Act I Episode 3 The Beach and Boardwalk

Act I Episode 3 – The Beach and the Boardwalk

The Hell’s Angels that were heading to the Ocean City beach and boardwalk were stopped in their tracks and turned away by Ocean City's finest at West Avenue, where the railroad station and support buildings were located just across from the Texaco station.

At one point more people arrived by train than by car or bus, and the train continued operating direct express to Camden and Philadelphia into the 1980s.

While anyone would recognize the beach and boardwalk today, Ninth Street is radically different from what it was in 1965.

Coming into town across the causeway from Somers Point the Ninth Street strip has been totally revamped. Gone are Chris and Hogates bayside seafood joints, the gas stations, drive-ins and diners that were replaced by banks and convenience stores.

Familiar landmarks come into play when you get to West Avenue with Voltaco's and the Italian joint on the corner, the Chatterbox and the shops across the street are easily recognizable.

But gone are the big old, clapboard hotels – the Lincoln, Strand and Biscayne, that were once nice hotels where tourists who arrived by train could stay for a reasonable rate, but by 1965 had deteriorated into shabby joints that were taken over by college students who could get a room for a few dollars a night or cheaper by the week. These discounts appealed to what the mayor called the “transient population,” mostly college kids who didn't spend much time in their rooms anyway.

Before Lauderdale and Cancun there was Ocean City - “Where the Boys Are” was the scene and where the college kids came from Philadelphia, Delaware, Pittsburgh, Ohio and West Virginia to line the beaches, wall to wall - beach blanket bingo. 

While the families still populated most of the island, the college kids ruled Ninth Street, the Ninth Street beach and the Fourteenth Street surfer’s beach where most of the action took place.

To put things into a proper perspective, especially for those who weren't born yet, in the summer of '65, LBJ was president, young men were eligible for the draft, the war in Vietnam was quietly raging and Richard J. Hughes was governor of New Jersey, and the governor would come into play before the summer was out.

The songs on the transistor radios on the beach blankets and the juke boxes at the Chatterbox, College Grill and Bob's Grill were by the Supremes, Four Tops, Sony and Cher, the Byrds and Beach Boys as well as a slew of British Invasion bands – the Beatles, Hermans Hermits and the Rolling Stones, who would play the Steel Pier in Atlantic City and make a cameo appearance in the story.

The most popular songs of the summer began with Petula Clark's “Downtown,” the Righteous Brothers' “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin',” “Gary Lewis & the Playboy's “This Diamond Ring,” the Temps' “My Girl,” “Eight Days A Week,” by the Beatles, “Stop! In The Name of Love” by the Supremes, “Im'm Telling You Now,” by Freddie & the Dreamers” and “The Game of Love” by Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders.

As the summer wore on, other songs being played regularly including the Herman's Hermits “Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter,” the Beatles' “Ticket to Ride,” Beach Boys “Help Me Rhonda” and the Four Tops' “I Can't Help Myself.”

The Byrds' cover of Dylan's “Mr. Tamborine Man” and the Stones' “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction” were popular in the hippie camp, while “I'm Henry VII, I Am,” Sonny & Cher's “I Got You Babe,” and the Shangri-Las' “Leader of the Pack” were often heard at Fourteenth Street, with that last tune taking on more and more meaning as the summer wore on.

There was a clear social divide among the college kids of the day, with the long haired hippies commandeering the Ninth Street beach and the crew cut straight jocks and surfers taking up most of the Fourteenth Street beach.

The hippies generally congregated at Shriver's Pavilion, that isn't there anymore, but Shriver's Candy store is still there, as is the retail store where Roger Monroe had his book store, the movie theaters and Mack & Manco pizza, now infamously Manco & Manco's.

Walking south on the boardwalk, there was the bath house next to Mack & Manco’s, Joe Del's cheese steak and sub shop, Preps Pizza, the arcades and Flanders Hotel, which retained its first class status, all still there, as well as the Copper Kettle Fudge building on the corner at 11th Street and the pavilion across the street, where the old folks retreated to when the hippies took over Shriver's Pavilion. 

Until he was murdered Harry Anglemehyer lived above his boardwalk fudge shop in the beautiful second floor apartment overlooking the beach and ocean horizon. That's where the immoral act that got him arrested allegedly occurred. 

The corner building stretches on for half a block and is of the Spanish Revival design in the same style as the Flanders Hotel, the Music Pier, the Chatterbox and the John B. Kelly's family home at Twenty-Seventh Street and Wesley Avenue, all designed by the same young architect Vivian Smith.

Two blocks further along Fourteenth Street was the surfer's beach and the most popular place for the high school and college kids to hang out, making Bob's Grill and the College Grill-Varsity Inn the hippest hangouts in the Happy Days tradition. Though the Varsity Inn moved to 8th Street in the 1970s, Bob's Grill is still there and if Bob Harbough is around he can verify everything I say is true.

There were no beach tags or beach fees at the time, and most people rented an umbrella, beach chair and a raft from either Bert’s Beach service or Surf & Sand, who had contracts with the city, and at day's end paid a dollar for a shower at a boardwalk bath house before hitting the Point. At least that was the routine for the shoebees, as they were called - day trippers who came down by train with shoe box lunches and didn’t spend any money except what they had to.

Besides the hippies and the straights, there was another social divide among the college kids - between the weekend warriors and those who were down for the entire summer. If you were a weekend warrior you stayed with friends, got a hotel room or slept on the beach and were gone by Sunday afternoon, but if you were in for the duration you had a job as a waiter, waitress, bus boy, grill cook or retail clerk, lived with your family, a group rental or rooming house and were in a strict daily routine.

The two things the hippies and the straights had in common were the routine and music. Both camps listened to portable transistor radios, played the jukebox, strummed guitars, sang songs and were into the routine – the Groundhog Day recurring ritual that inevitably ended at the Point.

You worked six to eight hours a day and then you went to the beach for an hour and joined friends who were already there. Then you went back to your room for a quick shower and change of clothes and hit the Point between eight and ten, and you didn't just go to the point - you hit the Point with a vengeance.

First you went to one of the shot and beer bars – Gregory's, Charlie's, Sullivan's or the Anchorage, tanked up on a a few seven for a dollar draft beers and then go to Tony Marts or Bay Shores, where ever your favorite bands played. Sometimes between sets, you'd walk across the street to see certain bands who rotated on two stages so there was always live music constantly going on. When the music shut down at two in the morning, you went to the diner for something to eat and then to one of the after hour joints and carried on until the sun came up. Then you went to the beach and fell asleep and when you woke up you went for a dip in the ocean and then went to work. Then repeat the process.

As Peter Pan put it: “This has all happened before and it will happen again.”

Johnny Caswell – Crystal Mansion's song At the Shore 

At the Shore

School is out
Come on, let's go
Come on, baby
Let's hit that road

(CHORUS)
We're going down to the shore
Just like we did once before
Cause there's no school anymore
So, baby, meet me at the shore

Hey, there'll be lots of fun
Yeah, lying in the sun
One the boardwalk, holding hands
Beach parties in the sand

Everybody's gonna be there
The hippies, the conservatives
And even the squares
Dancing til we can't no more
Come on and meet me at the shore

We're gonna swing every single night
Everything's gonna be all right

(CHORUS)

Hey, there'll be lots of fun
Yeah, lying in the sun
One the boardwalk, holding hands
And beach parties in the sand

Everybody's gonna be there
The hippies, the conservatives
And even the squares
Dancing til we can't no more
Come on and meet me at the shore

(CHORUS) 2X to fade

Johnny Caswell At The Shore Lyrics
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/johnny+caswell/at+the+shore_20865393.html

Listen to: At the Shore
http://thatphillysound.com/music/attheshore.mp3