Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
became a convenient movie location because of its consistent sunlight and versatile loca-
tions, although its role was limited to doubling for more exotic locales and providing back-
drops for period-piece productions like Charlie Chaplin's
The Gold Rush
(1925). Gradu-
ally, California began stealing the scene in movies and iconic TV shows with its palm trees
and sunny beaches. Through the power of Hollywood, California tamed its Wild West ven-
eer and adopted a more marketable image of beach boys and bikini-clad blondes.
Northern Californians didn't imagine themselves as extras in
Beach Blanket Bingo
(1965), however. WWII sailors discharged for insubordination and homosexuality in San
Francisco found themselves at home in North Beach's bebop jazz clubs, bohemian coffee-
houses and City Lights Bookstore. San Francisco was home to free speech and free spirits,
and soon everyone who was anyone was getting arrested: Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti
for publishing Allen Ginsberg's epic poem 'Howl' and comedian Lenny Bruce for uttering
the F-word onstage. When the CIA made the mistake of using writer and willing test-sub-
ject Ken Kesey to test psychoactive drugs intended to create the ultimate soldier, it inad-
vertently kicked off the psychedelic era. At the January 14, 1967 Human Be-In in Golden
Gate Park, trip-master Timothy Leary urged a crowd of 20,000 hippies to dream a new
American dream and 'turn on, tune in, drop out.' When hippy 'flower power' faded, other
Bay Area rebellions grew in its place, such as Black Power and gay pride.
While Northern California had the more attention-grabbing counterculture in the 1940s
to '60s, nonconformity in sunny SoCal still shook the country to the core. In 1947, when
Senator Joseph McCarthy attempted to root out suspected communists in the film industry,
10 writers and directors who refused to admit to communist alliances or to name names
were charged with contempt of Congress and barred from working in Hollywood. But the
Hollywood Ten's impassioned defenses of the US Constitution were heard nationwide, and
major Hollywood players boldly voiced dissent and hired blacklisted talent until lawsuits
put a stop to McCarthyism in the late 1950s.
Ultimately, California's beach-paradise image - and its oil-industry dealings - would be
permanently changed not by Hollywood directors, but Santa Barbara beachgoers. On Janu-
ary 28, 1969, an oil rig dumped 100,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Chan-
nel, killing dolphins, seals and thousands of birds. Playing against type, the laid-back
SoCal beach community organized a highly effective protest, spurring the establishment of
the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Coastal Commission, as well
as the passage of important state and national legislation against environmental pollution.
