A Mighty Wurlitzer, the largest theater pipe organ in the West, sounds off in Sylmar. Vintage hot rods, among the finest in the nation, rumble into Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. Harry Potter fans shriek through Universal Studios Hollywood, one of the oldest film sets in the world.
The sounds and sights resonate across the San Fernando Valley — an outgrowth of Los Angeles and one of the most dynamic, distinctive and debonair urban sprawls in America.
The U.S. Census Bureau, following a history by native author Kevin Roderick, has declared it “America’s suburb.” The Los Angeles Daily News hails it home to “The Good Life.”
“It’s a great place to live, work and play,” declared Kenn Phillips, president and CEO of the Valley Economic Alliance, one of the Valley’s premier nonprofit business collaboratives. “You’ve heard it talked about — and sung about — in movies, TV series and pop-rock music videos.
“It’s the world-renowned San Fernando Valley.”
The Valley, as it’s known throughout Los Angeles. Home to the hallmark 818 area code and 1.8 million residents, more than the populations of a dozen states.
Home to enough people to be the fifth largest city in the nation, outpacing Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Antonio.
And home to a third of the population of Los Angeles, plus the cities of Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale, Hidden Hills, San Fernando and unincorporated Universal City, home to the century-old Universal Studios.
The San Fernando Valley boasts its own good life in both light and sound.
Where each daily sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains lights up a roughly 250-square-mile plain whose farm fields, orchards and celebrity ranches before World War II gave way to the swimming pool, sports car and creative capitals of the country.
Where some of the nation’s first movies were shot in near year-round sunshine along the banks of the Los Angeles River, now running beneath the majestic Sepulveda Dam.
Where films from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” would pose as bright Valley backdrops. Or “Chinatown” exposed a darker side of Los Angeles development. And “Boogie Nights” highlighted a global hub for pornography.
And where the Valley-based Brady Bunch became etched into the nation’s popular culture.
While Hollywood can steal the glitz, the Valley is where many celebrities call home. And where such studios as Universal, the Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. still provide the backbone of the global film industry.
It’s where everyday Angelenos take good weather, good homes, good schools — and celebrity sightings — in stride.
The sounds of the Valley can be heard by both the trained and untrained ear.
The drone of the Valley’s freeways as commuters connect with more than 70,000 Valley brick-and-mortar businesses — the most well known in aerospace, film and TV production and music recording, Phillips said, plus the nation’s largest concentration of small manufacturers.
The hum of the Metro Orange Line busway, among the nation’s largest. The clickety-clack of Metrolink. The whoosh of Hollywood Burbank Airport, among the nation’s most accessible big-city airfields. The buzz of Van Nuys Airport, among the nation’s busiest for business jets.
The throb of a Van Nuys-based Condor Squadron, formations of Van Nuys-based World War II AT-6 Texan warbirds, resound like radial buzz saws on weekends and holidays overhead.
Each school day, parents drop off their kids off at hundreds of public schools across the Valley, including Granada Hills Charter High School, perennial winner of the national Academic Decathlon, and North Hollywood High School, winner of a 2017 national cybersecurity competition and top contender in a National Science Bowl.
Each day, older students flood the Valley’s highly rated college campuses, from Los Angeles Mission, L.A. Valley and L.A. Pierce community colleges to California State University, Northridge, the third-largest four-year college in the Golden State.
Each night, Vals order up their groceries in a slew of tongues from Persian, Russian, Korean, Latino and ethnic markets on just about every corner.
Or they may call out toasts from the countless ethnic restaurants along Ventura Boulevard and beyond, enough to rival any multicultural foodie stretch in America.
For decades, the Valley’s hungry diehards have made beelines for the Valley’s famous hamburgers, hot dogs and seasoned fries, sharing grunts of greasy goodness outside decades-old standbys at The Munch Box, Cupid’s, Daglas and In-N-Out.
When not swinging to evening jazz at The Baked Potato, they’re nodding to country at the Cowboy Palace Saloon or straightening their evening duds for classical at CSUN’s Valley Performing Art Center.
On weekends, bells and other sounds of worship ring out from the Valley’s internationally recognized Modern-style churches, synagogues and mosques.
The sizzle of barbecue sends smoke swirling around the splash of backyard pools.
At parks across the Valley, the laughter of family picnics mingles with the rustle of vegetables at farmers markets and the roar of children’s soccer, baseball and softball games.
In the vast Sepulveda Basin, a honk of geese at Lake Balboa is joined by a chorus of dogs at the largest off-leash dog park in Los Angeles.
At the Nethercutt Museum, filled with one of the nation’s best collection of turn-of-the-century automobiles, a music room filled with a Wurlitzer and other self-playing instruments bellows out notes of joy.
And then there comes a banging of hammers, a slapping of paint and a busy stuffing of care packages as Valley neighbors volunteer to help Valley neighbors at home and overseas.
For in the Valley, the good life means spreading a lot of Valley love.
“The San Fernando Valley is the heart of volunteerism in the United States,” said David S. Honda, a civic leader and winner of the prestigious Fernando Award for philanthropy. “People in the Valley have heart.
“They recognize that they need to give a hand up, and not expect anything in return. They care. And they look at their fellow citizens and neighbors as a friend. And they lend a hand.”
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This article is part of the Los Angeles Daily News’ coverage for the annual Good Life Magazine, which celebrates the things that make the San Fernando Valley a fun and unique place to live. Look for Good Life 2017 in the Friday, May 26 edition of the Daily News.
