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California Tour & Travel Magazine

Santa Monica

Santa Monica Pier
With a carousel, an arcade, an amusement park, a trapeze school, restaurants and a summer outdoor concert series, the Santa Monica Pier offers a wide range of activities for the whole family. The Santa Monica Pier celebrated its Centennial on September 9, 2009, making it one of California's oldest pleasure piers.
Santa Monica Farmers’ Markets
Our outdoor farmers’ markets are the place to find fresh, beautiful produce and cut flowers from local, organic California farmers, as well as live music, chef exhibitions, artisanal cheeses and gourmet items. In fact, many top Southern California chefs and restaurateurs are regulars at our markets.
Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach
The original Santa Monica Muscle Beach – an outdoor, beachside facility with a range of workout equipment – was made famous by Jack LaLanne, the godfather of physical fitness.
Chess Park
Chess Park is for those looking for a mental workout. Though the level of play is high, and overall tone pretty serious, challengers are always welcome, as are observers.
Santa Monica Parks
Within Santa Monica’s 8.3 square miles (21.5 km²) are over 420 acres of public open green parks with facilities for everything from basketball to softball, swimming to tennis and even lawn bowling.
Santa Monica’s Attractions Nearby
Santa Monica’s proximity to greater Los Angeles and Southern California is another reason that Santa Monica has so many repeat visitors – nearby options range from Hollywood to Beverly Hills, Disneyland to the Universal Studios, all within an hour’s drive.

Venice Beach
If it hadn’t been for Abbot Kinney’s asthma, Venice may never have been founded. Kinney, born 1850 in Brookside, New Jersey, was on a three year trip around the world when a snowstorm prevented his return to the east coast. He journeyed, instead, to Sierra Madre and was so impressed by the climate he developed a citrus ranch called Kinneloa.
After his marriage in 1884, Kinney began purchasing land to the south with Francis Ryan. The partners developed Ocean Park with a walk pier and a country club. A streetcar line was extended to the site.

After Ryan’s untimely death in 1898, and a succession of partners with whom Kinney couldn’t agree, it was decided that the land speculator would toss a coin and the winner would choose which half of the district would be his. When Kinney won the toss, he startled the other four partners by choosing the barren, marshy property. Kinney soon announced that his sand dunes and marshland would soon be a cultural city patterned after Venice, Italy. The public laughed and dubbed the plan “Kinney’s Folly”.
They stopped laughing when trenches for canals were dug and Venetian-patterned buildings began to spring up. By July 4, 1905, Venice-of-America officially opened with a wonderful pier and exciting attractions: Italian gondoliers poling their boats down fairy-lit canals, a concert orchestra supplying music that could be heard nearly all over town, camel rides, exotic hotels catering to the best tastes, a miniature railroad circling the entire scene. Cultural diversion never flourished in Venice. The public came to ride the camels and the little train and to see the sideshow. The Doge of Venice-of America had built a cultural Renaissance by the sea.  This atmosphere still prevails today.

Culver City

From the silent days of Hollywood, to the action packed movies of today, Culver City, California has been the Heart of Screenland. Though you won’t find a Hollywood star on any of the sidewalks, you will find The Culver City Walk of Fame which features 62 palm trees lining a mile of Washington Blvd. the street that was home to the Historic MGM Studios. From “Meet Me in St. Louis” to “The Good Earth,” “Singing in the Rain,” “Showboat, ”Ziegfield Follies” and “National Velvet.” and much more. Culver City was and is the REEL Hollywood. In 1913 Harry Culver marking off his “new city” convinced notorious filmmaker Thomas Ince to locate his film studio and movie making business to Culver City, with its perfect weather and location. Thus it was that Triangle studios was completed and a new caliber of filmmaking had begun. After Culver City was incorporated, Hal Roach Studios was born.
In 1924, Ince’s Triangle Studios became the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, more familiar as MGM with Leo the Lion as its symbol. In the next 10 years, MGM acquired 5 back lots, comprising hundreds of acres which included the building facades, the famous Tank, where Esther Williams and others did their swimming and water shots, the zoo and the lake, where they shot much of the Tarzan movies, Wizard of Oz, Showboat and Gone With The Wind, and where much of it remains today. As a kid, Maureen worked in movies and television shows on these very lots.

Off-the-set shooting was normal, so the locals had the benefit of rubbing elbows in the Culver City streets with many stars including Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Spanky and “Our Gang”. Culver City buildings were used in many of the movies of the era, especially the National Historical Landmark Culver Hotel, built in 1924 (and in use today), with a star-studded pedigree of owners, including John Wayne. The lucky residents also participated as extras in the movies like Ben Hur, Last of the Mohicans. How wonderful that the official city seal adopted in 1936 reads, “Culver City, the Heart of Screenland”.
During the 1920’s it was also Prohibition and Culver City was notable for having the most speakeasies per block per capita in the country which meant the ‘liquor faucet’ was always running. This made perfectly good sense, as the actors, directors, producers and film crew were thirsty. Gambling was also high on the list of after-hours activities. Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club, “Fatty” Arbuckle’s Plantation CafŽ, and King’s Tropical Inn were some of the popular clubs where resident Louis Armstrong played along with other icons like Lionel Hampton.
Fast forward to Today, the MGM lion is gone, but Sony Pictures Entertainment operates the old momentous MGM studios and Culver Studios (with its famous front used as Tara in Gone With the Wind) employing thousands of people locally. Along with Columbia Pictures and a myriad of others, movie and television lore continue to be created and crafted in these same studios, on these same streets. Traverse the streets around Downtown Culver City and you are walking over hallowed grounds that still have the celebrity imprint of the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. In the West Los Angeles area, Culver City stands out as a landmark city of inspiring provenance and stimulating artistic, creative and educational proclivity. To its residents, including us, Culver City is a well-kept secret with its proximity to all areas of Los Angeles, and its small town feel with its own school system, police and fire departments. Its recent Downtown Renovation is an example to other towns and cities with its excellent design and the fact it came in under budget. Just 15 minutes from Los Angeles International Airport Beverly Hills, Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, 20 minutes from Downtown Los Angeles, and a long 25 minutes to the “Other” Hollywood, Culver City has more than enough to keep the visitor or local wondering why they’d never explored here before.
“Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Ann Miller danced through Culver City...Gwen Verdon was raised here where her mom had a dance studio. Some days you just feel like you are happily skipping down the Yellow Brick Road”.