Sorry for the length of this one .....
Thanks, FUNK! I'll Google RIC to see what I can find about those good old days.
Those two photos POWERLIFT posted above have brought back some old memories of how SM Muscle Beach used to look. It's gone through a lot of changes since the early 1950's.
I can recall my first visit when there was absolutely no problem finding a free parking spot in the lot that used to be right along the boardwalk just south of what is now the Sea Castle apartments.
Back then Santa Monica Beach was just about vacant unless you showed up on a Saturday or a Sunday when the weather was somewhat decent.
ANd the weather seldom got 'decent' until the sun decided to make an apperance sometime between the hours of 11 AM to noon.
So most of the casual beach goers would show up around the sunny period betwwen 1 and 2.
But there always seemed to be a few of the regulars in or around the small fence-surrounded, rusted weight area.
My first visit was on an early Saturday morning before the sun appeared and I simply parked my old FOrd along the highway and walked down the hill about thirty yards to the beach and found myself on Muscle Beach simply because the weight pit was there and a solitary individual was putting rusted plates on rusted bars preparing to get a workout before the sun came out.
That sole individual in the pit happened to be DOUG STROHL.
We managed to talk for a couple of minutes but I had to get back to one fo the studios to get something done ... family in the movie business even then.-
I can recall that there were some small beach front homes in the area (one of which we had the opportunity to purchase for $34,000 US but failed to do so), but those old homes are long gone and are now the sites of fancy hotels and ritzy apartments.
The beachfront area just east of the Merry Go ROund and mere yards away from the Santa Monica Pier elevated roadway is somewhat the same as it was during the Muscle Beach days. Particularly Dean's Muscle Inn and the red lemonade stand .... both of which seem to look the same as they appeared during my first visit a coupe of hundred years ago.
The small red building I always remember recall as the "Lemonade Stand" is still there but was actually the very first location of HOT DOG ON A STICK.
ON the beach itself .... there have been a number of changes since the removal of the weight area.
A huge liffe guard headquarters was constructed with a small grass area on the east side of the building where the circus performers and gymnasts used to set up shop on busy weekends, but during my most recent visit it was the grass spot where class was being held for new Southern California Beach Lifeguard hopefuls. And also a staging area during none fo the very difficult Lifeguard Competitions back then.
I sort of recall that beach vollyball became somewhat popular around the 60's (possibly earlier or possibly later) and numerous vollyball nets were installed steps away on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier which I believe are sitll there today.
Can also recall numerous visits to POP .... Pacific Ocean Park which was located on a pier that no longer exists at the midway point between Santa Monica Pier and the present-day "Muscle Beach" in Venice.
That pier and POP was discussed earlier and a lot of the wood that ended up adrift onto the beach ended up as part of the construction in one of the Barbarian Brother's home. Or maybe is was used to construct some of the furniture. (I forget that story but will have to ask one of them the next time I run into either of them ... or both.) I think it was Keith who told me originally.
Back then some of the most wealthy Hollywood moguls owned beach homes immediately north of the Santa Monica Piers and some still do today. A few stories about the Kennedy's, the Lawford's, and Marilyn Monroe are still written about today when they all gathered at one of those expensive homes on Santa Monica Beach just north of the pier.
Back then those fancy oceanfront homes along the Pacific Coast Highway north of Will Rogers Beach and all the way north to Malibu were non-existent so the beach and the ocean was wide open and available to everyone . Just park you car on the side of the road and step down onto the beach and have a nice day. The only ‘rule’ was that you could not start a fire.
I never did undersand that rule because there were absolutely no buildings on that 6 mile stretch of beach except for some driftwood wind barriers that some beach-bum had set up.
Now a days you can't even see the ocean behind all those ocean front homes built along that busy Pacific Coast Highway.
Things were different then …. But not completely. (See attached photos)
Gotta find the photo I recently took of Dean's Muscle Inn which is just about the same as it was long ago.
