In June 1941, Columbia Pictures starlets Betty Brooks and Patti McCarty spent a weekend away on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California, capturing classic pre-WWII Hollywood glamour and leisure. Shot by LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole, this photo essay documented the care-free summer adventures of the two 20-year-olds.
At the time, both McCarty and Brooks were aspiring contract “bit players” who had recently signed with Columbia Pictures and quickly became close friends. LIFE framed the trip as a special “treat” for the young starlets. Patti McCarty had never previously traveled off the California mainland, and Betty Brooks had never stepped foot on a boat before the trip.
Stackpole captured them enjoying classic Catalina pastimes—riding in speedboats, looking through glass-bottom boats, posing on the rocky shore, and playing with local wildlife like a white peacock. This lighthearted excursion captures a final moment of pure, pre-war American leisure. Only six months later, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, civilian tourism to Catalina Island was completely halted as the military transformed the island into a federal training zone.
(Photos by © Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock)
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