I hope everyone saw the Huell Howser California Gold show on KCET public television this Saturday. What a bevy of Laguna Beach television stars, which included:
Janet Blake of the Laguna Art Museum
June Neptune of Tivoli Terrace
Karl Warkomski of the Laguna Canyon Foundation
John Cunningham, Michele Hunter, Dr. Richard Evans, and Helen Krugman of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center
Ranger Barbara Norton
John Bodrero of Orange Inn
Laura Cohen at the Nix Nature Center
Laguna Beach Lifeguard Casey Parlette
Jeff Rosselar and Letty Skeen of the Laguna Ocean Foundation
Huell Howser showcased Laguna Beach including the Orange Inn, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, the Laguna Art Museum (which now has a new exhibition on Laguna Impressionist artist William Wendt), tidepool exploration at Shaw’s Cove, the Nix Nature Center in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant and Main Beach Park.
I was impressed, and have TIVOed if anyone would like to view.
There was one bit of information about Laguna Beach that Huell Howser got wrong. The lifeguard stand at Main Beach, an icon of the City, has on it “1929” when the lifeguard department was founded. But the lifeguard stand was not on Main Beach in 1929. The story is even more interesting as told in the “Laguna Beach Magazine, earlier this year “A Towering Icon” by Micaela Myers:
“The tower’s long and colorful history begins in the 1920s, when it originally served as the offices for the Union Oil gas station. The gas station was located on what’s now the corner of Broadway and Coast Hwy. When the station went out of business, the tower got a second life on Main Beach where it was moved in March of 1937.”
Laguna Beach is quite a special town and has quite a history; see Laguna Beach Historical Society web site LagunaHistory.org to view photos and read more.
