Betsy J. Green

Herbert Earlscliffe of Montecito was cranking the starter on his car in February 1914 when something went horribly wrong and he ended up with a broken arm.

Dana Newquist, local classic car collector, told me, "Most cars into the mid 30s had 'crank holes' at the base of the radiator shell for insertion of the crank. … The danger of the crank happens when a person is turning the engine over using the crank and the car 'backfires.' A backfire forces the engine to abruptly reverse direction. If your arm is turning the crank in a clockwise direction when a backfire occurs, the result is often a broken arm."

Ouch! If only Herbert had waited a year! In 1915, a Dayton, Ohio man named Charles Kettering received a patent for the electrical starter motor. He went on to become the founder of Delco. The name Delco comes from Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company. 

The Lady Lighthouse Keeper - Part 2

The Santa Barbara Lighthouse was located on the Mesa about where Mesa Park is today. Julia Frances Williams served as the lighthouse keeper for 40 years. Her husband was an alcoholic, so she supported the family and raised six kids.

But she still was able to take a few moments now and then to appreciate the beauty of her domain. "I go up the stairs in the early evening . . . and light the lamps. I love to watch the beams flash out over the waters. It is wonderful how bright it will be on a stormy night when the clouds almost seem to be resting on the crests of those tossing waves. Then, again, at midnight, always, I come up again to see that all is well. It is then that I love best to stand and watch the sea. When it is calm and peaceful under the light of the moon or just the stars, the silence and majesty of it is inspiring."

Movie companies from the LA-Hollywood area that came to Montecito to film often used the mansions or formal gardens on the big estates. But in 1915, Santa Barbara's "Flying A" studio used a wooded canyon in Montecito to represent the Canadian North Woods for Alice of Hudson Bay. This is believed to be the first movie set in Hudson Bay.

A Nature Photographer in Santa Barbara

In a 1918 birding magazine, a photographer here wrote about how he photographed a humming bird in his garden.

"When the mother was away foraging, I covered the camera with green leaves, focused it upon the nest, then drew a thread, which I had attached to the shutter, into a room that looked down upon the nest, and there awaited the mother's return at dinner-hour. I am sure that she carried a watch, for dinner was always served promptly between 1:30 and 2:00." 

The Lady Lighthouse Keeper - Part 1

Her name was Julia Frances Williams. She was the Mesa Lighthouse Keeper from 1865 until 1905. A neighbor in 1881 described her as a "wonderfully smart woman." She was also physically tough — she had to climb three sets of stairs twice a night in a long skirt to reach the light in the tower.

And she had a great sense of humor. In 1889, there was a rumor that a whale had washed up on the beach. When Julia discovered that it was a hoax, she quipped, "It was nothing but a fish story." And she was fond of saying that her job description was "light housekeeping." 

Goldwyn Studios came to Montecito to shoot scenes for All's Fair in Love in 1921. The movie was based on a 1913 Broadway play by the same name.

Publicity for the movie claimed that the play had been a success, however a close look at Variety revealed that the play opened in New York in February and closed in March. Hmmm.

Jitneys & Uber – Been There; Done That

We didn't have the app-based taxi company called Uber back in Santa Barbara in 1915, but we did have a similar alternative transport system called the jitney that was just as convenient – and just as controversial.

A nickel, nicknamed a "jitney," bought you a ride in a private car – often a Ford Model T touring car – driven by its owner who wanted to use his/her vehicle to make some extra money.

Like Uber, which began in San Francisco and spread worldwide, the jitney began in Los Angeles in 1914, and soon expanded to other cities – like Santa Barbara.

The Great Wall of the Mesa

As you drive down Cliff Drive between Santa Barbara City College and Castillo Street, you pass by the loooong stone wall on the right-hand side. You might have noticed a small plaque on the wall about midway down. Here's the plaque (see photo). The WPA was a federal agency that provided jobs to many unemployed people during the Great Depression.

Some of the stones in the wall are remnants of "Punta del Castillo," the mansion built by the Dibblee family that was located where City College is today.

In 1915, Santa Barbara's "Flying A" studio produced its hugely popular series The Diamond From the Sky. Portions of the 30-episode series were filmed in Montecito, California and were seen in theaters as far away as Chile, although it apparently took years to reach them.

Landscape Artist Lands in Santa Barbara in 1917

Thomas Moran, was "perhaps the most eminent landscape painter ever known to American art circles," according to the local paper in January 1917. The 80-year-old artist and his daughter settled here for a four-month stay.

"Mr. Moran has made his fame in the Rocky Mountain region, especially in the Grand Canyon and the Yellowstone, where he has got the main inspiration in the way of what he calls 'big scenery.'"

The Santa Barbara Mission was among the local scenes he painted here. One of his works, "The Three Tetons," was hung in the Oval Office at the White House.