Perhaps the most iconic symbol of Santa Monica is our Pier. Michael Murphy, Jens Lucking and Sara Crown have created the book and exhibition, “Santa Monica Pleasure Pier: A Look Back to 1917 from Today” for the Santa Monica History Museum at the Main Library. Juxtaposing historic images and present-day shots from the exact same viewpoint, the book and exhibition are based on a rare scrapbook from 1917, created as the prospectus for a public offering of shares in Santa Monica Pleasure Pier by Charles I.D. Looff, a Danish-German born, East Coast transplant who was an amusement park entrepreneur.
Murphy, Lucking and Crown collaborated previously on their original “look back” show, based on an accidental find in the Santa Monica house where Murphy grew up. “It was owned by a former Mayor and my bedroom was his study,” he told me during a walkthrough of this exhibition. “In a hidden portion of a closet, I found a book published in 1902 by the Volunteer Fire Department, with photos of houses, buildings, churches and offices that were sold door to door to support the fire brigade at a time when funds were not available from the city.” (Copies exist in the Main Library as well as the Museum.)
THE UNEXPECTED PROSPECTUS
This time, the unexpected inspiration came to them thanks to Santa Monica resident Stephen Raul Anaya, an avid collector of historic photographs. As Murphy and Lucking were shooting a photo for their original project, Anaya came out to see what they were doing and offered them access to his collection, including what is likely the only existing copy of the Looff prospectus.
Thus began the second iteration of a process they call “Look Back Art,” overlaying historic photos and modern day images, to create what architectural preservationists call continuity of place. Murphy says, “In architectural conservation, they fight to keep buildings alive. In our case, most of what was there is gone, so we are trying to keep the memory of time and place alive through the juxtaposition of images of then and now.”
You’ll see Castle Rock, once a popular tourist attraction, blown up in 1945 to widen the Pacific Coast Highway, formerly known as Roosevelt Highway. Looff was a master carver (he created the first carousel for Coney Island) who carved the original horses (no longer there) for our Carousel, still housed in the Byzantine-Moorish style Hippodrome, which looks today much as it did in 1917. Also on view are a “fun house” called “What Is It,” the original roller coaster called The Blue Racer, the Whip and the Aeroscope Thrill Rides – housing six passengers spun around at 35 miles an hour.
Silent movie mogul Thomas Ince built Inceville, the first movie studio at Sunset and PCH, which offered visitor tours; Looff highlighted it as one of the many attractions around Santa Monica intended to entice investors. Looff almost always showed images looking north, as there were competing piers to the south.
At the time, access to Santa Monica was easy by train and car; there’s a map of the many roads that led to our “Bay City.” Once upon a time, a trolley ran alongside the beach, and the stop at Linda Vista Park (now Palisades Park) let people off just a few steps from the Pier. Once there, they could tuck in under the shaded pergola, listen to a concert or use the free “electric stoves” to prepare their picnic foods.
WHAT’S NEW, WHAT’S OLD
Perhaps the most amazing thing you’ll discover in the overlaid images is that most of the original walking trails in Palisades Park are exactly the same today as they were in 1917. There was a wooden Adirondack fence where now we have decorative concrete. One missing feature is an elegant hotel across from the Park, The Windemere, now replaced by two multistory towers.
The process of creating these images is complicated. The first thing Murphy and Lucking had to do was photograph the Prospectus book, which presented multiple challenges, including lighting on an angle, reflective paper and photos that were not flat, because they’d been pasted into the Prospectus. Sometimes taking a photo of a current view could take an entire day, depending on weather, cars blocking views and other issues. And then there’s the Photoshop work, masking the old shot on top of the new one.
But Murphy says it’s been a labor of love. “Maybe as you walk by, you’ll think of the old lady on the bench in this image, then you’ll look up and imagine the Windemere Hotel across the street or Castle Rock as you’re driving on PCH and think about the picnics they had there, or maybe see the shadows of the old movie studio.”
In fact, the Pier is allowing the team to test out “Look Backs,” installations on the Pier featuring large historic images printed on semi-transparent plastic sheets placed in the exact location where those images would have appeared in the past…so you can take selfies with them!
Murphy, Lucking and collector Anaya offer a “Discover the History” conversation and book signing this Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Santa Monica History Museum (enter on 7th Street). It’s free along with access to the museum’s galleries.
Find out more about “Look Back Art” on Facebook or www.lookbackart.com. And visit www.santamonicahistory.org for more details on the exhibition, which runs through February 22, 2020.
Sarah A. Spitz is an award-winning public radio producer, now retired from KCRW, where she also produced arts stories for NPR. She writes features and reviews for various print and online publications.
