Inceville Before (1912)

As ephemeral as Atlantis, this city appeared and then disappeared in 12 short years.

This was the creation of American silent film producer/director Thomas Ince, who in 1912 built a city of motion picture sets on several thousand acres of land in and around the hills and plateaus of the canyon.

Inceville Now

It was here at Inceville, now Sunset [Boulevard] at Pacific Coast Highway, where in 1913

alone, Ince made over 150 two-reeler movies, mostly Westerns, thereby anchoring the popularity of the genre for decades.

Forget other Hollywood Tours and Los Angeles Tours – those are dime a dozen.For more information on a complete historical tour of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, where numerous movies were filmed during the Hollywood’s “Golden Era”, and with lots of before and after photos and videos of the different locations you see in this Blog, please click on this link to Santa Monica and Venice Beach Bus Tours page

Inceville 1912

A view of the Santa Monica Bay, looking north, circa 1930, showing The Sunset Pier in the foreground, followed by the Venice Pier, the Ocean Park Pier, the Crystal Pier and ending with the Santa Monica Pier on top.

Of the five, the Santa Monica Pier is the only one that is still left standing. The Sunset Pier was taken around 1940, the Venice Pier was destroyed in 1946,  and the Ocean Park Pier, which was renamed POP in the late 50′s, was removed in the late 60′s. The Crystal Pier was removed completely  in the mid-forties.

Forget other Hollywood Tours and Los Angeles Tours – those are dime a dozen.  For more information on a complete historical tour of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, where numerous movies were filmed during the Hollywood’s “Golden Era”, and with lots of before and after photos and videos of the different locations you see in this Blog, please click on this link to Santa Monica and Venice Beach Bus Tours page.

Left to right are Gloria Swanson  1899-1983, Marion Davies 1897-1961, and Carole Lombard 1908-1942, Jean Harlow 1911-1937. This picture was taken at a party in 1937 held at the Marion Davies Beach house, on the Santa Monica “Gold Coast, the party had a Bavarian Theme. Ms. Swanson was a somewhat companion of Mr Joesph P Kennedy. Ms Davies was the companion of Mr William Randolph Hearst for 37 years, untill his death in 1951, Ms. Lombard was the wife of Clark Gable when she died in a plane crash. Ms. Harlow died prematurely at the age of 26. This four ladies are four of the Silver Screens big named Stars of the 20′s and 30′s.

So forget other Hollywood Tours and Los Angeles Tours – those are dime a dozen.  For more information on a complete historical tour of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, where numerous movies were filmed during the Hollywood’s “Golden Era”, and with lots of before and after photos and videos of the different locations you see in this Blog, please click on this link to Santa Monica and Venice Beach Bus Tours page

The Lawrence Welk T.V. Show was on T.V.  for 31 years (1951 to 1982) it was broadcast from the Aragon Ballroom which was located on the Lick Pier, adjacent to the Ocean Park Pier, it was in Venice on the boundary between Santa Monica and Venice.

The type of music on The Lawrence Welk Show was almost always conservative, concentrating on popular music standards, polkas, and novelty songs, delivered in a smooth, calm, good-humored easy listening style and “family-oriented” manner.  Although described by one critic as “the squarest music this side of Euclid,”^{[cite this quote]}, this strategy proved commercially successful and the show remained on the air for 31 years.

Much of the show’s appeal was Welk himself 1903-1992. His unusual accent appealed to the audience. While Welk’s English was passable, he never did grasp the English “idiom” completely and was thus famous for his “Welk-isms,” such as “George, I want to see you when you have a minute, right now” and “Now for my accordion solo; Myron, will you join me?”.  His TV show was recorded as if it were a live performance, and it was sometimes quite free-wheeling.  Another famous “Welk-ism” was his trademark count-off, “A one and a two . . . ,” which was immortalized on his California automobile license plate that read “A1ANA2.”

So forget other Hollywood Tours and Los Angeles Tours – those are dime a dozen.  For more information on a complete historical tour of Venice Beach and Santa Monica, where numerous movies were filmed during the Hollywood’s “Golden Era”, and with lots of before and after photos and videos of the different locations you see in this Blog, please click on this link to Santa Monica and Venice Beach Bus Tours page