This article examines the intersection of oil industry interests and the growth strategy of local elites in the wake of Ventura, California's oil boom of the 1920s. It amends urban growth machine and civic boosterism theory by showing why cosmopolitan capital may exert influence over parochial politics even if it does not have a direct interest in population increase. The study also finds that oil development sustained long-term quantitative growth for this coastal community, much as Roger M. Olien and Diana Davids Olien found in their study of five towns in the Permian basin of west Texas. Owing to the influence of outside companies, however, boosters failed to develop Ventura qualitatively as a tourist and recreational destination. Indeed, by the 1950s, Ventura more closely resembled inland California oil towns in terms of place than nearby Santa Barbara, which boosters had hoped to emulate.
"The Best Kind of Growth," VenturaFree Press (hereafter VFP), June 5, 1925.
2.
On comparisons between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, see Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s ( New York, 1990). For a study of a California city that pursued qualitative growth in more recent times, see Ryan M. Kray, "The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs," Pacific Historical Review73 (February 2004): 85-126.
3.
Rowan Miranda and Donald Rosdil, "From Boosterism to Qualitative Growth: Classifying Economic Development Strategies," Urban Affairs Review30 (1995): 870.
4.
The terms "qualitative" and "quantitative" growth may be found in the taxonomy of Rowan Miranda and Donald Rosdil, which also includes historical preservation, environmentally harmful, and redistributive growth. See ibid., 868-79.
5.
Kevin R. Cox and Andrew Mair, "Locality and Community in the Politics of Local Economic Development," Annals of the Association of American Geographers78 (1988 ): 307-25; John R. Logan and Harvey L. Molotch , Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place (Berkeley, Cal., 1987), chap. 3; Harvey L. Molotch , "The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place," American Journal of Sociology82 (1976): 309-31; idem, "Growth Machine Links: Up, Down, and Across," in The Urban Growth Machine: Critical Perspectives Two Decades Later, ed. Andrew E. G. Jones and David Wilson (Albany, NY, 1999), 248-49 (quoted). For a recent assessment of growth machine and civic boosterism theory, see Mark Boyle, "Growth Machines and Propaganda Projects: A Review of Readings of the Role of Civic Boosterism in the Politics of Local Economic Development," in The Urban Growth Machine, 55-70.
6.
Roger W. Olien and Diana Davids Olien , Oil Booms: Social Change in Five Texas Towns (Lincoln, NE, 1982).
7.
Ibid., quoted on 209; G.F. Summers and K. Branch, "Human Responses to Energy Development ," in Energy Resource Communities, ed. G. F. Summers and A. Selvik (Madison, Wis., 1982), 34-35, quoted in H. Luton and R.E. Cluck, "Social Impact Assessment and Offshore Oil and Gas in the Gulf of Mexico ," Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the International Association of Impact Assessment, Vancouver, BC, 2004; Krista Paulsen, Harvey Molotch, and William Freudenburg, Ventura County: Oil, Fruit, Commune, and Commute, OCS Study MMS 96-0035 ( Camarillo, CA, 1996).
8.
"Crude Oil Production in California from the Industry's Inception to January 1, 1925," Petroleum World (January 1925): 70-71.
9.
W.H. Hutchinson , Oil, Land, and Politics: The California Career of Thomas Robert Bard, vol. 1 (Norman, OK, 1965), 65-75, 235-43, 271-74. Gerald T. White, Formative Years in the Far West: A History of Standard Oil Company of California and Predecessors Through 1919 (New York, 1962), 6-19, 23-57; idem, " California's Other Mineral" Pacific Historical Review39 (May 1970): 145-50. A map depicting the "cradle area" may be found on page 11 in White, Formative Years in the Far West.
10.
Hutchinson, Oil, Land, and Politics, 271-74, 328-31; Gertrude L. Reith, "Ventura: Life Story of a City," PhD dissertation, Clark University , Worchester, MA, 1963, 102-4; Earl M. Welty and Frank J. Taylor, The Black Bonanza . 2nd rev. ed. (New York, 1958), 71-74, 90; White, Formative Years in the Far West, 38-52.
11.
James T. Lima, "The Politics of Offshore Energy Development ," PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994, 143-49; Harvey Molotch and William Freudenburg , eds., Santa Barbara County: Oil, Fruit, Commune, and Commute, OCS Study MMS 96-0036 (Camarillo, CA, 1996), 10-11; Santa Barbara Morning Press (hereafter SBMP), quoted in Robert Sollen, An Ocean of Oil: A Century of Political Struggle Over Petroleum Off the California Coast (Juneau, AK, 1998), 11.
12.
Molotch and WilliamFreudenburg, Santa Barbara County, 11.
13.
F.W. Hertel , "Ventura Is One of California's Greatest Fields ," The Oil Weekly, March 4, 1927, 47; "Ralph B. Lloyd Key Man in Local Oil Story," Ventura County Star-Free Press (hereafter VCS-FP), October 18, 1949; "Ralph B. Lloyd, Noted Oil Developer, Dies at 78," VCS-FP, September 10, 1953; Howard Kegley, "From Oil to Athletics to Religion, Ralph B. Lloyd a Champion Always ," Santa Barbara News-Press (hereafter SBNP), September 18, 1953; Benton Turner, oral history, Ventura County Museum of History and Art, Ventura, CA (hereafter VCMHA), January 30, 1986, 2-3; Kendall Beaton, Enterprise in Oil: A History of Shell in the United States ( New York, 1957), 107-8.
14.
Lloyd to King and McLaughlin, October 28, 1925, Ralph B. Lloyd Letters, Lloyd Corporation Archive , Huntington Library, San Marino, CA (hereafter RBL), drawer 4, box 1 (hereafter of the form: drawer number-box number, that is, 4-1).
15.
Janet Goetze , "Lloyd Center Sprang from 100 Years of Dreams , The Oregonian (Portland), July 27, 1975 ; William Rintoul , Spudding In: Recollections of Pioneer Days in the California Oil Fields (Fresno, CA, 1978), 137-38; Ann Sullivan, "New East Side Exceeds Wildest Dreams," The Oregonian (Portland), August 21, 1991; "Ventura Avenue " The Record7 (September 1926): 3-8. The Record was Associated's company magazine. Copies may be consulted at the Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley.
16.
Ralph B. Lloyd, "Father Saves Life In Brush Fire By Leap Into Canyon," California Oil World, January 21, 1926.
17.
Lloyd Corporation, "Oil Documents," June 1935, Lloyd Corporation Letters, Lloyd Corporation Archive, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA (hereafter LCL), drawer 9, box 5 (hereafter of the form: drawer number-box number, that is, 9-5).
18.
Lloyd quoted in Kenny A. Franks and Paul F. Lambert, Early California Oil: A Photographic History, 1865-1940 (College Station, TX, 1985), 44.
19.
Lloyd to McLaughlin, November 24, 1922, RBL 2-1 (quote); Lloyd, "Father Saves Life"; Lloyd Corporation , "Oil Documents," June 1935, LCL 9-5; Lawrence Van der Leck, "Report on the Ventura Oil Field," Summary of Operations, California Oil Fields: Annual Report of the Oil and Gas Supervisor5 (January 1920): 6-21; Beaton, Enterprise in Oil, 108.
20.
Lloyd to McLaughlin, November24, 1922, RBL 2-1 (quote); Lloyd, "Father Saves Life" (quote); Lloyd to Davis, April 15, 1926, LCL 1-1; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, and General Petroleum (hereafter GP), April 15, 1926, LCL 1-1; Lloyd to Sheridan, June 24, 1926, LCL 1-5, citing "L. B. Row Simmers," California Oil World, June 24, 1926.
21.
Beaton, Enterprise in Oil , 80-104, 108-9; Lloyd to Van der Linden, August 24, 1921, RBL 2-4.
22.
McLaughlin to Lloyd, July 25, 1923, RBL 3-3; Van der Leck, "Report on the Ventura Oil Field."
23.
Lloyd to Van der Linden, March 24, 1919; Van der Linden to Lloyd, April 3, 1919, RBL 2-6; Lloyd to Shell, October 31, 1919; Lloyd to Shell , November 14, 1919; Van Eck to Lloyd, December 8, 1919, RBL 2-6; Van Eck to Lloyd, February 2, 1920; Lloyd to Shell, February 5, 1920 (all found in RBL 2-6); "Tentative Agreement between Mssrs. Lloyd and Dabney on one hand and A. C. McLaughlin, representing Associated Oil Company, on the other," February 19, 1920; Lloyd to McLaughlin, February 23, 1920 (all found in RBL 2-4); Annual Report for the Associated Oil Company, fiscal year ending December 31, 1920.
24.
T.E. Swigart , "Ultimate Oil Production in Ventura District Increased by Controlling Gas Output," Petroleum World (October 1928): 78-80, 142-43; "Curtailment at Ventura Successful," California Oil World, February 6, 1930.
25.
Hutchinson, Oil, Land, and Politics, 101-2; Roy Pinkerton, The County Star: My Buena Ventura (Ventura, CA, 1962), 42; Reith, "Ventura: Life Story of a City," 107-20.
26.
Beaton, Enterprise in Oil, 174-88; Rintoul, Spudding In, chap. 10; Paul Sabin, Crude Politics: The California Oil Market, 1900-1940 ( Berkeley, CA, 2005), 64-78, 113.
27.
Ibid.; Jules Tygiel, The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks, and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties (New York, 1994), chap. 1. Albert W. Atwood wrote the classic account of the Los Angeles oil boom. See, "When the Oil Flood Is On," Saturday Evening Post, July 7, 1923, 10-11, 86-99 and "Mad from Oil," Saturday Evening Post, July 14, 1923, 10-11, 92-105. Upton Sinclair provided a fictionalized treatment of the boom in his 1926 novel, Oil!
28.
Starr, Material Dreams , chap. 10.
29.
E. Baden Powell, "Geology of Santa Barbara Mesa Field," Petroleum World (November 1934): 22-23, 30, 44; Harvey Molotch, William Freudenburg, and Krista E. Paulsen , "History Repeats Itself, But How? City Character, Urban Tradition, and the Accomplishment of Place," American Sociological Review65 (2000): 804-8.
30.
"Industries of Ventura Have Pay Rolls Running Into Thousands Monthly," VFP, January 21, 1925; "Oil Field Resembles Big Beehive ," VFP, February 7, 1925; E.E. Wiker, "Business Fine in Ventura; Oil Wells, Building Cause Activity," Ventura County Star (hereafter VCS), September 10, 1925; "City Grows 25 Pct. In Year," VCS, December 31, 1925; "`1926 Will See Record Set for Ventura Oil Development'-Lloyd ," Ventura Weekly Post (hereafter VWP), March 26, 1926; "Editorial Comment," VWP, May 7, 1926; "Phenomenal Progress Made in All Lines, Figures Show," VCS, December 31, 1926; Los Angeles Directory Co., Ventura County Directory, 1930 (Los Angeles, 1929).
31.
Douglas G. McPhee , "Solution of Deep Drilling Problem in the `Avenue Field' Rejuvenates a Pioneer Oil District," Petroleum World (April 1925): 33 (quoted); "City Grows 25 Pct. In Year," VCS, December 31, 1925.
32.
Quoted in ibid., 96.
33.
"Nearly $200,000 Is Spent For Homes In First Three Months ," VFP, April 2, 1925; "Will Build Homes In City On Lots Owned By Wage Earners," VFP, June 2, 1925; "Derth [sic] of Housing Service Now Drives Many To Camp," VFP, June 11, 1925 (quoted); "Our Greatest Need Today," VCS, July 13, 1925; "Yes, We Need That Hotel," VCS, July 16, 1925; "18 Oil Families Come In Group," VCS, August 10, 1925; Wiker, "Business Fine in Ventura"; " Squatters Are Told To Move," VCS, February 9, 1926; Pinkerton, The County Star, 4-9, 7 (quoted).
34.
"Oil Strike Draws Investors Here," VFP, February 4, 1925 (quoted); "Thirty Acres Will Be Sub-Divided on Avenue," VFP, March 10, 1925; " Simpson Property On Ventura Ave, Sold To Group," VFP, April 18, 1925; "Ventura Avenue's Lots Sell Easily," VFP, April 18, 1925; Wiker, "Business Fine in Ventura"; " Keep Rentals Fair," VCS, May 5, 1926 (quoted); McPhee, "Solution of Deep Drilling Problem in the `Avenue Field' Rejuvenates a Pioneer Oil District," 33 (quoted); Lynn Weitzel , "Historic Simpson Street Dedication," Ventura County and Coast Reporter, May 17, 1990.
35.
"City Has States' Largest Oil Well," VFP, January 29, 1925 (quoted); "Well Is Producing 4450 Barrels Daily," VFP, January 30, 1925; " January Eventful In City's History," VFP, January 31, 1925 (quoted); "New Oil Well Is Due In Tonight," VFP, February 5, 1925; "Oil Filed Resembles Big Beehive," VFP, February 7, 1925 (quoted); "City Over Vast Oil Pool, Claim," VFP, February 11, 1925 (quoted); "Gusher Wells Double Output of Ventura Avenue Field," Petroleum World (March 1925 ): 53. On speculation and promotion at Santa Fe Springs, see Tygiel , The Great Los Angeles Swindle. For comparison with oil promotion in Texas, see Roger M. Olien and Diana Davids Olien, Easy Money: Oil Promoters and Investors in the Jazz Age (Chapel Hill, NC, 1990).
36.
Verne Patmore, oral history, VCMHA, October 26, 1979, 5-7, 30-1, 7 (quoted); Richard Willett, oral history, VCMHA, June 4, 1987, 9 (quoted); City Grows 25 Pct. In Year," VCS, December 31, 1925.
37.
"`1926 Will See Record Set For Ventura Oil Development'-Lloyd ," VWP, March 26, 1926 (quoted); " Years More of Drilling, Says Lloyd," VCS, March 31, 1926 (quoted); "Lloyd's Good News," VCS, December 16, 1926; "Lloyd Makes Public Late Find In Oil ," VCS, December 20, 1926; "11-Acre Lloyd Lease Tract In Motion, Can't Be Drilled ," VCS, April 30, 1928; Carl P. Miller, "Ventura Oil Field Praised," Los Angeles Daily Times, June 25, 1926; Joseph Jensen, "Petroleum Development in California during 1926," Oil Bulletin (March 1927): 257-69; "Ventura's Ultimate Output 250,000,000 Barrels of Oil," Petroleum World (September 1928): 53. Through 2004, the field produced 978 million barrels of crude oil.
38.
"Oil Strike Draws Investors Here," VFP, February 4, 1925 (quoted); "Oil Field Resembles Big Beehive ," VFP, February 7, 1925 (quoted); " City Over Vast Oil Pool, Claim," VFP, February 11, 1925 (quoted); "Let Ventura Rejoice," VFP, April 13, 1925; "Editorial Comment," VWP, May 7, 1926 (quoted).
39.
"January Eventful In City's History" VFP, January 31, 1925; Wiker, "Business Fine in Ventura"; " The Best Kind of Growth," VFP, June 5, 1925 ; "Johnson Forecasts City's Largest Year in Building," VCS, December 7, 1926 (quoted); Hoover quoted in " Biggest Year Looms Ahead," VCS, December 31, 1926.
40.
"January Eventful In City's History, VFP, January 31, 1925 (quoted); McPhee , "Solution of Deep Drilling Problem in the `Avenue Field' Rejuvenates a Pioneer Oil District," 33 (quoted), 96-8; "Ventura Grows," California Oil World, May 8, 1930, 6 (quoted); Olien and Olien, Oil Booms.
41.
Brief biographies of Austad, Ferro, Randall, Rea, and Sheridan may be found in Sol N. Sheridan, History of Ventura County, California, vol. 2 (Chicago , 1926), 42, 109, 131,171, 554-55.
42.
Austad to Lloyd, February 15, 1926, LCL 1-5.
43.
"Here's Way To Aid Ventura To Grow," VFP, February 10, 1925; "Movement To Get Industries Here," VFP, February 13, 1925; "The Best Kind of Growth ," VFP, June 5, 1925 (quoted); " Get Yourself a `Home, Sweet, Home,'" VFP, June 15, 1925 (quoted); "Campaign To Sell Ventura Approved," VFP, June 23, 1925; Ventura Chamber of Commerce, advertisement, VFP, June 29, 1925; " Financing New Building," July, 17 1925; "What Santa Barbara Plans; What Ventura Might Also Do," VCS, July 30, 1925; "A Beach Hotel," VCS, February 24, 1926.
44.
"Editorial Comment," VWP, May 7, 1926; "Editorial Comment," VWP, May 14, 1926; "Avenue Is Mecca of Realtors, Investors," VFP, January 31, 1925; Hoover quoted in "Biggest Year Looms Ahead," VCS, December 31, 1926.
45.
Wiker, " Business Fine in Ventura"; "Fortunate Ventura," VCS, November 7, 1925; "City Grows 25 Pct. In Year," VCS, December 31, 1925; " Ventura Keeps Up In Building," VCS, December 7, 1926; "Joe Daley Has Much Faith In Ventura County Future," VCS, December 17, 1926; "Leggett Drug Company Is Another New Avenue Store," VCS, December 17, 1926; "Rotarians Here Of Rosy Future," VCS, December 29, 1926; Hoover quoted in "Biggest Year Looms Ahead," VCS, December 31, 1926; " Record Here In Building," VCS, December 31, 1926; "Avenue Has Big Changes," VCS, December 31, 1926.
46.
Los Angeles Directory Co., Ventura County Directory, 1930; Reith, Ventura: Life Story of a City," 137-42; Judith P. Triem, Ventura County: Land of Good Fortune (Northridge, CA, 1985), 118-21; "Avenue Before Oil Was Idyllic Site to Live," Ventura Star-Free Press (hereafter VS-FP), May 3, 1987; Reed Fujii, "Industry Helped Make City Thriving Place It Is Today," VS-FP, August 20, 1989.
47.
Olien and Olien, Oil Booms, 18 (quoted).
48.
Austad and Sheridan to Lloyd, October 20, 1925 , LCL1-5; "January Eventful in City's History," VFP, January 31, 1925 (quoted); "Only 28 Miles Between Ventura and a Greatly Added Importance," VCS, July 28, 1925 (quoted); "Breakwater Is Real City Need ," VCS, August 17, 1925; "All Lined Up To Push Road To The Finish," VCS, November 6, 1925.
49.
"All Ventura County Will Win, or Else Will Lose, Together," VCS, August 24, 1925; Sol N. Sheridan, "Maricopa Road Cost Will Be Small, Usefulness Great," VCS, September 10, 1925; Butcher quoted in "Vote Maricopa Road District Is Supervisors' Decision," VCS, September 26, 1925; Sol N. Sheridan, History of Ventura County, California, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1926), 275-94; John R. Wallace, "Ventura," 8-9 in Ventura County Directory, 1930; Pinkerton, The County Star, 42-3.
50.
"Success Comes Twice to Ventura Tool Co," VCS-FP , October 19, 1949; "Ventura Tool Co. Had Modest Start," VCS-FP, October 14, 1953; Jack Smalley, "Completing the Maricopa Road," VCS-FP, magazine section, October 10, 1964, 12-13; Krista Paulsen, Harvey Molotch, Perry Shapiro, and Randolph Bergstrom, Petroleum Extraction in Ventura County, California, OCS Study MMS 98-0047 ( Camarillo, CA, 1998), section 3-1.
51.
F.W. Hertel , "Ventura's Submarine Pipe Line," The Record5 (November 1924): 10-12; Hutchinson, Oil, Land, and Politics, 328-31; Reith, Ventura: Life Story of a City," 124-26.
52.
Sheridan, History of Ventura County, vol. 1, 377-81.
53.
Pinkerton, My County Star, 43-44; Hutchinson, Oil, Land, and Politics, 65-75, chap. 9; Charles C. Teague, Fifty Years a Rancher (Los Angeles, 1944).
54.
Pinkerton, My County Star, 44-46; "All This Marching Up and Down the Hill Would Be Funny If the Public Didn't Pay the Bill," VCS, September 19, 1929; "Now the County Supervisors To Have a Word!" VCS, October 15, 1929; Triem, Ventura County, 134-36; Powell Greenland, Port Hueneme: A History (Oxnard, CA, 1994).
55.
Lloyd to Associated, Shell, and GP, letters of January 22 and 25, 1926, LCL1-1; Legh-Jones to Lloyd , January 27, 1926, LCL 1-4; Lloyd to Associated, Lloyd Corp., Shell, GP, and Pacific Western, September 17, 1929, LCL4-2; Jurs and Gallagher to Bard, September 18, 1929, LCL4-6 (quoted); Lloyd to Reinhardt, October 7, 1929, LCL4-6; Lloyd to Bard , May 22, 1934, LCL9-1; Sheridan, History of Ventura County, vol. 1, 381; Pinkerton, The County Star , 46-47.
56.
Meetings of the Board of Trustees, May 24, 1926, June 1, 1926, and June 8, 1926, City of San Buenaventura, Minute Book of the Board of Trustees, no. 8, 347-71; "Trustees Should Say No!" VCS , June 2, 1926; "That's That!" VCS, June 9, 1926.
57.
Molotch et al., "History Repeats Itself, But How?" 798-804.
58.
"Irvine Not to Press for Decision Today on Pipeline, "SBMP, February 26, 1931; "E. W. Alexander Attacks Plan of Oil Interests for Building Pipeline," Santa Barbara Daily News, February 24, 1931 (quoted); " Kill the Pipe Line" SBMP, February 23, 1931 (quoted); "Now Stay Firm," SBMP, February 28, 1931 (quoted).
59.
"Biggest City Undertaking Is Outlined," August 4, 1925; "Bond Win! People Vote 633-74 For High School," VCS, November 28, 1925; "Growth! Progress!" VCS, December 18, 1926; "If You Want Ventura to Grow," VCS, December 14, 1926; " People Will Vote on Two Bond Issues," VCS, December 14, 1926; "Here Is a Catechism on That Water Bond Issue ," VCS, December 14, 1926; Lloyd to Ventura Chamber of Commerce, quoted in "Lloyd's Good News ," VCS, December 16, 1926; " Both Bond Issues Fail of Two-Thirds Majority," VCS, December 16, 1926 (quoted); "Ferro Charges Hobson Selfish ," VCS, December 16, 1926; Austad to Lloyd, December 17, 1926, LCL1-1 (quoted); Austad to Lloyd, February 15, 1926, LCL1-5 (quoted).
60.
Edmund F. Ball , From Fruit Jars to Satellites: The Story of Ball Brothers Company Incorporated (New York, 1960); Frank Clayton Ball, Memoirs (Muncie, IN, 1937); David L. Good, Orvie: The Dictator of Dearborn (Detroit, 1989), chap. 3; David Karjanen, "The Wal-Mart Effect and the New Face of Capitalism: Labor Market and Community Impacts of the Megaretailer," in Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism, ed. Nelson Lichtenstein (New York, 2006), 144-46; Richard Lingeman, Small Town America: A Narrative History, 1620-The Present (New York , 1980), 425-30; June C. Nash, From Tank Town to High Tech: The Clash of Community and Industrial Cycles ( Albany, NY, 1989).
61.
Fred W. Viehe, "Black Gold Suburbs: The Influence of the Extractive Industry on the Suburbanization of Los Angeles, 1890-1930," Journal of Urban History8 (November 1981): 10-13.
62.
G. Ferro, "Annexation Of Avenue Next Important Step" VCS, December 19, 1925; "Big 3 Will Not Oppose Inclusion In the City," VWP, April 16, 1926; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, and Petroleum Securities Co, March 26, 1927, LCL2-1; "Annexation Of Big Area Proposed," VCS, April 20, 1928 (quoted).
63.
Frank C. Renfrew, "Value of Oil to Long Beach," Mining and Oil Bulletin (April 1923): 289-90; "City Acquires Fortune in Oil," Union Pacific Magazine (January 1925): 12-13; Terry Carpenter, "Production of Petroleum Pays for Public Projects," Long Beach Press-Telegram, December 31, 1925; Richard DeAtley, Long Beach: The Golden Shore (Houston, TX, 1988), 68-70. As of December 31, 1939, Long Beach had collected $11.96 million in royalties (City of Long Beach, " City's Oil, Long Beach-Signal Hill Field: Income and Expenditures," Long Beach Collection, Long Beach Public Library). The city later benefited enormously after World War II from oil development on lands chartered by the state of California for harbor development. In 1950 the city ranked fifth among operators statewide (Conservation Committee of California Oil Producers, Thirty-Sixth Annual Review of California Crude Oil Producers [Los Angeles, 1951]).
64.
DeAtley, Long Beach, 71; City Council of Signal Hill, Never By Chance: A Brief History of Signal Hill (Signal Hill, CA, 1974), 57-59.
65.
Austad and Sheridan to Lloyd, October 20, 1925 ; Lloyd to West Side Chamber of Commerce, October 27, 1925; Lloyd to Ventura Chamber of Commerce, January 22, 1926; Austad to Lloyd, February 15, 1926 (all found in LCL1-5); Lloyd to Associated, Shell, and GP, letters of January 22, 1926, January 25, 1926, and February 17, 1926 (all found in LCL 1-1).
66.
Lloyd to Ventura Chamber of Commerce, January 22, 1926, LCL1-5; Legh-Jones to Lloyd, January 27, 1926, LCL1-4; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, and GP , February 17, 1926, LCL1-1; Lloyd to Davis , April 15, 1926, LCL1-1; Lloyd to Sheridan , June 24, 1926, LCL1-5; "L. B. Row Simmers."
67.
Lloyd to Davis, April 15, 1926, LCL1-1; "Editorial Comment," Ventura Daily Post, n.d. [April 1926]; Sheridan to Lloyd, June 26, 1926. LCL1-5; Lloyd to Shell, July 7, 1926, LCL1-4 (quoted); Lloyd to Dabney, December 7, 1926, LCL1-2.
68.
Lloyd to Associated, Shell, and GP, letters of May 26, 1926 (quoted) and June 11, 1926 (all found in LCL1-1); Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, and Petroleum Securities Co, March 26, 1927, LCL2-1 (quoted); Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, and Petroleum Securities Co, February 28, 1928, LCL3-1; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California , December 21, 1929, LCL4-2; Lloyd to Associated and Shell, March 3, 1930; Lloyd to Humphery and Legh-Jones, March 19, 1930; Lloyd to Humphery and Legh-Jones, March 25, 1930 (all found in LCL5-1); Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California , May 13, 1931, LCL6-1; "Is the Chamber of Commerce an Efficient Organization?" VCS, November 10, 1925; "Big Companies Give $1250," VCS, November 17, 1925; "For Everybody," VCS, November 18, 1925; "Your Need And Mine," VCS, August 10, 1926; "Asks People to Back C. C," VCS, January 18, 1927.
69.
McLaughlin to Lloyd, July 25, 1923, RBL3-3 (quoted); Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, and Petroleum Securities Co, February 28, 1928, LCL3-1; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California, March 14, 1929, LCL4-6; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California, May 13, 1931, LCL6-1; Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California , February 23, 1932, LCL7-1. Each county in California used a different method of assessing the value of oil properties, none of which satisfied operators. See S.A. Guiberson, "Operators Envolve [sic] Equitable Formula for the Taxation of Oil Lands," Oil Age (November 1925): 13.
70.
Ventura Chamber of Commerce, resolution, February 27, 1928, LCL4-2; Sabin, Crude Politics, 56-62.
71.
Lloyd to Associated, Shell, GP, Pacific Western, and Standard Oil of California, letters of May 13, 1931 ( LCL6-1) and February 23, 1932 (LCL7-1).
72.
Lloyd to Associated and Shell, December 30, 1926, LCL1-1 (quoted); Lloyd to Associated and Shell , June 13, 1927, LCL2-1; Lloyd to Humphery , June 22, 1927, LCL2-1 (quoted).
73.
Associated to Lloyd, January 6, 1927, LCL2-1; Humphery to Lloyd, June 20, 1927, LCL2-1; Shell to Lloyd , June 14, 1927, LCL2-5. Deposits at Ventura's three leading banks increased from $3.75 million in 1924 to $11 million in 1929.
74.
Wallace, "Ventura"; "City Water Supply Double Soon By New Shell Well," June 19, 1925; Meeting of the Board of Trustees , April 30, 1928, City of San Buenaventura , Minute Book of the Board of Trustees, no. 9, 312.
75.
Bill Bertles , oral history, VCMHA, April 3, 1981, 17-21; Los Angeles Directory Co., Ventura County Directory, 1948-1949 (Los Angeles, 1949); R. L. Polk & Co., Ventura-Oxnard City Directory, 1953 ( Los Angeles, 1953); Paulsen et al., Ventura County, 34-41.
76.
Reith, "Ventura: Life Story of a City," 187-91.
77.
Contributions of the Ball family included $450,000 toward the construction of facilities for the YMCA and YWCA, land and $1.75 million for what is now Ball State University, land and $100,000 for Ball Memorial Hospital, and $195,000 for a public auditorium (Ball, Memoirs, 121-46; Robert T. Brodhead, Ball Memorial Hospital: A Commitment to Community [New York, 1996]). For its part, Ford donated more than one thousand acres of land in Dearborn for public purposes. In addition, the company's share of the city's assessed property tax base reached 75 percent during the 1940s (Good, Orvie, 39-40, 53).
