Marlene Hitt
One would think, after a hard day's work, that the Little Landers
settlers would consider going to a dance as just too much physical
activity. During the day there had been rocks to pile, fields to clear,
animals to care for, businesses to run. But the pioneers thought nothing
of trudging up the hill from Sunland, or down from the hills of Tujunga,
carrying their lanterns, to go to the dances held at Bolton Hall on a
Saturday night.
When the Little Landers colony was new, there were only about 200
people, whose need for social companionship and entertainment was great.
The small community developed musical groups. One band was the 24-piece
Monte Vista Band which, by 1915, played for many functions held in the
San Fernando Valley. That band was considered a good advertisement for
the community. A concert and box social given by the band in August of
'15 was considered a great success.
A private orchestra played for the dances held on Thursday and
Saturday nights at Bolton Hall. In addition, there were weekly parties
for the Colonial Dancing and Social Club, at which only colonial dancing
was allowed. The membership of the club was 75 people.
Gladys Maygrove, a member of the Maygrove family band, wrote of her
experiences as a young girl in town. Once incident she related, which
happened at a dance at Bolton Hall ("The Clubhouse"), was the time when a
fellow named Spence came to the dance, "and inside his shirt wrapped
around his waist was a gopher snake. He frightened the girls out of their
wits when he would let the snake stick its head through his buttoned
shirt!"
She added: "Another time at one of the dances, during intermission, we
had an uninvited guest. A very large and hairy tarantula made his way
slowly across the dance floor, causing a commotion, to say the least."
Penny Byar remembered the boys who would bring lemons to the parties
and throw them up into the light fixtures. But that was later, after the
time of lanterns.
In the first few years the hardwood floors were smooth and shiny and
the interior of the clubhouse had no plaster on the walls, just the big
boulders showing on the inside, and the huge fireplace. The dances were
probably waltzes and reels, the polka, the gallop, mazurka and quadrille.
Chan Livingston also remembered the dances. He said, "The high price
in order to buy a box at the box social before the dance started at
Bolton Hall was taking quite a bite out of our take-home pay."
