Courthouse Classics

On July 4, 1900, an elaborate celebration attracted 15,000 people for the laying of the cornerstone for Orange County’s original courthouse. A historic time vault, installed on the south side of the building, was filled with relics from Mission San Juan Capistrano, a blank marriage license, the autograph of the county’s oldest living resident (age 103), newspapers and statistical information.

When Santa Ana went “dry” in 1903, any confiscated “hootch” was stored in the courthouse basement until trial. Once the judgment was delivered, the liquor was poured down the manhole at the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn.

Sallie Grider, 66, and Edward Jackson, 65--the first couple married in the courthouse--started a newlywed tradition when they climbed the courthouse’s 135-feet tower for a kiss.

When women won the right to vote in 1919, a cloakroom off the jury’s chambers was converted to a women’s restroom for female jurors.

For 67 years, the old courthouse steps were the backdrop for the traditional “new citizens day” photograph--10,639 foreign-born people were naturalized there.

Long before Santa Ana became an official bird sanctuary in 1964, local marksmen came to the courthouse annually for a bird shoot--held to rid the building of an overpopulation of pigeons.

Justice of the Peace John (Belshazzar) Cox, a former barber from Arkansas who served in the post in 1910-24, had a knack for generating publicity. He never owned a car and jailed anyone ticketed for driving more than 50 m.p.h. In 1921, he jailed silent film star Bebe Daniels for 10 days for driving 56 m.p.h., an event that made the Saturday Evening Post. That incident also led to the movie, “Too Much Speed,” shot on location at the courthouse.

In 1915, the first of many movies was filmed at the “typically Midwestern” courthouse. It was “The Flying Torpedo,” supervised by D.W. Griffith. In August, 1979, actor Henry Fonda and Faye Wray came to town to film the TV drama “Gideon’s Trumpet.” Other movies filmed included “Francis,” the original biographical film about actress Francis Farmer.

In 1933, a severe aftershock four days after the Long Beach earthquake tumbled a dormer wall and damaged the tower and roof. The courthouse cupola--where countless couples had bussed their first wedding kiss--was dismantled as a safety precaution.

In 1947, the famous trial of George (Bud) Gollum and Beulah Louise Overell--a young couple accused of dynamiting Overell’s parents to death on their moored yacht in Newport Harbor--led to their acquittal but prompted new regulations for sale and purchase of explosives.