Los Angeles in the 1900s

December 1909

by
George Garrigues

THE GAY LIFE OF THE CITY

 

No kidding; this is the actual headline from the Los Angeles Daily Times of Dec. 31, 1909, "reporting" on what appeared to be a daylong bacchanalia of festivities at the prestigious Jonathan Club, capped by an evening of cross-dressing and other innocent merriment.

The story by "A. Clubman," begins:

 

As I sit here in Virgin Valley writing this pastoral I look out upon a scene unparalleled in any part of the globe, a fair and shining land bathed in the light of two moons, a land where the rivers flow champagne, a community where beauty runs riot in pink silk hosiery and where a dead soldier casts more votes than a highly respected citizen.

 

The "dead soldier" is slang for an empty liquor bottle, and the hosiery was worn by the men of the Jonathan Club, two of them (Amos Yeager and Billy Clark) shown canoodling with Henry Krohn in the photo.

W.J. Wheatley won the beauty contest.

 

The big show was Frank Egan’s bunch of chorus girls . . . who were real Floradoras, and they danced like the nymphs in that Hoffman House picture (shown here) . . . .

The auctioning of the cartoons was one of the hilarious features. William Wyncoop paid $2 for a caricature of himself. Dr. Ford’s face sold for $1. . . . W.J. Wheatley refused to bid a cent for his striking likeness, but when some one bid six-bits [75 cents] he took offense and made it $50, at which price he easily got it. . . .

The fact that jinks night was approaching had little influence on the noon celebration. King Herman Hauser, bearing a golden pig on mace and wearing purple robes, followed by Charlie Lehmann, dressed as captain, with a bevy of sailor boys and girls, paraded the corridors at noon. . . .

After lunch, just to work off the surplus energy, a number of the beauty contestants ran foot races in the corridor.
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From the Los Angeles Sunday Times of Dec. 26, 1909
NERVY

WOMEN CROSS LONELY DESERT, SHIVER ALL NIGHT ON SANDS

Mrs. F.W. Westmeyer and her daughter, Lillian, of Los Angeles, reached Phoenix early Sunday morning and claimed the honor of being the first women make the desert trip . . . in a motor car. The hazardous trip over hundreds of miles of dreary sand was made in a Buick “White Streak.” Bert La Fontaine drove the car, but each of the ladies took a turn at the wheel. . . .

The journey required just a week. . . . No camping outfit was taken, as it was thought it would be easy to make the run from Mecca to the [Colorado] River in a day. . . . In the middle of the great desert a tire gave out.

The party, with only one blanket, was obliged to remain all night on the desert. This blanket was given to the women, who shivered through the night.

At Blythe the travelers passed a big touring car which had been abandoned on the desert. The owners .  . . were lost for two days and were obliged to walk thirty miles. . . .

Both Mrs. Westmeyer and her daughter enjoyed the trip and gained in health by the outing. They say they are ready to return by automobile to Los Angeles.


This is a restored version of a 1908 Buick White Streak
(other photos).
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From the Los Angeles Daily Times of Dec. 31, 1909

GOOD, IF TRUE

CITY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WILL GO TO YALE

An Associated Press dispatch says that . . . E. C. Moore, superintendent of Los Angeles City Schools, has accepted a call to the newly established professorship of education at Yale University. . . .

Moore is a native of Ohio . . . He was a fellow in education at Columbia and later was connected with the University of California and with the State Board of Charities and Corrections.

The public school system of Los Angeles is certainly to be congratulated, if the cantankerous and vulgar doctor is ready to quit, as Moore has been an injury and a menace to our splendid schools. He was a misfit here; he has been in hot water from the first; he could not last long, and it is well if the end has come so soon.

Ernest Carroll Moore later became the first provost of the Southern Branch of the University of California (UCLA). I can't tell you what Moore did to earn Harrison Gray Otis's opprobrium, but that last paragraph really sounds like the old grouch, doesn't it? Go here for a friendlier Times story about Moore's coming to L.A. three years previously.


Ernest Carroll Moore
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He Usually Lived With a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman