by Kevin Cody
Elsewhere in the world, March 17 is recognized as St. Patrick’s Day. In Manhattan Beach, March 17 is Bob White’s birthday.
Citywide recognition of White’s birthday began shortly after the traveling salesman met United Airline stewardess Connie Perrine on a flight to Hawaii. Both lived in Manhattan Beach, shared March birthdays and frequented Ercoles, the town’s oldest bar. Upon marrying in 1960, they began celebrating their birthdays with a party on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day. Bob’s birthday is Saint Patrick’s Day. Connie’s was March 11. She passed away in 2005. But the tradition continued.
White’s 95th birthday party began last Saturday with the traditional raising of the American flag over the White house, while the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders played the national anthem.
White played the coronet. He founded the Dixieland band in 1971. It’s named after the neighboring sewage treatment plant. He is the last living member of the original band, and one of the last living members of the original Manhattan Beach.
In 1976, Mayor Joan Dontanville, or “Queen Joan,” as the city’s first female mayor was known, named the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders the official band of Manhattan Beach. Over the following four decades, the band opened the city’s summer concert series in Polliwog Park. Their music evoked simpler times, as did a song White penned, and sang, scat-like, in his cigar-cured voice, like fellow trumpeter Louis Armstrong.
Oh my, Manhattan
What the heck has happened
They’re tearing down the whole darn town
And building castles,
The dirty rascals
My neighbor is a yuppie
Who built a house so tall
It blocks my view
What can I do
You can’t fight City Hall
Manhattan Beach Councilman Steve Napolitano has attended the White house birthday parties since grammar school, when he met Bob’s son Lincoln. In 2020, when the pandemic prevented the 93rd birthday party, Napolitano recognized Bob from the council dias as “one of the people who make Manhattan special.”
Among Saturday’s other guests was Michelle O’Brien, the girl Bob was dating when he met Connie. Michelle married the guy Connie had been dating, future Manhattan Beach Police Chief Hugh O’Brien. The four remained lifetime friends.
Other 95th birthday well wishers included just about everyone who ever played Manhattan Beach Little League baseball. White was a coach and league president. And just about everyone who ever celebrated Christmas Eve at Ercoles. White wrote the bar’s theme song, “It’s Christmas Eve at Ercoles.”
The song, sung to the tune of “O’ Christmas tree,” might also have been written for the White house birthday celebrations.
Tradition is what brings us here
And also lots of liquid cheer.
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