Sepia Saturday - The Surf and Sand Beach Club

This photo shows my husband's grandfather and grandmother, his mother and her two sisters at the Surf and Sand Beach Club just north of the Hermosa Beach pier, owned and operated by Los Angeles Athletic Club, around 1926. The Club was sold in 1932 and became the Huntington Beach Biltmore Hotel until it was torn down in 1969.  Grandmother and the kids went down there for a month to six weeks during the hottest weeks of the summer.

Why the tie? There was a dress code at the Club that was strictly enforced. The Club's dress code called out business attire for all the public rooms with the exception of the "swimmer's" entrance. Why they would have a business attire dress code at the beach is beyond me. This photo must have been taken on a really hot day; I was surprised at how many people were at the beach - there's a big crowd in the background. 

Grandmother, with a hat slightly smaller than the umbrellas, was a fashionista, and dressed in a snazzy kimono thing as is the youngest aunt, Frankie, seated in the middle. A seamstress came to the house once a quarter and made dresses for the girls, who lived pampered lives. Aunt Lorraine, who became a harpist, seated on the left, had a "movie" horse as a pet; he was one of the horses from My Friend Flicka. In this photo she was wearing one of those annoying knitted bathing suits that got heavier and heavier as they got wet and could stretch out to your knees. I remember having one as a kid and spending most of my time pulling it up, wringing it out and trying to hold it over my bare butt. My mother-in-law is the young teen on the right. She died this year at age 97.