How Gardena become home to legalized card clubs
Card clubs have been a part of the landscape in Gardena for so long that their origin has become obscure. Just exactly how did they come to land there exclusively for so long, anyway? Ernest “Ernie”...
View ArticleAdolph Leuzinger and Leuzinger High School
Leuzinger High School. 2010 file photo by Daily Breeze Photographer Robert Casillas. Adolph Leuzinger was born in Wattwil, Switzerland in 1859. He came to the U.S. when he was 7 years old when his...
View ArticleEvelyn Carr’s role in the founding of the Torrance Unified School District
Evelyn Carr in 1947. Ever driven by Carr Elementary School on 168th Street in North Torrance and wondered after whom it was named? Evelyn Carr was born on March 5, 1915, and moved to Torrance in...
View ArticleManhattan Beach’s Polliwog Park
Children look out on Pollywog Pond, then in its completely undeveloped state. Daily Breeze front page, Jan. 1, 1953. Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach, one of the most attractive public parks in the...
View ArticleHermosa Beach’s “1912 Days” celebrations
Firemen wearing period outfits ride on a vintage firetruck during the parade for the 1962 Hermosa Beach “1912 Days” event. Daily Breeze file photo. Hermosa Beach’s “1912 Days” celebration, which took...
View ArticleHow Torrance got its beach
A jogger takes advantage of early morning weather on Torrance beach. Daily Breeze file photo. When the city of Torrance was incorporated on May 21, 1921, it consisted of a decidedly landlocked...
View ArticleRoland Sperry’s dangerous flight
Photo of Roland Sperry taken from the Torrance Herald front page of April 2, 1953. At 9:18 a.m. on the morning of Friday, March 27, 1953, 30-year-old furniture salesman Roland Sperry took off from...
View ArticleGolden State Fireworks explosion in Redondo Beach
A violent explosion at Redondo’s Golden State Fireworks Co. rocked the South Bay on Feb. 8, 1940, sending ripples into communities as far as 40 miles away. Photo from the following morning shows the...
View ArticleWilson College in Wilmington, the first coed campus in the West
Benjamin D. “Don Benito” Wilson Benjamin D. Wilson was a key figure in Los Angeles history during the 19th Century. He became the second elected mayor ever of the City of Los Angeles in 1851, and also...
View ArticleConnecting Hawthorne Boulevard from Torrance to Palos Verdes
Hawthorne Boulevard extension looking south from Newton Street, Nov. 9, 1965, the day after it opened to traffic. Daily Breeze file photo. It may be hard to believe now, but before 1965, Hawthorne...
View ArticleTorrance’s courthouse didn’t come without trials
The Torrance courthouse building. Daily Breeze file photo, Sept. 6, 2013. Until a municipal courthouse opened in Inglewood in 1947, the bulk of legal matters arising in the South Bay had to adjudicated...
View ArticleH.B. “Toby” Halicki makes a film and a phenomenon
Toby Halicki checks a camera angle during the filming of his sequel, “Gone in 60 Seconds II,” on Aug. 20, 1989, the same day an accident during filming took his life. Photo: The Associated Press....
View ArticleClassified research plane crashes into El Segundo apartments in 1969, killing 6
The front page of The Daily Breeze, Sunday, May 11, 1969. Four North American Rockwell employees took off in a revamped B-26 World War II-era twin-engine Martin Marauder from LAX shortly after noon on...
View ArticleRolling Hills Estates and the Red Barn
The Red Barn in Rolling Hills Estates. Daily Breeze file photo, June 17, 1971. For years, the “Red Barn” in Rolling Hills Estates was considered to be the oldest man-made building on the Palos Verdes...
View ArticleHow monorail systems became the road not taken in the South Bay
Artist’s rendition of the proposed King Harbor monorail, taken from the Daily Breeze, Nov.27, 1962, Page 11. Monorail systems have tempted South Bay municipal planners ever since E.G. Lewis proposed...
View ArticleAnteaters invade Redondo Beach!
Dobrick’s Pet Store manager Howard Newman holds one of the recaptured anteaters that he had retrieved from under the Carnelian Avenue house of Redondo Beach resident Mrs. Rose Ron, left. Daily Breeze...
View ArticleGolf Man becomes Porsche Man in Carson
Golf Man in his prime. Daily Breeze file photo, April 1995. Though he is known in his myriad iterations throughout the roadsides of America as “Muffler Man,” the large statue that stands astride the...
View ArticleRedondo Beach’s gateway sign
This June 1969 Daily Breeze file photo shows the original King Harbor gateway sign with sailboat at right, and the then-new larger sign under construction at rear. Two-way traffic on Catalina Avenue...
View ArticleWilmington riot erupts in 1970
Police patrol the streets of Wilmington during the Aug. 31, 1970 riot. Daily Breeze file photo by Jack Wyman. The events that sparked the Aug. 31, 1970 riot in Wilmington actually began in East Los...
View ArticleThe Proud Bird restaurant’s final landing
Entrance to The Proud Bird restaurant near LAX. Daily Breeze photo, Nov. 2013. Specialty Restaurant Corp. of Anaheim chose a novel way to break ground for its latest restaurant, The Proud Bird, at a...
View Article