One of my great sins is enthusiasm, so sometimes it’s hard to measure my words.
Having said that, let me assure you, this is one of the darn most interesting trail rides through SCV history we’ve ever taken.
There are seemingly uncountable amazing vistas ahead. We’ve got Newhall Land’s famed attack by alleged naked animal rights activists. We’ll visit with agent James Bond.
We’ve got bootleggers, movie stars, Bigfoot, SINA (the Society against Nudity in Animals) and a brief tale of how William Randolph Hearst may have murdered Bill Hart’s close friend.
And, to top it off, Friday was our birthday. The Mighty Signal is turning a spry 106 years young.
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
HISTORY? DUH. IT’S SOMETIMES CIRCULAR — On Feb. 2, 1848, America officially ended its war with Mexico. And, not so funny, we’re battling our neighbor to the south 177 years later. Anywho. The Treaty of Hidalgo was signed on this date in 1848, making California a U.S. possession. All the citizens therein became American citizens. Here’s a little trivia for you. A pinch over a century later, lawyers for William S. Hart Jr. would use the Treaty of Hidalgo as a last-ditch effort to try and wrest his father’s estate from Los Angeles County. The famed silent screen star Bill Hart Sr. died in 1946 and left most of his wealth to the county. For almost a decade, Hart Jr. and his mother, Winnifred Westover, tried in vain to get control of the land and millions in artwork and antiques. Their last appeal was to go before a federal judge, pleading that the Treaty of Hidalgo was invalid, therefore, all the subsequent property deeds were null and void. The judge threw out the case with a minimum of smirks.
NEW OWNER AT THE HORSESHOE RANCH — Speaking of William S. Hart, on Feb. 5, 1921, ol’ Two-Gun Bill bought the Horseshoe Ranch from Babcock Smith. You newcomers know it today as Hart Park.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!! — The very first Signal was published 106 years ago on Feb. 7, 1919, out of a room in the Hotel Swall. (Technically, we were founded on Jan. 1, 1919.) The wooden structure a few years later would burn to the ground with the world corporate headquarters of The Signal in it.
Design-wise, the first Signal was a tiny creature, the size of a shoebox lid, just six pages long. (It would later grow to regular “broadsheet” size with the next issue, then shrink for several years back to sub-tabloid size.) There were no photos, although even back then, we were interested in movie stars.
The front-page lead story was about Douglas Fairbanks Sr., who was in town, shooting a movie. Fairbanks had transformed the main drag of Newhall into a beautiful country village. But it was a tiny story about local cases of influenza that caught the interest of Signal readers. Around that time, 500,00 Americans had just died from it.
Ed Brown was a man interested in the world. Well. Most of it. From one of his editorials:
“Where the hell is China, anyway?”
He combined politics and local news while offering a healthy plate of agricultural news. We were, back then, a valley of just 500 souls and everything depended on crops and livestock.
Was Ed the victim of nerve gas? There are no records as to the cause of his death, but, after returning from battle in Europe in World War I and less than a year after creating The Newhall Signal (as it was called then), Brown died.
FEBRUARY 8, 1925
THE LITTLE VILLAGE THAT COULDN’T GET ANY RESPECT —Six months earlier, in fall of 1924, The Motor Stage Co. would run their buses straight through downtown Newhall, but, they wouldn’t stop. The irritating thing was that if you were a Newhallian-Saugusite, they’d drop you off in San Fernando and you had to find a way to get back to the Santa Clarita Valley. Local residents complained to the State Railroad Commission, the body then that regulated all things involving transportation. It seemed rather strange to everyone involved that the SRC ruled to not let buses stop in Newhall in the first place, seeing they roared right through.
MOONSHINE HUNTER — Agent James Bond brought in some more bad guys. Bond, James Bond, was not the same dapper British spy, 007. He worked for L.A. County’s “Dry Squad” and was stationed here in Newhall. His job was primarily to fight moonshiners. There were plenty of them up here, too. This week, 100 years back, Bond captured L.C. Ogier of Hungry Hollow (I have NO idea where Hungry Hollow was!) hard at work, making shine. Ogier was dragged before Judge Miller and spent six months in the pokey. Dr. G.O. Nicholson of Castaic was also arrested, in part for making illegal whiskey and, in part, for posing as a doctor. There’s a straight line there about my pal, Greg Jenkins, but I’m going to be man enough to walk away from it.
MORE MOONSHINE — Speaking of the days of Prohibition in this valley, I remember good pal George Starbuck, Walt Fisher’s half-brother, telling me about being a boy and sneaking into a grumpy neighbor’s barn. The neighbor had good reason to be grumpy. The guy had a huge secret basement where he had made illegal rot gut whiskey.
MOONSHINE III — Speaking of things illegal, poor old L.C. Ogier was having himself quite the week. Right before being arrested for moonshining, L.C. was dragged before Judge Miller for being caught with illegal venison and hunting out of season. Olgier was given a 180-day suspended sentence. Betcha the judge had a heavy sigh for L.C. when he appeared in front of the bench a couple of days later …
THE LONG-FORGOTTEN WALNUT AVENUE MOVIE STUDIO — The Andersons were pretty busy 100 years back. Mrs. “Cowboy” Bob Anderson just opened the Spanish Cafe the week before and her famed impresario movie man and Western star was building a new studio in the middle of town. It was called “Western Street” and was being built on Walnut Avenue. It consisted of two saloons (“… for picture purposes only,” a Signal disclaimer noted), two general buildings, a grocery store, blacksmith shop, bank, dry goods emporium and restaurant. Hmmm. Sounds exactly like what the rest of Newhall looked like. Such major new studios as Fox, Goldwyn, Thomas Ince (Bill Hart’s friend, who would later be allegedly murdered by William Randolph Hearst) and Warner Brothers already signed up to do pictures on the sets.
OUR BEAUTIFUL SAUGUS ROAD SIGNS — Residents were beaming with pride. Actor Harry Carey put up new direction signs to his world-famous resort in San Francisquito Canyon. The signs were sort of 1920s Westernish …
FEBRUARY 8, 1935
OR, THE MONKEY BOYS? — After 17 games, Newhall’s little semi-pro baseball team was in fourth place (right behind Fernangeles — how’s that for a name?). We played in a 16-team league, which included a squad from Warner Brothers and one from Tarzana, owned by Tarzan creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Money was tight during the Depression. Profit for our Sunday game, including everything from the snack bar, totaled $1.20. After expenses, the baseball team had a whopping $9.13 in the bank. The name of E.G. Burroughs’ squad? The Ape Men …
GIMME YOUR RANCH — A.M. Dunn had one of the prettiest spreads in the valley. He made a fortune in the printing business and bought our local congressman’s ranch and dairy in Castaic. Dunn branched out into the mining business and was running a fairly profitable gold mining business on his land. A few years later, his Garden of Eden existence was plucked away from him by Los Angeles County. They exercised eminent domain and forced him to sell his beautiful farm. They would build a prison and call it the Wayside Honor Rancho, a minimum-security pen. Today, it’s the Pitchess Detention Center.
TOO LATE — L.A. County, crooks that they were, never told Dunn his ranch was sitting on millions of dollars in oil deposits when they declared eminent domain. Dunn sued, but waited 13 years to file. The flustered judge said he would have been due a fortune for the graft, but waited years too late to file his suit.
PUT UP YOUR DUKES — The American Legion wanted to get into the boxing business. But they encountered a stunning left jab. Seems that in order to become officially recognized by the state boxing commission, they had to come up with about $100 in fees and costs — and that’s before paying the fighters. With about 3,000 people in the Santa Clarita area — and that included Acton, Agua Dulce, Gorman and over to Chatsworth — it didn’t take a genius to figure out the money just wasn’t there. The boxing commission did give the Legion the go-ahead to put on one (1) sanctioned amateur fight a year — as long as they donated the proceeds to charity.
FI-FO-FUM-FEE — The L.A. Assessor’s office used to handle motor vehicle registration fees in 1935. Again, due to tight money, they had to extend the deadline for folks wishing to register their cars and trucks. It cost $3 back then, no matter what kind of ride you had.
EARLY TRAFFIC JAMS — Drivers were complaining about the traffic delays throughout the valley from the roads being wiped out by winter storms. Several big steam shovels were at work, shoring up our ancient highways. And that caused delays in the commute. (I don’t think that word was in popular usage back then.)
FEBRUARY 8, 1945
VET PASSES — The local flags flew at half-mast 80 years back. Capt. R. A. Hewitt, head of the Newhall California Highway Patrol office, died suddenly after a cerebral hemorrhage. He was a World War I vet and had headed up the local state police office for two years.
SAYING GOODBYE TO YOUR BEST FRIEND — This little story always tugged at me and paints a picture of a valley long since vanished. Bert Riveria was an aged man living way up one of our deserted canyons. His best friend lived on the ranch next door, which was about a mile away. Ted Atmore and Bert had made a pact that they would fire a rifle shot if they ever needed help. One day, Bert heard the fateful record. Ted felt the first kick of a heart attack and managed to crawl to his rifle to fire a final shot. Bert rushed over to find his friend claimed to another reality.
BRRRR… — The mercury dipped into the 20s on the valley floor and we had a small dusting of snow in the early morning. It melted by the end of the day.
BILL AS KINDLING — Bill Bonita was plain ungrateful. He got stinking drunk, passed out in his cabin and nearly was cremated. Neighbors of the Agajanian hog farm worker rushed into his cabin and dragged him out by the heels, saving his life in the nick of time. His cabin was quickly reduced to ashes. The friends carried Bonita to their home, placed him on a bed and were cleaning him up when he woke. Still drunk, Bonita flailed around and cursed his savers. It took more than a little bit to explain he was, if not homeless, then cabinless.
YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM THE PAPARAZZI — The Hollywood gossip columnists, including Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, were up in Saugus, investigating a local resident. Seems the famous movie star, Preston Foster, and his wife were getting divorced. They had a place in upper Bouquet Canyon. (Neat little place on a hill; it was just up for sale.) Judge Art Miller, who was still a lawyer, was retained by the wife to press the divorce in her name. Mrs. F got their adopted daughter and their small Bouquet Canyon ranch. Preston went to live in the Hollywood Athletic Club.
FEBRUARY 8, 1955
VIGILANCE IN HAPPY VALLEY — An armed vigilante committee took to the streets, looking for the man who broke into a Newhall woman’s house and tried to rape her. As he struggled to pull her clothes off, she grabbed a glass milk bottle and smashed it against his head. Then, she chased him off with the jagged edge of the bottleneck. She was home with her small son at the time. While sheriff’s deputies were scouring the neighborhood, the men of Happy Valley wandered the streets, looking for the tall thin man with the cut head.
A TRAGIC END — The residents of Castaic were shocked and saddened. Mrs. A. Benjamin, teacher and principal of Castaic School, was killed in a head-on collision at the Pico Road crossing. Some of you old-old-old-really-old-cripes-are-you-still here? timers will remember that Pico Canyon is today, Lyons Avenue. Today, there’s an over-ramp. But Pico used to be a suicide crossing over Highway 99 (today, Interstate 5). Motorists had to really gun it to get across the major highway.
FEBRUARY 8, 1965
CLOTHES FOR CATTLE — One of my all-time favorite Signal pranks began on this date. It is the saga of SINA. Former Signal owner, Scott Newhall, helped spawn this evil joke, perpetrated on The Newhall Land & Farming Co. It started in San Francisco, where Scott was still editor of The Chronicle. C. Clifford Proutt (sometimes spelt as “Prout”) approached that paper, identifying himself as president of SINA — Society against Indecency & Nudity in Animals. Proutt had this idea to clothe all the critters in the San Francisco Zoo with diapers.
Scott took the concept and urged Proutt to attack a bit further south. Proutt sent a cable to Newhall Land, noting that because of their vast herds of livestock, they were one of America’s most prolific offenders of owning animals sporting their privates for all the world to see. Furthermore, Proutt demanded that Newhall Land start putting diapers on all their cattle and horses.
Like Othello going to Iago for help, Newhall Land went directly to Scott Newhall (heir of valley founder, Henry Mayo Newhall and NL board member) for help, not knowing Scott was behind the prank.
Eventually, the scam escalated when Scott hired a biplane and painted “SINA” under the wing. The plane “buzzed” the Newhall Land headquarters (then in Castaic) and airlifted “large animal diapers” by dropping them onto the onion fields.
Mr. Proutt? Some of you may know him as the actor — Buck Henry.
FEBRUARY 8, 1975
NAKED CAME THE SASQUATCH — Not only did the Bigfoot fail to materialize — at least with enough evidence to satisfy the skeptics — it failed to show up at the Canyon Theatre Guild. The old theater was rented out to show the famed Patterson film to about 50 locals. The Patterson film IS the only legitimate footage of the Abominable Snowman. But drat, the projector didn’t work and the host of the program, a Sasquatch hunter, had to amuse the audience with speech-making.
KEEP YOUR EYES ON YOUR FRIES — Here’s another one of those epic historical benchmarks that oft goes unnoticed. On this date, the county Regional Planning Commission gave their approval to build the first McDonald’s in the valley — on Chiquella Lane next to Denny’s in Newhall.
OIL BE SEEING YOU — Back in the 19th century, there were stories about lakes of oil bubbling out of the ground in the SCV. Over 100 years of oil production gradually depleted the resource here. We noted that in 1972, there were nearly 3 million barrels pumped out of the ground here. In 1974, we pumped out just a pinch over 2 million barrels.
FEBRUARY 8, 1985
THE UNKINDEST CUT — One of my personal laments is how we’ve all let one of our historic treasures, Beale’s Cut, to just rest in a state of decay and ruin. On this date, The Signal ran a photo essay of how vandals and jerks had defaced the monuments with spray paint. They also used the place as a dumping ground. Forty years later, the place is still a mess. Shameful.
BUSH THIEVES — Two men from Selective Brush were arrested by sheriff’s deputies for cutting trees on Forest Service property. Selective Brush was a small company that provided shrubbery for movie companies. Local sheriff’s deputies and the Forest Service knew that the company had been cutting trees illegally for two years and had warned the pair. The wheels of government turn slowly …
MORE ASSAULT ON TREES — Newhall Land continued to cut down its walnut trees. Hundreds of them were sawed down. Walnuts weren’t bringing in the cash and onions were easier to harvest and turn around. As one observer noted: “Ever enjoyed the shade of an onion?”
KITCHEN KING IS A KITCHEN QUEEN — On this date, Dawn Kitch King was born. The significance? She was delivered on the floor of her family’s kitchen, hence the middle name. Dawn’s dad, who delivered his daughter, was a plumber, hence the plumbing line product pun by the way…
• • •
Surely appreciate all the companionship and sharing of the splendor, comedy and tragedy that makes up our living quilt of the Santa Clarita. Looking forward to our next weekend’s trail ride, and, until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!
Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston hosts an eclectic online store and multimedia & commentary website at johnlovesamerica.com.
