Before "Surfurbia": The Development of the South Bay Beach Cities through the 1930s

Few landscapes have been more trivialized for global consumption\udthan the southern California beach. ???Baywatch,??? ???Beach\udBlanket Bingo,??? and Rayner Banham???s coinage of the term\ud???Surfurbia??? are among the myriad examples of culture products\udthat depict the shore as a homogeneous fun space lacking historical\udand cultural complexity. However, the South Bay communities\udfrom El Segundo to Torrance (essentially the cities that Banham\udcalled ???Surfurbia???) have long histories, examination of which reveals\udthe richness and complexity of their geographies. The\uddifferent cities emerged under the influence of a variety of developmental\udforces so that, despite the monolithic image of\ud???Surfurbia,??? the rise of the South Bay is in fact many separate, incompatible\udstories