Michael Linder

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Iggy Pop, so the story goes, coined the classic quip that cheekily sums up Venice Beach, California. “Where The Debris Meets the Sea” still works if you include the medical marijuana shills hawking kush, the near-naked snake charmer and those massive hip-hop thugs poking a finger in your chest and strongly suggesting you buy their CDs, bro.

But Venice is so ho-hum compared to the good old days when death strolled the Boardwalk, bodies were frequently separated from their parts, and the heady scent of elephant poo hung heavy in the ocean air.

From Ted Shaffrey by way of Anna Sigueiros’s blog…
After a beautiful lion tamer was mauled, a fat lady married a local boy and a Filipino headhunter applied as Venice dogcatcher — offering to do the job for free if he was allowed to keep the dogs — city fathers had enough. Wintering circuses were tossed out of Venice for “spreading disease and low moral character.”

So where’s today’s tabloid tragedy? What happened to the carnival grief Venice once slathered on visitors like so much suntan oil? Hometown historian Jeffrey Stanton has accumulated dozens of Horrendous Amusement Park Accidents from Venice and vicinity, each a gruesome tale of fun gone horribly wrong.

November 20, 1915
Woman Severely Bitten by Reptile! Cleo Frasee, alligator farm handler, is severely bitten by an enraged 6–foot reptile when she steps on its tail in the night. Beast chomps down on Frasee’s right thigh.

November 4, 1918
 Captive Bear on Windward Pier Mangles Girl to Death! Kiddie is grabbed by one of two cinnamon bears as she passes their cage near the end of the pier. Hungry bear rips off two-year old Titania Corrine Willard’s leg as 100 helpless passers-by gasp in horror. Tot’s last words: “Kiss me, Daddy.”

July 2, 1927
 Diving Horse Dead, Show Canceled!
Prize horse “Lightning” making practice jumps from a 40-foot tower on Lick Pier gets disoriented, starts paddling for China. Lifeguards swim out 500 yards with flotation cans, eventually pull the tuckered-out horse to shore but cannot resuscitate it. Owner’s daughter is distraught, Lightning’s worth placed at $20,000. Act is pulled from pier.

July 18, 1929
 Ocean Gives Up Body of Ride Victim! Teenage corpse floats ashore at Raymond Avenue. Toby Etersic, 14, dropped to his death on the night of July 8th when he stood up on the High Boy roller coaster.

July 27, 1935
 Human Cannon-Ball Death Probed! W.C. Miller, 24, dies in his first boy-bullet attempt at Ocean Park Pier. Hurled in a graceful arc 150 feet into the Pacific, W.C.’s rigid body smacks against a wave, pops to the surface, disappears into the deep.

Yup, all gone. The chicken wire and plaster attractions, the clattering deathtrap rollercoasters — never to return in this era of OSHA and pricey liability. The old piers burned to salty ash in spectacular sacrificial flames. Gone, too, are the gambling dens in sketchy Bridgo parlors while our local snake charmer now fakes it with rubber pythons.

Hasn’t something been lost? Don’t we now play it a just little too safe? Give me the days when bible-thumping evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson faked drowning in the Venice Beach surf, when theme park thrills were drop-dead serious and death-defying stunts weren’t always a sure thing. Seriously, doesn’t anyone sing duck duets anymore?

Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925) featured in the video above, is from the delightful DVD “Discovering Cinema” from Flicker Alley.