There’s Tom Mix movies, the trial for Two Gun Bill’s estate and some high speed car chases from 70 years back. We’ve even got a rather ironic ending to a juvenile delinquent purse snatching. Give a nudge with your heels to your pony’s ribs. It’ll usually make them go forward… (Photo: One of the rare photos of Winifred Westover, the young controversial actress who was briefly married to a man nearly thrice her age — Bill Hart. Winny was embroiled in the SCV’s “Trial of the Century” over the multi-million estate of the famed silent star.)
WAY, WAY BACK WHEN -
— With a few dozen books and more magazines, the first branch of the local Los Angeles County Library opened on March 1, 1916. It took up a few shelves in Woodard’s Ice Cream Parlor and Christine Woodard was the valley’s first official county librarian. A woman named Blanche Brown would take over for Christine a few years later. Blanche was also the editor of the local paper.
— Same day, 10 years later, the first water from the Owens Valley water project started trickling in to fill up the St. Francis Dam. Nearly two years and a couple of weeks later, that full dam would burst, sending a giant wall of water over the valley and killing nearly 500 people.
FEBRUARY 25, 1920 -
— Mrs. H.R. Phillips set a temporary new world’s record for hay shipped out of the Santa Clarita Valley in one convoy – three trucks. That’s about 40 tons of hay.
— So that’s where the finger came from? On this date, the Automobile
Club of Southern California posted new hand signal guidelines around Newhall. If you were stranded with car trouble, just hold two fingers up in the air at passing motorists. If you want to know if you’re on the right road, hold up three fingers. Four fingers meant collision ahead. The whole hand met you were in big trouble. If you were in front of someone with a flat tire, you held your hand up with one finger pointing toward the heavens. I’m not sure if you had to hold it there the whole time the person was changing their tire or not.
Folks must have had strong arms back then. As far as the universal angry commuter gesture with the third digit, I’m not quite sure when that was invented and certainly have no idea who the first person in the SCV was to use it, no Tom Frew joke pending.
— Local cowboy movie star Tom Mix starred in a silent called, “The Speed Maniac” on this date. It wasn’t even a Western, either.
— How’s this for not pulling punches in your editorials? Signal editor Blanche Browne wrote, on this date: “Not long ago aid was urged for the Armenians, on whom the Turks were threatening a massacre. Now news comes that the Turks are begging the Americans to save them from being massacred by the Armenians. The Turks may naturally fear extermination they had planned for their old-time victims, but all the rest of the world will admit that the loss of the Turks will be a distinct gain to human society at large.” Good grief…
FEBRUARY 25, 1930 -
— Standard Oil announced they would restore the abandoned historic oil refinery in Railroad Canyon. Now when you’re doing something like that, do you clean up the all the spilled oil or just let it be for atmosphere.
FEBRUARY 25, 1940 -
— About one of the worst darn things you can do as a law enforcement officer is to wreck a brand new patrol car. That’s what deputies John Lockey and Charles Keeler did in a high-speed pursuit of three teen-age detention camp escapees. The deps rolled their new prowl car but were OK with minor bruises. Adding insult to law enforcement injury, the three lads then managed to steal a highway patrol cruiser. The boys were eventually captured in Lancaster.
— Dude ranching has been around for well over a century. But Haskell Canyon resident Johnny Seltzer may have opened the first Dude Mining Camp. Seltzer would rent out picks, shovels, pans and even lunches to out-of-towners eager to search for gold.
— Newhall Land and Farming donated a big chunk of property to be loaned for the huge 1940 rodeo. The grounds were on Lyons Avenue opposite Apple Street. Grandstands to accommodate 15,000 people were constructed. (Sadly, day of the rodeo, county building inspectors showed up and said the stands were unsafe and turned away 6,000 visitors). Actor Tom Mix was president of the rodeo and he would kick it off with a chariot race against a friend and fellow local cowboy movie star — Buck Jones.
— Many of us are still in shock and mourning after the tragic traffic accident last week in Canyon Country claimed four lives. The Signal editorial of 70 years ago this day asked: “Just why many seemingly intelligent drivers of automobiles are continually attempting suicide and manslaughter, is beyond understanding. Their actions any place but in an automobile would in most cases place them under mental observation or in jail.”
FEBRUARY 25, 1950 -
— The estate trial of William S. Hart continued. Winnifred Westover, Hart’s teen-bride whom he had earlier divorced, testified that Hart was not in command of his faculties before he died. Of course, Winnifred also told folks during their messy divorce that she would “…smear him and his sister (Mary) all over the front pages of newspapers in the United States.” Winnifred was given an envelope of $10,000 in cash after their Reno divorce. Hart’s attorney, Joe Spray (who also partially represented Los Angeles County during the 1950 trial) had handed the young actress the money and said: “You know this is blackmail, don’t you?” At which point Ms. Westover responded: “I don’t know what you call it, as long as it is good at the bank.” Hart had set up a trust fund for his son and Westover back in 1922, of $200,000.
FEBRUARY 25, 1960—
— While hitchhiking, Miguel Ogas found a mummy off old Highway 99. The unidentified remains had been lying there for what was estimated two years before discovery. And, the head was missing.
— On this date, The Signal legally passed from the hands of Fred Trueblood to his two sons, Fred and Richard S. Fred Trueblood Sr. had been editor of the paper for 21 years. Only Scott Newhall served longer with 25.
FEBRUARY 25, 1970 -
— A Gorman man was arrested for severely beating his wife in a Saugus bar. Local sheriff’s deputies kept a plastic bag filled with the woman’s hair he had pulled out as evidence.
FEBRUARY 25, 1980 -
— A Sierra Vista student picked the wrong spot to snatch a purse. The lad grabbed the handbag of Mrs. Flora Riggern in the North Oaks Shopping Center and off he ran. Unfortunately, a former teacher of his, James Danner, was sitting in his car and witnessed the theft AND the kid. Danner gave chase and cornered him against a wall. “You can either wait here for the police,” said Danner to the huffing kid, “or they’ll come and get you.” Recognizing his former teacher, the misunderstood lad sat and waited for the sheriff. It was his third felony arrest before high school.
— It was one of the wettest weeks on record. We got pelted with 12.75 inches in seven days.
— On this date, county mucky-mucks were stomping around in the mud at the Frew Ranch. It would be the new home to the Saugus Train Depot and future world headquarters to the SCV Historical Society.
Thanks for the companionship, saddlepals. My pal, Carl Goldman, high holy mucky muck of your hometown station, KHTS, AM 1220, is giving a most cool lecture this Saturday (Feb. 27, 2010) at the SCV Hysterical — errrrrr — HISTORICAL Society. It’s 2 p.m. and admission is free. Visit scvhs.org for more info. That shameless plug aside, see you next Sunday with a brand new Time Ranger adventure and until then, vayan con Dios, amigo!