Donner, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid and Fritz

Standing at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Vaughn Street in Sylmar is a plaque that reads:

“The Griffith Ranch. Originally part of the San Fernando Mission Lands, this ranch was purchased by David Wark Griffith, revered pioneer of silent motion pictures, in 1912. It provided the locale for many western thrillers, including ‘Custer’s Last Stand,’ and was the inspiration for the immortal production ‘The Birth of a Nation.’ It was acquired by Fritz B. Burns in 1948, who has perpetuated the Griffith name in memory of the great film pioneer.”

The California State Parks Commission’s historic marker, dated Dec. 13, 1959, is the only reminder left of the 200-acre Griffith Ranch’s storybook past. After silent-movie pioneer D. W. Griffith purchased the 300-acre ranch it became a prominent party place for Hollywood’s elite in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. Although Griffith never lived there, the ranch inspired him to make several western classics.

In 1948, maverick Valley developer Fritz B. Burns bought the ranch and continued the party tradition. Burns expanded the four-acre picnic area, adding more parking and installing screened cooking facilities, party tables, wet bars, a dance floor, a stage and a playground for guests’ children.

Burns also added an unusual facility: a reindeer park that at one time housed 170 reindeer.

Burns, who founded Panorama City in 1948, wanted something more to entertain the children who visited the Panorama City shopping center during Christmas. His answer was a team of nine live Santa’s reindeer, including the popular red-nosed Rudolph, which he purchased from the Hearst estate in San Simeon. The little northern Siberian white fallow deer enchanted kids and adults, and multiplied.

But like California’s rolling land grants, presidios, pueblos and missions, the birthplace of movies and reindeer has faded into memory.

Burns died Feb. 19, 1979, at 79.