(Photo Caption: MAY 5, 1981 —The Formerly Mighty Signal used to hold all manner of entertaining reader competitions. We ran our famous “WHO AM I?” contest in which every week, the plucky little paper disguised the photo of someone famous and asked Signal readers to identify the star. The person from this week, 30 years back? O.J. Simpson. You begging for more trivia? OK. He also was the owner of the Honeybaked Ham franchise on McBean Parkway in Granary Square.)
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN —
— On May 3, 1842, California’s first mining district was established by the stroke of the pen of the governor. Our own Ignacio del Valle was chairman of the district and that first official mining claim.
— On this date, in 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt stayed at the Acton Hotel for a rest, which, to Teddy, was a small safari with his friend, Rosy Melrose. Earlier, Rosy had shot and killed the mayor of Acton in a gunfight on the main street of the little mining and vacation town.
— There has been some controversy over this. But some history books note that John Powell was the first judge of the Santa Clarita Valley with his appointment by the Board of Supervisors on May 8, 1875. If he wasn’t exactly the first, he was at least second or third. And, he served for 40 years on the bench. When his offices were moved into downtown Newhall, next to his home, Powell would sometimes hold court in the hot summer months outside, under the shade of a great oak tree, which also served as the jail. Bad guys were simply chained up to the grand oak until they could be, no pun intended, railroaded into L.A. Powell led troops (for the North) in seven major battles during the Civil War. Prior to the 1860 war between the states, Powell help free 705 Africans in a slave camp in the jungles of the dark continent.
MAY 5, 1921 —
— Long before the built the old Baker Rodeo Grounds in 1928, locals were having rodeos in the SCV. On this date, north of where the American Theater/American Legion Hall sits today and east of the Newhall Elementary, between 7,000 and 8,000 fans jammed into the ranch there to watch cowboys and cowgirls from all over America compete. There was no fence, no grandstands. Six local residents who came up with the idea stood in a field with satchels of change and collected admission. Included in the price of admission was a “free” barbecue for the first 5,000 attendees. The Rodeo of ’21 lasted all day and had everything from thoroughbred handicapping to chuck wagon racing and all the other venues in between. At the end of the event, “Cowboy” Bob Anderson, a local movie producer and his five entrepreneur friends went to the bank, sat on the floor and spent all night counting mostly coins. But when it was all over, each had made a profit of about $1,000. The next year, the five (minus Bob) expanded the rodeo, moving it to where Circle J is today and changed the date to the Fourth of July. The rodeo went bust and all five lost money. Then, in 1923, the rodeo moved to the Baker Arena (Saugus Speedway) and moved the date back to the end of April. They made money.
— We had two brush fires in a couple of the upper canyons. One burned 300 acres in upper Soledad, and cost the Forest Service a whopping $275 to fight in parts and labor. Another brush fire burned 40 acres up Bouquet when rancher J. Nimmo lost control of a small shrub-clearing effort. The county charged him $50 to assist in putting out the fire.
MAY 5, 1931 —
— On this date, comedian W.C. Fields moved to Newhall to live in one of the Charlie Mack rock houses on 8th Street. Fields hadn’t yet reached cult status. In 1931, he was more famous for his vaudeville act of Weber & Fields (note the second billing) than his screen career, which had yet to blossom.
— On this date, the hospital moved from over around 2nd Street and San Fernando Road to 6th Street, where the building sits today. It also had a new name: Newhall Community Hospital and was run by Dr. Sarah Peters.
MAY 5, 1941 —
— On this date, the SCV welcomed their first optometrist. Dr. John F. Gregson opened up an office in the new Newhall Community Hospital building. With the SCV only harboring about 5,000 souls, Gregson only offered services on Mondays.
— A lot of oldtimers — about 250 of them — were on hand to help out at the annual Nadeau-Mitchell family cattle round-up in upper Placerita Canyon. Reuben Harris, local Sheriff’s captain, got thrown while trying to pen a recalcitrant steer. Rube was okay, though.
— The rains of 1941 had another offshoot — bees. And lots of ’em. With all the flowers of spring, there was an inordinate amount of the little honey makers around, swarming in people’s barns and attics. Even silent screen star Bill Hart had to call in beeman Will Ervin to get the pollinators out of his mansion.
— On this date, forgerette and waitress Ruby Johnson, aka, Lola Callahan, alias Zola Garrahan, was arrested here. The lower case con woman had opened a savings account in a bank in Long Beach with a dollar. Then, she took her savings book to a bank in Ventura, where she added a 4, a comma and 3 zeroes to her balance and transferred the $14,000. Feigning embarrassment, she said she forgot to take some cash with her and could she be given a paltry $10 against her $14,000 until the transfer was complete? Sure, sez the Ventura bank. She was finally captured in Newhall.
— Rev. Bradbury of the Mole Hill Baptist Church in the Sand Canyon neighborhood had a surprise pastor give his sermon this Sunday, 60 years back. It was his dad. The senior Bradbury called for more old time religion and devotion, and lamented modern distractions, like golf courses, movies and ball games. The elder pastor came up with the idea that they ought to give out tickets in church every Sunday and that if you wanted to go to a movie, ball game or golf course, you had to present the church ticket before they could let you in. Wonder if that would apply to your Sunday Signal?
— Farmer Seth Bluhlich decided to move his cattle away from the main highway, where they were spring grazing. Farmer Seth noted he had lost 20 cowbells due to tourists stopping, hopping the fence and liberating said bells from said cows.
MAY 5, 1951 —
— Hart High held their spring play, “King Ko-Ko.” It starred Birdena Throttlewaite. This has no historical significance whatsoever. I just like seeing, “Birdena Throttlewaite” in print.
MAY 5, 1961 —
— There were lots of terrible accidents on this date, 50 years back, none more tragic than the death of a young Newhall girl when her car flipped over in Placerita Canyon. Her boyfriend, a teen Air Force recruit, returned to town for the funeral. Grief-stricken, he went to the site of the crash, placed a revolver to his head and committed suicide.
— The kids at Hart had a right to be nervous. The theater group was putting on the award-winning “Music Man.” And who was sitting in the audience this night to watch? None other than the play’s original and Oscar-winning creator, Meredith Willson. Yup. Two “L’s” in Willson. He began his career as a flutist with John Phillip Sousa’s marching band. Seems the playwright was in L.A. and just heard that a little high school in Newhall would be performing his Broadway hit.
MAY 5, 1971 —
— Lyons Avenue drew a new name. With the announcement that Shell would build a gas station on the major artery, Lyons was now called, “Gasoline Alley” by some residents. Shell would be the 12th filling station on Lyons. There were only 10 there 10 years ago. If I’m counting right, there are only six today.
MAY 5, 1981 —
— The Pacific Telephone book for Santa Clarita was released and Helen Mace Burson was featured on the cover. She was the last teacher at the old Felton School in Mentryville. Helen was 86 back in 1981.
— We were in the process of trying to create a new city from this valley and Carl Boyer, who would one day be mayor, had a list of names for the proposed municipality. No. 3 on Boyer’s list was, “La Mancha.” One Spanish-speaking person pointed out that while the handle had a rich literary tradition (as in “The Man of…”) it also mean, “blemish” or “scar.” We could have compromised and called ourselves, “Santa Scarita…”
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Thanks for company, dear saddlepals. See you in seven days with a brand new Time Ranger adventure right here in the warm glow of The West Ranch Beacon, and, until then, vayan con Dios, amigos!
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