A Venice Thanksgiving
from Tales of the Blue Meanie by Allan Cole
New Year's with Santana from Tales of the Blue Meanie by Allan Cole
Dr. Rana Ayzeren's
Barefoot in Venice
Laura Shepard Townsend and Destiny's Consent
Free Venice Beachhead headlines August 1977-October 1985
25 Years Ago
in the Free Venice Beachhead
Free Venice Beachhead Archives
Lighthearted Beachhead pieces
People of Venice (from Beachhead)
Windward Avenue Articles from Beachhead
Art in the Beachhead
Venice institutions from the Beachhead
Excerpt from:
He Usually Lived with a Female:
the Life of a California Newspaperman
by George Garrigues
the story of C.H. (Brick) Garrigues
editor of the Venice Vanguard in 1920, at the age of 22
Publication scheduled for March 2006
And on Sundays he would take the Pacific Electric train and ride out to the beach at Venice and go swimming in the cold water and look at the girls in their shapeless, skirted bathing suits and wonder how they could bring themselves to walk around so nearly naked in front of all the men and boys. He wondered what would happen if he were to speak to one and invite her to have a soda with him or join him through the Race Through the Clouds or share a seat in the boats that ran through the Tunnel of Love. But he would never speak. Every day men called "mashers" were arrested for speaking to women on the street or at the beach.
Charles Harris (Brick) Garrigues
quoted in He Usually Lived with a Female: the Life of a California Newspaperman by George Garrigues - this link goes to the book's own website, where you can find the answer to the question, "How did a war between Greece and Turkey lead to Abbot Kinney's fortune?"
George Garrigues imagines a conversation with his father's spirit:
What about that new title, Pop? Give me your honest opinion.
Will it sell easier that way, son?”
Vivian says it will.
I’ve always said that Vivi has the most brains of any Garrigues I know. And remember, son, the most important thing for a book is . . . to get read!
Find out the whole story behind the story here at
Vivian Garrigues was the editor for the book. She and George Garrigues lived in Venice in the early 1950s (in what later became known as the Jim Morrison building at Westminster and Speedway).