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Image / Waiting at the steamer entrance in Avalon

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Title
Waiting at the steamer entrance in Avalon
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1938
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
In February 1909, the Freeholders Improvement Association of Avalon got permission from the war Department to build a pleasure wharf, constructed and maintained by the Santa Catalina Island Company. In 1914, the Green Pleasure Pier was transferred to the City of Avalon. Today, the 407-foot pier is home to the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center as well as restaurants, tours and other activities.; The S.S. Catalina, known as "The Great White Steamer," was laid down on December 26, 1923, christened on May 3, 1924, and took its maiden voyage on June 30, 1924. The 301-foot ship, originally built at a cost of $1 million dollars, was in service from 1924 and carried about 25 million passengers between Los Angeles and Avalon Harbor until she was retired on September 14, 1975. The Catalina has been recognized as a Historic-Cultural Monument, #213, and is a California State Historic Landmark. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
People look out towards the pier. A small Spanish Style building at the end of the pleasure pier says "steamer entrance" and the S.S. Catalina (left) is docked along with the S.S. Avalon (left). This pier building has been replaced.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;15 x 11 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00100618
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-009-904 8x10
CARL0005109678
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/39372
Subject
S.S. Catalina (Ship)
Passenger ships--California--Los Angeles
California Historical Landmarks
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
Architecture--California--Avalon--Spanish influences
Piers--California--Avalon
Docks--California--Avalon
Harbors--California--Avalon
Lost architecture--California--Avalon
Islands--California, Southern
Green Pleasure Pier (Avalon, Calif.)
Avalon (Calif.)
Santa Catalina Island (Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs

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