Driving on Devonshire Street in the Valley 1940 (video)

I had not seen this before: kinda cool if you know the west San Fernando Valley today as just suburban sprawl and Devonshire Street as a six-lane boulevard. Devonshire in 1940 was a rural state highway through the horse ranches of Northridge and Chatsworth, leading to Santa Susana Pass and Ventura County. Hard to tell exactly where this footage shows, but it likely passes the small ranch facing Devonshire that newlyweds Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz moved into in 1940, and the larger Marwyck thoroughbred ranch owned by Zeppo Marx and Barbara Stanwyck that is now city parks property. And the camera probably passes not far from this famous Richard Neutra house built out among the pastures for director Josef von Sternberg, later occupied by author Ayn Rand, then demolished in 1972.

2010 thumbnail of then-City Councilman Greig Smith at the former Marwyck Ranch, Daily News/Andy Holzman