Way Back When in August 1917

By Betsy J. Green

Another notable building was added to the streetscape in Santa Barbara on the opening day at the new Central Library. Alligators, cucumbers, and ladybugs also made news. And Hollywood stars Pickford and Fairbanks stopped by for a working visit.

Every month, I read the 100-year-old newspapers of Santa Barbara — “The Morning Press,” “The Daily News & Independent,” and “The Carpinteria Valley News” — so you don’t have to. Here are all the interesting and amusing tidbits from the local papers. “The history of Santa Barbara — one month at a time!”

The Central Library Opens for Business

The library opened after less than a year of construction. Image: postcard courtesy of John Fritsche

“The public library people are now engaged in the biggest job of moving known in this city for many a day — the removal of the library books and other belongings from the old to the new library building.” With her typical “can do” spirit, the head librarian, Mrs. Frances Burns Linn said she considered that the monumental task of moving all the books to the new library, in fruit crates loaned by local companies, was “the great adventure of the year.”

The first shovelful of earth had been turned over less than a year ago in September 1916, and on August 27, 1917, the doors of the new Central Library (it’s still here!) opened. The opening date was timed to coincide with the first day of school, and the third anniversary of the announcement of the grant from Carnegie Foundation in 1914.

“People Pleased with Public Library,” read the headline. … There was a large attendance of patrons on the opening day … there was much of happy expression over the larger and better facilities for the daily operations of Santa Barbara’s public library and institution so dear to the hearts of the people.”

Back to the Future

It’s always fun to read what people predicted for the future 100 years ago — especially the predictions that were wrong. Here’s one example — “Attempts are being made to produce motion pictures that will attract children to the motion picture theaters … The attempt will probably be a failure. There is so much sham and pretense and cheap claptrap in motion pictures … this sort of stuff can’t be palmed off on the small folk. … The children are the most severe of all motion picture critics. They haven’t become so used to fraud and deception as us grown people, and they will resent it.”

Wonder what the author of this prediction would think if he were able to come back today? He might have been right about the “cheap claptrap,” though.

“Gertie the Dinosaur,” created in 1914, was one of the first animated cartoons in the U.S. Image: Wikimedia

You can watch this early cartoon, and judge for yourself.

A Woman Running & Purse Sense?

There were a couple of juicy tidbits this month in the local political scene. One article was titled, “Woman May Run for City Council. It would not be surprising if a woman would become a candidate for the City Council. It was learned yesterday that a member of the fair sex has received such a suggestion, and at the present time has it under serious consideration.” [Spoiler alert — We had to wait 30 more years for a woman to serve on the City Council here. Her name was Edith Hancock.]

In a totally unrelated article, it was mentioned that a typo in a previous story had resulted in a humorous interpretation of civic duty. It was mentioned that the men running for spots on the City Council “had consented to become a candidate ‘from a purse sense of duty.’ Now, of course, that is a mistake, and [the paper] hastens to say that it should read: ‘from a pure sense of duty,’ lest a very wrong impression should go out.’”

Braking News

Hydraulic brakes are just something we take for granted these days, but they were a new concept in the automobile world 100 years ago. But folks in Santa Barbara were some of the first ones to learn about them, because they were invented by a local guy — Malcolm Lockheed (a.k.a. Loughead).

“Yesterday forenoon … occurred a very interesting practical demonstration of the Loughead brothers’ new patent hydraulic automobile brake … the tests of yesterday tended to show even a novice that the savings of a few precious seconds might mean everything in the prevention of disaster.”

Malcolm Lockheed (Loughead)’s patent was registered in January 1917. Image: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

The tests, done on Cabrillo Boulevard, showed that at 20 miles per hour, the hydraulic brakes were able to stop a car in in 17 feet, instead of 42 feet with the traditional braking system. At 30 m.p.h., the new brakes stopped in 32 feet, instead of 50.

Cattle Rustlers, Cucumbers, & Alligators

Cattle thieves took to the high seas to steal cattle from the Channel Islands. Many of the islands had been used for raising cattle for decades. Image: Pacific Rural Press, May 10, 1873

No, these three were not related except that they all made headlines in August. “Cattle Stealing on Santa Cruz Island. … A reward of $200 for any information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of any person stealing sheep or cattle from the island … [the thieves] visit the islands in small boats and shoot the cattle and sheep as the graze on the steep sides of the bluffs facing the ocean … the carcasses roll down the sides of the slope into the water, and are taken aboard by the thieves and carried to some place.”

Out at the San Julian ranch, someone brought a six-pound cucumber, measuring 18 inches in length and over 13 inches in circumference, into Santa Barbara to show to the Chamber of Commerce. “This is the largest of its kind yet brought to the chamber,” the commerce guys marveled. The colossal cuke was sent to Los Angeles to be preserved, and then would return to the Chamber of Commerce to take its place as the star attraction in the new exhibit rooms.

Okay, now we get to the alligator. “A Florida alligator of the juvenile class, measuring about 2-1/2 feet in length” was sent by a young man in the military to his mother who lived on West Ortega Street. The family placed the gator in a pond in their backyard. “He is proving a great curiosity in the neighborhood.” Not sure what happened after that, but he was not the only alligator in Santa Barbara’s history. In the 1890s, there were several reports of people in Montecito who put alligators in the ponds on their property. One grew to be eight-feet long and terrorized a local horseman. (Watch for these stories and more in my forthcoming book, “Animal Tales of Old Santa Barbara,” to be published in late 2018.)

In May 1917, someone’s pet monkey got loose and terrorized Santa Barbara. (You can read about that in my 1917 book, in bookstores this November.) I wonder if this alligator ever roamed the streets of our fair city? Image: New York Public Library

88 and Still Going Strong

Ellwood Cooper had sold his ranches, and retired to the Arlington Hotel on the northwest corner of State and Victoria, but he was still writing books. According to the local paper, his books “describe plant and insect life, and were written for the benefit of California fruit growers and ranchers.” One of his books titled “Bug vs. Bug,” promoted the use of ladybugs (a.k.a. lady-birds) to eat harmful insects, such as the cottony cushion scale bug that has an appetite for citrus trees. Cooper wrote, “When we come to consider that we, with all our intelligence and ability, were powerless and at the mercy of this pest … we had to bow our heads and appeal to a little tiny lady-bird to save our orchards and protect our homes. Should not this teach us a great lesson of humility?” (“Bug vs. Bug; Parasitology,” Ellwood Cooper, 1913)

Ellwood Cooper recommended ladybugs to munch on bugs that were harmful to crops. Image: Chambers Encyclopedia, 1887

A Tight Race with a Historic Winner

The contest verbiage was intense. For six weeks, the contestants were exhorted: “Work every minute, hour, and day for the remainder of this contest as though your life depended on it … Candidates that take the lead now will be those who have heeded the warnings … They are the contestants who, each day, said to themselves, ‘Today will decide for me whether or not I am a success or a failure in this campaign.’ You may be at the top or near the top of the list. Even if you are, you will have to keep hard at work to maintain this position. … Wouldn’t you hate to think that your failure came because of your inability to keep up the pace … or because you did not have the grit to hang on to the end?”

What was this contest? Santa Barbara’s “Daily News & Independent” was holding a subscription contest. The top 14 people who gathered the most subscriptions would each receive a full scholarship for college. On August 1, 1917, the contest winners were announced. Tied for first place was a young lady who later used her scholarship to study architecture at Berkeley. After graduation, she came back to Santa Barbara and worked with George Washington Smith, one of the most influential architects in our city. Her name was Lutah Maria Riggs. “Drawing has always appealed to me,” she told the paper. “And I am ambitious to complete a college course in architecture. … The part I took in the contest has been invaluable to me in many ways, … not the least of which has been the development of self-reliance which each day’s work has strengthened.”

Contest-winner Riggs studied architecture at Berkeley, and returned to work in Santa Barbara. Image: Berkeley Ark, 1920

Signs of the Times

Way back in the 20th century, before cars had navigation systems and before there were cell phones, people looked at maps and street signs. And way back in 1917, we didn’t even have street signs yet — not here in Santa Barbara. However, some people were starting to talk about the benefits of street signs. “Strangers in Santa Barbara,” wrote a local paper, “desire to visit friends or acquaintances, or maybe, relatives, in Santa Barbara, and they may have in their possession the address of the person or persons they want to visit with but, of course, that doesn’t do them much good. They can travel up one street and down another, and wander along the cross streets, in the hope of just happening to run across the people are looking for … We wonder if it wouldn’t be better, after all, to have signs at the street corners, giving the names of the streets. Secrecy in some things is good, but is it the right thing in the matter of street names? … It might not be a bad idea to have signs on the street corners in Santa Barbara.”

There weren’t even street names on the sidewalks back in 1917. Image: photo by Betsy J. Green

Movie Stars Alight in Santa Barbara

Lots of actors from Los Angeles visited in our fair city this month. Where to start? Okay, ladies first — Mary Pickford and a film crew were staying at the Potter Hotel while they filmed somewhere in this area. Pickford’s most recent movie, “The Little American,” had been playing in local cinemas earlier in the month.

Once the U.S. entered the war in Europe, patriotic films became popular. Image: Moving Picture World, June 30, 1917

Also visiting Santa Barbara this month was Douglas Fairbanks. Perhaps a coincidence; perhaps planned. [Spoiler alert — Pickford and Fairbanks later married in 1920.] Fairbanks was the referee at a boxing match at the Potter Theatre where his friend and fellow actor “Bull” Montana, was scheduled to box with a local man. “The match promises to be exciting, as it is a finish affair, on a winner-take-all basis.”

Doug and Bull horsing around. Image: Photoplay, November 1917

There were no reports of any serious injuries on the wrestling scene, but the same could not be said of Jack Kerrigan, former leading man of the “Flying A” studio. He was here filming for another studio when his horse stumbled and threw him. Kerrigan had a bad landing, broke his leg, and had to leave his room at the Potter to spend the rest of his stay at Cottage Hospital.

“Million Behind Loughead Bros.”

It’s not often that local news makes the headlines on page one of the Santa Barbara papers. The subhead read, “Santa Barbara Becomes Big Airplane Center.” The airplane — called the F1 — due to be manufactured here would be used for both war and peace. “The battleplanes made here will be heard from in future contests in Europe,” and, “The general public will be much interested in the completion of the big passenger-carrying flier, which is expected to make the long flight to San Diego about the latter part of September.” The plan was for the engines to be manufactured in Berkeley, and the planes would be assembled here. One of the main investors was Charles L. Taylor, SB resident, and a high-ranking member of the Carnegie Corporation.

Residents were excited that plans for the Lockheed’s F1 plane were taking off. Image: Santa Barbara Morning Press, July 8, 1917

Marching Off to War

His number was called, and a young man who had opened a State Street clothing shop on May 1, put a large ad in the local paper. “My number is 1139. I Am Called to the War. Everything Must Be Sold at Cost. … As the time is short, I realize I must make big sacrifices. I have no one to leave in charge of my business, so must sell everything before I leave. … If the fortunes of war permit me to return with life and health, I will again go into business in this city, for there is no place on the globe I like so well.” Sale prices in Harry T. Lamb’s shop ranged from $3.50 for men’s silk shirts to socks priced at 19 cents. (I am happy to report that Lamb did return.)