Category: Entertainment

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 .

Hollywood Menus

Images: May I Take Your Order? American Menu Design 1920-1960 edited by Jim Heimann.

Giant menu from Earl Carroll’s Theatre Restaurant, Hollywood, circa 1939 and a regular menu from Carolina Pines, Hollywood, 1939. Relative sizes are estimates.

Before the GWTW premiere

Image and excerpt from Hollywood’s Garden of Allah Novels Facebook Group, posted May 28, 2022.


Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels, by Martin Turnbull
“Every now and then I’m asked ‘If you had a time machine, where would you go?’ This photo is exactly my first choice. What we’re looking at here are the preparations for the West Coast premiere of “Gone With the Wind,” which took place at the Carthay Circle Theater at 6316 San Vicente Blvd in Los Angeles on December 28, 1939. Those bleachers on the right is where the lucky fans got to sit and watch the parade of even luckier movie capital A-listers walk into the theater to see the most anticipated movie of all time.”