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Dean, Fred (audio interview #2 of 6)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the second of six interviews and it was conducted in Dean's Long Beach home. 5/1/1982
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- 2020-10-21
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- *** File: cbfdean3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:23)... As a boy, Dean sold newspapers to the local merchants on Pine Avenue. Long Beach was run politically by a Commission form of government until they switched to a Council-Manager form of government about 1926. (2:23-5:25)... East Long Beach was the industrial area of the town, including the Long Beach Milling Company, Long Beach Iron Works and Southern Pacific Railroad station. When businesses started developing near the harbor, some of these businesses from east Long Beach moved to the harbor and east Long Beach became a residential area. The area around Los Cerritos was as an affluent area, where development began in about 1925. (5:25-8:35)... Dean's family owned a grocery store until the first depression. When they lost the grocery store, Dean had to quit school and work. He worked at the Bartlett Chicken Ranch, where he did all types of work including cleaning, feeding, repairs and plucking chickens. The customers of the chicken ranch included hotels in the area. Long Beach remained dormant from the depression until the discovery of oil in 1920. His family moved to Shasta County to run a ranch in 1912. When the ranch failed and the family returned to Long Beach in 1914, Dean continued in school until he graduated from Atlantic Avenue School. (8:35-16:29)... Oil was discovered on Signal Hill in 1921. Dean's sister and husband moved to Signal Hill to raise chickens on Walnut Avenue. His sister's property was part of an oil syndicate and they leased it to Union Oil Company. At the time of the interview, she was still receiving oil royalties. His sister and her husband lived on Signal Hill until the late 1920s when the oil patch activities drove them out. All of the homes around theirs were California style homes. Chinese farmers also lived on Signal Hill and grew crops, and Dean's family bought produce from them. The Chinese moved away from Signal Hill when oil was discovered in the early 1920s. (16:29-18:48)... After working at the shipyards for a couple of years, Dean began working at a hardware store. The town was growing so much that the store had difficulty keeping enough merchandise to sell to people in construction. The price of land fluctuated. Long Beach was growing before the discovery of oil as a result of the influx of industry and people following WWI. (18:48-22:07)... Dean worked for KSS, the first radio broadcasting station in Long Beach, and the first one west of the Mississippi, for about 2 years. Then KFON came on the air, broadcasting from the top of the Jergin's Trust Building. In 1923 two Westinghouse stations, KFI and KHJ, came on the air. Dean owned a retail radio business and was happy to have the new stations in town. Not long after the FCC allowed advertising on radio and the business took off. (22:07-28:49)... Dean bought an interest into an electric shop, which supplied the equipment to install radio communication with Catalina Island. The radio part of the business did so well, they became solely a radio business and they began a radio station under an experimental license. A radio research society was formed and classes were held for those who were interested in learning about building and repairing radios. Dean was the exclusive seller of a radio set that was battery operated and he had difficulty keeping up with demand. He had the only radio store in Long Beach until 1923. In 1927 he moved the business and began selling refrigerators, electric ranges, washing machines and table appliances as well. He stay in that location until 1946. According to the local newspaper, his store sold over 25 percent of all the radios in Long Beach. After WWII, he went into the wholesale business. He bought out all of his partners by 1932. He incorporated the business and it became Dean's Electronics in 1946 and moved to Long Beach Blvd. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Fred Dean was a local businessman who prospered when the radios he sold became popular. He was also interested in local politics and appointed to the boards of directors of such public agencies as the Long Beach Water Commission and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). In this series of interviews, that were conducted as part of a project to study the impact of oil on Long Beach, Dean talks about his public service. He was on the MTA board when the Pacific Electric street cars stopped running in southern California and he served on the Water Commission when they sold some of their land for commercial development. Dean was also an active member of the Long Beach Mounted Police and as urban sprawl engulfed Long Beach, he fought to keep part of town where they could keep their horses. TOPICS - employment; Long Beach Harbor; education; oil wells; Signal Hill; radio stations; KSS; and KFON;
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