10-19-19 FREE* Family Fun Day - Ice Cream Social - Speaker - Food Truck - Games

FUN FAMILY DAY AT YOUR MUSEUM!   

ICE CREAM SOCIAL - Yipee!

Bring out the family out for a fun day at The Museum SFV.

When:   Saturday, October 19, 2019
 
Time:   11:00 am – 3:00 pm 

Cost:  FREE Event*
 
Parking: Free Parking (some in parking lot; other free non-metered street parking)

18860 Nordhoff St. – Northridge, CA 91324 
(Cross Street SE Corner of Wilbur Ave. & Nordhoff St.)
Parking in lot and street parking (non-metered);
The Museum is on Nordhoff half way between CSUN and Northridge Fashion Center.

Please provide FREE RSVP on EVENTBRITE, email us at info@TheMuseumSFV.org or contact us 818-347-9665 to let us know how many people are coming.

Bring the family out for FREE Ice Cream from famous Handel’s Ice Cream** ( **FREE Ice Cream, first 200 people (maybe more!)

Arts & Crafts; Games for kids!

The famous The Grilled Cheese Food Truck (*charges for food); order and enjoy your favorite items from this very popular food truck first then you can have a scoop of ice cream. The food truck will be on site from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm.

Special Presentation
"First People of the San Fernando Valley"
Rudy Ortega, Jr.
Tribal President
Fernandeñio Tataviam Band of Mission Indians
 (Noon - 1:30 pm; outside or inside The Museum based on weather)


Small Car Show

Grey Save Greyhound Adopt-A-Pet - come out and visit with some Greyhound dogs and...maybe take one home with you!

California E-Waste will be on hand to collect all of your unwanted electronic equipment. 

Please your unwanted electronic waste to The Museum SFV event. 
Cal E-Waste accepts the following:
1. Televisions
2. Plasma TVs
3. Flat Screens
4. Computers
5. Laptops
6. Cell Phones
7. Printers
8. LCD Screens
9. Servers
10. All computer related electronic.

Cal E-Waste DOES NOT accept the following:
1. Batteries
2. Light Bulbs
3. Oils/Paints
4. Kitchen Electronics

www.TheMuseumSFV.org

10-27-19 Historic Walking Tour of Van Nuys - 2:00 pm-3:30 pm

Historic walking tour of Van Nuys
2:00- 3:30 pm
$10/pp
RSVP in advance (appreciated) on EVENTBRITE.
Okay to pay on site

Learn about the origin of the Daily News and the company which was a nationwide maker of silent movie theatre organs. Who were Hobart Johnstone Whitley, Wayne E. Bechtelheimer and Whitley Van Nuys Huffaker? Relive "Wednesday Nights on Van Nuys Boulevard." We will have historic photographs and stories to share as we wander this surprisingly historic San Fernando Valley treasure. Tour highlights include:

•    Van Nuys Bungalow         
•    Women’s Club
•    Old Van Nuys Library (1927)     
•    United Methodist Church
•    Municipal Building Façade     
•    Van Nuys Post Office
•    Van Nuys Fire Station
•    Abeles Map             
•    Fernando Statue, Crystal Plunge
•    Bob’s Big Boy, Busch Gardens     
•    Lankershim, Van Nuys, Whitsett, Whitley

The development entity known as The Syndicate began the process in 1910, but William Paul Whitsett saw it through to the end. Originally a barley field, Van Nuys became a prosperous center of City Government, agriculture and industry. Come explore what remains to be appreciated: original 1911 buildings hidden beneath modern facades, first churches, a civic center with many special revelations, one of the main hubs of social and official activity, the Women's Club building, Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monuments #201, #202, and #911, and National Register of Historic Places Monument #2509.

Please RSVP and pay in advance with:                                        
EVENTBRITE - Search under: Van Nuys Historic Walking Tour  (Okay to walk-up and pay)
Cost:        $10 per person donation; Also, please visit  www.TheMuseumSFV.org
Parking:    Street & metered parking in area  museumsanfernandovalley.blogspot.com

RSVP:     1-818-347-9665, email at info@TheMuseumSFV.org.

Please consider inviting a family member, colleague or friend.

Attendees will meet at 1:50 pm under the "Bridge/Archway" of the Braude Constituent Center, 6262 Van Nuys

www.TheMuseumSFV.org

Tarzana Ranch Centennial - Join Safari Walk and other organizations

Please join Safari Walk committee, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Councilman Bob Blumenfield CD3, Theatre of Will, The Museum of the San Fernando Valley and others for this special series of events celebrating the Centennial of the Tarzana Ranch.

In 1919, with financial security assured, Edgar Rice Burroughs moved to California, where he purchased the 550-acre estate of General Harrison Gray Otis, renaming it ‘Tarzana Ranch’.  Please read Edgar Rice Burroughs fascinating bio HERE.

Three weekends- from approx. 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

• September 7th and 8th
• September 14th and 15th
• September 21st and 22nd

There will be historical lectures and walking tours,Free, (some by former board member Willard Simms of Theatre of Will), one on each Saturday, and they all begin at 12:00 pm.  

Walking tours are supposed to start and end at the Tarzana Then And Now location on Ventura Blvd.  

There will be other activities such as drum circles, music, dance, and live animal show.

Come on out to Tarzana, celebrate this monumental occasion and enjoy - FREE to the public.  Spread the word about these special events.

On Ventura Blvd. - between Reseda Blvd. and Crebs/Burbank Blvd.

Michel Stevens, The Museum of the SFV

Los Angeles Archives Bazaar October 12, 2019 - join The Museum SFV

If you are a history buff or would like to learn more about various historical organizations, museums and societies.... well, place your lobster bib on and join The Museum SFV and about 80 other organizations at the 14th annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar - Free Admission to general public (parking fees on or near campus).

14th annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar
Saturday, October 12, 2019
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Doheny Memorial Library
USC University Park Campus
The Museum will be exhibiting along with approx. 80 other historical organizations.
Free admission to the general public
Take Metro to USC



All Day. All in one Place.

Come and celebrate the diversity of stories that make Southern California such a place of discovery. At the Los Angeles Archives Bazaar, presented by L.A. as Subject and the USC Libraries, anyone with an interest in the region’s history will find something of value. A broad array of institutions and archives will have experts on hand to show off their collections and answer questions.

In addition to the wealth of information on display from exhibitors, day-long programming will feature preservation workshops and enlightening presentations.

The USC Libraries serve as the host institution for L.A. as Subject, an alliance of libraries, museums, and other archival and cultural organizations. The relationship complements the USC libraries’ strong regional history collection and is a natural outgrowth of the libraries’ efforts to preserve and expand access to the primary sources of L.A. history.

USC is minutes from downtown Los Angeles and is easily accessible by major freeways and the Metro Expo line. Doheny Library is located in the center of campus, adjacent to Alumni Park and across from Bovard Auditorium, on Trousdale Avenue. For information regarding parking on campus, visit the Parking Services Website.

Michel Stevens, The Museum of the SFV

John Hendry’s Forgotten Suburbs - A Valley Song, or Poem Perhaps

Blog Two – A Valley Song, or Poem Perhaps
By John Hendry

A Valley song, or poem perhaps?  That is the odd topic I was given as a neighborhood council member from a group who didn’t even quite know who Isaac Van Nuys was – or why we live in a town named after him.

How does one actually know who we Valleyites are or how we live?

Try looking for our Valley song, or our poem – and you’ll find Bing Crosby singing “I’ll Make the San Fernando Valley My Home” (actually in the “Top Ten” on D-Day), – or Los Abandoned “Van Nuys es Very Nice” on the Internet as a “punk anthem” to Van Nuys gone bad, - or even Tom Waits’ “Frank’s Wild Years” depicting a San Fernando Road used furniture salesman’s insanity created by living in The Valley.  Go to Luis J. Rodriguez, former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles and his literary salon in far Sylmar, a coffee shop/bookstore in a declining shopping center, and ask him to offer us suggestions.

But recently I was struck by Amanda McBroom’s song “Errol Flynn” (who also wrote lyrics to “The Rose”) for offering a storyline about her father that seems so very “Valley”.  

The song starts –

In a hall, on a wall, in a house in Reseda
There’s a poster held up by two nails and a pin
It’s my Daddy, the actor, ‘bout to die with his boots on.
He’s the man standing up there, beside Errol Flynn.

He got third or fourth billing at the end of each picture.
“But that doesn’t mean much”, he would say with a grin.
But he’d hold my hand tight as he pointed his name out
Only four or five names down below Errol Flynn.

Now this could be our “Valley song” – so many of us have lived our lives thinking we are “only four or five names down below Errol Flynn” – or know those who are.” Birth of a Nation” filmed just below the Pacoima Dam, 9 movie ranches throughout the Valley for Errol Flynn to ride through, charging the “Light Brigade”, or was it fending off “hostiles” with the 7th cavalry one day in that canyon behind Calabasas as General Custer with his men died “with their boots on” – a whirling dervish of excitement throughout our Valley home. 

As a USPS letter carrier for over 40 years, it was all around me.  I saw all of them – just around.  From Yakima Canutt, rodeo star of the 1930’s and the guy who actually rode Charlton Heston’s chariot in “Ben Hur”, to all the lesser actors -  “four or five names down below Errol Flynn”.  The day I surprised one of my actor friends – I had been watching a video – and there she was – one scene with Robert DiNiro – and I couldn’t believe I saw her. “That’s her!”…and then she was gone.

The Valley has such a remarkable heritage.  One day in Canoga Park, riding by the Madrid Theater, I saw a hundred people dressed in “Western wear”, the “best of cowboy culture”.  It was a memorial service for Dale Evans, Roy Rogers’ wife, and here were a hundred people who “kept the West alive” – from the movies – the horse handlers, the saddlers, the armorers, the mule skinners, the construction gang – all the people who made the movies – who would have had duller prosaic lives except for the Errol Flynn’s among us.

A Valley song, or poem perhaps?  A bit closer to reality than Bing Crosby’s version.

But he’d hold my hand tight as he pointed his name out –
Only four or five names down below Errol Flynn.