ARTHUR C. VERGE
El Camino College
History Department
16007 Crenshaw Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90506
(310) 660-3759
averge@earthlink.com

Brief Biography:
Arthur Verge is a 25 year veteran of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Service (Ocean). He has collected, with Chief Bud Bohn, over 1,500 lifeguard and beach-related photographs. He is knowledgeable on the development of early beach culture and surfing here in California.

Public Lecture Topics:

  • Presentation of paper "From the Sands of Hawaii to the Shores of Los Angeles - George Freeth and the Creation of the California Surf Image." Pacific Coast Branch Meeting of the American Historical Association, California State University, August 1994
  • Numerous lecture appearances including keynote speaker at Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage (1996) gathering of the Historical Society of Southern California.

Public Projects:

  • Helped put together two traveling exhibits of Los Angeles County lifeguard photos and text at Waterman Gallery and University of California, Riverside.
  • Appearances and commentary in "World War II: Breadlines to Boomtimes." Volumes 1-3, Monterey Home Video, Monterey Film Company, 1994
  • Appearances and commentary in "Women: First and Foremost." Volumes 1-4, Monterey Home Video, Monterey Film Company, 1996
  • Co-director of the Los Angeles History Project. The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. May 1993-June 1994

Publications:

  • Paradise Transformed: Los Angeles During the Second World War (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1993)
  • Short Biographies of George Freeth and Rev. Clayton Russell for the Bibliography of American History, Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 1999.
  • "The Impact of the Second World War on Los Angeles," Pacific Historical Review, University of California Press, vol. LXIII (August, 1994), pp. 289-314.
  • "The Scandinavian-Americans," in American Ethnics and Minorities: Readings in Ethnic History, Wrobel and Eula, eds., (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing), 1990
  • "Daily Life in Wartime California," in Every Person's War: California During the Second World War. Roger Lotchin, ed. To be published by University of Illinois Press in 1999.

Arthur Verge has been listed in the Directory of California Thinkers since 09-Feb-1999.