Happy Holidays from the Beachy Cream (Rockette) Girls!

Last week the Beachy Cream Girls debuted their holiday attire, and so far it’s a big hit! I got the inspiration to have them dress up like Radio City Music Hall Rockettes from a story my father, Jack Ryan, inventor of the Barbie Doll told:

When my father was a little boy (back in the 1930’s) his father James Ryan was a prominent builder in New York City, specializing in homes for the rich and famous (Katherine Hepburn and Helen Hayes) as well as lavish store facades and other commercial projects. One of his assignments was at Radio City Music Hall. My father often accompanied his father on these jobs, and while his father was busy working, my father would hide in the orchestra pit and watch the Rockettes rehearsing. From his vantage point far below the stage, the beautiful, high-kicking dancers legs looked a mile long. This was a lot of glamour and excitement for an impressionable young lad, and these images of the long-legged beauties were indelibly inscribed in his imagination. Later he cited it as one of his earliest influences in his development of the Barbie Doll.

-ANN

Inspiration for Beachy Cream (continued...)

My next foray into ice cream was at Howard Johnson’s in Chatham, MA on Cape Cod where we spent our summers. I was 16 years old. It was basically a hot dog stand with stools at a counter and picnic tables outside. My grandmother would come in almost every day and order a chocolate ice cream soda with coffee ice cream and leave me a big tip. I wore a turquoise and white houndstooth checked uniform. I scooped a lot of ice cream that summer and I remember that the chocolate chip was always the hardest to scoop. I recently noticed that the colors I chose for Beachy Cream – the aqua and orange are very close to Howard Johnson’s colors!

Flash forward to 2009. I was living in Malibu and everyday I passed a tiny building for lease on the corner of PCH and Heathercliff Rd on Point Dume. It had a circular driveway that accessed both streets, a nice grassy area for picnic tables – an ideal location that would take advantage of the thousands of beach goers, and local residents – a perfect spot for an ice cream shop I thought. Until, I started talking to the City of Malibu, the Health Department and all the other regulatory bodies. I soon realized that unless I had lots and lots of money that it wouldn’t work.

Plan B: Buy an ice cream cart, make ice cream sandwiches (using my grandmother’s cookie recipe) and try to get some local businesses to sell them. I was so fortunate to have the help of Dolores Rivellino – owner of The Godmother of Malibu Café and Catering – who let me use her kitchen, and to Michael Osterman, owner of Pacific Coast Greens in Malibu who took a chance on me and became my first commercial customer.

Right around that time I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to do this all by myself, so I talked my long time friend (and expert baker) Debbie Kimble into becoming a partner and that allowed us to really take off. A defining moment was when we were featured on Daily Candy – and then the phone started ringing off the hook.

We had always done events, but then I got the idea to have Beachy Cream Girls – pin-up style models who wear vintage swimsuits and serve ice cream to party guests from their “cigarette” trays. This garnered us even more publicity and bookings. My daughter Beth Stockwell is now a partner in Beachy Cream and she handles our marketing, wholesale and Beachy Cream Girls.

In May we opened our first retail location at The Market at Santa Monica Place, and we hope to open more locations and expand our wholesale operations over the coming months.

-ANN

Beachy Cream's inspiration... Wil Wright's

So, after many months of procrastination, I’m starting to blog. Our fabulous graphic designer and knower of all things technical has insisted that we do this – partly because we might have something to say that might interest our readers...

I’m often asked how I got the idea for Beachy Cream, so I’ll riff on that. My first, and fondest, memories of ice cream from my childhood revolve around a very special ice cream parlor, Wil Wright’s, where my mother would take my sister and me on special occasions (like after a school performance) or sometimes just as a treat. Usually it was to the one in Westwood Village located in a beautiful old building.

Marilyn Lewis, former co-owner with her husband Harry of the fabulous no-longer-what-it-used-to-be Hamburger Hamlet chain, wrote about this in A Romantic History in Westwood Village: “Built in 1933, the handsome round red brick building was called "La Ronda de las Estrellas ("the round court of the stars") which provided Westwood village with its early identity. On the south wall of La Ronda (on the Lindbrook drive side) is a hand painted fresco (now faded) of a maid and a man of old Spain, playing his guitar, painted by artist, Margaret Dobson, who flew in from France to do the work, when the building was erected.” “Of course, Wil Wright's ice cream parlor was probably the most well known tenant, with its famous red and white stripes and little angel with wings motto,"It's Heavenly"... and it was ...Wil Wright served the richest ice cream (32% butterfat but who knew...) and do you remember the macaroon cookies in the little cellophane bags?”

The décor at Wil Wright’s was perfect – marble topped tables, wire backed chairs, black and white checked floor – oh, I miss it so much! There were lot’s of interesting flavors of ice cream--Vanilla Bean, Strawberry Water Ice, Fresh Peach, Butter Pecan, Rasberry Sherbet, Orange Sherbet , Peppermint Stick and my favorites – Chocolate Burnt Almond and Coconut. More on Wil Wright's later....
--ANN

Opening May 20th / Santa Monica Place