If you love Hollywood history you must love this place.It's Seabiscuit-land! As in Seabiscuit (Full Screen)
It's where the Marx Brothers spent A Day at the Races
1937'sA Star Is Born
1954's A Star Is Born
Charlie Chan At The Race Track
Magna Entertainment Corp. announced that it would "explore" selling Santa Anita Racetrack, along with many other properties. (The company might also issue stock, though I wouldn't buy any. Magna is up to $700 million in debt.) All this is in the L. A. Times, which speculates that developer Rick Caruso may buy part of the property. 
The LA Conservancy (link at right) is concerned mostly with Caruso's efforts to build a new shopping center in the racetrack's parking lot, but they present this bit of historical trivia:
In fact, the picture above is from a National Parks website documenting the detention."In addition to its architectural significance, shaped by noted architect Gordon Kaufmann, and its associations with racing history, Santa Anita was the largest Assembly Center for the Japanese-American internment in World War II.
"About 20,000 Japanese-Americans lived at the racetrack during 1942, in temporary housing in the stable area and in barracks constructed on the site’s parking lot. The racetrack was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006."
With that in mind, here is a picture of Santa Anita Racetrack from the USC Library Special Collections' Regional History Center, dated 1942:
From 1942 to 1944, the racetrack was "Camp Santa Anita," an army post.
Village Profile hosts an excellent, brief history of Santa Anita Racetrack.
1 comment:
Wow I love the oppurtunity that we have now a days to pick and choose where we want to go from visually seeing everything on the web! I mean I am quite new to the whole blogging game, but its really fun and interesting! I mean look at what we run into?!?
Blogs like these that I just have to comment on! :)
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