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Marineland’s tumultuous final days
Marineland of the Pacific in 1981. Photo by Wayne Jackson. Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of Marineland of the Pacific. In this third installment on the park, we’ll...
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Torrance Municipal Airport’s worst crashes
Torrance Municipal Airport has been a busy hub for private planes ever since it was transformed into a general aviation airport following World War II from its earlier days as the Lomita Flight Strip....
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Smith Bros. Fish Shanty becomes a fixture in Walteria
Undated postcard shows interior, top, and exterior of Smith Bros. Fish Shanty in Walteria. The Smith Bros. Fish Shanty story begins far away from Torrance in both distance and time. In 1848, Gilbert...
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Marine Exchange: Keeping track of port traffic since 1923
The Marine Exchange’s original perch atop Warehouse No. 1 at the Port of Los Angeles can be seen at the front left corner of Warehouse No. 1 in this undated photo. (Photo credit: Wikimapia) The Port of...
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Sak Yamamoto, former Carson mayor and unlikely film star
Former Carson mayor and councilman Sak Yamamoto in 1982. (Daily Breeze file photo) Sakae “Sak” Yamamoto was born in Tacoma, Washington, on Jan. 17, 1914. He married his wife, Greta, in 1937. They would...
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Flamboyant pro wrestler Gorgeous George once called Hawthorne home
Gorgeous George gets his hair waves before a bout in Washington on Nov. 18, 1948. Left to right are Sam Menacker, business manager; Martha Kunick, beautician and George. (AP Photo) Pro wrestler...
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Capt. John Barneson brings an oil refinery to Torrance
Captain John Barneson If not for Captain John Barneson, the ExxonMobil oil refinery might never have come to Torrance. Born in Scotland on Jan. 1, 1862, Barneson spent his early years piloting...
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Westchester’s Otis College of Art and Design
The Otis College of Art and Design occupies the “punch card” building originally built for IBM Aerospace in 1963. (October 2014 Daily Breeze photo) The Otis College of Art and Design has only been in...
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Torrance becomes an oil boom town in the 1920s
A panoramic shot of the Del Amo oil field in southern Torrance, circa 1938. (Daily Breeze file photo) Seeing photos such as the one above now, it’s hard to imagine that you’re looking at the South Bay...
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Col. Blanton Duncan and Manhattan Beach’s haunted house
The late Hermosa Beach city historian John Hales holds tattered pages from Colonel Blanton Duncan’s diary dating back to the 1860′s in this June 2005 Daily Breeze file photo. (Hales died on Sept. 24,...
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The USS Iowa’s long journey to San Pedro
USS Iowa being prepared for launching at the New York Naval Yard, August 1942. (Photo: Official U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives collection) The USS Iowa’s long journey to its current berth at...
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The most destructive brush fire in South Bay history
A helicopter makes an aerial water drop, left center, in this view of the Rolling Hills fire on June 22, 1973. Looking toward Rolling Hills from Rancho Palos Verdes. (Daily Breeze staff photo) Two boys...
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The plan for the port of Torrance
Torrance Herald, Page 1, Sept. 2, 1937. (State Street later would become Pacific Coast Highway.) (Credit: Torrance Public Library, Historical Newspaper Archives database) If F.M. Andreani had gotten...
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Patrick Wayne Kearney, the “trash bag murderer”
Patrick Wayne Kearney (Daily Breeze file photo) Patrick Wayne Kearney told investigators that he committed his first murder while living in Culver City in 1962. The Redondo Beach man ultimately would...
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Palos Verdes Begonia Farm kept South Bay gardeners happy for 56 years
Going-out-of-business sale at the Palos Verdes Begonia Farm on Sept. 28, 1999. (Daily Breeze file photo) John R. “Jack” Bauman, the driving force behind the Palos Verdes Begonia Farm, was born on July...
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The Either/Or Bookstore in Hermosa Beach
The Either/Or Bookstore at 124 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach on June 18, 1989. (Daily Breeze file photo) The Either/Or Bookstore opened in 1966 in a multilevel building at 124 Pier Avenue in Hermosa...
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Peninsula Center, the first major shopping center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula
The land where Peninsula Center would be built as it was in 1959, looking east toward Rolling Hills. (Daily Breeze file photo) As recently as the late 1950s, the Palos Verdes Peninsula land where the...
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Santa Claus has found many ways to visit the South Bay and Harbor Area over...
Santa Claus arrived by helicopter at LAX to greet local school children and read the story of “The Night Before Christmas” on Dec. 24, 2012. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer) Santa Claus has made...
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Costco’s rise to retail prominence in the South Bay
Costco is moving from its leased store and building a bigger one on a large vacant plot of land next door that will also have more parking. 2014 file photo. (Chuck Bennett / Staff Photographer) Costco...
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Aladdin’s Castle’s video game kingdom at Del Amo Fashion Center
Aladdin’s Castle. (Photo and inset courtesy snk-capcom.com, via the ReadRETRO.com website) Retail Space #127 on the bottom floor of the Del Amo Fashion Center, near McDonald’s and a B. Dalton...
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