History 50 Years Ago; 1959 Car Club Murder

"Many of the attackers were described as having goatees or beards."

Back then especially, not many employers would allow any facial hair except for a thin mustache, so if you had a beard or worse a goatee, that usually meant you didn't have a job, so it was assumed you must be a criminal...funny that now doctors, lawyers, and bankers have beards and many outlaw types have no beards and bald heads...

 

That was my era and my town. I seem to remember a few scattered problems with a couple of outlaw clubs. Apparantly the braincells I used to remember this event have died. The Pharos of Wilmington were some bad asses and we usually avoided them. I was in the Pacers and had friends in the Cut Outs, Outcasts, Rakers and some others that were around at the time. Long Beach had an organization sponsered by the police department called ACCLB, Associated Car Clubs of Long Beach. It was formed to alleviate potential problems. We were never territorial like the gangs of today. The drive-ins werew the meeting place, a place to show off cars, meet chicks and pick up a street race. We were all too busy with our cars to waste time fighting. Long Beach was a great car town back it those days. Lions opened up in 1955 and we could always settle our differences on the track.

 

does anyone have a original CUT OUTS plaque
are there any surviving cut outs members out there?
if so please pm me .

 

How about this old club from Long Beach????---Anyone remember it???
-------Don

 

Here it is

 

Well, at least they didn't "Tie him to the car and drag him!"

 

I agree. There were a lot of clubs in the Long Beach area but that number is way too big.

The Long Beach page on our website has photos of plaques for many of the clubs mentioned, but some of those could be for other Long Beach areas in states other than CA.

 

I don't think that was a midwest or right coast thing as both of the clubs I belonged to in Redondo Beach, CA in the 50's had courtesy cards. The Membership & Courtesy Cards page on our website has some examples.

 

Same for the Magoos club in Hermosa Beach. In the late 50's we had about 50 or 60 members and ran these plaques .....



The club is still going but it too is a lowrider club.

 

Was this their plaque?

 

Interesting read. Thanks for posting. Love hearing all the replies from the guys that were there. Priceless.

 

Many of the clubs in Long Beach belonged to the ACCLB. I have a copy of the Crash Helmet (Vol. 1, No. 14) which was published in June of 1957. It has 16 pages and lots of info and photos of car clubs in So. Calif.

One page has 5 photos and an article titled "Squires Hold Auto Show for Charity". It was held on May 5, 1957 at Compton Jr. College and the entry fee was $1.00 (no zeros missing). The proceeds were going to the Cerebral Palsy Foundation and clubs that attended were the Kut Outs (sic) of Long Beach, Renegades of Lakewood, Dueces of Garden Grove, Phaethons of Paramount and Scooners of Paramount.

The Squires were also giving away a customized 1952 Pontiac Catalina at Lion's Drag Strip on Saturday September 7th and there were two photos of this car that I remember seeing in one of the magazines. It also has a Squires plaque mounted on the back bumper.

A lot of the clubs mentioned had "adult" organization sponsors and they participated in dances, reliability runs, etc. with other clubs in the area.

 

I wonder which of these Cut Outs plaques is the original. Do you know?

 

This is a great thread...don't see how I missed it originally. Keep sharing pics & stories, please!

 

Bullet nose, could it be Paul Lehrbass' 1952 Pontiac that they gave away?

Link: http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Paul_Lehrbass%27_1952_Pontiac



Image from Trend Book 143 - Restyle Your Car

 

WOW..interesting fact

 

Nowadays there's an event with "rumble" in its title going on somewhere in America but there are no actual rumbles happening, maybe this could be rectified by growing our beards out and staring at other dude's girlfriends for too long........sounds like fun.

 

That's the car in the issue of Crash Helmet I have. It has the same California yellow plate.

And thanks for the link too.

 

Interesting! Btw, the guy who wrote the piece has a copper '57 Chevy Handyman wagon, and used to have a blues radio show. But that was 25 years ago...

 

Cool! Thanks for the info Bullet Nose!

 

someone should write a book about it, a real documentary before more of it gets lost inevitably.

 

Interesting story,great thread,thanks for posting.

 

all the drama happens on messageboards these days.

as one family guy episode pointed out that in england there are drive by arguments...

 

Pimpin Paint wrote: "You drink the beer for me, I'm allergic to alcohol, I drink it and break out in handcuffs!"

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by thebigdaddyo
Oh yes, all other car clubs across the nation only helped little old ladies across the street and picked daffodils for the needy....ya right!
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
And Rick Finch added: "You betcha...they were all paragons of virtue, sheeesh!"

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JIMI'S TAKE: Guys, I'm glad Dirk posted this thread-starter back in July, for several reasons. One is that the guys commenting here are REALLY contrasting the REALITIES VS. MYTHS around what hotrodding (and the clubs) were about in the '50s and earlier '60s. THIS FREAKING TAKES ME BACK!

 

Looks like a '40s plaque. Russetta members too.

 

Here's another article about the UnSeen Cavaliers car club and the members that were arrested. Not in 1959 but in 2004. Got to watch out for those guys driving Chevy Cavaliers .....

UnSeen Cavaliers

I had to laugh at this comment .....

Their purpose, according to their Web site, was to just "chill with other Cavalier owners.''

Hope no one on here is driving one.

 

Bullet Nose, I am flying the Magoo's Car Club plaque in my 1950 Chevy Lowrider Truck. I am a member of the club and have been at two different times. I was president in 1969 and now the treasure. We have a roster of about 15 member and now we are the Magoo's Car Club South Bay. I am the only member flying the original plaque. We have our annual dance this coming year on May 8,2009 at the Eagles Hall on Catalina in Redondo Beach. I am sure you know this hall. I look forward to hearing stories from the fifties about the club. I know the Club started in Hermosa in 1951 on 5th Street but I would like to get a hold of other member throughout the years.

 

I grew up in Paramount. Ca back in the fifties. About 1958 or '59 I and a few other kids hung out at a little drive-in hamburger joint in Hollydale, Ca. where a car club hung out. We called ourselves "The Night Hawks" and we emulated what the older guys with cars did. I know they were car club guys but I can't remember the name maybe our name reflected theirs some way?(Bill do you have anything for Paramount or Hollydale?).

 

now I know what my Dad was talkin about.

 

Really makes you think about what our parents and grandparents were up to back in the day.