Today, I perused the OC Public Library archives, and I came across this old photograph of "Fairy Wood" dated c. 1927. I had never heard of Fairy Wood, but it looked familiar. So I Googled the name and found that it was the site used by Laguna Beach's Isaac Jenkinson Frazee* (1858-1942) to present his Indian Pageant. This property later became the location of the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts.
Obviously, this is a photograph of Laguna Beach, at or near Main Beach, in the late 60s. Presumably, the signs ("Refuse to serve in the Armed Forces") concern the Vietnam War. Check out the price of Super Shell: 34 cents a gallon.You can see the White House Café in the background at right. Here's a picture of the White House in the 40s:
This, too, is Laguna Beach: May of 1967, I believe. "Eiler" likely refers to Eiler Larsen, the city's "greeter" in those days (and until his death in 1975). I'm not sure what kind of help the fellow needed in 1967, though it was about then that he became ill. (Larsen, a WWI vet, was born in 1890.)*Born in Winchester, Indiana, Isaac Frazee (1858-1942) was a painter who specialized in Indian subjects and also wrote books, short stories, and poems. At his private amphitheater on his San Diego ranch, he produced "Indian Love Pageant,” predecessor of Laguna’s first Indian Festival in 1921 that evolved (with the help of Lolita Perrine) into the Pageant of the Masters. Frazee’s sketches of Laguna Beach in 1875 are the earliest known depictions of the area. He made his home in Laguna in 1926, just before it incorporated and lived here until his death. (From Orange Coast Living.)
