Monday, December 22, 2008

Fullerton Police, bank robbers & the Frontier Motel

I just added about 100 images to the Orange County Archives' Flickr account. The two sample images above are both from Fullerton in 1927. The first (top) shows the entire Fullerton Police Department. (Back row, from left: Ernest Garner, Steve R. Mills, Frank Moore, Robert C. Mills. Front row, from left: John Trezise, Chief James M. Pearson, John Gregory, Jake Deist.)
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The second image shows Fullerton P.D. Patrolman Ernest E. Garner with criminals W. Benjamin Morrison (left) and George Horine (right) of San Jose. The two 19-year-olds robbed a bank in Saratoga, California the week before and were on the run. The one at the wheel of the car fell asleep as they drove through Fullerton, and crashed near the corner of Spadra Rd. (now Harbor Blvd.) and Whiting Ave. These are the best dressed teenage criminals I've ever seen.
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"Don't tell my mother," Morrison begged the police. "She had carbon monoxide poisoning a couple of years ago and lost her memory. If she finds out about this it will give her a setback."
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On a completely unrelated note, the WalterWorld blog has a nice before-and-after post about the Frontier Motel in Anaheim. In the 1950s, this motel's promotial literature referred to it as a "New Ranch Style Motel," and stated, "We Aim at Pleasing You - and We Hope We Hit the Mark!" It was hard to go wrong marketing "Ranch Style" anything in the 1950s. And of course the Western theme tied nicely into both mid-Century pop culture (in general) and Frontierland at Disneyland.

5 comments:

ItsNotAPlace said...

Interesting irony that where the two bank robbers crashed (Harbor Blvd. and Whiting Ave.) now has two banks... a Citibank branch and Farmers & Merchants Bank are on two of the corners of that intersection today.

:-)

Capt. Tomorrow said...

Is that Barney Fife's father with those dapper young criminals?

ItsNotAPlace said...

"Andy, Can I get my bullet out now?"

Anonymous said...

During the '60s and early '70s, the Frontier Motel had their slogan plastered on the side of a covered wagon that sat right along Harbor. It read: Last stop before Disnyland. [sic]

Don't ask me why I remember that.

chuck pyle said...

WOW! That's my grandfather, Ernie Garner, as a young cop! Thanks for posting. He later worked up the Police Chief before retiring.