Title: Lee Harbick Photograph Collection

Dates: 1947-1976

Collection Number: PHO 907

Creator/Collector:

Extent: approximately 2,900 photographic prints and one file of text materials; 4.5 linear ft.

Repository: Monterey Public Library

Abstract: Lee Harbick was born in Watsonville, Calif. in 1910, the daughter of a Yugoslavian immigrant father. During World War II, she worked in the shipyards n San Pedro, Calif., and in 1945 returned to the central coast and to Monterey. In 1946 she was hired by the fledgling What's Doing on the Monterey Peninsula magazine as the assistant advertising director.

Language of Material: English

Access by appointment only; contact Local History Librarian or designated staff.

Reproduction by Local History Librarian or other designated staff; may be restricted due to condition of the materials.

[Identification of item]. Lee Harbick Photograph Collection. Collection Number: PHO 907. Monterey Public Library

Purchased from lee Harbick.

What's Doing was fonded by W. E. (Bill) Fassett, with Bruce Ariss as its art editor. It focused on articles about local history, events, scenery and the burgeoning post-war community of artist and writers. By the end of the year, Ms. Harbick was advertising director, Mr. Ariss had become the editor, and Bill Fassett decided to give up the magazine and move to Big Sur (where, in 1949, he opened the restaurant Nepenthe on property he had purchased from Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth). The staff took over the financial responsibility for the magazine and ran it for the next three years, making little money but keeping the publication afloat. When Ariss left at the end of 1949, Ms. Harbick assumed control of the magazine and changed its name to Game & Gossip-which had already been used as a sub-heading and was the original name of the social and recreational magazine published in the late 1920s and mid 1930s by S. F. B. Morse (of the Del Monte Properties Company). She purchased the name from Mr. Morse for one dollar. Ms. Harbick gradually changed the emphasis of the magazine to a focus on social activities and prominent visitors to the area, especially Pebble Beach, and on Peninsula businesses and personalities, while maintaining an interest in local history and special and annual events. She later assumed the editorship and contributed a monthly column entitled "A little More Leeway", which reported on people she knew and met, events she attended, and her travels. When she sold the magazine in 1975, she kept her personal files of photographs, which contain many prints by the staff photographers over the years, including her former husband, Frederick Harbick, Rey Ruppel, Harry Hartman, George Cain, Marge Cain, Julian P. Graham, Arthur McEwen, George T. C. Smith, MacDougall King, and Patricia Rowedder; as well as numerous pictures contributed by local free-lance photographers, such as Steve Crouch, Cole Weston, Al Weber, Carl Jones, Miles Midloch, and Dick Rowan. Lee Harbick died in Monterey at the age of 90.

The Harbick Collection consists of approximately 2,900 photographs (mostly 8x10 black & white prints) that pertain to the magazines Whatʼs Doing and Game & Gossip, over the years 1947 to 1976. Most of the images (not all of which were published in the magazines) are of people, events, activities, art works, authors, performing arts, historical illustrations, scenic views, and advertisements especially relevant to the Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur, and the Carmel Valley. There is a large segment that contains photographs of local artists and artisans and of their creations, which were used in three volumes of a supplemental publication, Art & Artists{u2014}published in 1965, ca. 1970, and 1975{u2014}as well as in articles and advertisements in Game & Gossip.