Lu Watters Great Experiment - Presentation by Chris Sterba on 1/31/2021

For decades starting at least in the 1910s, El Cerrito was a wide open town, with gambling halls, nightclubs, prize fighting, prostitution, and even a dog racing track in the 1930s. San Pablo Avenue was ablaze with neon and revelry often continued till dawn. After World War II a reform city council cleaned things up, but a number of nightclubs remained. One of the best and most historically important was Hambone Kelly's, which was owned as a cooperative by the musicians who played there, led by Lu Watters.

At the annual 2021 meeting of the El Cerrito Historical Society, historian Chris Sterba told this tale