"I grew up in a place that has vanished, in a world that can be recalled by only a very few..."
Catherine Mulholland
Blog archive: Gone but not forgotten
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Gary Ritter Sherman emails: I saw that someone was trying to find out where the Wild Goose Restaurant was located. It used to be on the south side of Ventura Blvd at Fulton, across the street from Casa Vega, and I heard was named after John Wayne's Yacht. I'm still looking for photos of the Cherry House (Woodman and Ventura)...
Posted February 5, 2006 10:42 PM
In answer a question about the Wild Goose in Sherman Oaks, it turns out to have been quite a popular place. I found more than two hundred mentions in the L.A. Times between 1953 and 1967, as a favorite restaurant for wedding and engagement dinners, anniversaries and group occasions. The only address I've been able to pin down was 15720...
Posted February 3, 2006 06:44 PM
The once-lush corner lot in Encino where John Wayne entertained his Hollywood pals at the top of a small rise is now a construction site. Wayne's former white Colonial has been demolished and a giant multi-story residence is being built in its place. Wayne lived with his wife Pilar and their three children at 4750 Louise Avenue until he contracted...
Posted February 1, 2006 07:07 PM
This photo reportedly shows the Nike Hercules missile installation on Oat Mountain above Chatsworth in the 1960s. It appears larger on this website about the history of Nike missiles, along with a note indentifying these warheads as nuclear. Thanks to reader Lou Marino for the pointer....
Posted February 1, 2006 06:49 PM
Just about all evidence of the old Marquardt Aviation Co. plant along the west side of Van Nuys Airport has been removed. Started by Caltech graduate Roy Marquardt, the company moved to the Valley in the late 1940s and became a major defense contractor, specializing in ramjet engines. There's now a gleaming new industrial park in its place. A website...
Posted February 1, 2006 06:24 PM
Buck Jones was a movie cowboy in silent films and westerns who built a Spanish Revival home at 14050 Magnolia Blvd. in Sherman Oaks in 1937. Frescoes of western scenes covered some of the walls, and the structure was specifically built to resist fire (ironic, since Jones died in 1942 of burns he suffered in the infamous Cocoanut Grove nightclub...
Posted February 1, 2006 06:10 PM
A glaring omission here at AmericasSuburb.com has been any mention of the vanished local landmark Busch Gardens -- as several readers have pointed out. Well no more! Busch Gardens was a 20-acre tropical-theme amusement park and exotic bird preserve behind the Anheuser-Busch brewery on Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys. It opened in 1966 and offered boat rides, exotic bird...
Posted December 4, 2005 06:24 PM
Many evidences of the old Valley have disappeared—and more vanish every year. Gone But Not Forgotten lists some unofficial Valley landmarks that are no longer with us, taken from The San Fernando Valley: America's Suburb, the author's files and reader submissions....
Posted November 24, 2005 12:54 PM
