My name is Roger Kroll. Thank you for joining us today. I will be your tour guide! Long Beach Heritage has asked me to give you a tour of our wonderful downtown area. "Long Beach Heritage is a non-profit education and advocacy group promoting public knowledge and preservation of significant historic & architectural resources and the cultural heritage of Long Beach."
There are a few things we will require of you today. we want you to learn some new, we want to have fun, and we want you to be safe as we walk among the Trains, Planes, and Automobiles. Please observe the street crossing signs. Now let me tell you about this beautiful mural that is standing in front of us. Long Beach Municipal Auditorium Mural-"Recreation in Long Beach". Artists: Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Henry Nord, and Albert Henry King. 1936-38
This mosaic originally adorned the facade of the Municipal Auditorium. The Auditorium was built in 1931 at the foot of Long Beach Boulevard and demolished in 1974 to construct the Terrace Theater. The mosaic, when completed in 1938 and was the largest Works Progress Administration (WPA) mosaic artwork; it portrayed beach recreation in Long Beach. (Betty Davis Eyes in mosiac). The artists who created the mosaic have designed their signatures into the border. The entire mosaic was removed in 1979 and relocated as a freestanding piece here at the juncture of the Promenade and Long Beach Plaza in 1982.
WPA Mural-(Works Progress Administration) "Recreation in Long Beach". This delightfully colorful mosaic mural depicts a beach scene with boats sailing on the blue ocean in the background and white clouds drifting overhead. On the sandy beach in the mid area and on the green grass in the foreground are men, women, and children enjoying other forms of Long Beach recreation - surfing, swimming, sunbathing, fishing, picnicking, playing horseshoes, ball and croquet. Women playing croquet has "Betty Davis Eyes." A sailor and his wife admire their baby. A speaker voices her opinion on the "Spit and Argue" platform.
Originally assembled and mounted under the great Roman arch of the Long Beach municipal Auditorium. Architect: Designed by Henry North, Albert Henry King, Supervisor of the Ceramic. The mosaic was assembled by artists employed in the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 466,000 pieces of tile, weighing over 3 tons, and 30,000 pounds of mortar and cement. 37' 10" high; 22' 8" wide. Gladding, McBean & Co manufactured over 90% of the tile employed.