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McClanahan, Peggy (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Peggy McClanahan was interviewed in the Signal Hill Community Center where the interviewer met her at a meeting of the Signal Hill Historical Society. After the main part of the interview, she drove the interviewer around and pointed out the locations of TOPICS - oil industry; Burnett school; Auto Exchange and Wrecking Company; Japanese farmers; Long Beach Polytechnic High School; family background; 1933 Long Beach earthquake; Richfield compressor plant explosion;Kid Mexico; law enforcement; oil wells; housing; government policy, and movies; 10/5/1981
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- 2022-10-21
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- SUBJECT BIO - Peggy McClanahan grew up in Signal Hill and lived there most of her life. In fact, she lived in the same house and observed many changes as she went to school, worked and then raised her own family. In this single interview, McClanahan discusses her family's arrival; in Signal Hill. She began attending Burnett school and then graduated from Poly High School. She worked in an auto repair and wrecking yard where she kept the books and did all of the office work. After she married, she and her husband bought the house where she grew up and where she was continuing to live at the time of the interview. She experienced the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and the more serious Richfield compressor plant explosion that followed. She also was the recipient of political favors Kid Mexico bestowed on individual local voters as well as the parties he threw for everyone. At the time of the interview, McClanahan was continuing to keep an eye on local politics and supporting the local historical society. This interview was conducted as part of a project to study the impact of oil on the development of Long Beach. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Peggy McClanahan was interviewed in the Signal Hill Community Center where the interviewer met her at a meeting of the Signal Hill Historical Society. After the main part of the interview, she drove the interviewer around and pointed out the locations of TOPICS - oil industry; Burnett school; Auto Exchange and Wrecking Company; Japanese farmers; Long Beach Polytechnic High School; family background; 1933 Long Beach earthquake; Richfield compressor plant explosion;Kid Mexico; law enforcement; oil wells; housing; government policy, and movies;
- *** File: shpmcclanahan1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:30)... Brief introduction McClanahan was born in Macon, Georgia where he father worked as a street lamp lighter and lumber inspector. When WWI broke out, he enlisted and was sent to El Paso, Texas. The rest of the family followed him and when the war ended, he went to work for the railroad as a boilermaker. In 1921, they moved to Los Angeles where he found work as a welder with a Signal Hill pipeline construction company. Then they moved to Signal Hill. (2:30-6:43)... There is an interruption in this segment. When she moved to Signal Hill, the town was called Burnett and it had a post office, a drug store, a grocery store, a butcher shop, a cafe, and a Masonic lodge. Olympic Refinery was located on Burnett and 25th Street. Oil tank cars were parked along the railroad tracks and a steam train pulled them to Los Angeles. The train also carried passengers to Los Angeles for $.75. To get to Long Beach, most people rode the Pacific Electric trolley or the bus into downtown Long Beach. (6:43-9:21)... McClanahan attended Burnett grammar school through the 8th grade. The school was in a two story building. Then she attended Hamilton Junior High School in the 9th and 10th grades and graduated from Poly High School. After that she went to night school at Poly for two years before getting a clerical job at the Auto Exchange and Wrecking Company. She worked there until she married and never went back to work. In school, she learned basic subjects and remembers that the class sizes were not large. (9:21-11:05)... When they first arrived in Signal Hill McClanahan and her parents attended the First Christian Church in downtown Long Beach and later, the Bethany Baptist Church. On Sundays, after church, they had family picnics. At the time of the interview, she was attending the Signal Hill Baptist Church. (11:05-13:25)... The first couple of years McClanahan remembers living on Signal Hill there were only a few oil derricks and a lot of Japanese gardens. The Japanese gardeners grew vegetables and flowers. The gardens disappeared more oil wells were brought in. Some homes remained among the oil derricks such as the Delaney mansion on Atlantic. The rest of Signal Hill developed at a very fast pace. She did not like it when the wooden oil derricks were torn down because she thought they were picturesque. (13:25-16:53)... When the City of Signal Hill was incorporated, the name was changed and it wasn't called Burnett any more. Street names were also changed to match those in Long Beach. The Burnett Post Office was closed and home delivery of mail began. The local grocery store eventually closed and McClanahan's family shopped at either Smith's Market on the Wardlow Road or Black's Market on Cerritos and Wardlow Road. When Long Beach outlawed the sale of meat on Sundays, Smith's Market moved its meat section to the front of the store, which was in the Signal Hill city limits, so that patrons could still buy meat on Sundays. McClanahan bought most of her clothes in downtown Long Beach where J. C. Penneys, Bon Marche, and Buffum's were located. And she liked to go to the movies at the Tracy Theater on Fourth and Pine. (16:53-20:14)... McClanahan considered it a treat to go to the Pike and her father liked to fish off of nearby Pine Avenue Pier. She like to swim in the Plunge, an heated, indoor, salt water swimming pool and bathhouse from which you could walk right out on the beach, but she was afraid to go on the roller coaster. She also enjoyed playing carnival games and winning prizes and believes the hot dogs and humbuggers on the Pike were "the best." On Signal Hill, she and her friends went on hay rides. And her parents usually planned something for their children on the weekends, such as going to the LA Zoo, the alligator farm, or Knotts Berry Farm. (20:14-21:37)... McClanahan's father worked for Signal Hill pipeline company, which eventually changed names to Robinson & Room. He then became a welder and went to work for Irwin Welding Works. When he was transferred to Bakersfield, McClanahan and her husband bought her parent's Signal Hill home where she was still living at the time of the interview. McClanahan's family name is Steele. (21:37-22:28)... Her family did their banking and other business in downtown Long Beach. They either rode the bus or the Pacific Electric streetcar to get to Long Beach. (22:28-23:53)... The development of Signal Hill increased as more oil wells were drilled. More restaurants, welding businesses, and oil supply companies were opened and more houses were built. (23:53-26:47)... When McClanahan attended Poly High School she walked there with a group of friends. At Poly, she took the basic required courses as well as courses in business, such as typing, bookkeeping, and Dictaphone. She was required to take classes in home management, cooking, and sewing. She never liked sewing and she couldn't afford to buy the ingredients the teachers used in the cooking classes. Besides, no one knew more ways to fix hamburger than her mother. After she graduated from high school, she took advanced business courses in bungalows behind Poly High School. (26:47-29:49)... McClanahan baby sat to earn extra money when she was growing up. While in high school, she worked in an office during summer vacations and on weekends. After she graduated, she went to work for Auto Exchange and Wrecking Company and Marine Hardware owned by Earl W. Hawkins. She was hired to do secretarial, bookkeeping, and to be a cashier, but ended up sweeping the office, decorating the windows, and being a "general duty flunky." She liked her work and it was close enough to her home for her to walk to work. (29:49-35:05)... After her parents moved to Bakersfield, McClanahan and her sisters continued to live in Signal Hill. One Thanksgiving, while visiting an aunt in Los Angeles, McClanahan met her husband, Roland. They dated a short time before getting married. He was a diesel mechanic who was born in Los Angeles, for Fellows & Stuarts on Terminal Island and liked to drive race cars at the old Ascot raceway. Her family immigrated to the United States from Scotland; her mother and aunt were nurses in Pennsylvania who eventually moved to Los Angeles. She and her husband married in a Bakersfield Baptist Church and purchased her parents' home. At the time of the interview, McClanahan had lived in the same house since 1922 when her parents originally purchased it. (35:05-38:50)... She and her husband went to downtown Long Beach on Friday or Saturday night. Often they went to a vaudeville show put on by the Jack Russell Company at the Strand Theater on the Pike. On the way home, driving down Long Beach Boulevard, they'd stop for a "Navajo special." They regularly attended the First Christian Church, except between 1939-42, when they attended the Bethany Baptist Church on Olive. In their spare time, they visited her parents in Bakersfield or went on short trips to Santa Monica or San Diego. They did not have a lot of money to spend on entertainment or vacations. (38:50-42:08)... When the 1933 earthquake struck, there was little damage to the house where she lived. About a year later, however, when the Richfield refinery exploded, It blew all of the windows out of their house and their ceilings caved in. They had rent another house while their home was being repaired. The Red Cross helped them pay their rent. Richfield Oil Company did not reimburse her parents for the damage and injuries they suffered until after all of the work was done. Her mother got $500.00 for her injuries and Richfield paid her doctor bills. McClanahan and her sister each received $50 for their injuries. (42:08-42:58)... There was a fire on Signal Hill while her family was living in Los Angeles. Her father came home, picked up the family, and took them to Signal Hill to see the fire. The sky was lit up and the firemen were working hard to put the fire out. (42:58-46:24)... During WWII, more women started going to work. McClanahan's husband, however, didn't want her to go to work. Her mother was a registered nurse and her younger sister was a beauty operator in Long Beach; most of her sister's clients worked in the shipyards. Her husband worked long shifts at Fellows & Stuart. Often, he worked 24 hours when a ship came in that needed to be repaired. There were times when she could not wake her husband following these shifts. The women who worked with her husband were mainly welders and kept the shop clean. The company organized luncheons to celebrate new ship launchings. McClanahan attended a few of these luncheons and recalls that the owners' wives did not put on any "airs." (46:24-50:46)... McClanahan gave birth to a premature son on April 2, 1936 who weighed only 3 pounds. The doctor feared he would not survive and allowed McClanahan to take him home. Her mother nursed him back to health and he grew up healthy; at the time of the interview, he was 6 feet fall and weighed 200 pounds. He attended the same schools as McClanahan and was taught by many of the same teachers. The appearance of Burnett grammar school was changed after the Long Beach earthquake. Her son went to Hughes rather than Hamilton Jr. High since Hamilton was closed after the earthquake. Poly high school had also been rebuilt after the earthquake by the time her son went to school there. (50:46-51:31)... McClanahan was not active in city politics, but followed events in local government. She clearly remembers Kid Mexico and some of the things he did. End of tape *** File: shpmcclanahan2.mp3 (0:00-3:37)... Kid Mexico had a bowling alley in Signal Hill. In addition to free bowling nights for kids, he brought celebrities to town for personal appearances. On Christmas, he made sure that every kid in Signal Hill had a gift and he gave chocolates or a bar of soap to the women. He once asked McClanahan if she needed anything. She told him she's like him to pave her alley and he got it done. She also asked him to mow her lawn, which he did, but cut of the sprinkler heads. She was surprised to hear that he was a gambler, but he did not instill those ideals in children. He made his money boxing and owned a lot of sports memorabilia. He had the only bowling alley and bingo parlor in Signal Hill. Bingo was played in a separate room, but she was too slow to play. Her neighbors played and won nice prizes. (3:37-5:55)... There were other restaurants in Signal Hill including the Frog Pond Inn which served liquor. Sometimes her husband delivered ice there in the mornings before going to work. They always got good meals at Sis Ashton's a cafe; sis's daughter, Ruth, became an Los Angeles television news reporter. She always read the Signal Hill newspapers and kept up with local government although at the time of the interview, she could no longer remember politicians' names. (5:55-10:57)... McClanahan supported Police Chief Murphy when some people wanted to get rid of him. She attended a city council meeting on the matter and was confronted by another man who owned an Orange Julius stand and who disagreed with her. He called her a liar once in a City Council meeting and she quit going to meetings after that. Signal Hill had a motorcycle officer named Bud Moon when it first incorporated. Before that, law was enforced in the area by Los Angeles County sheriffs. The city's first mayor was a woman, Jessie Nelson, who lived on Atlantic. McClanahan's father was active in city politics and attended city council meetings in support of incorporating Signal Hill as a city. (10:57-13:00)... There used to be a store was on Vernon and California. Movies companies filmed in the gully nearby where tracks of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad came through Signal Hill. McClanahan never appeared as an extra in any of these movies but she went to see the movies being made. (13:00-22:35)... The tape recorder was shut off at the end of the last segment and turned on again at the beginning of this one. The interview resumes with Mary McGinnis talking about her family. McGinnis and her family moved to Signal Hill from Montana and they lived in "Tent City" on the beach in Long Beach when they first arrived. From there, she walked along a boardwalk all the way to Pine Avenue and the Pike. Her father found a job with the City of Signal Hill Street Department. After that, he also worked for the fire department in Signal Hill and retired after twenty-five years of service. Her family moved to Signal Hill and she grew up there on Gaviota Street. She remembers being told by a neighbor that when oil was struck on the hill, boulders and oil came rushing down Walnut and Willow demolishing many of the homes in the area. When the Long Beach earthquake hit in 1933, she was in Sunset Beach. (22:35-27:34)... At the time of the interview, McGinnis lived in one of the houses in Signal Hill that was built before oil was discovered. It sat in a small group of pre-oil homes with oil wells pumping among them. McGinnis knew some of the previous owners of the house since she has lived in Signal Hill most of her life. She was educated in Signal Hill schools as were her daughters and granddaughters. End of tape
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