"The girls in their fake eyelashes, getting to the dances at a cool time like 10:00 pm. "

Carolyn wrote on December 29th:

During the 1970s, I enjoyed going to some of the dances at Gung Hay, General Lee and Dillions and may have attended one Roger Young dance with some friends. I also was invited to some of George Tong's parties and dances. For George's last party in the 1990s, he chartered a yacht with approximately 40-50 people who sailed around the local harbors. At the time, the women thought George was a very good-looking "Fox."



Helen wrote on December 20th:

Helen, your Toyota Carina driving partner! Yeah, reading some of the other blogs reminded of those good ol days of the 70's. I remembered lots of things back then. How about the Kiana polyester shirts and tight polyester pants the guys used to wear at the dances? And polyester wrap dresses for the girls so their legs would show off when we did disco twirls? But just before Disco there that rhythmic dance step, side to side. Everyone was doing a version of the same dance step. When we'd to the the ladies room, you could hear everyone dancing to the same platform shoe clacking sounds. The girls in their fake eyelashes, getting to the dances at a cool time like 10:00 pm. Those Sibicca platform shoes that made us just a little taller than the guys. Donna Summer's "Last Dance" . Mago's teriyaki avocado burgers and Kalapana from Hawaii. Remember the beach on Sunday where there were the usual faces from the night before dances, showing up at 22nd street in Redondo Beach (?). It was around the time Jaws the movie came out in theaters. And the guys in their cars...Hondas and Toyotas mostly loaded with Libre tire rims and Rococo seats! 8 track tapes! Then came the regular cassettes. Betty, you've brought me back down memory lane again. A unique time in the 70's. I also asked my kids about 'clubbing' and the mixed races at the bars. Same as what Allen said.
Betty, this has been a real trip. Helen

Dancing for Solidarity

A friend, Phyllis, mentioned to me that she and about 10 friends formed a club in 1957 called the Chanels. The members, she said, were in junior high school, earned straight A's, and they all played basketball.

Why the name, I asked? After the perfume, Phyllis said.

The Chanels blossomed, expanded their membership, became co-ed, and existed until the 1970s. The Chanels were responsible for a considerable number of public dances.

I am gauging that the founding members were likely to have been born within a few years after their parents were released from the internment camps. Could the stigma of the camps have influenced the girls' desire to form a sisterhood?

Young Chinese Americans also had cause to seek solidarity, because American laws ruled against the Chinese. When the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, it gradually enabled Chinese families to take root. The second generation, such as myself, became teenagers and young adults in the late 1950s - 1980s. And all Asian groups slowly gained geographical mobility after the prejudicial restrictive real estate covenants were outlawed after 1948.

Every culture and generation has its social gatherings. Even the younger people locked together in World War II internment camps held dances in order to lift their spirits towards normalcy, as portrayed in the contemporary Japanese American musical production "Camp Dance." What set Asian Americans apart, particularly in the post-war years, was the stifled Asian representation in media, motion pictures and television, until Asian American music bands began to form.

Following the impact of the Beatles and the British Invasion that rocked rock and roll in 1964, alas young, impressionable Asian Americans were finally up close and personal with performers whom they could identify.

There was the brief and exciting splash on the small screen from 1966 to 1967 when the charismatic Bruce Lee played Kato, the martial arts crime-fighting sidekick to the Green Hornet.

My adulation was short-lived, and the disappointment of the show's departure was not remedied by the 1972 show, "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine.

This sequence of tv offerings probably fueled the popularity of Asian American dances in the 1970s. I proudly felt the rising star of the band Hiroshima and recognized the authentic melodies of the koto string instrument. Their original music blended the west with the east, an auditory metaphor for young Asian Americans who sought to reconcile their own personal west with their east.

Disco music eventually supplanted the live band experience. Cory S., known then by the moniker "Disco LA", was a successful deejay. Cory wrote to me:

I first started deejaying back in 1977 during the "Disco" days and was the house DJ for the then popular Asian American night club known as the "Asian Blend" located in W. L.A. on Pico Bl. off of Bundy. I was also the DJ for the 1st Nisei Week Disco Dance contest during Nisei Week back in the late 70's.

I have many years experience working as a DJ dating back to college radio stations KLA at UCLA and KSUL at Cal State Long Beach. I served 4 years as radio announcer for Armed Forces Radio during my stint in the U.S. Army from 1970-74.

Though the live bands grew out of favor, Asian American crowds were still congregating and Asian American deejays were the dance compatriots. My friend Judy recalls attending those dances in the 1980s, but it was all DJ music.

After disco was proclaimed "dead", Southern California eventually saw the rise of two new clubs: Orange County Sansei Singles, and Tennis Connection. Many members of these clubs hail from the generation that drove the dance scene of the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Tennis Connection was formed in 1988 by a handful of friends who enjoyed tennis. Twenty years later, the club has kept an average membership roster of over 140 people, primarily Asian Americans. I have been the club treasurer for many years. Last Saturday night, we held our annual holiday party in Torrance. Steve Kikuchi, of High Resolution, has been our longstanding deejay. High Resolution has maintained a successful deejay presence on the Asian American social circuit for at least 15 to 20 years.

The Early Clubs: the Chanels and the Ronins

Jack L. provided me with a lot of interesting information, the early clubs, and he mentions Imperial Gardens. Yeah, I remember IG! I saw Dan Kuramoto, of Hiroshima, playing his saxophone there, playing for the enjoyment of playing.



December 13th Jack L. wrote:



Hi Betty...............i'm chinese too and an ABC........my dad had a couple of hand laundries ....one near Arlington and Washington and one on Crenshaw in Inglewood..........My mom was the driving force to expand and do agency work, we had a large family.......after school we took the bus to help dad press and iron shirts......we got $2 a week .......There was a lot of Lew families in the laundry business ..........I knew a lot of them, they were close and distant relatives.......we're all somehow related.



I knew one of your posters Gordon Hom........he did work at Olson's Electronics on Pico........we used to tape 4 track cassettes there ...he knew my brother Gary. Dancing for me all began in Mt. Vernon J/H at the noontime dances........this is how we interacted with the girls on Wednesdays noontime dance...They did have ballroom dance class at the time.......and this lead to current dance steps and freestyle...........it was a lot of fun!.......kids from this jr. high went on to either LA or Dorsey.......and that's probably why we know a lot of people.



At LA High we met a lot of new people from the the local jr. highs...............that's when we found out about house parties and dances..Being Chinese it was so hard to get out of the house to go to a party ..............you asked .........if not,you sneaked out and suffered the pain!......I did my share and took buses at nite to get to those dances..............didn't have a car so you walked and took the bus........finally we had our own house parties on the westside...........and that was cool.



Working at a gas station on Slauson partime ..............driviing a 55 chevy and a 62 Impala..........going to house parties from LA to Gardena......westside to the eastside........the valley to Pasadena........we would caravan from house party to house party......and if we didn't find it we would be dancing on some quiet street near Crenshaw................those were the days of innocence and good times ........we had friends from all over LA, predominately Chinese and Japanese..........we all got along, we ran in a large group of people and partied together...........it was fun in those days,very few hassles. We danced and ate together at all of these places.............of course Roger Young(Ronins gave dances there).....Parkview......Gardena Elks....Aeronautical on Beverly......Old Dixie on Western......Mayflower Hotel downtown(Blue Satins played)..........on Boyle across from the old Sears bldg...the Polish hall......and many more I can't think of right now..............a bowl of saimen or chili over rice or chashu eggs over rice after the dance was so good!!!!!!!!!!...............Holiday Bowl.......Hodys............Rodeo Bowl......Carrows Gardena......Triangle on Atlantic.........Tiny Naylors on Sunset........Ben Franks on Hollywood ......Midtown Bowl........and many others



Other Saturday nites we were behind the Crenshsaw Mall with Big Willie and the LA street racers.............the Huntington Beach all day beach partys were a lot of fun for the gang .......lots of sun ,food and girls ...it was great......I think we did this once a year.......anyways, time to go....JL.



December 14th Jack wrote:



these were my experiences growing up . ......we were living in the area between Uptown and Crenshaw off of Olympic blvd......now they call it K-town......there was Chinese and Japanese that we went to school with and played ball up and down the street. If you post the email its ,ok to use my name......... The group called the Ronins started in Gardena as a Club and we held dances at Roger Young Auditorium in the mid 60's...it was made up of guys from LA and Gardena......I think it lasted until some of us got drafted into the army and went to Nam............. Aeronautical was a nice place to dance......it was clean and it had this modern style about it..............I remembered the dances there were given by the guy group and girl group together........I think the guys group started with a K and the girls were the Chanels(wonderful one)....if you mention the name I probably would remember it......its been a long time........... You ask about Old Dixie...........well that was on 42nd st and Western Ave.........that was a place where we slowwww... dance to the juke box .........it was a cavernous place and a fun place to dance.........that was during high school and after.......... When we went to dances we always had these colorful bids to tell us when...where...what time and who gave the dance.......we used to collect them but they're long gone now..............anyways,talk to you soon and Merry Christmas!........t/c Jack L





Q. Everything you have told me is so interesting. There is a pattern, of groups starting social clubs; do you know the origin or reason behind the group name, Ronins??



December 15th Jack wrote:



hey Betty,.............. are you writing a book?.............there's a lot people out there that went to house parties and dances in the 60's.........the Ronins ( I think Ronin has something to do with a lone samurai)..would fill the whole ballroom at Roger Youngs wall to wall .......it was always packed and we had live bands performing.......there was a lot of asians going to dances in groups and they were from all over.................from Long Beach to Sun Valley and from the westside to the east.............you wouldn't believe the number of house parties we went to..........sometimes 2 or 3 in one nite.........we would pick up our friends and hit the 1st party then to the 2nd party and etc......and bring new people along with us.........it was fun!..........then we'll end up at Holiday Bowl.



In the 70's.......the dance scene kinda died out ....didn't hear too much .....baby boomers were settled down with house and kids.............not too much dancing going on except for asian clubs..........George Tong's Golden Tale in El Segundo..............Benji's yearly dances in San Francisco ........Joe Jungs in San Francisco..........Osko's or the Cave near the Beverly center.....Friday nites at Imperial Gardens on Sunset in Hollywood with Dave and the band in the 80's .........John Kims happenings at LA venues..............Chez noi in Beverly Hills.......after IG closed there wasn't any places where asians could see each other and hang out..............so the venues to meet and reconnect were very few...............anyways,if I think of anything else I'll email.....t/c jack.

Sam, from Belmont Class of 1970

From December 11th, Sam wrote:


I started going to Asian American dances when I was in high school right around 1969. I also went to Belmont High and went to the "Bell Hops" at Belmont. As early as Jr. high, I remember hearing Beaudry Expresst at dance at Nightengale Jr. Hi. I went to all the same schools you did...Castelar, Nightengale and Belmont. Graduated from Belmont in 1970.

Places and dances I remember the most are Surfrider Inn in Santa Monica, Roger Young Auditorium, and Parkview Women's Club in Crenshaw. later on, places like the Elk's Club, Blarney's Castle, and La Mirada Country Club came into play...Another place to go back in the day was Imperial Gardens in Hollywood...

Gung Hay restaurant in Gardena on Tuesday night was the place to be during the disco era...I still don't know how I was able to function on Wednesday mornings...

I went to dances almost every weekend ..Myself and two of my close buddies...we went to meet girls and just listen to the live music...good fun at the time.

Another band not mentioned yet is "New Trend"..they were great!!

I read all the entries and this has brought back many fond memories of the good old days...

Thanks for starting this blog.

I Just Wanted to Meet Asian American Boys

Why did we gravitate to dance parties attended predominantly by Asians and Asian Americans?

Robert Bracamontes emailed me and explained:

Hi Betty,
I was thinking of Park View dances and for sure Roger Young. Enough nihonjin
and other Asians to make my day. I married Asian, lol, still together. We went
to a lot of house parties too, where the crowd was the same. But of all the
details, especially the Hiroshima Band, this was a building block for entering a
different culture other than my own. I am Chicano/Native American.

I have lived the Asian life in my day. Grew up with my Japanese friends when
you called your hommies Buddha heads and that was cool. Later we just called
each other the N word because we felt an attachment to the civil rights
movement. We used the N word because it was a social, political, economic and
cultural distinction from the dominant white prejudice culture. The same system
we see today taking our jobs away with the unemployed in California at 12.5% to
17% excluding us economically. And pretty soon the straight A's that could get
you into higher education won't matter much if you can't afford the 32% fee
hikes of this week in the UC system.

I saw a great display of arrogance in Little J Town back in the day. Wes, my
Buddha Head friend for life and I were picking up bento. I saw a White dude in
his WWII uniform standing on the corner, it was December 7. He looked at all the
people like they were some thing the baby leaves in his diaper. Just then a car
screeches around the corner, almost running over an elder Japanese lady and her
grandson, it stops and picks him up. I hated it. From that day on I called Wes
on December 7th just to remind him that we are still N's in the white world. We
never forgot about all the dances or house parties we went to, they nurtured
this connection to diversity in life.

Sorry this took so long. Peace, Robert Bracamontes

Question:

Hi Robert, thanks for your input. Ironically, as I am writing to you, here in L.A. it is still December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, 2009.

However, I am confused: you recall an incident in j-town about a soldier - wearing a WWII uniform??? you're not that old, are you?? please clarify.

Answer:

The incident was on December 7th and he was, tall, white and looking at
people as if to intimidate. I guess he was making a statement, here I am and
what are you gonna do about it. Still looking back on the dances, they were
gatherings for people that were not welcomed in other circles. It seems
harsh to say, but I think many Japanese felt that way. After all when
you lock up the parents and grandparents of these young people there is
always the feeling it could happen to them. They gathered at these
dances beyond the music. It was place I think they felt safe and loved.

I was in my twenties when it happened, but it burned an imprint in my memory. We never think of history when we are young, like our children of today that are in their twenties. You know my children are half Chinese. I know I missed a few opportunities to stand up for what was just, but I want them to be aware of the consequences of complacency. Bob

* * *

As for myself, my father had a laundry business in the heart of Hollywood from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. I guess we were oddballs - a Chinese family business serving the laundry needs of white customers, many of whom worked in the entertainment industry - I do not recall anyone being prejudicially rude, but perhaps I developed an "internalized racism", as Bill Watanabe also experienced.

Watanabe is the Executive Director of the Little Tokyo Service Center. In a profile published in The Studio for Southern California History's newsletter, his calling to help the Asian community through social service programs began as he reflected upon his own feelings of ethnicity and not fitting in. He recalled declining to attend a friend's party in fear of not belonging because he was Japanese.

Any subconscious feelings I may have had in the 1970s about the need to fit in may have drove me to Asian American dance parties, but at that age, I also simply wanted to meet Asian American boys.

Collective Memory

I am curious about the uniqueness of the circa 1970s LA Asian American dance scene and how it compares to the party and social outlets embraced by later generations.

I asked is my 22-year old nephew, Allen, a recent graduate from UCR. The survey session went something like this, not really verbatim:

Betty: Allen, I want to find out what the younger generations are doing for socializing. Are there Asian dances? Do people cruise?

Allen: Cruise? Define cruising?

Betty: When we used to go to dances, there was cruising before and after the dances. The cars included American hot rods and modified Japanese cars.

[My two brothers, who were present, interrupted with their comments, so I forgot Allen's answer, but I gathered that the activity of cruising as we knew it was negligible for people of Allen's age.]

Betty: Do you know of dances where you and other Asians can get together?

Allen: We go to bars.

Betty: Do you listen to DJs? Are there live bands?

Allen: No, there are no live bands.

Betty: But where do you go dancing?

Allen: We go clubbing, that's where you can dance, but there are no "dances."

[I began to suspect that the term "dances" is not part of Allen's lexicon.]

Betty: So these clubs have people of all ethnicities?

Allen: Yes, there are people of all different backgrounds.

Betty: When you attended UCR, were there Asian American academic organizations or fraternities that threw dances?

Allen: There were groups, and they threw parties, but not "dances."

* * *

Granted, today gasoline is too expensive to fiddle away driving aimlessly. And back then the phrases "carbon footprint" and "emissions control" were not in our daily vocabulary. In the 1970s, young people tinkered with their cars as a creative outlet - and their wheels expressed who they were. There was a certain uniformity: the wink mirror, the lowered chassis, the wide tires, the chrome wheels, the loud exhaust pipe, and for extra coolness - a car roof topped with a ski rack during the winter season.

Kids today still love their cars, but the drivers back in the 1970s just happened to flaunt it a little more during the dance gatherings. Young people today have other distractions: computer toys and electronic music gadgets; today young men have a lot of fashion choices to express their vanity.

I have yet to interview more people from younger generations, but as it stands, our experiences from the Asian American dance era provide a distinct collective memory. Anyone who was there back then is automatically "in the know" today when they hear a song like "Summer Sun" being played. The song brings back sights and sounds like the bands, specific places, restaurants, and cars.

TGIF

It's Friday Night! Time to Blog!

Thanks, Gordon Hom, for your comments about your first job at Olson's. Never heard of the place.

I appreciate you Revealing Yourself, you are not anonymous, you are the brave one.

FYI Gordon's comment is buried in my blogspot: it is found on the blog "Photo and Other Images..."

The music was so important, wasn't it Gordon? To hear one of those songs, it takes you back to the crowds on the dance floor. Gordon, I think Summer Sun is the anthem of the Asian dances. Once the tune starts up, I think about the camaraderie in the mutual enjoyment of that song. I had not heard it in decades, and now anytime I want to hear it, I find it freely on YouTube.

I was at the hairdresser yesterday, asked my long time stylist about his memories of attending dances. He started using antiquated words like "gabardine pants" "tube tops" "see-through blouses."

The night before last I was on the phone with my sister-in-law. She hails from San Jose and she recalls Carry On playing up there. I would enjoy getting more details about the dance scene up in the Bay area.