Freeth lecture brings Redondo’s history alive
Historian Arthur Verge lectures a packed library conference room on the life of legendary waterman George Freeth. Photo by John Brooks
Arthur Verge, a history professor at El Camino College, assumed that he and his wife were going to be greeted by an empty room at the Redondo Beach Public Library, fearing his lecture on the life and times of surf and lifeguarding pioneer George Freeth would be delivered to a room of empty seats.
Instead, library staff were forced to dig extra chairs out of storage, and still ended up with men and women pressed against the walls, as more than 70 people crowded the second-floor meeting room.
“This is God’s country,” Verge said. “This is the community of the South Bay — surfing, lifeguarding, beach culture, are so important.”
For about an hour, Verge’s lecture was the center of the universe for South Bay watermen. Dozens of lifeguards and surfers and dozens of history buffs were stoked to learn about the Hawaiian who, beginning in 1907, redefined a waterman as not just a skilled sailor, but a joyful swimmer, surfer, and diver — someone who was truly one with the water. Moreover, Freeth took it upon himself to train legions of young people to be one with the water as well.
Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand shakes hands with Arthur Verge following the lecture. Photo
“He’s Junipero Serra to me, setting up missions up and down the coast — but instead of missions, they’re lifeguard services, up and down the coast,” Verge said, referring to the Franciscan missionary who founded missions up and down the California coast. “He saved lives, and he gave the impetus, telling communities they need professional lifeguards. This is not an amateur’s game.”
Verge’s lecture was the product of at least six years of research, and nearly two decades beyond that of deep appreciation, into the world of George Freeth. Attendees were able to absorb about 45 minutes of Verge’s research, which debunked popularly held beliefs (like the idea that Freeth was brought to California by developer Henry Huntington) and explained Freeth’s contributions to modern lifeguarding.
A longtime Los Angeles County lifeguard himself, Verge explained how modern lifeguarding traditions — especially amongst South Bay locals — can be traced back to Freeth through the men and women who sat at his learning tree.
“Many of the lifeguards of the age group that were here today, our heroes were the lifeguards,” said Jim Graham, a retired lifeguard, and 2017 inductee into Hermosa Beach’s Surfers Walk of Fame. “I grew up in Hermosa Beach in the ‘40s and ‘50s…our heroes were the Dewey Webers and the Bud Stevensons and the Jim Baileys.”
The audience was rapt throughout, with a few backseat historians occasionally chiming in. But the crown jewel of the presentation was the digital screening of “The Latest in Life Saving,” a comedic silent film that featured demonstrations of then-revelatory lifeguarding techniques and equipment (including a respirator very similar to one used by Redondo’s firefighters in the 1970s, according to retired Redondo Beach Fire Chief Pat Aust). The plot is simple: a woman, pursued by an unwanted suitor, scrambles around the Redondo waterfront of the 1910s until she stumbles on the pier and falls into the ocean. Freeth and his friend, champion swimmer Ludwig Langer, dive in to scoop the damsel up and resuscitate her; fully recovered, she bops her pursuer in the face to the audience’s delight.
According to Verge, the movie has one more bit of significance: the on-screen pairing of Freeth and damsel-in-distress Dolly Mings, who Verge believes to have been the unrequited love of Freeth’s life. At the movie’s end, a few scant frames of the century-old, slightly worn film, show Freeth shining a broad smile toward the camera, which was largely unseen in his portraits of the day.
“I love learning this, the true accounts of many, many years ago. It’s really the roots of Redondo,” said Mayor Bill Brand, who said he cancelled all of his Tuesday evenings plans to make the lecture. “I can’t get enough of this stuff…I really would like to see a historical book about Redondo, it’s fascinating.”