Jane Russell at Taos West

Below is a picture of Jane Russell from January 1972 taken at her apartment complex "Taos West" on Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys California

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Below is a picture of Kaiser Hospital on Woodman Ave. taken from the roof of Jane Russell's apartment building "Taos West". The year was 1976.

Below is a picture taken from inside the Hi Lo Drugstore at Sepulveda Blvd and Sherman Way in Van Nuys. The picture looks out onto the parking lot on Sepulveda. The year is 1976

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.

Name Dropping from Van Nuys

Here is a picture of my parents from 1960 in the driveway of our new apartment at 13760 Sherman Way. Thats the 1959 Plymouth we drove from Detroit to Van Nuys. Our apartment was on the top floor in front, in the building to the left of said parents and Plymouth.

I did not learn until much later in life that we lived in an interesting little piece of the San Fernando Valley. At the time the infamous L.A. gangster Mickey Cohen lived just around the corner from us on Wyandotte, between Ranchito and Woodman Avenue. He was renting a house with his wife just before he went to prison.

Also near our aprtment there used to be a ranch called La Posade which was owned by the family of the actress Jane Russell. The only information I can find on it states it was near the corner of Sherman Way and Woodman. If anyone has any additional information I would love to hear from you. Anyway, on the northwest corner of Sherman Way and Woodman there is now a Ralph's Supermarket. When we moved there in 1960 it was an empty lot. My friend Roberto Alvarez and I used to go over there and play soldiers. The TV show Combat was popular at the time and this empty lot full of stuff was a good place from which to take out German's. Since I found out about Mrs. Russell's childhood ranch I wondered if this empty lot night have been part of her family ranch.

One day progress moved into our neighborhood and a supermarket went up at the site of our boyhood battleground. When the store opened I recall going over there to see Engineer Bill. I think I walked away with an Oscar Meyer whistle, which I wish I still had. I seem to recall that Bill Cullan played Engineer Bill at the time. However I could be mistaken.

Fast forward to 1976 and you will find my parents and me living at an apartment building called the Taos West on Woodman Avenue, just south of Kaiser. Taos West was owned by Jane Russell and for a period of time she lived in the building while we were there. We would see here quite often and occasionally have a conversation. At the time I was also in Van Nuys Demolay with her nephew Gary Russell, though we ran in separate crowds.

The area has obviously changed, but a close look and you can still see an outlet of the old days. Si Gordon's Pharmacy is gone and is now a mini mall. But the lot on the southwest corner looks much the same as it did back when the Yankees ruled and cars still had tail fins.