Queen of Hermosa Beach Thelma Greenwald leaves throne
by Kevin Cody
Thelma and Richard Greenwald bought the 17-room Seasprite Hotel, on the Strand in Hermosa Beach as an investment property in 1964. Richard and his twin brother Robert owned Del Amo Dodge, on Hawthorne Boulevard.
A few weeks after buying the Seasprite, the manager quit, leaving Thelma to manage the motel.
On her first day at work, Thelma Greenwald recalled in a 2004 Easy Reader interview, she called her husband and told him she couldn’t possibly show the rooms to guests because the carpets were so worn and the counters so badly burned by cigarettes she wouldn’t stay in the motel herself.
Thelma Greenwald with her husband, Richard, (right), and his twin brother Robert at the family’s Del Amo Dodge, on Hawthorne Boulevard, in the early 1960s. Photo courtesy of the Greenwald family.
“Honey,” her car salesman husband told her, “as you’re leading the guests up the stairs, just point to the ocean and say, ‘Isn’t that beautiful.’ They’ll never notice the carpets.”
“After a few weeks, I told Richard to hurry up and sell that car dealership. I think with the two of us working at the hotel we could stop it from losing money,” Thelma recalled in the 2004 interview.
“I used to stand on the holes in the carpet and use picture frames to cover the burns on the counters,” she said.
Soon, the Sea Sprite was profitable enough for the couple to buy the 14-room Breakers Hotel on The Strand to the north of them. Then they bought the 28-room Del Mar Hotel to the south of them.
When the Biltmore Hotel was demolished in 1968, the Greenwalds gave its elderly, displaced tenants rooms in the Breakers at below market rates.
“We never pushed anyone out. We waited until they died or had to move to a home. And God has certainly repaid us,” Thelma recalled.
Richard Greenwald passed away in 2000, at age 83.
Thelma Greenwald passed away recently on October 23, at age 94.
Thelma Greenwald and Rabbi Yossi Mintz at the dedication of the Jewish Community Center Kitchen in 2009. Photo courtesy of Rick Koenig
Rabbi Yossi Mintz met the Greenwalds when he arrived in the South Bay three decades ago.
“Thelma was a powerhouse, but in a quiet way. It was never about her. She was the Queen of Hermosa, ” he said.
Rabbi Mintz credited the Greenwalds with helping found the Jewish Community Center. When it began feeding the local homeless, the Greenwalds donated money to the Jewish Community Center to build a commercial kitchen. They also donated money to countless other community organizations. The couple was named the Hermosa Beach Man and Woman of the Year in 1997.
Thelma Greenwald and Rick Koenig (center) with members of the Hermosa Beach Arts Foundation at the dedication of the remodeled Community Theater lobby.
“The Hermosa Arts Foundation wanted to remodel the Hermosa Community Theater. Thelma was a foundation member, and wrote a check for the full amount, $120,000,” Hermosa building contractor Rick Koenig said.
The couple lived in Torrance until 1987 when their home burnt down.
“We were standing outside of the house we had lived in for 40 years, thinking of all the things we had lost when a worker from the Red Cross asked us if we had a place to stay for the night. That’s when I broke down and cried because I saw how truly blessed we were,” Thelma recalled.
That year they bought the house at the corner of 9th and The Strand, between the Seasprite and the Del Mar. Thelma said one of the reasons they wanted the house was to tear down the coiled barbed wire the owners had strung along the wall surrounding the house.
Thelma Greenwald, (center, in white) with past recipients of the Hermosa Beach Man of the Year and Women of the Year awards during the 2006 awards luncheon at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach. Pictured (left to right) are John Workman, Rick Koenig, Joe and Marie Diaz, Dick and Cathy McCurdy, Thelma Greenwald, Susan Blaco Bob McEachen, Betty Ryan, JR Reviczky, Dean Nota, Jean Cullen, Yvonne Amarillas, Anna Belcher, Elaine Doerfling, Dorothy Yost, Paul Amarillas and Eleanor Lynn. Photo by Kevin Cody
The home became a favorite party house for community gatherings, and the couple’s own extensive family. Their children Darrell, Cathy Hier, Liz Powell and Roberta Perkins-Greenwald gave the couple 19 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
From time to time, Thelma said in the 2004 interview, her family entertained the idea of remodeling their, pink, meticulously maintained motel, whose architecture suggested it was built in Bakersfield during the Dust Bowl years and trucked over the Grapevine.
“What’s stopped us is we have grandmothers who stayed with us when they were children who now bring their grandchildren. We get thank you notes all the time for holding the prices down, because otherwise our old guests couldn’t afford to vacation with their families at the beach,” she said.
A room with a queen size bed and a sliding glass door overlooking the ocean was $99 a night. A room with a view at the Beach House, also on The Strand, was $319 a night.
“We don’t need the money. I have everything I want right here. I walk to my hairdresser. I walk to the Mermaid every Friday for lunch with my lady friends,” she said. She also walked to the Easy Reader office for the 2004 interview.
“Thelma was a very classy, dignified woman. She dressed every day like she was going to a wedding. I visited her the night before she died, and she was having her nails done. They don’t make people like her and Richard anymore. A light has gone out,” Rabbi Mintz said. ER