Hollywood Outtakes: California Oil Wells

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, the coast of southern California was oil country. Forests of oil derricks lined the shore north and south of Los Angeles. These film clips give a bit of an idea of what it looked like--oil rigs side-by-side with beach houses.
While some of the oil fields were starting to go dry in the 1960's, the thing that really finished off the California oil business was the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. The largest spill at the time, it was the result of a blowout on an offshore oil platform, and dumped some 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude into the Pacific Ocean. A good deal of it ended up on the beaches. The incident got national news coverage and provided impetus for the Clean Water Act and the formation of the EPA.
While the derricks are gone, I've read that you can still see small pumps here and there, still extracting crude.
I can’t tell you much about the song OIL! that I put on the soundtrack. I can’t tell you thing about the writer or the performers. It just turned up in the archive. The other song is the flip side.

[@boots_n_coots]

The first 3 1/2 minutes of this film look like we are facing south, rolling down the Speedway in Venice/Playa del Rey. The area has been transformed and the derricks were gone by the mid-sixties, but a few of the original houses have survived. This oil field/beach neighborhood was beautifully documented by local artist JoAnn Cowans in 1961/62. (The houses seen at 0:48 appear in her painting ‘The Speedway”, dated 1961).
The Speedway and Venice oil fields were also the backdrop for the great 1958 film noir ‘Touch of Evil’ by Orson Welles.

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

Thanks for the info!

[@boots_n_coots]

Thank YOU for posting this interesting footage and music. The next puzzle: Who was the author/singer of ‘Oil!’?

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

I only know what it says on the record label:
Performer: BILL WHITE; Stan Ellison Orchestra
Writer: Maurice Keller
This info is in the credits at the end.

[@steveschlackman4503]

The first song was a real find.

[@theamerican7080]

Fascinating, and the music is perfect!

[@randallfabian6640]

I love the "Oil Song!" Wish you knew who it was by.
Very strange, the palm trees and oil derricks juxtaposed! I wonder if any of those stone houses are still standing.

[@boots_n_coots]

There are in fact a few original houses still standing in this neighborhood, wedged in between the new condos.

[@cetus13]

Thanks a lot! Superb informative video! And the song!

[@heatvisuals]

Signal hill, California. Long Beach.

[@SuperEmpath1061]

This again proves that oil is NOT a rare fossil fuel.

[@b3j8]

This is gonna drive me nuts trying to find that first song! Pretty sure it's from a musical, but can't find it. Yet.

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

All I know about it is what’s in the credits at the end.

[@b3j8]

@@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo Thanks.

[@tobygoodguy4032]

Oil - elixir of the gods. 🤠

[@rufusquail227]

Helms Bakery Truck

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

Oil was cheap and the girls were discreet 🤔🫣😂