With cowboy star William S. Hart's will under attack, clues point to why Santa Clarita wants to secede from L.A. County... plus Hollywood's nuns depart, Broadway tour announced & more
Gentle reader,
UPCOMING TOURS: Just announced for August 13 is a walk down Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, to explore the rise, decline and potential of this beautiful mess of a National Register Historic Theatre District. And tomorrow, Sunday July 17, we’ll be strolling around the stickiest, (second) stinkiest and most fascinating landmark in all Los Angeles, the La Brea Tar Pits, on a cultural history, art and architecture tour that’s packed with romance, terror, beauty and pranks. Next Saturday, we’ll be exploring the rich history to be found All Around the Auto Club on West Adams Boulevard. Then on August 6 it’s a walk through Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles. Join us, do!
As expected at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ hearing, the Supes voted unanimously and with no discussion to move forward with Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s motion to initiate negotiations seeking to break the will of silent cowboy star William S. Hart’s to allow the city of Santa Clarita to take ownership of his ranch, house museum and motion picture archives. If they continue on this path, it will eventually end up in probate court—unless a legal challenge can be mounted before it gets there.
Since we raised the alarm about this troubling motion last week, it’s been gratifying to hear from William S. Hart fans all over the country who share our concerns about the stewardship of this unique museum and ranch. Big thanks to Paul Rubens / Pee-wee Herman and Michael McKean for sharing this post to their social media accounts, and to author Deanne Stillman, for telling us about Hart’s famous pinto Fritz, who appears in her book Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, and is buried on the ranch. Hart and Fritz appear together late in life in this rare film clip, and it’s a joy to watch them together.
We live-tweeted Tuesday’s hearing, but after holding for 90 minutes, were never called to speak. Two people did get through on the matter of William S. Hart Park: one concerned citizen who suspects this is being proposed to benefit redevelopment interests, and Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste, who explicitly confirmed that the city’s aim in taking control of William S. Hart Park is to enhance the Old Town Newhall arts and entertainment district and to “greatly expand” the annual Cowboy Festival. (You can listen to her comments here.)
Also, you can see some of the written public comments submitted here, including a terrific unsigned letter about the worldwide significance of William S. Hart as a filmmaker; as of 7/11/2022 the breakdown is 6 opposed to the transfer and 3 in favor.
Back to Mayor Laurene Weste’s interesting comments. What’s going on with the municipal Cowboy Festival that seeks to “greatly expand” into Hart Park? On January 18, the city made this announcement: “Due to L.A. County Department of Public Health restrictions and the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, the City of Santa Clarita regretfully is announcing the cancellation of the 2022 Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival [scheduled for April 23-24]. The current county public health mandates regarding vaccination requirements for staff, volunteers, performers and vendors – make it unfeasible to hold the event this year.”
Many cities and private promoters are holding public events while abiding by public health requirements, but Santa Clarita decided to cancel instead, apparently due to low vaccination rates. We wonder if the impetus to break William S. Hart’s will has its origins in some local decision makers’ discomfort with Los Angeles County’s vaccine requirements, as demonstrated by December 2020 reporting that Santa Clarita was one of several local cities exploring options for forming their own Public Health Department independent of Los Angeles County. We also wonder if public health requirements might have anything to do with William S. Hart Museum having still not reopened to the public, when the County’s other museums have been open since July 2021?
By Wednesday morning, the Hart Museum webpage had been updated with a red banner with the misleading statement “The Hart museum will remain closed until further notice. The County approved a motion to transfer ownership of William S. Hart Park and Museum to the City of Santa Clarita.” That is not actually what the motion says, and it’s troubling that a County-run institution would misrepresent County legislative activity and misinform the public.
The banner links to The latest news about the Hart, which goes into further detail, and implies that the museum will remain closed until ownership is transferred.
We’re going to keep a close eye on the Hart Museum and Ranch, and hope our readers will as well. The Los Angeles County Supervisors are charged with caring for institutions held in the public trust, not disrupting, dismantling, demolishing or giving them away. They blew it badly when they approved demolition of LACMA, and we don’t want them to blow it here.
The night before the Supervisors met, we got a phone call from one of Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s deputies, who was concerned about our concern.
We shared with her a litany of worries about stewardship, security, preservation and conservation of the priceless artifacts that are part of William S. Hart’s gift to the people, and specifically brought up the theft of $2 Million in Western and Native American artwork from the city’s poorly managed Southwest Museum. We didn’t mention the theft of the Navajo blankets donated by William S. Hearst to the Natural History Museum, another inside job.
So we will track the progress of this motion and any court action, and keep you informed about future opportunities to speak out. We expect that unethical art dealers and collectors are also paying attention, but together we can try to ensure Hart’s wishes are honored and his treasures kept safe.
And in other upsetting news from old Western landmarks in the deep San Fernando Valley: scroll to the bottom of our blog post here for a troubling eyewitness report on the current condition of the desecrated California State Landmark folk art environment Old Trapper's Lodge, which Pierce College has decided is not worth preserving and sought to give away.
Excerpt: "As a visitor who came to Pierce Collage hoping to see what I understood to be a protected historic landmark that was being preserved and displayed in its own custom-designed outdoor environment, I was disappointed to discover everything seemingly 'rotting away' as if it no longer had any value. I can honestly say I’ve never seen an officially recognized landmark, and especially not a California State Landmark, in such a neglected and compromised condition." Shame on Pierce College! We are working closely with the artist’s family and are hopeful that this will get straightened out, before any other sculptures are removed by amateurs.
And in the holy section of the Hollywood Hills, as we’d feared when we joined with other concerned citizens to form Friends of the Monastery of the Angels, after 88 years of constant prayer, the pope has officially suppressed the monastery and the last of the nuns are packing their rucksacks. It is now just real estate, but our efforts to preserve it as sacred Catholic space and gardens will continue.
yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available on demand, in-person walking tours, and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.
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There's a phrase in historic preservation, affective ownership, which means a place or a thing that people love and feel like it belongs to them. That was the Sixth Street Viaduct for Angelenos, especially in Boyle Heights and surrounding neighborhoods. It is a shame that the city's promises to rebuild the bridge to its original design were broken, but a small consolation that the person most responsible for this broken promise, indicted councilman Jose Huizar, is awaiting trial and not posing for photo ops on the bridge.
This bridge sought and received Federal highway funds, and the width and entrance orientation reflects the requirements for speed when traveling between the bridge and highway. Were these extra funds sought so the bridge could be more visually spectacular? Would a true recreation of the historic bridge have been cheaper and faster to complete? We don’t expect to ever know the answer, but it helps us know what questions to ask when powerful forces decide the places we love need to go.
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