California Pop chronicles the Southland’s pop-cultural development from the 15th century, through the 1960s, when the mid-century, Southern California milieu had reached full maturity.
It’s not an academic treatise; it’s just a smooth reading beach book chock full of amusing stories and fun facts about the legions of Southlanders who turned an isolated desert into a mid-century, pop-cultural dynasty.
Here is just a partial list of the notables that appear within the pages of California Pop. How many do you recognize?
Christopher Columbus, The Rolling Stones, George Freeth, Annette Funicello, William Mulholland, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Cecil B. DeMille, Leo Fender, Charles Fletcher Lummis, Les Baxter, John Lautner, Marlon Brando, Mark Twain, Hernan Cortes, The Surfaris, Bruce Brown, Martin Denny, Abraham Lincoln, Kathy (Gidget) Kohner, Wyatt Earp, Henry Ford, The Beatles, Chuck Yeager, Cliff May, Juan Cabrillo, Mark Hopkins, Kit Carson, Ed (Big Daddy) Roth, Edward Doheny, Buffalo Springfield, Robert E. Petersen, Dick Dale, Charles & Ray Eames, Yma Sumac, Joseph Stalin, Helen Hunt Jackson, The Grateful Dead, Sandra Dee, Hobie Alter, Sir Francis Drake, Dewey Webber, Les Paul, John F. Kennedy, Father Junipero Serra, Richard Neutra, Jose Figueroa, The Wrecking Crew, Richard Henry Dana, John Sutter, Frank Lloyd Wright, Duke Kahanamoku, Clark Gable, The Byrds, George Barris, Joe Quigg, Dave Brubeck, Von Dutch, The Beach Boys, Terry (Tube steak) Tracy, Frankie Avalon, Francisco de Coronado, Ed Sullivan, James Dean, The Jefferson Airplane… and many more.
Reader’s Reviews
A Terrific People’s History of California
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2021
The author has written a most entertaining history of California and the people who came to it, to work out their dreams when there was no other place that could accommodate them. Politics hardly enters this story. It is a book about people through history with unconventional ideas that are drawn to the remoteness of California and are able to bring their ideas to reality. The book’s strength is that the author makes this all an easy and entertaining read. His history is solid and because he thoroughly knows the subject his presentation is right to the point. As an example, his explanation of the Oregon Trail experience and World War II are both noteworthy and second to none despite their brevity. Don’t pass up reading the Notes at the end. It becomes autobiographical. If you happen to have grown up in the same area, at about the same time as the author, his reminiscing will make you smile. 5 out of 5 stars!
Dorian MacDougall has written a fascinating and fun tale of Southern California history with Paul Harvey style (The Rest of the Story) takes on everything from architecture too surfing. The subheadings cracked me up, and I loved how he reached back to the Spaniards as the genesis for the modern hot rod crawl. I rarely do this, but I might start over and read it again. John Fry.