JOHNNY MACK BROWN AMERICA'S COWBOY MOVIE STAR

BUILDING A GREAT MUSEUM FOR THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

     During the 1940s and '50s, one of the most popular movie stars was the cowboy hero Johnny Mack Brown. Hardly a week passed when there wasn't a film or cliff hanger movie that was released that didn't feature him. Johnny was often seen riding at one of the San Fernando Valley's horse ranches or at the Pickwick Stables in Burbank. The Universal star die in 1974 in Woodland Hills and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.

Johnny Mack Brown - 1904 to 1974

Vintage postcard - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2014.  (click on image to enlarge it.)

THE ACTOR TOM MIX WAS A REAL MARSHALL IN THE OLD WEST

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY              2013

Tom Mix - American motion picture actor - postcard gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013. (click on image to enlarge it.)

Few people under 60 in the United States have even heard of the great cowboy movie star Tom Mix. He was the mega-action star of the Depression Era, and was admired by young and old alike. Older people knew of his background as a warrior in the Spanish-American War. Others found it incredibly romantic that the cowboy on the big screen had been an honest-to-gosh Deputy U.S. Marshall in Oklahoma just after it came into the Union.  Tom Mix is buried in the San Fernando Valley in Glendale's historic Forest Lawn Cemetery.

DICK POWELL - ACTOR - SINGER - DIRECTOR - VALLEY RESIDENT

DISCOVERING OUR VALLEY   2011

One of America's most favorite actors, singers, radio star, and film directors was the great Dick Powell. This great Warner Brothers star lived in Toluca Lake, Mandaville Canyon and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.

Dick Powell's residence in Toluca Lake - Vintage postcard - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2011.  (click on image to enlarge)

THE ESPLANADE IN FOREST LAWN

2010 THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES
Esplanade at Forest Lawn - vintage pstcard - gift of Gary Fredburg to the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley.

The Esplanade, rimming the hill beside the Hall of the Crucifixion, commands this view of the San Fernando Valley. Nearest is Glendale. Beyond it, Burbank and other Valley communities. On the left, a part of Los Angeles, Griffith Park in the Hollywood Hills.

Is this the Glendale Forest Lawn?

THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY CELEBRATES THE INAUGURATION OF BARAK OBAMA AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Mosaic of President Abraham Lincoln's oath of office - Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills. Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

In nine days, Barack Hussein Obama will become the President of the United States of America. He will be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice of the United States, John G. Roberts Jr. The President-elect has chosen to swear his loyalty to the Constitution of our Republic on the Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln for his inauguration in 1861. The Lincoln Bible is kept in the Library of Congress. It is bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed metal rim. Its edges are heavily gilded. The Bible was published by Oxford University Press.