Stan Laurel's house: The Fort

[BrianShaw]

[Note: this thread is a continuation (change of topic) of the 'weird ebay transaction' thread.]

Lance,

20136 Strathern? If so... it's still there. My Mom, who still lives in the neighborhood, pointed straight at it when I mentioned Stan Laurel. I'll post pics tommorrow if I can, but out of the camera they exceed the 1M size limit.

Brian

 

[scottgee1]

Brian, which photo editing software do you use?

You should be able to size for screen use and get the file size well below 100KB.

Please advise any questions.

ScottGee1

 

[BrianShaw]

Brian, which photo editing software do you use?

You should be able to size for screen use and get the file size well below 100KB.

Please advise any questions.

ScottGee1

I use Photoshop Elements, but it's on my other computer and I won't be able to get to it until morning. It's a personal problem more than a knowledge or software problem. Thanks for the offer of advise... I might end up taking you up on it later!

 

[scottgee1]

May sound strange but I was thinking about Stan Laurel earlier today. I recall reading that he ended up destitute in a cold water flat somewhere near L.A. Now, a house? "The Fort"? Perhaps I was misinformed! Looking forward to The Rest Of The Story!

ScottGee1

 

[lmd91343]

[Note: this thread is a continuation (change of topic) of the 'weird ebay transaction' thread.]

Lance,

20136 Strathern? If so... it's still there. My Mom, who still lives in the neighborhood, pointed straight at it when I mentioned Stan Laurel. I'll post pics tommorrow if I can, but out of the camera they exceed the 1M size limit.

Brian

He moved out to the Valley after his fourth(?) marriage. He built a very large house, with large grounds. He surrounded the entire place with a tall wall to keep the press at bay. The press dubbed it "Fort Laurel". About the time of his stroke (early '60s), he sold it and moved to a small apartment in Santa Monica with his sixth wife. At least he did not bring his first wife on his sixth honeymoon like he did on his second! 😀 😀 I'll also double check the address. It's from memory.

I thought "the Fort" was demolished and several houses built on its former grounds. That is speculation on my part. One might have the same address. I have not investigated what happened after 1965. I'll drive by next time I go west. I'll see if I can grab a pix out of a book.

 

[lmd91343]

Scott,

Minor point - Winnetka is part of L.A.. It is just a postal district name. Same mayor, and police, ...

Stan Laurel made tons of money. I think he moved to Santa Monica for health and age reasons. Santa Monica is also MUCH cooler in the summer. This was about the time the movie academy gave him a lifetime achievement oscar. He was too embarrassed by his infirmities to go on stage in front of TV cameras.

-Lance

May sound strange but I was thinking about Stan Laurel earlier today. I recall reading that he ended up destitute in a cold water flat somewhere near L.A. Now, a house? "The Fort"? Perhaps I was misinformed! Looking forward to The Rest Of The Story!

ScottGee1

 

[lmd91343]

May sound strange but I was thinking about Stan Laurel earlier today. I recall reading that he ended up destitute in a cold water flat somewhere near L.A. Now, a house? "The Fort"? Perhaps I was misinformed! Looking forward to The Rest Of The Story!

ScottGee1

Scott,

It is weird. I was thinking about him also today, just before I read Brian's post. I had recently seen "Way Out West". To realize he was behind all the directing, writing, editing, and timing of that full length and his earlier movies, I came to the conclusion that he was a genius. "Way Out West" and "Sons of the Desert" are the Boy's two great full length films. Watch the Marx Brothers "Go West" and check for similarities. When the Boys moved from MGM/Roach to 20th Century/Fox, Laurel lost control of production and the results suffered greatly.

A large number of movie and later TV stars moved to the more private, wider open spaces of the Valley rather than Beverly Hills. Stan Laurel moved from B.H. to the Valley to escape the press. Hence "Fort Laurel". Five marriages, live in girl friends, and contract walk outs made him the king of the tabloid press for a while.

Other stars that lived in that immediate area on "ranches" included Roy Rodgers & Dale Evens, Bing Crosby, Desi Arnez & Lucille Ball, and Bob Hope just a little further east in the Valley. Gene Autry's Melody Ranch was also a movie set. It was a little further north, over the next hill, just out of L.A. city. I have a story about Autry's Melody Ranch.

Both Bing Crosby and Roy Rodgers released the song, "San Fernando Valley". "I'm goin' settle down and never more roam and make the San Fernando Valley my home!

 

[BrianShaw]

Lance,

There's a web site that has the same address that you mentioned in an earlier post. If that is correct, then "The Fort" is gone and has been replaced by two 1980-era homes.

As I said earlier, my Mom heard from one of the neighbors that the address of Stan's place was 20136... Strathern, just past Commanche on the south side. It is a uniquely styled home that has been inhabited by a weird assortment of prop-guys and musicians for as long as I can remember. That house is bigger than most of the older homes in the area, but it isn't BIG.

Here are some pics of 20136 Strathern. Please forgive that they are not rangefinder pictures... I borrowed my wife's digital P&S.

You'll note that this was once a really nice home on a big lot... but doesn't quite fit the description that you gave. The 20213 area, however, was always the traditional "Weeks Acre" lots before the 1980's homes were built according to my recollection.

[EDIT: THIS IS NOT THE STAN LAUREL ESTATE. SEE LATER POSTS FOR UPDATED INFORMATION.]

 

[BrianShaw]

May sound strange but I was thinking about Stan Laurel earlier today. I recall reading that he ended up destitute in a cold water flat somewhere near L.A. Now, a house? "The Fort"? Perhaps I was misinformed! Looking forward to The Rest Of The Story!

ScottGee1

I don't know about Stan being destitude, but he did move out of his Malibu home and into a Santa Monica apartment shortly before he died.

 

[BrianShaw]

Minor point - Winnetka is part of L.A.. It is just a postal district name. Same mayor, and police, ...

Which, in many ways, is fortunate, and in other ways unfortunate. As scary as the unknown often is, I was intriqued by the notion of Valley Succession before it failed at the ballots.

 

[lmd91343]

Brian,

I just checked a biography by Simon Louvish "Stan and Ollie ...". He has the 20213 address. The fence was described as seven foot tall and one foot thick and made of brick.

He married is sixth wife after he moved in.

The streets have been widened more than once in that area from my memory. That may have removed part or all of the fence. That's what happened to the Bud Abbot estate on the hill at the corner of Woodlake and Saticoy. A big chunk of the property was lost to asphalt.

 

[BrianShaw]

Okay Lance... you have a better memory for Valley history than do I!

I did some newspaper search (Valley News); here are a few pertinent tidbits from the papers:

- The address was 20213 Strathern as you recalled.
- Stan lived there with his 3rd wife Illiana, who sued to evict him from the Starthern home in a 1838 marital dispute.
- Stan's hobby was masonry and he built many of htose walls himself.
- Stan's daughter, Lois Laurel Brook lived in teh neighborhood also - at 5329 Tampa.
- In 1949 the estate was home to Fred Tushinsky, a Sony Corp exec and later Sr. VP of marketing/sales of Superscope. (He is related to Joseph S. Tushinsky, former Chairman of the Board of Sony).
- In the 1970's the estate was home to the Henla Haldn Child House (a private school).

Now here's the bizare thing... I rode my bike or drove my car by this site EVERY DAY in the 1970's and 1980's and have no recollection of a school or large estate in that area. During the 1980's, when the new homes were bing built, I maintained a residence in that area but was rarely home due to extensive business travel.

20213 Strathern no longer exists... even the house number is gone. The two houses at that site are numbered 20211 and 20215.

I always wondered why Sony/Superscope had a large headquarters on the corner of Mason and Nordhoff (remember that?)... now I find out that the Tushinsky's were neighbors -- Fred once living in Canoga Park (Winnetka) and Joseph in Encino.

I think we've got htis figured out. Thanks very much for the opportunity for such interesting recollection. I guess I should have been paying more attention to the history of my home town when that history still existed!

 

[BrianShaw]

That's what happened to the Bud Abbot estate on the hill at the corner of Woodlake and Saticoy. A big chunk of the property was lost to asphalt.

Are you talking about the big white one on the SouthEast corner... or the one that was recently bulldozed on the NorthEast corner? Both lost some of their side yard and the one on the North side of Saticoy was razed earlier this year. That house on the SouthEast is really gorgeous, and has really nice yard with outbuilding and greenhouses. I drool over it every time I pass by (4 or 5 times a week).

Strathern was widened a bit over the years but not to the extent of other streets like Saticoy. The widening of Strathern was mostly the construction of paved sidwalks on established 'soft shoulder' city easements. In many parts of the Weeks Colony (Strathern & Arminta especially) you can tell the front boundries of a Weeks Acre by the Pepper trees that were encouraged to be planted at the front corners of each lot. Sometimes it was palm trees rather than Pepper that was planted. Some still remain despite the massive redevelopment and are now in the parkway that separates the sidwalk from street..

 

[lmd91343]

AH! That's why those pepper trees are there. They are so big and beautiful!

Yes, I remember SuperScope! That is a beautiful building.

Bub Abbot's house is on the southeast corner. It is still standing. His estate spanned both sides of Saticoy. As I recall, the stables were on the northeast.

Take a look at the detail on the fence on Woodlake. Also look at the arbor/trellis walkway behind the house. It can be seen from Saticoy.

As for the numbering of Stan's wives, He married one multiple times confusing the numbering. He had six or seven weddings all told. (there was one that he claimed never happened. There is no record, only a woman who filed a complaint.)

The history in the west Valley is being trampled by development and chipped away by street widening. In the east Valley it is mostly gone.

Strathern is an oddball street. As you are aware, most of the Valley (save Lankershim Blvd and the extreme edges) is laid out on the old N/S/E/W township and range survey lines. The main streets all are on one mile and one half mile intervals. Strathern is on one of those half mile streets. It is the only one that did not become a main street! (Nordhoff, Parthenia, Roscoe, ?Strathern?, Saticoy, Sherman Way, Vanowen)

 

[BrianShaw]

Two interesting sites (that you might already know about). I haven't fully explored them yet:

http://digital-library.csun.edu/index2.html

http://www.americassuburb.com/ Take a look at "gone but not forgotten" page. I almost cried when I saw what is gone that I thought were still there. And ot think, there are many "gone things" that aren't yet in the list: teledyne (just this year), van de Kamp's on reseda/roscoe (way too long ago), etc, etc.

 

[lmd91343]

There are two more interesting things very close to my house.

The Stetson (hat) estate is over on Haskell across the street from Monroe High School. It was deeded to a church which has slowly built over the grounds with new buildings. There was a large house with over an acre of gardens including a 50 foot long reflecting pool, many statues, and several substantial lawns surrounded by a variety of garden styles (informal, symmetrical, ...).
My Boy Scout troop met there in the '60s.

The second interesting thing I know nothing about. It is about 200 feet from my house. It is a very large house (4k sq feet?) on three lots, surrounded by a tall ivy covered fence. The house has several add-ons. It is in the middle of a large (my) tract. I know it is not an old farm house with additions. There is one of those just a short block away!

 

[lmd91343]

Two interesting sites (that you might already know about). I haven't fully explored them yet:

http://digital-library.csun.edu/index2.html

http://www.americassuburb.com/ Take a look at "gone but not forgotten" page. I almost cried when I saw what is gone that I thought were still there. And ot think, there are many "gone things" that aren't yet in the list: teledyne (just this year), van de Kamp's on reseda/roscoe (way too long ago), etc, etc.

Thank you. I did not know about these. I guess the green sheet/daily news archives are good too. I've never looked there.

 

[grafenberg]

excellent job.

sad to know 20123 is gone

 

[grafenberg]

any news refer to 20213???

 

[lmd91343]

any news refer to 20213???

Have not checked in over two years