~
San Francisco Maritime Museum of the
in Aquatic Park - 2003
photo by Chris Wood
A while back, I wrote about L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology movement (link below). Since I posted the article I started remembering in detail the day I was first aware of him and his movement in the early sixties at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Back then Aquatic Park was a great hangout for gays on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. You could get a fantastic tan and do your cruising. You could spread your towel out on the sand (on the right in the photo above) or there was a grassy area called Victorian Park to the left of the stepped area in the photo (not visible).
I remember it was a gloriously HOT afternoon and the sun was blazing away, perfect for tanning. Back then we didn't know much about skin cancer and I would slather baby oil all over my arms, legs and body and lay there FRYING in the sun. In spite of the intense heat two very young and very handsome men dressed in white shirts with cuff links and neckties were walking among the sunbathing crowd stopping to chat occasionally.
They
finally got around to me, I thought they were cruising so I propped
myself up on my elbow and listened to what they had to say. It turned
out they were handing out pamphlets and telling people about the Church of Scientology. There were some new "religions" popping up at the time (the Hare Krishna
would appear a few years later). From what they told me I thought it
was a kind of wacky movement and didn't think anything more about it for
years. Little did I know!
Fountain Avenue/L. Ron Hubbard Way,
Los Angeles, California
photo: PictorialEvidence
I've had a history with Aquatic Park since I was a little kid; my father
would take me fishing on the Municipal pier there in the forties.
date & photographer unknown
The pier begins at The San Francisco Maritime Museum and is quite interesting; it is a building
built as a bathhouse in 1936 by the WPA; in streamline moderne
style, its interior is decorated with fantastic, colorful murals. The
Steamship Room illustrates the evolution of maritime technology from
wind to steam, and there are displays of lithographic stones, scrimshaw,
and whaling guns and photo-murals of San Francisco's early waterfront. A
visitors gallery hosts such exhibitions as Sparks (2005), which showcased shipboard radio, radiotelephone, and radio-teletype equipment from over the years.
in Aquatic Park - 1933
photographer unknown
WPA murals
There is a fascinating article on the books, writings and concepts of L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology on the Becoming Outlaws and The Undergroung Bunker websites (links below).
Viewfinder links:
L. Ron Hubbard ~ Scientology & Battlefield Earth
Net links:
Allison Fortini Crawford ~ Maritime Museum history
Becoming Outlaws ~ L. Ron Hubbard: The Founder of Scientology
Carnegie Mellon University ~ The Truth About L. Ron Hubbard
The Undergroung Bunker ~ Let’s celebrate with his own words!
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