The Casino restaurant in the Ocean Park part of Santa Monica wasn’t a “casino” as we think of it today. Back in 1905, which is around the time this photo was taken, a casino simply referred to a building used for social amusements. This Casino restaurant also had tennis courts and a stage where bands could play. By the looks of the crowd packed shoulder to shoulder, whoever was playing that day were popular—although those four women in the bottom left corner, all decked out in white, seem to be over it. Perhaps they went for a walk along the pier that we can see in the background.

Susan M. says: “Casino in this sense of the term, lived on for some time. In the 30s on the Ocean Park Pier, there was The Casino Gardens. By the early 40s, Tommy Dorsey owned it. It played host to some of the best swing dances during the war I ever went to. No booze there, so as to allow all ages in, military and civilians. They had a big root beer bar. Most nights it was free root beer for military. They used to radio broadcast sometimes from here. Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, Artie Shaw in his Navy uniform all played there. It pretty much folded for a time after a fire broke out there in ’43. It reopened but was never the same thriving place. By the 50s, there was a dance place on the pier there named the Circus Gardens. That one was demolished in the late 50s or early 60s when they expanded that pier for POP construction. I can still picture in my mind the Casino Gardens in the early war years. I think I fell in love more than a few times there with both song and Navy guys! Hearing Artie Shaw play “Begin The Beguine” live was a little slice of heaven.“