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The News Pilot reported Beacon Street's "Last Night.": "Topped with liquid friendship and wobbling with good humor, old-time buffs of Beacon Street sang it a nostalgic farewell Saturday night. About 2000 people showed up for the last fling of the street which made san Pedro world-famous."By 7:00 p.m., the bars were busy, and old friends were hugging each other. The people kept on coming, and by 9, the street, bars and sidewalks were crammed. The busiest bar was Tommy's Goodfellow, perhaps because it was one of the last to close for redevelopment. "Interestingly, most of the winos didn't show up for the celebration. Besides lacking the admission fare, some were afraid they would be booted out. And shortly before it started, Harbor Division handed out cigars for them to stay out of sight." (1) The News-Pilot made no mention of "movie stars who started on Beacon Street attending." |
Four months later I took this shot looking south down Beacon Street. Tommy's Goodfellow, not yet fallen, can be seen on the near left. Farther down, the tall San Pedro Municipal Building ("City Hall") backs up to Beacon Street at 7th Street. Memories of this building appear in an ILWU oral history of San Pedro's momentous maritime strike in 1934: "During the strike I got rousted around; that's kicked around by the law. If you was more than three persons they'd roust ya, take you to "7th heaven" at 7th and Front in San Pedro. That used to be the jail house. Up the elevator to the top [7th] floor-they'd work you over." (2) |
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(1) San Pedro News-Pilot, August 24, 1971; John Hart reporting. |