DID YOU KNOW?
- The original name of the community of Northridge was Zelzah.
- By 1912, ranchers were lamenting the loss of their cowboys to the film studios. These new cowboy actors were paid far more for their movie work in the new Westerns than their work as ranch hands.
- Apricots sold for 65 cents per 30 lb. box in 1912.
- On March 15, 1915, Universal Studios was born. One story goes that the Secretary of the Navy ordered the Pacific Fleet up the Los Angeles River to fire a salute to the new film city.
- Universal Studios’ founder Carl Laemmle’s niece Carla Laemmle, now 100 years old, uttered the first words in a horror film in the 1931 “talkie”, Dracula (starring Bela Lugosi.) A dancer and actress, Ms. Laemmle is the last surviving performer in the original 1925 “Phantom of the Opera.”
- During WW2, a Victory Garden program began in nearly every Valley community.
- In 1942, it became a misdemeanor for any dog owner to allow his or her animal into a Victory Garden.
- A Lockheed P-38 became the first plane to travel at the speed of sound.
- In 1966, Burbank banned the mini-skirt in schools.
- By 1966, Department of Water and Power noted that people now used more water than farms did.
- By 1966, more than half the Valley work force was White Collar.
- In 1920, Burbank had 465 telephones, Van Nuys had 381. Callers needed to use the entire name of the towns rather than two prefix numbers employed by other cities.
- In 1812 and again in 1857, the Valley suffered great earthquakes. With so few people and virtually no structures, no casualties or damage were recorded.
- The first stoplight in the Valley was located at Ventura and Lankershim Blvds.
- Chatsworth gets its name from the English estate of the Duke of Devonshire.
- Harvard School was started in 1900 on the corner of Ventura and Coldwater Canyon.
- It snowed in the Valley in 1913.
- In 1913, San Fernando Valley had the world’s largest olive orchard, the largest film company, the largest earth dam and soon the largest river aqueduct.
- Van Nuys electric lights were turned on in 1913.
- In 1913, a librarian was paid $5/week. In 1919 telephone tolls were 10 cents and streetcars were 5 cents.
- Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball purchased their ranch house in Northridge in 1940 for $18,000.
For information about The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, please contact us at (818) 347-9665 PST, email us at info@themuseumsfv.org, or visit the Contact page.
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