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Elliott, Joy (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Joy Elliott requested to be interviewed in the Signal Hill Community Center. No other events were scheduled during the time of the interview, so it was quiet and relatively private. TOPICS - childhood; education; family background; Japanese farmers; oil wells; rig builders; and Republicans;1933 Long Beach earthquake; Richfield compressor plant explosion; Professional Building; farming; children; marriage; and oil industry;Republicans; elections; oil industry; Kid Mexico; and the Pike; 12/13/1989
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- 2022-10-20
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- *** File: shjelliott1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:27)... Introduction Elliot came Long Beach in 1925 and attended 6th grade at Burnett school. The school was in a big, two story wooden building with oiled floors. The other kids didn't like her, but they let her play baseball because she could pitch. Then she went to Hamilton Jr. High School when it first opened. She was the only girl in her family and they lived in a farm house on Willow, which earlier had belonged to Frank G. Butler. Her aunt and uncle lived off Willow and during the oil boom, her family served hot dogs to the men and women that came up in buses to buy shares in oil wells. When her aunt and uncle sold their property they had problems getting the title cleared of percentages of mineral right that had been sold. (3:27-5:21)... The day oil was discovered on Signal Hill, her family went up to her aunt and uncle's house on Willow to watch the oil squirting out of the ground. Later, Ben Moyle told her that there were Japanese gardens with blackberries on Signal Hill before oil was discovered. Caseboom school was also located up there, which Millie Campbell would know about. The oil men made Signal Hill a city. (5:21-8:25)... Elliott attended Hamilton Jr. High, where she played on athletic teams. She then went on to Poly High School. With the oil boom, her aunt and uncle started a restaurant named Best Cafe, where her mother, brother and cousins worked. She used the money she earned to buy clothes. They opened other locations following the oil boom serving mostly oil workers. They kept one location open 24 hours a day. They primarily served home style food including "graveyard stew" which was poached eggs and milk on toast. (8:25-13:55)... When Elliott was 15 she began working at Charlie Chestnut's drug store as a soda jerk. Men in the oil business came into the drug store. She still has a picture of herself in front of the drug store with many of the oil men who came there to eat, including the Wonderlys, who were rig builders. Upstairs from the drug store were 2 apartments and a bookie took bets in one of them. Once when the bookie was down on his luck, the Wonderlys and some other clients bought him a Buick coupe, and he used to take her home from work in that car. She worked at the drug store until she was 18 when she got married. Her mother wouldn't let her get married until she was 18. So she got married on February 23 which was her birthday and that of her new husband as well. Her husband worked for Jess Nelson's oil field supply house, which was across the street from Coast Supply, owned by Dick Mitchell. Coast Supply was also know as "midnight supply" because that's when they stole supplies and sold them during the day. Nelson and Mitchell were well known for playing poker and drinking for days at a time. (13:55-16:48)... There were not may businesses close to the drug store and the owner let customers charge their purchases. She found out later that Chestnut was selling alcohol out the back door of the drug store. She met both of her husbands at that drug store. Her family name was Nye and her first husband, Ralph Jacob Liepersberger. They divorced after 8.5 years and before he went into the service. Later, in 1939, she went back to work at the drug store for a couple of years. (16:48-20:28)... Long Beach's airport was once located at Chateau Thierry before it was moved to other locations. Elliott's mother belonged to the local Republican Club and there she met Gladys O'Donnell who was also a famous aviatrix. Gladys was married to Lloyd O'Donnell whose family was in the oil business. Elliott and her husband bought the property where she still lived at the time of the interview in 1946; they paid $1000 for the land and built a house they moved into the next year. Lloyd O'Donnell's father owned a place on 33rd and Wardlow, where he kept horses. (20:28-24:52)... Gladys O'Donnell was president of the Long Beach Republican Club and she was a very determined woman. Elliott's mother was also very involved in the Republican Club long with Betty Grobaty and Grace Bixby Elliot herself also joined. Her mother started the North Long Beach Republican Club. Elliott's friend Mildred Frye was married to Carl Frye; Carl had previously been married to Barbara Bixby. Elliott met Mildred Frye while working as a waitress at a coffee shop in Professional Building. Mildred Frye was working for Dr. Hertzog at the time. She became one of the first stewardesses on the airlines and later married another man who was a famous florist. (24:52-27:46)... When Elliott married the first time, she and her husband lived into one of the homes that her aunt and uncle owned on East 1st Street. Her aunt and uncle bought real estate when they were making money during the oil boom but lost almost everything during the Depression. She was cooking dinner in that house when the 1933 earthquake hit. After the shaking stopped, she and her husband got in their car and drove up to her aunt and uncle's place. End of tape *** File: shjelliott2.mp3 (0:00-6:17)... Following the earthquake, they drove out of town and on the way, saw Poly High School on fire. There was a solid line of cars driving north, out of Long Beach. They found all of their family members and they all stayed at a house on Willow St. where some of them lived. In that time everybody helped everybody out. After that, the Richfield Oil compressor plant exploded and caught on fire. She was drying dishes at the time and it seemed like her cupboards to popped out at her. She got a ride to the house where her mother and brother lived. She found all of the windows had been blown out and couldn't find their dog. Her mother and brother were at work and not hurt. It was quite a while before they found their dog and he had glass stuck in its fur. Several people were killed in the explosion. (6:17-8:22)... One of their Signal Hill neighbors, the DeAngelos had property at Arabella and Lucas, where they raised chickens and sold the eggs at the public market. When they hit oil on their property, they moved to Ocean Blvd. and got a divorce. Mrs. DeAngelo wore lots of purple clothes and was very dramatic. (8:22-9:42)... Elliott's family always spent Christmas at her aunt and uncle's house. They always had big dinners and opened Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. (9:42-14:05)... Elliott quit working at the drug store when she got married. About three years later she and her mother and brother bought the coffee shop in the Professional Building where she had been working. They kept it for five years. Some tenants complained about the smell from the coffee shop, so it was closed about 1938. Then she went back to work at the drug store until she married Charlie Elliott. They were married for 23.5 years. (14:05-18:19)... In 1946 she and her husband adopted a child and moved into a new house they'd had built. The lot cost $1000, house $3000, plus $500 for the garage. When they divorced, she got the house. Her then former husband, Charlie, went into the pipe supply business. He asked for a divorce and she got the house and a Thunderbird. But her former husband soon went bankrupt. She had to support herself and her daughter. First she had to borrow money from her mother to get by; then she got a civil service job with Los Angeles County, Department of Public Social Services, where she worked her way up to supervisor before she retired. (18:19-23:35)... Charlie Elliot had many jobs. He worked for Jess Nelson as a bookkeeper. He worked for Walter Plant in Paramount at Plant Pipe and Supply. During the war he worked for Varco Safely Valve Company. Then he started his own business with Peter Atkinson, called Pace for Peter Atkinson and Charlie Elliott. She had hoped to be part of the business, but he had been cheating on her the whole time so they divorced. (23:35-30:19)... Part of Elliot's family were Fouchers from Quebec. They were Catholics who went to Illinois with Father Chiniquy. One of Elliott's aunts, whose property had oil under it, was the most religious one in the family. Elliott went to Sunday school every week at her aunt's church. When Elliott's daughter came along, she took her to the Religious Science church. They believed in living a positive way of life and that's how she raised her child. The church had youth groups, etc. that her daughter joined. End of tape *** File: shjelliott3.mp3 (0:00-3:56)... Identification The North Long Beach Republican Women's Club was started by Elliott's mother and Betty Grobaty, Gladys O'Donnell, Grace Bixby and Betsy Taubman. The group worked on elections doing mailings and walking door-to-door promoting candidates including Nixon. She was active while her mother was involved. (3:56-11:06)... When her daughter started school, Heber Chapman encouraged her to become involved in city politics. She attended every City Council and Planning Commission meeting. She helped with campaigns she people she supported ran for local office. At the time, Harvey Harris ran the politics in Signal Hill and also published the Signal Hill Tribune. It was believed that Harris was backed by the oil companies including Shell which paid him $800 per month. Chapman opposed the Harris machine and Elliott and a friend once lent their names to an anti-recall effort; they also get sued for libel and slander. At that point, Elliott quit but not her friend who finally settled the suit 2 years later when an attorney wrote a letter of apology for her. They didn't write their own stuff; it was written by Johnny Johnston. As a member of the Republican Club, she helped to get their candidates elected including Richard Nixon. She also worked on the campaigns of Craig Hosmer and Bill Grant. (11:06-14:18)... Elliott went to school with Edna, who married Todd Faulkner, who was also known as Kid Mexico. She played bingo at the Faulkner's bingo parlor and a friend of her helped out with the children's parties. Edna gave Elliott a standard poodle which she bred and raised poodles. She was always grateful for that gift and sorry when she heard that Edna died. Faulkner served good food and always served plenty of liquor. Elliott believed that Faulkner was "punch drunk." (14:18-15:19)... In Signal Hill there was a boot legger named Hicks who got liquor from ships in the harbor. He was a small man who drove around in a Cadillac with a dog. There were many places to gamble in the oil fields; it was just the way things were. (15:19-16:43)... The carriage house from the old Denni property became the Hill Top Cafe. It was across the street from the old Pala mansion which became headquarters for Shell Oil Company. (16:43-18:58)... She never joined the Native Daughters of the Golden West. When she was working she said she would never listen to soap operas or go around with old people, and now she does both. She is involved with the Signal Hill senior citizens group. (18:58-27:31)... She remembers the plunge on the Pike, and the carts nearby where people sold tamales. She went to the Pike every New Year's Eve to pick up some of the get the pennies from a truck from which a man threw out brand new pennies; usually she got her fingers stepped on. She liked to go on the rides and swim in the ocean and at the plunge, where everyone rented bathing suits. She enjoyed catching grunion on the beach with her family. She remembers one night when they caught over 500 grunion, which they cleaned, cooked them in cornmeal and ate. Every Sunday they went to band concerts. Now when she hears classical music it makes her cry because it reminds her of dissension in her family. The result of the dissension was that when she was 5, her father left the family. (27:31-30:25)... Pete Osborn taught Elliott how to drive when she was 12 years old. Pete and his brothers found an abandoned car, took it home and fixed it up. That's the car Elliott learned to drive around Signal Hill. There was a croquet court and a basketball court near the home where she lived on Willow St. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Joy Elliott lived in Signal Hill most of her life and participated in its development beginning in the 1920s. She worked in restaurants and drug stores until she found a county civil service job and was a volunteer participant in local civic groups. In this single interview, discusses her move to Signal Hill with her family in 1925 and her enrollment in Burnett school. She observed the oil boom as a helped in her family's oil patch restaurant and, after she graduated from high school, as a clerk in the Signal Hill drug store. She married men in the oil field supply business and socialized with their friends and co-workers. She was also active in the North Long Beach Republican Club and in local government. When Elliott divorced her second husband, she kept their house and, at the time of the interview, she was still living there in retirement from the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services. The interview was conducted as part of a project to document the history of Signal Hill. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Joy Elliott requested to be interviewed in the Signal Hill Community Center. No other events were scheduled during the time of the interview, so it was quiet and relatively private. TOPICS - childhood; education; family background; Japanese farmers; oil wells; rig builders; and Republicans;1933 Long Beach earthquake; Richfield compressor plant explosion; Professional Building; farming; children; marriage; and oil industry;Republicans; elections; oil industry; Kid Mexico; and the Pike;
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