The man who built the Venice Trailer Park and turned the swamp into a
boat harbor
By Linda L.
Schmidt
My father, Larry Norman, came
to the Venice area in 1919 from Edmonton, Alberta and had been active and
prominent in affairs relating to the development of the harbor and the beaches
until his death.
He was born in Canby, Minnesota on January
9, 1899 and at the age of eight he was sent with his sister to live in a convent
in Inmesfail, Alberta after an intruder murdered his father. His mother, Mary,
was a nurse in the Yukon Territory and flew from one Eskimo village to another
providing medical treatment to the Eskimos. She was the only medical person at
that time treating all the Eskimos in the
territory.
After arriving in Venice,
he worked at the pier. He later became a newsreel cameraman for Pathe News. His
first business connection in Venice was with the Harry C. Lieber Realty Co.
Larry later worked for Harrison Brush Chevrolet Company as a branch manager in
Venice.
In 1929, Mr. Norman opened the
Chevrolet-Oldsmobile Agency in Hermosa Beach, while still living in Venice.
While in the south beach community, he joined the Rotary Club in Hermosa Beach
and became the president of the club in 1932. He also joined the Masonic lodge
there and was Master of the Hermosa lodge in 1935. He was also a Hermosa Chamber
vice president and a member of the police
commission.
In 1936, he acquired the
first property at 346 Washington Street for Trailer City. In addition to selling
cars to finance the purchase of land, my father sold rebuilt electric meters out
of his car while crisscrossing the United States. After each successful trip he
would return to Venice and purchase another
lot.
Eventually, Trailer City grew to
three(?) acres and the park had 110 spaces that could accommodate single and
doublewide mobile homes up to 50 feet long. It became one of the first mobile
home parks in the city.
For years, during
the summer months, whenever the circus came to town, they would rent space at
the trailer park. Generally a band of Gypsies would follow close behind and they
too would stay at the park. We were the only park in the Los Angeles basin that
would allow them to make camp.
During
the 1940’s, he was too old to join the military but that did not
discourage him from doing his part in the war effort. He went to work in Long
Beach as a welder building ships. My mother managed the trailer park and took
care of the kids.
In 1950, he became
active in real estate and insurance after he purchased the Bert Gable property
and business at 327 Washington Street. He and my mother, Rose were very active
in scouting and it was at the real estate office that he added a room for the
girl and boy scouts to meet. He was president of the Venice Board of Realtors in
1958. In addition to scouting, Larry was very active in the P.T.A. and he
received a lifetime membership from the Venice
Council.
Mr. Norman sold his real
estate and insurance company to Lloyd C. Knight when he became too sick to
work.
Credited with being the most
outstanding contributor from the beach community to the development of Marina
del Rey and Venice, he began his civic activity with two terms as president of
Washington Beach Improvement Assn. in 1949. He also became a director of the
Venice Chamber of Commerce in 1950 and was elected president in
1952.
After Norris Poulson was elected
mayor of Los Angeles in 1953, Mr. Norman was his first Recreation Commission
appointment. While serving a full five-year term he was active in setting up
numerous recreation projects for the Venice area, including the new Venice Beach
million dollar recreation center, Penmar golf course, the expansion of Oakwood
Playgrounds and the funds for the Venice all-year covered
pool.
He was a member of the Marina
Del Rey advisory committee. As chairman of the southern division of the Citizens
Advisory Committee to the State Legislative Committee on Marine Affairs and Bay
and Harbor Development, he was active in sponsoring state legislation which
resulted in enabling legislation that made state approval and financial
assistance possible in the
harbor.
While working for the harbor
development and as Chamber president, he traveled three times to Sacramento to
aid in securing state funds with which to purchase the harbor site. After
becoming a commission member, he made other trips to the state capital and one
to Washington, on behalf of the funding of the
marina.
Mr. Norman was a member of the
Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission and served as president for a year.
He also has been a member of the Coliseum commission and he was a Chamber of
Commerce president in 1953. He was a member and director of the Chamber of
Commerce group for many years.
In 1960
Mr. Norman, his wife and three children took an extended visit to Europe. They
went over to do some snow skiing at the famous resorts and travel throughout 17
countries in the six months they were there. Larry was able to attend a Rotary
Club meeting each week in some of the major cities of each country. He was an
informal goodwill ambassador for Venice
Beach.
Mr. Norman and his family
enjoyed many sports, but ice skating, water and snow skiing were the family
favorites. With Lake Los Angeles only two blocks away, you would often find the
family and friends at the lake. This lake is now the beach area of the
marina.
He regularly performed in
shows with the All-Year Mercury figure skating club. In a performance of
Pinocchio, Mr. Norman played Gepetto and Richard Dwyer (age 11) played
Pinocchio. Richard Dwyer also known as "Mr. Debonair" has been an Ice Follies
favorite for 30 years and is the corporate general manager of the Redwood Empire
Arena in Santa Rosa, Calif. For the past 14 years Mr. Dwyer and "Peanuts"
cartoonist Charles Schultz, who is the owner of the Arena and the show's
executive producer, provide Sonoma County with an annual holiday extravaganza.
The Thursday night premiere benefited Starcross, the North Coast community that
cares for kids with AIDS.
During my
father's illness he would sit in his bedroom of our house on the hill in Playa
del Rey and watch the progress of the building of the marina. On August 24,
1962, my sister took my father for a ride around the harbor on the newly paved
Admiralty Way. He did not live long enough to see that thirty years of hard work
building up the trailer park would be destroyed by the very project he spent so
much time on getting developed.
My
father died the next day, August 25, 1962. Shortly after his death the zoning
committee took away our zoning for a trailer park and forced us out of
business.
My mother sold our property
to La Casa Linda Properties with Alan J. Radford as General Partner and there
were sixteen Limited Partners. I was told that La Casa Linda Properties went
bankrupt and my family never did get the $1.25 million dollars for the purchase
of the 3 1/2 acres of land where Trailer City once occupied. My father's real
estate office at 327 Washington St. also disappeared from the trust fund set up
by my mother and the probate court could never account for the dispersal of the
land.
Posted: Thu - July 1, 2004 at 07:33 PM