City to open 50-year-old time capsule Wednesday
Long Beach officials buried the capsule, which contains more than 80 items, outside the old city hall on July 4, 1976, according to the city.
Residents and officials this week will get to see a trove of 50-year-old Long Beach artifacts and mementos when the city opens a time capsule from 1976.
Long Beach officials say the capsule, which was buried outside the old city hall as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration on July 4, 1976, contains more than 80 historically significant items showing what life was like in the city five decades ago. It will be opened outside City Hall (411 W. Ocean Blvd.) at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Long Beach's population was about 350,000 at the time, according to Los Angeles Times articles from that period. Today, census figures list it as slightly more than 450,000.
On the day the capsule went into the ground, buyers at Long Beach Datsun could get a brand new F-10 minicar for $269 down and $99.28 a month, or a new King Cab pickup for $3,695, according to an ad in the Los Angeles Times.
Twelve days later, tickets to see Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn play the Long Beach Arena cost between $4.50 and $6.50, according to a Times ad. Movies playing in Long Beach theaters at the time included "The Bad News Bears," "Chino" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
The capsule is a "window into Long Beach's past," Julie Bartolotto, executive director of the Long Beach Historical Society, said in a statement last week.
The Historical Society will co-host the time capsule opening alongside the city.
Bartolotto said the capsule contains hand-written "optimistic letters" by 5th and 6th graders, yearbooks from Lakewood, Millikan, Poly and Wilson high schools, newspapers, and full-sized flags.
Several residents who wrote the letters included in the time capsule will read them aloud at the opening, city officials said.
According to Bartolotto, the real fun in time capsules is often found in the mundane items included inside.
“Its most striking contents may be the once ordinary matchbooks and ashtrays branded for the City of Long Beach and a telephone directory that now read as artifacts of a very different time," Bartolotto said in the statement. The capsule also contains images of the big July 4, 1976 celebration that marked the dedication of the old civic center, according to Bartolotto.
That civic center, which was next door to the current city hall, was demolished in 2022.
Mayor Rex Richardson called the time capsule a “promise between generations” in a statement.
“Fifty years ago, Long Beach residents captured their hopes for the future,” Richardson said. “Today we’re honored to open that window into our past as we celebrate how far our city has come and recommit ourselves to building an even brighter future for the generations who follow.”
The time capsule opening is part of the city's Seeds of Resilience initiative, which city officials say helps residents strengthen their understanding of the stories that have shaped Long Beach as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary.
We need your support.
Subcribe to the Watchdog today.
The Long Beach Watchdog is owned by journalists, and paid for by readers like you. If independent, local reporting like the story you just read is important to you, support our work by becoming a subscriber.
