Jack Dempsey's Upscale Prohibition-Era Casino Resort in Ensenada, Baja California
Rare Elaborate Prospectus Printed by Young & McCallister
With a Color Pictorial Panorama of Ensenada and a Map
Very rare elaborately produced limited edition prospectus for the Club Internationale in Ensenada, Baja California. The book is filled with beautiful illustrations - including a color map and a double-page color pictorial panoramic view of the proposed resort on the bay of Ensenada - and was printed in Los Angeles by the firm of Young & McCallister, renowned for the quality of their printing and color printing innovations.
Club Internationale in Ensenada was an ambitious attempt to create a high-class resort amid the Prohibition-fueled boom along the US-Mexico border. While Tijuana and Mexicali catered to American tourists seeking vice-based entertainment, Ensenada Beach Club, S.A., founded in 1924, set out to offer a more refined alternative in Ensenada, 65 miles south of the bustling border. The developers modeled their plans on the famous resorts of the French Riviera: Deauville, Biarritz, Monaco, and Cannes. With scenic beaches, opportunities for sport fishing and hunting, and the promise of tranquility, Ensenada attracted investors interested in a sophisticated atmosphere, positioning itself as a genteel resort rather than a vice-laden playground. The original development firm Ensenada Beach Club, S.A. dissolved in 1926. A new company took over the project: Club Internationale, S.A. Jack Dempsey, the famed American heavyweight champion, lent his name and fame to the project in 1928, heightening the resort's allure and further distinguishing it from its northern counterparts.
The present book seems to be one part prospectus (targeted at well-heeled investors) and one part luxury look-book. It is filled with artistic photographic images evoking a Spanish-Mexican fantasy dream world located in the very real coastal Mexican village of Ensenda, an erstwhile capital of the Territory of Baja California. According to Bennett, most of the pictures used in the book were taken in 1926 by Ernest M. Pratt.
In addition to announcing the project in the San Diego and Los Angeles press, the Club produced a book in English, Club Internationale of Ensenada (1926), describing the creation of a high-class resort in Ensenada. At a time when the “attractions” in border cities like Tijuana included drinking and gambling, the hotel offered different kinds of relaxation. Activities revolved around the outdoors such as swimming, fishing, boating, and hunting. If a visitor wanted to enjoy card games, roulette, and so on, the hotel had a casino lounge to meet those needs, as well as a small canteen where they could get alcoholic drinks; however, none of these services were intended to be the main attraction of the hotel.
Visitors were enticed by descriptions of the beach and the bay. Photographs in the Club Internationale of Ensenada showed the length of the beach in Ensenada and the tranquility of its waves. The promotional book promised calm waters with no dangerous currents. The bather would have to swim 200 meters off the shore to reach deep water. As such, it was a perfect venue for swimming events. Avid sport fishermen were informed that Ensenada Bay produced great quantities of commercial fish, including tuna, swordfish, yellowfin, barracuda, bonito, cod, sea bass and other species. In the environs of Punta Banda, south of Ensenada, there were abundant fields of lobster that provided local meals. The Club promised to make available fast boats, elegantly decorated and piloted by expert fishermen who in a matter of minutes could transfer the sport fisherman to the best spots. Boat rides, meanwhile, offered views of one of the most beautiful marine gardens on the Pacific Coast, with large plants, huge goldfish and other striking species. - San Diego History Center article on "Jack Dempsey's Hotel in Baja California"
Although the resort, later named Playa Ensenada, opened with great fanfare in 1930, it struggled financially, impacted by both the Great Depression and a challenging location. Despite its high-class image, celebrity visits, and activities like polo, golf, and yacht regattas, it couldn't compete with the convenience and popularity of Tijuana's Agua Caliente complex. Even with its elegant Spanish Colonial architecture, designed by Gordon E. Meyer, and cultural touches like murals by Alfredo Ramos Martínez, the Playa Ensenada’s exclusive appeal fell short of the massive, vice-oriented tourism boom right on the border. Though short-lived, its story exemplifies early cross-border investment in Baja California, where aspirations for an elite getaway clashed with the era’s economic realities and the demand for accessible excitement closer to the border. In later years the Mexican government repurposed the main Playa Ensenada building for use as a cultural center.
Rarity
Very rare in the market. No examples in RBH. OCLC locates 8 examples in libraries.
The Los Angeles firm of Young & McCallister began in 1912 as a partnership between Frederick Arthur Young (1875-1949) and Albert Bruce McCallister (1881-1945). McCallister is generally regarded as Los Angeles' first "fine printer" and one of the founding members of the Zamorano Club in 1928.
Young was born in Wakefield, England. He became a letterpress printer and emigrated to America in 1907, starting a small printing house in Los Angeles. McCallister, born in South Dakota, began doing odd jobs at a newspaper printing company beginning at 10 years old, acquiring considerable expertise as a printer.
In 1916, the firm became one of the earliest printers to use the newly invented Selectasine process, setting up a separate department for graphic screen printing work, which was given the name Vitachrome, becoming one of the first licensees of the Selectasine patent. Vitachrome became an independent company in 1926, and today it is probably the oldest active screen printer in the world. Along with Velvetone and Selectasine, Vitachrome was one of the pioneering firms in graphic screen printing.
Selectasine was a screen printed process invented by John C. Patrick Pilsworth and first utilized by San Francisco based Selectasine Company in 1915. The company applied for a patent for multicolor printing from a single screen in 1915, which was granted in 1918. Selectasine, its San Francisco competitor Velvetone Poster Company and Los Angeles based Vitachrome, founded by Young & McCallister, would become the industry pioneers for this printing process.