Los Angeles Athletic Club Photograph Collection, 1928-1941, bulk 1928-1931

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Summary

Creators:
Los Angeles Athletic Club
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.
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.
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

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."

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Items 1-55 were received in April 1981; items 56-98 were received in May 1998.
Arrangement:

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)

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on May 4, 2015.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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