April 1942

The south side with enclosed sun porch of the Furuta bungalow at Historic Wintersburg.  In February 1942, the F.B.I. came for Charles Mitsuji Furuta while he was working on the goldfish farm.  They investigated his closet and office in the sun porch, then took him to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station in Los Angeles County.  (Photo, April 18, 2014)

   In late April 1942, Yukiko Furuta and her children had officially been warned they would have to evacuate California by mid May.  They had been given notice around April 14 to 16, and had begun to pack.

    Charles Mitusji Furuta had already been taken to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station (Tajunga, Los Angeles County). Yukiko was faced with how to pack and store four decades of life in America. Those being evacuated had been told they could bring only one suitcase.

   The Furutas would store belongings at the home of brother-in-law Henry Kiyomi Akiyama, at the Pacific Goldfish Farm located then at Goldenwest and Bolsa streets in nearby Westminster. Akiyama's Caucasian employees would watch over the property and manage the farm during his absence.  Another family would watch over the Furuta Gold Fish Farm in Wintersburg Village.

Right: The Pacific Goldfish Farm, at Goldenwest Street and Bolsa Avenue, located where the Westminster Mall is today, circa 1940s.  The farm contained 40 acres of goldfish farms.  It is estimated there were 100,000 to 200,000 fish by the time World War II started. (Photo courtesy of the Akiyama family and California State University Fullerton, Center for Oral and Public History, PJA Akiyama 1751) © All rights reserved.

   Yukiko described the time before evacuation in her 1982 interview with Professor Emeritus Arthur Hansen for the Honorable Stephen K. Tamura Orange County Japanese American Oral History Project. The interview was conducted with the help of an interpreter, Yasko Gamo.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Yukiko Furuta:
    The F.B.I. came to the church (the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church) to take Reverend (Sohei Kowta), but then (Kowta) said that all the husbands had been taken and the wives were having trouble. If he would be taken, no one would take care of them. So the F.B.I. agent called the office and talked to the people at the office. Then they decided not to take him. So he could stay in the Japanese community.

Left: Reverend Sohei Kowta* and his wife, Riyo, lived in the manse with their three children--Tadashi, Hiroko and Makoto--at the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church from 1938 until the time of evacuation in 1942.  He is credited in a U.S. government report with helping unify the religious groups at the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona.  Reverend Kowta also helped organize the Evergreen Hostel in Los Angeles for displaced Japanese Americans returning to Southern California in 1945. (Photo courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

    They just stayed home with fear. They could not go out more than five miles from their homes. So they stayed home quietly.

    In the evening they pulled the blind and shade and turned out the light and went to bed early. Her son (Raymond Furuta, a graduate of Huntington Beach High School) was engaged then (to Martha), so he told her that they were going to marry quickly because otherwise they might not be able to get married.

Arthur Hansen:
    When her husband left, did somebody come to the door to pick him up?

Yukiko Furuta:
    Yes. Three big men.

Arthur Hansen:
    Tell me about that. Did you know they were coming or not, then?

Yukiko Furuta:
    They just came and knocked on the door, and when she opened the door there were three big men. They asked whether Mr. Furuta was there? Since he was working at the fish farm outside, she called him.

Right: A portion of a mural that once graced the Huntington Beach Art Center parking area, memorialized the Furuta family history.  At the center, Raymond and Martha Furuta surrounded by goldfish. To their right, an image from a 1923 photograph of Charles and Yukiko Furuta with their children, the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church behind them.  In the upper right corner, flanked by the lily flowers sold by the Furutas, the barracks of the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

Arthur Hansen:
    It was during the day?

Yukiko Furuta:
    Yes. So the F.B.I. men said they had come for Mr. Furuta.

    For a while after Pearl Harbor, they were told they couldn't own guns or cameras or even flashlights. So they had to take them to the (Huntington Beach) city hall. So they already didn't have those things.

Left: The Huntington Beach city hall, as it appeared circa 1940s, was located near the present-day Main Street Library and Triangle Park off Main Street.  The civilian defense program established by Huntington Beach city officials during the war instituted a coastal watch, for which some of the volunteers scouted the coastline from the rooftop of the city hall and next door Memorial Hall. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   ...the F.B.I. agents came into the house and examined Mr. Furuta's desk and closet. They couldn't find anything in there. 

Arthur Hansen:
...Which room was that? (the room which is now the sun porch in the rear of the interviewee's house)

Yukiko Furuta:
    Since he had already packed his suitcase, he went then with the F.B.I. men.

Arthur Hansen: 
   That same day he went?

Yukiko Furuta: 
   The agents waited while Mr. Furuta changed his clothing. And then they examined his baggage.

Arthur Hansen:
  What kind of instructions did (Charles Furuta) give the family?

Left: Images of the senior class from Raymond Furuta's 1932 Huntington Beach High School yearbook, the Cauldron, his photo at center left on the right-side page. (Photo, October 2013) © All rights reserved.

Yukiko Furuta:
    They might have talked to the children. But the children said, later on, that the F.B.I. men had made a joke to them. But they didn't give any particular instruction to her.

    (Charles) said to (Yukiko) that in the long run their property might be confiscated because they were all enemy aliens; so the most important thing was that everybody was alive and well. And he didn't have much time to talk any further.

    So later on they corresponded with each other. And one of the things she mentioned was written in one of his letters--that the family should evacuate with other Japanese.

   (Charles) forgot to take something with him when he left, so (Yukiko) told her daughter (Toshiko) to find out where he was. So (Toshiko) asked them to find out if he was in the Huntington Beach jail...she took something he had forgotten to the Huntington Beach jail. 

   And after staying there for one day...he was taken to Tujunga (the Tuna Canyon Detention Station), and she visited him at Tujunga two times. (Yukiko) had to go to Santa Ana and get permission to visit him...she could only talk for ten minutes to her husband through the fence.

The Tuna Canyon Detention Station, circa 1933, was a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp used as a temporary detention facility.  Along with Charles Furuta, Gunjiro Tashima--owner of the Tashima Market across the street from the Mission in Wintersburg, and later, to Beach and Garden Grove Boulevard--was taken to Tuna Canyon.  Masayuki and Takayuki attended Huntington Beach High School. (Photo courtesy of the Densho Encyclopedia) 

Seventy-two years later, with Etsuko Furuta
   In a 2013 oral history interview conducted by Professor Emeritus Arthur Hansen on behalf of Historic Wintersburg with Etsuko Furuta Fukushima---Charles and Yukiko's daughter, now 93 and living in northern California---Tuna Canyon and the fence that separated their family is a vivid memory.  

Etsuko Furuta Fukushima:
I remember the fence, the wire fence. And I don't remember we were able to talk to him through the fence...I don't think we were able to get inside.

Arthur Hansen:
How do you feel about the whole thing of seeing your father on the other side of the fence?

Etsuko Furuta Fukushima:
I thought, "For heaven's sake, he couldn't be a spy," but then the F.B.I. were wrong.

----------------------------------------------------

   
   By May 1942, the entire Japanese community, the Issei and American-born Nisei, were forcibly evacuated from Orange County and confined at what would be called detention or relocation centers in other states.  

   Everyone associated with the California pioneer property known today as Historic Wintersburg--the Furuta family of the Furuta Gold Fish Farm and the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission's clergy and entire congregation--were removed from California.  

   Most were confined at the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona, and some at Gila River Relocation Center, also in Arizona.  Some families were separated, the men being taken to military or immigration detention centers in other states.  Charles Furuta would be separated from his family for a year, most of the time spent at the military detention center in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

   For the next three years, the families of Historic Wintersburg would endure what would later be acknowledged through Congressional investigations as one of the largest civil liberties tragedies in American history.  

   Forty-six years after Executive Order 9066, President Ronald Reagan would sign the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 providing reparations to Japanese Americans.  During the signing ceremony, President Reagan would specifically talk about a Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission family, the Masuda family.  At the signing with President Reagan in Washington, D.C., another Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission congregant who had lobbied for the Act, Clarence Nishizu.

 ------------------------------------------------------

Read about the Reverend Sohei Kowta and his family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2013/02/reverend-sohei-kowta-sunday-before.html

Read about the Tashima family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-tashimas-of-wintersburg.html

Read about the Masuda family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/06/masudas-national-civil-liberties-icons.html   

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

Wintersburg and the birth of a County

Group of Huntington Beach city officials and representatives from the Japanese community, May 1912.  In the photo: Huntington Beach's first mayor, Ed Manning (second row, far right), and Charles Furuta (front row, second from left).  The group is standing in front of the Huntington Inn near present-day Pacific Coast Highway. (Photo courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

   Over the past year, Historic Wintersburg has highlighted some of the notable figures associated with the Furuta farm and the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission and Church complex.  When learning about the history and stories of Wintersburg Village, we repeatedly get the response, "I had no idea!"  A rich history was about to slip through our fingers.
 
   As we start the New Year, Historic Wintersburg reviews the 2012 stories of some of the remarkable people associated with this small patch of land in the former peatlands.

Yukiko Yajima Furuta and Reverend Junzo Nakamura, at the time of Yukiko's marriage to Charles Furuta in 1912. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

CHARLES MITSUJI and YUKIKO FURUTA
   The original owners of the extant Furuta farm--purchased between 1904 and 1909--one of the two Japanese-owned properties in present-day Huntington Beach prior to California's Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibiting property ownership by Japanese.  

   The Furutas were one of Wintersburg’s three goldfish farmers.  They donated land to the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.  Charles Furuta, who arrived in the United States in 1900, was president of the Smeltzer Japanese Association, which met in Wintersburg at the Asari Market.  He was among the first Japanese taken by the FBI, due to his involvement with the Church and the Association.  The Furuta family was interned at the Poston Arizona Relocation Center.

Read more about the Furuta family at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/11/goldfish-on-wintersburg-avenue-part-2.html and http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/04/voices-from-past-part-4-wintersburg.html

Members of the Masuda family at the Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona.  Kazuo Masuda can be seen at the center of the photograph in his Army uniform.

MASUDA FAMILY
   The entire Masuda family—farmers in Talbert—were congregants of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.  Four of the Masuda brothers served in the U.S. military.  On the night of Dec. 7, 1941--while Kazuo Masuda was stationed at Ft. Ord, California, beginning his Army training--his father, Gensuke, was taken from his farm in Talbert to the Orange County jail, then to Fort Missoula, Montana.  The family was evacuated to the Jerome Relocation Center in Drew and Chicot counties, Arkansas.  After Gensuke was released from Fort Missoula, the Masudas were sent to the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona in 1944, until 1945.  While the family was interned, Kazuo Masuda was killed in action in Italy.

   Mary Masuda was granted leave from the Gila River camp to travel to Orange County and check on the family farm in Talbert, before the family returned home in 1945.   Upon arrival in Orange County, Mary was threatened by men claiming association with the Native Sons of the Golden West.  Hearing of the incident,  General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell arranged a personal honor.  On Dec. 9, 1945, on the front porch of their farmhouse in Talbert, Gen. Stillwell—along with then Captain Ronald Reagan—presented Mary Masuda with the Distinguished Service Cross in honor of her brother, SSgt. Kazuo Masuda.

   Kazuo and Masuo Masuda were nominated in 2011 for the Congressional Medal of Honor.  The Masuda family was specifically remembered by President Ronald Reagan when he signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

Read more about the Masuda family at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/06/masudas-national-civil-liberties-icons.html

Orange County Superintendents Willis Warner (in car), C.M. Feather and William Hirstein, with Mayor A.A. Hall of Santa Ana and Mayor James Kanno of Fountain Valley at a Warner Avenue bridge dedication in 1961.  (Photo, Los Angeles Herald Examiner)

JAMES KANNO
   James Kanno became the first mayor of Fountain Valley and the first Japanese American mayor on the continental United States in 1957.   James explained during his 1971 oral history interview, "the two questions that were asked on the ballot: 1. Do you want to form a city, yes or no? 2. If so, who would you want as councilmen for the city? There were nine people running for the five council positions. I don't know what happened, but I ended up with the most votes."

   The Kanno family were congregants of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission and Shuji Kanno, James Kanno’s father, taught at the affiliated language school in Costa Mesa on land bequeathed as a legacy by Fannie Bixby Spencer.  Due to his involvement at the language school, Shuji Kanno was among the first Japanese taken by the FBI and was incarcerated at the Department of Justice Lordsburg New Mexico detention center.  The entire Kanno family was interned at the Poston Arizona Relocation Center. 

Read more about the Kanno family at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/05/kannos-from-internment-to-creation-of.html 

The first Japanese American appellate judge in the continental U.S. and Orange County's first Japanese attorney, Justice Stephen Kosako Tamura (1911-1982), one of the "Sunday school boys" at the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.  (Photo, Japanese American Bar Association)

JUSTICE STEPHEN K. TAMURA 
   The Honorable Stephen K. Tamura first Japanese American appellate judge in the continental United States and Orange County's first Japanese attorney.  He also served as Justice Pro Tem on the California Supreme Court and as a member of the California Judicial Council from 1979 to 1981.  In addition to his 43 years in the law, Tamura was a founding board member of the Orange County Japanese American Citizens League and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Los Angeles.

   The Tamura family were congregants at the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission, which is documented in a 1981 oral history interview with Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission Reverend Kenji Kikuchi for the Honorable Stephen K. Tamura Orange County Japanese American Oral History Project (he referred to Tamura as one of "my Sunday school boys").

   The Hisamatsu Tamura Elementary School in Fountain Valley is named after Justice Tamura’s father, a Japanese pioneer who was instrumental in organizing one of the first schools in Talbert (Fountain Valley).  Justice Tamura was interned at the Granada War Relocation Center (also known as Camp Amache, in Colorado), before attending Harvard University in 1943 and enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1945.

Read more about Justice Stephen K. Tamura at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-honorable-stephen-k-tamura-lawyer.html 

 

Reverend Joseph K. Inazawa and his wife, the former Miss Kate Alice Goodman, circa 1912.  Reverend Inazawa served as the first clergy for the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission in 1910, and was described as a "man of highly pleasing personality."  Goodman was described as "possest of a delightful sense of humor." (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

REV. JOSEPH K. INAZAWA AND KATE ALICE GOODMAN
   The first clergy for the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission in 1910, Reverend Joseph K. Inazawa held the first official service in the Mission on Christmas day.

   He and his new bride, Kate Alice Goodwin, made international headlines--from as far away as New Zealand--when they became engaged in 1909 and again when they married in 1910.   The couple famously eloped to New Mexico, because California banned interracial marriage between 1850 to 1948. 

   Their story is documented in oral histories and also in front-page news clippings from 1909 and 1910, as well as the 1913 article by Neeta Marquis for The Independent, Interracial Amity in Los Angeles, Personal Observations on the Life of the Japanese in Los Angeles.

Read more about the Inazawas at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-marriage-that-made-headlines.html

Henry Kiyomi Akiyama at the Pacific Goldfish Farm, post WWII in 1945.  The Akiyamas "are formerly of Poston and report no difficulties in disposing of all goldfish they are able to deliver to the market." (Photo, UC Berkeley Bancroft Library)

HENRY KIYOMI AKIYAMA 
    One of Wintersburg’s three goldfish farmers, who later opened the Pacific Goldfish Farm—billed as the “largest goldfish farm in the world.”  From humble beginnings in Wintersburg, Akiyama became one of Orange County’s wealthiest residents. 
    
    Henry Kiyomi Akiyama also was one of Charles Mitsuji Furuta's best friends.  They worked together on the Cole Ranch off Gothard Avenue in Wintersburg.  Charles and his wife, Yukiko, had arranged the marriage of Akiyama to Yukiko's sister, Masuko, and the newlyweds lived with the Furutas for a while at the Cole Ranch and at the Furuta farm.

Read more about Henry Kiyomi Akiyama at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/03/full-of-hope-for-new-life-in.html

-----------------------------------------------------------

AMONG THE STORIES PLANNED FOR 2013
 

The "Prospectus" document for the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission, circa 1904-1909. (Image courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

TSURUMATSU "T.M." ASARI
   Signatory on Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission 1904 “Prospectus” document which was used to raise funds for the 1909 Mission construction.  "T.M." Asari is noted in a 1982 oral history with Clarence Nishizu as the first Japanese to arrive in Orange County.  
   
   Asari was one of two Japanese land owners in Huntington Beach prior to the Alien Land Law of 1913 (the other being Charles Mitsuji Furuta).  Asari owned the Asari Market and a goldfish farm on Wintersburg Avenue.  He initiated the Smeltzer Japanese Association, which met on the second floor of his market.  Asari also organized the Smeltzer Flying Company.

Read more about Tsurumatsu Asari and his son, Harley, at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/02/goldfish-on-wintersburg-avenue.html
and http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html

Yasumatsu Miyawaki's son, Leonard, being given a horseback ride by Y. Tanaka in Wintersburg, circa 1914. (Photo courtesy of California State University - Fullerton Center for Oral and Public History, PJA 029) © All rights reserved.

YASUMATSU MIYAWAKI
   Signatory on Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission 1904 “Prospectus” document which fundraised for the Mission construction.  

   Miyawaki owned the first Japanese market in Huntington Beach on Main Street in 1907—then known as the “Rock Bottom Store”—in the present-day Longboard Restaurant and Pub, the oldest wooden structure in Huntington Beach's historic downtown on Main Street.

Yasumatsu Miyawaki, owner of the Rock Bottom Store on Main Street in Huntington Beach, circa 1911. (Photo, California State University Fullerton, Center for Oral and Public History PJA 030) © All rights reserved.

CLARENCE NISHIZU
   Clarence Nishizu was a congregant of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.  Instrumental in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, Clarence Nishizu was present at its signing.

   Clarence Nishizu was Co-founder of the Orange County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens' League, the oldest Asian American civil rights organization.  In 1966, Clarence was the first Japanese American selected as the Foreman of the Orange County Grand Jury.  In 1975, he received a special `Resolution of Appreciation Award' for his meritorious service from the Orange County Criminal Justice Council.

Reverend Sohei Kowta and his wife, Riyo, lived in the manse with their children at Historic Wintersburg from 1938 to 1942. (Photo courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

REVEREND SOHEI KOWTA
   Reverend Sohei Kowta was the pastor at the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church from 1938 to 1942.  His sermon on the "last Sunday" before internment is a powerful message of endurance and hope.   

   Reverend Kowta continued to bring people together both while he and his family were interned in the Poston Arizona Relocation Center and afterward, when the family returned to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, California.  Historic Wintersburg is working with Reverend Kowta's descendents to capture the Kowta family histories. 

ETSUKO FURUTA
   The daughter of Charles Mitsuji and Yukiko Furuta, Etsuko was born on the Furuta farm in Wintersburg.  Photographic images reveal a happy childhood on the Furuta farm and at the beaches of Huntington Beach.  Today, Etsuko lives in Northern California, is in her 90s, and provided an oral history for Historic Wintersburg.

   As we work to preserve the historic Furuta farm and Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission complex, more of the history is uncovered and we learn the significance of the Wintersburg Village community for Huntington Beach, Orange County and the country.

All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.  

When the circus came to Wintersburg Village

ABOVE, EL CIRCO ESCALANTE: The Escalante Circus raised their tent about 300 feet east of the intersection of Talbert Avenue and Bushard Street, near the Southern Pacific Railroad line.  Former circus man Ivan Henry of Circus Blog, identifies some of the group: Chata, Melonga, Mary Henry, Cliff Henry, Landon Midgets, Henry Escalante, Lalo Escalante, Phil Escalante, the Gutierrez family, and wire walker Herby Weber, far right. (www.circusblog.wordpress.com)

-Updated: April 2017-

   The Los Angeles Herald reported in 1910, "there are three particularly happy days in the American calendar, Christmas, Fourth of July, and circus day.  Of these, circus day is easily the merriest...somehow it holds a steady place in the human heart."

   Word about a circus arriving in the middle of the peatlands would have spread exponentially from farm to farm, as fast as the little feet of chattering children, interrupting the normally quiet rural life with the sound of trumpets and calliope.  

   Crossing through the fields of sugar beets and chili peppers, came exotically-costumed performers, animals, clowns, puppet shows, live music.  It was the type of mind-blowing excitement that made farm children watch the minutes tick by on the school clock until the day was over.

RIGHT: A late 1800s children's book captured American children's sense of magic about the arrival of a circus.  (Image, Library of Congress, The Circus Procession. N.Y., McLoughlin Bro’s., c1888)

   Most farm country pioneers had little time for recreation and when they did, the available entertainment was simple: the beach, picnics, music from anyone with an instrument, and, when available, motion pictures.

   Clarence Nishizu, a Wintersburg Japanese Mission congregant, recalled during his 1981 oral history interview an annual picnic for area families at Santiago Beach, an open beach at the ocean end of Bushard Street in southeast Huntington Beach.  Now and then, there were movies held at a large chili pepper warehouse in the Stanton area.

LEFT: The Furuta family children and others in the Wintersburg peatlands and rural Orange County usually created their own entertainment. (Photo circa 1915-1918, Wintersburg's Cole Ranch located near present day Warner and Gothard avenues, courtesy of the Furuta family) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©

   "They didn't have any talkies," remembered Nishizu.  "But they had silent movies and they had a person called a 'benshi' who would stand in front on the side of the screen and while the picture was showing he would simulate the words spoken by the different characters in the movies. They had this maybe once, or even twice, a month."

   When the Escalante Brothers Circus arrived in Orange County, they marched right down Wintersburg Road (Warner Avenue) to advertise they were in town.  Musicians, acrobats, trapeze artists paraded down the country roads in a loop through Wintersburg and Huntington Beach, before returning to their circus camp in Talbert (present-day Fountain Valley).  A trail of children followed.
    

RIGHT: Circo Escalante Hermanos was founded in 1909--the same year Huntington Beach incorporated--and toured Mexico, the southwest United States and Europe. (Image, circushistory.org)

Escalante Brothers Circus
   The Escalante family was described in a 1940s news clipping as "the most amazing family in circus history."  Attractive and charismatic, the large family created a sensation when they arrived in town with lively music and bright tents.  According to Nicolás Kanellos in his History of Hispanic Theater in the United States, the Circo Escalante Hermanos' great tent included a prosenium stage and, in addition to circus acts, their performances included melodramas and zarzuelas.

   Bob Taber wrote about "The Escalante Circus From Mexico" more than fifty years ago in a January - February 1961 issue of Bandwagon.  At the time of the article, the original founding brothers--Mariano, Pedro and Marcus--were retired and living in Los Angeles.

LEFT: Louise Esther Escalante, 1936 - 2006, part of the Escalante circus tradition. (Photo, FamilySearch.org)

   "There was an era in the circus history of the Southwest, principally California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, when the so-called Mexican circus filled its place. Performers from these later presented acts as stars of circuses playing from Coast to Coast, Canada and the United States," writes Taber. 

"Between 1910 and the mid-thirties there came to this country from South of the border Mexican parents with their talented children," describes Taber.  "They had an entire show within the family as all members did several acts. Their expenses were small, local restrictions were not too strict and they prospered."

 

   Originally from  Zacatecas, Mexico, the circus "moved via ox-cart across the trail-like roads of Mexico" and crossed into Texas to perform.  With the Mexican Revolution in full force, the Escalantes began performing more often in the United States.  Every family member was involved in circus performances, sewing their own tents and costumes.

   "All these shows were patterned on the European type. They were one ring affairs with a stage at the end, where the dancing numbers were presented.  Two or three rows of chairs in circles surrounded the ring. These were reserved for extra money," describes Bandwagon.  

RIGHT: The Escalante Sisters later performed with other circus groups across the country.

   "A bright red carpet covered the ring floor with the initials of the show worked out in gold or white. Baskets of paper flowers were fastened to the quarter poles.  On occasions those flowers were sprayed with perfume.  The interior of the tent was decorated with flags and pennants," continued Bandwagon, revealing the circus' magical quality at night.  

   "At first, illumination come from gasoline lights, later it was electricity. Over the tent was strung a row of colored lights. Before each performance the band gave an outside concert."

LEFT: Louise Esther Escalante, daughter of Henry and Lorena Escalante, was a graduate of Alhambra High School in the San Gabriel Valley. (Photo, FamilySearch.org)

   The circus shows of the time "wildcatted."  They did not announce their visit in advance, instead distributing handbills as they paraded through town on arrival.  The circus parade was the means of advertising they were in town, creating excitement with a hint of the performers, musicians and animals that circus-goers would see at the show.  They stayed in the area as long as there was business. 

RIGHT: Lorena Escalante, wife of Henry "Blackie" Escalante, the grandson of the circus founder, Mariano. (Photo, circushistory.org)   

   In the unincorporated area of Talbert where the Escalante Circus put up their big tent, it's likely there were no fees.  After incorporation in 1909, Huntington Beach began charging a $20 fee per day for circuses to camp on city land, pushing the circus to County land.

   Conditions weren't always easy.  The Escalante Brothers Circus' agent, Lee Teller, wrote to Billboard in 1921 that he had just "returned from Mexico and Arizona, and that business across the line as far as Mazatlan was just fair."

"Conditions are none too good for shows, he says," describing the Escalante family's experience touring Mexico the year following the assassination of revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. "Money is scarce and the national currency only one-half value of this country."

   "In Nogales, the advance men of the Howe show were welcome visitors," continued Teller, "The Escalante troupers visited the Howe show at Yuma. In Coachella, the Escalante show ran into a wind storm, with a ninety-mile gale and the sun invisible for three days on account of the sand."

LEFT: Walter Knott's first berry stand along Highway 39 in Buena Park, circa 1920, around the time the Escalante Circus was making a tour of Mexico and Arizona. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives) 

  A good tent, bright lights, and a good band 

     What was it that made the Circo de Escalante such a beloved attraction?  In the 1961 interview, Mariano Escalante said "that to have a successful circus one should have a good tent, lots of bright light and a good band. He recalls that in 1916 there were 16 loud-blowing musicians in the band."  

RIGHT: The Escalante Circus Band, led by Jesus Mendoza, was part of the family's winning formula, along with a good tent and bright lights, according to Mariano Escalante.  (Photo, circushistory.org)

   The Escalante Brothers Circus advertised jugglers, trapeze acts, comic singers, gymnists, dancers, contortionists, tight wire acts, a trained bear, musical burro, clowns, "educated" ponies, and "the only singing coyote in the world."

    The Escalante Circus and others continued through the Great Depression, until municipal fees and regulations made it more difficult to be profitable.  However, like those in Wintersburg, the Escalante family made a success of their life in California and their descendants continue to live here today.
 
LEFT: The historical marker at the intersection of Talbert Avenue and Bushard Street in present-day Fountain Valley notes the circus parade went to Wintersburg.*  One of the first ordinances passed when Huntington Beach incorporated in 1909 included a fee of $20 per day for anyone operating a circus.  In unincorporated Orange County, the Talbert camp site was cheaper for a traveling circus.

   Notable acts with the Escalante Brothers Circus included actor Eddie Albert of television show Green Acres fame and Henry "Blackie" Escalante, who also went on to film and television.  

   Prior to World War II, and before his film career, Albert had toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus. His official biographies state he secretly worked for U.S. Army intelligence, reportedly photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors.

RIGHT: Actor Eddie Albert got his acting break with the Escalante Brothers Circus, prior to World War II.

    Henry "Blackie" Escalante, the grandson of Circus founder Mariano Escalante, performed with the circus as an aerialist.  The Los Angeles Times remembered in his 2002 obituary that, "like his grandfather, father and uncles, Henry Escalante mastered the trapeze and 'flew' with the family circus and others."

LEFT: Henry "Blackie" Escalante, 1915-2002, became a well-known actor and stuntman in Hollywood, living in Montebello, California.

   The turn of the Mexican Revolution that brought the Escalante Brothers Circus into California in a prior generation, led to a career in entertainment.  Blackie Escalante worked for more than 40 years as an actor and stuntman, including doubling for Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan films.   His work also included Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), in which he played Chico, one of the boat crewmen,  stunt work on The Conqueror (1956), The Ten Commandments (1956) and Paint Your Wagon (1969).

   Beginning in the 1960s, Escalante appeared in episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and Hart to Hart. His final TV appearance was in an 1983 episode of The Fall Guy.

   The Escalante Circus is reported to have toured from the 1910s to the 1950s.  By the mid to late 1940s, the small circuses that once brought excitement to rural California began to dwindle in number.  Although, the public still wanted to see them.

RIGHT: Milonga Escalante is shown touching up the makeup of circus clown, Merry Mell, in a Santa Ana Register feature highlighting the "hundreds of people and animals" to be seen in the Russell Brothers circus in Santa Ana, April 28 to 29, 1942. (Santa Ana Register, April 24, 1942)

At the end of April, 1942,--as Orange County's Japanese Americans were leaving California for forced World War II incarceration--the Seven Skyrocketing Escalantes joined the Russell Brothers' three-ring circus at a two-day show in Santa Ana.  They were described by the Santa Ana Register as "exemplifying the poetry of motion in the air."

   The public wanted to see them again.  A December 11, 1943 issue of Billboard reports, "The Escalante Circus, which has not been on road (in the U.S.) since 1938, opened November 4 for a six-day run in East Los Angeles..."   

   The Escalante Brothers Circus also performed that year in Orange County,  "at capacity" in Santa Ana for nine days and on to Anaheim and La Habra, before heading south.  

   "Their big top was a 100-foot roundtop," reported Billboard, noting the Escalante Circus included an eight-piece band. "Business here was big and on several days many were turned away."

   As the Los Angeles Herald affirmed in September, 1910, "there is no real, red-blooded man but feels the thrill of merriment when he hears the circus bands and gets a glimpse of the parade...You cannot escape the fever."

LEFT: A Day to remember. Hundreds of Orange Countians line the streets for a circus parade in Santa Ana, California, circa September, 1910. (Photo, Orange County Historical Society) 

*Editor's note: The historical marker for the Escalante Circus site is at 33° 42.093′ N, 117° 57.75′ W, in Fountain Valley, California, at the intersection of Talbert Avenue and Bushard Street, on the right when traveling east on Talbert Avenue.

All rights reserved. No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.