INSIGHTS FROM CANOGA PARK HIGH SCHOOL IN MID 1930s

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY                 2013

 Household Economics Club - Canoga Park High School - 1936 -  Utopian yearbook - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013.  (click on images to enlarge them)
These yearbooks once belonged to Bill Schepler. They contain a diary of events through the entire year, and essays by students about their feelings and experiences.

Track Team -  Canoga Park High School - 1936 -  Utopian yearbook - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. 
Any surviving men from this track team would be in their 90s now. Enlarge this image and you'll see that they don't look all that different from kids today.

Varsity Football Team - Canoga Park High School 1933 - The Hunters' Call Yearbook -  Gift to the Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. 

Three cheers for our football team!

They will always fight.

With their strength and might,

so then give

Three cheers for our football team.

Hip - Hip - Hip - Hur-rah!

When the green and white

Makes a very good fight

Our cheers will repeat,

We just can't be beat

Then three cheers for our football team

Everybody, Rah Rah - Rah!

Canoga Park Cheer  1933 

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY TROPICAL BIRD FARM IN THE 1930s

2010 THE YEAR OF VALLEY HISTORY

(detail from a gift to the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Myron Ross 2010 - click to enlarge)

While this image, taken in 1933, is usually seen in histories of Encino, the two delivery trucks have a Van Nuys address. Perhaps, a little parochial excitement might just come of this?
The San Fernando Valley had several providers of wild animals and unusual birds, after all what would a good Tarzan movie been without a lion or two, and a romantic On The Road To... film been without a disapproving cockatoo?

1933 CCC VOLUNTEERS BOARDING TRAIN IN GLENDALE

2010 -- THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES Northridge100

Young men leaving for CCC work - Photo courtesty of Ron Magneson 2010 (click on image to enlarge)
Glendale Motorcycle Officer Supervising the Departure of a CCC train 1933
CCC Train 1933 Glendale, California

Valuable connections in San Fernando Valley history are often made by photos tucked away in a drawer or in one of those magical old boxes in a guest room. Here Glendale resident Ron Magneson shares three classic photographs of young Americans in the Civilian Construction Corps (the CCC). The photos, taken in 1933, show CCC "boys" (as they were called, heading to either a training camp or to one of the thousands of environmental projects in rural America. CCC recruits planted over 3 billion trees across the United States, changing the nation's ecology.
Ron Magneson comments:
"The photo's are from the LA County Fire Department archives and show a train near the intersection of Glendale Ave and Broadway ....across from the old Glendale resident Hotel...which still stands."
"As I remember the track ended about two block to the north east on Glendale Ave...at what is now the Whole Foods Market. Back in the 1930's and 1940's there was a lumber yard there. Fox Woodsum Lumber Company, I think it was called and covered the area from Wilson Ave to Lexington Avenue along Glendale Avenue. The spur track connected onto the main line somewhere between Brand Boulevard and Fletcher Drive."

Thanks Ron, you have added important pieces of San Fernando Valley history. The Museum of the San Fernando Valley serves all parts of the greater Valley, including Burbank and Glendale.

ROBERT MORTON ORGAN CO. VAN NUYS

2010 -- THE YEAR OF VALLEY HISTORY
1959 newspaper photograph - Morton Organ Company - Article in the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley - gift of Beth Perrin 2010

In 1913, E.S. Johnson purchased the Los Angeles based Murray Harris Organ Company. Johnson moved the organ plant to Van Nuys and resold it to the California Organ Company in 1915. In 1917. the plant was sold yet again to Robert Morton. In three years, the Morton Organ Company was the second largest producer of theater and home organs in the United States. In 1933, the Robert Morton Organ Company closed its door permanently.

What would have caused the collapse of the Robert Morton Organ Company? Did this occur with the spread of home record players and "talkie" films?

Join your Museum on Saturday May 8th at 10:am, on our first historic walking tour of Van Nuys. Led by Richard Hilton, Chair of The Museum's Tour Programs, it will be a big adventure. $10 suggested donation - call 1 (818) 347-9665 for details and reservations.