It was vintage Shirley Temple.Her tightly coiled...

It was vintage Shirley Temple.

Her tightly coiled curls and effervescent smile filled the screen as America’s favorite moppet became a part of the legend of Glendale Airport.

The film was 1934’s “Bright Eyes,” in which Temple portrayed an orphan befriended by aircraft mechanics, among them the veritable character actor James Dunn.

As she once more captured America’s heart, the old airport could be seen in the background, at that point in its history a hub of Southern California aviation.

Today, the only reminders of the historic landing field, which thrived during the 1930s heyday of Hollywood, are two hangars and an elegant terminal building and watchtower that have become the centerpiece of the evolving 100-acre Grand Central Business Center.

Motorists driving along Grand Central Avenue probably do not realize that the street was once used by commercial airliners, pioneer aviators and some student pilots practicing their touch-and-goes. Located just north of the Golden State and Ventura freeways at Airway and Grandview boulevards, the airport site once served as the Southland’s center for air travel, offered the area’s first transcontinental flights and was a watering hole for celebrities.

The airport opened in what had been 45 acres of orange groves in 1923. It was used extensively for barnstormers and aviation scenes in early Hollywood films.

On Feb. 22, 1929, after a major expansion spearheaded by a small group of aviation nthusiasts, the new $3-million terminal was dedicated with a crowd of 100,000, becoming the first airport on the West Coast with paved runways. Los Angeles Mayor George E. Cryer and three others were unceremoniously knocked to the ground and dragged several feet by a gush of air from a plane’s engine and tail. No one was seriously injured and the festivities continued.

Members of the Flying Squadron of the Women’s Aeronautical Assn. turned out for the opening, including legendary fliers Florence (Pancho) Barnes, Bobbie Trout and Margaret Perry.

The airfield’s posh restaurant was the stage for all-night parties thrown by celebrities who gathered to see friends off on their 16-hour flights to the East Coast.

William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, actress Marion Davies, frequently used the airport to fly to Hearst Castle. Flying enthusiast Howard Hughes built his first plane--at the time the world’s fastest--at an aircraft plant there and kept three planes at Grand Central in his own hangar. In 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviation giant Wiley Post flew out of Glendale on the fateful journey to Alaska in which both died.

Such aviation greats as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart flew in and out of Grand Central Air Terminal in its early days. There were a few less auspicious claims to fame as well: When Douglas (Wrong Way) Corrigan departed from New York bound for California in 1938 and ended up in Ireland, he was flying in a “crate” pieced together on Glendale’s field.

The airport began to lose business in the late 1930s when Union Air Terminal--now Burbank Airport--replaced Grand Central as the main terminal for Los Angeles. In 1939, the newly enlarged Mines Field--now Los Angeles International Airport--opened and the major airlines moved there.

As war clouds gathered over Europe, the Glendale airfield became a training site for thousands of Air Corps cadets and civilian recruits from Britain’s Royal Air Force. It also served as home base for Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning fighter planes and became a major center for the repair and overhaul of planes.

By 1954, the age of big planes had arrived. Grand Central’s short runways and hilly surroundings had become outdated. A year later, the transformation of the old airport into an industrial park began. The final runway closed on July 12, 1959.

The only hint of the airport’s glory days remains in the four winged angels sculpted onto the tower’s corners.