Venice Books
Paintings that could
be yours
Have Your Own Banned Books
Read-In
Boardwalk
Miscellaneous
Non-Venice Links
Boardwalk Excerpts
from Call Someplace
Paradise
Aaron Waugh Draft-
Beach Vending
Coins of Venice
Auditorium, site of the Venice Assembly
Auditorium, Dance Hall, and Cabrillo Ship Cafe
Lagoon
Abbot Kinney Pier
Playground
Villa City, housing for tourists during opening season
Venice Quiz
Reprinted from the Venice BeachHead
Birthday Edition (July 1885)
Compiled by Moe Stavnezer with a lot of help from his friends
To see the answer, put your cursor at the end of the question and highlight the next line or lines.
1. Who was the founder of Venice?
Abbot Kinney
2. Name all the streets that begin with z.
Zanja, Zano, Zephyr - Webslave note - someone has
written in that there are 4, the other being Zeno, but I suspect that's
what Zano is supposed to be and it's a typo but the webslave no longer
has that issue of the BeachHead to check.
3. In what year did the Ku Klux Klan list Venice as its
headquarters?
1924
4. Where was the original office of Venice Neighborhood
Legal Service?
Pacific Avenue above what was most recently the
Gondolier restaurant
5. Name all the streets named after US Presidents.
Lincoln, Washington, Garfield, Harrison, Van Buren,
McKinley
6. Where is Park Row?
Between Pacific and Main next to Windward Farms
7. In what year did Venice become part of L.A.?
1925
8. Name the existing canals
Linnie, Carroll, Howland, Sherman, Grand and Eastern
9. Who built the existing canals?
Strong & Dickerson
10. Name all the original canals.
Altair, Cabrillo, Lion, Aldebaran, Venus, Corral,
Grand
11. Name all the streets named after the Kinney family.
Thornton, Innes, Dudley
12. Where was the St. Marks Hotel?
Ocean Front Walk and Windward
13. What well-known Venice poet appeared on Groucho Marx’s
old TV show "You Bet Your Life"?
Stuart Perkoff
14. Name all the walk streets.
Ozone, Dudley, Paloma, Sunset, Vista, Thornton,
Park, Breeze, Wavecrest, Clubhouse, 19, 20, 23-30, Anchorage, Buccaneer,
Catamaran, Eastwind, Fleet, Galleon, Ironsides, Jib, Ketch, Mast, Northstar,
Outrigger, Privateer, Quarterdeck, Reef, Spinaker, Unionjack, Voyage,
Westwind, Yawl, Nowita, Marco, Amoroso, Crescent
15. What Venice cause was supported by (among others)
Stan Laurel, Margaret Whiting, Igor Stravinsky, and Mort Sahl?
Save the Gas House
16. The fastest woman in the world lives in Venice. What
is her name?
Evelyn Ashford
17. What street is named after the Mexican family that
once owned all of Venice?
Machado
18. Where is the Abbot Kinney mural?
The Post Office (inside)
19. How many Canal Festivals were there?
7
20. Name Abbot Kinney’s chauffeur.
Irvin Tabor
21. When did the "code enforcement" program
occur?
1961
22. Who opened and ran the Venice West Café?
Stuart Perkoff opened it without permits, was closed
down and bought out by John Kenevan who ran the place till Anna and John
Haag bought it.
23. Name two famous rock stars who lived and performed
in Venice.
Janis Joplin and Rickie Lee Jones
24. When was oil discovered in Venice?
1929
25. What is the oldest pharmacy in Venice?
Val’s Pharmacy
26. Name the streets or physical boundaries of Venice.
Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica, Walgrove, Marina del
Rey, Del Rey St.
27. Where is the Venice in the Snow mural?
On the side of a building opposite the paddle tennis
courts, partially obscured
28. What’s the name of the member of the Venice
band Severance who went on to star in Sophisticated Ladies and Cotton
Club?
Gregory Hines
29. Where was Beyond Baroque located prior to its current
location in the Old Venice City Hall?
Next door to the Comeback Inn
30. The first office of the Peace and Freedom Party was
in Venice. On what street?
West Washington Blvd.
31. In 1969 the Free Venice movement tried to have a
parade, but it was stopped by hundreds of police. On what holiday was
that parade to take place?
Independence Day (July 4)
32. What artist painted the mural on the St. Charles
building (Windward Ave)?
Terry Schoonhoven
33. What was the name of the Ballroom on Venice Pier
circa 1945?
Roosevelt Ballroom
34. What was the name of the Ballroom on Lick Pier circa
1945? 1960?
The Aragon Ballroom. The Cheetah
35. What was the exact location of the Gas House?
Ocean Front Walk and Horizon
36. When was the Venice Town Council created?
1973
37. Where is USA Island?
Bounded by Windward, Cabrillo and Altair
38. In what year were Kinney’s canals filled?
1929
39. What was the name of the famous 5-story bamboo slide
on the old Venice Pier?
The Dragon Slide
40. Who painted the Brooks Ave. mural?
The Fine Arts Squad
41. The first of a series of pictorial histories of Venice
was published in 1973. What was its title and who was the author?
Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy
by Horst Schmidt-Brunner
42. How long has the Beachhead been publishing?
16 ½ years
43. In what year did Sarah Bernhardt perform in Venice
for the first time?
1906
44. In what year did Abbot Kinney die?
1920
45. In what year did the original Venice Pier burn?
1920
46. In what year did famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson
disappear from Venice beach?
1926
47. Name 3 very famous performers who lived in Venice
at any time during the 1920s and/or 1930s.
Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Isadora Duncan
48. Name 2 alleys not named after streets.
Toledo and Valencia
49. What areas of Venice did the Waterways project directly
affect?
The Canals and Peninsula (Silver Strand)
50. Name 3 famous beat poets who lived in Venice.
Lawrence Lipton, Frankie Rios, Stuart Perkoff
51. What was the Venice Assembly, by who was it instituted?
A series of educational and cultural presentations
held in the Venice Auditorium instituted by Abbot Kinney
52. Name Venice’s first local newspaper.
The Vanguard
53. What Venice resident served on the California Coastal
Commission?
Dr. Rimmon C. Fay
54. Who painted the mural at Dell Ave. and Venice Blvd?
Jaya and Emily Winters
55. Where was the "Venture Inn"?
Where the West Beach Café is now
56. As a way of taking care of the poor, what Venice
landowner advocated "feeding the sparrows by feeding the horses."?
Kurt Simon
57. Who formerly occupied the Antioch College building?
The Southern California Gas Co.
58. What name did Abbot Kinney give to Venice originally,
what name did he settle on?
St. Marks, Venice of America
59. Which L.A. City Council person accused Venice activists
of getting "Moscow Gold"?
Art Snyder