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Los Angeles Athletic Club Photograph Collection: Finding
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photCL 377
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Title: Los Angeles Athletic Club Photograph Collection
Dates (inclusive): 1928-1941
Bulk dates: 1928-1931
Collection Number: photCL 377
Creator:
Los Angeles Athletic Club
Extent:
approximately 270 photographs in 3 boxes : 98 copy prints and approximately 172 film negatives ; prints 8 x 10 in., negatives
3.75 x 5 in. and 8 x 10 in. + 1 reel of 16mm film in 1 box.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo Archives
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains photographs of the members and grounds of Southern California beach and golf clubs that formed part
of the
Los Angeles Athletic Club in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The clubs represented are the Santa Monica Athletic Club and
Deauville Club; the Hermosa Beach Surf
and Sand Club; the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades; and the Long Beach Pacific Coast Club. The photographs, presumably
created as promotional images,
depict clubhouse buildings and rooms, as well as members engaged in club leisure activities such as sunbathing, swimming,
beach volleyball, and golf. Nearly half
of the photographs are close-up shots of beach-goers.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on May 4, 2015.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for
identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Los Angeles Athletic Club Photograph Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Items 1-55 were received in April 1981; items 56-98 were received in May 1998.
The Los Angeles Athletic Club (LAAC) was founded as a private athletic and social club in Los Angeles, California, in 1880.
In the 1920s,
the LAAC merged with four regional clubs suffering financial difficulties: the Pacific Coast Club of Long Beach in 1927; the
Santa Monica
Athletic Club, the Hollywood Athletic Club, and the Surf and Sand Club of Hermosa Beach in 1929; and the Deauville Club of
Santa Monica in
1935. The clubs, known as the "allied clubs," were open to all LAAC members. In 1927, the LAAC also opened the Riviera Country
Club
(initially known as the "Los Angeles Athletic Club Golf Course") in Pacific Palisades, with an eighteen-hole golf course.
LAAC closed The Surf and Sand Club in November 1937, and the next year leased it to operators who reopened it as the Hermosa
Beach Biltmore Hotel.
In an effort to improve its financial situation, the LAAC sold the affiliated clubs in the early 1940s. In subsequent decades,
most of the former
clubhouse buildings of the allied clubs were destroyed or demolished: the Santa Monica Athletic Club building was destroyed
by fire in 1953; the
Deauville Clubhouse was damaged by fire in 1964 and demolished a year later; the Hermosa Biltmore was demolished in 1969;
and the Pacific Coast
Club was demolished in 1988.
This collection contains photographs of the members and grounds of the Southern California beach and golf clubs that formed
part of the
Los Angeles Athletic Club in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The clubs represented are the Santa Monica Athletic Club and
Deauville
Club (Items 1-16 and 74-83, 65-98); the Hermosa Beach Surf and Sand Club (Items 17-55, and 84); the Riviera Country Club in
Pacific
Palisades (Items 56-65); and the Long Beach Pacific Coast Club (Items 66-73).
The photographs, presumably created as promotional images, include images depicting clubhouse buildings and rooms, as well
as
members engaged in leisure activities such as sunbathing, swimming, beach volleyball, and golf. Nearly half of the photographs
are
close-up shots of beach-goers, often young women posing in swimsuits. One set of images depicts women in bathing suits posing
for a
1932 Santa Monica Athletic Club fashion show, include two photographs of child actress Shirley Temple (Items 97-98).
The items consist of 98 8 x 10 in. black-and-white copy prints with corresponding film negatives, as well as an additional
box
containing approximately 70 unidentified/unprinted negatives and 1 reel of 16mm film labeled "Jess Willard & strong man, LAAC
roof 1933."
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Mercury (Call number: 257766). The official magazine of the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
- Sherer, John Calvin. History of the Los Angeles Athletic Club (Call number: mssHM 67909-67910).
Some of the images were included in two books published by the Los Angeles Athletic Club in the 1930s:
The collection is arranged in 4 boxes:
- Copy prints (Box 1)
- Film negatives with corresponding copy prints (Box 2)
- Unidentified and unprinted negatives (Box 3)
- 16mm film reel (Box 4)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Athletic clubs -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Bathing suits -- Photographs.
Beaches -- California -- Hermosa Beach -- Photographs.
Beaches -- California -- Long Beach -- Photographs.
Beaches -- California -- Santa Monica -- Photographs.
Country clubs -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Fashion shows -- California -- Santa Monica -- Photographs.
Golf courses -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
Recreation -- California, Southern -- Photographs.
Hermosa Beach (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Santa Monica (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
Long Beach (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- Photographs.
Long Beach (Calif.) -- Photographs.
Deauville Club -- Photographs
Pacific Coast Club, Long Beach, Calif. -- Photographs.
Santa Monica Athletic Club -- Photographs
Surf and Sand Club -- Photographs
Riviera Country Club -- Photographs.
Negatives.
Photographs.