At 5.55pm on March 10, 1933, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit Long Beach, shaking the bejesus out of the city and surrounding communities. (6.4 is a fairly big one; it was strong enough to be felt in Hollywood where movie sets shook during takes.) One of those nearby neighborhoods is Santa Ana, which is roughly 15 miles west. This photo shows the damage to the Woolworth’s 5, 10, and 15 cent store at 201 W. 4th Street. I hope nobody was standing under that awning. There looks to be a fair amount of rubble on the side walk, so I imagine Woolworth’s front window didn’t survive unscathed either.
This is how same stretch of stores in February 2019. It looks like very few of those buildings remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltoLrfjUTto
Footage of W.C. Fields filming being interrupted by the earthquake in ’33.
Regarding the nearby community statement, Santa Ana would be north-east of Long Beach and east-south-east of Hollywood.
I remember comments made by relatives living in the mentioned communities how that quake was felt all over So. Cal., but strongest there in Long Beach. Many felt the pumping of so much oil out of the sub-strata destabilized the ground beneath the Long Beach area. I understand that tectonic stresses was relieved by replacement of the millions of barrels of removed oil by pumping in seawater.
My understanding is this was the quake that banned unreinforced mansory construction. Guessing all the buildings shown fell into that catagory & why none appear to exist now. Also read WC Fields footage was actually filmed after the quake as a publicity stunt. Ah Hollywood!
I think you’re right about how it change construction codes quite significantly. I just watched that footage from the WC Fields movie that M. Mitchell Marmel posted and…I dunno…it looks gosh-darned real to me!
Agree posted WC Fields video looks real… Wikipedia page for “International House 1933” has an “earthquake” paragraph relaying footage cooked up by Fields & Director Sutherland ~ Also of note (at least to me) is film also stared Peggy Hopkins Joyce, the original “gold digger” for whom the phrase was invented! Like I said “Ah Hollywood”.
Hi, the Longbeach quake is featured in Scott Fitzgerald’s final, incomplete novel – The Last Tycoon- I have been searching for real life refernces in the movies of the time and finally came across the W C Fields clip which wiki says was faked for publicity – it darn well looks real to me, as do the actors’ reactions !
I’ve seen that clip, too. It looked pretty genuine to me.