By Jorge Casuso
September 10, 2009 -- The massive crowds expected for the Santa Monica Pier Centennial Celebration failed to materialize, which, for some, happily turned the event into a homespun birthday bash.
A brass band greeted visitors at the pier entrance, where City officials gathered under the historic sign to cut a white ribbon and usher in the pier's next century.
There were centenarians representing the pier's past and youngsters peering into the future and speeches recalling some of the cultural icons that sprang from the pier, including Popeye, a real-life pier regular who was immortalized in the comic strip character born in a typhoon off the pier.
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| Mayor Ken Genser, flanked by the police and fire chiefs, council members and dignitaries, cuts the ribbon, ushering in another hundred years. (Photos by Frank Gruber |
Speakers recalled how the community stepped forward to save the historic structure after the City Council tried to tear it down in the 1970s and how the wind and waves almost did what the council had failed to do when it nearly tore the pier apart in 1983.
There were proclamations presented by representatives of State legislators and a letter from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which ended with the words: "I salute you grand lady."
"Let's start the next hundred years," Mayor Ken Genser said when the speeches had ended, and the several hundred celebrants who had gathered at the entrance walked under the famous sign to the strains of the brass band and into the pier's future.
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| Dick Dale and his son Jimmy trade licks on the pier stage. |
Surf-guitar legend Dick Dale topped off the musical entertainment with a blistering set on the pier stage, warming the crowd up for the grand finale -- the first fireworks show on the pier in 18 years.
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| Fireworks light up the night. |
