A LOOK BACK:Easter ’41 a peace before a storm

Tomorrow is Good Friday and this Sunday many here in Huntington Beach will celebrate Easter in their homes or in their places of worship.

Family and friends will gather together around dinner tables throughout our city as they celebrate this special holiday.

This year there will be many who are far from the family’s table, stationed on military bases around the world and having Easter dinner with their military buddies.

But as they eat their Easter meal you can bet their thoughts are of family back here in Huntington Beach.

And there are those in rest homes dreaming about their loved ones, of times past, and the fun times that earlier Easters brought them.

This week we’ll take a look at Easter here in 1941 when the war in Europe had not touched our shores and busy mothers were planning Easter dinners for their families.

In less than two years, many of the food items like meat, cheese, sugar and butter would be rationed and in short supply.

But as Easter approached on April 13, Dr. Ralph Hawes busily planned his first Easter Community Musical program in the Pavilion Huntington.

Hawes arranged to have guest conductor Monroe Sharpless direct the 100-voice chorus.

This choir included singers from all our local churches, the Seal Beach Civic Chorus and the Orange County Farm Bureau chorus. Sharpless was the Orange County Farm Bureau’s assistant director.

A large 20-foot flower-covered cross was placed at the entrance to the pier, and inside the pavilion, Dick Beeson arranged Calla Lily decorations that featured three huge archways covered with Calla Lilies and maiden Hair ferns at the entrance to the pavilion.

This citywide event was the brainchild of our Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce Music and Arts committee and was held inside the Pavilion Huntington.

Two months later the Pavilion Huntington was renamed the Pavalon.

A committee was formed to run the event that included Hawes; Eber Flaws, the director of the Baptist choir, Ralph Turner, director of the Methodist choir, Lawrence Worthy, director of the Christian church choir, J. Sherman Denny, Lloyd Jorgensen, John Peterson, M.G. Jones, Ruth Harlow, Edna Condon, Marcus McCallen, Lee Chamness, Dick Beeson and William Gallienne.

A crowd of more than 1,200 people flocked to the pavilion to see the musical program.

There were not enough chairs for everyone and some 300 people watched the program standing up.

At 4 p.m. the audience rose to its feet as the 100-voice chorus opened the program with the “Coronation Hymn” followed by the Invocation delivered by Rev. James Hurst.

The Santa Ana Elks Double Quartet performed, “Lift Thine Eyes and The Prayer Perfect.”

A living Tableaux “Easter Tide” featured a biblical backdrop of players including James Ranney Jr., John Reid, Wallace Perry, Aubrey Montgomery, Ned Basil, Ena Preston, Henrietta Lanning, Jean Whittaker, Carol and Claire Pierpoint and Jane Weinheimer.

The set for the tableaux was designed and built by Charles Brisco from our high school and Less Sowers served as narrator for that year’s event.

But this musicale was not the only Easter event in Huntington Beach that year.

For Cecylle Oliver and Jean Maples Easter Sunday in 1941 was more than a religious observance, it also marked their birthdays and the first time in their lives their birthdays fell on Easter.

The Methodist church presented a pageant they called, “The Easter Trail,” and this program was under the direction of Minnetta Lorenzen.

Marcus Howard and his son Marcus Howard Jr. spent the day before decorating the church’s interior.

Harry Groves offered the opening prayer followed by Janet Clapp who read to the congregation about the first Easter.

The Rainbow Sextet from the Christian church contributed to the Easter celebration with a musical number “Bells of the Easter Garden” and afterward Rev. James Hurst gave the Easter message, “From Darkness to Light.”

Virginia George and Doris Archibald sang “O Morn of Joy” followed by John Peterson, Betty Baker and Helen Axton who lent their voices in an arrangement of “Life Eternal.”

Over at the home of George Jacobs, 930-10th Street, the family’s Easter included a huge barbecue steak dinner for their guests.

The singing of “The Old Rugged Cross” by the children of the Baptist church opened their Easter Sunday School program followed by a scripture reading of the Resurrection story by Rev. Luther A. Arthur.

Nadine Peebles and her parents hosted an Easter dinner for the members of Hawes Girls Choir at their home.

These are just a few of the many happenings in Huntington Beach that Easter and for those sitting around the dinner table that year little knew that very shortly their peaceful world would be shattered with the country’s involvement in the world war.