La Cañada History: Local actor appears in Winter Olympics commercial, a heart-shaped hello

Ten Years Ago

Locals watching the 2006 Turin, Italy Winter Olympics on TV might have recognized then-13-year-old Nick Koeppen, a La Cañada actor who could be seen belly flopping into a swimming pool for a Visa commercial shown during coverage of the multisport event.

Twenty Years Ago

Over three successive Saturdays, about 275 volunteers planted 700 rose bushes in Glenola Park on Angeles Crest Highway. Leading the effort was the Friends of Glenola Park group, assisted by Kiwanians and local scouting troops.

Thirty Years Ago

Actor David Hasselhoff, then portraying the lead character Michael Knight in TV’s “Knight Rider,” was in La Cañada Flintridge in February 1986 for a location shoot at Descanso Gardens. While there, he posed next to a flowering camellia bush to help the botanical showplace advertise its annual Camellia Festival, a decided departure from the high tech crime-fighting Knight.

Forty Years Ago

Six straight days of storms in early February 1976 brought snow to the San Gabriel Mountains and 5.51 inches of rain to La Cañada, ending what had been up until that point an unusually dry winter.

Fifty Years Ago

In connection with its anniversary sale, Phil Vaughan Audio Corner in La Cañada drew attention to its shop by arranging to display two of KTLA radio station’s custom-designed vehicles — a Ford Model A and a flying saucer. In more recent years the station has presented talk shows, but at the time of the local store’s sale, KTLA was among the top stations broadcasting the rock ‘n’ roll hits of the day.

Sixty Years Ago

Children attending Parents and Children Nursery School in La Cañada formed the shape of a heart to send a valentine to the community via the cover of the Feb. 9, 1956 issue of the Valley Sun.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci