Venice, the Circle of Life

Spending much of my earlier life in Venice, California, looking back at it, I have become
curious about how and where this whole Venice Italy in Los Angeles thing came from? I watched as the old oil wells on the beach and the worn broken Pilings from piers that have long been gone were removed and cleaned up. As children we watched as a new modern Pier was being built right at the end of our street, it was pretty cool. It was great being the first kids to dive off the end of it long before it ever opened up to the public. And long before we could have been arrested for jumping off of it!

We lived in Venice because it was very cheap back then and we were immigrants with little money. It was a pretty rough place, back in the day. As kids we took pride in the fact that folks from other areas didn’t come here at night. We watched it turn from beatniks, to hippies, to yuppies, and finally now the very well to do. Consequently most of us were slowly pushed out to make way for the money  people. But man it was a great place to grow up, if you didn’t mind a fight now and again. We built rafts and would play pirates along the canals with homemade boats that sometimes sank into the, now stinky water. As we got older we became a part of the scene on the beach, lots of free concerts, the Doors, Chambers Brothers, you name it, ’twas a happening place alright. Heck we even had our own chapter of the Hells Angeles, so you know we were “on”. Enough of memory lane, how did Venice as it is now and has been for so long become, this unusual place?

A good place to start would be to mention a street in Venice that runs through the
northern part of town. The street was called West Washington Blvd and split off from
Washington Blvd, one of the main boulevard’s that traverse Los Angeles through down
town all the way to the ocean.  You won’t find West Washington Blvd now because some
years ago the name was changed to Abbot Kinney. Historical societies say, he was the founder of Venice, California which at that time was called Ocean Park. Interestingly enough there is a portion of the city of Santa Monica, adjacent to Venice that is known as the Ocean Park neighborhood today.

One of the stories about this Abbot Kinney guy was that he went through some trouble
with past business partners and eventually had become one of five partners of this,
very mundane and unattractive parcel of beach adjacent property, along with some much nicer grounds along the coast in 1904. The story goes that Mr. Kinny made a deal with his partners on the flip of a coin.  Kinney won the toss and got to pick first on which parcel of land he would take. Most said Kinney lost, as he chose the barren marsh land of Ocean Park. When he said this area would soon be known as a cultural city patterned after Venice, Italy, the public laughed and dubbed it “Kinney’s Folly”. By 1905 Venice-of-America officially opened with a beautiful pier and electric trolley cars running along the boardwalk. Kinney decided the canals he built to drain part of the Ballona wetlands (on which he built his real estate project) reminded him of Venice Italy, so he bought gondolas and hired Italian gondoliers to highlight his new beach resort as a tourist attraction. He added exotic hotels, Camel rides and a miniature railroad that circled the entire sight.

Venice was an independent city up until 1925 when the voters chose to consolidate
politically with the city of Los Angeles and the self-destruction of Venice began.
The canals were filled with dirt and became streets about 1930. The amusement parks
and other entertainment attractions were closed down. The final destruction of this
playground for the well to do was snuffed out by the enforcement of prohibition. That
would kill any party, right?

About this time oil was discovered in Venice and oil wells were constructed all over
the city. In fact when we moved to Venice in 1960 some of the oil wells were still
around pumping away, even on the sandy beaches. When we kids came home from a day of playing in the ocean, we had to have the oil washed off us before we could enter the house.  No wonder we don’t get the flu very often. We have all the chemicals and germs in us to kill just about anything. That would explain a lot about me.

The 60s’ was a great time to be a kid here. We had everything that money couldn’t buy.
We had Muscle beach, where unknown body building competitors like Arnold something or other was competing in Gold’s Gym.  My kid brother and his friends were doing crazy things on their skate boards, with wheels from roller skates. Horrible wheels too, because when you hit a little rock you were in the air while your skate board stopped right there. Heck they became so well know that a couple movies were made about them. And if you ever wondered why they called it dog town the simple polite answer would be, you better watch where you step or your personal life will begin to deteriorate from the foul smell on your shoes. We all had dogs and nobody ever picked up after them. This was very much a dog town. If you have ever seen the old “Our Gang and Little Rascals” on television, take a closer look, they were mostly filmed in Venice.

Well through all these up’s and downs Venice always had a few celebrities and new
thinkers residing in the hood. However as Los Angeles property values continued to rise
upwards many of the original residents (including us) were slowly pushed out or tempted
by the huge money they could get for their modest house, they sold.

The moral of the story here would be that Venice has gone full circle, from the playground for the well to do, to the haven for the have not’s, while culture of art and music blossomed and now currently back to “millionaires only” in Venice Beach? I look forward to when it’s our turn again.