Bowling alleys have become a dying breed in Torrance.
The city, which had three bowling alleys still in operation at the beginning of 2020, will be down to one by 2023.
Longtime owner Mickey Cogan, son of one of its original owners, announced earlier this year that Gable House Bowl, opened in 1960, would close early next year, with the land slated to be developed into a 218-unit luxury apartment complex.
Its demise follows that of the Palos Verdes Bowl on Crenshaw Blvd. in 2020. Opened in 1958, it has been demolished and replaced by by a shopping center featuring an Aldi grocery store, a Chick-fil-A fast food restaurant and a Kinecta credit union branch.
That leaves the Bowlero on Western Ave. in Torrance, which opened as the Bowl-O-Drome in 1957, as the last bowling alley standing.
The future for bowling in Torrance looked much rosier in November 1959, when a group of men announced an agreement to open the Gable House Bowling Center. They chose a site on the southwest corner of Hawthorne Blvd. and 226th St.
Artist rendering of the Gable House Bowl. Torrance Press, July 30, 1959, Page 26. (Credit: Torrance Historical Newspaper and Directories Archive database, Torrance Public Library)
The advent of modern automated pinsetting combined with the need for cheap entertainment for postwar suburban families led to the proliferation of more modern bowling centers during the 1950s.
The South Bay caught on to the trend quickly, first with the South Bay Bowling Center in Redondo Beach’s South Bay Center (now the Galleria) in 1956. The Palos Verdes Bowl and the Bowl-O-Drome quickly followed.
The principals behind the Gable House – Jack Cogan, Jack Howard and brothers Bob, Leonard and Jerry Homel – had experience in the field. The Homel brothers owned and operated the Jefferson Bowl in Culver City, and Howard and co-managed the Palos Verdes Bowl. Cogan would later become manager of Gable House.
Their location at 22501 S. Hawthorne Blvd. was ideal, near the southwest corner of Hawthorne and Sepulveda boulevards, and just below the city’s burgeoning retail corridor. The groundbreaking for the 40-lane center took place on July 28, 1959.
Its unique design split the 40 lanes into separate 20-lane wings. The building also included a coffee shop, child care center, a cocktail lounges and a billiard room. Its restaurant, The Rik-Sha Room, was located on a mezzanine level above the alleys, along with a second cocktail lounge.
The Gable House had a soft opening during the spring of 1960. Its formal dedication ceremony took place over a three-day period from July 15-17, 1960.
The festivities, which featured giveaways (bowling balls and shoes, and, oddly, hams and turkeys, among other prizes) and demonstrations and lessons from area bowling pros. The three-day event drew “huge crowds,” according to the Torrance Press.
Gable House would continue to draw large crowds over the years, becoming a social center as well as a sporting one.
Jerry Homel became the Gable House’s first manager, and he tried some innovative touches in its early years. In 1961, he hired professional instructors Jerry Goree and Richard Girod to offer dance lessons to the general public at the bowling alley.
That same year, he also announced the formation of an experimental pro bowling team league with team franchises in different cities, using other pro sports leagues as a model. His brother, Leonard, came up with the idea, going so far as to build an 1,150 seat arena for it next to Jefferson Bowl in Culver City.
The innovative experiment was short-lived, however; the Los Angeles Toros and the rest of the league folded in early 1962 after just a single season.
Professional bowling would become part of Gable House during the 1970s, however. The Professional Bowlers Association tour found a home at the Torrance lanes from 1977-93. The Los Angeles Open PBA tour made an annual visit every year through 1989 except one, and the Gable House hosted the AC Delco tournament there from 1990-93.
More recent events have led to the winding down of Gable House’s legacy. Shortly before midnight on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019, the center was about to begin its Rock-N-Glow bowling event when a melee broke out in the front of the building. Shots rang out, and when it was over, three people had been killed and four injured.
Reginald Wallace, 51, was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and one count of a felon in possession of a firearm in June 2022. (He was on parole at the time of the crime.)
In making his decision to sell the Gable House land for development, Mikey Cogan also cited the damage done to his business by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly reduced patronage there.
In August 2022, the city of Torrance approved the Gable House mixed-use residential project, which will be developed by Intracorp Homes. Though a firm date for the bowling center’s demolition has not been announced, the company looks to break ground in mid-2023 and open the new Gable House complex in mid-2025, according to the Daily Breeze.
Once complete, the building will hold 12,000 square feet of commercial space, a pool, a fitness center, shared work space and several rooftop decks. 17 of its 218 units will be affordable housing.
Sources:
Daily Breeze archives.
Los Angeles Times archives.
Torrance Press Herald archives.