Alhambra’s Urban Legends
By
Gary Frueholz, Dilbeck Real Estate
Urban Legend:
A secondhand story told as true and just plausible
enough to be believed. Wikipedia
Hotel Hollywood is a 1937 movie directed by Busby Berkeley set in
America’s heartland of Missouri farmland and the Saint Louis Airport. Dick
Powell is a member of a local orchestra who is receiving a grand sendoff at the
Saint Louis Airport for a Hollywood screen test.
Powell’s sendoff includes a parade by the orchestra along a highway
surrounded by fields of grain and into the parking lot and lobby of the Saint Louis
Airport.
There’s just one thing. It is not Missouri farmland and the Saint Louis
Airport. In reality the scene was filmed along Valley Boulevard and the parade
ends in the lobby of the Alhambra Airport Terminal.
This DVD can be checked out from the Alhambra Museum at 1550 W.
Alhambra Road. It was one of the few records of the Alhambra Airport’s main
terminal lobby.
There was a time when Alhambra had one of the Southland’s largest
airports, a polo field that was patronized by Hollywood’s elite, and an artist’s
enclave that included the likes of Norman Rockwell.
And around these notable footnotes of Alhambra history, there have been
myths and folklore developing over the years that have created a myriad of
Alhambra’s Urban Legends.
The Alhambra Airport was built in 1920 and covered 157 acres. It ran
from the corner of Valley Boulevard and New Avenue and then proceeded
southwest toward where the San Bernardino Freeway and Mark Keppel High
School now stand.
The runway stretched 2870 feet and along with the main terminal, the
airport boasted an impressive hexagonal maintenance facility which was the
largest of its kind in the world when it was constructed by Western Air Express,
which would later become Western Airlines, in 1929.
Movies such as They Met At Bombay (1941) with Clark Gable, Rosalind
Russell, and Peter Lorre, Flight Lieutenant (1940) staring Pat O’Brien and Glenn
Ford, and Thirteen Hours By Air (1936) with Fred MacMurray were filmed at the
airport.
The combination of World War II and the Lockheed plant next to the Burbank
Airport created competition for the Alhambra Airport and resulted in its closure in
1943. In it place residential housing sprung up and is now called the Alhambra
Airport Tract.
Here in the Airport Tract is one of Alhambra’s urban legends. Gregory
“Pappy” Boyington was one of the United States most decorated pilots during the
Second World War. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor and shot down
28 Japanese planes. The television show The Black Sheep Squadron staring
Robert Conrad during the 1970’s chronicled Boyington’s wartime experiences.
Urban legend claims that Boyington lived in the Airport Tract for a period
after World War II. Old timers tell this story and records with the City of
Alhambra show that a family named Boyington lived in the Airport Tract on East
Norwood Place. In the past neighbors were impressed to see paintings of hula
maidens dancing under palm trees displayed in the property’s garage with the
name Boyington signed at the bottom.
Alhambra had one of Southern California’s premier polo fields during the
first half of the twentieth century. The field was part of the Midwick Country Club.
The club was established in 1913 and stretched from Hellman Avenue to Garvey
Avenue and from Atlantic Boulevard over to Fremont Avenue. After World War II
the club closed and the area was developed with residential housing and became
known as the Midwick Tract.
During its heyday the club’s impressive colonial clubhouse rested on the
Midwickhill in the middle of the area and overlooked the polo field, golf course,
and tennis courts. The likes of Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy, Will Rogers, David
Niven, and General George S. Patton played on the polo field. International polo
teams also played on this field which was characterized by America’s top polo
player, Tommy Hitchcock, as the “best (field) I have ever played on”.
The expansive facility was also utilized by Hollywood for movies such as
National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney and The Adventures of
Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
Another of Alhambra’s urban legends emanates from the Midwick Country
Club and its polo field.
On February 18, 1939 the English and American international teams
played a match. Tragically, one of England’s top players, Captain Charles “Pat”
Roark, died from injuries resulting from his horse falling on him. Time Magazine
said in its March 6, 1939 issue that the death of Captain Roark was “mourned on
four continents”. Alhambra had the distinction of having one of the world’s
leading players killed on its polo field.
Over time a seemingly different story emerged. In the July 19, 1993
edition of the Los Angeles Times on page B3 stated that “top British star Pat
Roark was killed in 1939 when his pony rolled over him during a duel with
Pedley” (one of America’s best players).
How could this be? You are killed by your horse falling on you and you
are killed in a duel.
These two facts are not mutually exclusive.
The story told by some long time residents of the Midwick Tract claims
that the two players became inflamed with each other and had to be separated
after the match.
Ray Dawson, who grew up in the Midwick Tract and still lives there, said
that Roark challenged Pedley to a duel with pistols. Dawson said that the story
told by early residents of the Midwick Tract was that both men mounted their
horses for the duel and Roark fired first.
“His (Roark’s) shot missed, but the horse bolted because of the sound of
the pistol and threw Roark to the ground,” said Dawson. “The horse then fell and
rolled on him (Roark) and crushed him.”
I contacted the Museum of Polo & Hall of Fame in Florida to get their
account. Brenda Lynn, the Director of Development for the museum, said that
the reference of a “duel” was probably an indicator of the keen competition
between those two players on opposing teams and that this word “duel” may
have sparked an urban legend that there was gun play involved.
Another Alhambra urban legend concerns the old McKay’s drugstore at
the corner of Main Street and Third Street.
One of Alhambra High’s funniest graduates was Stan Freberg, Class of
‘44. Freberg entertained on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, took over
Jack Benny’s time slot on CBS radio, and acted in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Legend has it that Freberg drew a large crowd to McKay’s drugstore by
threatening to jump off the fifth story roof. Freberg carefully arranged to have two
men dressed in white pull him away from the edge of the roof and then unfurled a
banner urging fellow students to vote for him in upcoming student elections.
Another urban legend centers around Alhambra’s Artist Colony on the
eastern boarder of the city. Here there was a magnificent view of the San
Gabriel Mountains from Champion Place as artists looked over a stream that
since has become the Alhambra Wash.
Notables in this group included Norman Rockwell, who indeed did spend
many winters in Alhambra with his good friend and fellow artist, Clyde Forsythe.
Both men had become acquainted through their work with The Saturday Evening
Post. Forsythe purchased a home on North Almansor Street while most of the
other artists lived on Champion Place.
Whether these urban legends are true is not the point. The significance is
that there was a time when Alhambra was known throughout the world for the
events on its polo field and the movies filmed there, its airport that rivaled any in
Southern California, and nationally known artists like Norman Rockwell who
found the city an inspiring location to create their work.
Gary Frueholz is a realtor with Dilbeck Real Estate, a past member of
the Alhambra Planning Commission, a certified Senior Real Estate
Specialist, and can be reached at 626-318-9436.