(Jan
6, 1950 article from the "Southland Magazine", a Sunday feature
section of the Long Beach Independent-Press Telegram)
by Eileen Peck
[photo caption:] Andrew Dreger of Long Beach built this grouping
of timepieces. Opposite face of clock gives year, day,date.
Would you like to know exactly what time it is in Seoul, Korea? Andrew Dreger's clock at 836 E. Anaheim St. will give you the answer. Drive or walk over there and look at its Tokyo section. Tokyo and Seoul are in the same time zone.
(Transcribers Note: The author mentioned time zones above. However, at the time this article was written, and as shown in the photo of the clock face in the original article, the minute hands were not in sync... thus the clock was originally set to show SOLAR time rather than TIME ZONE time. Thus, the author of this article was incorrect about the time being the same in Tokyo and Seoul based on the clock face. We believe that after Knott's took possession of the clock, they probably reset the hands to be synchronized to time zones.)
Not only will this unique clock tell you what time it is in Long Beach and Tokyo at any given moment, but will tell the time in New York, Mexico City, Liverpool, Paris, Berlin, Petrograd (Leningrad), Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and Rome. All these times can be read plainly on the front dial from the curb on the south side of Anaheim St.
Then, just in case you have forgotten the day of the week or the date, walk around to the south side of the clock. Here you will find -- in addition to the hour, Long Beach time -- the month of the year, day of the week and date of the month, with the phase of the moon thrown in for good measure. The west dial merely tells the Long Beach Time.
Twelve feet high, its dials each three feet in diameter, this electric clock was built by Andrew Dreger, who always had been interested in clocks and their mechanism, 15 years ago, "just to be doing something."
When the clock was finished, Dreger wondered for a while just where he would put it. He felt he'd like to share it with other Long Beach residents and asked the city's permission to put it in the parking strip. This being impossible, unless he could agree never to move it, he finally decided upon its present position which is as close to the sidewalk as possible and still on his property.
Andrew Dreger is no newcomer to Long Beach. He settled here in 1910 and commenced to build the house at 835 (sic) E. Anaheim St. where he still lives. At that time it was the only house in the neighborhood and across the street from it was a thriving pumpkin patch. Eighty-two years old last fall, Dreger still climbs up a ladder and onto a small roof-like structure over one of the windows of the house to inspect the surprisingly simple works of his versatile clock, and also uses the ladder to keep its three faces washed.
An interest in clocks is something Dreger shares with royalty. Collecting clocks has been a royal hobby since Louis XIV. Buckingham Palace, for instance, is the home of a large and varied collection... (Article continues talking about clocks in general... not transcribed here. Click small image of original article above to view original.)
[photo caption:] Time around the world can be determined by a glance at this clock, shown with Andrew Dreger, its maker.
