Category: advertising

Rex, the gambling ship

In the 1930s gambling interests anchored ships in the ocean just beyond three miles from Santa Monica. Gaming was illegal in the state of California but wasn’t prohibited in federal waters. The Rex, beginning in 1938, became successful by catering to regular folks instead of big spenders but the operation became too big for the state to ignore. Threats of legal action cleared out the competing ships but the owner of the Rex held on until Johnny Law surrounded it to lay seige in 1939. In about a week it was over and later the gambling interests lost in court.

The story is more complicated than this and is a fascinating short read: https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi06ee.php .

Associated Oil Co. travel stamps

Images: scans from the author’s collection.

Flying A gas stations gave out booklets with descriptions of 100 places to visit in the western U.S., Territory of Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. Above a block of text was a blank area to paste the related stamp that was available only from an Associated dealer. As described above, ten stamps promoting the 1939 Exposition in San Francisco were available everywhere while others were limited to that station’s location. The intent was for people to drive, stop for some Flying A gas and add a stamp to their book.

In the booklet in the author’s collection, the only stamp in southern California is the one shown commemorating Serra’s founding a mission on this date in 1769. In 1939, Serra’s accomplishments were an important and positive part of California’s history but as this blog is posted, the truth about his and the missions’ role show the negative side of foreigners dominating native people.

In case you were wondering why the above stamp has a number higher than 100, it is because the stamp numbers range from 101 through 200.