Just got around to reading the article that appeared in the L.A. Times dated Wed. March 10. I thought I lost it, but it resurfaced. Malcolm, saw the reference to Legendary Surfers. Good article talking about the family run business and the “24 1/4-page catalog, stapled together with three kinds of paper and a layout that suggests home publishing a generation before there was such a thing as home publishing, with the inclusion of a first person narrative history of the company as remembered by Vivian Birdwell.”
Would love to see some spreads from that catalog. Anybody got one they can scan and upload?
Let me check - I’ve been a Birdwell dealer for 20+ years, you never know what’s on that back shelf in the stockroom.
Gawd, they used to have a lot of different varieties of Birdwells - anybody else remember the jackets?
doc…
THE Jackets! in the 60’s every surfteam up and down the coast had their birdwell team jackets —dam! sure wish i still had mine! those things are probably worth a bundle now!
i think some chick ended up with mine…
they made the best trunks for lifeguarding —much better than the issue trunks that caused deadly rashes when wet
You know, that’s something we came up with, the #307 National pattern lifeguard trunks they make - started as a custom order when we first got the contract to supply all the US National Park lifeguards. They’re great, and they do hold up forever, without those rather revolting rashes.
The jackets, those and the Katin jackets… and the 'live in ‘em’ corduroy walking shorts. Still have mine, though the damn things have shrunk…yeah, right.
http://www.birdwellbeachbritches.com/index.htm - with, I think, scans from the old, old catalog Mike mentioned. I’d bet they’d make a jacket, kinda doubt they threw out the patterns.
best
doc…
As recent as about five years ago we were wearing the Birdwell Beach Britches on my beach patrol in NJ. Those things held up forever, I still have two pairs, though they’re a little short by today’s standards…
After just getting some info from my pal Checky D, it seems that Birdwell’s still have the brochure available, lists a ton of stuff that’s not shown on their website - which figures, they’d never throw out a pattern - including jeans-type pants, the well-loved jackets and so forth. Okay, so I’m not quite bright enough to connect the dots.
A message to ebirdwell@aol.com will get you the brochure if you ask nice. As some of you guys are a helluva sight closer to Santa Ana, CA than I am, you can prolly get it faster and return the favor to Evelyn by scanning it, as her scanner is kaput.
hope that’s of use
doc…
