In this shot we’re seeing Germany race Italy in the Long Beach Marine Stadium during the Los Angeles Olympic Games in August 1932. The locals watching this race probably barely even noticed the forest of oil wells in the background, but I do wonder what out-of-towners and international competitors made of this sight. I also wonder what the television cameras would have done with them as they don’t exactly make the most scenic of backdrops to the competition.
Germany races Italy in the Long Beach Marine Stadium during the Los Angeles Olympic Games, August, 1932
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I remember those oil wells even in the late 40’s and slowly one by one they disappeared from the landscape
Yeah – that appears to have been taken on Naples Island looking north towards Coast Hwy. Today you’d be looking at Marina Pacifica and/or 2nd & PCH shopping center, with power plants possibly in the background.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo from the 1932 Olympics from any events that weren’t set in and around the Coliseum. – I can’t say I’m a fan when I see photos of past L.A. and all the oil wells around. But I also don’t think it seemed to me that people of the time were averse. Maybe they thought of it as a good thing? I don’t know. Paul, do you have any recollections of how people felt about them? Were people happy when “one by one they disappeared from the landscape?”
I remember watching a 1962 movie called The Chapman Report some years ago and there’s a beach scene where you see oil wells all along the background and it took me out of the movie thinking how unappealing that would be to go to a beach with oil wells as a backdrop!
A beach with a backdrop of oil wells doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? It doesn’t make for a groovy scene for when Gidget goes surfing.