By Mary-Justine Lanyon.
Editor
As he began his historical presentation on April 17, Russ Keller reminded the audience at the library in Blue Jay that James Mooney – who owned Little Bear Lake and developed the Little Bear Resort – died in 1919 during the flu epidemic.
All his holdings went on the market, Keller said. A consortium of nine Los Angeles millionaires bought everything – over 5,000 acres of property, the lake and the resort. “They wanted to make it one of the premier resort destinations in California, if not the nation,” Keller said.
The consortium – known as the Arrowhead Lake Company – tore down Little Bear Resort and began construction of the old Lake Arrowhead Village in 1921. The Village opened on June 24, 1922. There was a casino with a dance hall that opened on July 4, 1922.
There was lots to do in the old Village. In 1929 there was a beauty parlor, post office, real estate office, telephone and telegraph office, cafeteria, delicatessen, meat and grocery market, drug store, soda fountain, hardware and plumbing store, cleaning and pressing establishment, barber shop, shoe repair shop, boat house, bath house, movie theater, library and numerous places to stay.
At the end of the peninsula there was a beach, where the boat house and bath house were located.
In the 1920s and 30s, the Village had the Ye Gesture Theater, after which the current Center Stage is patterned.
Keller passed around photos of the 1933 storm, a storm he said was the worst snowstorm in the mountains until Snowmageddon. “Traffic was stuck for days – 2,000 motorists were stuck,” Keller said.
One of the most popular attractions in the Old Village was the Swingin’ Gym. “You could go all the way around,” Keller said, adding he talked to four people who swore they had the record for going the most times around.
Many movies were filmed in the Old Village: Very Confidential in 1927; Just for You in 1952 with Bing Crosby and Natalie Wood; Magnificent Obsession in 1954 with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson; Swingin’ Summer in 1965 with Raquel Welch and Robert Blair.
Fast forward to 1946 when the Arrowhead Lake Company was in receivership. The lake and the Village were on the market and purchased by the Los Angeles Turf Club.
The Village went through other ownerships, including Boise Cascade, which bought the Village in 1967. In 1978 GC Properties bought the Village, which was in need of renovation. The decision was made to burn it down in a burn-to-learn exercise for the local fire departments. The only thing not burned was the dance pavilion.
On Nov. 19, 1980, the official opening of the new Lake Arrowhead Village took place. At that time the clock tower was raised and what opened as a Hilton but is now the Lake Arrowhead Resort was built.
Keller’s next presentation on other sites of historical interest around Lake Arrowhead will take place at the Lake Arrowhead branch library in Blue Jay on Thursday, May May 15 at 2:00 p.m.
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