Gangster Mickey Cohen in Van Nuys

Twice in this blog I have mentioned that when we moved to Sherman Way, near Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys in 1960, that the gangster Mickey Cohen lived two streets north of us. I learned this a few years ago while researching San Fernando Valley mob history. Today I logged onto the Facebook page of "Valley Relics" and someone posted a picture of Mickey Cohen in front of his Van Nuys Home. I included a Goggle map to show the location.

Hazeltine Ave. Elementary School 2010 Pictures

Our intrepid Van Nuys corespondent Bob Walance stopped by Hazeltine Elementary School this past weekend and took quite a few pictures of our old school. With the exception of a portion of the playground now being filled with storage units and new classrooms the old school looks much the same. They are in the process of painting the exterior of the school. I may be wrong but I don't think the color of the school has changed much since we were there back in the 1960's. Bob also took a few shots of the surrounding area. Some has changed and some remains. Pinecrest School is still across the street. Thanks Bob for the trip down memory lane. Google street view is great but nothing beats Bob and his camera. Bob asked if he could enter the school to take more shots but he was told no. Still what he got is fantastic. Here is the link:

http://s403.photobucket.com/home/BobW_2000/recentuploads

Jane Russell,Taos West & Apple Records

Here is an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner about Jane Russell's new apartment building. As you can see my Mom wrote on it to commemorate our first band job. We played in the rec room of the building which was by the pool in the picture.


About 5 years later our family moved into this building. We had a nice apartment not to far from this courtyard. The apartment was a split level. the living room, kitchen and small dining area were on the first floor and on the next level up, which was maybe 6 steps were the two bedrooms and one full bath. For some reason my parents gave me the master bedroom. Could be because of all my music, stereo's and other stuff. The unique thing about the room was it had the bathroom sink in the bedroom. I was told it was a European style. I thought it a bit weird but got used to it. Not many of my friends had a bathroom in their room.

The other great thing about the apartment was its proximity to Van Nuys Blvd. A short twisting drive down Lanark Street brought me to the boulevard. Once you crossed Van Nuys Blvd. you came upon a great little record store called Apple Records. it was more of a warehouse turned into a store. In a few short years I picked up hundreds of LP's, cassettes, 8-tracks and reel to reel's.

Like most people I do download music from time to time but nothing compares with going to a store, rifling through the bins, finding a gem and bringing it home and listening to it. I'm old school, I like to hold the album in my hand and read through the liner notes as it plays.