 | |
| Use | Municipal |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 12:19 |
| Adopted | July 5, 1967; 58 years ago (1967-07-05) |
| Design | A gold and blue flag divided horizontally by a widening white wave. The inner area of the city seal is located on the top left, outlined by white and "CITY OF LONG BEACHTHE INTERNATIONAL CITY" written in whitesans-serif is located on the bottom right. |
| Designed by | Derived from design by Al Maddy |
The flag ofLong Beach, California was adopted on July 5, 1967.[1] It incorporatesthe city's seal, name, and motto on a gold, white, and blue field.[2] The field is designed to be reminiscent of a beach.[3] Each of the colors also has its own meaning, the gold represents the sand on the beach, the white represents the city's clean air, and the blue represents thePacific Ocean.[4]
In 1948, Corporal Eugenia McGrath of the Long Beach Lancerettes, a semi-military mounted troop of femalelancers, designed the first city flag of Long Beach. A physical form of the flag was made by Captain Arvery Lehman and was flown by the Lancerettes in city parades.[5][6]
By 1956, the city of Long Beach had begun to consider adopting a new flag.[7] The city assigned three city officials, Fielding C. Combs, the director of public relations, Edwin Castagna, the city librarian, and Jerome Donson, the municipal art director, with making the new flag and called for it to have the city seal on it.[8] Later on, per the request of the public relations committee, the city council invited organizations to submit flag designs as well.[7] By 1958, the need to adopt a new city flag had become a more urgent issue.[9] The three officials originally tasked with designing the new flag later came to the conclusion that the seal was too complicated to be on a flag and Combs suggested that citizens should send in proposals.[8] The city held several flag design contests in the early 1960s but none of the proposals were accepted. One person later suggested that the city flag should be based on the flag of thePort of Long Beach, which was designed in 1964 by Al Maddy, the port's Director of Administration. A city flag derived from Maddy's design ended up being adopted by the city council on July 5, 1967.[4][10]
During theVietnam War in late 1967, shortly after the city of Long Beach had adopted its current flag, Lance Corporal Steven Radford, a resident of Long Beach, received a copy of thePress-Telegram from his parents, Ernest and Hazel. After reading in the paper that the city had recently adopted a new flag, he decided that he wanted one to remind him of his hometown and sent a letter to theLong Beach City College's Volksen Club requesting one. The club responded to his request by presenting a flag to his parents to send to him. By the time Radford was sent the flag, he was recovering from an injury aboard theUSS Sanctuary.[11]
On Christmas Day of 1968, the flag of Long Beach was added to theUSS New Jersey, a Long Beach-based battleship which was deployed in theGulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. It was placed on thequarterdeck of the ship alongside theflag of theUnited States and theflag ofNew Jersey.[12]
For the 1969National Scout Jamboree inFarragut State Park,Idaho, the Long Beach branch of theBoy Scouts of America brought a city flag to accompany them.[13][14]
For the 1973Rose Parade, theLong Beach Mounted Police, serving as the parade'scolor guard, carried the city flag as well as the mounted police banner and 26 American flags.[15]
In 2004, theNorth American Vexillological Association held a survey where it ranked 150 American city flags based on the quality of their designs. The flag of Long Beach placed 90th, receiving a score of 3.70 out of 10.[16]
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