I have no information about this photo of a billboard advertising the Deauville Beach Club on Santa Monica Beach. I don’t know when the photo was taken or where the billboard stood, but in a way, that’s beside the point. The advertising illustrates a time when there were private clubs along LA’s most popular beach that offered all sorts of amenities, like a gymnasium, pools, dining, lockers, and guest rooms. It sure beats a sand-filled towel that might blow away while you’re swimming in the Pacific. The funny thing is, the Deauville didn’t even look like that. There was no 12-foot tower with huge pyramidal roof. The club was that 2-story building at the front, which was charming enough. Maybe they had plans to build that tower before the club burned down in 1964.

** UPDATE ** – Gregory H. says: “It’s likely from 1926. They ran all kinds of newspapers ads that summer announcing the upcoming groundbreaking to commence in October, and all the ads use this image to show how it will look when completed. In February 1928 someone ran a classified ad in the Times looking to trade their Deauville Beach Club membership for a ‘26 Chevy Coupe, which I guess gives some sense of the perceived value of the cost of the membership.”

Advertisement for Deauville Beach Club, Santa Monica:

Matchbook from the Black Cat Caberet du Chat Noir in the Deauville Beach Club, Santa Monica

Silverware from the Deauville Beach Club, Santa Monica, Los Angeles

Here’s a photo of the actual club. It looks lovely, doesn’t it?

The autocolorizer did a pretty good job bringing this photo to life.