This fine Signal Saturday morn, amen boy howdy, do we have a swell trek ahead.
We’ll investigate an amazing tale of being shanghaied and a wild hunt for Hell’s Angels hiding in the chaparral. (For you new Time Ranger saddlepals unfamiliar with the Santa Clarita, “chaparral” is that occasional shrubbery growing in the last ¾ acre of wilderness here.) There’s one of the most interesting murders in all of our history involving a stunning mother of five. And don’t forget about the usual passel of dumbbell criminals, hapless bureaucrats, pre-Brokeback Mountain sheepherders and even a peek at one of California’s most nefarious arsonists, Louis the Glowworm.
Sit tall in the saddle and don’t forget to breathe. The horses sense when you’re holding your breath and it makes them jumpy. You don’t want to be jumpy when you’re moseying through something as nebulous as a time warp …
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN
AN ADVENTUROUS LIFE’S PLAY FOR YOUNG PLAYMAN — Back on this date in 1903, a young Newhall man, Al Playman, had the adventure of his life. While visiting family in Seattle, Playman and a friend were slipped sleeping potions in their drinks, then shanghaied aboard a merchant ship bound for South America. Playman figured there wasn’t much he could do and made the best of four-year-long voyage, which took him to China, Japan, South Africa and the Hawaiian Islands. While visiting London, Playman jumped ship and became a stowaway on a ship bound for Boston, then, hitchhiked all the darn way back to Newhall. If that just isn’t a hoot of an adventure …
SURE BEATS NODDING & SAYING, ‘THE HOUSE DOWN YONDER’ WHEN YOU’RE DROPPING OFF A PACKAGE — In the early 1920s, a new phenomenon was sweeping the country, the Santa Clarita Valley included. It was called, “street addresses.”
BLAME IT ON A LACK OF DECENT 21ST CENTURY COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS — The average life expectancy in the SCV (and the rest of the United States) in the year 1900 was 47. Phew. Good thing I live in 2006. I’d be flirting with long odds on life insurance tables long about now.
HERE’S A LITTLE LIBRARY TRIVIA FOR YOU — On March 1, 1916, the Los Angeles County Library opened its first branch in the SCV. Christine Woodard was the librarian. She dished out ice cream, fizzes and bestsellers at Woodard’s Ice Cream Parlor, site of the first library. Well. She didn’t exactly dish out a lot of bestsellers. They only had a few books and magazines. In the next 10 years, the library would swell to about 500 titles, with about 200 of those being magazines. The Signal’s then-editor, Blanche Brown, would take over as librarian.
FEBRUARY 28, 1926
THEY PICKED THE WRONG GROCERY STORE TO STICK UP — The hapless banditos Louis Garcia and A. Ellaralo tried to hold up C.A. Shellman’s Mountain View Grocery. Ol’ C.A. knocked the revolver out of Mr. Garcia’s paw, then reached for his own shotgun. The desperadoes high-tailed it with both Mr. AND Mrs. Shellman standing in the getaway dust, firing away at their fleeing vehicle. The robbers fired back. No one was hit in the exchange and the pair was arrested within an hour. The Signal reported Mr. Garcia and Mr. Ellaralo had “… a quantity of Marowana” in a tin box and “were under the effect of it when arrested.”
2:30 A.M. & TIME TO WAKE UP!! — Another one of those big SoCal motorcycle races roared through the SCV. This time, our leg was run in the middle of the night and locals were awakened by hundreds of roaring big bikes.
CHEAP BUT FAST — “Cowboy” Bob Anderson, famed for starting the first rodeo in the SCV and former manager of the Baker Ranch (later, the Saugus Speedway) went into the horse-racing business. He came back from “Tia Juana” with a string of eight thoroughbreds. Anderson confessed that he got a good deal on the string of sprinters …
FEBRUARY 28, 1936
OUR OLD MAIN STREET BLACKSMITH SHOP — For years, it was one of the pillars of business for the entire SCV. T.M. Frew II finished plans to modernize his old blacksmithy into a steel-framed machine shop. The building took up a good portion of today’s Main Street’s west side, right near Market Street. The old blacksmith’s shop was one of the oldest commercial buildings in the valley. It would be razed in 1936. The Frews rebuilt and the darn place was still bending horseshoes when I was a kid in the 1960s. My dear pal, Tom Frew IV, was the last of the Tom Frew blacksmiths and was just an absolute character and three-quarters. The good soul and dear rascal passed in 2024. He was 94.
FEBRUARY 28, 1946
THE MURDER OF STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL MARY LOGAN — Locals were wondering just what was happening to their peaceful enclave. We had just finished all the drama of the “White Slaver” big prostitution ring trial. Next came the murder of the stunningly beautiful Mary Logan. The 26-year-old mother of five had left her husband to move in with a younger man. That was just a no-no. The couple were visiting the man’s sister when the sister, Amelia Zemik excused herself from the dinner table, went upstairs, came back with a shotgun, and shot the former French Village waitress dead center in the chest at point blank range, killing her instantly in front of the assembled and horrified families. The 37-year-old Mrs. Zemik said she didn’t care for her younger brother carrying on with a married woman with five kids. According to the court reports later, when police came to the scene, Mrs. Zemik was sitting at the table near the corpse, calmly finishing her dinner. She told the first cop in: “I just didn’t particularly care for her attitude anymore.”
FROM THE D-SQUARED SHOW BIZ LIST — The headline in The Mighty Signal was: “2 Dead, 15 Hurt is Week’s Harvest of Highway Horror.” One of the victims was “noted movie character actor, Sigsby Maine Geary” of Bouquet Canyon. Looked. Couldn’t find a single movie Sigsby was in.
FEBRUARY 28, 1956
WHEN YOU’RE THE LAST TO KNOW — Locals — including The Mighty Signal — found out the California Highway Patrol would be moving their headquarters out of Newhall over to The Old Road via an ad in the classified section of this newspaper. It was part of a statewide move by the CHP to move their offices out of communities and closer to the main highways. For years, the CHP office used to be on San Fernando Road, just about next door to present-day Green Thumb nursery. Like most things today, the lot is a condo …
LONG ABOUT NOW — Sgt. A.L. Long of Los Angeles rushed up to Val Verde to help investigate the torching of big Posey Reeves cafe in Val Verde. Long was the investigator who nabbed “Louis the Glow Worm,” California’s worst and most celebrated arsonist.
MAYOR SAM — Before he made the big time as mayor of Los Angeles, Sam Yorty was a Democratic congressman. On this date, he was the guest speaker in a campaign swing for U.S. senator. Yorty appeared at little Sulphur Springs Elementary.
FEBRUARY 28, 1966
BIKER IN THE BUSH — You never know what you’ll find under a clump of shrubbery. In this case, it was a Hell’s Angel. CHP officer George Gilbert chased a pair of suspected auto thieves who were the subject of a statewide manhunt. The Sacramento-chaptered motorcycle outlaws led local CHiPs on a high-speed chase before crashing in Castaic. The bikers fled into the rugged brush, and, about an hour later, Gilbert found one of the bikers, Chuck the Duck, sporting a head wound, crouched in the unforgiving chapparal. Chuck’s Christian name was Charles Lysaught. His pal, Wyman Dale McNeal, was captured by Officer Gilbert a few minutes later without incident.
BAH, BUT NO HUMBUG — Some of you old-timers will remember the little traffic jams caused by sheep milling across our major roads. There used to be a shepherd, Domingo Rivera, of Spain, who tended his flocks here. He spoke little English and would go days without speaking to anyone. He had a baby face but was actually 36 back then. Interestingly, not that far back — during the 1930s, actually — local shepherds like Domingo used to drive their flocks from as far away as San Diego all the way to market in San Francisco. They’d pass through the SCV en route.
THEY WEREN’T LYON — On this date, an obscure county commission recommended that 10th Street be removed from the maps. The few blocks between San Fernando Road and Newhall Avenue had been 10th Street for eons. In 1966, it was changed to Lyons Avenue, which had just been changed about 10 years earlier from Pico Canyon Road.
TUMBLEWEED RECREATION AREA — Same week, the county recommended that Santa Clarita Park be built atop a tumbleweed patch. The Saugus rec center would cost just $98,000 to build.
FEBRUARY 28, 1976
PUTZES OF THE CAMPGROUNDS — It’s amazing how often this happens at campgrounds. I’ve experienced it myself. On this date, two men and a woman were arrested for wandering around a Lake Elizabeth campground, armed with knives, pistols and a sawed-off shotgun, threatening campers.
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES. THIEVERY DON’T. — On this date, local sheriff’s detectives broke up a CB radio theft ring. A new CB went for about $100. That was pretty good money back then. Can some of you old-timers remember when, “Hey there good-buddy” citizen band radios and things truck driver-ish were all the rage?
THE EARLY SEEDS OF ANTIFA HERE IN THE SCV — The FBI was in town, investigating whether a recently arrested local with a string of aliases was a member of the terrorist/bank robbing group, the Symbionese Liberation Army. You’ll recall that there was a Patty Hearst spotting here in Placerita Canyon. She was the heiress kidnapped by the SLA and taken along during a big crime spree.
FEBRUARY 28, 1986
STEALING A SMALL ARMORY — You’d expect such loot to come from a tony mansion. But burglars struck it lucky when they broke into a small condo in Newhall. The bad guys made off with $8,000 in handguns and $5,000 in cash.
TURNING WILLIAM S. HART’S HOME INTO A PARKING LOT — Our good pal, Two Gun Bill, must have been rolling over in his grave. On this date, his home, which he donated to the county to become a park, was in danger of being razed to make room for a parking lot. Hart’s L.A. spread was a little smaller — less than 2 acres. It was also there, in the living room, where he wed the teen actress, Winifred Westover. The house had been leased by the county to a variety of groups, the most recent being the Actors Studio West in 1986. It was the left-coast version of The Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasburg. Rest easy. The house is still there.
LATE INNING DADS — Interesting sidebar. Both Bill Hart Sr. and Bill Hart Jr. started their families late in life. Our silent star hero had his boy when he was nearly 60, and Bill Jr. fathered a daughter when he was 59 and a son when he was 63.
FROM NEWHALL TO McMARTIN — Here’s a little trivia for you. Roger Boren was the judge who presided over the McMartin Preschool trial. Roger had started out on the bench here at Newhall Municipal in the old courthouse on Market Street. You folks remember? The Old Courthouse Building? Near the Hart Mansion, the historic building that was just razed with permission from the City Council to put up stores and a condo?
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Looks like except for a little stardust on the shoulders and thoughtful smiles, we’ve come back to the here-&-now pert near the same. As always, sure appreciate the fun and company. I promise that I’ll be back in a week with a brand new Time Ranger adventure and, until then — vayan con Dios, amigos!
Local historian and the world’s most prolific satirist/humorist John Boston has launched his new eclectic bookstore — johnboston-books.com. His hilarious adventure/family/supernatural sequel to the national bestseller, “Naked Came the Sasquatch,” — “Naked Came the Novelist” —is on sale now. Ditto with his two-volume “Monsters” series about the supernatural in the SCV.
