The Center of the Universe
There was a time when The South Bay was where presidential candidates visited and shopping centers reined
by Steve Fulton
It’s 1975 and I’m 5 years old.
We are at the Orange Julius.
My mom and brother are here.
We are sitting outside on plastic benches.
Shaded by plastic umbrellas.
Sipping cool drinks.
As The South Bay Sun spills all around us.
*****
We live in the South Bay.
I know this because the Orange Julius sits in a completely outdoors mall.
Named The South Bay Center.
It is located on a large plot of flat-land.
At the corner of Hawthorne Blvd. and Artesia.
When I look at the Thomas Guide we have in the living room the South Bay Center is right smack in the middle of the page of wherever the South Bay seems to be.
****
We come here often with my mom.
It is one of her favorite places.
We shop at JJ Newberry and the May Company, women’s fashion stores with names I fail to memorize.
Sometimes also Thriftys.
But nearly every time, we stop at the Orange Julius.
My mom buys us each a small whipped orange drink.
This is the center of my Universe.
****
I think now how I’m suddenly captivated by the idea of The South Bay.
What it was.
Why it was.
I do some research.
The name The South Bay has signified many places on many coasts.
The Great South Bay is in New York.
There is a South Bay in San Diego.
And South Coast Bay in Orange County.
Now that when I talk about the South Bay.
people think I’m talking about south San Francisco Bay.
But none of those places have anything to do with my South Bay.
That one I know as Manhattan Beach.
Hermosa Beach. South Bay Center.
Redondo Beach.
Lawndale.
Torrance.
Lomita.
Palos Verdes and El Segundo.
Was it just an idea that formed in my head in the ‘70s by living here?
South Bay Center groundbreaking on September 10, 1956. Among the participating dignitaries were South Bay Bowling General Manager Peter Spilos (third from left), Mayor Bill Czuleger (with shovel) and Sidney Brody, president of SBC developer Brody Investments (right). Photo courtesy of the Redondo Beach Historical Museum/Sydi Sanderson, Zander Hardy.
South Bay Center is the first major shopping mall in the area.
It breaks ground in 1955.
“The area will be known as the South Bay Center and construction will begin as soon as present grading operations are completed.”
-February 11, 1955 – The Redondo Reflex
It is designed to serve a wide area.
The area that is more-or-less The South Bay as it was seen in 1955.
“The new center will offer one-stop shopping service to more than 400,000 people in the cities of Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Lennox, Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance”
-February 11, 1955 – The Redondo Reflex
It opens in 1958.
****
I drive by now in 2023.
South of Artesia.
If I look to the right just as I pass the Galleria, I can see the northmost outwall of Macy’s.
It’s the last remaining part of The South Bay Center.
To me, it still looks like it did in 1975.
When it was The May Company.
The construction of The South Bay Center proceeds and anticipates the massive growth to come over the next few decades in the South Bay.
“Conservative estimates of the growth of the South Bay area indicate that within five years there will be an increase in the number of residents of over 28 percent.
-February 11, 1955 – The Redondo Reflex
****
My mom and dad move to The South Bay in 1965 from their Venice rental.
Prime time for The South Bay Center.
The South Bay is something I actively think about.
The idea of The South Bay is always on my mind.
Why?
It’s where I come from.
I know this because it’s been reinforced my entire life.
But it’s also ill-defined.
Is that why I also feel ill-defined?
Is the South Bay a place or an idea?
Does it even matter?
Around the turn of the 20th century there is a dredging ship named The South Bay.
It works the ports from San Diego to Seattle.
In 1907 in makes the LA Times for trying to tow a Chinese Junk named The Wang Ho.
It loses the ship on a sandbar.
May Company department store’s mid-century modern design was by Albert C. Martin and Associates. The departments included apparel, books, records, furniture, and cameras. May Company also featured a soda fountain, the Bay Shore Tea Room, and a fallout shelter in the basement. Photo courtesy of the Redondo Beach Historical Museum/Docent Sydi Sanderson, and Commissioner Zander Hardy.
The May Company opened at the South Bay Center in 1959.
“Scheduled to open in the next few weeks, finishing touches are being made on the giant new May Company South Bay unit located in the South Bay. The Redondo Reflex Jan_23, 1959
My mom frequents The May Company department store.
My brother and I tag along often.
The May Company has everything.
My mom loves to look at the ladies’ fashions.
She rarely buys anything.
Sometimes she does buy patterns so she can sew them herself.
And the TV department on the top floor.
Sometimes they have video games hooked-up to the TVs.
Sometimes we get to play them if the salesmen don’t yell at us to get away.
We also love the snack bar in the basement.
The basement of the May Company at the South Bay Center is our designated fallout shelter.
In case of nuclear war.
If the Nike Missile Batteries can’t defend us.
We are to gather there to avoid the inevitable.
The South Bay Center reopened on August 26, 1985 as the South Bay Galleria, a fully enclosed, glass domed cathedral to shopping, with a food court and movie theater.
John F. Kennedy holds a rally at the South Bay Center on November 1, 1960.
30,000 people attend.
7 days later he is elected president of the United States.
He is the first Catholic President.
My mom loved John F. Kennedy.
We all attend American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach for Mass every week.
Except my dad.
He is an atheist.
But he still liked John F. Kennedy.
The Daily Breeze newspaper was once the paper of The South Bay.
It even said so on the masthead.
I go online to read it, but I hit a paywall.
I’m on a mission, so I pay $.99 cents to view the current E-edition.
There it is in 1974.
But now it’s gone.
Does The South Bay even exist any more?
****
Through the 1970s The South Bay Center is where we spend much of our time.
Along with the Orange Julius and The May Company.
There is a Victoria Station restaurant shaped like train cars.
A JJ Newbury.
A Thrifty’s with a full diner at the entrance.
“One of the outstanding features of the South Bay Center will be a beautifully landscaped parking area on all sides of the buildings with a capacity of over 3,000 cars at one time”
-February 11, 1955 – The Redondo Reflex
To the south, is a vast parking lot.
As big as the farms I learn about in Kindergarten.
Sprouted with a bountiful harvest of Volkswagen Bugs, Dodge Chargers, AMC Pacers, Ford Pintos.
And our old, red AMC Rambler.
On the other side is the South Bay Bowl.
A bowling alley connected to the place I saw the first movie I can remember.
The movie was “The Silver Streak.”
My dad loved it.
The theaters are named the South Bay General Cinemas.
The name The South Bay is on everything I see.
I figure it’s kind of a big deal.
The AMC Rambler dies in 1975, not long after a trip to South Bay Center.
My dad replaces it with a blue 1976 Datsun 710 Station Wagon from South Bay Datsun.
****
By the mid-1970s the outdoor style of The South Bay Center gives way to the massive indoor malls and playgrounds just down the street.
Del Amo Fashion Center.
The Old Town Mall.
It seems the South Bay, whatever it may be, can only really sustain one large mall or shopping center at a time.
The Center Of the Universe shifts.
A few miles down the road.
To Torrance, CA.
****
In 1978 South Bay Center is sold.
To a company named The South Bay Associates.
In time, the JJ Newberrys, the Orange Julius, the Thriftys, the Victoria Station, The Pier 1 are all bulldozed.
The May Company is one of the few buildings that stays standing.
Maybe because it’s our fallout shelter?
The South Bay Center reopens on August 26, 1985 as The South Bay Galleria.
The most magnificent mall the South Bay has ever seen.
The best part for me as a 15 year old?
There is a food court on the top floor.
And it has an Orange Julius.
The Galleria is an instant hit.
It looks as ‘80s as anything could possibly look in the ‘80s.
Three floors, rounded curves, neon.
A full-sized Jeep sits in the window of the Banana Republic.
It draws shoppers back from The Del Amo Mall, The Old Town Mall, The Manhattan Village Mall.
Soon, all of those malls fall on hard times too, and they themselves will be bulldozed, remodeled, reimagined, reincarnated.
****
For a while, The South Bay Galleria is the center of my universe again.
I mostly haunt the clothing stores, and the $1 Store looking for bargains.
But my mom doesn’t like it very much.
It makes her claustrophobic.
She wants her outdoor hallways, and breezy corridors.
She wants to sit with her boys under the plastic umbrellas, shading us from The South Bay sun at the Orange Julius.
But we are grown-ups now.
****
In 1910, the South Bay Shooting Club, and The South Bay Gun Club are mentioned in the papers.
As is The South Bay Yachting club, located in Venice.
In 1914 the Pacific Electric train specifically serves The South Bay District, but it’s unclear what area that refers to.
What’s clear is that in 1914, 10s of thousands of people travel by train to the South Bay beaches.
The trains are gone now.
There is no train stop at The Galleria.
The Green Line ends a few miles north in Hawthorne.
The train tracks remain, but instead of people only freight floats by on the rail line that lays between The Pacific Crest Cemetery and the parking lot for Target.
The South Bay may have once been a weekend destination for Angelenos.
But when the Green line opens in 1998 they are repulsed by the South Bay bubble.
****
The South Bay Galleria is super successful until the day it isn’t.
That day, Nordstroms moves out and re-opens at the new Del Amo Mall.
Anchorless, the mall begins to drift.
The South Bay, it seems, can only support one large mall at a time.
If that.
Today The Galleria is a “dead-mall.”
There are murmurs the site will be rebuilt again.
From “State Of The City” Daily Breeze, Jan. 5, 2023, by Mayor Bill Brand:
“The South Bay Galleria redevelopment is back on track after the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn temporarily stalled the project…the complete remodel of the mall and adaptive re-use of the old Nordstrom store, new activation along Artesia Boulevard, 300 residential apartments, a new hotel, a Town Square, plenty of EV charging and a skate park. A look at the large-scale model of the new Galleria project is available for viewing on the 3rd floor adjacent to the AMC theaters. “
When the project is complete, the Galleria will have a new name: South Bay Social District.
But right now, it’s still a hulking mass.
The 3rd floor Orange Julius is long gone.
The low-rent allows people with neat little ideas to open-up shop.
Kiddie amusement parks, VR Shoot-outs, arcades, escape rooms, retro video game stores.
They all come and go.
One person’s little dream handed to another.
I secretly hope they are all successful.
****
I visit and walk through the massive halls now.
I count the number of closed and boarded-up stores.
Almost 40 of the spaces lay empty.
I trace my steps to imagine where JJ Newberry’s once stood.
Where was the Thrifty’s?
Where was the Orange Julius?
I trace a path from the North side of the Macy’s through the mall.
I arrive at an empty storefront on the first floor.
I’m pretty sure this is where it once was.
I stand and gaze through into the empty store windows.
****
Here is “the sh*t” about how The South Bay might have been named permanently.
No one really knows for sure.
From what I can find, even though the phrase was used prior, the concept of The South Bay as a distinct place is formed in the 1920s.
In 1921 the City of Los Angeles has a sewage problem.
They needed to get rid of theirs.
Their idea is to dump sewage through the Ballona Creek Wetlands and/or to a new Hyperion sewage plant on the coast of El Segundo.
Quickly, the South Bay Auxiliary is formed.
It consists of the the cities Redondo, Manhattan, Hermosa, El Segundo, Lomita, Torrance.
To fight the plans of Los Angeles.
Venice and Santa Monica side with L.A. to save Balona.
The South Bay Auxiliary believes none of it is necessary.
When they lose, South Bay Sanitation District is formed out of the The South Bay Auxiliary.
After that, the name The South Bay pops up all over the place.
Specifically in places that were part of the South Bay Auxiliary.
Roofing companies, auto shows, grunion runs, health districts
Later, the South Bay Unified High School District is established.
And then, eventually.
The South Bay Center.
****
After we finish our Orange Juliuses, we walk through the JJ Newberry to the parking lot on the other side.
We get into the AMC Rambler.
“The plot on which the center is to be built is already completely surrounded by homes, which have been built within the last few years. New subdivisions, now under construction in the vicinity, will further increase the population, which will be served by the center.”
-February 11, 1955 – The Redondo Reflex
We travel through the vast 1975 South Bay neighborhoods.
Down Grant Avenue, through Redondo, across Aviation.
Past Ormond, to Ford and back across Artesia to Peck.
And then to First and to our house.
My mom parks the Rambler in our long, concrete driveway.
South Bay Social District community liaison Geoff Maleman, of Redondo Beach with a model of the proposed project during a presentation to the Redondo Beach Roundtable last June. Photo by Kevin Cody
I think about the parking lot outside The South Bay Center now.
And how just to the west was once a Levitz Furniture store.
That is now a Target.
And just beyond that are the railroad tracks.
And just beyond that the Pacific Crest Cemetery.
My mom is buried there.
And I wonder if late at night, her spirit gets to visit.
Floating over the train tracks.
Past the Target.
Through the parking lot.
Into the mall.
Looking for things she used to know.
Stuck in an eternal temporal zone.
Where all time stands still.
Yet all time occurs at once.
Maybe she finds our old spot.
The Orange Julius.
My brother and I are waiting for her.
Still 5 years old.
At the center of our universe.
We all sit on plastic benches.
Shaded by plastic umbrellas.
Drinking cool, whipped, orange drinks.
Together in the shade.
As the infinite South Bay sun spills all around us. ER