2017-10-06 Messenger Mountain News - "Tales from the Beach, Part 2"

"Tales from the Beach, Part 2"

Photo by John Puklus

By extraordinarily popular demand, the Topanga Historical Society presents Part 2 of "Tales from the Beach," on Wednesday, October 18, a continuation of its successful Part 1 event about Lower Topanga in the '60s and '70s that was held in August.

The Topanga Community House will, once again, take you down Memory Lane with more stories and pictures about this special time in history at Topanga State Beach, as well as offer up music by Blue Juice (the beach band from back then), awesome food and knee-slappin' reminiscing about the good old days.

The potluck starts at 7 p.m. Bring your best dish and your favorite beverage to share. THS will provide organic decaf coffee, hot tea and lemon water. The program begins at 8 p.m.

The Topanga Community Center is located at 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290.

2017-09-22 Messenger Mountain News - "Memory of Place" by Suzanne Guldimann

"Memory of Place"

by Suzanne Guldimann
Photo by Harry Varnas

Poet and publisher Pablo Capra is haunted by a place that no longer exists, the vanished bohemian Eden of Lower Topanga. The loss of his childhood home has been the catalyst for his life and art.

Lower Topanga was erased from the map by the California Department of Parks and Recreation in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2002, the community of artists, poets, writers, musicians, surfers, stoners, dreamers, and outlaws received eviction notices. By 2007, the neighborhood of bungalows, shacks and tiny houses originally built in the 1920s was gone, torn down to make way for park facilities.

That loss inspired Pablo Capra's quest to preserve the history of his childhood home. "It was a motivation to make sure it was not erased from memory," he told the "Messenger Mountain News." "It's weird, it's like it didn't exist," he said. "The house where we lived, even the road it was on are completely gone."

Capra, who started out writing and publishing poetry, including a collection of Lower Topanga poets called "Idlers of the Bamboo Grove," has spent nearly two decades collecting the history of Topanga Beach, interviewing former residents, gathering photos and publishing the stories and images in a series of books called "Topanga Beach Experience."

Early books featured the quirkily pen and ink illustrations of James Mathers. More recently, Capra has gravitated to photographic covers, often images from his growing collection of archival photos.

"I was 22 or something when I started doing this," Capra said. "I kept putting together more. It amazes me how much I've been able to find from the '60s and '70s. There's a lot less from the '80s and '90s than from 50 years ago."

The era of the digital camera and social media has dynamically added to the record of Topanga Beach, Capra explained. "There's incredible stuff," he said. "Photos from 100 years ago, photos from one hour ago. There are so many people documenting the area, the beach culture. There's always someone on the beach with a camera."

While Lower Topanga and Topanga Beach have "taken up a lot of energies of the press," Brass Tacks Press has unfolded in related directions, publishing the works of other poets, including lifelong Malibu resident Alden Marin and Downtown Los Angeles poet laureate and Brass Tacks Press co-founder Richard McDowell.

In 2016, Capra collaborated with historian Jay Ruby to publish "The Property: Malibu's Other Colony," a history of a small artists' utopia located just west of Topanga Beach, near Tuna Canyon, that shared much in common with the Lower Topanga community.

Capra recently contributed an essay on life in Lower Topanga's lost paradise for Ruby's book "Bohemia in Southern California," published earlier this year by San Diego State University Press.

In his essay, Capra reflects on his personal lost world. "When you're confronted with that kind of freedom, you really get to develop your individuality," he wrote.

There was a dark side as well. "Like in many bohemian communities, there were plenty of opportunities for hedonism and abuse," Capra wrote. "The privacy was so seductive, and the low cost of living was such a relief, that it was easy to overindulge. Pushing that freedom was addictive. There was almost a sense of torch-bearing, like we should do this because we can… before the end, which always seemed to be looming."

When the end came, Capra was there to document it and he's kept the stories alive for another generation, one that will never know what [the late part-time resident and poet Robert] Campbell described as:

a perfect place just to get away
from the annoying crossroads
and noisy street signs
from the hustle and bustle struggle
just to stay alive
a move back to the big sky
with the flowers and trees
to let his mind shimmer
in the summer breeze.

"How have these values served me in life?" Capra asks in the essay. "I think mostly they’ve kept me healthy, honest, and positive.... However, I still long for those idle days that enticed me to explore my creativity, and hope to find a place that feels so much like home again."

As one of the last children to grow up in the storied Lower Canyon, and as the keeper of its history, Capra has found a way no only to preserve the memory of place, he has set those memories free to live in other people's thoughts, and perhaps to inspire them in turn.

Capra is one of the guest speakers at this year's Transport Topanga Literary Festival, and will be speaking on September 24, 3:45 - 5 p.m., with his collaborators Eric Dugdale, Paul Lovas and Gail McDonald-Tune.

More information is available online at www.topangaauthorsgroup.com.

Learn more about Brass Tacks Press and the Lower Topanga Photo Archive at www.brasstackspress.com.

...

2017-07-14 Messenger Mountain News - “The Topanga Historical Society Presents: Living on the Edge of America” by Rebecca Catterall

“The Topanga Historical Society Presents: Living on the Edge of America”

by Rebecca Catterall
Photo by John Clemens / The Lower Topanga Photo Archive

Ever wonder about the local folklore concerning cabins on Topanga Beach that were demolished in 1978? Or stories before the bulldozing of The Rodeo Grounds and Snake Pit neighborhoods in 2006? And how did they get those names anyway? Your curiosity will be satisfied at the Topanga Historical Society Quarterly meeting, Wednesday evening, July 19 at the Topanga Community Center (TCC). The potluck begins at 7 p.m. before the 8 p.m. program.

Our story begins around 9,000 years ago when Topanga Beach was inhabited by Chumash and Tongva tribes. The area was called Humaliwo (Malibu), “where the waves sound loud.” A friendly line in the sand was drawn dividing these two tribes for living, but commerce and creating unique canoes (tomols) kept them neighborly.

Fast forward to the Mission Movement and Ranchos when long-horn cattle studded the landscape. Again the land was divided between Boca de Santa Monica Rancho and Malibu Rancho, coincidently on the same line that divided the first peoples’ tribes.

Recreating that time, silent film actor Tom Mix filmed Westerns on Topanga Beach and in the Canyon. Also hanging around was William Randolph Hearst who purchased the land when building a palatial Santa Monica beach house for Marian Davies in the 1920’s. He also built small houses on Topanga Beach for the use of his movie-star friends; the likes of Garbo and Keaton lived there, and later on Shirley Temple and others.

But the biggest housing explosion was after 1929 when the Rindge family, owner of the Malibu Rancho at that time, lost control of the property and Roosevelt Highway (PCH) was built. The workers lived in Topanga Beach Tent City. The community was later known as Elkhorn, complete with a café and dance hall.

The Depression hit Hearst hard and in 1938 he sold the land to the Los Angeles Athletic Club. At that point it was still a Hollywood escape and rumors have it that Marilyn Monroe, Errol Flynn, Peter Lawford and others stayed in the now defunct motel.

Continue to fast forward to the 1960’s and the bohemian world invades Los Angeles, settling in Topanga. Different groups gravitate to three distinct locations: the beach, The Rodeo Grounds, and The Snake Pit. There are hardcore bikers called The Heathens; a group called The Pirates who lived up to their names as robbers; and surfers, known as The Bombers, who were not always willing to share the waves with outsiders.  And, of course, the poets, artists, and musicians such as Mama Cass, Bear from Canned Heat, and Buddy Miles from Jimi Hendrix’s band. Perhaps the most notorious, living in a black bus in The Snake Pit with his “family,” was Charles Manson.

Life on the beach was life on the edge for many. But for some there was added value in the bohemian lifestyle, producing writers, filmmakers, and even a skateboard champ. And the occasional fire and flood experienced up the Canyon also impacted those at the mouth of the creek. There are images of a VW Bus being washed out to sea and an Amerigas truck nearly met the same fate.

The presentation will be by local historian Eric Dugdale, former Rodeo Grounds resident and poet Pablo Capra, and you, the audience. Time will be available during the second half of the program for locals to share their own stories and recollections of living on Topanga Beach.

Copies of “The Topanga Story” will be available for purchase, along with “Topanga Beach Experience,” published by Pablo Capra’s Brass Tacks Press, and a recent anthology, “Bohemia in Southern California,” that contains a first-person essay by Capra.

Become a Member—Topanga Historical Society membership is only $20/year for individuals or $30/year for a family.

The program is open to all and free of charge. The potluck begins at 7 p.m. Bring a main dish, side dish or dessert to share. Coffee and tea will be provided. The program starts at 8 p.m. The Topanga Community Center is located at 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd, Topanga, CA 90290. 

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