Category: Blogs A-J

Dig the Sea & Ski and Coppertone tanning lotion Pop art beach umbrellas

Let me back up for just a second. Let me tell ya how it came to me. Here’s a quotation . . .

“So listen, man . . . Paul Johnson (who played his song “Mr. Moto” at the Rendezvous with his band, the Belairs) once told me this . . . are you ready? Paul Johnson said to me, ‘You know Domenic, this whole California Myth thing . . . it’s really neat and compelling and all. But the truth is always more bizarre and interesting.'”

Balboa Peninsula boardwalk and beach, featuring summer teen fashions from the mid-’60s — Balboa Pavilion in the background

Thus started the day I traveled with Domenic Priore through Orange County’s Pacific Coast Highway selling new copies of Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long to stores in the region. We headed down there with the intent of reminding the natives of Balboa about their groovy, locally-derived music scene.

Bay Arcade photo booth. A perfect example of how sometimes, American “Mod” outstrips the British variety, as heard in those Garage 45s from ’65/’66. (Photo by Brian Chidester)

The Wet Seal clothing boutique — mid-1960s

Before you, behold the locally-produced library of Balboa history and folklore we found when we got there:

Old Balboa Island Stories from 1907 to the Millenium by Jim Jennings (No Publisher)

Tales of Balboa by Jim Fournier (No Publisher)

• An encyclopedia of important people and places in Balboa’s history, told by the town historian. Sort of a miniature version of Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County (University of California Press)

The Newport/Balboa Map

• General Newport Beach, Balboa and Corona del Mar area map, including illustrations of key locations and a list of phone numbers for local businesses.

Newport Beach: A California Postcard History by Jeff Delaney (Arcadia Publishing)

• Postcard shots of Newport/Balboa/Corona del Mar from 1900 on.

Newport Beach: Images of America by Pamela Lee Gray (Arcadia Publishing)

• Archival photo paste-up book about Newport and Balboa’s history. Besides a host of deserted beach shots from the Victorian Era, there are four shots of the Rendezvous from Stan Kenton period through to Dick Dale, and ultimately when it burned down in 1966.

Newport Beach by Gayle Baker, PhD (HarborTown Histories)

• A linear account of how the Newport/Balboa towns developed during the early 1920s. The best re-telling of the Rendezvous Ballroom origins, and an unseen photo of the structure to boot. I would consider this to be the most literary of all the Balboa books thus far.

The Wedge DVD

• Documentary of the ‘Dirty ol’ Wedge’ . . . the spot with the most intense body-surfing experience in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Dirty Feet DVD

• 1965 feature film about Balboa folk singer Tim Morgon, shot on location at the Prison of Socrates coffee-house. To watch this movie is to be transported to a way of life that no longer exists, with shots of Morgon’s cool girlfriend Vicki passing out flyers to surf dwellers near the Balboa Pier, and rowdy folk music enthusiasts tearing up the joint by movie’s end.

We are proud that Dumb Angel #4: All Summer Long has joined these fine books and films in the Balboa Pharmacy Library

Special thanks to Mike and Tom of the Balboa Pharmacy for keepin’ it real.

Balboa Pharmacy and Balboa Pavillion, 1950s

Coppertone clock relief — Balboa Pharmacy. (Photo by Domenic Priore)

Rounding out the sphere . . .

The complete collection of albums and singles on the Fink Records label (all of which were local-artist albums released out of Balboa’s Prison of Socrates coffee house).

• Artists include Tim Morgon (“Dirty Feet” b/w “Mike Fink”) and Phil & the Flakes (“Chrome Reversed Rails” b/w “Blower Scoop,” 1965).

By BRIAN CHIDESTER (with editing, ideas and lots of laughter from Domenic Priore)

More detail about Balboa can be viewed and discussed at Sponto Gallery, in Venice, on July 19, 2006. Dumb Angel will host a screening of the Dirty Feet film, plus Bob Denver’s wild beatnik surf scene in For Those Who Think Young, Michael Dormer’s painting during the opening credit sequence of Muscle Beach Party (soundtracked by Les Baxter) and a slide show of all the long-gone beach coffee-houses in the Greater L.A. area during the ’50s and ’60s (indeed, Sponto was one of them — The Venice West Café). Others featured will be the Insomniac Café in Hermosa Beach, Sid’s Blue Beet in Newport Beach, Prison of Socrates in Balboa, and Café Frankenstein in Laguna Beach.

Original mural from inside the Prison of Socrates folk club, now displayed at the Balboa Historical Museum on South Bayfront Ave. The mural is in a section of the museum devoted to Balboa’s folk scene during the early ’60s. The display also features a selection of Tim Morgon album sleeves, one of Tim’s guitars and various Prison of Socrates posters, including one for a Hoyt Axton show. (Photo by Domenic Priore/Brian Chidester)

Dirty Feet Soundtrack — Tim Morgon, Susan Renaker, John & the Bazooki Band (Fink Records LP 1007)

Never has one album so summed up the general feeling of Balboa during the early ’60s than this 1965 soundtrack to the rare indie film Dirty Feet, starring folk singer Tim Morgon and his sidekick Vicki Arthur. Morgon contributes two vocal numbers, the anthemic “Dirty Feet” and the hootenanny sing-a-long “Mike Fink.” What lies between these captures faithfully that rare environment between Balboa’s Island, Pavilion and Pier. The “Prison of Socrates” instrumental cut is traditional Greek folk music, and sets the stage for musical references that informed the Middle Eastern exoticism of many surf instrumentals. The moody “Gamblin’ Man” breaks stride with what is, otherwise, essentially a folk album . . . this being a breezy surf instrumental inflection of the night-time moon and tides. “Camping Song” sounds like surfboards sliding through the pilings . . . it works as happy music for anywhere. The Grecian formula-flavored “Odessey” rolls along with its combination of Amerian rock ‘n’ roll and European flair, and can be DJ’d along with any other Bosstella numbers you may prefer (not as frantic as the soundtrack to The Day the Fish Came Out, but on the way there). Next up, the instrumental backing track to Tim’s vocal number “Dirty Feet” works as somber 12-string guitar “walking music.” Susan Renaker’s “Summertime Wine” sounds like an ode to Joan Baez, with a strong falsetto vocal landing somewhere between “Kum-Baya” and an exotica siren. (NOTE: “Summertime Wine” is the title of a book that Tim Morgon is reading during the opening credits of Dirty Feet, his feet set on a bamboo table with empty bottles.) “Angel’s Camp” could refer to the Sunset Strip-esque Pop and Op shop, at 614 N. Doheny Drive back then, or, someplace in the San Gabriel mountains. Either way, it’s killer surf. “Cotton Candy” mind checks the prime dietary capital of the Balboa Fun Zone, and is a romatic surfer’s mood number. It’s followed by a slowed-down version of “Odessey” and a chugging Folk instrumental rendering of “Mike Fink.” The “Dirty Feet” theme is reprised vocally by Morgon in a profound, slowed-down version, and the LP closes. Generally speaking, the Dirty Feet soundtrack employs the same placid moodiness found in the Mar-Kets’ “Balboa Blue” single, only spread across an entire album. Though the whole affair might seem like a mind-altering trip to some lost astral plane, when you watch the film and walk around the town of Balboa, you get a sense that it is all really real, and that this type of music poured into the streets on any given 1964 night.

BRIAN CHIDESTER / DOMENIC PRIORE

The Prison of Socrates Building Today. (Photo by Domenic Priore)

DIRTY FEET — LYRICS

Dirty feet, dirty feet . . .
Say that youth and life are much too sweet,
To be bound or confined.
Shoes are things that steal my peace of mind.

I want to feel the good earth under me,
The warmth of the sand beneath my toes.
Even mud squish when it rains,
It’s my life and I don’t care who knows.

Let me be foot loose and free,
Then with music every step will sound . . .
Though I walk with my head in the clouds,
My feet will be on solid ground.

Dirty feet, dirty feet . . .
Tell of summertime that was too fleet.
Soon enough, I will be,
Saying ‘fare thee well’ to liberty.

But now I must run barefoot through grass,
And find what waits over the hill.
Skipping puddles in the rain,
There’s part of me that’s a kid still.

I am sure as can be,
Lots of folks would find life more complete . . .
If they took off their shoes for a while,
And ran around in dirty feet.

Happy dirty feet!

— “Dirty Feet,” by Tim Morgon, 1964

Barefoot Action — ’50s Balboa Fun Zone — You can almost hear ‘Surf Beat’ just by looking at this shot!

Sublime, early Psychedelic Surf Pastiche Washout disc, 1965

THE BEST OF FINK . . .

From Christopher Peake’s column “Take a Walk on the WARPED side,” in his 1984-1986 ‘zine 45-45

Phil & the Flakes “Chrome Reversed Rails” b/w “Blower Scoop” (Fink 1010)

Photo by Brian Chidester

LEFT: The Original Rendezvous Ballroom / RIGHT: The Rendezvous building today. (New photo by Domenic Priore)

The Kenton Era — Stan Kenton (Capitol EOX 569). The opening eight numbers from this definitive early-’50s release were recorded live at the Rendezvous from July through September of 1941. The selections include “Artistry In Rhythm,” “Two Moods,” “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” “Lamento Gitano,” “Reed Rapture,” “La Cumparsita,” “St. James Infirmary” and “Arkansas Traveler”. “With the college and high school crowd that colonized the little resort town on weekends, holidays and vacations,” wrote Bud Freeman, “the young Kenton was an immediate success. Red Dorris, tenor saxist and vocalist, became a local idol within a few weeks. Howard Rumsey, who played amplified bass with spastic abandon, was known by his first name to every Jazz enthusiast in the area.” Rumsey later held sway with his Lighthouse All-Stars at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. The Kenton band would nourish, through the ’40s and ’50s, the school of musicians later referred to in Jazz circles as West Coast Cool.

Surfer’s Choice — Dick Dale & his Del-Tones. Released in early 1963, this collection is crucial to any Surf music collection. Most, if not all of the tracks were recorded live at the Rendezvous, including the insane “Surf Beat” (lots of great audience noise that pushes the actual content of the record), “Sloop John B.,” “Let’s Go Trippin’,” “Surfin’ Drums” (a takeoff on Bo Diddley’s “Hush Your Mouth”), “Mr. Peppermint Man” and the expanded guitar workout “Miserlou Twist”. Some of the Del-Tone 45s (“Jungle Fever,” notably) also feature the Rendezvous in rapture.

The Stuft Shirt Resaurant

Balboa Blues — A lounge piano album featuring the bar room keyboard masters from the Stuft Shirt, Berkshire’s and the Reuben E. Lee restaurants. Side one opens with a cool cocktail take on “Satin Doll,â€Â and ends with a night/tide version of “Girl from Ipanema.â€Â Side two starts out with some standard Broadway fare, including “Hello Dolly,â€Â sprung from the Reuben E. Lee (a riverboat/restaurant out to sea). Best of all, the piano lounge players are boarded on Balboa’s Ferry Boat (with a grand piano) for the album cover. — BRIAN CHIDESTER

Reuben E. Lee Matchbook

“Balboa Memories” b/w “Long Way Home” by the Breakers (Marsh 206)

Dumb Angel Readers,

I thought I should share this with you. Brian Chidester and I went to Orange County on a Monday afternoon in January, and it was just empty . . . “off season” for these beach towns. We did our sales thing, but the sky had this forever sunset that was just amazing . . . Catalina fully visible over the Dana Point/Laguna Beach area . . . and while the sun was dipping outta sight, we crossed from Balboa Island to Balboa on the Ferry, looking West . . . Without cueing it, we just happened to be listening to “Busy Doin’ Nothin'”and “Diamond Head” from the Beach Boys 1968 Friends (!) album while on the Ferry boat, floating on the water, in the car. Outtasight!!! . . . to hear those steel guitars and percussion emulating volcanoes . . . true Brian Wilson Exotica music on a slow boat. Here’s Chidester’s e-mail to me the day after. I think you’ll appreciate the sentiment in it.

— DOMENIC PRIORE

LEFT: The Balboa Ferry in the 1960s / RIGHT: The Ferry Today. (New photo by Domenic Priore)

I’m still riding high from that trip yesterday. I was just so sad and overwhelmed by how amazing Southern California once was. But zoning in on just the cool elements and having that music in the background, it melted my heart and made me long so hard for the days when beach houses and mini-yachts looked the way “Let Him Run Wild” sounded. Crossing that empty street on Balboa Blvd. to walk into the pharmacy . . . I had the most odd feeling. It was as though the wind was whipping some salt-air comfort over me, whistling the tunes of Tim Morgon out of the Prison of Socrates and Dick Dale playing “Greenback Dollar” from the Rendezvous. I felt so at home talking to that local in the Pharmacy and looking at the books and the homemade documentary about the Wedge. How could I get that sense? I never lived through 1963. I felt the way a scientist must feel when he makes a discovery that he knows is so profound, yet is going to be impossible to explain to the outside world. It was really heavy. Hard to even put into words. If we would have heard Jill Gibson’s “Easy As 1, 2, 3” last night after eating at Woody’s Wharf, I would have cried. Seriously. I would have balled my eyes out. I felt so emotional about SoCal last night . . . it was ridiculous. Such a cool day.

— BRIAN CHIDESTER

Domenic Priore’s early record buying, live show experiences and 1969 Garage band photo (The Blockbusters) from Art Fein’s website: https://www.sofein.com/mess/2005/fm0705.html

When Brian Chidester and I headed North from Los Angeles to San Francisco for the Rick Griffin, Frank Holmes and John McCambridge art show at Mollusk, it looked real gloomy. I mean, I’d lived in San Francisco for six years and had never seen the sky so dark. And, it was a torrential downpour of a tropical storm. Man, we thought this event was sure to be a bust. None of the San Francisco newspapers or weeklies had covered this display of pre-Fillmore Rick Griffin work, which only bolstered my general disdain for the self-enamored Bill Graham/Grateful Dead boosterism still left over in the city. Yes, it looked grim, very grim in the dead of winter for this All Summer Long art show.

However, once we got inside, the gloom ended real quick. McCambridge and Chidester got the Rick Griffin art up in a flash, Frank Holmes had his wall lookin’ fantastic, the DJ gear was up, the oil lamp groove was on the ceiling, and the people started pouring inside from the pouring rain outside (at around 7 p.m.) We all got warm and interior together, with Mollusk feeling like the inside of Winnie the Pooh’s tree. I gave the cat in the upstairs overlook the Surf movies, which he projected on a huge upper wall just beneath the oil lamp show on the ceiling.

By now, I was well down with DJing all this stuff… I brought 4 boxes of rare Surf instrumental singles I’d bought off of Bob Dalley when he needed the bread to publish his book Surfin’ Guitars, plus a stack of similar rare Surf movie soundtracks — Harry Betts’ The Fantastic Plastic Machine, Lalo Schifrin’s Gone With The Wave, the Sandals’ Last of the Ski Bums, Dominic Frontiere’s On Any Sunday and the Stu Phillips / Dino, Desi & Billy Psych/Surf/Pastiche masterpiece Follow Me.

All was goin’ cool, and by my guesstimate, about 200 people showed up. It was swingin’… Mollusk seems to have its own, built-in crowd of relaxed, 1969-style Surf people who do not remind me of anyone I see in the water in Southern California these days. They seem to carry the same calm, confident smile on their faces that the P.S. I Love You — Palm Springs, California celestial sun bumpersticker carried in ’69… somewhere between Mod and that first Crosby, Stills & Nash LP vibe. John McCambridge has designed the interior of his shop with a really cool paint job on the circular interior windows, and it runs down to all elements of his shop, right down to the table loaded with great new T-shirts by both John McCambridge and Thomas Campbell, the artist responsible for Paul Frank’s line last summer. A few of Campbell’s prints were for sale up front, as well.

Some of my friends who showed up included French singer/songwriter Helene Renaut, whose minimalist combo Beam is a recent fave, Brett from the Flakes and his gang of pals, Mike Markesich (from New York, compiler of the Teenage Shutdown series) and his gal-friend Sherry Lowinger. Paul Grushkin, author of both
The Art of Rock and The Art of Modern Rock dropped in with some ace commentary, and New York City public releations man Sal Cataldi drove all the way in from his vacation in Lake Tahoe (despite bunk weather) to make the event. Also present was Alec Palao, who I always call “the guy who put together the Zombies box set” but in fact has done much, much more than that for Ace Records. This includes the bitchen Nuggets From The Golden State series… for my money, the best music to have come out of San Francisco during the ’60s (i.e., tons of Folk-Rock and Garage from Autum Records, usually produced by Sly Stone).

With Alec present, it gave me the charge to play a whole hour or so of Psychedelic Surf Pastiche Washout stuff like “Mrs. Bluebird” by Eternity’s Children, “Just Can’t Wait” by the Full Treatment and “Awake in a Dream” by the Giant Jellybean Copout. Lots of Psych/Pop romp. During all this, Brian Chidester played host of the art show, describing to all who were asking the connection between Griffin’s early work and the comical, thematic Psychedelia of Frank Holmes’ work for the Beach Boys’ unreleased Smile album. Brian Chidester was able to use the music in the air to draw a narrative line from early Surf to early Sunshine Psych.

Next was a Soul music set (beginning with Billy Stewart’s “Summertime”) by my pal Dennis Cabuco from the band Harold Ray Live in Concert! (a bunch of Garage/Mods if that makes sense… just a wild band to dance to, o.k.?) As the show went late into the evening, we brought out one special film clip that made sense of it all. I was still spinning records (cooling out the room with Nick DeCaro’s A&M version of “Caroline, No”), and as I cued the 45 “It’s As Easy as I, 2, 3” by Jill Gibson, we played Mike Dormer’s opening credit sequence to Muscle Beach Party. This huge painting may still be lost, or somewhere in some drifting-through-corporate-space archive in A.I.P.’s fragmented years of being bought out and split up. But here on film, we were able to enjoy pans, sweeps and zooms of all the characters Beatnik/Surfer Dormer threw together in his brilliant Hot Curl style. The remaining crowd (it was after midnight) stood around kind of stunned… it was a true moment of awareness, all of us caught up in a swell of sound and vision, all of us looking at the same thing and realizing where this all came from, how it all happened, and how it was so common, yet so rare in our midst. Frank Holmes could not believe what he was seeing, and the film guy in the crow’s nest (Tyler) just nodded to Brian Chidester, like… “got it!” Mollusk Surf Shop & Gallery really gave us the opportunity to bring the spirit of these cartoonish Surf characters from 1960-1966 alive, and we all became amoeba Surf dwellers throbbing in the sounds of the dwell knob.

Jan & Dean-related material that helped kick in the groove:

“La Corrida” by the Matadors (co-written, arranged, and produced by Jan Berry, Colpix Records, 1963)

“The Theme From Leon’s Garage (Hal Records Scab Dates There)” (produced by Dean Torrence and arranged by Gary Zekley, on Dean’s Bre’r Bird Records, 1965)

DOMENIC PRIORE
Founder / Co-Editor of Dumb Angel No. 4: All Summer Long
Author of Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece (Sanctuary Publishing), 2005

This is where we’ll provide occasional descriptions and updates of Dumb Angel related events.