Apr 15, 2019
A post card from 1942 showing the main gate to Baby Gruenwald’s sprawling studio ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains, soon to be destroyed by Japanese “fire balloons” (also known as “balloon bombs,” or “Fu-Go” in Japanese).
Though only three hydrogen-filled balloon bombs touched down on the ranch on that fateful night in August, each carried a 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary device, and, aided by merciless Santa Ana winds, took a terrible toll.
Destroyed were facades and sound stages used in such iconic Baby Gruenwald westerns as Wyatt Burp (1940), The Affordable Childcare Searchers (1940), Surprisingly Young Guns (1941), Billy the Kid… Literally (1941), Rolls Around on the Carpet With Playful Wolves (1942), and Rivulet Bravo (1942).