Balboa Park History 1950

January 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-25:4. City Council postpones decision on footbridge between Balboa Park Bowl and Park Boulevard until it has been decided whether the 1953 Exposition will be held in the park, Fred A. Rhodes, acting city manager, said yesterday.

January 8, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-8. San Diego Zoo – gorillas’ personalities grow like babies, by Bryant Evans (illus.)

January 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:4. Part of Naval Hospital may go to Veterans’ Administration; institution only 30 percent full, local group says, by Frank Macomber.

January 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-17:1-2. Naval authorities rap hospital report; assertions from Washington surprise 11 District heads; figures denied.

January 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-21:4. The California World Progress Exposition set for 1953 has completed the initial job of raising $25,000 for preliminary expenses, Chairman Ewart W. Goodwin reported yesterday.

January 15, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. San Diego Zoo – wild ducks shun Zoo ponds; pintail mystery (illus.).

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:4. Chamber of Commerce interest in local expositions dates back to 1892; preliminary work for the 1953 California World Progress Exposition was started by Chamber in 1949.

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, C-7:1-3. Area’s greatest community project looms in 1953 fair, by Harold Keen (illus.).

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, C-8:4. History of development of San Diego harbor (illus.).

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, C-13:1-2. Successful past shows set stage for 1953 fair.

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, C-13:5-7. Opportunities for studying provided by six museums.

January 18, 1950, San Diego Union, C-15:1. Mission Bay Park aimed at future, by Richard Mansfield (illus.).

January 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:4. San Diego Junior College girl jumps to her death from Cabrillo Bridge.

January 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2. The Fine Arts Gallery, Balboa Park, was visited last year by 141,957 persons; membership highest in 25-year history; report by Dr. Reginald Poland at annual meeting last night.

January 22 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:6-7. Fred A. Rhodes, acting city manager, yesterday ordered plans for a barricade which will prevent suicide leaps from Cabrillo Bridge.

January 23, 1950, San Diego Union, B-6:2-4. San Diego Zoo – three major planned improvements: new elephant enclosure surrounded by a moat; administration building, café and classrooms for older children; education building with assembly room for moves, a natural history library and classroom space for young children..

January 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:4-5. Alcazar Building proposed as new name of House of Charm; Park Commission gives up trying to chose building names which will please the City Council.

January 29, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4, B-16:2-3. San Diego nearing its 100th birthday celebration, by Bryant Evans.

February 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:2-3. San Diego Boy Scouts to fete anniversaries.

February 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:4-5. Starlight appoints Charles W. Newman, Jr., director as successor to Harry G. Boucher.

February 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:2-3. Barring of horseback riding in park asked.

February 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1. Historical data exhibit slated.

The complete exhibit of California historical material assembled for the California Centennial last year by the Library of Congress will be exhibited at the Electric Building in Balboa Park from August 1 to September 15, John Lawrence Fox, of San Diego, reported after a meeting of the California Centennial Commission in Los Angeles yesterday.

Fox, a member of the commission, said the exhibit would be a special supplement to the centennial exposition of California journalism to be shown in the Electric Building in the same period.

The historical data also will be shown in Los Angeles from April 12 to May 10; San Francisco, May 15 t June 14, and Sacramento, June 19 to July 15.

The historical material includes such items as the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, credentials of the first California senators, Fr. Kino’s map of California, and Edwin Markham’s manuscript of “The Man With the Hoe.”

February 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:1-3. Fine Arts not inhospitable to any group, Reginald Poland says; answers criticism from members of the Southwestern Artists’ Association.

February 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-20:2-7. Balboa Park may offer site for Home Builders’ exhibit.

February 19, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-6. San Diego Zoo – feathered bipeds woo-pitching time (illus.).

February 24, 1950, San Diego Union, B-3:4-5. Balboa Park Bowl to get revolving stage.

February 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:2. “Balboa Park Suite” by Royal A. Brown will be played this afternoon at Organ Pavilion.

March 1, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3-5. Conference Building – orchid show March 25 and 26.

March 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:6. Palisades Building – reopening of Puppet Theater: Londonderry Opera Guild will present “Pasquinade,” a one-act comedy by Felix Foundrain in the Moliere style, Sunday and Monday nights at 6:30.

March 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:1. San Diego Floral Association urges a king-sized flower festival in Balboa Park in 1951.

March 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-28:1. Palisades Building – Puppet Theater modernization completed at cost of more than $20,000.

March 6, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:3. Old Globe to give “Montserrat” by Lillian Hellman.

March 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1-2. Three California Centennial events outlined for City; San Diego, County Support for Summer Celebration Sought by Committee.

The celebration, tentative plans for which are to be considered by the city and county centennial commissioners, would include.

  1. An historical art exhibit in the Fine Arts Gallery, from July 1 to August 15.
  2. Centennial Exposition of California Journalism in Electric Building, from August 15 to September 9.
  3. Re-enactment of 1850-1950 era of California history in a parade August 31 and in a pageant to be given twice daily from August 31 through September 9 in Presidio Park.

The largest of several preliminary budgets set up for the celebration calls for total expenses of $124,501, of which $38,500 would be paid from remaining funds of the State Centennial Commission.

George A. Scott reviewed his committee’ work on celebration plans over the last 18 months and then introduced Fox, who briefly discussed California’s centennial celebrations in 1948 and 1949 and observances planned for this year to park the State’s admission into the Union.

March 8, 1950, San Diego Union, B-14:1-4. New stages for Starlight Opera in Balboa Park Bowl underway (illus.).

March 10, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:5-6. Gardening units decide to hold flower festival in Balboa Park in the Spring of 1951.

March 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1. Leo B. Calland, city parks and recreation director, said yesterday he had requested Rep. Clinton D. McKinnon to campaign for elimination of federal tax on events and pastimes stages with municipal recreation facilities.

During 1949, the government collected $126,586 through its 20 percent admission tax on events and pastimes staged with park facilities here.

March 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1-2. Palisades Building – Floral School opens today in Recital Hall.

March 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:1. Floral group ends parley with show.

March 13, 1950, San Diego Union, B-6:1. Boy Scouts’ swimming pool in Balboa Park ready soon.

March 15, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-3. Veterans groups ask “freedom” on plaque for Veterans Memorial Building; majority votes down Admiral Standley’s objections; Council to choose wording.

Acting on a split vote, the San Diego Council of Veterans Organizations yesterday asked the City Council to restore the controversial “Four Freedoms” in a proposed dedicatory plaque for the Veterans Memorial Building in Balboa Park.

In so doing, a majority of the veterans’ council voted down Admiral William H. Standley, U. S. N., ret., who has opposed the “freedoms” as having communistic connotations, but the balloting revealed that two other council members do not favorably regard the Roosevelt wartime phrase.

Standley, representing the Regular Veterans Association on the council, was supported by Frank H. Malone, Marine Corps League, and Arthur C. Baylor, United Indian War Veterans, it was reported by Council Chairman Ambrose H. Redmond.

The veterans’ council is made up of representatives of 10 organizations. Other groups are Amvets, Catholic War Veterans, Disabled American Veterans, United Spanish War Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Delivery to the Civic Center of the veterans’ written request was followed by a disclosure that they met in a stormy session at their Spreckels Building headquarters at noon Monday.

“The meeting first got into politics, and finally into personalities,” said a council representative who would not permit his name to be used.

In the end the majority agreed to ask that the plaque read:

“Dedicated by the citizens of San Diego as a living memorial to our honored dead of all wars.

1 – Freedom of Speech

2 – Freedom of Worship

3 – Freedom from Want

4 – Freedom from Fear”

“Freedom from Want” was the term to which Standley, former ambassador to Russia, was most opposed when he prevailed upon the City Council on February 16 to delete the “freedoms” from plans for the plaque. The veterans, except for Standley and the council, had previously approved them.

The City Council decided on a 4-3 vote that the plaque should bear “a more appropriate excerpt from the United States Constitution.” City Manager O. W. Campbell has not selected the excerpt and sources close to him have reported that he regards the situation as a “hot potato and intends to lay it back in the lap of the council.”

When the Standley complaint was delivered to the City Council, Mayor Harley E. Knox voted to delete the “freedoms” on grounds that the City-financed veterans building should be dedicated to the war dead. At the time it was dedicated to “those Americans who have fought for the Four Freedoms,” with the “freedoms” listed in order.

Redmond admitted this had influenced the veterans’ council when it submitted yesterday’s proposal, making the actual dedication to the war dead but reaffirming indorsement of the Four Freedoms.

However, this was not a reversal on the part of the veterans, Redmond said. “We wanted it dedicated to the dead all along, but a change was made somewhere between our headquarters and the City Council’s first approval of the plaque,” he declared.

Monday’s action by the veterans’ council stemmed from a resolution in which Fleet Reserve Association Branch 9 requested it, Redmond reported.

When he “Four Freedoms” were first approved by the veterans, Standley was out of the city and did not vote on the question. His appeal to the City Council followed.

The veterans’ request will be on the agenda for tomorrow’s City Council meeting, along with a similar demand by the San Diego Central Labor Council.

March 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-4, A-2:6. Elderly man ends life in Cabrillo Bridge plunge.

March 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-5, A-3:4. City Council bows out of dispute over deletion of “Four Freedoms.”

March 17, 1950, San Diego Union, B-14:6-7. Balboa Park Club. – Collegiate Club dances open tomorrow night when college and high school students hold the first of a series of dances planned for each Saturday night.

March 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:4-5. Balboa Park Club – Collegiate Club begins dancing (illus.).

San Diego’s new Collegiate Club for high school and college students initiated its dance series Saturday night in Balboa Park Club with top entertainers on hand for two floor shows.

The dances and floor shows will be held weekly. Admittance will be by club membership cards which may be obtained from club representatives in the high schools and San Diego State College. Dance hours will be 8 p.m. to midnight.

March 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:5. Lights aid tragedy “Montserrat,” now running at Old Globe, by Constance Herreshoff.

March 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1. Easter Parade, April 8, at Organ Pavilion as part of 1950 Easter Seal campaign.

March 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-23:1-4. House of Pacific Relations – United States bungalow exhibits “Little Brown Church” (illus.).

March 26, 1950, San Diego Union, D-3:7-8. Players of Ancient Instruments to present concert tomorrow night in Old Globe Theater.

March 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2-3. Embittered man dies in leap from Cabrillo span.

March 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-3:3-4. Conference Building – orchid show; judges from the international Cymbidium Society gave 14 rare awards..

March 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:5. Strings, harp pleasing at Fine Arts Gallery, by Constance Herreshoff.

March 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:2. Old instrument concert by Pardo Players of Ancient Instruments at Old Globe Theater lauded, by Constance Herreshoff.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:3. Morley Field – swimming pool will open tomorrow.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:1-4. Two new revolving stages nearly ready at Balboa Park Bowl (illus.).

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1. Big parade at Organ Pavilion to climax Easter Seal effort.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:3. Boy Scout new swimming pool opens.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:1-4. Donal Hord finishes new jade statue of Lady Yang Kuei-fei (illus.).

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-22:2-3. San Diego Zoo – seal acts during Easter vacation.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:1. Junior Theater’s imaginative production of “Mary Poppins” at Old Globe.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, C-9:3. Polo matches sponsored by Balboa Mounted Troop open this afternoon in Balboa Park Riding Arena.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, C-16:6. Palisades Building – Rose Show in Recital Hall., April 15 and 16.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-5. International exhibition of selected paintings by San Diego Art Guild members at Spanish Village; John Reed to talk on “The Influences of Frank Lloyd Wright” this afternoon in Fine Arts Gallery.

April 2, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-5. Old-master paintings lent by Fine Arts Gallery, by Dr. Reginald Poland.

April 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:8. Floral groups to hold open house in park tomorrow.

April 8, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-3. Frank Drugan, “father” of 1935-36 Exposition, dies.

For years Mr. Drugan . . . had envisioned a permanent San Diego national exposition, modeled after Germany’s famed Leipzig Industrial and Cultural Fair. Meanwhile he began securing token contributions to his promotion plans for a 1950 exposition. Outgrowth of this is the proposed 1953 California World Progress Exposition.

April 9, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:6-8. Museum of Man – progress in art of killing men charted in alcove of Museum of Man (illus.).

April 11, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Gertrude W. Kueny, objecting to Fine Arts Gallery policy concerning exhibit space.

April 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:3. “Strange Bedfellows” at Old Globe opens tonight.

April 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:3. “Strange Bedfellow” suffragette play at Old Globe wins laughs, by Constance Herreshoff.

April 13, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Howard Little, regarding Fine Arts Gallery exhibit policy; wants “conservatives” given the same amount of exhibiting space as is given to moderns; wants conservatives to be given right to pick their own juries; wants more space for artists and art groups of San Diego; declares the Gallery has space enough for four shows a year “by a different use of the two big rooms upstairs.,” which, to him, means storing the “old masters” away two months of each year..

April 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:6-7. Palisades Building – Rose Show opens today in Recital Hall.

April 16, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-6. Fine Arts Gallery to offer flower, print show next weekend; Ben Messick, Los Angeles artist and teacher, to discuss his own paintings this afternoon, by Thomas B. Robertson.

April 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:1-3. Non-Resident poor given tickets home; only 18 percent of County’s welfare clients in San Diego less than 3 years, by Edmund Rucker.

April 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:6-7, A-2:1. Vast building program outlined for San Diego Fair.

April 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-14:2-3. Boy Scout 3,000 square foot swimming pool dedication tomorrow.

April 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-14:5-6. Leo Calland suggests Collier Park sale; use the money to develop a southwesterly section of Mission Bay Park.

April 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:6. Letter, B. W. Bonham, thanking San Diego Union for giving space to Balboa Park Bowl Easter concert of Bonham Brothers Boys Band.

April 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:5. Boy Scouts’ pool dedicated in Balboa Park (illus.).

April 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:6-7. Earl L. Smith hired as financial adviser by Exposition.

April 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1-2. Music Week events, May 7 to 14, at Organ Pavilion, Balboa Park Bowl.

April 23, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:8. San Diego Zoo – Nelson big horn sheep to be shown.

April 26, 1950, San Diego Union, C-3:1. Electric Building – Frozen Food Fair opens tonight; refrigerators, home freezers to be shown.

April 26, 1950, San Diego Union, C-4:4. Available parking for Frozen Food Fair visitors.

April 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:1-2, A-2:7. Frozen Food Fair attracts crowds.

April 28, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter from Thomas B. Oakley opposed to removal of Organ Pavilion.

In view of the conditions imposed and the acceptance of the “gift” by the City, how can the directors of the Exposition contemplate the razing of this organ pavilion? Can it be done legally?

April 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:4. Fifty thousand see Frozen Food Fair show.

April 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:4. Intruders, who struck Clark Evernham, curator, with a 3-foot board, failed to take anything from the San Diego Museum of Man, an examination showed yesterday.

April 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:2-3. San Diego Zoo – Eleven rare “Ruppells Francolins” chickens added to Zoo collection.

April 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-24:1. Palisades Building – Family Fair in Recital Hall and Puppet Theater, May 13-14 (illus.).

April 30, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. Lawn courts rate highly with bowlers (illus.).

“The most beautifully landscaped courts in the world,” is the way visitors from England, Canada, Scotland and Australia have described Balboa Park’s lawn bowling courts at Laurel Street and Seventh Avenue.

They should know. Many of them, particularly those from Canada, come here during San Diego’s winter months just to play this game, so popular in their native land. The well-laid courts are two perfectly level 120 by 120 feet surfaces of grass as closely cropped as the finest putting green. Neatly landscaped tiers of ice plant border the courts and the entire area is nestled in a panoply of evergreen trees and shrubs.

Paramount compliment to the courts is paid by the erstwhile Florida “regulars” who, since they discovered the facilities in Balboa Park, now winter in San Diego to get their daily session of lawn bowling. Such considerations as these justify the care that the Park and Recreation Department must lavish on the upkeep of these courts. A grounds keeper visits the area each day, rolling the greens and tending the lawns and flowers.

The courts were built in 1932, but long before their completion an enthusiastic group of local citizens who had been lawn bowling addicts in other parts of the world had formed an organization known as the San Diego Lawn Bowling Club. In 1935, after many a bowl had curved across the greens, a clubhouse was constructed by the W. P. A. for the Club.

The organization now has 60 members and is affiliated with the American Lawn Bowling Association. Gage Brenneman is the current president, and local members have made a name for themselves not only as genial hosts to out-of-town visitors, but as brilliant bowlers in competition with teams from the north.

Membership is open to anyone in San Diego 16 or older, although thus far the game has been attractive mostly to older citizens. One of the club’s most skillful performers, in fact, is 86-year old Milton Brown, who came out here in 1929 from Nebraska.

Although club dues are $10 a year and new members must meet the approval of the executive board, the club actually functions for the benefit of the public, as do many such organizations using City facilities.

Facilities at the courts include a clubroom, dressing and washrooms for men and women, a kitchen and storage rooms. In addition to daily match play at 1:30 p.m. and tournaments which are going on almost constantly, the club has frequent luncheons for the members.

Lawn bowling was invented in the middle ages and has had a steady popularity in many countries of the world for centuries. Akin to the form of bowling with which Americans are familiar, the game consists in delivering an eccentrically-weighted bowl as near as possible to a white ball at the other end of the grass lane. The bowl is delivered with the weighted side inside when curving out from the center of the lane. It then returns on the bias with a roundhouse arc that would make a big league pitcher’s curve look like the shortest distance between two points.

One item that must be considered is the acquisition of a set of bowls. These are imported from Australia or England through agents in Los Angeles at an average cost of $35 a set. Practice bowls are kept at the club, however, for prospective new members, and the players are always willing to lend a skilled hand at instructing the beginner.

Probably the only thing holding back further popularity of lawn bowling in San Diego is the fact that so few people know it exists, hidden as it is behind the flora of the park.

May 4, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Lavinia Adele Watkins, protesting removal of Spreckels Organ.

May 7, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:1-4. Balboa Park available to picnickers (illus.).

Picnic time is at hand for San Diegans again — and a half dozen Balboa Park areas give every men his patio.

With advent of warmer weather, the City Park and Recreation Department reported yesterday hundreds of families again are beginning to make use of San Diego’s exceptional picnic facilities.

These areas include — in addition to beach, bay and undeveloped park spots – such maintained locations as Arbor Grove, Golden Hill, Grape Street, Morley Field, Pepper Grove and Pine Grove.

The latter six picnic areas, all maintained in Balboa Park by the Park and Recreation Department, offer scenic settings, privacy and convenient tables for outdoor spreads.

Unlike the policy in many cities, the Department requires no reservations for use of the facilities. It is a “first come, first served” arrangement that seems to work best for all concerned.

Pepper Grove, along the west side of Park Boulevard, has been in continuous use for almost 40 years, but Pine Grove, near Sixth Avenue and Juniper Street, is only about 2 years old, yet is had come to rival Pepper Grove in popularity.

The others, developed in 1947 and 1948, include Arbor Grove on the west side of Pershing Street, just below Redwood Street; Golden Hill, near Twenty-fifth and A Streets; Grape Street at Twenty-eighth and Grape Streets, and Morley Field, south of the park tennis courts.

Facilities vary with each area. Arbor Grove has three fireplaces, nine tables and the scenic attraction of a Jacaranda grove. Golden Hill has five fireplaces, seven tables, restrooms, spacious lawns and a beautiful view.

Grape Street has four fireplaces, 10 tables and a play lawn, while Morley Field offers 10 tables, fireplaces, restrooms and easy access to tennis courts, a swimming pool, a children’s play area, shuffleboard courts and a baseball diamond.

Pine Grove, offering a view of Cabrillo Freeway, has five fireplaces and 14 tables. Drinking fountain and rubbish disposal facilities are at all areas.

(Description of Pepper Grove facilities, not included, follow.)

May 9, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, John Allen Cole, defending Spreckels Organ.

May 10, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:5-8. Sixty exhibits to feature “Family Living” at Fair in Conference Building.

May 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1. Electric Building – National Home Show opens Sunday for a two-week run.

May 12, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:1. Family Fair displays go up in park.

May 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:1. Family Fair will open in park today.

May 13, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:6. Letter, Mrs. Frank W. Lane, defending Spreckels Organ.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:1. Family Fair opens in Balboa Park.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:1-4, A-17:1. Robin Hood era revived by archers. (illus.).

Ever gone shooting down in Gold Gulch?

The reference is not to some mythical mining town of the last century. Gold Gulch is located in the heart of San Diego, and field archery shooting is common there.

Gold Gulch is a winding canyon, lined with eucalyptus, live oak and sycamores, extending from southwest of the Girl Scout headquarters in the Park to the road that joins Balboa Park Bowl with the Cabrillo Freeway. The canyon can be approached either from the freeway a few blocks north of Ash Street or from the road by the refreshment stand at Park Boulevard and El Prado.

Named during the 1935 Exposition, when it was decked out like a street in the old Wild West, the Gulch has been the scene of a 28-target field archery course since 1939. The course was laid out by the San Diego Field Archers, a club which previously had functioned briefly in Mission Valley and which not only build the course, but has maintained it since, save for a period during the war when Balboa Park was closed by the military.

To the outside observer driving through this area, a dozen or so target butts — bales of hay wired together on which cloth or paper targets are affixed — make an appearance on hillsides or tucked back in shaded vales.

The remainder are scattered throughout a rough, but fascinating area that the local archers term “one of the most beautiful setups for field archery in the United States.” And not the least of the advantages of this course, members will tell you, is its amazing proximity to all points in this spread-out city.

The price for this archery facility has been one of endless hours of work on the part of the 70-member San Diego Field Archery Club. Target butts cost around 3 to 4 dollars and no few man hours to install, and wear and tear on these is a minor problem compared with that of vandalism by a constant stream of invaders on week days when the area is otherwise virtually deserted.

The unceasing efforts of archers to maintain their course testifies to their love of this sport, one any archer prefers to target archery on a lawn at standard distances. Field archers shoot at standard distances, too, so their scores can be compared with field archers throughout the country in competitions carried on by the National Field Archery Association.

But the resemblance to target archery ends there. Not only are field archery targets harder to bulls-eye because of varying heights and slanted terrain; they offer a continually changing problem for the archery with varying distances, angles, wind and footing.

Probably the greatest asset of field archery is its exercise value. Drawing the average 45-50 pound bow (28 pounds for women) takes a sturdy back, but covering some 3 miles of mountainous terrain 2 hours before lunch and 2 after during the course of a standard 56-target tournament requires sturdiness all over.

Field archers hold one of these tournaments on the third Sunday of each month. In addition, they meet for work parties or for business meetings at frequent intervals. Occasionally other unofficial tournament shoots are held, such as archery golf, battle clouts or tin-can rounds.

The local archers form a hale, gun-bronzed group, composed of an almost equal proportion of each sex and ranging considerably in age. They are particularly anxious to take in new members and to interest more people in this sport, one in which there still are a surprising number of amazingly skilled adherents in this post-Robin Hood atomic weapon age.

Two of the local members, Roy Dill and Frank Elcholz, have been national champions. There also are many beginners in the group, however.

Membership in the club is $6.50 a year or $9.50 for a man and wife. This includes membership in Southern California, State and National Archery Associations as well as a subscription to the magazine Archery.

Tournaments cost 50 cents per person which go for awards to winners. The average outfit for a starter, bows, arrows, quiver to hold arrows and an arm guard amounts to around $30.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:5-6. “Know Your Park” theme of recreation exhibit in Conference Building, August 25-27; an operetta, “The Golden Trail,” will be presented August 25 and 26 in the Balboa Park Bowl in connection with the “Know Your Park” event.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. Fiesta, Family Fair join for Mothers’ Day program, by Constance Herreshoff.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, D-6:5. “Playboy of Western World” to be played in Falstaff Tavern, Balboa Park tomorrow through next Sunday; Jackson Wooley, director.

May 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-17:1-2. Camp Fire Girls present creative Arts Fair tomorrow in the Recital Hall.

May 14, 1950, San Diego Union, E-2:1-3. Horse show opening today expected to draw thousands.

May 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-17:1-3. Palisades Building – Campfire Girls present Arts Fair tomorrow in Recital Hall.

May 19, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Mrs. F. W. Delaney, regarding park organ.

May 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:5-6. Letter, Winifred Heath, protesting removal of park organ.

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:1. San Diego County parks visited by 255,000.

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1-5. San Diego Zoo – rare monkeys (illus.).

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1-2. Balboa Park looks to dream of future (illus.).

One of Balboa Park’s greatest assets, paradoxically, is not what facilities it has, but what possibilities it holds for future development. A huge centrally located expanse of land with varied topography, the park sets no limits on the dreams of those who envision San Diego as a tourist paradise.

One such dream already planned in detail is that of Greater Morley Field.

This 10-acre area, lying between Upas and Laurel Streets on the north and south and between Arizona and Florida Streets east and west, already contains 10 municipal tennis courts, a tennis clubhouse, an outdoor swimming pool, a bait-casting pool, four shuffleboard courts, a children’s playground, a picnic area and a baseball diamond.

When money is available to complete development of Morley Field, the entire area around the casting poll and swimming pool will be landscaped. The Balboa Stables, now just north of the Stadium, will be moved here and fine new stables built. Archery ranges will dot the hilly sections.

More picnic areas will be nestled between the wilder growths east of the tennis courts and pool. And large adequate parking lots will be leveled and paved for the convenience of the public.

Morley Field will become a park within a park, and one with which many metropolitan cities would be content without the rest of vast Balboa Park.

Facilities now are nothing to complain about. The unusual advantage of having 10 tennis courts in one locale makes possible the large tennis development and tennis tournament program of the City Park and Recreation Department. The excellent outdoor pool is a popular summer sport. Other facilities are widely used.

Progress made in improving Morley Field the last two years indicates the final goal is coming closer. The recently-completed tennis clubhouse, which houses a tennis shop and has a large furnished lounge and restrooms has increased the popularity of the courts threefold.

Planting of shrubs about the clubhouse was followed by landscaping of the north side of the courts with ice plant and a large, partly-shaded lawn. Next move probably will be landscaping of the north side of the pool.

Many of the present facilities were constructed in 1932 and 1933 with bond funds and W. P. A. assistance. The area was dedicated in 1934, and was named in honor of the then park director, John Morley. Morley, who served in that capacity from 1912 to 1939, died a year after his retirement.

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-22:1-2. Bertram Tanswell, comic of 1935 Fair, to play “Belvedere,” by Constance Herreshoff; played Puck, Feste, Touchstone and other comedy roles in Chicago, San Diego and Dallas.

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-28:1-3. San Diego looked ahead to Fair 40 years ago; improvement of Balboa Park paved way for three expositions.

May 21, 1950, San Diego Union, E-5:4-5. San Diego Zoo – exhibitions.

May 22, 1950, San Diego Union, B-4:8. Letter, Reginald Poland, defending Fine Arts Gallery policy regarding exhibition space.

We have read Howard Little’s letter with interest and sincere appreciation.

The Fine Arts Gallery feels that it has given what Mr. Little terms the “conservative” fully as much exhibition space as it has given what he calls the “moderns.” If anything, this gallery is known as favoring the conservative.

We can scarcely subscribe to Mr. Miller’s suggestion for the appointment of juries for art shows. We would agree with him that the conservatives should choose their own juries, if the shows in question are predominantly of conservative arts. Increasingly, we favor having a gallery invite its exhibits. However, a gallery is able to select a jury that can and will be fair to various kinds of art, good art. We believe our gallery has proved this point.

A gallery must maintain standards of the highest art quality. Continuously, as one feature, it should exhibit art which has stood the acid test of time, what is distinguished beyond question. Of such are the representative paintings by the great Old Masters that San Diego proudly owns.

Our gallery should not take down an entire room of these paintings by Old Masters every 6 months. We doubt whether San Diegans would expect or want the gallery to imperil such art.

We beg to differ with Mr. Little that one can become surfeited with our Old Masters. Others have said the permanent collections of Old Italian paintings and of Old Spanish paintings are the finest in the West. We maintain that seeing and associating with such great art, instead of producing the sensation of being surfeited, makes for increased pleasure. That is unquestionably the effect upon us.

May 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:4. “Belvedere” opens Old Globe run tonight.

May 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1-2. “Belvedere” starts run amid gaiety, by Constance Herreshoff.

May 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:2-3. Civic Auditorium plan drew only seven spokesmen at hearing yesterday called by City Planning Commission.

They appeared to be about equally divided on whether the auditorium should be located in Balboa Park. Chief argument against the building there was that the central part of the park offers inadequate parking facilities. A convention hall came in for almost no discussion.

May 26, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3-4. Heaven-on-Earth Club to celebrate.

May 28, 1950, San Diego Union., A-8:1-2. Golden Hill playground rated high (illus.).

Balboa Park, San Diego’s playground, has within its 1400-acre confines, the ultimate in recreational facilities. Thus, it is no surprise that its one playground within a playground is the best planned recreational area in San Diego.

Golden Hill playground, located a block north of A Street on Twenty-Sixth Street, adjacent to the Municipal Golf Course, is nearing the end of a 3-year improvement project that will see it converted from the City’s oldest and most run-down recreation center to the most up-to-date and accommodating.

The work began 3 years ago because of a fire which destroyed the roof of the old recreation building. Rehabilitation of the building led to work on the equipment and grounds, and soon a blueprint was drawn for complete landscaping and reorganization of the site. These plans now are nearing full realization.

First change involved turning the area, which formerly held the old clay tennis courts into a children’s play area with sand and apparatus. The courts were the scene of Southern California’s only clay court tennis championship tournament, but upkeep expenses proved prohibitive and the area long since had given way to weeds and sand.

The children’s area is one of the City’s best both from the standpoint of equipment and because it is located next to the clubhouse, from which the youngsters easily can be supervised.

The cement tennis courts, which formerly were behind the clubhouse and which also were in a state of disrepair, were shortened 45 feet and made into asphalt basketball courts. This 45 feet was added to the baseball diamond, improving this facility no little.

A softball diamond has been laid out at the southwest corner of the field and lights soon will be added. Use of this diamond at night will save wear and tear on the baseball baselines, while during the day it will be possible to have two softball games at once.

As for the lost tennis facilities, two fine courts are being planned west of the new softball diamond near the street. Bleachers now used for baseball will be replaced.

Not all the improvements to Golden Hill playground are concerned with additional play facilities. The area has already been given a completely new face.

The street was widened to provide additional parking, and a strip between the street and the new fence — formerly an eyesore — was landscaped. The field itself has been graded and resurfaced with decomposed granite, while considerable new fencing and several new backstops have been added.

The extreme south portion of the playground is as yet unchanged, but eventually this will be converted into a picnic area, with tables, fireplaces and greenery. Adjoining this miniature park will be three horseshoe, a roque and four shuffleboard courts.

One of Golden Hills greatest assets is locality. Where else can parents find a supervised playground with every facility to divert their youngsters while they step next door and play 18 holes of golf.

May 25, 1950, San Diego Union, B-4:8. J. Davis writes letter praising Spreckels Organ.

Editor: It would be the worst thing that could happen to San Diego if anyone is permitted to remove the organ in Balboa Park.

It was put there as a permanent attraction for the City and for the enjoyment of the people.

It was the first thing I wanted to see when I came to San Diego and I have heard many others say the same.

May 26, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3-4. Heaven-on-Earth Club to celebrate; organization conceived here in May 1936 to promote climate, other attractions.

May 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:5. Stan Kenton band bill for Balboa Park Bowl Friday night.

May 29, 1950, San Diego Union, B-10:8. Letter, Mrs. Charles S. Bryer, regarding removal of park organ.

May 31 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, James Britton, regarding location of auditorium.

The City Planning Commission hearing on the problem of a civic auditorium brought out a great display of interest, contrary to the impression of your report. The council chamber was almost full, and the fact that only seven persons spoke was due to the short time available.

The location recommended for the concert theater as “in or adjacent to the southwest corner of Balboa Park, between Sixth and Ninth Streets,” thus suggesting a choice of using park ground (an auditorium is legally admissible in the Park) or buying the land adjoining the Park which has been highly indorsed by visiting experts as a site for an auditorium.

June 2, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2. City Council hints more aid to playgrounds.

June 3, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:6-8. Evening concerts will begin Monday at 8 p.m. in Organ Pavilion.

June 3, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:5-6. “Save Balboa Park” group seeks vote; alleges use of park for an exposition will mean closing off a large portion of it from public use.

Organization of a Save Balboa Park Committee to oppose holding the 1953 World Progress Exposition in the park was announced yesterday.

Alleging that using the park as the exposition site will mean closing off a large portion of it from public use, the committee said it will ask the City Council to submit the park location to a public vote. The pre-election campaigning would insure a fair public discussion and presentation of the facts, the committee declared.

Officers are Lucien C. Atherton, chairman; Mrs. Fred H. Wylie, secretary, and Mrs. Harriett P. Snyder, treasurer. Other members are Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Sparks, Mr. and Mrs. Thor Nielsen, Mrs. Wilman Harper, Mr. and Mrs. Guy L. Fleming, Mrs. Lavinia H. Watkins, Maj. Chapman Grant, Fred J. Radtke, Fred H. Wylie, Thomas B. Robertson and Frank F. Wirtz.

June 4, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:1. Veterans Memorial Building nearing completion; whether the controversial “Four Freedoms: will be used on one of the dedicatory plaques has not been announced, the City Council left the decision up to the veterans (illus.).

The new Veterans War Memorial Building in Balboa Park, estimated to cost approximately $234,000, is scheduled for completion this week, Leo B. Calland, parks and recreation director, said yesterday.

On June 22, the building will be dedicated by the veterans’ organizations which will use it as a meeting place, Calland announced.

The single-story structure, built of stucco and concrete, is an auditorium and six meeting rooms. The auditorium will seat about 500.

The meeting rooms are in wings extending from the auditorium. Each could seat 120 Calland said.

The building is located south of Roosevelt Junior High School. Landscaping of the 5.2 acre site has not been started.

Calland said the Parks Department plans a large parking lot extending from the veterans’ building to the Spanish Village.

The building will be maintained and operated by a non-profit corporation representing all recognized veterans organizations.

It was built by the City with funds gained from the sale of lumber when Camp Callan was razed.

Within a few days, Calland said, Superior Court will be asked to transfer from the City to the veterans an $18,000 trust fund which came from the wartime Buddy Beds operation. This money will be used to furnish the new building, Calland said.

The park official reported dedication plans have not been announced and he does not know whether the dedicatory plaque on the front of the building will include the controversial “Four Freedoms.”

Plans once called for dedicating the building to veterans who fought for the “Four Freedoms,” a term popularized by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The City Council ruled this out on a claim that the “freedoms” had communistic connotations, but later left the decision up to the veterans who will use the building.

June 6, 1950. ELECTION: Mission Bay Bonds

Yes 56,037

No 23,621

June 7, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:5-7, A-4:1-2. G. Aubrey Davidson, head of 1915 Exposition, terms 1953 event great asset to Balboa Park.

June 11, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1-2, A-20:5-6. Balboa Park beautified by gardens, flowers.

June 11, 1950, San Diego Union, A-20:1. Summer art classes set by Fine Arts Gallery.

June 11, 1950, San Diego Union, A-25:2-3. San Diego Zoo – Guanacos display today.

June 11, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:1-3. Sailors like horseback riding at Balboa Park stables (illus.).

June 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:5-6. Second annual Shakespearean festival produced jointly by State College and Community Theater set for July 18; B. Iden Payne will direct productions.

June 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1-2. San Diego Zoo – Benchley wins Soroptimist award.

June 16, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2. Lions hold conclave in Balboa Park.

June 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2-4, A-6:1-2. Ewart W. Goodwin, president of the California World Progress Exposition, and Mayor Harley E. Knox issued a joint statement yesterday to clarify erroneous Exposition rumors.

  1. Outdoor organ will not be removed from park.
  2. There will be on permanent midway.
  3. Gardens will not be destroyed.
  4. Park Boulevard will not be torn up or fenced from Upas Street to the Naval Hospital.
  5. The exposition corporation does not plan to close the park for a year prior to the fair’s opening.
  6. The Exposition will not close and place admission gates at Mission Bay.
  7. No facility now enjoyed by the public in Balboa Park will be destroyed.

June 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1. Sam W. Hamill’s drawings of new auditorium for Lincoln Junior and Senior High School.

June 18, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-5. San Diego Symphony will stage six concerts in Balboa Park Bowl.

June 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1. Shuffleboard, roque lure Old-timers.

A prominent national magazine recently extolled the merits of St. Petersburg, Fla. as America’s paradise for old folk, but apparently several thousand San Diego oldsters either failed to read the article or were not impressed by it.

In any event, the number of sexagenarians and septuagenarians who happily congregate daily at Balboa Park’s shuffleboard and roque courts, play cards at the clubhouse or pitch horseshoes has not decreased by one gray head since the article appeared.

Little observed by younger San Diego, but neither particularly quiet not at all exclusive or unfriendly, a large and animated crowd of elderly local citizens and tourists collects every day at three adult recreation centers within the park.

Two locations are just east of Sixth Avenue near intersections of Date Street and Redwood Street. A third is east of the swimming pool at Morley Field. Out-of-park centers are to be found at Highland and Landis Streets, at 4079 Fairmount and at La Jolla Cove.

These park regulars are the strongest boosters of all for San Diego’s ideal year-around climate and the recreational value of Balboa Park, for they record exuberant appreciation by their actions each day. Instead of sitting out a tiresome old age in a rocking chair, local habitués of the shuffleboard court and card table are highly sociable, full of vitality and mentally stimulated by varied interests.

This contribution to the happiness of a large and oft-forgotten segment of the population has resulted in returns to local taxpayers who put in the areas in the 1920s. Tourists not only frequent the facilities during vacations here — they plan their vacations because of them. A large number stay on to build homes and invest in business, like the former governor of Texas, who belongs to the San Diego Shuffleboard Club. The financially independent, often wealthy, far outweigh the small number of pensioners who apply for new memberships. One day no less than 27 out-of-state cars were counted on Seventh Avenue near Redwood Street opposite the San Diego Shuffleboard Club.

This area has both a shuffleboard club and a roque club, separately governed but mutually cooperative. Dues are $3 a year for use of 15 shuffleboard courts and access to the clubhouse, where cards are played daily; roque dues for the eight courts and the privilege of cards are $5 a year. Rates are scaled down for tourists or those who wish to play a day, a month or 3 months.

The Balboa Shuffleboard Club on Eighth Avenue near Date Street has 11 shuffleboard courts, six horseshoe courts, two indoor shuffleboard games, one roque and one croquet court. All facilities, including cards played at as many as 50 tables in the large clubhouse, are available for annual dues of $2.00, also scale down for shorter periods. The Morley Field Shuffleboard Club, east of Municipal Pool, is a small recreation center with 12 shuffleboard courts, only half of which are in use.

Although this is the slack season, compared to winter, the Balboa Shuffleboard Club currently has 460 active members, the San Diego group as 360, and the Roque Club about 100. In addition, daily visitors crowd facilities. The Balboa Club registered 3645 who paid the 10-cent-a-day fee last year.

The San Diego Shuffleboard Club holds duplicate bridge tournaments every Friday through Monday. Rubber bridge is played on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with canasta and pinochle games going on every day. At Balboa, pinochle is the most popular, although cribbage, chess, checkers, rummy bridge and canasta have adherents.

There is no screening of potential members at any club, and young people (over 17 at Balboa, over 21 at San Diego) are welcome. Gambling and drinking are strictly prohibited.

June 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:2-3. Activities in Balboa Park listed for this week.

June 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1. Zlac Rowing Club opposed to 1953 Exposition plans that would “move the famous outdoor organ from its present location.”

June 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Mrs. Betty Roberts, defending use of park for Exposition.

June 21, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-3. A. J. Sutherland, Exposition aide, blasts “harm to park” debate.

June 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1-3. Billy Rose will meet San Diegans at public luncheon Monday in park.

June 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:5-6. Merits of requiring vote on Fair aired.

June 23, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. Veterans groups attend rites at Veterans Memorial Building (illus.).

The new San Diego Veterans War Memorial Building in Balboa Park was dedicated yesterday at a brief, impressive ceremony in which all veterans’ organizations in the city took part.

After reviewing the history of the structure, Mayor Harley E. Knox told a sizable crowd of spectators that “in this building San Diego has beaten swords into something better than plow shares.”

“It was constructed,” he said, “without one cent of cost to the taxpayers.”

The financing was done, he explained, through sales of lumber from barracks at Camp Callan. This was by arrangement between the city and the federal government. The lumber went to build homes for veterans.

The dedication ceremony also marked the beginning of the 29th annual convention of California Disabled American Veterans, many delegates to which were on hand.

Members of the City Council sat on the speakers stand with Mayor Knox as did a number of other public officials and San Diego area military leaders.

Dr. Roy Campbell gave the dedicatory prayer and this was followed by raising of the flag. Music was furnished by the Marine Recruit Depot Band.

Allan Lane, vice president of the non-profit corporation which will operate the building, was master of ceremonies.

At the conclusion of his address, the mayor turned keys to the building over to Ambrose Redmond, president of the corporation. It represents all recognized veterans’ organizations in San Diego. The building will be a meeting place for veterans’ groups.

June 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:7-8. City starts opening way for Exposition; Council indicates it will soon permit immediate occupancy of park buildings.

June 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:5-6. Letter, Mrs. Marian Walker, against closing of park for exposition.

Under the provisions of Section 55 of the City Charter of the City of San Diego, Balboa Park cannot be put to any use other than park purposes without a two-thirds majority vote of the citizens of San Diego

June 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:6. Reginald Poland resigns as director of Fine Arts Gallery.

June 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:3. R. B. Coyner appointed to aid Fair.

June 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:7-8. NORTHERN/SOUTHERN KOREANS AT WAR!

June 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:1-4. Billy Rose, showman, due for parley tomorrow on Fair.

June 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-20:1. Museum of Man/California Tower – San Diego symbol building has fine exhibits.

For years, camera fans and admirers of Balboa Park’s Spanish Renaissance architecture have stood in front of the California Tower in awe at a building that has come to be not only the prize example of the park’s architecture, but a symbol of San Diego as well.

More recently these same people have begun to wander inside this building where, much to their surprise, they find a treasure house of fascinating exhibits. Most are surprised to make such a discovery, although the San Diego Museum Association, the controlling organization for the Museum of Man in the California Building and adjoining quadrangle on El Prado has had archeological material on display since the 1915 Exposition.

The Museum of Man, devoted to physical and cultural anthropology, is not discouraged by the task of trying to match the ornate and appealing facade of this Spanish cathedral replica with something as interesting on the inside. As a matter of fact, Malcolm Farmer, museum director, is currently two steps ahead of museum directors throughout the country in modernizing his interior displays.

Farmer’s story-telling exhibits are set off in brilliantly colored functionally designed displays that are a relieving contrast to the usual morgue-like atmosphere of museums. Recent displays here were the subject of a study by Dr. Albert Parr, director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

As to the content of the exhibits, nobody who ventures inside the Museum of Man is cowed by such terms as anthropology, archaeology or paleontology. The museum is what its name implies, a place where mankind’s physical and cultural development is studied through skeletal remains, casts of heads, works of art, craft products, tools, weapons and other remnants of past civilizations. The exhibits offer a visual study of man and his history, more romantic, more personal and more impressive than reading about the subject.

The north room, beneath the Tower, has changing exhibits which are made up from material usually stored for lack of exhibit space, from loaned exhibitions, gifts, bequests, exchange exhibits and material obtained on the field trips the museum staff has time to make.

Currently there are displays of Southern California archaeology, Indian basketry, Early Egyptians jewelry, carved stone and metal work, and shoes of all ages and races. On the balconies are physical and cultural anthropology displays, a series of health and medical exhibits planned in cooperation with the San Diego County Medical Association.

The modern touch begins in the east end of the Tower Building with the entrance to a weapons room that continues through much of the east building overlooking El Prado. Here an extensive collection of bows and arrows, knives, swords and early guns — much of which belongs to the Joseph Jessop Archery Collection — is on display.

A large room in the south building, which also houses the attractive St. Francis Chapel, is in process of modernization. When exhibit surroundings are fully refurbished, there will be displays here of Latin American and Southern California Indian cultures, archeological material from the Mexico and the Maya region, and ceramic sculpture and weaving products of all ages. Some of this material is now in this and the west end of the rectangular structure.

Farmer, a young, forward-looking anthropology graduate from the University of Arizona, is assisted by two curators, H. Thomas Cain and Carr Tuthill. The staff, supported by City Park and Recreation Department funds, also includes maintenance personnel. Officers and a board of trustees elected each year by the San Diego Museum Association control the policies of the Museum, the work of which is supported out of association funds.

Work carried on in the Museum of Man, in addition to providing San Diegans with one of the country’s finest anthropological museums, includes separate classes for both adults and juniors held in the small auditorium and the activity room, advisory services for schools and cultural organizations, cooperative field salvage work and research in this and surrounding areas.

The organization has 120 adult and 125 junior members at present, although thousands more in this area are regular visitors to the museum. It is through additional memberships, open to everyone, with fees scaled to the member’s capacity to support, that Farmer hopes to build the Museum of Man into a model for museums throughout the world.

June 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-22:1-2. Israel Cottage, House of Pacific Relations, will show art.

June 25, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:1-3. Many prescriptions filled at Naval Hospital pharmacy.

June 25, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-5. “Provincial” features of art held important, by Reginald Poland.

June 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:6-7. Balboa Park Club – Bill Rose to talk in Balboa Park Club on Exposition plans.

June 26, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, H. K. Raymenton, opposing use of park for exposition.

When other cities feel the urge to have an exposition they assign a site for it in an unimproved district; they do not surrender their chief parks. If the local exposition enthusiasts feel that they must have another one, let them build their honky-tonks and coconut-shies on Kearny Mesa and leave the park for the enjoyment of the people of San Diego, its rightful owners.

June 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:4-5, A-3:4-7. Billy Rose says “clean” Fair will draw 15 million.

June 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:4. U. S. Navy plans to increase the capacity of Santa Margarita Hospital near Oceanside from 350 to 850 beds to make up for the transfer of Long Beach Naval Hospital to the Veterans Administration.

June 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2-3. Exposition bill due Monday; Truman may indorse Fair.

June 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:7-8. U. S. jets attack Korea invaders.

June 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2. Starlight Opera’s 5th season opens tonight in Balboa Park Bowl.

June 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:2. James E. Reading, city traffic engineer, reported yesterday that raised safety islands may be built at a half-dozen Sixth Avenue intersections for the benefit of pedestrians going to and from Balboa Park.

June 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:6-8. Evening concerts will begin Monday at 8 at Organ Pavilion and will continue every Monday throughout July and August.

June 30, 1950, San Diego Union, B-4:8. George H. Hazzard, San Diego Rowing Club, responds to “ballyhoo” by Billy Rose.

Following is an open letter to Billy Rose: Your inspired ballyhoo at the June 26 mass meeting in Balboa Park to get our 1953 Exposition under way, got me so enthused that I am herewith pledging a 100 percent cash gift to the enterprise, by virtue of which I should be permitted to call your attention to something you seem to have forgotten.

Our 1935 Fair was a great financial success. Our 1936 replica of same was, alas, a dismal flop. (Consult the statisticians.) Why was this? Because, in both the 1915 and 1935 expositions, we had a Midway. The hundreds of thousands of Joe Doakes who came from the hinterland incidentally to see the “white elephant” were not wholly disappointed.

In 1936, the fun zone, with practically nothing to titillate the curiosity, or satisfy that away-from-home feeling of the sightseer, was all but deserted, with certain erstwhile concessions boarded up. Now you are again proposing a snow white Midway. That would be just fine and dandy, Billy, provided human nature has, in the meanwhile, changed completely. This I doubt very much. Advertise there will be no sideshows even bordering on the risqué — none whatever — and they will stay away in droves.

Nevertheless, in the fond hope that you may be right, and that all Joe Doakes wants now is sweetness and light, I will still make good my pledge.

July 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1-2. Rehabilitation fund aid to Balboa Park . . . restored buildings reactivated; many in regular use as expenses justified (illus. of Palisades Building).

Palisades Building (former Hollywood Hall of Fame), home of Recital Hall, Arts and Craft

Center and Puppet Theater, restored our of a $143,500 fund for this structure and Conference

Building; money came from Navy for wartime use and from sale of salvage; City added $36,000 for furnishings for both buildings;

Recital Hall – 499-seat capacity using movable chairs – ideal for conventions

Puppet Theater – 254-seat capacity

July 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:5-6. Morley Field – swimming lessons tomorrow in park pool.

July 2, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. San Diego Symphony plans six concerts in Balboa Park Bowl, by Constance Herreshoff.

July 3, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3-5. Star Light Opera breaks record for first of four performances; attendance record of 11,060 (illus.)

July 4, 1950, San Diego Union. SAN DIEGO MARINES ORDERED TO ORIENT.

July 4, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Jean Wilson, regarding use of Balboa Park for a carnival.

Balboa Park never was intended to be a fair ground. There is one at Del Mar much better suited to the needs of the carnival promoters. Why can they not use that, and leave the park to the people who now enjoy its advantages without let or hindrance?

July 7, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:6-7. “Taming of the Shrew” to open festival July 18.

July 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:1-4. San Diego Zoo – one-humped camels — a pair of dromedaries and a 3month old baby from Australian — join Zoo family (illus.).

July 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1. Balboa Park Club – Parties draw teen-agers to park club (illus.).

A club for teen-agers on Saturday nights; a meeting place of civic luncheons and community banquets; a setting for wedding receptions; style shows, bridge teas — the Balboa Park Club has become this and much more to San Diego in the 5 months since it was reopened under City Park and Recreation Department supervision.

Last of the Balboa Park buildings to be relinquished by the Navy and returned to the City, this handsome and valuable structure is still known by many as the Camp Kidd Officers’ Club. It has become a focal point of teen-age activity on Saturday nights.

The Collegiate Club, a great tradition in pre-war San Diego, is functioning again, thanks to the Balboa Park Club’s facilities. Every Saturday night a dance is held for high school junior college and college students. A 12-piece orchestra plays for dancing and there is a floor show. A dimly-lighted soft-drink bar adjoins the spacious dance hall, and between dances couples chat comfortably in a luxuriously appointed lounge adored with paintings loaned from the Fine Arts Gallery.

All this is available through departmental sponsorship for a dollar membership card and a change of $1.20 for each couple at the dances.

The Collegiate Club is self-governing. Co-managers Dwain Kantor and Dick Klein are answerable to a board of directors made up of two or three students from every high school, junior college and college in the City and County.

Teen-agers are not the only ones to find the former officers’ club a bonanza for social activities. With a kitchen equipped to serve 1500, the broad dance floor can easily be converted into a banquet hall and is then a “natural” for convention luncheons and large parties. Chairs and tables can easily be set up for style shows, bridge teas and other large-scale social events. The beautiful lounge is proving increasingly popular for wedding receptions.

The city has spent $75,000 to re-equip the club since the Navy relinquished it in March of 1940. Most recently installed was a soda fountain, leased out by Jack Roland and Glen Sheppard, and open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and until midnight on Star-Light Opera or Collegiate Club nights.

The Balboa Park Club structure dates back to the 1915 Exposition, when it was the New Mexico Building. A dance floor was added for the 1935 Exposition, when the building was known as the Palace of Education. Last year, the newly-named Balboa Park Club was painted inside and out, the dance floor was refinished, venetian blinds were added, lounge re-furnished, and the kitchen completely equipped.

Balboa Park Club facilities rent through the Park and Recreation Department on the following scale: $75 for youth groups; $150 for fraternal or social groups; $225, plus a small percentage of gross receipts, for commercial dances. There food is served, arrangement for rental must be made through a caterer approved by the department.

July 9, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-3. Sevitzky will welcome all classes to symphony series; music for everyone, conductor declares; boxes eliminated.

July 9, 1950, San Diego Union, D-1:1-3. Pageant will show California history, by Bryant Evans.

July 9, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. “Girl Crazy,” Star Light Opera production, due Thursday, by Constance Herreshoff.

July 13, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. Museum of Man – exhibit extolling Red way of life, by Edmund Rucker (illus.).

A San Diego Union reporter, strolling through the Museum of Man in Balboa Park on his off day, came across two startling exhibits. A glorification of the Russian political system is displayed on the west balcony.

The exhibits indicate how Communists propaganda can even penetrate scientific and educational centers, and often passively be accepted in good faith.

Visitors to the west balcony of the museum are immediately attracted by an idealized portrait of Paul Robeson, Negro singer, who has long been conspicuous as an ardent admirer of the Soviet regime and a follower of the Moscow line.

Robeson is shown in the center of a group of four Negroes. Two of them are included, perhaps, for “window dressing” purposes, as they have attained high status for their contribution to science and art. The other two are W. E. B. DuBois, writer and editor, and Langston Hughes, poet.

One, W. E. B. DuBois, and a Langston Hughes have received much attention from the California Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities.

DuBois is listed by the committee as a contributor to the Daily Worker, the Communist newspaper, and a sponsor of various “front” organizations for Indonesian independence, the withdrawal of American troops from China after World War II, to free Earl Browder from prison, when he was arrested and before being deposed as American Communist leader, and opposing American policy in Greece and Turkey.

The name of Langston Hughes appears 25 times in Un-American committee listings.

The record lists him as a member or sponsor of a dozen Communist front organizations including American Youth for Democracy, American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, American Committee for Yugoslav Relief, American Peace Mobilization, and American Student Union, of which Celeste Strack, formerly of San Diego, was national high school secretary.

The other figures in the group are Marian Anderson, distinguished singer and one of the world’s truly great artists, and the late Dr. George Washington Carver, eminent scientist, agricultural experimenter, apostle of soil enrichment and crop diversification, who shortly before his death in 1943 donated his life savings of $30,000 to the continuance of his work.

No suspicion of subversive disloyalty to the United States has ever attached to the names of Miss Anderson or Dr. Carver.

Moving along the panel exhibits, the reporter came to a racial map of Russia which extols the U. S. S. R. for wiping out race prejudice. Here is a conspicuous sign which reads:

“The U. S. S. R., one of the largest nations, has within its borders all the races and approximately 174 nationalities. Within 25 years the people of the U. S. S. R. learned to live and harmony and wiped out race prejudice by education and legislation.”

July 14, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:1-3. Electric Building – California Centennial Celebration starting August 1; story of journalism in California; exhibit of California art as it portrays California history; historical documents supplied by Library of Congress; pageant of San Diego history to be held in Presidio Park..

July 14, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1-2. Museum of Man – Red propaganda at Museum of Man; storm of protests hits institution following disclosure by Union story, by Edmund Rucker.

Communist propaganda was yanked yesterday from the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. Following The Union’s disclosure that portraits of Paul Robeson, Negro singer and fellow traveler, and other members of Communist fronts were conspicuously displayed, together with praise for the Russian political system, a storm of protest broke over the museum.

Forthwith orders for the removal of the displays were issued by W. Allen Perry, city park director, and Leo Calland, director of parks and recreation.

Another development was a call by the American Legion for a public meeting Monday at 3:30 p.m. to wide the search for subversive propaganda, especially in the schools and libraries.

The meeting was held in the director’s room of the Chamber of Commerce. Harry Foster, national executive committeeman of the Legion and past state commander, announced that invitations to the meeting were being sent to Dr. Will C. Crawford, city superintendent of schools; Dr. John S. Carroll, county superintendent of schools; Mrs. Clara E. Breed, city librarian, and representatives of the churches and civic clubs of San Diego.

“We are not planning an attack on anyone,” Foster said. “But we want to point out the seriousness of the situation and invite the cooperation of responsible officials. We want a thorough housecleaning in San Diego.”

At the office of the museum, H. K. Raymenton, president of the San Diego Museum Association, explained that the exhibit was set up in 1944 at a time when Russia was regarded as an ally in the war against Germany and there was no thought of hostilities with the Soviet regime. He also pointed out that the displays were received from the Cranbrook Institute of Science, and were meant purely as a lesson in anthropology.

Park Director Calland admitted that the inclusion of Robeson, Langston Hughes and W. E. B. DuBois as representatives of the Negro race was unfortunate. He suggested that they be replaced in the panel by Willie Steele, San Diego broad jumper; Jackie Robinson, baseball star; and Joe Louis, retired heavy-weight boxing champion.

“These men are outstanding members of their race and their loyalty to America is unquestioned,” Calland pointed out.

Meanwhile there was a stream of indignant and incredulous parents to the museum to see the exhibits and to demand to know who was responsible for their admission. One irate woman said she had drive 18 miles to express her outrage.

Raymenton and Calland prepared a written statement of explanation for the propaganda. It reads as follows:

“The unfortunate news story in The San Diego Union stating that an exhibit in the San Diego Museum of Man “Extols Red Way of Life” definitely needs clarification. First, it should be understood that the material used and featured in the story was taken (in part) from a photographically illustrated exhibit prepared by the Cranbrook Institute of Science and circulated by the Race Relations Division, American Missionary Association – Fiske University. The complete series (15 in number) was compiled and issued in 1944 and has been widely used throughout the United States in all branches of education (including the secondary schools of San Diego).

“The entire series purports to demonstrate graphically that man, as a biological animal, is a singe species, and that the different races are but variations of that species. It demonstrates that, anthropologically speaking, there are no inferior or superior races. Examples of countries and individuals were chosen with no thought as to their political status. Such political implications as may have been understood in the series were entirely incidental and unintentional.

“The worst feature of the exhibit is that it is something out of date in that international relations have changed since the exhibit was compiled. In order to eliminate any further misunderstanding, the exhibit has been removed.”

The quality of the thinking of one of the Communist sympathizers — Langston Hughes – who for 6 years has been held up to San Diego adults and children as a model, may be judged from the following selection from his poems.

“Listen Christ

You did all right in your day, I reckon –

But that day’s gone now.

They shosted you up a swell story too

Called it Bible –

But it’s dead now

. . .

Goodbye Christ Jesus Lord God Jehovah

Beat it on away from here now

Make way for a new guy with no religion at all –

A real guy named

Marx, Communist Lenin, Peasant Stalin, Worker Me –

I said, Me!

. . .

That great mob that knows no fear

Come here!

And raise your hand

Against this man of iron and steel and gold.

. . .

Come here

Great mob that knows no fear,

And tear him limb from limb,

Slit his golden throat

Ear to ear,

And end his time forever

Now –

This year –

Great mob that knows no fear.”

July 14, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:1. Crowd sees opening of “Girl Crazy,” by Constance Herreshoff.

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:1-4. Wheelchair area added at Star Light Opera (illus.)

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1-4. Centennial Exposition of California Journalism to be presented at Balboa Park, August 1 through September 9 (illus.).

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1. “Actors’ Companies,” made up of 100 members of the Junior Theater Summer Workshop sponsored by the San Diego Community Theater and the City Parks and Recreation Department, will tour city playgrounds starting late this month offering two plays by local playwrights (illus.).

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:1-4. Palisades Building – Pueblo dances and chants tomorrow a 8 p.m. in Puppet Theater by the Manuel Archuleta family of Albuquerque, New Mexico (illus.).

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-5. Shakespeare merriment opens Tuesday night at the Old Globe Theater and the theater green; festival produced by San Diego State College and the San Diego Community Theater; B. Iden Payne in charge of “Taming of the Shrew” and “Romeo and Juliet” (illus.).

July 16, 1950, San Diego Union, B-7:2-4. Photography Building quarters for nine camera clubs (illus.).

July 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:3-4. San Diego Zoo gets baboons from Rotterdam.

July 18, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:2-4. San Diego Folk Dancers to “dance on the green” August 27 on the Balboa Park lawn north of Laurel Street and Sixth Avenue (illus.).

July 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:1-4. Shakespeare play, “The Taming of the Shrew,” hailed at Old Globe, by Constance Herreshoff (illus.).

July 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1-3. Priceless documents of the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., will be among the features of San Diego’s Centennial Celebration, August 1 through September 9; exhibit will be placed in Electric Building (illus.).

July 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:4-6. Letter, Benjamin A. Buker, in tribute to Dr. Poland.

Please be assured that all true San Diegans will always remember you for your sincerity and high ideals; we shall revere you for your vision in making this glorious art collection a part of our city’s cultural life; and we shall honor you in our hearts for your faithful public service in times that were never easy and often very, very difficult.

July 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-2:1-2. Clarence W. Farrier declares Balboa Park superb site for World Progress Exposition (photo).

July 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1-4. Starlight Opera casts combat vets (illus.); topping the swordsmen is Bernard Lamb who portrays D’Artagnan..

July 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:2-4. Model train show in House of Charm (illus.).

July 25, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3. Marine Band will play at Organ Pavilion Sunday.

July 26, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-4. Outstanding news pictures of 1949 being set up in Electric Building for Centennial display (illus.).

July 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:2-3. Marine band to play in concert tomorrow (illus.).

July 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:3. Friml’s “The Three Musketeers” enjoyed at Balboa Park Bowl, by Constance Herreshoff.

July 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-16:2-3. San Diego Zoo – Trip proves San Diego’s Zoo is “world’s best,” Mrs. Belle Benchley tells members of Altrusa Club Wednesday night.

July 28, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. Dr. Sevitzky drills San Diego orchestra for first of weekly Balboa Park Bowl concerts, by Howard Welty (illus.).

July 28, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:1-4. Korean war news to come at Centennial; teletype printers, mounted in booths, will click out steady reports on national and international developments in the struggle (illus.).

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2-3, B:6. Rare documents will be displayed in the Electric Building.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, B:4-5. Special edition of newspaper will be produced on old hand press that came around the Horn on a four-masted schooner within a few minutes while Governor Warren is speaking at opening of San Diego’s Centennial Exposition Tuesday.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1-5. Dr. Poland lauded for efforts by Dr. W. R. Valentiner, head curator of Los Angeles County Museum (photo); details of his life given.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:1-4. Golf – park golfing par for course; 280-acre expanse of lawns, canyons and vales; home of 18-hole and 9-hole public golf courses on which a total of 159,256 rounds of golf were played last year.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-4. Museum of Man – Masks prove women not always all they seem (illus.); 54 masks gathered from all sections of the world for the collection of Robert C. Altman of Los Angeles on loan for exhibit at the museum this summer.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:5-8. Centennial Show will open Tuesday, by Ivan Messenger.

Ready for the San Diego Centennial Celebration, the Electric Building in Balboa Park will open Tuesday with three centennial shows: Centennial Exposition of California Journalism, Library of Congress California Exhibit and the Exhibit of Historic Art.

The Pageant of the Golden Pueblo will have its eight-day run beginning September 2 in Presidio Park. This is also the opening date for the fifth phase of the centennial show, the Centennial Parade, which is to follow the route of California’s first camino from a point near the harbor to the site of the first mission in Alta California at Old San Diego.

Paintings and prints for the Exhibit of Historic Art have come in from museum art galleries, historical societies and private collectors in the state. Most of this material is of the California period dating between 1850 and 1880 and is owned by organizations and individuals in the northern part of the sate.

A number of “old masters” of California landscape and portraiture, such as Thomas Hill, Albert Bierstadt and William Keith, have been included as a link to the present. Hill’s local entry will be his Yosemite painting lent through the San Diego Public Library and the Maurice Braun family in 1944.

Selections from the contemporary group have been limited to the historic field, work by artists who have done special work of this theme. Most of these paintings and prints come from the old mining country: Charles Surendorf of Columbia; Roi Partridge of Oakland; George Mathis of Nevada City; William Wintle of Volcano, and John Ayres, John Brandon, Marion Hope, and Thomas Babbelman of the Sacramento area.

A group of 12 canvases in keeping with the centennial story of California is shown because of its authenticity of detail and social interest. These were done by Harold Von Schmidt, “painter of the west,” and a past president of the Society of Illustrators, for the John Morrell & Co. calendar of 1949.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. “Three Musketeers” to reopen Thursday night, by Constance Herreshoff.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:6. Symphony sets first concert for summer Tuesday night in Balboa Park Bowl.

July 30, 1950, San Diego Union, D-6:4. “Taming of Shrew” beings final week tonight.

July 31, 1950, San Diego Union, A-3:6-8. Electric Building – California Centennial Celebration exhibits put in place (illus.).

Virtually completed, meanwhile, was the “Old Frontier Town,” a realistic reproduction of an early western community that includes a hotel, jail, blacksmith shop, office of California’s first paper, stores and other enterprises. It is part of the journalism exhibit.

August 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:2-4, A-4:1-3. Midsummer Symphony opens tonight at Balboa Park Bowl.

August 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:4-5. Governor Earl Warren arrives to open Centennial Show today.

August 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:2-3. “Three Musketeers” smashing Balboa Park Bowl attendance records.

August 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:1, A-3:1-8. Electric Building – Governor Warren opens six-week run of California Centennial Celebration today (illus.).

August 2, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1. Canopy of stars usher in season’s first concert.

One minor annoyance, reminiscent of last year’s concerts, marred the early part of the program. During the first two numbers, a half dozen airplanes flew over the bowl but none so near that they causes Sevitzky to stop the music.

August 2, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-5. Summer symphony off to a good start, Leonard Pennario, piano soloist, played Liszt’s “Concerto in E Flag Major, by Constance Herreshoff (illus.).

August 3, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1. Crowds visit Centennial Exposition; second-day crowd estimated at 5,000 persons.

August 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1. Eight Southern California newspapers to be hosted at Centennial today.

August 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:2. Starlight Opera show record may fall.

August 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:2-3. More parking for crowds due at park; expected throng of between 10,000 and 12,000 persons, attending simultaneous events in Balboa Park tonight, may compel police to close Cabrillo Bridge and open a new 1200-car parking lot between Zoo Drive and Park Boulevard, opposite the Zoo (map).

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1-3. Federal Building – Silver Bay Kennel Club opened its summer season all-breed dog show yesterday (illus.).

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:1. In accord with California’s Centennial observance, “The Golden Trail,” an operetta dealing with gold rush days of California in 1849, staged by City Park and Recreation Department, will be a prime attraction at the “Know Your Park” show in Balboa Park Bowl, August 25 through 27.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:4-5, B-16:1. Square dancing, Western music and an amateur talent show set for Centennial show in Electric Building today.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:6-8. Wax figures in early settings create interest at Centennial Exposition of California Journalism is Electric Building (illus.).

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-8. Early American furniture on display at Fine Arts Gallery lent by Mr. and Mrs. Streeter Blair of Leucadia; examples of early California paintings and prints have been hung this week in the Fine Arts Gallery; farewell luncheon honoring retiring director Dr. Poland at Café del Rey Moro Thursday noon, by Carl Skinner, curator.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:7. San Diego artists’ exhibition at Spanish Village.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:4-5. Star-Lighters to being “Roberta” run Thursday.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:7. “Music in Park” series to open at Organ Pavilion this afternoon.

August 6, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:1-5. Natural History Museum: rare exhibits depict life in this region (illus.).

August 7, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:8. Large crowd jams park for events.

August 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:2-3. “Roberta” to open Thursday at Balboa Park Bowl.

August 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:6. “Romeo and Juliet” tomorrow at Old Globe.

August 8, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-2. San Diego Zoo – Free admission first Monday of every October in honor of Dr. Wegeforth.

August 8, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Letter, Alexander H. Marshall, in tribute to Dr. Poland.

Here is a man of large stature, a great giver in the best tradition. It is well that San Diego recognizes and appreciates what he has done — and what his contribution will continue doing for all of us through the future years.

August 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:1-2. Second symphony concert pleases Balboa Park Bowl audience, by Constance Herreshoff.

August 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1-2. Copenhagen has finest show park — Tivoli., by Henry McLemore..

August 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:5-6. Music on program at Centennial today.

August 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:4. “Romeo and Juliet” play tonight in Old Globe.

August 9, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-3. Fred Kunzel name director of “Zoo Day” committee.

August 10, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:4. Young cast puts drama in “Rome and Juliet,” by Constance Herreshoff.

August 10, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:1. Entertainment slated today at Centennial.

August 10, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:2-4. Old chart at Centennial Show describes California as an island (illus.).

August 11, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:1. Los Angeles papers to be feted at exhibit.

August 11, 1950, San Diego Union, B-4:3-4. Stagecoach to open run as part of Centennial.

August 11, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4. Dr. and Mrs. Poland plan home in San Diego after trip.

August 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:1. Park fete to present many events.

August 13, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:6-7. Horse well depicted in historic art show in Electric Building, by Ivan Messenger.

August 13, 1950, San Diego Union, D-14:1-5. House of Hospitality, a friendly institution (illus.).

The House of Charm may be a model railroad headquarters and the Federal Building a badminton haven, but the House of Hospitality is a Balboa Park Building that is exactly what its name implies. This beautiful Moorish-style structure, built around a lovely patio and terracing off on it south side into the famous Del Rey Moro formal garden, is San Diego’s own living room, so to speak. Here local organizations, private parties, sororities, service clubs and individuals entertain their members and their guests. And here San Diego is host to the rest of the world, for at any time the visitor is welcome to relax in the serene Gold Room, wander through the patio or the gardens or dine at the Casa Del Rey Moro restaurant.

The word “visitor” incidentally includes the thousands of San Diegans who have never been inside their own House of Hospitality. A prevalent idea that this facility exists only for wealthy San Diego society women, probably occasioned by incredulity that such luxurious appointments could be made available to the public, seems to have scared away many individuals and groups whose patronage of facilities would have been helpful to the House of Hospitality Association as well as a boon to those entertaining.

Wedding receptions, for instance, may utilize the handsome Loggia, looking out over the patio, for 35 dollars, with silver plates, punch bowl and a lace tablecloth provided along with use of a kitchen. Here, with amber lights glowing in antique lanterns over the patio and with the fountain gently murmuring in the distance, is an atmosphere as romantic as something Hollywood might depict on the screen.

For smaller groups, such rooms as the Cuarto Nuevo, the Flamingo, La Verde, the Bel chez and the Davidson room are available at very minimum fees, ranging from $15 with kitchen for the Cuarto Nuevo (accommodating 100) to $2 for La Siesta (which holds up to 15) for music recitals, lectures, convention meetings, parties, dances, teas, lodge meetings, card parties, baby showers, motion picture showings, and receptions.

For large groups up to 500 a splendid auditorium is available along with a stage and another tastefully appointed lounge for banquets, style shows, conventions, dessert bridges, company parties and other events. Rental is $20 for mornings, $40 for afternoons and $60 for evenings.

These facilities are rented by the non-profit, self-supporting House of Hospitality Association under the direction of Mrs. Willa Carter, executive secretary. The association is an outgrowth of the former Balboa Auditorium Association, formed following the last Exposition. The building itself dates back to the 1915-16 Exposition, though its stormy history since includes condemnation around 1920, burning down in 1925 (prior to a Fireman’s Ball, of all things) and acquisition by the Navy in 1941.

The showpiece of the building — or rather the foremost one — for every room is strikingly furnished with taste that reflects the culture and sound judgment of the women who have conducted the House of Hospitality affairs — is the famous Gold Room. Here volunteer hostesses, recruited from leading women’s clubs, show the visitor the antiques, objets d’art, and sumptuous furnishing that decorate this comfortable lounge.

It is open during day and evening hours to the public, and serves as a pleasant meeting place before lunch or dinner at the Casa Del Rey Moro restaurant. Flowers, changed daily by volunteer flower chairman, never fail to charm the visitor. Hostesses could compile a volume of superlatives collected by tourists from other states and other countries.

The restaurant has a main dining room, a solarium and a terrace. The latter, overlooking the formal garden, is immensely popular during the warmer months. Luncheon clubs, service organizations and other groups are accommodated with private facilities for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The remaining rooms on the second floor, overlooking the patio, are occupied by sororities, who lease well-furnished rooms by the year for meetings and social events.

Thus the House of Hospitality is a busy place socially, fully of well-dressed people coming and going to and from meetings, dinners and entertainments, camera fans, hovering around Donal Hord’s sculptural Aztec Woman, adoring the fountain in the patio, and tourists admiring the furnishings in the Gold Room. In short, it is a hospitable place.

August 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:4-5. “Roberta” will reopen in Balboa Park Bowl Thursday.

August 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:1-3. Bard’s love blooms on part stage, by Constance Herreshoff.

August 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:4-5. Old Globe to switch to recorded music.

August 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:5-6. 2,900 heard symphony concert in Balboa Park Bowl Tuesday.

August 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1-4. Conference Building proves useful.

Balboa Park’s Conference Building is a good example of the post-exposition usefulness of structures erected for a World’s Fair. Created to house displays from counties throughout California during the 1935-36 Expo., the State Building — as it was then known — was used in the years between the Fair and World War II as an armory for the National Guard. After its service during the war as part of Camp Kidd, the Conference Building underwent restoration paid for by the Navy, was outfitted by the City, and promptly became a invaluable facility for large convention meetings.

With a 93 by 180 foot main floor surrounded by three small lower floor rooms and 15 rooms of varying sizes on the balcony, the Conference Building can handle the largest of conventions, both for general assemblies and for divisional meetings of any size or number.

Like many other Park buildings, it also serves as an exhibit hall, a banquet room, a square dance center, an athletic building and a place to house such affairs as the Family Fair, the Recreation Round-Up, the Boat Show, flower shows, fraternity and hobby group meetings, and the Youth for Christ rally.

Right now plans are being readied for the first annual “Know Your Park” show, scheduled for the Conference Building, Friday, Saturday and next Sunday. Every organization and recreational facility in Balboa Park will put up exhibits depicting its activities, and, as is the usual custom in this building, admission will be free.

One particular virtue of this edifice is its large east entrance with reinforced concrete floor, which make it possible for trucks to drive in and deposit such heavy loads as were hauled in by the Boat Show a few years back.

The Conference Building also has two costume rooms, now in use by the Centennial Pageant group and the costume makers for “The Golden Train,” a children’s operetta soon to be shown in Balboa Park Bowl. A smaller sewing room is available for more leisurely projects. Other facilities include 1900 chairs, folding tables which also serve as speaker’s platforms, a concession stand and a clothes check room.

Hobby groups and fraternities make most use of the peripheral rooms which seat from 15 to 150 for meetings. An average night may find the Tropical Fish Society and a stamp club meeting upstairs along with a couple of fraternities; the Indoor Sports Club may be having a square dance drill on the main floor, and a volleyball game may be in progress on the other side.

With all this activity, many meeting rooms are still available to groups which, unaware of the park’s facilities, meet in crowded and uncomfortable quarters.

August 20, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. “Roberta” attendance at Star Light Opera hits new high, by Constance Herreshoff.

August 21, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3. Dr. Sevitzky, orchestra entertain at Naval Hospital (illus.).

August 21, 1950, San Diego Union, B-12:1-2. Operation of linotype draws exhibit crowds (illus.).

August 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:5. Electric Building – The San Diego-California Centennial Celebration in Balboa Park’s Electric Building, entering the last half of its 5-week presentation today, will continue its program of familiarizing visitors with the history and attractions of the state.

August 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1-2. Ferde Grofe to conduct San Diego Symphony tonight.

August 22, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:4. Starlight prepares for “Song of Norway” run.

August 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:2-3. A near-capacity audience enjoyed the concert presented last night in Balboa Park Bowl by the San Diego Symphony under Dr. Fabien Sevitzky, director, by Constance Herreshoff.

August 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:3. A final dress rehearsal tonight closes 2 months of preparations for “The Golden Trail,” an operetta to be staged tomorrow and Saturday nights in the Balboa Park Bowl as part of the “Know Your Park” show this weekend in the park.

August 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:5. Electric Building – Fourteen motion pictures are scheduled for today at the Little Theater in Balboa Park’s Electric Building as part of the San Diego-California Centennial Celebration.

August 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:1-3. Most of the manifold activities through which Balboa Park enriches San Diego life will go on display today in the Park and Recreation Department’s “Know Your Park” program (illus.).

August 25, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:4-6. Historical caravan to depict State’s growth at Centennial.

August 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:4-7. The National City News and the San Diego Daily Transcript will be host papers at the Centennial Exposition of California Journalism today and will present a 9-act stage show in the Little Theater in the Electric Building at 1 p.m.

August 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:4. Balboa Park events open.

August 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:5-6. “Golden Trail,” Charles Wakefield Cadman’s operetta, was given a smooth and spirited performance last night in Balboa Park Bowl by the San Diego Junior Civic Chorus and Ballet ably supported by the Youth Symphony orchestra, directed by Lee Scheer, by Constance Herreshoff.

August 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-2:4-7. California’s history told in “Pageant of the Golden Pueblo” in Presidio Park (illus.).

August 27, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:1-4. Strong cast will appear in “Song of Norway” (illus.).

August 27, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-3. San Diego Zoo – sleeping habits of animals, by Bryant Evans (illus.).

August 27, 1950, San Diego Union, D-14:1-3. Spanish Village will have formal opening September 10.

While preparations have been in order for occupation of some 26 booths after the formal opening, as many as 16 shops have been opening in recent months from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. After September 10 the shops will be obligated to remain open during these hours for the public, but many will be open during the week too when artists will be at work

The Spanish Village Arts Center, Inc., an organization made up of Village artists and others, is authorized to approve to prospective tenants by means of a three-man jury on which at least two works of the renter must be submitted.

August 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:3. Movies slated at Centennial in Park today.

August 28, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:2-5. Public saw folk dances at festival on Balboa Park lawn yesterday afternoon at Sixth Avenue and Quince Street.

August 29, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:4-5. Old Globe’s top players to be feted September 8.

August 29, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-2. Centennial to honor 11 newspapers today.

August 29, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-2. Hundreds rehearsing nightly for “Pageant of the Golden Pueblo”; free pageant will open Saturday and will play nightly in the Centennial Bowl at Presidio Park.

August 30, 1950, San Diego Union, B-5:1. Eleven movies billed at Centennial.

August 31, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:1-4. Los Angeles admen visit state press display (illus.).

August 31, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:1-3. Balloting begins tonight at Balboa Park Bowl to pick Star Light Opera’s 1951 shows.

September 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1. “Song of Norway” at Star Light Opera.

September 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-17:5-6. Spreckels Organ parking area to get light system at an estimate cost of $571.

September 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-20:1. City to study costs of developing a golf course on land that was occupied by the Army’s wartime Camp Callan.

September 2, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:3-4. Big crowd likes “Song of Norway,” by Constance Herreshoff.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-4, B:3-4. Pageant marks end of Centennial fete.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-3, B-16:1. “Song of Norway” expected to draw record crowds in final run.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, C-1:6-8. Dinner honoring Globe’s best players planned at El Cortez Friday evening (illus.).

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4-5. Electric Building – final week of historic art show, by Ivan Messenger.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. Symphony series will end with “opera night” program, by Constance Herreshoff.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:7. Maurice John Forshaw organ recital tomorrow night.

September 3, 1950, San Diego Union, D-14:1-3. Balboa Park Bowl – scene of Star-Light Operas and Midsummer Night Symphony Concerts (illus.)

Originally designed to seat 3,800 the Bowl was enlarged this year to accommodate 4,216. At the same time a wall was added around the back of the Bowl to increase rear-seat audibility.

September 4, 1950, San Diego Union, A-3:4-7. Further events scheduled for big Centennial (illus.).

September 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1. Organ recital by Forshaw applauded, by Constance Herreshoff..

September 6, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1-2. Frank Seifert proposes plan to reclaim water; Flow from sewage treatment plant could be used for irrigation; suggests park lakes..

September 6, 1950, San Diego Union, B-3:1-2. San Diego Symphony “opera night” closes series, by Constance Herreshoff.

September 7, 1950, San Diego Union, 6:2-4. Newly organized Balboa Park Protective Association brings suit in Superior Court to have city restrained from permitting use of Balboa Park for exposition purposes.

September 7, 1950, San Diego Union, B-3:5. “Song of Norway” reopens in Balboa Park Bowl.

September 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:1-5. Fetes to hit climax on Admission Day (illus.).

September 9, 1950, San Diego Union, A-3:6-8. House of Hospitality – Bureau of Home Appliances conference.

September 9, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-2. Jackson Wooley, Betty Hayter win Old Globe stage awards.

September 10, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:7-8, B:6-8. Parades, pageant end Centennial celebration.

September 10, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:1-4. Starlight Opera to conclude “Song of Norway,” fifth season tonight (illus.).

September 10, 1950, San Diego Union, B-3:1-8. Description and history of Floral Society Building.

An unobtrusive but attractive structure located about half a block west of the Organ Pavilion, the Floral Society Building is a nerve center for activities concerned with flowers in this community. This is no mean function in a city as devoted to the study and worship of beauty as San Diego and no location could be more appropriate for such a headquarters than the heart of Balboa Park. Here, on the first Sunday of each month, from 1 to 5 p.m., the public is invited to an open house at which are exhibited cut flowers and potted plants representative of the wide variety of horticulture in this area. With lush growths each year of camellias, roses, pelargoniums, orchids, jacarandas, eucalyptus, acacias, fuchsias and begonias, the area never fails to contribute richly to the attractions of the park.

Here, too, in meetings at 8 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month, are plotted such invaluable community services as the floral exhibits for the two World Fairs, the conservation projects, which made it possible for this county’s Torrey Pines, wild flowers, and El Monte oaks to be preserved, and annual April Flower Festivals that have long delighted interested and always sympathetic San Diego residents.

The public is invited to the San Diego Floral Association meetings and to the meetings at the Floral Society Building of the many member clubs of the Association. Postcards addressed to the Floral Association in Balboa Park will be promptly answered with information on the various activities.

Member clubs of the Association are the Coronado Floral Association, A. D. Robinson Branch of American Begonia Society, Eve Kenworthy Gray Branch of the American Begonia Society, Organic Gardening Club, San Diego Branch of Southern California Nurserymen’s Association, San Diego Camellia Society, San Diego County Orchid Society, San Diego County Florists’ Association.

The Floral Association dates back to 1904, and has been putting out an internationally known publication, “California Garden,” for 41 years. All of the association’s accomplishments stem from volunteer work by members who often belong to four or five or the specialized member clubs. Present occupation of the entire group is the 44th annual Fall Flower Show, which for the last few years has been a Chrysanthemum Festival.

For the open house, Association members label all flowers and put in many hours on flower arrangement, selection of exhibits, and over-all decor. They also open up their splendid library containing a wealth of rare and interesting books on horticulture. The building’s large exhibit room, side room used for cutting flowers and kitchen serve the Association’s purposes admirably for open houses and also for the monthly meetings when a lecture on some phase of floral culture always precedes an hour dedicated to informal comparing of notes on gardens.

Association activities are sponsored by the City Park and Recreation Department, with the Floral Society Building provided without charge. Actually, the City is indebted beyond measure to this organization whose avowed purpose has been “To make San Diego a more beautiful city in which to live.”

September 10, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:1-3. Starlight Opera to close successful season tonight, by Constance Herreshoff.

September 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:3-4. Thirty new songs written for “Caught in the Act.”

September 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-6:2-5. San Diego Zoo – gorillas studied for learning (illus.)..

September 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:4-5. Mexican Independence Day celebration last night in Balboa Park Bowl.

September 17, 1950, San Diego Union, D-2:4. New shows planned at Fine Arts Gallery, by Thomas B. Robertson.

September 17, 1950, San Diego Union, D-14:1-8. Balboa Park Gymnasium magnet for those who enjoy athletics; open to public year round.

A question asked many times a day of the switchboard operator at the Park and Recreation Department office is “How much does it cost to play badminton at the Balboa Park gym?”

The answer, that it costs nothing, is met with surprise and even incredulity. Municipal gymnasiums open to the public the year around and supported by recreation rather than school funds are a rarity. Balboa Park gym, located next to Balboa Park Bowl, in the Park’s Palisades area, offers 34,560 square feet of hardwood floor, dedicated from January through December to the athletic exertions of San Diegans.

Badminton and table tennis are the sports always in season at the gym, for when the municipal basketball leagues crowd gym floors on most week nights from November through February, The Federal Building next door is available for these activities. Volleyball and volley tennis also have full seasons, the latter game often filling the gym with housewives during an otherwise tranquil weekday morning. Other activities include girls’ clubs and play days, boys’ gym classes and women’s gym classes.

Some indication of the use that the gym gets from day to day may be given by the fact that close to 85,000 people utilized gym facilities last year, not to mention those who came to watch others play and to take in the tournaments and exhibitions. Nearly 1000 men and women played in organized basketball leagues throughout the winter; about 500 participated in badminton competitions. But by far the greatest number taxed gym facilities day and night indulging in informal play among sports offered there.

Balboa Park gym was built in 1935 as the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries for the Fair. Following the closing of the Exposition it remained inactive until 1939 when it was opened as the Municipal Gymnasium. Two years later the Navy claimed in along with other park buildings, but its post-war reactivation was speeded up to provide a greatly expanded San Diego population with a much-needed athletic recreation center. It reopened in February of 1947 with a splendid new hardwood floor and many facilities it has lacked in pre-war use.

The 120 by 288-foot gymnasium has an athletic equipment and refreshments shop, showers and dressing rooms for men and women, bright overhead lighting, storerooms, an office and a loud speaker system. The floor accommodates three full-size basketball courts or 10 badminton courts, five volleyball or volley tennis courts, and there are always five table tennis games going on around the perimeter of the other activity.

Restoration costs following Navy use of the gym have amounted to approximately $15,000 and have lately included repainting of the entire building, inside and out.

The gym is open every day of the week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., a convenience that requires the services of a district supervisor and five recreation leaders plus the part-time presence of two maintenance men — but a convenience that natives and tourists alike appreciate as much as anything in Balboa Park.

September 20, 1950, San Diego Union, B-2:8. Marie Woolf, Pacific Beach, complains about airplane noise in Balboa Park Bowl.

Editor: I seldom miss any entertainment in the Balboa Park Bowl. It is a wonderful spot and I, among thousands of others, love it, but why do airplanes fly directly over the bowl just when a singer on pianist is on low, sweet notes that are lost to use because of the deafening roar of the motors.

My second complaint is just as aggravating. The Park Commission or the city fathers should take away the steps of the building to the left of the bowl. I know they led to the “necessary room” but the noise of the people going there is just as annoying as the airplanes. If an entrance were made elsewhere and the steps eliminated, music lovers could really enjoy every minute of the wonderful entertainments give in our beautiful bowl.

September 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-5, A-2:4-5. Mayor Knox to seek retained city control of Balboa Park in event of mobilization.

September 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:2-3. David Craighead organ recital Wednesday evening.

September 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:4-6. Full house greeted this season’s version of “Caught in the Act” at Old Globe last night.

September 23, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:6-8. City turns recreational features over to youngsters for “Kids’ Day.”

September 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-4. Mayor Harley E. Knox in Washington, D. C. to seek retained city control of Balboa Park in event of mobilization.

September 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:3-4, A-3:1. Thousands of youths enjoy “Kids’ Day” fete.

September 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-27:4. Starlight Opera officials still picking shows.

September 24, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:1-6. Old Globe Theater city “showplace” (illus.).

September 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:2-3. Leo B. Calland, park director, asks City Manager O. W. Campbell to take steps to exterminate coyotes in park.

September 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:4. Willis R. Dudley, civilian chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Yards and Docks’ real estate division, today said the Navy will not use Balboa Park facilities as it did in World War II.

September 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:8. Thomas B. Oakley writes Balboa Park should be turned over to servicemen; their welfare more important “than a dozen or more expositions.”

October 1, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-8, B-16:1-2. San Diego Zoo – early history; free admission tomorrow to mark Wegeforth Day (illus.)

October 1, 1950, San Diego Union, D-12:4-7. Fine Arts Gallery reopens with new exhibits, by Thomas B. Robertson, assistant director; acting director, Edmund T. Price (illus.)..

October 1, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:1-3. Know Your Park: Spreckels Organ has wide appeal (illus.)

October 4, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:3. Exposition group hears report of treasurer today; exposition has been planned for 1953 and then indefinitely postponed.

October 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-3:4. U. S. Navy urged to enlarge San Diego Naval Hospital.

October 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-4:4. Ewart E. Goodwin, president, said yesterday World’s Fair can be held in 1953.

October 6, 1950, San Diego Union, A-2:2-4. U. S. Navy overruled on San Diego Naval Hospital during economy regime, Knox told..

October 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-10:4-5. County Art Mart planned at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street next Saturday and Sunday.

October 8, 1950, San Diego Union, A-15:4-5. Howard C. Beresford, western representative for President’s Committee on Religion and Welfare in the Armed Forces, informed Mayor Harley E. Knox that park should remain open to military personnel and civilians.

October 8, 1950, San Diego Union, D-3:6-7. “Caught in the Act” packing them in at Old Globe; lyrics put in album.

October 8, 1950, San Diego Union, D-11:1-4. House of Pacific Relations Famed for Harmonious Effect.

Balboa Park’s House of Pacific Relations should be as famous as the United Nations’ headquarters at Lake Success. Not because the fates of nations are being decided there, but because this “One World” in miniature is achieving in fact what the United Nations is striving for in theory: A peaceful and harmonious relationship among the peoples of different countries. Through the years since the House of Pacific Relations was constructed for the 1935-36 Exposition, and its 15 separate cottages located a block west of the Organ Pavilion were occupied by 19 different national groups, its hosts and hostesses have accomplished the so-called “miracle” of maintaining national identity while cooperating perfectly as integral members of an overall House of Pacific Relations organization.

For a glimpse into an almost utopian internationalism, the local resident or tourist need only attend the open house sessions on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m., particularly during the summer when one national group represented takes its turn providing entertainment from 3 to 4 p.m., out in the lovely garden enclosure.

The houses, each with the name of its country printed on the side, are staffed with hosts and hostesses who usually have a supply on hand of native pastries or other delicacies which they will serve with coffee or tea brewed just as it would be in the Old Country.

Making the rounds of the various houses, one observes the furniture make in the prevalent modern style of a foreign country, the imported prints, dishware, posters, drinking mugs, paintings and small furnishings, the native costumes sent over by friends and relatives, and oftentimes the sound of a strange tongue. How different the customs of each land. Yet a few minutes later all present gather on the lawn surrounded by the rustic little fishpond and shade trees to hear a native of Norway tell about his country, see costumed dancers perform Norwegian dances and enjoy the experience of hearing the music of that country. Whether in the social phase here at the entertainments or in the business meetings dealing with house policies, these representatives of disparate cultures, united by Americanisms, function as one.

The success of this organization was anticipated when the fair closed, as those who played host to thousands of visitors unanimously elected to keep the organization going. Through cooperation of the City Park and Recreation Department, the residents have been able to set up central meeting places for their national groups. Save for a period between Pearl Harbor Day and September 1948, during which the occupants continued to meet regularly outside the park, the House of Pacific Relations has been open regularly on Sundays.

Buildings were assigned to national groups on a first-come, first-served basis with the result that Scotland, China, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, United States, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Israel, Yugoslavia and England have their own houses. Sharing the remaining house on alternate Sundays are France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Hungary and Mexico. Israel was, of course, added when the facility reopened in 1948, no having previously existed as a nation.

Each country elects two representatives to the House of Pacific Relations organization. These in turn elect five members of an executive board, who assign themselves into positions of president, vice president, secretary and property man.

The board meets the first Sunday of each month at 4 p.m. followed by the delegates at 4:30. Meetings of the entire membership follow on the second Thursday of each month. These are held at the House of Hospitality at 8 p.m. and include a show to which the public is invited free.

In addition to the Sunday open house and entertainment and the meetings, House of Pacific Relation’s events include an annual fiesta on the first Saturday of November, and annual potluck dinner and occasional holiday celebration.

Participation in the County Fair, in the float parade for the San Diego Historical Society, in receptions for dignitaries of foreign nations and similar projects are also numbered among the organization’s activities.

It is not surprising that 550 attended the inaugural potluck dinner this year, since the total membership of House of Pacific Relations is estimated to number around 3500. It is not surprising either that the dancing following dinner presented no problems t young or old, first generation Swiss or third generation Irish, they danced American waltzes and fox trots.

October 12, 1950, San Diego Union, A-24:2-3. Proponents of preserving the marshes on the north shore of eastern Mission Bay as a wildlife preserve appeared in force at a heading of the city planning commission to determine whether the area should be preserved or turned into a golf course.

October 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:3-4. United Nations’ Week opens with program at Organ Pavilion.

October 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:1. Art Mart sale in Balboa Park helps child group (illus.).

October 15, 1950, San Diego Union, D-11:1-2. Know Your Park: big events staged in Balboa Stadium (illus.).

October 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:1-2. Two thousand at park join in salute to United Nations.

October 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1-2. San Diego Philharmonic Society organized; series of winter concerts to be given.

October 22, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:1-3. Know Your Park: Fine Arts Gallery asset to city’s cultural life (illus.).

October 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1-2. “Caught in the Act” entering last week at Old Globe (illus.).

October 24, 1950, San Diego Union, B-3:6-7. City Park Commission favors quick action on proposals for a downtown Plaza information center and for safeguarding Mission Bay channel.

October 26, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:2-3. A decision to center San Diego’s civic Christmas celebration at the Civic Center instead of Horton Plaza was announced yesterday by Graydon Hoffman, president of the Chamber of Commerce; permanent evergreens will be planted on grounds of Civic Center.

October 29, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:4-8. Know Your Park: Electric Building – description and details concerning use.

The scene of San Diego’s big Electric Shows, Home Shows and the recent Centennial of California Journalism is not a purely functional looking civic auditorium or the ballroom of a private hotel as it might be in San Francisco or Los Angeles. In true Balboa Park tradition, it is an ornate structure on El Prado reminding the cosmopolite of the Casa Consistorial at Palma, Majorca, Spain. The Electric Building, despite its brilliantly decorated cornices and soffit frieze, is a structure ideally suited for industrial and commercial displays on the inside. Installation of an elaborate system of electrical outlets, water connections and plumbing facilities not only facilitates the display of appliances and electrical devices, it greatly reduces expenses for those who would otherwise have to resort to structures readied at great expense for each different exhibit.

Because of these advantages, the Electric Building becomes in greater demand with the passing of each month. The Silvergate Kennel Club now uses it for all of its shows; the Poultry Convention was held there; a large educator’s convention recently was held in the building; square and round dances are moving in between other events.

Whether those who planned the original structure and built it as the Canada Building in 1915 [sic] for the Exposition has visions of refrigerators and washing machines filling the floors someday, they contributed generously to the future by planning 52,000 square feet of floor space. By 1935 this vast hall served most usefully another Exposition as the Palace of Better Housing, featuring displays of building materials and model structures. Between the last Fair and the recent war Electric shows were held twice a year and the Red Cross set up headquarters in the west wing.

Before its reopening in early 1949, the Electric Building had been divided into four large rooms by fire walls to conform to post-war fire regulations. This proved an advantage to exhibitors by providing them with additional wall space. Meanwhile the 12-foot fire doors between rooms unified the interior for large shows occupying all rooms. Navy Restoration Funds of $60,000 were spent on the building, while the City later expended $10,000 for the outlets and necessary equipment.

Rental rates are returning this investment now. Conventions having 25 percent or more attendance from those living out of the County are given the use of the Electric Building free of charge. Those who take advantage of this service and those who rent all or part of the building at rates that would be hard to equal for reasonableness anywhere in the Country would be satisfied if the facade was that of an old barn. That the Electric Building adds to the architectural display along El Prado is an extra bonus to the customer, the City and to Balboa Park.

November 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:5-6. “Circle” in Falstaff Tavern, Balboa Park, pleases audience, by Constance Herreshoff.

November 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:1. San Diego artists’ works will be exhibited in a last a dozen galleries and stored windows today through November 7 in conjunction with American Art Week; Fine Art Gallery show, “Art, Utility and You,” opens November 12.

November 1, 1950, San Diego Union, A-9:5. Superior Judge Arthur L. Mundo ruled yesterday the suit to decide if Balboa Park lands may be fenced off for the proposed 1953 Exposition must go to trial.

November 5, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:4-5. House of Hospitality – Fiesta of Nations will be staged for fourteenth time Saturday night.

November 5, 1950, San Diego Union, D-16:4-8. Know Your Park: Balboa Park Nursery (illus.).

November 7, 1950, San Diego Union, A-5:1-3. City to use Christ Child theme in Civic Center Christmas rites.

November 7, 1950, San Diego Union, A-14:4-5. American Legion conclave in Veterans Memorial Building, Balboa Park, Sunday.

November 12, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1-4, B-16:1. Museum of Man – models of Pueblo Indian dancers on display (illus.)

November 12, 1950, San Diego Union, D-4:4. “At War With the Army: to open run at Old Globe..

November 12, 1950, San Diego Union, D-14:4-5. Know Your Park: Morley Field – Tennis Club.

Institutions in Balboa Park illustrate the historian Toynbee’s contention that strength is built out of adversity. Most of the park’s present going concerns began as temporary structures dressed up with cardboard-like facades, the survived two world wars, a depression and 35 years of wear and tear to become permanent and vital civic institutions.

The Balboa Tennis Club is one such organization. Built at the beginning to the twenties, the six courts on the west side of Park Boulevard between El Prado and Upas Street were torn out in 1934 for the Exposition and the area they covered became a parking lot. By the time they were rebuilt in 1937 and given over to the management of a reorganized Balboa Tennis Club, the club’s dressing room and quarters in an adjoining Indian Village, built for the 1915 Exposition, were beginning to fall apart.

Members from those days recall the wind whistling through the sagging rafters of the old pueblo-like structure, a ghostly shell of its gay Exposition Days, which few tennis players would dare to venture into after dark. Came the second war and the area was surrounded with army barracks, giving players the feeling they were hitting tennis balls around in the middle of a battlefield.

Eventually, even the dubious facilities of the Indian Village were condemned and torn down but resourceful members were able to obtain one of the abandoned army barracks which they converted into the present clubhouse and dressing rooms. While the old timers are understandably apprehensive about what is coming next, the club is actually successful as never before with a membership of more than 200 and the heaviest use of the courts in their history.

The Balboa Tennis club operates under an arrangement approximated in several other institutions in the Park. While the City owns the courts, they are entrusted to the management of the Club, which in turn provides maintenance and improvements for them. The non-member public may use the courts when they are not occupied for a designated fee.

The Club is non-profit and pays no salaries. It buys all new nets, repaints lines, provides and maintains shower and toilet facilities and pays upkeep bills.

The Club, while it dates back to the time the courts were built, has functioned as a formal organization only since 1937. It is directed by a board of nine governors elected for two-year terms, and by a president and vice president. It conducts a variety of tournaments throughout the year for members and for local juniors, and, for 26 years, it has conducted an annual County Championships, interrupted only during the three years that the courts were torn up.

Bill Tilden, Alice Marble, Don Budge and all the great of the tennis world have performed on its courts in exhibitions and during the war years the County tournament drew some of the foremost tennis talent in the country to the Park.

A primary function of the present organization is the promotion and development of junior play. Every year numerous free memberships are given to local juniors showing promise and a voluntary program of senior sponsorship assists young people by offering them skilled players for practice and financial aid in paying tournament entry fees.

While they have admittedly thrived on rough times, survivors of the Indian Village Days want to see the young Balboa Tennis Club members off to a better start than they had.

November 13, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:6. “Harvey” run on schedule at Old Globe after January 1.

November 15, 1950, San Diego Union, A-22:1-3. Electric Building – Home Appliance Show expected to attract 175,000.

November 16, 1950, San Diego Union, A-26:1-4. “At War With the Army” play scores hit in Old Globe, by Constance Herreshoff.

November 17, 1950, San Diego Union, B-16:1. Exhibits put in place for gadget show in Electric Building.

November 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:1. Electrical Show will open Friday.

November 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-12:2-3. San Diego Zoo – San Diego giraffe in Australian zoo.

November 19, 1950, San Diego Union, D-12:1-2. Know Your Park: Children’s Area – Miniature train and merry-go-round.

Balboa Park appeals to all ages, its multiplicity of offerings making it possible for a family of varying ages to spend the entire day in the park with each member pursuing his own interest. Even parents who confine the activities of their group to a tour of the Laurel Street Cultural Center will find that the children have the last word when they bargain with the bosses for a final whirl through the children’s play area around the intersection of Park and El Prado.

The Balboa Park Railway here, the merry-go-round and the two children’s rides on toy airplanes and in tiny automobiles are typical commercially-operated equipment at parks throughout the United States. Rates are city approved, and the gross sales percentage paid to the City helps maintain the park. But, as is true of other facilities in Balboa Park, they are unusual in having ample space to accommodate crowds and in their ready accessibility to all parts of the City.

The merry-go-round and the two children’s rides are familiar landmarks of long standing, notable particularly for the absolute minimum fares to which they have adhered through steadily-rising price jumps in everything else.

Less familiar and thus worthy of some examination is the Balboa Park Railway installed opposite the Zoo on November 13, 1948, by the Swope Railways of Kansas City. Here on two and a half acres of ground handsomely landscaped by the Park Division of the Parks and Recreation Department, a figure-eight track of 2200 feet was laid out complete with two semaphone signals, a tunnel, a block signal and a grade crossing bell plus 13 towns or whistle stops.

Over the track, to the delight of close to 400,000 customers, one-third of them adults, and far from all of these accompanying small children, runs a four-car train seating 45 and pulled by two gasoline-powered locomotives. The train is built, as other the signals and other paraphernalia, to one-fifth scale, with the locomotive modeled exactly after the General Motors Co. Electromotive Division’s Model F-3. It was in fact built from drawings provided before General Motors actually built its own model. The tracks are necessarily of larger scale proportionately to assure safety of operation.

Model railroad fans, who sometimes take group rides on the Balboa Park Railway, are interested in the ladders, windows, doors and couplers of the locomotive, all built to scale, and its locomotive wheels, fluid drive, vacuum brakes on all wheels and elaborate instrument board containing 11 different instruments.

In answer to their erudite questions, they are informed by “engineer” Robert C. McCoy that the greatest upgrade on the train’s course is on half of one percent, the greatest downgrade only percent, and that the circuit of slightly less than half a mile is made in from two and one half to three minutes with 15 miles an hour the fastest speed attained.

Local communities honored by signs are La Mesa, National City, Chula Vista, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, Lakeside and El Cajon. Knoxville, Calland Corners, Perryville, Rhodes Center and Curtis Junction immortalize names of City officials. Naturally the management gets complaints from communities not represented in the already crowded countryside of the Balboa Park Railway grounds, but City officials have not yet been heard from.

The Railway is open from 12:30 to 5 p.m. weekdays during school and from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and school holidays. In summer vacation it is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. The merry-go-round and rides are open from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays and school holidays during school terms. In summer vacation they are open daily from 1 to 5:30 p.m. and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays and holidays.

November 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-8:5-6. “At War With the Army” opens second week tonight.

November 21, 1950, San Diego Union, A-18:4-5. Golf – coyotes no longer damage golf course.

November 23, 1950, San Diego Union, C-2:1-5. Home Appliance Show presents vast array of new equipment; 13th annual event opens tomorrow.

November 24, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:6-7. Free Electrical Show to open in Balboa Park.

December 3, 1950, San Diego Union, A-7:1. Civic Center Yule spirit underway; still-life portrays Story of Nativity (illus.).

December 3, 1950, San Diego Union, A-11:1-2, Model railroaders compete in House of Charm.

December 4, 1950, San Diego Union, B-1:1. $1,800 engine tops class in model railroad exhibition in Balboa Park.

December 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:7-8. Playgrounds throughout city plan Yule events.

December 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:4-5. More than 15,000 small fry — and large fry too — yesterday roared a “Hi-Hoppy” welcome as Hopalong Cassidy , western film start, pranced into Balboa Stadium astride his white horse, Topper.

December 17, 1950, San Diego Union, A-27:1. Park work worth an estimated $198,100 balked by wartime ban on such construction . . . restoration of botanical building . . . construction of tennis courts at Golden Hill . . . street-light replacement and revision along Laurel Street and in Palisades area . . . construction of foot bridge from Park Boulevard to Palisades area.

December 19, 1950, San Diego Union, A-13:5. The San Diego City and County Centennial Commission has repaid all of the working capital which it received from the city and county.

December 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:5-6. A future site is being reserved in Morley Field for Balboa Park’s Riding Stable, said Leo Calland, city recreation director.

December 28, 1950, San Diego Union, A-1:8, A-3:3. Knox not to run again for mayor; health cited in decision to retire; achievements given, by James Montgomery.

December 20, 1950, San Diego Union, A-19:5-6. Morley Field – future site of park’s riding stable.

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BALBOA PARK HISTORY

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