Still echoing across the ether somewhere above Long Beach are the faint sounds of carousel music, the chimes of carnival games, the roaring of amusement park rides, and the chatter and bustling of thousands of people who came together to take part in the pure ecstasy and excitement of what was known as The Pike. For a moment, let’s pretend that, like when watching a play, the curtains have risen, and this scene is unfolding like it were happening now. The time is 1943. The Pi

It was a warm summer night on Friday, June 3, 1955. East Long Beach families were lining up in their cars on Spring St. and Bellflower Blvd. to be the first ones to see a movie at the new Los Altos Drive-In. That night was a double-feature: Howard Hughes’ “Son of Sinbad” (the first showing in the Long Beach area!) and “Rage at Dawn” (presented in Technicolor and Super-Scope). Prominent local advertisements lured the people in. World’s Largest Screen! 10 stories high. Super Gi

1964 Buick Riviera | Owner: Eric Chandler From the 1930’s up until somewhere in the early 1980’s, summertime meant one thing for a large population of Long Beach youth. Car cruising. Well, technically, there was time all year long for car cruising back in the day. But summertime meant more days out of the week to be out later into the night. The night would always start at a drive-in. That’s where you met up with friends and ran into people you knew. There was Hody’s at the c

It’s a cold foggy Tuesday morning in the dead of winter and Marine Stadium is empty. The same Marine Stadium that has become world renowned since its inception before the 1930 Olympics; the Marine Stadium that’s seen Olympic gold medals in rowing, national championship drag boat races, world record waterskiing times, and crowds into the fifteen thousands… The Marine Stadium that projects the roars of a summer stadium crowd so loud they tickle the ears of residents from 90803

Daniel O’Donnell stared down at his toes as they hung over the high dive. The distance from the diving board to the water seemed much larger from this angle. He took a deep breath and mustered up all the courage a young boy could. He closed his eyes. He took a step. And off he went, down to the depths of the Millikan High School pool. That summer would go down as the year he had conquered the high-dive. Next summer, maybe he would conquer the world! For years, a typical East

It was 73 degrees at noon on Sunday, May 25, 1986. The day was sunny and clear, perfect weather for an unprecedented national event. At precisely 3 p.m. EST, noon PST, an unbroken (well, almost) chain of Americans clasped hands beginning in New York, through Washington D.C., across the country and ending at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Were you one of the 5 million people to participate in Hands Across America? It was the Eighties. The hair was big. The shorts were short.

The Long Beach Open is a summer classic in our city. The four-day professional tournament is held at three of our public courses: Recreation 18, El Dorado, and Skylinks. With a current purse at 170,000, it is one of the biggest tournaments in the western United States. Only two Long Beach residents have ever won their hometown tournament. Paul Goydos in 1990 and Peter Tomasulo in 2005. Paul Goydos is a two-time PGA tour champion and 20-year card holder on the PGA tour. The ye

Nearly 10,000 fans graced the stands in San Bernardino during the Little League Western Championship Tournament against Hawaii in the summer of 1992, and most of them had traveled from Long Beach to cheer for the 12-year-olds All-Stars out of Stearns Park. State flags waved in the stands as everyone held their breath, wondering which team would make it to the World Series. But the road wasn’t going to be easy. The Long Beach nine were facing Hawaii pitcher Lanakila Niles, who