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Story by Kevin Cody
Photos by Ricardo Reznichek
On the occasion of Hermosa’s 100th anniversary, in 1987, Rick Learned decided to research the history of his grandfather, George Learned, founder of Learned Lumber, which the Learned family still owned.
Rick Learned discovered his grandfather, who died when Rick was six, was a colorful city councilman who was recalled in 1940, along with three fellow councilmen. According to Hermosa Review newspaper accounts, the recall was triggered by the council’s opposition to allowing the Hermosa pier to be used by boats ferrying customers to offshore gambling ships.
Ironically, the paper reported, George Learned was replaced on the council by Roy Seawright, who also opposed use of the pier by the gambling ships.
Rick Learned’s interest in his grandfather’s history, expanded to a broader interest in Hermosa history, prompting architect, and then Hermosa Chamber president Jerry Compton to suggest Learned head a chamber historical committee.
“There’s a problem with being tall. When people are looking for a leader, they tend to look around the room and pick the tall person,” the six-foot-plus Learned said in explaining how he became the first president of the Hermosa Beach Historical Society, after it split off from the chamber. He served from 1987 to 1991.
Learned recalled his grandfather’s story on the occasion of the Historical Society’s 35th anniversary celebration, on Sunday, June 26 at the Historical Society Museum.
The celebration began with a video of the Hermosa Beach 80th anniversary parade.
The parade marshal was Logan Cotton, a CPA, who in 1930, at age 30, became Hermosa’s youngest mayor. The Hermosa Kiwanis Club was known as the “Cotton Club,” because according to legend, over 50 years, Logan never missed a Kiwanis Club meeting.
George Learned’s council replacement Roy Seawright, and wife Bunny, founders in 1968 of the Seawright Volleyball tournament, also rode in the parade. The Seawright tournament remains a signature Hermosa Beach event. Roy was an Oscar-nominated cameraman for Hal Roach Studios, who made the ghosts appear and disappear in the “Topper” movies. Bunny won the Catalina to Manhattan Aqua plane race in 1937. She was born in 1907, the year Hermosa was founded.
Roy and Bunny’s granddaughter, Annie Seawrignt-Newton, is an Historical Society board member.
Other participants in the 1987 parade included the 22nd Street Volleyball Players and Glee Club; dogs, cats and rabbits from veterinarian Alica Villalobos’ animal hospital; and members of OSPAC (Open Space People’s Action Committee), which spearhead the following year’s purchase of the 19 acre Santa Fe right of way for $7.5 million. The right of way is now the Greenbelt.
Following Learned’s recollections, the Historical Society’s second president, Jenette Carr (1991-1993), recalled fearing she would have to refund the founding members’ dues.
The city had given the Historical Society free rent in the newly acquired Community Center, which had been Pier Avenue Junior High. But the city evicted the historical society in favor of paying tenants. Subsequently, the council allowed the Historical Society to move into the former junior high’s boys locker room, made famous as the girls’ locker room in the 1976 Stephen King horror film, “Carrie.”
Carr’s successor as president, Regina Taylor (1993-1995), recalled scavenging through antique stores and begging residents for memorabilia.
Today, the museum is filled to the rafters (literally) with collections that include Bunny Seawright’s aquaplane; surfboards by shaping legends Dewey Weber, Bing Copeland, and Greg Noll; Hermosa Review and Easy Reader newspaper archives; and its latest, as yet undisplayed acquisition, a collection of historic skateboards.
The museum is also home to the California Beach Volleyball Museum, and the former 16th Street beach lifeguard tower, which was disassembled on the beach and reassembled in the museum.
Former president Ricardo Reznichek (1995-1998) said he was enlisted by Bunny Seawright. He noted that his successor, attorney, Larry Gray (1998-2000), secured the society’s non profit status.
Under Reznichek’s tenure the museum expanded its outreach to include historic walking tours of Hermosa, and events that included a night of sea chanteys and a film about the Gabrielino Tongva Indians.
More recently the museum has hosted Happy Hours with History, whose far ranging subjects have included Hermosa jazz, and punk music history, and skiing, surfing skateboarding and photography.
Fran Carr (2000-2002), the daughter of the club’s second president, credited her sister, retired Lifeguard Captain Shannon Davey, with helping the museum obtain the former lifeguard tower, which now serves as a divider between the museum’s civic collections and its surfing and beach volleyball collections.
Carr noted that her sister was the first Los Angeles County Lifeguard to be fitted with a maternity uniform.
Building contractor Rick Koenig oversaw the museum’s remodeling during his 13 year tenure as president, from 2002 to 2015. In 2003, Koenig recalled, the city allowed the museum to expand into a storage room that was the woodshop when Koenig attended Pier Avenue Junior High in 1964.
“I used to wonder how Mr. Turner lost both thumbs, until one day I smelled his coffee. It had a bit of the Irish in it,” he said.
The biggest challenge Koenig faced was getting the museum remodeled in time for Hermosa’s 100th anniversary, in 2007.
It was a collective effort, Koenig said.
“Councilman JR Reicksky, an electrical contractor, donated his time and convinced his employer to donate the electrical supplies. Eleanor Weaver helped patch the floors. She was 80 years old. Congressman Ted Lieu, (then a State Assemblyman), took a sledgehammer to a wall we needed knocked down,” Koenig recalled.
“We celebrated the reopening of the museum on Jan. 14, 2007, at 12:14 p.m., 100 years to the minute of Hermosa’s incorporation,” Koenig said.
Additional installations Koenig said he’d like to see, include a cut-away of a traditional beach bungalow, and a palm frond-covered shaping shed, like the ones the early surfboard builders worked on the beach in.
Koenig was followed by president Norm Rosen (2015-2018), who facilitated the hiring of a museum director. Rosen passed away in 2020.
Four years ago, current president Greg McNally noted, the museum hired Jamie Erickson as its first full time director. McNally credited her with shepherding the museum through COVID with virtually exhibits, and virtual Happy Hours with History.
To further expand the museum’s services, McNally said, the museum hopes to become one of the few California community museums to receive historical accreditation by the Alliance of American Museums. Accreditation would make the museum eligible for a wide range of grants.
A site-visit by the accreditation committee is planned for early next year.
“Dancing Through the Decades,” the Historical Society’s annual gala, will be held Saturday, August 27, at St. Cross Episcopal Church.
For tickets to the gala, and more about the Hermosa Beach Historical Society, visit HermosaBeachHistoricalsociety.org. For more photos from the President’s Celebration, visit EasyReaderNews.com. ER
