It’s Fun, Fun, Fun for Beach Boys Fans

That wasn’t the rumble of an 18-wheeler on the freeway shaking the ground in one Hawthorne neighborhood Friday.

It was the good vibrations coming from 1,500 rock ‘n’ roll fans from as far as Great Britain and Australia who spilled into two streets of a working-class community of tract houses to memorialize the birthplace of the Beach Boys’ surf music.

The childhood home of musicians Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson was bulldozed in the mid-1980s to make way for the Century Freeway.

Ever since, devoted fans have come away confused and frustrated when they tried to find 3701 W. 119th St. -- where Brian Wilson wrote hits like 1962’s “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and his brothers and cousins practiced singing until their romantic salutes to sun and sand were in perfect harmony.

Fans made up for the freeway’s intrusion Friday by inviting Wilson and former band members Al Jardine and David Marks to unveil a 15-foot monument to the Beach Boys at the freeway’s edge.

City officials in landlocked Hawthorne have been working for years to create a fitting monument to the musicians who came to symbolize California beach culture. And the fans who showed up Friday didn’t seem to mind that the marker was a good six miles from the ocean.

The beige brick wall bears a plaque that proclaims the site California historic landmark No. 1041 and includes a sculpture depicting band members carrying a surfboard, reminiscent of their 1963 “Surfer Girl” album cover. Fittingly, the Beach Boys seem to be walking west, toward the sea.

“The house’s front door was straight back in the hill here,” Jardine told the crowd as he gestured past the marker toward a 15-foot embankment beneath the freeway’s eastbound lanes.

It was in the pink, palm-shaded single-story tract home that the Beach Boys recorded their first hit, “Surfin’,” and Brian Wilson wrote such tunes as “In My Room.” The family lived in the home from about 1944 to 1964, when it was sold.

Fans roared their approval Friday when Brian Wilson took the stage and sang “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room.”

“We love you Brian!” screamed Kevin Witts, a 41-year-old pet store executive who drove from Phoenix for the ceremony.

Stu Levinson and his wife, Sue, spent $4,000 to fly from London to watch the unveiling.

“Brian Wilson’s music does fit the soul,” said Levinson, 57, an accountant.

“This music takes us to another world -- to the sun, the sea, the surf,” Sue said. “California means romance to us. The music of the Beatles doesn’t make me cry. Brian’s music does. It brings out all the best feelings you can have.”

Linda Ranger, a 49-year-old music teacher from a village 30 miles outside London, said 50 British Beach Boys fans traveled to Hawthorne for the ceremony.

Australian meteorologist Brett Dutschke, 39, came from Sydney. “Me and my brothers live close to the beach and surf. But there’s no surf music in Australia, other than Brian’s.”

The Wilson brothers’ parents, Murry and Audree Wilson, died in 1973 and 1997, respectively.

Two of the bandmate brothers are also gone. Dennis drowned in 1983 and Carl died of cancer in 1998.

But the family was remembered fondly by many who said they were friends of the Beach Boys long before becoming fans.

Mary Lou Van Antwerp, 63, sat on a beach chair at the intersection of 119th Street and Kornblum Avenue, watching the ceremony.

“Brian used to walk me to kindergarten. We went to York Street School, Hawthorne Intermediate School and Hawthorne High together,” said Antwerp, who lives in West Covina but lived half a block away from the Wilsons in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Behind her stood fan James Ilario, 38, of Hollywood. A film company manager, he ducked out of work to attend the ceremony. He was carrying a bagful of Beach Boys albums.

“I have everything they ever put out. Oh, man. Brian Wilson is one of the greatest songwriters ever. He’s America’s answer to Lennon and McCartney, all by himself. I had to be here,” Ilario said.

Beach Boys music was woven throughout the two-hour ceremony, during which friends of the band members paid tribute. A medley of surfer music was sung by the Hawthorne High choir and the high school band played “I Get Around.”

“It’s been gone a number of years. But the music that came out of this home will live on,” said Fred Vail, the Beach Boys’ longtime promoter.

The site’s landmark status was secured after fan Harry Jarnagan, 51, of Tracy, Calif., visited Hawthorne looking for the old Wilson home while in L.A. on a business trip two years ago.

When he discovered the freeway had taken its place, he mounted a campaign that eventually involved the city and fans from across the country.

And a new generation of devotees may have sprung from Friday’s ceremony, which was coordinated by Beach Boys fan Paula Bondi-Springer.

Debbe Moore, who lives directly across the street from the monument, said she’s more into hip-hop than surf music.

“But I guess I’m going to be a fan,” she said. “I don’t have a choice now, with this right out my front door. I’m going to wake up every morning with the Beach Boys.”