Save the Pier The Play

A Review of "Save the Pier!". A Play Recounting the Fight to Stop the Demolition of the Santa Monica Pier. by Ernie Powell Let me be blunt I love the Santa Monica Pier. Much of my life has been spent working on matters related to the Pier. And many of my friends have done much more than me in fighting to both save and protect this landmark, as you will see here. So, I start this review with a bias a bias I am proud of a bias that has given me hours of joy, life long fr...Continue reading

Jack Sikking and the Al’s Kitchen Surfers Jack Sikking, the manager of Al’s Kitchen was brilliant at hiring interesting and talented people. The Al’s Kitchen surfers were a collection of young men that surfed Bay Street in Santa Monica and often came to Al’s afterwards to enjoy a basket of clams with a cup of tea or a coffee for 85 cents....Continue reading

We’re turning 110 years old on Monday did you know we were almost torn down in the ‘70s and saved thanks to a group of awesome citizens? Come learn about that... story at the Save the Pier! Play: Sun 9/8 (7:30pm) & Mon 9/9 (6pm & 730pm) at the West End. It’s FREE and part of our birthday celebration so don’t miss it! Link in bio for more info on how we’re celebrating. @ Santa Monica Pier See more

Press from SMDP. Dates are incomplete: they are Sunday, September 8th at 7:30pm and September 9th at 6:00pm and 7:30pm. There is a beautiful moon on the ocean, it just completes the scene. https://www.smdp.com/noteworthy-thursday-september-/179413

Stephen Randall--The Newspaperman Part of any campaign to win the public’s hearts and minds is publicity. Steve Randall was a reporter for the weekly Santa Monica Independent Journal, his first job out of college. His publisher, Herb Chase, was a newspaperman in the tradition of William Randolph HearstHerb was all for some local conflict to sell papers. Steve says He was a wonderful man but the journalism was self-serving. He had his causes that he wanted to champion.... Herb assigned young Steve Randall to cover the major players on the opposing battle lines of the artificial island issue. This would distinguish the Independent Journal from the Santa Monica Evening Outlook’s daily newspaper that had taken a supportive attitude toward the island. Steve spent his time talking to Jack Sikking and Larry Barber, the coordinator for the Friends of Santa Monica Pier group, the Santa Monica Pier Citizens’ Committee and city councilman John McCloskey, one of two city council members that had voted against the destruction of the pier. Steve’s reporting was so informative to the pier supporters that Jack Sikking had them printed up as a part of Al’s Kitchen’s menu for patrons to read as they munched their over-easy eggs and hash brown potatoes. I was charmed by Jack and Larry and was quickly coopted as a useful tool jokes Steve. Larry says More likely, we saw him as a fun person to work into the group at Al’s. It was amazing how uninteresting the city council meetings were before the pier fight. Recalls Steve If they had 20 people in the chambers it would be considered a crowd. He was struck by how the issue had electrified the public. This was the beginning of the end for the old ‘Santa Monica establishment.’ They’d never had the city’s people rise up against them like this. As the fight continued to heat up Perry Scott would not even talk to me, he saw me as the enemy says Steve. Steve was at the Independent Journal for one year, a critical year in the life of Santa Monica. After that he followed the progress of the pier fights from the back patio at Al’s Kitchen. (pictured is Larry Barber and Stephen Randall at first Save the Pier! presentation in 2016)

Colleen Creedon Pier Champion Colleen first lived in an apartment over the carousel in 1958. She later married and moved to Carmel but moved back to Santa Monica a few years later and was fortunate enough to find her old apartment available. She was known for her lavish parties and her political organizing for causes such as making the pier strictly solar and wind powered and her part in saving the Santa Monica Pier from demolition in 1973. She knew so many people, people... that she pulled in to help ‘the cause’. Her second stay in her apartment on the pier had a sad ending. On March 4, 1974 arsonists set fire to a trashcan just below Colleen’s window. While her husband attempted to extinguish the flames, Creedon called for help. The fire department arrived in time to save the carousel, but the building was severely damaged. Colleen and husband and the rest of the tenants were required to relocate, effectively ending the carousel as living space. Colleen was friends with Paul Sand, the director of Save the Pier!, whom she met when he moved into an apartment over the carousel. Colleen had an interesting life. If you read a book about Bob Dylan or Joan Baez’s early years, Colleen often is mentioned. Colleen stayed friends with Joan Baez until her passing, some years ago. Here’s to Colleen Creedon, a woman with flair, style and a knack for knowing the right people to help a worthy cause!

Theatre Overlaying History We’ve tried to pose actors in poses that imitate a past photo (Jack Sikking and 2018 actor Erik Reedy). I just know that Jack would have loved to have been portrayed by Erik.

Theatre Overlaying History We’ve had two Larrys meet the real Larry Barber (Mike Rose and Patrick Koocheradis)

Theatre Overlaying History Over the past 4 years we have presented SAVE THE PIER!, we’ve had some interesting encounters between the actors and the historical people they are portraying. Sometimes it is the family members as the person has passed away. For example, last year Carol Cherman, the daughter of Diana Cherman, the lively fisherwoman who headed up the Santa Monica Pier Citizens’ Committee, met actor Kiera Jacob, who played Diana in the play.

Pier ChampionDiana Cherman Many people were engaged in the fight to save the pier with two main groups on the Santa Monica Pier; the group at Al’s Kitchen and the Save the Santa Monica Pier Citizens’ Committee which congregated in the Sinbad’s building and was co-chaired by spunky Diana Cherman. The SM Pier Citizens’ Committee worked closely with pier merchants and started a petition to save the pier. Diana personally solicited signatures (including those of Paul Newman an...d Robert Redford while they were on the Pier filming The Sting) and quickly obtained a list of 10,000 names. When Diana submitted those stacks of petitions to the City Council, the Council challenged their legality as they were not certified. So Diana, brought in 13,000 signatures to the next meetingcertified. Diana felt that she had to suffer watching the Venice and POP piers being left to deteriorate, Diana said at the time, They’re not going to knock down my pier. I love her never say die attitude! Her group solicited funds from the pier businesses for a drive that included petitions, brochures, radio and newspaper advertising and Save the Santa Monica Pier car bumper stickers. Here’s to Dianathe citizen who knows her rights and is willing to work hard to build her community!

After the SM City Council voted to demolish the SM Pier in 1972, events picked up speed says Larry Barber, an Al’s Kitchen employee who was Coordinator of Friends of Santa Monica Pier. For the people who worked, fished, or found comfort on the Pier, the prospect of being demolished concentrated our minds wonderfully, remembers Barber in paraphrasing the writer Samuel Johnson. Our participation sprang up out of necessity, but it swiftly turned into an adventure in which we got to know ourselves and others in much more interesting ways. That was fun! (pictured are a few of the Al's Kitchen crew, goofing off)

Jack SikkingPier Champion Jack Sikking was a brilliant strategic thinker for the Al’s Kitchen hub for the fight to save the pier. He used to manage the Hungry I Nightclub in San Francisco and later The Troubadour in Los Angeles. One day, the myth goes, he walked west, away from his Hollywood life and ended up on the Santa Monica Pier. That was where he decided to stay, becoming the manager of Al’s Kitchen, hiring his talented staff of cooks and waiters. Were they talent...ed as cooks and waiters? Maybe. But more, he enlisted each individual’s talents in the fight to save the Santa Monica Pier. Jack started the back patio restaurant that served more upscale food than the front’s mostly fried food. He did most of his work back there and had ‘his’ special chair. Woe be to the poor soul that mistakenly sat in Jack’s chair (I know because I did it once before I knew it was hisI found out when I noticed the daggers shooting from his eyes). Jack passed away some years ago but will be remembered for what he did to save the pier.