Verdugo Views:Memories of making, watching movies

Ralph Walroth, who has lived in the Burbank and Glendale area for 84 years, has “always been fascinated by the history of my two favorite cities.”

“Both have had a close proximity to Hollywood and its movie business from their very early years,” Walroth said.

His father, Earnest Walroth, was a carpenter who worked for the Hollywood construction company that built Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank. When the studio was finished, the elder Walroth began working there.

The Walroths came to Burbank when Ralph Walroth was 7 and lived on Santa Anita Avenue. He was one of the youngsters who helped distribute fliers for the Victory Theater in Burbank, which, he says, was the only theater in town at the time.

“Then I could go there whenever I wanted to,” he said.

He graduated from Burbank High in 1933 and enrolled at Glendale Junior College, graduating in 1936.

“While I was a student there, I worked at Warner Bros. one summer,” he said. “It was really good money in those days, $1 per hour, six hours per day, six days a week.”

It was exciting for the 19-year-old student to be around so many famous people.

“I saw all these stars coming on the set, Olivia de Havilland, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Dick Powell, Rosalind Russell and others,” he said.

Walroth said he particularly liked de Havilland.

“She was my age and was so pretty and so popular,” he said.

Walroth worked on the set of “Captain Blood,” de Havilland’s first starring role with Errol Flynn.

“I didn’t converse with her, just said ‘hello,’” he said.

Walroth also went out on a location shoot for a movie starring Paul Muni, [“The Story of Louis Pasteur,” 1935].

“They took a busload of us out to Simi Valley,” he said. “It was a long way away. They had sets out there and we helped get them ready. It was always fun to watch the cameras roll.”

Since Burbank didn’t have very many theaters, he and his friends would often take the Red Car to Glendale to watch movies. He was in the audience at the Alex the first week it opened and his first date was also to the Alex.

Walroth and his friends boarded the Red Cars at the Burbank depot at Glenoaks Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue, then disembarked at the Wilson Avenue turnaround and walked to one of the many Glendale theaters around at that time.

“We all loved going to the movies to see the pictures we had read about or helped produce in numerous ways,” he said.

In 1937, Walroth said, Glendale had a population of around 80,000 and boasted nine moving picture theaters.

“Six were on Brand Boulevard alone,” he said.

He listed three others, the Bards Theater on East Colorado and Adams streets, the Gateway Theater on San Fernando Road and the Show Shop on North Central Avenue in the auditorium of the Tuesday Afternoon Club.

The price of admission was a quarter at all but the Show Shop, which only charged 10 cents.

“For those prices, you got a double feature, a world news reel, a comedy or cartoon and a short subject,” he said. “You really got your money’s worth in those days.”

Walroth worked for Lockheed for 41 years and was active in the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. Now retired from Lockheed, he works in the circulation department at the Glendale Central Library. He has lived in Glendale since 1974.

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Bob Reagan Jr., a speaker at a program on John Wayne presented by the Crescenta Valley Historical Society earlier this year, worked with Wayne when Wayne did his very first commercial.

Reagan said it was for a product called Datril 500.

“John Wayne had a lot of guts. He financed his own pictures through his company, Batjac, but he lost money on ‘Green Beret’ and ‘Alamo’ and had lots of financial problems,” Reagan said. “He ended up doing a series of three commercials for the Datril product, a pain relief medication for headaches.”

Reagan’s father, Bob Reagan Sr., was the director for the three commercials.

“I was the prop man,” said Reagan Jr. “Wayne used to be a prop man, so he liked me. He told me he was an assistant prop man on a picture made by John Ford on a submarine during World War I.”

Reagan didn’t recall the name of the movie, but he said, “Wayne told me that’s where he first met up with John Ford.”

According to Reagan, Wayne said that the stunt men, who were supposed to jump off the submarine, didn’t want to do it when the seas turned rough.

Ford turned toward Wayne and said, “I bet that tall glass of water would do it.”

“Wayne agreed to do it and later the two, Ford and Wayne, made many movies together,” Reagan said.

“We did all three Datril commercials at once, it took a month.”

Reagan said they often had dinner together.

“He could be really charming during dinner, but he didn’t like doing the commercials,” he said.

Reagan imitated John Wayne’s style of speaking as he quoted the Duke, “I’m no pill pusher, I’m not holding the product.”