MILEPOSTS #1018

By Ken Brafman, Image from the Ken Brafman Collection

TITLE: MORE STARS THAN THERE ARE IN HEAVEN – PART ONE: Our San Bernardino Mountains have a rich history of peoples. We’ve written about the Serrano Indians, who were here for thousands of years, prior to the arrival of the Mormons. While the 1850s era had the glimmer of gold discoveries to the east, the Mormons forged a road to the west that would create a major, competitive logging industry that would last for over 50 years. But in 1914 a new mountain glimmer would be born when Cecil B. DeMille, the pioneer filmmaker, discovered the San Bernardino Mountains. DeMille used our familiar mountain set to make films for well into thirty years. The still controversial The Birth of a Nation (1915) was made here by D.W. Griffith. There is at least one scene from Gone with the Wind (1939) that was shot in Big Bear. Film and television production has flourished here to the present day. So understandably, many hundreds of celebrities and notables have either visited or lived here among us.

At our Mountain History Museum in Lake Arrowhead, we exhibit a large table map that pinpoints the location of close to 150 movie and television stars, along with businesspeople, film and television executives, real estate tycoons and others. The list is long and includes people like J. B. Van Nuys – the one-time owner of Lake Arrowhead. Edward Doheny lived at Lake Arrowhead. So did Liberace and Charlie Chaplin. When they could, many celebrities and the like escaped the heat of Southern California to enjoy our waters and our cooler air. Today’s image is the top half of an advertisement for Jerry Fitzgerald’s Mountain Lodge from the 1950s. It was one of the many dozens of hangouts for the rich and famous and it was in the Skyland area of Crestline. My understanding is that it burned down, possibly in the 60s. Pictured are actress June Havoc, then the host, followed by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Havoc’s husband is one of the people to the right.

Share this: