Every year, around this time, a group of amateur theater aficionados get together and perform a play at the west end of Santa Monica Pier telling an abridged version of one, all-important chapter in the history of the much-loved, local landmark.
Called "Save the Pier," it’s an endearing, melodramatic one-hour story recounting the true tale of the grassroots community effort to save the seaborne structure from being demolished in the 1970s and it’s the baby of the Santa Monica Pier Organization’s Executive Director, Jim Harris.
"It's always fun to do this play because it honors the people who saved the pier and then made it possible for us to enjoy it today," said Harris. "You know, if it hadn't been for these people who really had no idea that they could fight city hall and win, it hadn't been for them and and having the courage to do so, we would be looking at no structures on the beach here in Santa Monica."
Major changes to the Santa Monica coastline had been discussed as far back as the early 1960s and included converting the breakwater into a causeway connecting Santa Monica to Malibu and even a 35 acre island featuring a high-rise hotel, convention center, restaurants and a four-lane bridge connecting it to Santa Monica. None of these plans however, included the pier.
In June 1972, the City Council unanimously approved the island project. Needless to say, the public reacted and local residents formed Save the Santa Monica Bay, rallying enough support to ensure the project would not receive the required approvals needed to proceed. In January 1973, the Council scheduled an "Ocean Front Revitalization" public hearing at the Civic Auditorium and over a thousand people gathered to protest the island proposal.
While many of the assembled residents were outside celebrating the island proposal being rejected, the Council surreptitiously passed a motion to actually tear down the Pier. Two community groups were created immediately, Friends of Santa Monica Pier and the Save Santa Monica Pier Citizen’s Committee and set forth to sway public opinion and ultimately save the treasured landmark.
Flyers were printed, press notices were sent out and enraged residents attended every single City Council meeting to make their objections heard. Weeks of almost nonstop political push-and-pull followed and it took the defeat of three of the city council members in the 1973 election in order to defeat the idea of tearing the pier down.
The newly elected City Council negotiated the purchase of the amusement park section of the site, bringing the entire structure under the ownership of the City of Santa Monica for the very first time. An initiative was passed to not only preserve and restore the pier, but also to improve it. And it needed a lot of work.
Harris has a degree in theater, so this production marries his artistic talents and personal passions. "Between 2007 to 2009, I was doing a lot of research and interviewing about the history of the Pier for the first edition of the Pier History book. And the most interesting chapter, in the Pier’s history I think, is about when the community fought to save it from being demolished. And that was it, I was fascinated."
Harris says that after finishing the book on the Pier’s history, he immediately knew what he was going to write next, a retelling of the rally to save the Pier. "I was [originally] writing it for the traditional stage and it was set inside a cafe and inside the city council chambers," he said.
"But I was frustrated because the Pier itself wasn’t in the play, I couldn’t capture the feeling of it. And one day, I was sitting out at the west end of the Pier, I looked down at the decking and I thought if I just put a table and some chairs on one side and a podium on the other, that’s my stage and the Pier is still very much the star," Harris said.
"That's where the idea of making an annual free production came from, we can't charge, we can't privatize the space, so I knew it had to be done for free, and it really opened up the doors to keep it informal and as fun as possible. And so what people can expect to see is a minimal set and that places extra emphasis on the performances."
Because of the more informal approach, the audience can and often do interact a little bit. "The play could be told in a very serious and stuffy manner, because it was a serious and stuffy fight, but we tell it in a fun, cheers and boos kind of way, we encourage it," Harris said, adding, "Oh, we have villains, there are two villains in the play and they are Santa Monica City Manager and a Santa Monica City councilmember."
"Save the Pier" is written by Jim Harris, directed by Paul Sand and runs from Thursday, October 17 to Sunday October 20, 2024 from 7:30pm to 8:30pm at the west end of the Santa Monica Pier and it’s free to enjoy.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
