Bouts at the Beach
The 20s had established Sea Girt as a community. By 1930 there were 386 residents, more than triple the 1920 census. There were still more guests in hotels, rooming houses, and summer homes, The population of residents would double in the 1930s. A number of people could no longer afford two homes and some moved to their summer place. Lot sales and home building continued at a much slower pace. Many lots sat idle and went delinquent on taxes.
After fires destroyed the building In 1918 and in 1919, John Biggett rebuilt the Sea Girt Inn for the last time. Each time the capacity of the building opposite Beacon Blvd on the West side of Rt 71 in Wall Township was made larger. When it re-opened in 1920 the war had ended and with it the steady stream of soldiers coming to the Sea Girt. The larger blow was that Prohibition also stopped liquor sales.
Banning of alcohol only drove liquor sales underground. Biggett was arrested in 1924 and sentenced to 90 days in jail for selling liquor at his Wreck Pond Inn. He died shortly after his release, and his widow Francis leased it to various operators. They tried many different entertainments.
The building hosted “Shore dinners” and short plays, “Broadway Brevities with the Al Moore Orchestra”. For a time, dance marathons were popular. After each 3 hour session, they placed cots on dance floor for the surviving dancers to rest while Vaudeville acts did comedy and singing.
The Sea Girt Inn’s seating was expanded for “A.A. Club Deluxe Boxing” in 1930. They advertised they could accommodate 4,000. Sea Girt’s residents did not like the noise and traffic, but the location in Wall Township left them powerless. Newark veteran Promoter Jimmy Brienza was trained as a lawyer and brought an unusually polite and businesslike manner to the tough business.
Boxing was in its heyday in the early 30s, writer Jack Newfield noted, ”Every immigrant neighborhood had its champion, and boxing was a flag of racial or ethnic pride. Rivalries were built on ethnic tension, and you could get ten thousand people for a fight between two neighborhood heroes”. Jimmy packed the house for limited dates, mostly in the offseason with late start times.
Boxing Matches aside, the Great Depression took its toll as vacation spending plummeted. The ending of Prohibition could not save the Inn, and Mrs. Biggett defaulted on her taxes in 1933 and Wall Township took possession and leased out the property.