Beach Culture | KCET
Beach Culture
Season 3, Episode 3
One of Southern California’s great international exports has been its beach culture. This episode explores how surfers, bodybuilders and acrobats taught Californians how to have fun and stay young at the beach — and how the 1966 documentary “The Endless Summer” shared the Southern California idea of the beach with the rest of the world.
In this episode, we cover the evolution of surfing with surfer Dick Metz, including the contributions made by legendary early Hawaiian surfers George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku. Metz inspired Bruce Brown’s film “The Endless Summer,” and his collection at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center covers every development in surf technology, which has been heavily influenced by aerospace. We also chat with the first female professional surfer, Joyce Hoffman, about the appeal of Southern California beach culture and its export to the rest of the world.
A collaboration between the USC Libraries and KCETLink, Lost LA features the member collections of L.A. as Subject, a research alliance dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden stories and histories of the Los Angeles region.Related
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Lost L.A.
Lost LA Field Notes: Surf’s Up!
Before we made this episode, I didn’t realize how far surfing’s influence extended, even to my own childhood. Conversations with surf culture historians Dick Metz and Peter Westwick, and a visit to Muscle Beach, helped to tell the story.
Airdates
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2019-03-12T18:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-13T04:30:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-03-13T22:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-14T05:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-16T07:30:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-03-16T11:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
Related
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Lost L.A.
Lost LA Field Notes: Surf’s Up!
Before we made this episode, I didn’t realize how far surfing’s influence extended, even to my own childhood. Conversations with surf culture historians Dick Metz and Peter Westwick, and a visit to Muscle Beach, helped to tell the story.
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Lost L.A.
How Southern California’s Aerospace Industry Helped Revolutionize Surfing
The aerospace industry and surfboarding have a historic connection through technology, and have worked together to popularize the California Dream across the globe.
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Lost L.A.
How Muscle Beach Started in Santa Monica — But Ended Up in Venice
Muscle Beach started near the Santa Monica Pier as a haven for Southern California fitness advocates, frequented by some of the most well-known names in fitness today. In spite of a wildly popular reception, politics drove it to relocate to Venice.
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Full Episodes
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
S3 E1: Yosemite
Season 3, Episode 1
This episode explores how Yosemite has changed over time: from a land maintained by indigenous peoples; to its emergence as a tourist attraction; to the site of conflict over humanity’s relationship with nature.
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
S3 E2: Desert Fantasy
Season 3, Episode 2
California’s deserts have sparked imaginations around the world. This episode explores the creation of the Salton Sea; the effort to preserve Joshua Tree National Park; and how commercial interests created desert utopias like Palm Springs.
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
S3 E3: Beach Culture
Season 3, Episode 3
This episode explores how surfers, bodybuilders, and acrobats taught Californians how to have fun and stay young at the beach — and how the 1966 documentary The Endless Summer shared the Southern California idea of the beach with the rest of the world.
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
S3 E4: Ghost Towns
Season 3, Episode 4
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
S3 E5: Venice
Season 3, Episode 5
From its origins as a seaside resort to its fame as a countercultural hub, Venice Beach boasts a rich history. This episode explores the original plans for Venice, the Beat poets who lived there and the history of the Abbot Kinney commercial district.
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Clips & Segments
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
Julius Shulman: Man Behind the Camera
In this 2005 interview, Julius Shulman explains how the people who lived in buildings gave purpose and meaning to the idea of home.
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
Preview: 'Lost LA' Season Three
Watch a preview of the new season of "Lost LA," premiering Oct. 9.
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
Central Casting: Extras and Ethnicities
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Lost L.A.
Lost L.A.
When Women Called the Shots: The Forgotten Story of Early Hollywood's Female Filmmakers
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Articles
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Lost L.A.
The tireless work of Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, who was dedicated to the often-misunderstood delicate desert landscape, was critical in establishing Joshua Tree as a national monument. She paved the way for its continued preservation today.
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Lost L.A.
Muscle Beach started near the Santa Monica Pier as a haven for Southern California fitness advocates, frequented by some of the most well-known names in fitness today. In spite of a wildly popular reception, politics drove it to relocate to Venice.
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Lost L.A.
From bad-guy shooters to gold and silver bonanzas, there’s much that has been lost from the once-thriving mining town of Bodie. There’s still more that's left to protect in the ghost town that survived the Wild West.
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Lost L.A.
Urban environments are a necessary part of our culture and evolution — and so is the desert wilderness. It allows us to remember a part of ourselves as we journey into this forgotten realm of imagination and fantasy.
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Lost L.A.
Early Hollywood film production pioneer Carl Laemmle dreamed up a city that’s now become the billion-dollar empire known as Universal Studios. Once doubted as “Laemmle's Folly,” its famous behind-the-scenes studio tours still operate today.
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Lost L.A.
In the early 1960s, Walt Disney proposed a Polynesian-themed restaurant featuring a musical floor show with trained birds. With technology purchased from the nuclear weapons program, mechanical performers would make his vision a reality.
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Upcoming Airdates
Fantasyland
Season 3, Episode 6
Los Angeles has long been the place where you can imagine something — a time period, a location, ordinary or exotic, real or fantasy — and build it. It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1910s and 1920s, when early filmmakers built huge, elaborately themed sets that often remained standing for months or years, inviting visitors to explore and to imagine being a part of the action. It found its fullest expression in nearby Anaheim, where Walt Disney’s Imagineers created the intricately themed, immersive experience that is Disneyland.
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2019-02-19T12:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-19T17:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-20T03:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
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2019-02-20T21:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-21T04:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-23T06:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
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Descanso Gardens
"Lost L.A.: Descanso Gardens" explores the history of one of southern California's most-beloved public gardens. From its pre-colonial origins as an oak woodland to its contemporary role as a living museum, the film examines how the Descanso Gardens reflects the social, political and cultural evolution of Los Angeles.
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2019-02-21T06:00:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-07T20:00:00-08:00KCETLINK
Yosemite
Season 3, Episode 1
Californians have long fought over what Yosemite means and how to manage it. Since its birth as a park and preserve in 1864, Yosemite has become a postcard for the natural beauty of California. Each year, millions visit from around the globe to see the cliffs, waterfalls and meadows that inspire wonder and reverence of the American West. This episode explores how Yosemite has changed over time: from a land maintained by indigenous peoples to its emergence as a tourist attraction and national park to the site of conflict over humanity’s relationship with nature.
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2019-02-26T12:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-26T17:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-27T03:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
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2019-02-27T21:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-02-28T04:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-02T06:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
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2019-03-02T10:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-03T11:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
Desert Fantasy
Season 3, Episode 2
California’s deserts have sparked the imaginations of millions of people around the world. From the famously alien landscape of Joshua Tree to the wide expanses of seemingly empty land, the desert has been seen as a place of reinvention, a blank slate on which the visitor creates his or her own dream. This episode explores the man-made natural disaster that created the Salton Sea, the efforts to preserve Joshua Tree National Park, and how commercial interests and real estate developers created a desert utopia like Palm Springs.
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2019-03-05T12:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-05T17:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-06T03:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
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2019-03-06T21:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-07T04:30:00-08:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-09T06:30:00-08:00KCETLINK
Beach Culture
Season 3, Episode 3
One of Southern California’s great international exports has been its beach culture. This episode explores how surfers, bodybuilders and acrobats taught Californians how to have fun and stay young at the beach — and how the 1966 documentary “The Endless Summer” shared the Southern California idea of the beach with the rest of the world.
-
2019-03-12T18:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
-
2019-03-13T04:30:00-07:00KCETLINK
-
2019-03-13T22:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
-
2019-03-14T05:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
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2019-03-16T07:30:00-07:00KCETLINK
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2019-03-16T11:30:00-07:00KCET-HD
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