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Jim Morrison, who lived in a house behind and to the south
of the Canyon Store, was one of the many rocks stars who made Laurel Canyon
their home in the 60's and 70's.
20th Century Canyon History
Edited by Rick Seireeni
Prior to the 1900’s, Laurel Canyon was largely untouched by the
forces of change that were occurring in Hollywood and the Valley. All
that changed with the area’s massive development spurred by immigration
from the east.
Celebrities
and Subdivisions
The Post War Boom
The Beat Generation
Rock’n Roll Era
Gentrification
Celebrities
and Subdivisions
Prior to major development, Laurel Canyon was a secluded valley that supplied
water to farms at the base of the canyon and some hillside grazing to
sheep ranchers. One of the earliest farming estates was owned by Charles
F. Harper, and it dominated the entrance to Laurel Canyon. Harper was
a Civil War veteran who immigrated to California and made his fortune
in the hardware business. He retired in 1895 and moved to Hollywood, where
he "enjoyed the evening of his days" on his 480-acre estate
in Laurel Canyon.
The Harper Ranch at the foot of Laurel Canyon. The picture on the
left shows the view from the canyon looking south, while the picture on
the right shows the Harper mansion at the mouth of Laurel Canyon.
As mentioned in the Early Canyon History
section, the serious development of the canyon was set in motion by Charles
Spencer Mann, an engineer and real estate investor. Mann and his partners
bought property along Laurel Canyon Boulevard and up in the hills. Some
of the first tracks to be developed in the Lookout Mountain bowl were
Bungalow Land and Wonderland Park, both of which were moderately priced
with narrow lots and a network of interconnecting lanes and foot paths.
This legacy of narrow streets is the reason we have parking and emergency
access problems today.
The trackless trolley travelling to Bugalow Land around 1915, and
an ad for Wonderland Park published in 1924. Click on the ad to enlarge.
LCA archives.
As was the custom
in these days, restrictive covenants were attached to the new parcel deeds.
These were thinly veiled attempts to limit ownership to white males of
a certain class. While there are many references to the bigotry of land
developers in our area, it would appear that some residents were also
prone to bias and lawlessness. This article was published in a local paper
in 1925:
"Frank Sanceri,
the man who was flogged by the self-styled "white knights" on
Lookout Mountain in Hollywood several months ago, was found not guilty
yesterday by a jury in Superior Judge Shea's courtroom of having unlawfully
attacked Astrea Jolley, aged 11."
Wealthier residents were also attracted to Laurel Canyon. With the creation
of the Hollywood film industry in 1910, the canyon attracted a host of
"photoplayers", including Wally Reid, Tom Mix, Clara Bow, Richard
Dix, Norman Kerry, Ramon Navarro, Harry Houdini and Bessie Love. Errol
Flynn lived in a huge mansion just north of Houdini's estate. Laurel Canyon
was the BelAir of its day, and many of these actor's English Tudor and
Spanish style homes can still be seen in the canyon today.
Tom Mix, Bessie Love, Norman Kerry, Wallace Reid, Ramon Navarro and Lew
Ayres, six of the earliest silent film star residents of Laurel Canyon.
The silent film era
may have been long ago, but the actors who made Laurel Canyon their home
had personal stories that touch our lives today. Ramon Navarro bucked
the racial conventions of the day and became the first Hispanic actor
in Hollywood. After retiring and in his seventies, he was murdered by
burglars in his home, which was on Laurel Canyon Boulevard just past the
Canyon Store. Lew Ayres, who was profoundly influenced by his role in
All Quiet On The Western Front, became one of the most well-known
conscientious objectors during World War II. It all but ruined his acting
career; but, when asked to resume his previous film role of Dr. Kildare
for television, he insisted that the studio not accept advertising from
cigarette companies. The studio refused. Clara Bow was the product of
a dysfunctional family in Brooklyn. She came to Hollywood as a teenager
and was immediately cast in roles that depicted a strong, sexual woman
overcoming adversity and scorn in a male-dominated world. Her acting skills
generated great sympathy among American audiences and great profits for
her studio employers. Hard partying and scandelous dating temporarily
ended her career, but she made a come-back after marrying a Nevada rancher.
Clara Bow, Hollywood's "IT" girl and one of the sexiest actors
before imposition of the Code of Decency, and at her home in Laurel Canyon.
By the time Harry Houdini had moved to Laurel Canyon, he was already
a rich and famous celebrity. He had come to California to further his
fortune in the Hollywood film industry. In actuality, he had spent little
time at his lavish estate on Laurel Canyon Boulevard before he died. His
wife, Bess, lived out her days at the estate's guest house, using the
mansion to conduct seances with her dead husband.
The Houdini mansion was the most famous of the several estates built along
Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The Houdini mansion burned down in 1958, and
the remaining estate is reportedly haunted.
While more lavish homes were built by Hollywood’s new movie star
elite along Laurel Canyon Boulevard and up on the crest of Appian Way,
the majority of homes built in the shadows of the canyon were more modest
and cabin-like. The properties that were originally bought as vacation
home retreats where now being purchased as primary residences. By the
1920’s, it was a proper community with a one-room schoolhouse, a
local newspaper, a grocery and several restaurants.
An illustrated map of Laurel Canyon published by the Canyon Crier,
the area's first regularly published newspaper. (click to enlarge) The
Crier shared space with Mann Realty at Crier Square at Kirkwood and Laurel
Canyon Blvd. Mann Realty is not related to Charles Spencer Mann, the developer.
Lookout Mountain Road was still very country-like in the 1930's, but development
continued apace. The cabin below left receives a more substantial neighbor.
Development began to speed up in the 30's. Laurel Canyon Boulevard was
regraded and widened to provide access to the San Fernando Valley.
The bucolic, somewhat isolated style of canyon life continued until
the 1940’s. In this decade, the canyon was connected to the Valley
with an over-mountain highway. Suddenly the canyon was not so isolated
anymore. With greater access came still more development, including an
odd extension of the movie industry.
In 1947, the Army Air Corps built its top-secret movie production studio
on Wonderland Park Avenue. Military training films and Department of Defense
documentaries were churned out, including a particularly famous series
on the aboveground nuclear tests in Nevada. The studio was deactivated
in 1969, and thanks to the efforts of the Laurel Canyon Association, it
was prevented from being zoned for further commercial activity.
The top secret 1352d Motion Picture Squadron (Lookout Mountain Laboratory)
hidden in the valley of Wonderland Park Avenue. The studio created documentaries
on Nevada nuclear tests among other projects and is now a unique residence
complex.
The Post War Boom
With the end of World War II, another wave of development came. As in
previous growth spurts, this phase was driven by a population shift to
the Sun Belt and the emergence of new industries, including steel production
and aeronautics. The style was definitely modern with many homes built
on previously unbuildable lots, including homes built on stilts on steep
hillsides – a radical concept for the time. During this period,
Arts & Architecture Magazine commissioned the famous ‘Case Study’
houses, and several fine examples survive in the Laurel Canyon area.
One of 25 ‘Case Study’ houses commissioned by Arts and Architecture
magazine to demonstrate a vision for an efficient and modern Post War
housing style.
All around our neighborhood, hillsides were graded and suburban-style
tract homes were built. It is a wonder that the shady, country-like atmosphere
has survived at all.
The Beat Generation
The Fifties Post-War period also produced The Beat Generation, and Los
Angeles supported a lively coffee house and Jazz music culture. One of
the poets in this movement and a Laurel Canyon resident was Wulf Zendik
(1920-1999). In his A Quest Among The Bewildered, Zendik writes,
"Who am I? How can I say, what can I tell you, tell myself -- is
there a title I might apply? Let's say the thing I do is light dark corners
-- I pick up rotten logs in the dark corner of my mind and look there."
Rock’n Roll Era
In a counterpoint to all this modernism and development, the rustic style
of turn-of-the-century Laurel Canyon was rediscovered by musicians during
the 60’s and 70’s. Laurel Canyon was second only to Haight-Ashbury
as a Mecca for Hippies. This is “where Joni Mitchell was living
when she wrote "Ladies Of The Canyons" and "Clouds";
and, Graham Nash wrote "Our House" when he was living here with
her. Frank Zappa's infamous home during the sixties was located on the
NW corner of Lookout Mountain and Laurel Canyon, where now is a vacant
lot. He eventually moved because every nut in town knew where he lived.”
Other rock stars included Jim Morrison, John Mayall, Carole King, The
Mamas and The Papas, Dusty Springfield, Brian Wilson, and many others.
The 2001 film Laurel Canyon is an homage to this legacy.
Carole King, Brian Wilson, Dusty Springfield, John Mayall, Joni Mitchell
and Frank Zappa are just a few of the musicians who made Laurel Canyon
famous in the 60’s and 70’s.
Laurel Canyon was the physical focal point of the blues-inspired Psychedlic
rock movement, and Frank Zappa's rented cabin at Lookout Mountain and
Laurel Canyon Boulevard was the center of Laurel Canyon's crazed rock
scene. The people who made appearances at the lower cabin that was home
to silent film star, Tom Mix, and at the upper Tree House that was designed
by famed architect Rober Byrd in the 1920's included, John Mayall, the
famed GTO's (Girls Together Outrageously), the "Plaster Casters",
Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Love, Janis Joplin, James Taylor, Mick Jagger,
Mary-Ann Faithful, Jeff Beck and many others.
"It was also durng this period that frequent cabin-guest Jimi Hendrix
briefly resided in the Errol Flynn mansion to the north of the property.
The mansion was once a home for "wayward women" and was also
occupied in earlier years by notables ranging from Bugsy Siegel to W.C.
Fields. The mansion is currently owned by Rick Rubin, co-founder of Def
Jam Records and produccer of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails,
The Black Crowes and numerous others." - Mike Slarve Management.
Jim Morrison's house, which was recently remodeled, is next door to
the Canyon Cleaners and behind the Country Store.
Of course, with music came drugs. The LAPD's narcotics unit had targeted
Laurel Canyon as a special enforcement area, but not before the infamous
murders of four drug dealers in 1981 on Wonderland Avenue, just a few
houses away from then Governor Jerry Brown's home. The porn star, John
Holmes, aka Johnny Wadd, was implicated at first, but then a Palestinian
immigrant named Eddie Nash who owned the Kit Kat Club strip joint was
arrested and later acquitted. The film Boogie Nights was loosely
based on Holmes' life, but the 2003 film Wonderland is based
on this shocking event. Holmes later died of complications from AIDS.
The porn star John Holmes testifying at the trial for the brutal murder
of four petty criminals on Wonderland Avenue in 1981. LA Times.
Nevertheless, this funky, Rock’nRoll character lives on in the people
one sees at the Canyon Store – then and now, “the place where
the creatures meet.”
Gentrification
The years since 1980 have seen a gradual gentrification of the canyon.
Older homes have been bought by new residents and remodeled. Our Wonderland
School, which is the pride of the community, is packed with the children
of a new generation of parents. And, we have a vigorous community group,
something we will need in order to preserve the special life style we
enjoy here in Laurel Canyon. As with every other place in Southern California,
property values have increased. As those values continue to rise, so too
the pressure to knock down older homes and develop marginal lots. The
result is ever-larger homes that push nature aside.
An example of inappropriate development with massive grading and huge
retaining walls. Notice how the home on the left is dwarfed by this project.
This is a future we can either accept or control. If the Tongva and their
ancestors were able to preserve the land for 40,000 years, certainly we
can preserve it for the next generation.
If you have additions, corrections or historical images to add to
this history, please contact Rick Seireeeni at webmaster@laurelcanyon.com.
Back to the Top
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Your Laurel Canyon Association
Emergency Information
Government Services
Geology and Climate
Early Canyon History
View From Lookout Mtn, 1906
20th Century Canyon History
Flora and Fauna
Residential Styles
Wonderland School
Recreation
Community Resources
Quality of Life Issues
What To Do: Fire
What To Do: Rain & Flood
A Blueprint For Paradise
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