![]() Last month, it was discovered that firefighters had allowed porn star Charley Chase to borrow their truck for a video that shows Chase flashing people around town. And the legs in this latest development are wearing bikini bottoms. ![]() These days, you probably wouldn’t find oglers snapping photos of sunbathers from the jetty, though.The story about city employees getting caught up in racy and sometimes pornographic photo shoots has legs. It was the beginnings of Venice as a tourist attraction. “For people had discovered that Venice still existed and was actually a relatively safe place to visit during the day.” “But it was too late to turn back the clock,” wrote historian Stanton. The measure was signed by Mayor Tom Bradley, who explained that the “bulk” of his mail on the subject was “against nudity.”Ī proposal to establish “clothing-optional zones” was rejected. The session was interrupted by a spectator who disrobed “in view of a stunned overflow audience of nearly 400,” The Times said. City Council passed an ordinance banning nude sunbathing. Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro declared that “the beach is for young people and families, not for people who want to display their wares in public.” Other politicians embraced the practice less warmly. Elizabeth Keathley, the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party, even campaigned in the buff at Venice. “There are some nudes who are incensed when people stare, and the guards not only have to watch people in the water but have to stop confrontations that take place,” lifeguard official William O’Sullivan told The Times.Ī gubernatorial race was being waged that summer. The poor lifeguards - their lives really grew complicated. “It may soon be necessary to install radar and air-traffic controllers in the lifeguard stands.” Low-flying helicopters were “frequent and leisurely, as if the pilots had decided to pause there to tie their shoelaces,” Powers wrote. “They may watch for an hour at a time, always fully dressed, their arms folded, staring in silence, as if they had stumbled onto an assembly of Martians,” Powers wrote. The result, Powers wrote, was the odd spectacle of “businessmen, in full dress … breathing hard as they mush through the loose sand.” “With the nudists came the news media (Big Brother was REALLY watching this time),” said the local Beachhead newspaper. There was talk that the oglers began showing up after a local news station broadcast a weather report from Venice’s shoreline. Unfazed, actor David Niven drew big laughs from the audience when he commented on the intruder’s “shortcomings.”Īnd then the focus shifted to Venice Beach. A jury later found her not guilty, perhaps reasoning that she was rehearsing.Ī naked chap even ran onstage during the Academy Award ceremonies that year. Stripper Liz Renay was pinched by the law while streaking down Hollywood Boulevard. A judge let them off with probation but reminded them of an old English saying: “Do anything you want, but don’t do it in the streets or you’ll frighten the horses.” In Pasadena, three young people clad in nothing but tennis shoes were arrested after sprinting past the visiting Vienna Symphony Orchestra at Ambassador College. The craze, which inspired Ray Stevens’ hit song “The Streak,” quickly spread to the L.A. The phenomenon may have been - in part - a rebellion against the establishment (the Vietnam War was not yet over).īut it also appeared to be an outgrowth of the “streaking” craze that had impelled students earlier that spring to run nude across campuses in the East and the South. In Venice, the nudeniks were out in the open. But such a practice was usually confined to isolated spots, such as Black’s Beach in San Diego. The idea of sunbathers doffing their clothes was not new to Southern California. “It became a ‘freak show,’” author Jeffrey Stanton wrote in “ Venice California: Coney Island of the Pacific.” Pedestrian and airborne traffic increased like never before.Ĭameras were everywhere. Suddenly the beach was dotted with bare behinds, “like a constellation of moons turning pink in the sun,” wrote The Times’ Charles Powers. This was before the era of the street performers and roller-skaters on Ocean Front Walk. Until then, Venice had been a relatively quiet area except for the occasional beat of a bongo drum. It was 1974, the summer of Venice’s nude beach. “Everyone was nude.”Īs he recalls, the injured swimmer was also devoid of a bathing suit. “I’m on my hands and knees and I look around and all I see are crotches” and other private parts, he said. ![]() Retired lifeguard Nick Steers still remembers the day he helped rescue an injured swimmer at Venice Beach while onlookers gathered around him.
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