Did you know the Valley is the "Hand that feeds Los Angeles"? So said boosters in the 1920s, before Owensmouth became Canoga Park & First Nat'l Studio became Warner Bros. This is one of the oddest maps of the Valley I've seen & frankly a little creepy... Is it cuz it's handsy?🤔 pic.twitter.com/zwISHPlOy8
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) January 25, 2022
Tarzana was famously named after the character Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose ranch encompassed much of the community. The neighborhood was subdivided... along with this bitchen-ass brochure to lure homeowners. I'm in!! pic.twitter.com/XJG0NRzMhP
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) January 19, 2022
In 1912 the Valley advertised a "payroll town" ($$$) called Mulholland. Developers in Pacoima changed the name to the water king to capitalize on his popularity & its proximity to the soon-opened aqueduct. Mulholland disapproved of the scheme; it reverted to Pacoima a year later. pic.twitter.com/zevUWGthH5
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) September 27, 2021
The feed has a lot of images from old Los Angeles:
Catalina used to have a popular attraction called Sugar Loaf -- a volcanic hill on an Avalon promontory that tourists would scale on a rickety staircase. But don't look for it these days. William Wrigley had it dynamited in 1929 cuz it blocked the ocean view from his new Casino. pic.twitter.com/vGhonnjC4l
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) January 22, 2022
Magic Mountain's trolls and Wizard mascots in the 1970s were like something straight out of an H.R. Pufnstuf episode. I remember scoring a photo with the elusive Wizard was a BIG deal...like getting a pic with Mickey at Disneyland. Looney Tunes characters killed them off in 1985. pic.twitter.com/lUJ2U0LJ84
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) November 11, 2021
The Van de Kamp Bakery building on Fletcher Drive in Glassell Park is a model of repurposed preservation, but I also love the Art Deco building on the north side of the street, whose portal still includes this milk maid -- a residue of the old Valley Dairy Co., founded in 1931. pic.twitter.com/GE4iUQR9HY
— L.A. Dork (@la_dorkout) October 21, 2021