CALIFORNIA'S GOLD: CALIFORNIA POOLS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of travel programs featuring host Huell Howser, who tours California, exploring the state's diversity. In this episode, Howser examines the state's "pool history," beginning with the pool of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, designated an official Los Angeles cultural landmark because of its David Hockney-painted bottom. Next, after showing some historic footage of the facility, he tours the Art-Deco Los Angeles Swimming Arena, built for the 1932 Olympic games. Dr. Sammy Lee, a former Olympic diver, recalls working there with Esther Williams, and Richard Godino of the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks shows Howser the complex's shallow pool, originally covered by a grandstand during competition. The next stop for Howser is the Neptune Pool, designed by Julia Morgan for William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon estate. James Allen of the California Park Service discusses the temple facade's classical elements, and tour guide Al Wilhelm points out the "merman" statuary. This segment ends with archival footage of guests enjoying the Hearst estate and pool. The next segment begins with clips from filming done by Thomas Edison of the Sutro Baths near San Francisco, the largest indoor saltwater baths in the United States, built in the mid-1890s by Adolph Sutro. Historian Steve Haller tours the now destroyed site; explores the remains of the building's six pools, each originally heated to a different temperature; and explains the process of transporting and pumping the salt water used there. The program's final segment finds Howser a few miles south, at the site of the 1927 Fleishhacker Pool, one of the largest pools in the world. So big that lifeguards originally needed rowboats to reach ailing swimmers, the pool was demolished, and its acreage now serves as a parking lot for the San Francisco Zoo.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: February 4, 1996
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:50
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:56573
- GENRE: Magazine
- SUBJECT HEADING: California - History; Swimming pools; Parks- California; California - Description and travel
- SERIES RUN: PBS KCET - TV series, 1991-2012
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - ÒCaliforniaÕs GoldÓ (home video of this program)
CREDITS
- Huell Howser … Producer, Writer, Host
- Morgan Neville … Associate Producer
- Phil Noyes … Associate Producer
- Chuck Bausback … Researcher
- James Allen
- Thomas Edison
- Richard Godino
- Steve Haller
- William Randolph Hearst
- David Hockney
- Sammy Lee
- Julia Morgan
- Adolph Sutro
- Al Wilhelm
- Esther Williams