San Fernando Valley Has Had an Illustrious Career as a Hollywood Stand-In

The most romantic moment in the history of the San Fernando Valley? It could be that touching scene where Rick tells Ilsa, “We’ll always have Paris.” Yes, a Van Nuys Airport hangar was used for the climactic scene of “Casablanca” (1942), Chris Epting points out in his new book, “James Dean Died Here: The Location of America’s Pop Culture Landmarks.”

Incidentally, the Valley is a lot closer to Riverside County than it is to France. Maybe what Rick really said was, “We’ll always have Perris.”

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Perhaps it should be an essay question: Given that this is California, land of experimental lifestyles, it doesn’t seem right that the medical form passed along by Richard Krueger of North Hills was so limiting (see accompanying).

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Kid on the move: Older folks are always asking, “What’s to become of the younger generation?” I’m not worried, though. Not after I saw the ad that Elizabeth Johnston of Chatsworth spotted. Imagine that -- a tot who’s so industrious he’s putting on his own yard sale (see accompanying).

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Mother of all jobs: Newspaper archivist Richard Robinson of Beverly Hills found a 1918 L.A. Times story about some City Fathers who decided they needed help (see above).

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Memorable Catalina questions (cont.): “I used to work at the Beach Ball in Newport Beach,” said Willy McGinnis. “On several occasions we had people who were sitting in the ‘window’ of the pub and asked if that island out there was Hawaii. All the locals would jump in and tell them that it was, and that’s why it’s only $50 to fly there.

“I also had one gentleman sitting in the window tell me, ‘I was here three months ago and I could swear that the sun set in the middle of that island. Now it is setting at the end. Why?’

“Everyone again joined in and proceeded to explain that it was a floating island to keep any big waves from crashing into the harbor and they move it from time to time.

“He bought it. He was from, to protect the innocent, an upper Midwest state.”

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Maybe they hitched a ride in: The police log of Laguna Beach’s Coastline Pilot said, “The Fire Department reported that bees had taken up residence in the firehouse at 1:42 p.m. Police notified a beekeeper, who removed them.”

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Too bad the bees couldn’t have been dropped off here: The Saddleback Valley News’ police log carried a report out of Mission Viejo that “a naked male subject is doing a backstroke in the lake near the Tortilla Flats restaurant.”

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miscelLAny: Kids are still saying the darndest things to Art Linkletter. The TV pioneer told San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell that when he visited his 10-year-old great-grandson’s school in the San Fernando Valley, the lad introduced him this way: “This is my great-grandfather. He’s 90 years old and still alive.”

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.