Boardwalk Summer
Page 26
Jason laughed. “Look at the two of them, still so in love. You might need to wear earplugs tonight.”
Mari slapped his arm. “Ew, Jason. I don’t want to think about that!”
After dancing to a few more songs, Jason pulled her to the side, wiping the sweat from his brow. “I need a break. Walk with me for a minute?”
“Sure,” Mari said, taking his hand.
The ocean rushed in her ears, the sea breeze cooling her flushed cheeks. Even in December, Santa Cruz was stunningly beautiful, the fog hanging over the ocean like a cloak. The damp air smelled like seaweed and brine, like home.
Once they had walked a ways down the beach, Jason paused. Mari looked at the sparkling lights of the boardwalk in the distance, illuminating the night sky. Breathing a sigh of contentment, she thought about how much she had to be grateful for. She’d accepted a full-time position at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, as an assistant curator. She’d become closer to Violet and Gene, who’d invited her whole family to visit them for the holidays, and she looked forward to meeting Jason’s parents too.
Mari and Jason often met up on their lunch breaks during the week, now that they both had nine-to-five schedules, sometimes on the UC Santa Cruz campus, overlooking the ocean, sometimes downtown, closer to the museum. Once, as a joke, they went to the Jupiter Café. Mari had giggled and buried her face in Jason’s jacket when Wanda glared at her. But she savored every cheese fry, and then left Bridget a hefty tip.
“You’re beautiful tonight,” Jason said, pushing a strand of Mari’s hair behind her ear. “You think I’m cheesy, because I say it too often, but I love you.”
Mari smiled. “I love you too.”
Jason’s eyes grew serious. “I ended the lease on my apartment. It’ll be up at the end of this month.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s not big enough for three people. And I’ve spotted a few places that would be perfect for you, Lily and me. What do you think?”
Mari bit her lip. She’d become so accustomed to sharing her bedroom with her daughter, to having her mom and dad down the hall. But she was turning twenty-seven, and it was time to fly the nest. Her heart fluttered at the possibility.
“I think it sounds wonderful.”
“Good,” Jason said, squeezing her hand.
He reached into his pocket and took out Violet’s diamond and sapphire earrings. “My grandma wants you to have these.”
Mari sucked in her breath. She’d returned them to Violet when she’d come to visit over the summer. “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly. They’re too valuable.”
“What if I told you they’re for a special occasion?”
“Like what?”
“Well, they’re something blue.”
“I don’t get it.”
He laughed, and then rubbed his face. “Oh man, I’m already nervous. You’re not making this easy for me.”
Before she could put two and two together, Jason got down on one knee in the sand. Mari’s throat tightened and her eyes welled with tears. Reaching into his pocket, he removed a gray velvet box. He opened it, and inside sparkled an oval-cut diamond ring, the delicate Art Deco–filigree setting perfect for her.
“In case you were wondering why I’ve only taken us to cheap places for lunch and why I never want to go to the movies, this is the reason. Thank you for putting up with me, and never complaining that we only eat pizza slices.”
“Jason,” Mari said, a tear sliding down her cheek.
He smiled. “Mari, I love you so much. I’ve loved you from the moment you talked to me about The Kite Runner and then ran away. I vowed that day I would never stop chasing you. Will you marry me?”
Mari laughed. “Yes.”
Jason slid the ring onto her finger, and they kissed, the music of the brass band carrying on the breeze, and the lights of the gazebo shining in the distance. Mari felt her abuelo and abuela smiling down on her as they danced among the clouds. Violet had taught her an important lesson: a broken heart could heal, and love made a family.
The past didn’t matter now, only the future.
Acknowledgments
Thank you again to my wonderful editor, Lucia Macro. This novel would not be what it is without your suggestion that Violet pursue an acting career in Hollywood. I must admit, initially I wasn’t drawn to the glamour of Hollywood in its Golden Age, but delving into research (and exposing Hollywood’s dark underbelly in contrast to all the glitter) turned out to be so much fun. Thank you for believing this story is “magical.” You are a joy to work with.
To my agent Jenny Bent—there is no better literary agent in all of New York (or the world for that matter). Thank you for your emails, your phone calls and your texts from Frankfurt at 2 A.M. You are my tireless advocate and you make me laugh. It is a pleasure to work with you. Thank you also to Denise Roy for your keen eye and talent for discovering the heart of the story. I appreciate your insight in shaping this novel into a book that I’m proud of.
To my fantastic team at William Morrow—thank you. A big round of applause for my copy editors (who helped me hide all evidence of repetitive blushing and hand trembling) and to my designer, Elsie Lyons, who created two beautiful covers. To Amelia Wood in marketing and to my publicist, Michelle Podberezniak, I appreciate how hard you work to connect me with readers and book sellers!
To my critique partner Sally Hepworth, thank you for reading this novel in its many iterations over the years and for being the brilliant writer that you are. Your feedback is a gift. Another Hollywood trip is definitely in order!
To Anna Evans, thank you for reading early drafts of this novel and for your constant support. You are such a talented writer and your time is coming, I know it. To Niki Robbins, my favorite beta reader: thank you for loving the “old” Boardwalk Summer. I promise you will love this version too. To Nayelli Dalida, thank you for volunteering to check my Spanish and for reading a final draft of this novel.
To Sarah Dodd, Katie Flynn, and Jennifer Dean, thank you for volunteering your professional knowledge in the fields of psychology and law. Alas, like Hollywood, publishing can be tough. The character my questions pertained to was cut from the novel. But your advice was excellent nonetheless.
To my mom, thank you for providing me with inspiration, the vintage Hollywood calendar and books to help me with my research. You have always fostered my creativity. To my sister Carolyn, thank you for reading an early draft of this novel, but more importantly, thank you for always listening to me. Don’t start charging by the hour for phone calls!
To my mother-in-law, thank you for inviting me to speak to your book groups. What fun they were to talk to!
To my husband, Will. Thank you for comforting me during times of stress and for watching Hazel when I disappear for hours to write. You and Hazel are the loves of my life (and Bernie too of course—dog hair, drool and all).
Finally, to my readers: thank you for your emails, your Facebook messages and your blog posts to let me know that my writing has touched you in some way. I have my dream job because of you and I can’t thank you enough.
To the dreamers: never stop dreaming, never give up.
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About the Author
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Meet Meredith Jaeger
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Behind the Book
Reading Group Guide
About the Author
Meet Meredith Jaeger
MEREDITH JAEGER was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, she worked for a San Francisco start-up before publishing her debut novel, The Dressmaker’s Dowry. She lives outside San Francisco with her husband, toddler and bulldog, where she now writes full-time.
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About the Book
Behind the Book
In April 2014, while I was reading SFGate.com,
the San Francisco Chronicle’s online newspaper, a headline struck me: “Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Lively History Lives On.” Ten years earlier, I had graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in modern literature. My college years remain some of my fondest memories, and the charming seaside town of Santa Cruz still holds a special place in my heart.
Reading about the history of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the state’s oldest surviving amusement park, I remembered the thrill of riding the Giant Dipper as a child. The 1924 roller coaster is still a rumbling, rattling, shriek-inducing good time. This past summer, my husband and I took our one-year-old daughter to the boardwalk to ride the historic 1911 Looff Carousel. The Ruth & Sohn band organ piped classic amusement-park tunes, and the hand-carved horses delighted her.
Ruth & Sohn band organ built in 1894.
Photo credit: the author
Giant Dipper roller coaster, 1993.
Photo credit: Fritz Jaeger
Looff Carousel, 2017.
Photo credit: the author
The log ride (with Giant Dipper in the background). The author, her father and younger sister, 1993.
Photo credit: Carol Nyhoff
Although the boardwalk has enchanted children for generations, it didn’t occur to me to set a novel in Santa Cruz until I read a line of the article that gave me chills. It described a windowless office above the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom, crammed with boxes of boardwalk memorabilia collected over a century.
I pictured that cramped room in my mind. Instantly, I saw my character Mari coming into contact with one of these artifacts, Violet’s obituary, and unraveling a seventy-year-old mystery. Reading about a 1940 stunt that took place at the boardwalk, the “Slide for Life,” solidified my plot. Don “Mighty Bosco” Patterson and his twelve-year-old assistant, Harry Murray, performed it. The two men zip-lined 750 feet, from the top of the casino to Pleasure Pier. Patterson hung by his knees, dangling Harry Murray by one ankle and one wrist. They dove into the ocean seconds before their trolley slammed into the pier. Eventually, the state banned the stunt for being “too hazardous for minors.” Harry Murray was replaced by Marion Blake, a female performer.
Harry Murray served as my inspiration for Ricardo Cruz. I respected the courage it took for this young boy to perform such a dangerous stunt. But California is home to more than ten million immigrants, with Latinos outnumbering Anglos as the largest ethnic group. I decided to honor California’s rich Chicano heritage by making Ricardo Cruz an immigrant from Mexico and his granddaughter, Mari, the novel’s protagonist.
Don “Mighty Bosco” Patterson hangs from the cable on a speeding trapeze, with the young Harry Murray suspended below, 1940.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
Don “Mighty Bosco” Patterson with the young Harry Murray, 1940. Many versions of this stunt were performed until 1945.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
The view from Beach Hill where Mari lives.
Photo credit: the author
Violet’s inspiration came from a photograph of the first ever Miss California pageant, held in Santa Cruz in 1924. I hadn’t known that “bathing beauties” once stood on the very beach where I’d studied in college, sashes over their woolen swimsuits. Although the 1940 Miss California pageant was held in Venice, California, I changed the location to Santa Cruz for my novel. In 1947, the pageant returned to Santa Cruz and was held there annually until 1985.
First Miss California contestants, 1924.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
The first Miss California was eighteen-year-old Faye Lanphier of Alameda, who beat out Santa Cruz’s own Mary Black. Faye was crowned on the beach bandstand in front of thousands of admirers. Then she danced the night away with flappers at the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom. The streets were lined with flags and fifty thousand gladioli framed a stage overlooking a lily pond, creating a Court of Blossoms. Many locals opposed the competition, believing the ladies wore too much makeup and showed too much skin. But Hollywood soon changed those attitudes.
Actress Ann Blyth as a mermaid with lifeguard Lester Eisley. Blyth was at the boardwalk filming Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, 1948.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
Even during the height of the Depression, the boardwalk remained popular with its music, ballroom, beach and easy transportation. The Suntan Special train carried passengers to and from Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco. In 1932, the train delivered over three thousand people each Sunday to Santa Cruz, where the brass of the beach band greeted them. In the opening scene of Boardwalk Summer, the beach band plays while Violet takes the stage, then Charles disembarks the Suntan Special.
Contestants on the 1948 Miss California pageant runway, which extends from the bandstand into the crowd.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
I imagined the boardwalk in Violet’s day—people dancing to big bands such as Benny Goodman’s, Artie Shaw’s and Tommy Dorsey’s; eating ice cream and hot dogs; frolicking in the Plunge (a heated indoor saltwater pool) and watching Plunge Natatorium Water Carnivals with performances by Olympic swimmers, acrobats and divers. I pictured Violet swept up in the excitement of her pageant win, wanting nothing more than to pursue her dream of Hollywood stardom.
Poster advertisement for the Plunge Water Carnival, 1936.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
The Story of Hollywood by Gregory Paul Williams was invaluable to me, providing details of the restaurants, hotels, talent agencies, gossip columnists and clubs that were popular during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: A Century by the Sea is another wonderful book containing a treasure trove of information and photographs that aided me in researching Boardwalk Summer.
Members of the Plunge Water Carnival Water Ballet group, 1941.
Photo credit: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Archives
When a screenwriter sexually assaults Violet, promising her a big break, his behavior highlights a problem still faced by actresses in Hollywood today. Countless allegations of sexual assault, rape and sexual harassment have been made against powerful movie producers, media moguls and directors, with brave women and men coming forward to tell their stories. This long, ugly history has existed since the dawn of the casting couch. Our cultural endemic goes beyond Hollywood, and in order to change these sexist attitudes, we must start with educating our children about what behaviors are acceptable or unacceptable.
One of the issues I struggled with when writing Boardwalk Summer was figuring out how Violet could start a new life under a new identity. Then I discovered a fascinating fact—the social security card goof of 1938. On the ssa.gov website, there’s an article titled: “Social Security Cards Issued by Woolworth.”
In 1938, the wallet manufacturer E. H. Ferree Company of Lockport, New York, decided to promote its wallet by showing how well a social security card would fit inside. A sample card was inserted in each wallet and the company vice president thought it would be a smart idea to use the actual social security number of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher. Her number was 078-05-1120.
Department stores all over the country sold the wallet. Discovering this abused social security number was my “aha moment” when it came to solving my problem. In 1943, nearly six thousand people were using Hilda’s number.
The fictional Mary’s Chicken Shack, where Violet worked as a waitress before she met Charles, is inspired by many real-life concession stands that existed on the boardwalk for years. One of the long-standing Santa Cruz businesses mentioned in the novel is Marini’s Candies. It opened on the boardwalk in 1915 and sold saltwater taffy, caramel apples and peanut brittle. Fourth generation Marinis run the business today. Stop by for a sweet treat if you’re in Santa Cruz! The 1308 Pacific Avenue location is where Jason and Mari have their second date.
Mari works as a waitress at the Jupiter Café, inspired
by its real-life counterpart, the (vegetarian) Saturn Café, where I ate frequently in college. Even my husband, an avid meat-eater, is a fan of their “Chicken” Avocado Club sandwich.
Saturn Café 145 Laurel St. Santa Cruz, CA.
Photo credit: the author
Like Mari, I also revisited McHenry Library on the UC Santa Cruz campus when researching this novel, and I felt pangs of nostalgia for my life as an undergrad. Although I wish I’d gotten serious about novel writing back in college (as the saying goes, Youth is wasted on the young!), I’m grateful every day to have my dream career as an author and to share my love of California history with my readers.
This brings me to the heart of Boardwalk Summer. Two ambitious young women are forced to make the difficult choice between family and career. Although women today are blazing their own trails and attempting to have both (myself included), the balance is never easy. I hope that Mari and Violet inspire women everywhere to go after what they want in life. It’s never too late to follow your dreams.
The author on West Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz.
Photo credit: Carolyn Jaeger
These Art Deco earrings from Lang Antiques inspired Violet’s diamond-and-sapphire earrings in the novel.
Photo credit: Lang Antiques San Francisco
Natural Bridges State Beach.
Photo credit: the author
Reading Group Guide
Do you think that Violet made the only choice that she could when she escaped from Charles? According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, on average it takes a victim seven attempts to leave an abusive spouse or partner before they leave for good. Why do you think this is?