1975: A Local Business Bounty, a Smoke-Free County, and the 'Thrilla in Manila'

A look back at Lemon Grove, 36 years ago this week: 

A Bounty on Business:  Authors Cricket Claggert and Vivo Bennett, working on a 15 percent commission basis, vowed to raise the $500 needed to pay the Lemon Grove Chamber of Commerce's bills for the balance of 1975. Residents of Encanto for just two months, they'd already signed up 15 new members at $36 each.  

Lemon Grove had 800 businesses, but the Chamber had only 130 members, making plans for the annual Old Time Days tougher than ever.

On the plus side, the fire that gutted Mayfair Market in early September made its parking lot available for the fall carnival.  

Gigliotti Passes: Services were held Sept. 25 for Dr. Frank Gigliotti, 79, at the Scottish Rite Temple.

The Italian immigrant arrived in America in 1900 and in Lemon Grove in 1948. The 1965 Kiwanis Man of the Year was feted by 1,000 people in Balboa Park. He was on a first-name basis with every president since Wilson and each California governor since Merriam.

Orphaned at 10, he became a hypnotist's assistant, but was abandoned in Montana, where he was adopted by Cheyenne Indians. After a stint as a high-paid jockey, he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree in 1928 at  Monte-Mario College, Rome, and his Doctor of Humanities degree in 1945 at Palmer College, Ohio. He was ordained in 1921 as a pastor of the Italian Presbyterian church. He was pastor of the California State Assembly from 1934 to 1935, and chief consulate of special services in the Office of Strategic Services from 1941 to 1945.

His lengthy list of political, social service, religious, civil rights and philanthropic activities attests to Dr. Gigliotti's standing in the world. Among his proudest achievements was helping to restore constitutional liberty to the Italian constitution and his 14-year opposition to the tyranny of Mussolini.

No Butts About It:  A countywide cigarette ban started Sept. 25.  Lit cigars, pipes and cigarettes were taboo in all county facilities, public restrooms, museums, public transportation, elevators, public health care agencies, movie theaters, performing arts facilities (unless open to the sky), and any indoor customer service lines in retails stores and supermarkets.

Puffing away was still OK in restaurants, bars and on airplanes, and —curiously enough—in medical waiting rooms provided the doctor said yes (Remember the ad, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”?)

Fines for violators ranged from $10 to $100 and businesses could refuse service to recalcitrant tobacco addicts.

Heavyweight TV System: The Eidophor Television Projection system was used for the first time in San Diego when the Sports Arena carried the Mohammed Ali-Joe Frazier fight on Sept. 30 via closed circuit satellite from the Philippines.

Fans paid $17.25 and $20.25 for visual “brilliance” and “definition” as opposed to the “generally fuzzy and washed out teevee showings” of yore in the arena.

Phil Quinn, arena general manager, said, “We were disappointed by the quality of closed television in San Diego. We found Eidophor would bring a new dimension to Arena presentations.”

For the uninitiated, Eidophor (a Greek compound meaning “image bearer”) was developed in 1939 by Swiss engineer Dr. Fritz Fischer whose theater-size images for television transformed the viewing experience.

In 1975 you could see Ali pummel Frazier to a pulp in the famed “Thrilla in Manila” in crystal-clear images.  The thrill of it all lingers on in boxing folklore.

Compiled by Helen Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, from newspapers archived at the H. Lee House Cultural Center.