William Randolph Hearstīut clams alone might not have been what put Pismo Beach on screenwriters’ radar. Still, the clam population has made big comebacks in recent years, and clam chowder remains on the menu at many Pismo restaurants. It’s still legal to collect clams at Pismo Beach, but they must be more than 4.5 inches in length, and most are too small. Over time, the clam population declined, however, and with it, references to Pismo Beach’s clams on the big and small screens. “Back in the ’50s and ’40s, probably even in the ’60s, a lot of the hardware stores, they all had clam diggers and shovels and buckets,” said John Sorgenfrei of TJA Advertising, which handles advertising for the city. In the 1950s, Pismo clams (named for Pismo Beach) were so plentiful, visitors could easily dig them right out of the sand. Pismo was indeed known as the Clam Capital of the World for a time. University of Southern Californi/Corbis via Getty Images (I was unable to find any evidence “Dragnet 1966” kicked off a “Pismo clam diet” trend.)Ī crew digs for clams at Pismo Beach, Calif., on Nov. “What else do you eat up there? The Clam Capital of the World, Joe,” Gannon tells his former partner. Eight months and three weeks later, he rejoins the force, fully healed by “the clams.” Gannon, who’s suffering from ulcers and has lost multiple teeth, retires near the end of the film and moves to Pismo Beach. That cartoon was followed by several 1960s TV references, including an episode of “The Monkees” and the TV movie “Dragnet 1966.” In the latter, Pismo Beach’s clams miraculously cure the ailing body of police officer Bill Gannon (played by Harry Morgan, whom I delightedly recognized as the colonel from “MASH”). In the cartoon, Bugs Bunny pops out of a tunnel and proclaims, “Well here we are, Pismo Beach, and all the clams we can eat!” After which Daffy Duck follows Bugs out of the tunnel and retorts, “Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?”īuildings in Pismo Beach in this undated historical photograph include a clam stand and smoke shop, with the beach in the background. The short, titled “Ali Baba Bunny,” has not aged well, but the Pismo Beach joke is timeless. “Bugs Bunny was kind of the iconic one,” Waage says. It’s the first reference Pismo Beach Mayor Ed Waage mentions to me when I call him up to find out what makes Pismo Beach so alluring to screenwriters. One of the first references to Pismo Beach in Hollywood came in a 1957 Bugs Bunny cartoon. “Pismo Beach” is a mysterious name that is hard to place but also promises a sunny California seaside, and that’s likely some of its appeal to screenwriters. Tar is plentiful in the region, and Native Chumash people used Pismo’s natural tar wells to waterproof their canoes. The name “Pismo” is taken from the Chumash word “pismu,” which means tar. Pismo’s Monarch Butterfly Grove provides yearly shelter to thousands of migrating monarchs, and the recently opened Pismo Preserve has 10 miles of trails for bikers, hikers and horseback riders to enjoy. Restaurants sell clam chowder and fish tacos just steps from the beach, and vendors hawk souvenir seashells and other tchotchkes to memorialize your time there. Pismo Beach, nestled between Avila Beach and Grover Beach in south San Luis Obispo County, is a picturesque little seaside town, with a white sand beach and a pier that tourists flock to. George Rose/Getty Images ‘Pismo Beach, and all the clams we can eat!’ The craggy coastline and surf culture of Pismo Beach, pictured March 1, 2013, is popular among weekend visitors to the area. A few minutes later, I came up mostly empty-handed, with the realization that the “Pismo Beach disaster” was entirely fiction.īut why had Pismo Beach been chosen? What was so special about southern San Luis Obispo County? It was the first time I took notice of Pismo Beach being mentioned in a movie or TV show, but it wouldn’t be the last. I paused “Clueless” and opened up my internet browser, scouring the web for information. For this coastal town of 8,000 to make it into a major film, the disaster had to be national news, I thought. Disaster.Īs someone who grew up a few miles away from Pismo, as locals call it, I didn’t know the details of the Pismo Beach disaster, which should have been as indelible in my mind as the San Simeon quake of 2003. It was during college while rewatching “Clueless” for the third or fourth time that the phrase finally stood out to me: Pismo.
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