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San Diego history you never knew

The seedy origins of modern Gaslamp, 90 years of surfing, Julian and Mission Valley murders, Marilyn Monroe pregnant at the Del, untold stories of the Copleys

Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. Wright asked if he might try the board. "So Charlie surfed the board and also got the dimensions and later copied it." - Image by Tom Keck
Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. Wright asked if he might try the board. "So Charlie surfed the board and also got the dimensions and later copied it."
  • 90 Years of Curl

  • Elwell says Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack.
  • By Jeannette DeWyze, Dec. 14, 2006
John Elwell, 1953. He'd grown up on E Avenue in Coronado listening to his father's stories about Hawaii in the 1920s.
  • Before It Was the Gaslamp

  • He entertained the rich and famous in his Hotel San Diego suite full of priceless memorabilia and was romantically linked to actress Rose Marie, though he was actually a closeted homosexual and co-owner of California's notorious Pussycat chain of porn theaters.
  • By Jay Allen Sanford, June 21, 2007
Miranda in convertible; Tim David’s mom is middle girl. Tim David: "My mom was there for all that and remembers it quite well. [She says Tate] was convicted of child molestation and served his time in a California prison."
  • American Primitive

  • Memorial Day is the anniversary of a gold fields shootout [in 1989] known in the Julian back country as "The Chariot Canyon Massacre." Five men opened fire with assault rifle, shotgun, machine pistol, hunting rifle, and target rifle in a dispute over a gold claim in the Chariot Canyon gold field.
  • By Hugh Crumpler, May 30, 1991
Monument at Chariot Canyon. Deputies driving Banner Grade have seen Gustav Hudson at the property and Benjamin Haimes' Lincoln Continental.
  • The White Mask

  • She was pregnant, the second time that year. Six months earlier she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy and miscarried. During breaks in filming, Monroe would sit on the Del’s veranda and breathe the fresh Pacific air, saying, “This will be great for the baby.”
  • By Thomas Larson, Sept. 4, 2003
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. The saxophone-toting glamour-boy Joe, played by Curtis, and his buddy, the bass fiddle–plucking neurotic Jerry, played by Lemmon, are broke and desperate.
  • Murder in Mission Valley

  • A man told sheriff’s deputies that Juan Jose Hillario, an Indian living in Balboa Park, had suggested to him on an earlier occasion that they kill Mrs. Sandrock and rob the store.
  • By Barbara Palmer, Jan. 25, 2001
Sandrock's tienda at Mission Grade. The slope up which Highway 163 runs today was called Poor Farm Grade; Texas Street was called Mission Grade.
San Diego Union building, 4th Street, south of Broadway, 1872
  • The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press

  • Shortly after he purchased the two San Diego papers, a dinner was arranged in Copley’s honor at the Hotel del Coronado. He rose to speak, assuring the crowd that his operating style was far different from that of the Spreckelses: “These papers are not to be personal organs of myself or anyone else.”
  • By Matt Potter, Feb. 27, 2008
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Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. Wright asked if he might try the board. "So Charlie surfed the board and also got the dimensions and later copied it." - Image by Tom Keck
Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack. Wright asked if he might try the board. "So Charlie surfed the board and also got the dimensions and later copied it."
  • 90 Years of Curl

  • Elwell says Kahanamoku surfed the OB Pier, and when he did, he asked a teenaged lifeguard named Charlie Wright if he could store his board in Wright's beach shack.
  • By Jeannette DeWyze, Dec. 14, 2006
John Elwell, 1953. He'd grown up on E Avenue in Coronado listening to his father's stories about Hawaii in the 1920s.
  • Before It Was the Gaslamp

  • He entertained the rich and famous in his Hotel San Diego suite full of priceless memorabilia and was romantically linked to actress Rose Marie, though he was actually a closeted homosexual and co-owner of California's notorious Pussycat chain of porn theaters.
  • By Jay Allen Sanford, June 21, 2007
Miranda in convertible; Tim David’s mom is middle girl. Tim David: "My mom was there for all that and remembers it quite well. [She says Tate] was convicted of child molestation and served his time in a California prison."
  • American Primitive

  • Memorial Day is the anniversary of a gold fields shootout [in 1989] known in the Julian back country as "The Chariot Canyon Massacre." Five men opened fire with assault rifle, shotgun, machine pistol, hunting rifle, and target rifle in a dispute over a gold claim in the Chariot Canyon gold field.
  • By Hugh Crumpler, May 30, 1991
Monument at Chariot Canyon. Deputies driving Banner Grade have seen Gustav Hudson at the property and Benjamin Haimes' Lincoln Continental.
  • The White Mask

  • She was pregnant, the second time that year. Six months earlier she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy and miscarried. During breaks in filming, Monroe would sit on the Del’s veranda and breathe the fresh Pacific air, saying, “This will be great for the baby.”
  • By Thomas Larson, Sept. 4, 2003
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. The saxophone-toting glamour-boy Joe, played by Curtis, and his buddy, the bass fiddle–plucking neurotic Jerry, played by Lemmon, are broke and desperate.
  • Murder in Mission Valley

  • A man told sheriff’s deputies that Juan Jose Hillario, an Indian living in Balboa Park, had suggested to him on an earlier occasion that they kill Mrs. Sandrock and rob the store.
  • By Barbara Palmer, Jan. 25, 2001
Sandrock's tienda at Mission Grade. The slope up which Highway 163 runs today was called Poor Farm Grade; Texas Street was called Mission Grade.
San Diego Union building, 4th Street, south of Broadway, 1872
  • The Rise and Fall of the Copley Press

  • Shortly after he purchased the two San Diego papers, a dinner was arranged in Copley’s honor at the Hotel del Coronado. He rose to speak, assuring the crowd that his operating style was far different from that of the Spreckelses: “These papers are not to be personal organs of myself or anyone else.”
  • By Matt Potter, Feb. 27, 2008
  • Sponsored
    Sponsored
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