It doesn't get better than this. Filthy Frank and his trike on the Hermosa Beach strand. It just screams of the era and illustrates how drag racing and hot rods were influencing the chopper scene. That's the oil tank on the back bone and the gas tank up on the forks. This is the kind of stuff that got me hopped up as a kid. I remember seeing a trike with beer keg seats running around town back then. This might have been it.
Joe thought this was Angel Marc's bike, but Marc now (updated 1/13/15), informs me it belong to his Brother Bob Kurek. If you were a Hun, one day you faced a choice, become an Angel, or be nothing. Joe believed that Randy Smith was responsible for these photographs and the last set of South Bay Originals posted. Marc says most of the photos were taken by free lance photographer Bill Miller who was like an unofficial club photographer.
Speaking of South Bay Originals...
...the Mermaid Restaurant at the foot of the pier in Hermosa Beach closed on July 29th. It will reopen under new management until the new owners get approval to build a hotel which could take 2 years. That means the whole block including the Poop Deck will then get torn down. The Mermaid has been there for 62 years. The step daughter of the deceased original owner Quentin “Boots” Thelen said, the family had to sell since they can't pay the 49% estate taxes on the land (from Good Stuff to the Mermaid), valued at $24.5 million. It's kind of strange since "Boots" had passed away on the same day July 29th, 5 years ago.
This is the last face of old Hermosa and it should have been designated a historical site. I hate to see it go.
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