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Book develops city's history in pictures
by John Tawa
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Bonnie Beckerson displays the cover art for her new book "I'll take Manhattan (Manhattan Beach, CA)" in front of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society building in Polliwog Park. The recently published pictorial history of Manhattan Beach is available at the Historical Society and Chamber of Commerce. Photo by John Tawa. |
"It's just a wonderful adventure to step into the past."
Those are the words of Bonnie Beckerson, the Manhattan Beach Historical Society President who just completed her second pictorial history of Manhattan Beach. Entitled "I'll take Manhattan (Manhattan Beach, CA)," the one-year labor of love is a companion book to Beckerson's "Manhattan Beach 90266" published in 1995.
Beckerson said she decided to do a second book just five years after the first because of the many events that have happened in the past five years.
"I see what's happening," Beckerson explained. "It's happening so fast. The whole city is changing. [The story] not only had to be filed, but told."
The hardcover book contains 250 pictures, most of them never published before, accompanied by brief summaries of the history and culture of the city to the present day.
"This one was more difficult because I didn't want to repeat information from the first book," Beckerson said.
"In the first book, the emphasis was on the early days, the formation of the city," she added. "The second book begins at the beginning, but the emphasis is more from World War II on so that somebody whose not elderly today can relate to it."
Pictorial depictions of World War II hardships in Manhattan Beach, where gasoline and groceries were rationed, and the aquaplane race from Catalina Island to the mainland are among the book's highlights. Did you know that aquaplane racing preceded the paddleboard and dory races of the post-war period?
"I felt that people who are not active in sports should know about the aquaplane races," Beckerson explained. "It's part of our history."
The cover art, of a beach girl in 1907, was taken from a postcard in the historical society's files. The back cover, showing two trolleys along the coast, was hanging on the wall in a doctor's office. Many of the photographs used in the book were pulled out of dresser drawers on Beckerson's prodding. And Beckerson took 85 photos herself, showing the rapid changes to the city in the last few years.
One thousand copies of the book have been printed. They are available for $35 at the Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and at the Historical Society. All proceeds go to the Historical Society, which paid for the book.
"I feel like I've done a good job," Beckerson said. "It's almost like I didn't write it. When I open it up, I get this nice warm feeling. It's an adventure."
Is there another book in Beckerson's future?
"I don't know," she said. "We'll just have to wait and see." ER