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Do you Remember?
updated: Sep 16, 2009, 12:01 PM

It's time to play "do you remember" .. when Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev came to Southern California (and Santa Barbara) 50 years ago?

An Edhat reader sent in the following online find, which may help jog memories.

Khrushchev in Granada Hills

In the heat of the Cold War, the Valley was a patriotic bastion. Pro-America parades and loyalty rallies were common, and for a time in the 1950s volunteer lookouts served two-hour shifts watching for enemy aircraft in an observation tower at Balboa Blvd. and Vanowen St.

Fears spiked when the Soviet Union beat America into space by launching the Sputnik I satellite on Oct. 4, 1957. This raised the spectre of nuclear missiles aimed at the many defense plants in the Valley then. Many residents built backyard bomb shelters and took the routine air raid siren tests -- at 10 a.m. on the last Friday of every month -- more seriously.

In the midst of all this, the most hated Communist of all dropped in on Granada Hills for a visit. And he didn't come by choice.

Some Valley residents of the time still recall the day.

Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev came to Los Angeles on September 19, 1959, under the city's tightest security ever, as part of a U.S. visit that included the United Nations. Before he even got here, a giant anti-Soviet rally was held in the Rose Bowl and President Eisenhower urged calm.

After lunch he observed the filming of Can-Can and blasted the film as horribly decadent. With an open scedule until a sold-out speech that evening, Khrushchev requested to visit Disneyland. To his chagrin, Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker denied the request, calling it too risky.

Over Khrushchev's objections, he was driven instead to the Valley to inspect a new subdivision in the 16200 block of Rinaldi Street. As helicopters flew overhead and sirens wailed, crowds lined the motorcade route up Balboa Boulevard. In Granada Hills, model homes on Sophia Avenue were cleared by security aides, but the Soviet premier never left his limousine.

"Putting me in a closed car and stewing me in the sun is not the right way to guarantee my safety. This development causes me bitter regret. I thought I could come here as a free man."

The following morning, many residents got up early to watch Khrushchev's train from Union Station stop at Glendale then pass through the Valley en route to Santa Barbara and Francisco.

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 37595	2009-09-16 12:36 PM
I wasnt alive then but reading some of those articles it appears the reaction to him locally was different then his other stops. His visit here was reported as positive with a crowd of thousands who turned out to greet him without the rancor he had received in other parts of the southland. This was at the height of the Cold War to would be great if any readers had attended and perhaps had a photo stashed away to share.
COMMENT 37622	2009-09-16 09:14 PM
Shocker...Communists welcomed with open arms in Santa Barbara. Must have left some budget tips that our buddies use to this day.
SBALAX	2009-09-17 07:52 AM
I had just started my first semester at UCSB (a very different campus then ) and walked to the bluff overlooking the slough and airport and saw his train headed north. It may be apocryphal but I was told that they pulled all of the window shades when the train went through Vandenberg AFB.
COMMENT 37656	2009-09-17 08:51 AM
According to the News-Press of Monday evening September 21, 1959 "Mr. K" (as the press called him) stopped in Santa Barbara for thirteen minutes. His train was greeted by a crowd estimated at 2,000 to 2,500 and he was "given one of the warmest receptions of his seven-day stay in the U.S." Khrushchev told reporters "I was very pleased at being able to get off the train and see the people of Santa Barbara, and look the people in the eye. I am grateful to the mayor of Santa Barbara [Edward L. Abbott] for that. I am especially pleased that the house arrest is over. Before that I was only allowed to eat and sleep. This was my first opportunity since my arrival in the United States to go for a walk and talk with the people. Is it possible that this is the daybreak, and I will at long last obtain freedom in a free country?" There is another part to this story. A local man, Vernon Johnson, came up and shook hands with Khrushchev and told him he’d love to visit his country. Mr. K said he thought it would be great if he did and extended the invitation. A year later, Johnson packed his wife Anne and their eight kids into a school bus and took off to see the world. And indeed, at the height of the Cold War, they did get into the Soviet Union. Anne wrote a wonderful book about their two-year journey – “Home is Where the Bus Is.” P.S. Khrushchev also given a warm welcome in San Luis Obispo (http://sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/slovault/)
COMMENT 37662	2009-09-17 09:59 AM
Sure I remember. I was nine years old. It was unusual for my father to voluntarily go anywhere there was going to be a crowd but on this day he said let's go and off we drove to the train station. To avoid the brunt of the crowd ( I would estimate today at maybe 300-400 people) we stood on the platform near the Montecito Street crossing. The Southern Pacific Daylight painted in SP black and orange livery, sans any graffiti, arrived from the south and in very short order out stepped Soviet Premier Khrushchev. At the same moment a group of waiting Santa Barbara dignitaries stepped forward on the platform to greet him. They spoke for several minutes. Khrushchev greated the children present as well. After about ten to fifteen minutes everybody waved as Khrushchev boarded the train. The train began to pull slowly away from the station and towards our location. Normally the Daylight did not have a glass domed observation car but this day it did. A bit of a novelty in itself. Soon we could see Premier Khrushchev, surrounded by his entourage, smiling and waving from the observation car and that was it as the train departed to the north. Many years later as I recalled this moment I formed the impression that Khrushchev was disappointed that he could not spend time relaxing in Santa Barbara's glorious weather and hospitality. We could have softened him up. When we returned home I related my day to a friend whose father happened to be a John Birch Society member. He told me that his father's comment was, "I would not go across the street to see that red nosed pig." My observation today is that Khrushchev spent easily over twice the time here that President Bush Junior did on his whistle stop. Khrushchev left the train to meet the people. Bush never left the train and just seemed to stare blankly in the direction of the beach, barely acknowledging the crowd on the platform. The Bush crowd was probably three times greater than Khrushchev's but then the city's population has also grown much in the ensuing years. I pick Khrushchev as hands-down the most charismatic of the two. After decades I moved to a different neighborhood in Santa Ba... [ more ]
COMMENT 37675	2009-09-17 11:01 AM
I remember the day well when the very charismatic Nikita Khrushchev came to town. I, along with my friends Cordell Hicks and Jack Baker and quite a few others, were on the wrong side of the train. When an aide pointed us out he came to the window facing us and warmly greeted us, we all did the same for him. It was an electric moment. Before his train arrived it was preceded by an empty very long Daylight by a few minuets. His train was also much longer than the usual Daylights were and the first half of the cars on his train were empty. I believe that John Cabot Lodge was in the entourage that day and that he greeted Florence and Boby Hyde at the station.
COMMENT 37678	2009-09-17 12:08 PM
Thanks for the responses great getting to hear about a historical moment from those who were there!
COMMENT 37817	2009-09-18 11:40 AM
I didn't get to go to the station, I had to be in school. I too heard they pulled the shades going through Vandenberg. I've never found out if that was true. There was a Johnson in my class at SBHS & I certainly do remember the Johnson bus and their trip. I thought it was an incredibly cool thing to do.

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