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Desmond, Virginia (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This interview was conducted in Desmond's home. Desmond retired as a librarian at Long Beach Public Library and the interviewer was a former president of the Friends of the Library. 1/26/1982
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- 2020-12-01
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- *** File: cbvdesmond1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:05)... Introduction. Desmond was born in Panama and came to Long Beach in 1920. Her father was an engineer working on the Canal. He was from Richmond, Virginia. Her mother was a nurse, trained at Johns Hopkins. They came to Long Beach for the climate; she and her siblings were sickly. Walter White, a friend, suggested Long Beach was a good residential area. THeir first home in Long Beach was an old house. She remembers Walter White's home on Signal Hill. Their house was like a big barn; the first floor was used for storage. It had a good view and cucumber fields in front of house. (4:05-6:20)... Among their neighbors was the Cruz family, who were Mexican. She was raised with the Cruz children and went to school with them. There were no other houses around. Mr. Cruz kept cows and her family got their milk from him. There were Japanese farmers across the street. Her family did not communicate with them because they didn't speak English. Some of them grew cucumbers. (6:20-9:18)... Desmond's house was on a triangular piece of property. The Cruz house was the only other one within 2 or 3 blocks. When she was a child, she played with the Cruz children. They had dolls and a rubber tire swing. Her sister was really close to one of the Cruz daughters. (9:18-13:13)... Desmond's family stayed on Signal Hill for about 4 years, longer than most other people who moved away when oil was discovered. The school she attended was close enough to walk. Her family finally moved away when the oil fields got closer and bigger. She had 3 siblings. When the oil wells came there was great change on Signal Hill. Before that, it was supposed to be the "peak" residential area of the city. But after oil was discovered, no wanted to live near the oil derricks. An oil refinery was built right behind her family's house. The family finally moved to a house on Colorado Street. The White family lived next door, having moved earlier. (13:13-19:42)... People in Long Beach didn't know much about mineral rights or how to deal with oil under their property. Lawyers made a lot of money drawing up leases. They would take a percentage, maybe 5 or 6, esentially doing legal work on speculation. The Jergens family's oil company developed some of the hill. Her father went to the Canal Zone before oil was discovered in Long Beach because he could not find a job here. They did not know if there was oil under their land. Her family put their land into a community lease. If oil was discovered under the land of any of the members of the lease, all of the members would share the revenue. Oil speculators offered money to lease signers even if no oil was found on their property. If oil was discovered on a person's land they got paid more. Three wooden derricks were built on her parent's property. Three wooden derricks were put up. When the workmen went home in the evenings she would play on the derricks with her siblings. The lease her family joined was called theJackson Community Lease. Her family, at the time of the interview, still owned their property on Signal Hill. Their lease, at the time of the interview, was with ARCO. Her father came home by the time leases were being signed because women did not participate in business affairs at that time. (19:42-23:11)... Desmond's mom was kept busy watching children; she did not participate in many community activities. The family had a maid in the Canal Zone and she came with them to Long Beach to help care for the children and do household chores. They had a barn. Oil was discovered a year after they purchased their property. (23:11-28:26)... Desmond's dad tried to sell real estate but did not make money. He earned enough money from oil that he did not need to work. They lived off the oil income. She was 9 when her mother died. Dad did not remarry until much later. They camped out all summer at Lake Elsinore. Her father bought a Ford when they came to Long Beach. Father also bought property at Big Bear Lake and built a cottage at Lake Elsinore. She remembers surfing near Belmont Pier. Her family occasionally went to the Pike. (28:26-30:27)... She read a lot as a child. Her family lived a block and a half from a public library. They did not have too many children's books there at the time. After she'd read all the children's books she started to read the adult books although it was frowned upon. The library she lived near was torn down after the 1933 earthquake. End of tape *** File: cbvdesmond2.mp3 (0:00-5:42)... When Desmond's family moved to Colorado Street, she was in the second grade. She was born in 1914. Her family didn't stay in Signal Hill very long. She went to Wilson High when it was a new school. She wanted to be an attorney. There was no strong female influence in her life because her mother died when she was young. Her father was interested in sports and she and her sibblings participated in sports and games. It was not fashionable for girls to play sports although tennis and golf were acceptable. Her father believed girls should have an education and be able to support themselves. She always knew she would go to college. Her mother had been trained as a nurse. She would have been able to take care of herself if she needed to. (5:42-8:58)... Desmond spent first two years of college at Long Beach City College. Her second year was 1933 and after the earthquake, some of the classes were held in tents. After City College, she went to Stanford to finish college. She never studied in high school. Stanford was small school when she went there. She studied prelaw and did well. (8:58-11:51)... After she graduated from college, she also earned a library degree. She married when her husband was still going to law school. They had 5 children. She didn't get her library degree until after her husband died. She was about 50 years old at the time. First she got a job as a social worker which only required an undergraduate degree. She only lasted a short time in that job. She believed there was big demand for librarians although their salary were always low. Desmond attennded USC's Library School and it was hard. She commuted to school. Her children were still at home so she only took a few units at a time. (11:51-14:09)... She met Gerald Desmond at Long Beach City College. They married in the summer after they graduated from college. Her husband's family was prominent in Long Beach. Walter Desmond, her father in law, came to Long Beach in the 1800s. He opened a legal office and part of his work was drawing oil leases. He was also a Superior Court judge. He was one of the first judges to assign weekend jail time so offenders could work during the week. He was interested in rehabilitation. (14:09-17:41)... Her husband, Gerald, was one of nine children and they were Catholic. When she married into the Desmond family, she didn't convert. Judge Desmond was a very religious man. Religious services were held in his home when Saint Barnabas parish was being orgnaized and the church was being built. The Desmonds were active in the church and civic activities. Judge Desmond had four children from a previous marriage and his wife had two. Then they had three together. That added up to 9 children. Gerald was the second oldest son of Walter Desmond. Walter had been educated at Harvard, including Harvard Law School. (17:41-20:42)... They lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts while Gerald was going to Harvard Law School. They had 5 children with one born about every 5 years. During WWII her husband worked in the US Attorneys Office. As a result, he would not have had to go into service but he was eager to join the US Navy. He was in the supply corp, then he was transferred to investigating fraud. The Navy sent him to Harvard Business School to train him to prepare for disposing of surplus disposal after the war, but never worked in this field. While he was investigating fraud, he traveled a lot. They rented a house in Long Beach and he went to New York, where he was stationed. He never went overseas. After WWII, he came back to long Beach and opened a private law practice. (20:42-24:09)... Desmond's husband was involved in Long Beach politics. He worked with the Long Beach Junior Chamber of Commerce to collect signatures to get Veterans Stadium built. He was also active in supporting the establishment of Eldorado Park. He served on the city council for years. He might not have made all the right decisions, but did what he thought was best for the city. He wanted Long Beach to grow and develop. (24:09-28:02)... Gerald Desmond helped draw up legislation for development of the tidelands. He was also involved in the fight to stop subsidence. The harbor was sinking and it created many problems. Soon, however, the area was pressurized, and the sinking ended. But all of the lease holders had to agree to the repressurization. The Mallon case established that revenue from selling the oil pumped out from under the tidelands couldn't be used for projects outside the tidelands area. The harbor was built primarily on the tidelands so the oil money could be invested there. City representatives went to legislature to propose that they use the money for things such as parks in other places. But the court rejected that proposal. (28:02-30:33)... Long Beach was much smaller when her husband, Gerald, was involved in politics than it was at the time of the interview. The population has grown as have other developments. In particular the characher of downtown changed. Tidelands oil revenue led to the development of the harbor. End of tape *** File: cbvdesmond3.mp3 (0:00-6:33)... The house, where she was living at the time of the interview, was built in 1912. Her family bought it in 1940 and it was a bargain. Gerald's two brothers moved to the same area because of the reasonable prices. It's still a nice area to live in. Her siblings were named Elizabeth and William. Her father was Arthur Ashby Slater and her mother was Mary Rankin. She has a photo of one of the first oil wells on her family's property as well as pictures of Panama with women dressed in white wearing hats. (6:33-8:56)... Her family belonged to the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. When she started sailing they didn't leave the harbor. They sailed skimmers. Her father had sailed in Chesapeake Bay when he was younger. Her father taught her and her siblings how to sail. (8:56-11:26)... Oil changed the Signal Hill area. People moved away when derricks began to go up. It smelled. Oil financed Long Beach's development. The population shifted as it expanded. The city and the harbor grew. (11:26-14:15)... On Signal Hill, there were boarding houses for oil workers. A lot of single men came to work as roughnecks and in other oil related jobs. The men warned children in the area away from the derricks. In 1920, before oil was discovered here, Long Beach was a retirement and resort town. Businesses was concentrated on Pine Avenue and her father bought some land on Pine Avenue as an investment. People also came downtown for recreation such as swimming in the ocean. (14:15-17:32)... People went downtown to Pine Avenue to shop. There were department stores and small shops. At the time of the interview, street construction had contributed to closing of businesses. Belmont Shore use to be swamp. Her dad thought the area would never be worth anything. Later, however the swamps were filled in and houses were built. (17:32-20:15)... When she was a child, she took the bus downtown and the bus service was pretty good. She walked to school as a child. She remembers the development of Colorado lagoon. The area was improved for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. (20:15-25:11)... The Depression hit in the thirties. She remembers men who knocked on the door asking for food. There were soup kitchens in the Los Angeles area. Her dad bought stock at the time because prices were so low. He was thrifty and had saved his money. There were investment opportunities after the earthquake. She remembers Walter White who madeand spent a lot of money. During the Depression, the WPA supplied money to hire people to work on projects in the community. People would joke about how WPA employees didn't work. (25:11-27:48)... Oil is still being pumped out of Signal Hill, at the time of the interview. New houses are also being built there. In the past, people did not want to invest in a house near oil wells. Signal Hill offers beautiful views. She hopes they will build more someday. (27:48-30:27)... When she was a child, she was frightened by the great sound of the oil wells. She saw them gushing oil and people from surrounding places would come to see the derricks and the wells blowing up and the fires. A lot of people have made money developing oil tools including those used for controled directional drilling and fire control. The oil slands, off the coast from Long Beach, are used as platforms for directional drilling. Long Beach was one of the first areas where people experimented with new tools. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Virginia Slater Desmond was a children's librarian at Long Beach Public Library who returned in the wake of Proposition 13. She grew up on Signal Hill during the oil boom and saw first hand what changes that brought to her immediate neighborhood. Soon, however, he family moved to a different part of town. She went to school in Long Beach and then went away to Stanford where met and married Gerald Desmond. They she accompanied him to Harvard where he went to Law School. She returned to Long Beach when he went into the service. When he came home after World War II, her husband became active in local government and served on the City Council. In 1960 he was elected City Attorney and served in that position until he died. The bridge connecting Long Beach and Terminal Island is named for him. In this interview, Desmond tells how she Desmond went back to school and became a librarian following her husband's death, . And she discovered that living in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, she was again living in an oil field. Only this time the drilling rigs were camouflaged in offshore islands. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include: family background; childhood; education; Signal Hill; farming and oil wellsTopics on this side of tape include: childhood; sailing; sports; college; WWII; Gerald Desmond and Long Beach City CouncilTopics on this side of tape include: Alamitos Bay Yacht Club; sailing; Signal Hill; oil wells; Depression and 1932 Olympics
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