Thursday Thirteen - Hollywood Stars and The Valley They Called Home

The San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles was the place to live if you were a Hollywood actor or actress from the early days of film to the current days. It was a serene valley away from the hustle and bustle of the lights, camera and action of Hollywood. Sometimes, Hollywood’s famous would hide behind big gated fences to maintain their privacy and others we were proud to call our next door neighbor.


Bob Hope (Entertainer and Actor) – longest residency in Toluca Lake

Lucille Ball (Actress) - televisions most beloved red-head and star of the I Love Lucy television show (1951 – 1957)

Marion Ross – (Actress) America’s favorite mom in the television show “Happy Days”

Henry Winkler (Actor, The Fonz in the television series “Happy Days”

Gene Autry – (Singer/Actor)

Sandra Tsing Loh, (Author) - “A Year in Van Nuys” and radio show host for The Loh Down on Science on the radio station KPCC

Britney Spears (Singer/Actress)

Richie Valens (Singer) -“La Bamba” and “Donna.” Tragically, he died in a plane crash at age 17.

David Kopay ( Football celebrity)

Frankie Avalon (Actor/Singer)

Amelia Earhart – (Aviationer)

Bing Crosby – (Singer/Actor) – his song “San Fernando Valley” climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard charts on the week ending April 20, 1944.

Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (actor/actress/singers)


~Valley Girl~

Memory Monday - Watching Airplanes

Sitting on the hood of the car watching airplanes land on the runway and wishing we would grow up to be an airplane pilots was the perfect way for a kid to spend a Saturday morning. On many a Saturday morning at my fathers mention all of us kids would pile into the car fighting over which kid got the window seats in the yellow station wagon. It was one of the weeks highlights to go and watch the planes touch down on the runway, although, none of my fathers children would ever learn how to fly a plane.

In the late 1960’s and early 70’s when the San Fernando Valley had only a small number of people and lots of open spaces, 630 acres of land on the north-east corner of Sherman Way and Vineland was shared between the newly renamed Hollywood-Burbank Airport (formerly knows as Lockheed Air Terminal) and an Alta Dena Dairy Store with a cow pasture. The Alta Dena Dairy Stores were a regular landmark around the valley. Today, there still stands an Alta Dena Dairy store in Granada Hills but absent are the cows and the pasture. In later years the cows sharing the land with the Hollywood-Burbank Airport were moved and in the name of progress the Alta Dena Dairy store was torn down to erect the first of many box super stores that would invade the valley. This one was named the Price Club.

At this same time the Hollywood-Burbank airport was on its way to becoming a commercial airliner and in 1978, when Lockheed sold the facility and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority took over operations the airport acquired its fifth name: Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (1978-2003).

In November, 2003 the airport name was changed once again to Bob Hope Airport in honor of comedian Bob Hope, a longtime resident of nearby Toluca Lake, who had died earlier in the year and who kept his personal airplane at the airfield. Other Hollywood notables including John Travolta also house their personal airplanes at the airfield. The new name was unveiled at the end of year on the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, the year Bob Hope was born.

In 2005, the airport celebrated its 75th anniversary. In 2006, it served over 5 million travelers on seven major carriers, with more than 70 flights daily.