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Garlits v Prudhomme:The 1/4 Mile, 7-Second Rush of Acceleration: Half Moon Bay Drag Strip

PART 3

prudhomme.jpg(Photo: Don Prudhomme with Half Moon Bay Drag Strip “Theme Girl” Tammy Thomas)

For Coastside kids, now adults, the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip remains a fond memory. In the late 1990s I interviewed Mark Andermahr, owner of the Half Moon Bay Bakery on Main Street. A fervent fan of drag racing, Andermahr had turned the walls of the bakery into a museum of historic photos honoring the old drag strip and its heroes.

In the 1960s, Andermahr told me, he and his friends hitchhiked to the drag strip, perching themselves atop the roof of a barn at the south end of the drag strip.

“All we could see was the end of the race when the parachutes opened,â€? Mark said. They looked like little dots getting bigger.â€?

(The “parachutesâ€? helped slow down the super-fast dragsters).

The races took place every other Sunday, the price of admission 90 cents. Jim McLennan “could hardly wait for race dayâ€? when he got behind the wheel of his 1936 Ford pick-up truck and headed from San Francisco for the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip where he opened the gates and awaited the crowds.

McLennan remembered a press conference he scheduled at Half Moon Bay, inviting radio and television stations to cover a mock race matching his homemade “slingshot dragsterâ€? that could go up to 150 mph against Art Arfon’s “Green Monsterâ€?.

Arfon’s dragster with a painted monster baring its teeth on the front end was funny to look at but it was awesome, loaded with a gas-eating jet engine that reached speeds of 170 mph.

“The media didn’t come to the press conference,â€? McLennan said. “They didn’t know where the drag strip was!â€?

Back at the Champion Speed Shop in Colma a KPIX-TV cameraman and reporter arrived, apologizing for their failure to get to Half Moon Bay.

“Can you show us the mock race now?â€? the reporter asked.

Game for anything, McLennan called Colma’s police chief, who said, “Sure, go ahead. You can run the thing, just put a couple of guys on the street to stop the traffic on the El Camino.â€?

“We did it,â€? McLennan said. “Art came down the street in the ‘Green Monster’.â€?

He gave it the gas, and the noise was incredible. Two parachutes stopped the “Monsterâ€? at the El Camino but the noise was so loud “the phones were ringing off the hook at Colma’s City Hall.

McLennan also made valuable contributions to the safety of the sport. Through conversations with a San Francisco Airport fire official, he helped develop a “pro-helmet, fashioned out of fiberglass material, protecting the driver from burns. Northern California dragsters were the first to wear the new “fire suit,â€? McLennan said.

Using brakes to slow a dragster going 150-plus mph did not do very well so McLennan experimented with parachutes.

Crouching in the truck bed of a pick-up, McLennan tossed out a 20-foot chute tied to a chain but he says, “It wrecked the tail gate and everything else.â€?

Eventually he used a triangle parachute attached to a nylon “roll cageâ€? which resembled a back pack. McLennan was among the first to use parachutes to slow down a dragster.

NEXT: THE BIG MATCH RACE BETWEEN DON GARLITS & DON PRUDHOMME

photos courtesy Mark Andermahr

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Garlits v Prudhomme: The 1/4 Mile, 7-Second Rush of Acceleration: Half Moon Bay Drag Strip

Part 2

garlits2.jpg (Photo: Don “Big Daddy” Garlits standing behind his dragster with Jim McLennan, wearing striped shirt in the background)

For the uninitiated, drag racing is a lightning speed contest between hot rods racing side-by-side.

In the 1960s, to reach maximum speeds of more than 200-mph in less than 7 seconds, dragsters fine-tuned their engines, modified body shapes and experimented with exotic, flammable fuels.

In the drag racing world, “Seven seconds is an eternity,â€? Jim McLennan told me eight years ago when he was in his mid-60s. McLennan was also the veteran of 2,000 races and the former owner of the legendary Champion Speed Shop in Colma (south of San Francisco).

“Back in the early 1950s when I was known as a hot rod kid,â€? McLennan said, “ I cruised in a ’51 Chevy loaded with a powerful Oldsmobile engine. I was at Mel’s Drive-In when a young man called ‘the Greek’ pulled alongside me in his ’41 Buick with a Cadillac engine.â€?

“Wanna drag?â€? challenged ‘the Greek’.

The hot-rodders negotiated the site of their “outlaw dragâ€? before settling on the straight-away of the “Upper Great Highwayâ€? near San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.

San Francisco’s avenues were used because “there was no place to dragâ€?, McLennan told me. “The street machines were going faster and faster and it was getting out of hand.â€?

Sometimes the “outlaw dragsâ€? took place as early as 5:30 a.m. to avoid getting “taggedâ€? or arrested by police.

Jim McLennan was 25 when he changed careers. He opened the Champion Speed Shop on Mission Road near the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.

Inside the concrete “tilt-upâ€? building where the smell of oil permeated the air, McLennan did tune-ups—but what he relished was building hot rods from scratch—and he was so good at it that the phone rang constantly until closing time, 9 p.m. On the other end of the line were young hot-rodders asking questions about engines, ordering special parts, inquiring about the date of the next drag race.

McLennan’s Speed Shop became the nerve center for drag strip devotees.

It was one thing to build fast engines, it was another to actually own a drag strip and that’s what Jim McLennan wanted.

He wanted to own a legal and safe place where amateurs and pros could compete. Imagine his excitement when he learned that the 3000-foot long, 60-foot wide asphalt covered auxiliary air strip at the isolated Half Moon Bay Airport was for rent.

McLennan snapped up the opportunity but he realized that attracting spectators might not be easy. He would have to overcome the fact that few people knew how to find the remote, sparsely populated Half Moon Bay.

…To Be Continued…

. Photo courtesy Mark Andermahr, HMB Bakery (When you go to buy bread or pastries, enjoy the many dragster photos on the walls of the HMB Bakery on Main Street)

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Garlits v Prudhomme: The 1/4 Mile, 7-Second Rush of Acceleration: Half Moon Bay Drag Strip

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Part I

The Coastside sky was an endless milky white as 29-year-old Don “Big Daddyâ€? Garlits towed his “Swamp Ratâ€?, the strange looking, low-slung drag strip racing machine, into the isolated Half Moon Bay Airport.

Bold block lettering on the multi-windowed tower announced that Big Daddy had arrived at the Half Moon Bay Drag Strip: Where World Records Are Broken.

It was 1966 and 1500 drag strip fans, young and old, gathered to witness the highly publicized battle of the year–a quarter-mile, 7-second rush of acceleration– between arch rivals Don Garlits and Don Prudhomme.

Garlits, a Floridian, was always a star attraction, a “hired gunâ€? that brought in the crowds, wherever he raced. But this time Garlits had had a bad year, losing important races on the East Coast—but eveb worse he heard from a reliable source that the big trophy had been etched in advance with Don Prudhomme’s name.

As the day of the big match approached, excitement soared among the dedicated group of drag strip fans.

Who would win the giant trophy and the $5000 purse?

Did the trophy really already bear Don Prudhomme, the Southern Californian’s name?

Which man– and which machine–would emerge as #1?

…To be continued…

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Elaine Stritch: My Favorite Broadway Performer

images.jpgLong before I visited New York City a few months ago I admired the great Broadway actress Elaine Stritch. Most recently she did a one-woman show for HBO and she’s over 80 years-old. She was wearing an oversized white shirt and stockings and heels. The only prop was a bar stool type chair, and in her smoky voice she told stories of dating young, gorgeous Marlon Brando, of wild nights drinking, (she doesn’t drink anymore) and dashing from one fabulous Broadway show to another, both of which she was starring in at the same time.

Elaine Stritch’s voice is so much her own that I knew I’d recognize it anywhere.

I loved her as Joanne in Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy, “Company” (1970) and “her” song, “Ladies Who Lunch”–

Especially these lines:
….

“And here’s to the girls who just watch–
Aren’t they the best?
When they get depressed,
It’s a bottle of Scotch,
Plus a little jest.
Another chance to disapprove,
Another brilliant zinger,
Another reason not to move,
Another vodka stinger.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
I’ll drink to that.

….”

Miss Stritch appeared in San Francisco a few years ago and how I regret not seeing the show. I heard it was marvelous. But something much better was in store for me!

While in New York, I stayed with Burt at the sexy Carlyle, famous for John F. Kennedy’s rendezvous with beautiful women. I knew that Elaine Stritch performed in the hotel’s club (and that she lived at the famous hotel, too).

One afternoon I was walking into the hotel when walking in front of me I heard a voice I recognized.

“Elaine Stritch!” I said loudly and boldly. If I have to say so myself I sounded like an old friend of the actress.

Wearing a scarf and a coat on a mild spring day she turned to see who it was.

What to do, what to do, I thought. I didn’t feel so bold anymore.

“Can I hug you?” I said.

“Yes,” she answered and I hugged her.

A younger woman, a daughter? a business manager? was with Miss Stritch, watching the scene unfold with an approving smile.

“What’s your name?” the actress asked me.

“June”.

At that point we parted but moments later ended up getting into the same elevator. We didn’t talk but when she got off and walked away, her back to me, she had a final scene to play. In a loud, clear Broadway voice she said to me:

“GOODbye June.” (said in “that” voice).

Like the great entertainer she is, Elaine Stritch made the most out of those two words (that I will remember forever).

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Horrible Mishap When Vehicle Collides With Two Motorcyles on Highway 92

Commuters heading home to Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon, the 10th of July, were stopped in their tracks near Half Moon Bay Nursery. Burt and I were two of those commuters, some 300 yards away from what–at a distance– looked like debris on the road. I wasn’t able to see what was in the road nor were any of the other drivers in front of me.

All of us were baffled. If it was an accident, where were the cars?

As we waited emergency vehicles arrived, including two ambulances. We waited, straining to see.

All we could see was something lying on the road. Something dark. Radio news didn’t know yet. I called 511* for traffic info but the man on the recording said there was a “delay between Skyline and Skyline” on Highway 92, but cars were moving at 35-40 mph. No way! And, where’s Skyline & Skyline?

I decided to find out the old-fashioned way: I called Half Moon Bay Nursery, and asked Brad, who answered, if he knew what had happened.

“Two motorcycles were struck by a vehicle,” he told me.

“Thank you, Brad.”

(Meanwhile two ambulances left the scene, heading east.)

I called KCBS and the story was aired seconds later. “Avoid 92,” the traffic reporter said “92 is a parking lot…”

We were near the front of the line and passed the endless line of cars, standing still, stretching from the scene of the horrible accident west to Highway 1–It’ll take at least a couple of hours to clear this up, I thought.

I didn’t want to imagine how far the line stretched, all those cars at a standstill, in the opposite direciton–and, there are very very few places to turn around on Highway 92.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r4-gjwVdbQ]

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The Coastside’s Other Ghost

alberts_21.jpg

The Blue Lady has been moving chairs and tables late at night in Moss Beach for decades earning her the reputation as the Coastside’s top ghost.

But there is another ghost, the one we don’t hear anything about, the one who also, in the end, raises many perplexing questions.

I’m talking about the ghost at Miramar.

No sightings of this lesser known ghost had ever been reported until Albert and wife Eva Schmidt moved their restaurant business from Burlingame to Miramar.

It was after WWII, and the building they bought was the old Palace Miramar Hotel. During the war, U.S. soldiers used the Palace Miramar as a headquarters and they were pretty lax on maintenance. Albert had a lot of clean-up and restoration on his hands.

First, he renamed the place “Albert’sâ€?. Then, he found the ornate bar, gleaming chandeliers and other heavy dark furniture at the Spreckels estate sale.

Not only was the hotel worn out, but the historic wooden pier that once jutted 200 feet into the sea, had been left to rot. When Albert arrived, the pier had been reduced to stumps. While sipping at the bar, the Miramar locals guessed when the pilings would vanish forever.

I don’t know what Albert was like in Burlingame, but he was a quirky figure in Miramar, an eclectic cook who whipped up chateaubriand for breakfast and ham and eggs at midnight. Albert and Eva Schmidt also built up a loyal following ranging from the locals to important politicos who loved their crab cioppino.

It was about this time that the “Second Level Apparitionâ€? that haunted Albert’s made its presence known. With an eerie shiver, the help reported sightings.

The chandeliers swung and tinkled as if agitated by a strong wind– but the windows were closed. Far more unsettling was the hooded, caped transparent face that peered through windows, there one second, gone the next.

And finally, what was going on in rooms six and seven?

When the pair of connecting rooms was unoccupied, lights could be seen beneath the doors. And when the doors were opened to see what the source of the light was, candles were found burning brightly.

Who lit the candles in rooms six and seven? Nobody knew.

Who lit the candles? Who swung the chandeliers? What was the hooded, caped thing at the windows?

Who was this “Second Level Apparitionâ€?? Man or woman? What is its story and why was it haunting Albert’s?

The only explanations seemed otherworldly. Remember, it is said that a ghost is a tortured soul searching for peace.

There are many theories: Was it one of the soldiers, a guest at the hotel, a fisherman on the pier, a passenger on the train, or someone who suffered an agonizing death during prohibition?

Most perplexing of al, what happened to the “Second Level Apparitionâ€? ghost when Albert’s burned in the 1960s?

Did the ghost find peace when the Albert’s hotel was destroyed by fire or did it move elsewhere?

pier.jpg

Attention folks in Miramar: If you have any unexplained, strange activities in your home or business, please let me know.

Top photo: Albert’s, courtesy Joe Clement

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I Tunes Music Store Person: Please Let Me Recommend Driving Music for Highway 92

I see the I Tunes Music Store is showing off a series of “Driving Music”–one is for the Autobahn in Germany, another for New England, another for the ride to the Napa-Sonoma Wine Country–all soothing, classical music.

The copy said (something like) nothing can ruffle feathers more than a wonderful day spoiled by unexpected traffic delays….turning an otherwise “normal” man or woman into a shrieking mimi within 30 seconds….

I Tunes Music Store Person: Please let me recommend “Driving Music For Highway 92”. Let it be modern music that goes off the dee end, music to accompany a nervous breakdown–spastic, antonal and cacophonous…

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Blue Lady: The (In) Famous Moss Beach Ghost

DaveAndrewsJPG.jpgthruwindowJPG.jpgMB.jpg

In 1980 Dave Andrews (above, left), one of the owners of the Moss Beach Distillery, stood behind the bar of his restaurant overlooking the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and told me about the roadhouse’s past. The interview with Andrews was for “The Mystery of Half Moon Bay”.

The Distillery was built in 1928 by Frank Torres, built originally, we think, as a residence, eventually a booming restaurant and bar.

There was a garage underneath that was used during Prohibition. Officials came from San Francisco and people who didn’t want to be seen in a bootleg restaurant. They would drive into the restaurant and then come up the back stairs.

We supposed it was used as a bordello. Of course, who knows what was going on.

This bay called Seal Cove was used quite actively during Prohibition. Boats from Canada would arrive outside and drop the booze off the side and float into the channel. There was a lookout on the hill to signal the boats. The signal warned whether there were any federal people here.

The Distillery was used as a hangout for a lot of movie stars, silent film stars that would come down from the City, such as Fatty Arbuckle. A lot of city officials from San Francisco would come down.

(David mentions that there were houses overlooking the ocean, houses that were part of the bordello and burned in the 1930s and 40s).

distillery.jpg

Story goes there was a triangle going on between the piano player and the jealous husband and so-called Lady in Blue was here in the evenings. Somehow a fight started between them. We think the murder [of the Lady in Blue] was a stabbing on the beach.

The Lady in Blue returned to the restaurant and she’s been here ever since, quite active late at night, moving chairs and walking around the place, slamming doors whenever she feels like she needs attention.

There’s a second story that the so-called “Blue Lady” was involved with silent film star Fatty Arbuckle.

I, myself, have heard her but never seen her.

Our maintenance man [who lives on the property] wakes up feeling somebody in the room, gets the feeling somebody’s always looking, staring at you and so when you wake up and there’s nobody there.

You hear noise and the chairs moving, tables moving and somebody in high heels walking across the floor.

I had people stay here that have heard the piano playing but there’s nobody here. And the piano’s been gone for several years.

One of our cocktail waitresses had her five-year-old daughter in the building. We were closing and the waitress and the bartender were talking to a couple of other people. The child came wandering in here, into the dining room and then she came running out screaming and saying, “There’s somebody in there. There’s a lady in blue.

Everybody walked back into the dining room and nobody was there. But the child obviously saw her.