SOUTH OF CALIFORNIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 272, 16 November 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

SOUTH OF CALIFORNIA.

ACROSS THE MEXICAN BORDER AMERICA'S TEMPESTUOUS PLAYGROUND. ALASKA BEATEN AT ITS WOEST. Legalised orgies on an unprecedented scale, which film makers never dared project on the screen, are indulged every week by thousands of United States residents who slip across the Mexican border to evade restrictions. Respectable citizens who formally, at least, recognise the laws of their ..own States, commute to week-ends of excesses in, gaietv which would make s, one; old Wild West border days look like placid civic gatherings, by comparison. P Alsaska in its worst days neverent Levond the conditions which are to found south of the California State line. Houses . of ill-fame, drink and gambling in keeping with the i»di\)du bankroll; are to be found iVf the northern towns of Mexico, where ot the States shake off the shackle of constitutional amendments and frequently all the laws of decency. .They go thai dizzv way in unhampered" and -unlimited search for saloon thirst quenchers and back-room fun. • • , From the famous Agua Caliente, which rivals in gorgeous splendour the wor dfanions Monte Carlo, to the lowest order „f "ambling centre, every grade in societv is covered, every illicit want may be met. In the Jiewly constiucted Agua Caliente, where it costs plenty- to quail tin- iov "in oi - participate at the gamin"- tables, one may have all the atmospheric congeniality., of the old worhl and associations typical of the new. 1 roui famous movie executives and 61tare to rich lowa farmers and • travelling Pennsylvania shopkeepers, the hostcliy draws its patronage, and the big casino its gn in biers Thousands and thoiisa us of dollars change hands every Satinday nb'ht in stakes that vary from a few dollars to 50,000 dollars. Swanky Agua Caliente, sporting 1 ui Juana, dingy old town of sordid Mexicali, it's a matter of knowing your type and taking your choice. Agua at least recognises the laws of Mexico, liberal as thev are. But some of the other places have no laws and go as far as the most vivid imagination or the murkiest mind.

The .tempestuous playground of America is this gambling region which geographically is in reach of those people who are restricted by acts of Congress, but find their Mexican hosts much more lenient. There are. those who participate actively in the continuous orgy > and those who get s a vicarious thrill as onlookers, but they all swell the coffers of the various businesses down there and leave their good American dollars in Mexican coffers. Unrestricted Levity. Every State in the union sends its quota of pleasure fans who make up the long, long line which winds out of southern California every Saturday, and which taxes the services of the United States Customs officers every Sunday night. Expensive motor cars aild family Fords carry , their loads of amusementseekers who find what they seek every week-end. They venture into Mexico looking like respectable citizens who take laws seriously. .They _ leave on Sunday night, some still respectable, but in the zig-zag line-up are hundreds of drunken women and dissipated men. The Customs office at a Sabbath twilight presents one of the most digusting sights imaginable. Crossing the borders seems to loosen up a lot°of inhibitions, and some nice people would never recognise their respected neighbours after twenty-four hours, of unrestricted levity. The old adage that the road to Hades is often a rose-strewn pathway , fits the journey to the part of Mexico which caters to the thrill-hunters. From Los Angeles straight' south the route goes through some of the most beautiful centres of that attractive State. Long Beach, El C'apistrano and other resorts stretch our beautifully white and luxuriously inviting along a wonderful beach front. Then about dusk the traveller get!? into more atmospheric territory. For miles this side of the border are colourless little settlements and blocks of tourists' cabins which Hollywoodites have tersely named "whoopee houses." Every hour, the huge gates which legally separate the United States from Mexico are opened and those who have satisfied the Customs officers on this side pass through to answer the questions of the Mexican officials. That business over, the trip leads through drab clusters of shabby huts, ehilicou came kitchens and low-down beer emporiums where Mexicans, many halfcaste, sell their alcoholic wares from the sidewalk. Tinny mechanical instruments add to the din, and farther on there are the roA£B-of.-bare, -looking, dull-.

grey houses before which squat Mexican ! ladies of the evening with an eye to business. Agua Caliente's-Inviting Gates. It is quite dark when one reaches Old Town, and there is where the colour of cheap fiption begins x to assert itself. Gambling machines that eat up dimes and quarters fastened in the huge barrooms, which never close, and into which pour the unrefined thirsty. Those with sensibilities, made possible by fat pocketbooks, proceed to Agua Caliente, where the eye ia thrilled with what it sees, the stomach is satisfied with marvellous food, and the gambling spirit has plenty of opportunity to play itself broke. Imposing gates at Agua open invitingly to those who have much lucre, and a palm-shaded driveway is the approach to one of the most attractive hotels in America. It is a sophisticated stopping place, a group of elaborate buildings, the centre of which are the hotel and casino, skirted by dozens of comfortable cottages. In the Spanish manner, the executives of Agua have provided a fitting background for the pleasure bent. Suites artfully furnished and decorated lead out to shaded patios and into a huge garden centre where semi-tropical flowers and screeching birds of gay plumage decorate the landscape. The whole colony is merely a set for the casino, where most of the profits are made. This is a huge building with a centre gambling roam on the first floor and smaller rooms above, where, roulette is played on a big scale. Lining the wall of the main hall is a long bar where all the drinkß which are only memories in Kansas and unfulfilled desires in Tennessee are served at fancy prices and where middle-aged mamas get gay on three old-fashioneds, while their flapper daughters toss off half a dozen whisky sours without batting an eyelid. This is the part of Mexican vacation land that is pleasanfto look upon. It is hard on the purse, but pleasing to the eye and if all of that part of the wild country were like Agua Caliente there would be no kick coming. Tia Juana is just as expensive, but its transactions are limited to the racing season, which attracts thousands and t'-ousands every year and which, like its neighbour, makes pleasure high-priced. Famous people and those who just have money find a "good time in Tia Juana, where the liorsi < are not the only attraction. All day and most of the night, the har, which .is the longest in the world, \is z "t»ady patronage. Visitors there wrko up in the morning with an order

for absinthe cocktails on their lips and sink to slumber with the fumes in their heads. With the Dregs _of the Universe. A news cameraman who wanted to get a panoramic picture told me that at dawn he arranged to get a few shots of the place when the business was heaviest and that when the flashlights went off, all the men who were smilingly gossiping with fair guests either ducked their heads or turned and ran away from the camera range. They did not know where the photograph would be reproduced and they were not taking any chances. That is gaiety with the aid of highpriced liquor and expensive hotel rates. But there is another phase of this "whoopee-migrating" which is ugly. In Mexicali may be found the worst of all the elemental appeals. Every other building in Mexicali is a saloon and the whole place is nothing but a red light town. Here are the dregs of the universe Derelicts drift here when there is no place else to go. For ite type it is the moat colourful place in Mexico. It could be lifted entirely as a huge drop for one of those melodramas which centre around the reclamation of a "merry" magdalen who has gone the gamut of experiences, but if it were ever used on Broadway it would make the wildest show set look like a Sunday school room. Mexicali has no pretentions to respectability. It flaunts its wickedness and it beckons with its badness. It exists on its illicit earnings. All kinds of women from every land on the face of the earth have found their way to this hole. Native Mexicans, some of them 15 years old, mix with creatures from the United States, with Japanese, Chinese. Germans, Italians, French, Russians and negresses, who make Mexicali their stamping ground. How they all got there would make a thousand interesting tales, but there they are, each housed in a little one-room cubicle, plying their trade to-day; no futures and what pasts. Mixed in with the kind of women who belong in places like Mexicali are. little fools \vho once thought they could be movie stars and who migrated from Hollywood, leaving their ambitions behind them, discarding all sense of values and accepting a terrible life rather than go back to -their homes, the disappointing failles they think themselves to be. It is only after they get into the life of the border towns, they realise how much they would give for their own places, in stores, offices and on farms, but when realisation comes it is too late,.