Great Events Coming Up!

Special Event: "Public Settings/Private Conversations... Artists Jodi Bonassi VIP Reception" 

Saturday, March 24, 2018

4:00 – 8:00 pm

FREE - RSVP on Eventbrite.

Please join us for a VIP Reception and official launch of Jodi Bonassi's retrospective entitled "PUBLIC SETTINGS... Private Conversations ..." at The Museum of the San Fernando Valley. Meet the artist and explore her works between 1998 and 2017 that highlight San Fernando Valley life. Free admission. Artwork will be for sale during this event. Free event and free parking. Elevator access. Light food, wine, and beverages provided. RSVP is required. 

Historic North Hollywood "NoHo" Walking Tour

Sunday, March 25, 2018

2:00 – 3:30 pm

$10/pp - RSVP on Eventbrite.

Learn about real cowboys, pioneer families, movie television and recording stars, the Spanish conquest, Mexican ranchos, great steam trains, vast ranches and orchards, land barons, wars, architecture, and much more! 

Speaker Event: Chris Lukather

Saturday, March 31, 2018

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

$10/pp - RSVP on Eventbrite.

The Museum is pleased to have Chris Lukather, founder, and editor of the literary journal, The Writing Disorder, discuss and sign copies of his new book, A Birdhouse in Paradise: William Mellenthin and the San Fernando Valley Ranch Homes. In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s housing developments began peppering the available land outside of Los Angeles. It was in the Valley that designer-builder William Mellenthin developed his singular brand of cozy, charming home which became known as the Mellenthin Birdhouse ranch home - so called because they featured a cupola or dovecote built prominently into the roof.  With little information published about his life, Chris gathered information from original Mellenthin homeowners, articles, brochures, as well as the Mellenthin family to complete the book.  This will be a fascinating, enjoyable conversation about an interesting part of development in the San Fernando Valley. 

Speaker Event: Shel Weisbach

Saturday, April 28, 2018

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

$10/pp - RSVP on Eventbrite.

Historian Shel Weisbach will present Pathways, an architectural and historical survey of the San Fernando Valley for those that love to explore the hidden gems. 

Seating is limited for all speaker events. 

Shopping malls, consumerism, suburbia

I came across an interesting article from the Atlantic magazine written by Ian Bogost.

It offers one take on the history of shopping malls.

Over the last 50 or so years, the shopping mall has gone from the go-to place for shopping, for teenagers to hang out and get away from their parents before pagers, cell phones, computers, texting and drivers licenses and to mature a bit in a safe environment. Today, consumers purchasing habits are rapidly going online although millions of people still like to go to the mall to buy something, a gift for a family member, special gift for a friend or even a pick-me-up gift for themselves.

 (The Garden Court, Southdale Shopping Center, Edina, MN, 1965)

For those of you that have experiences about being younger, growing up or visiting valley malls, please make a comment below.

For example, I was at the birth of the Northridge Fashion Center.  As a new teenager, my friends and I could walk to the mall or be dropped off at the mall and hang for hours.  We would hang out at the Bob's Big Boy Jr. or at Spencer's Gifts looking at all sorts of new games and odd things. We would walk in the Broadway store, in the Sears store to check out all of the Craftsman tools and grab a drink at Orange Julius.

Older brothers worked in the movie theatre, now where Old Navy is located, and we would pay to go to a movie and sometimes receive a neighbor's special discount to come and watch one or two.

Some employees actually rode their mini-bike (what's a mini-bike??) in the mall before the security guard come come and kick them out.

This 1970s photo is so classic - this contraption is a glorified lawn mower with two wheels, a makeshift seat encased in tubular steel. It has going too fast, unable to steer and careening off the street and into the neighbor's ivy written all over it.

Some of the kids in Northridge had mini-bikes.  Some would ride around at all hours. Some kids from several blocks away would scream down the street, at a whopping 12 mph, and look pretty cool. Then you would see the kid having trouble pushing the mini-bike up the street because the chain busted. Not so cool now.

To read this article, please click HERE.

Again, please do not be bashful to send us a note, make a comment and bring your past experiences, funny and or painful back to life.

Walk and Learn 3/25/18

Learn about real cowboys, pioneer families, movie television and recording stars, the Spanish conquest, Mexican ranchos, great steam trains, vast ranches and orchards, land barons, wars, architecture, and much more! 

Tour highlights include:
Amelia Earhart Statue
Amelia Earhart Library (1928)
St. Paul’s First Lutheran Church
NoHo Fire Station #60
So. Pacific Railroad Depot (1896)
Weddington Family
El Portal Theatre (1926)
NoHo Arts District
Lankershim Arts Center (1939) (S. Charles Lee, architect)
North Hollywood Masonic Temple Lodge 542
Lankershim Elementary School (Marilyn Monroe attended)

Cost: $10 per person  

Time: 2:00 - 3:30PM

Free For Current Museum Members - Become a Member TODAY!

RSVP: 1-818-347-9665 or email at events@theMuseumSFV.org.

Parking: Street and metered parking in area

Tour meets at Amelia Earhart Statue; NW corner of Tujunga St. & Magnolia Blvd. (at corner of Library)

Thank you to our sponsor Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

www.themuseumsfv.org

The Museum of the San Fernando Valley Announces Dana Radke to The Museum's board of directors

The Museum of the San Fernando Valley is pleased to announce Dana Radke has joined The Museum's board of directors.

Dana was born in Santa Monica, but has lived in the Valley and West Hills for over 50 years. He attended Chatsworth High and L.A. Valley College, where he studied metal machining and also at the West Valley Occupational Center, where he studied electronic assembly.

He served in the Air Force and following moved Reno, Nevada where he was a Field Service Technician for video poker and slot machines.

Dana returned to the Valley where he worked alongside his mother, who was a singer, musician and voice coach. He operated a recording studio, produced music and assisted people preparing for auditions and helped train voice actors.

He has a lifelong interest in photography and has operated dark rooms and produced prints for personal as well as commercial use. 

Other interests include computers where he has learned various computer languages such as Assembly, Promal, HTML and Java Script.

Also, for quite a few years, he has had an interest in Valley history. This led Dana to start looking up photographs of old Valley buildings. This, in turn, has lead Dana to manage the current and ongoing Museum project, Then and Now. He is researching countless areas for photographs of Then and then taking photographs of the Now.

2-25-18 Authors on Architecture: Arenson on Millard Sheets - Free event - Glendale Library

SAH/SCC ALERT!

 

Authors on Architecture: Arenson on Sheets

Lecture, Glendale Central Library

Sunday, February 25th, 2:00 PM

      

Join SAH/SCC and the Glendale Central Library (Welton Becket & Associates, 1973) as author Adam Arenson debuts Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Mid-Century Commercial Architecture in California (University of Texas Press, 2018), his long-awaited volume on the architecture of Home Savings.

For more than three decades, Millard Sheets (1907-1989) and his studio of artists designed Home Savings and Loan branches throughout California, studding their iconic projects with mosaics, murals, stained glass, and sculptures that celebrated both family life and the history of the Golden State. The collaboration between the Millard Sheets Studio and Howard Ahmanson (1906-1968), Home Savings' executive, resulted in more than 40 branches designed and built between the completion of the first collaboration in 1955 and Ahmanson's death.

The Glendale Central Library is also a winner of a 2018 Preservation Award by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Authors on Architecture: Arenson-

Sunday, February 25, 2018

2:00 - 4:00 PM
Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard Street

FREE Admission
Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis
Tel: 818.548.2021.

Validated free parking is available in the structure opposite the library on East Harvard Street.

 

For more event info, please click HERE.

SUNDAY - “Black History in the SFV: A Deep History That Really Hasn’t Been Told"

Special Speaker Series Event

In honor of 2018 Black History Month, The Museum of the San Fernando Valley’s Speaker Series with the Pacoima Historical Society is proud to present:

“Black History in the SFV: A Deep History That Really Hasn’t Been Told”

Crystal Jackson, Founder and President of the Pacoima Historical Society, and filmmaker of the 2018 Pan African Film Festival Best Feature Documentary nominee “Pacoima Stories: Land of Dreams”, talks about the struggles, sacrifice and undying spirit of America’s proud minority culture in the San Fernando Valley.

Crystal was born in Pacoima in the ‘60’s. Her family had moved to the San Fernando Valley in the 1930’s, first North Hollywood, then Pacoima. Crystal graduated Granada Hills High School but went to San Fernando High her last semester to stay close to her Pacoima friends. She majored in Journalism at Cal State Northridge, but it wasn’t until Crystal moved to the Bay area to begin her Pacoima film that she realized the richness of her town’s history. This evening, Crystal will host preview snippets of her award-nominated film as well as present historic photos and previously untold factual stories of the rich Black culture that contributed to change and vibrancy here in the San Fernando Valley. Crystal's new book on the history of Pacoima is coming out Fall of 2018.

Sunday, February 11

2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

$10 contribution per person

Light Refreshments.

Raffle Drawing

Sign up on Eventbrite at blackhistory2018.eventbrite.com

(Seating space is limited. The Museum suggests people sign-up early on Eventbrite.)

DVDs of “Pacoima Stories: Land of Dreams” will be available for sale.

Pacoima.historicalsociety@gmail.com

www.themuseumsfv.org