After 300 Issues, The Beachhead Is Still Alive and Kicking


By Jim Smith

Few Venetians have probably done anything not of a sexual nature 300 times. Yet here in our lay-back community we have that most unlikely of projects - the Free Venice Beachhead - celebrating its 300th issue.


This is probably a record for an all volunteer publication. When the Beachhead was young, it had lots of company: the Berkeley Barb, L.A. Free Press, the East Village Other, the Great Speckled Bird, the Georgia Straight and countless others. Even then, very few were run by a volunteer collective rather than a private owner. But in those days, everyone knew what a Collective was. Today, when someone calls and asks for the Editor, we tell them we don’t have an editor, we are a collective, the response is usually “what’s a collective,” or “who’s in charge?” Well actually, that’s the whole point, no one is in charge. Everyone is equal, in theory. In reality, those who show up for meetings and are otherwise active have a bigger influence than those who don’t.

Let me take you behind the scenes of a typical collective meeting. We meet at least four times a month. It can get a little frantic at the end of the month as the clock ticks toward our reserved time on the press. But the month begins with a review of the previous paper. We note all the typos we missed before it went to press. We gripe at the poor quality printing on some pages. We talk about the big stories we missed, and crow about the scoops we scored. Since no one’s in charge, no one can be assigned to cover a particular story, issue or event, unless she or he wants to cover it. That’s how we sometimes miss a story. Along with not having an editors, we don’t have any reporters, only writers.

When articles are submitted by collective members and others, we read them aloud. This can get a little tedious if you have read the article before the meeting. But it’s the way it has always been done on the Beachhead, so we do it. Then we discuss the article and try to come to a consensus on whether to print it or not. It’s very rare that someone casts a dreaded veto, as any member of the collective can do, but it does happen. We never edit someone’s submission, except for obvious typos. Sometimes we’ll ask the author to cut it by a couple hundred words, or suggest that something isn’t quite clear and should be rewritten, but the collective would never do that itself.

The Beachhead got its start in 1968 with the help of the Peace and Freedom Party, but it was never a party organ. The attitude of P&F leaders, like John Haag, Rick Davidson, Jane Gordon and others, was to help get a group get going, and turn them loose. That’s how “the Free Venice organization,” the Venice Survival Committee,” and other Venice organizations got their start. But it was the Free Venice Beachhead that lived long and prospered. That is, if you define “prospering” as being able to come up with the money to print the next edition. There have been times when the Beachhead did not have the money to print the next edition, otherwise we would have celebrated the 300th edition a long time ago.

In the beginning, the plan was to print twice a month. There was a Dec. 1 and a Dec. 15 edition of the Beachhead in 1968. After that, the collective realized that it was just too much to expect volunteers to get out two issues a month when one was hard enough. That original collective included Dora Bayrack, Virginia Bohannan, Phil Chamberlin, Rick Davidson, Carol Fondiller, Jane Gordon, Jay Jamieson, Anna Haag, John Haag, Mary Kerbret, Phil Melnick, Bill Olive, Jerry Wells. Dora was a senior citizen who contributed a poem in Yiddish. Phil Chamberlin, Rick, Carol, Jane, Anna and John were community activists and P&F members. Phil Melnick was a college student, Jay Jamieson was the “Bubble Man” who would sit on a bench on OFW and unleash huge soap bubbles, and Bill Olive was the artist who drew the masthead. You can see the original four-page Beachhead at: <www.freevenice.org/Beachhead/Dec1-1968/Dec1968.html>.

Through the 70s, the Beachhead carried on with several different collectives seeing it through the decade. One collective was either so equalitarian, or so paranoid, that they didn’t list their names on the paper. But by April 1978, the 100th edition, an identifiable group was running the paper. They were: Arnold Springer, Wendy Reeves, Gerry Goldstein, Chuck Bloomquist, Joan Friedberg, Olga Palo, Mike Wells, and Nancy Bennett.

The 80s found the Beachhead in its prime. It had large collectives and large editions. They even experimented with an additional color at times. In August 1986, the 200th edition collective included: Kathy Sullivan, Jim Prickett, Kelly Ball, Carol Fondiller, Diane Nickerson, Patrick McCartney, Victor Wightman and memphis slim.

Their biggest coup was to get a young urban planner, Ruth Galanter, elected to the City Council. The decision that Ruth run for the position against the pro-development incumbent, Pat Russell, was reportedly made in Arnold Springer’s back yard at a meeting of Venice activists. The Beachhead devoted entire issues to blasting Russell and promoting her Venice opponent.

Galanter won by a large margin in Venice and carried the district. In the heady days following Galanter’s victory, memphis slim wrote in the Beachhead about how, “a relatively obscure woman with the help of her community ousted the entrenched Councilperson who had professionals and money on her side.” In fact, many Venice activists felt the millennium had arrived 13 years early (or is it 1,000 years early?), and retired to their personal lives in order to let Ruth take care of all the Venice problems. Meanwhile, Young Upcoming Professionals (Yuppies) began moving into the community.

By the 1990s, a split had developed in our happy land. Many, perhaps a majority of Venice activists were still content with Galanter, and had reduced their grassroots activity. Meanwhile, another group which included the new Beachhead collective, were growing more uncomfortable with the councilmember they had helped put in office. Concern changed to open hostility when Galanter brokered a deal that would allow Playa Vista to build on part of the Ballona wetlands, while preserving other parts. This was the final straw for many, even though many would acknowledge that Galanter had stopped the worst development schemes in Venice.

The 250th edition on July/August 1992 was produced by a collective that included: Kelly Ball, Rex Frankel, Chip Gatz, Mark Giacomelli, Judith L. Martin, Diane Nickerson-Johnston, Kathy Sullivan and Random Chance. Under this collective, the paper turned more and more to national and international issues. George H.W. Bush and, later, Bill Clinton, were bashed at least as often as Ruth Galanter. More and more time went by between issues until it finally spurted out in the mid-90s. Rex Frankel begin publishing a Beachhead look-alike called the Ballona Free Press.

Just when it looked by the Beachhead was a goner, a new collective came together in July 2002. It started with a dinner discussion between John Haag, Carol Fondiller, Yolanda Miranda and me. We all agreed that the Venice progressive community was dispersed and disorganized without the Beachhead. One of the reasons we don’t live in L.A. 90291, or Marina del Rey, North, is the Beachhead. If the Beachhead is anything, it is a paper that promotes our unique Venice identity.

The response was immediate. We quickly had enough money for the first issue (our only expense is the printing). We also had a new, enthusiastic collective of Chuck Bloomquist, Mimi Bogale, Sherry Chovan, Carol Fondiller, Vessy Minkovski, Yolanda Miranda, Calvin Moss, Jim Smith, Alice Stek and Suzy Williams (John Haag declined to rejoin the collective because of poor health). The first new issue was dedicated to Rick Davidson, who had died while the Beachhead was on hiatus. The 262nd edition that came out four years ago looked much like any previous Beachhead. We didn’t get color until the following year, but we did straighten our columns by laying out the paper on a newfangled computer.

Since 2002, many more Venetians have come and gone on the collective, but the paper has kept chugging along every month (except for two). Our current collective includes Fondiller, Miranda, Smith and Stek, plus Karl Abrams, John Davis, C.V. Beck, Don Geagan, Erica Snowlake and Judith Martin-Straw (who was known as Judith L. Martin on previous collectives).

Through the years, hundreds of people have come and gone as members of the collective. Many more have helped in other ways, including advertising, distributing door-to-door, and contributing articles, art and/or poems. If you love our little beach town as much as we do, then you should consider serving on the Beachhead collective. It’s a rite of passage in our journey on Spaceship Earth, Cabin Venice.

Posted: Fri - September 1, 2006 at 08:10 PM          

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