Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire
LAPL http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081703.jpg
Per the LAPL: "The 'first' Santa Anita Racetrack was built on Elias Jackson ('Lucky') Baldwin's immense estate of 'Rancho Santa Anita' and opened on December 7, 1907, but closed just two years later after horse racing was banned in California due to an anti-gambling bill that became law.".
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In spite of the above-mentioned law, in 1923 betless horse racing proved sufficiently popular in Chicago that the
wheels were put in motion to have betless horse racing in Southern California, too:
July 27 1923
LA Times @ LAPL
They missed their December 1 goal:
December 17, 1923
LA Times @ LAPL
But they made their December 25 goal:
December 26, 1923
LA Times @ LAPL
And here is the first Culver City Speedway. This photo, probably taken between June and August 1924,
looks SW at the 9,000-seat grandstand and the apparently still-unfinished clubhouse to the left. I'll explain
why there are cars on the track and not horses in a moment. Also, remember the house at upper left:
00058494 @ LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics47/00058494.jpg
Here's another view probably from mid-1924. The clubhouse looks more complete, or at least less messy:
00035854 @ LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035854.jpg
Now we're looking sort of NW, again probably in mid-1924. The street behind the grandstand is now Overland
Avenue, then called First Street:
00081841 @ LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081841.jpg
Looking toward the SE. I don't know why the roof looked like it had been through a bad windstorm; maybe it had:
00081839 @ LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081839.jpg
Here we're looking SE at part of the race track, with eight of the stables beyond the track at upper right. Culver
Boulevard, then Putnam Avenue, runs between the curved end of the track and the MGM studios to the north:
00013220 @ LAPL --
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013220.jpg
On January 7, after just 13 days of racing, it was announced that there would be no more races until January 26.
According to Mr. Ferris, "the only reason we are waiting until that time to reopen the gates is for the purpose of
completing the clubhouse, lawn, grand stand, and everything else connected with the plant and it will take that
length of time to do it."
However, betless racing was just not a paying proposition:
February 5, 1924
LA Times @ LAPL
So the horse racing track became an auto racing track, which explains the photos above with cars on the track:
June 15, 1924
LA Times @ LAPL
Two other auto racing events were held there, in July and August.
That fall, the high-banked wooden Culver City Speedway was proposed:
October 7, 1924
LA Times @ LAPL
This photo looks basically north and was probably taken in late October or early November 1924. It shows the second
Culver City Speedway under construction. At middle right, you can see the rectangular imprints left by some of the
former stables. On the left side of the photo, below the uncompleted west grandstand, you can see the same house
that's visible in the first two photos in this post:
00035852 @ LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035852.jpg
The second Culver City Speedway, probably mid to late November 1924:
00081838 @ LAPL --
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081838.jpg