- Among those who have owned yachts in Newport Harbor are Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, Dick Powell, Shirley Temple, John Wayne and Mae West.
- About mid-way through its first 100 years, the assessed value of Newport Beach was about $21 million - or about three Balboa Island waterfront homes today.
- Volunteer firefighters did get paid for their work in the early days. In 1927, each fire netted the volunteers a whopping $1.50.
- Newport’s first City Hall, located on the Balboa Peninsula east of the Newport Pier, also was its first schoolhouse. The city bought it in December 1912.
- The first vacation house in Newport Beach was built in 1889.
- The first meeting of the city’s Board of Trustees - aka the City Council - was held in the Southern Pacific rail station. Why? The city’s first clerk also was a SoPac agent.
- Marshall Struckenbruck, the city’s first police chief, earned an annual salary of $120 in 1906. Today’s police chief, Bob McDonnel, earns $162,000.
- A major reason why the city incorporated was to allow liquor sales in an otherwise “dry” county. But then Newport officially became a “dry” city from 1916 until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.
- A 1917 version of Cleopatra was the first movie filmed in Newport Beach. The Back Bay served as the Nile.
- Gov. Earl Warren was on hand for the dedication ceremonies for the City Hall in 1949.
- Hoag Hospital officials paid $1,000 per acre for its land - 20 acres for $20,000.
- The first Newport Center building to be occupied was one of its medical towers.
- Lido Isle was first known as Electric Island.
- The tall ship Argus, which is owned and operated by the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, was built in 1905 in Denmark.
- Fred, a buffalo who roamed around the obviously named Buffalo Ranch at Macarthur and Ford Road, remained a icon in the city as just a stuffed head, once owned by John Wayne and enjoying a prominent place in a Newport Center conference room.
- The Orange County Museum of Art, now housed in Newport Center, has roots on the Balboa Peninsula. In October 1961, 13 women gathered as the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Harbor to start a museum at the Pavillion.
- The two reasons the annual Harbor Heritage Run began: to raise money for Newport Harbor High and to celebrate the school’s heritage.
- The wildly popular Taste of Newport, begun in 1988, originally was part of a five-day festival called the Newport Seafest.
- The Daily Pilot has gone under a few different names, among them: Orange County Daily Pilot, the Orange Coast Daily Pilot, the Newport Daily Pilot and the Daily Pilot.
- Surf guitarist Dick Dale’s opening night performance at the Rendezvous Ballroom - complete with no alcohol allowed - was July 1, 1961.
- City Councilwoman Lucille Kuehn pushed for the creation of the Oasis Senior Center in 1974 when she realized that 14% of Newport Beach residents were older than 60.
- The Newport Pier is 1,032 feet long.
- American Legion Post 291 on the peninsula is the only post in the world with a yacht club and a marina.
- The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce began with 16 men, who each plucked down $5 in 1907.
- After its founding, the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club added “Corinthian” to the name to avoid sharing initials with another Newport sailing group - the Balboa Yacht Club.
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