The Ocean Beach Scrapbook
New London's Ocean Beach Park came into existence in the aftermath of the Hurricane of 1938. The devastating storm had destroyed most of the vacation homes, boarding houses and businesses that had grown up along the half-mile crescent of sand facing Long Island Sound. Since the 19th century it had been a popular destination for visitors who came by streetcar or steamboat to enjoy the beach, bandstand, pier, restaurants, ice cream parlors, and amusements.
In a remarkably progressive step, the City of New London acquired what was left of the beachfront neighborhood for a municipal park. Beginning in 1939, continuing through the years of World War II and beyond, The Day paper published a steady stream of articles about the new venture: funding, design, facilities to be built, staffing, and the inevitable tensions surrounding a publicly funded organization run by elected or appointed officials.
Once opened, programming and publicity ramped up and the Day was filled with notices of events and articles about them: visiting dance bands, swimming competitions, fireworks, an Electric Boat Pay Day party that drew 17,000 employees and their families, attendance statistics (23,000 on a June weekend in 1941), admission rates, revenue and expenses.
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The origins and evolution of Ocean Beach Park were recorded in a one-of-a-kind scrapbook of clippings, brochures, and ephemera now in the McGuire Library. We think the scrapbook was kept by the late Lucille Showalter, founder of the Maritime Society, but whatever its origin the scrapbook found its way to the sub-basement of the Custom House where it was discovered in 2010 by library volunteer Brian Rogers.
Conservation of this singular artifact was undertaken by Gene MacMullan. Its brittle, acidic pages were damaging the newsprint, and because it could not be used in such condition it was decided to photocopy it and bind the new pages into a set of albums.
The original pages have been preserved, and a separate album was created for the brochures and other printed matter which could be detached.
In those pre-television days the most popular forms of entertainment - other than Hollywood films - were happening regularly at Ocean Beach: ballroom dancing, square dancing, restaurant dining, roller skating, jitterbug contests, talent shows, bingo, community sings, beauty pageants, swimming competitions, boxing, and even "truck roadeos." The most frequent of these was Saturday night dancing: the pages of the Day announced one dance band after another, several of them nationally famous.
Below: A selection of band announcements:
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Apart from a 1941 announcement that Ocean Beach Park would cater to defense workers and their families, very few items in the scrapbook hint that the nation had entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Hawaiian theme for one of the "Candlelight Nite Club" events is surely a response to Pearl Harbor.
Below: Other hints are an article about the Ocean Beach loudspeakers now being used as air raid alarms on the Mohican Hotel, and one mentioning the "blackout," a new way of life in America, particularly on the coast.
Brochure from the 1940s or early 1950s
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Menu from the Gam Restaurant, ca. 1944
