A LOOK BACK -- Jerry Person

This week we’ll look at a man who in his lifetime accomplished much, from

working for a famous director in Hollywood, to working as a rough and

tumble seaman aboard a freighter, to being president of our Chamber of

Commerce.

While talking to Ann Minnie of the chamber, I was able to piece together

the life story of world adventurer Berrell Ries.

Berrell Roberts Ries was born July 29, 1900, in Merchantville, N.J.

His father was a town merchant, his mother a registered nurse.

Shortly after Ries’ birth the family moved to Philadelphia, where his

mother ran a boarding house.

The family then moved to Elkton, Md., where his mother operated a hotel

for 10 years.

When he was 13, he traveled alone by train to live with his grandmother

in Altadena. The two moved to Highland Park where Berrell graduated from

grammar school. He enrolled at Glendale High School, which he attended

for one year.

He quit school to work in Hollywood as a switchboard operator for the

Lasky Motion Picture Co., which later became Paramount Studios. While

there he befriended some of early stars like Blanche Sweet, William

Farnum and character actor Lucian Littlefield.

Ries went to work for Cecil B. DeMille but was fired for mixing up De

Mille’s calls. Ries next went to work behind the cameras as an assistant

cameraman.

Still in his teens, Ries and a friend thought it would be great fun to

see the world by working on a freighter.

While in Jamaica, Ries took the place of a sick seaman and guided a

freighter through the Panama Canal.

When World War I broke out Ries was living in Los Angeles, working in the

accounting department for the Santa Fe Railroad. He attended night school

at Polytechnic High to get his high school diploma.

He also took courses in automobile engineering at Frank Wiggins Trade

School. He later worked in the parts department at Don Lee Cadillac in

Los Angeles and then for Fageal Truck Co.

Ries married Marian Tower in 1925 at the Church of the Angels in Los

Angeles.

In 1931 they moved to Huntington Beach where Berrell opened an auto parts

store on 5th Street.

By 1933 he moved the store to 412 Walnut Ave., but for nearly 30 years he

owned the Huntington Beach Auto Supply at 210 Main St.

Minnie remembers Berrell shopping at her father’s market when she was

growing up.

Berrell and Marian had two children, Allen and Barbara. They lived at 925

10th St.

In 1953 Ries was elected president of the Huntington Beach Chamber of

Commerce.

He was a past master of the Masonic Lodge. He loved to hunt and fish in

later years, and was active in basketball, track and tennis.

Jerry Person is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident.

If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182,

Huntington Beach, CA 92615.