The hills of Big Canyon were once called Cardboard Hill.  At least that’s what my friends and I called the area just East of what is now San Joaquin Hills Drive. We would go over with cardboard  boxes in hand and slide down those formidable mountains of grass at breakneck speeds.  Didn’t matter if the grass was green in the Spring or brown in the Summer. We were too young to drive, so Read More

CLICK HERE for a free download of a great Oral History by Phil Tozer. “The Life and Times of a Self-Described Beach Bum and Commercial/Sport Fisherman of Newport Beach, CA.”

Author Stephen O’Neil has captured some valuable history and great stories from the man who once owned the Pavilion. CLICK HERE.

My stepfather had a cafe on Oceanfront for several years in the late 1950′s. I remember seeing the wooden dory’s operated by the local fishermen bringing fresh fish, and selling it on the beach. I recently found the attached slide of his cafe, which is now where 21 Oceanfront Restaurant is now located.

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Tom Duncan is producing a documentary film about the story of surf music titled “Sound Of The Surf”. Dick Dale, the Rendezvous Ballroom and Newport Beach play a large part of the film. We are seeking additional photographs, home movies, newspaper clippings etc related to the topic. We could use pictures of…

Willard Courtney is a 95 year old man who has spent his entire life in Southern California. He currently lives near Dover Shores in Newport Beach with his wife. Over the course of his life he has seen southern California and develop into what it is today.

G.V. Johnson (1845-1928) left his MN boat building in the late 1800s, went to Seattle to continue and ended up in Newport Beach in the 1920s, building boats with his son, Marcus J. Johnson (1872-1950) and grandson, Kenneth M. Johnson (1903 – ?).

“The carrier was absolutely enormous to my six year old eyes and got bigger and bigger as we approached. The tender went around the bow and I remember the anchor lines seemed bigger than me. One of the scariest memories of my young life was being snatched out of my dad’s hands by a crewman on a rickety wooden ladder on the port side of the carrier…”

They told me of a large Yawl which had run aground on the Balboa Jetty, before the CDM jetty was built. The keel was never recovered….

That was the day, May 23rd 1971, the day which now is recognized by the International Aviation Community as the beginning of the international Sport of Modern Hang Gliding. It happened in Newport Beach, California.

“The wind had picked up and the bow began to plow, bringing gallons of water into the boat. I quickly grabbed the coffee can and began bailing with one hand. The other hand was busy controlling the tiller and rudder. I had wrapped the sheet (the line regulating the sail) around the tiller so the boat could be managed one-handed. Even with all that effort, I was losing ground. The water was coming in faster than I was bailing…”