment? Well in 1569 Girolamo Mercuriale of Forli, Italy wrote Le Arte Gymnastica about the ancient attitudes toward diet, exercise, and health. As the countries in Europe become wealthier, more adopted this notion of exercise being important to the development of youth. 

So of course, gymnastics were a part of the modern Olympic games. The vault dates back to the use of wooden horses for training in the military. The difference between the vault and pommel horse is the lack of handles, or pommels, on the vault. 

In both events the principal is the same: mount the horse, perform a routine, then dismount. Every part of the performance is judged for style and precision. Our gymnasts eyes here are on the horse, so I imagine this is a mount. 

The 1932 Olympics was the first time in Olympic history that individual competition was held in all apparatus events. So while there was an overall score kept for gymnastic teams competing in multiple events, there was also an individual competition on the Horizontal Bar, Parallel Bars, Pommelled Horse, Rings, and Vaulting Horse. 

Unidentified gymnast on Rings. Photo: LAPL

As this was a depression games the US, Italy, Finland, and Hungary did the best in the Medal count. Japan and Mexico sent gymnasts for the first time, and Switzerland sent a long gymnast for floor exercises who won a silver medal. 

The photos show all the events took place outdoors, in the Olympic Stadium, as they would have in the ancient greek games. The Italian team took all around gold, and Romeo Neri of Italy won all around individual gold. Neri also competed in the individual Parallel Bars, taking gold. 

The US padded their medal count in the other individual events. With 13 more athletes than the Italians, often all three medal winners were American. 

There was also held a gymnastics demonstration which drew lots of attention. According to the official report: "The Mexicans did allegorical exercises and dances, with their performers beautifully costumed as Montezuma's warriors, and the Japanese gave demonstrations of their native athletic activities including fencing with bamboo sticks and jiu-jitsu wrestling." I just thought it was neat that the Olympics had sections for other nations to show off their cultures. 

Show jumping at the Olympics. Photo: LAPL

The equestrian events also took place at the Coliseum, though the dressage portion was done at a country club. A course was set up on the field for jumping and eventing. Getting the horses to the Olympics was an issue, which meant there were only 35 entries from six nations, the least participated event in the games. 

The Mexicans were able to travel by train to the Olympic site, having the easiest journey. The Japanese horses came by ship from Yokohama to Los Angeles. France and Sweeden went by ship to New York then train across country. The Dutch went by ship across the Panama Canal, and built a treadmill to keep their horses fit. Countries outside of the US and Mexico only sent those they thought could medal, which is how France won the medal count with only three riders, the US only managed one gold. 

All the events talked about so far go back as far as humans have been using horses for military purposes. The Marathon, while it is based on the myth of a man running from Marathon to Athens and collapsing with his message, is actually an event invented for the modern Olympic games. 

Marathon prelims. Photo: LAPL

The length of the Marathon wasn't finalized until 1921. It's length means it has to be run in the city proper instead of inside the stadium. The 1932 marathon started and ended at the Olympic Stadium, but as you can see it wound through the streets of LA. This runner is from the Los Angeles Athletic Club before the games trying to qualify to run for the US. He's on the 4600 block of Washington Blvd. 

Sign. Photo: LAPL

Here a woman is hanging a sign provided by the Automobile Club of Southern California, advertising the Olympic Marathon course. The existing signs showed enthusiastic motorists the distances different locations. Playa Del Rey and Venice, LAX and Redondo Beach. Inglewood is only 1.5 miles away, so this sign must be in Hawthorne.

The big challenge to Olympic organizers was finding a route that wouldn't negatively impact the city with the most motor cars per unit of population in the world. Runners ran two laps inside Olympic stadium then headed south down Normandie, Western, and Vermont. Runners reached the south end of the course when they hit Ballona ave. (now El Segundo Blvd.) Runners then turned north on Inglewood-Redondo road (where I believe this sign is being planted). 

[Editor's note: Ballona ave. was named after Ballona Creek, which empties into the Santa Monica Bay between Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey]

I wrote about why the 1932 Olympics were the last Olympiad without a Soccer Football tournament here at my LA Galaxy blog. Instead the games featured a demonstration of American Football. Boxing and wrestling, also ancient events, took place at the Olympic Auditorium. The swim stadium held the aquatic events. Still, it was still standing Olympic Stadium, now the Coliseum, which was the star of the show. 

The games were marred slightly by a world in crisis, but as they say in the theater the show must go on. And this was a show that would forever transform the city of Los Angeles.