Toluca Lake

Toluca Lake is an exclusive section of the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles tucked up against Burbank and the Los Angeles River in the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley. After reading a piece about Humphrey Bogart golfing at the Lakeside Golf Club and the cast of The Maltese Falcon partying nightly at the club, I went to see the golf club and the lake. I found the golf course, but am not sure I found the lake. There are some beautiful homes in the area, but is there a lake? I walked along Valley Spring Lane. Couldn't find the lake. I walked along Navajo Avanue. Couldn't locate any lake. Toluca Lake Avenue. No lake to be seen. Was I to believe the map or my lying eyes? At the end of Clybourn Avenue, just before the locked back gate of the Lakeside Golf Club I found a spot where through the tree branches a glimple of water was available. I took this photo, but it looked more like a pond at the time. A small corner of the lake? Hard to tell.

I began to ask people. Is there really a lake in Toluca Lake? The replies were usually, "I don't know" or "Yes, but I've never seen it." Apparently there are quite a lot of people in the neighborhood who do not know whether there is a lake or not. Indeed, there are a fair number who actually believe there is no lake. A manager in a restaurant told me, "They call this Toluca Lake, but I don't know why. There's not a lake here." Most folks are like me after my visit. They believe there is a lake, but have not seen it. I met a woman on the street who told me that when she was a girl she would ride her bike along the lake, but no more. Today it is tightly ringed by houses, and she said the only way she sees the lake now from the outside is to catch a chance glimpse through uncovered windows.

The Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce reports that there are two lakes, and they have a photo gallery. I also found some photos online from 1930, 1945, 1956 and of the swans which are a symbol of the lake. Google Maps has a nifty satellite photo of the area which shows the lake. You will need to enter toluca lake ca in the search box, click the Search and Satellite buttons and then zoom in using the scale at left. The beautiful homes, the golf club, the proximity to film and TV studios at Disney, NBC, Warner Brothers and Universal and for some, the lake, have made Toluca Lake a magnet for entertainment celebrities through the years, from Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby on through Dorothy Lamour, Red Foxx and Tennessee Ernie Ford and then Frankie Avalon, Andy Griffith and Goldie Hawn to more recently Denzel Washington, George Lopez and Kirsten Dunst, just to name a few. Yes, there is a lake in Toluca Lake.