Throughout the quiet wheat fields and peach groves of the Valley, a real estate development boom was underway. To attract prospective homeowners to the neighboring glamour of a new suburbia in Lankershim, they would soon call it North Hollywood.

The year was 1926.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

From LA Now:

Corpse found in North Hollywood home
9:57 AM, December 3, 2008

Police got a surprise when they went to a North Hollywood home this week: a decomposing corpse that may have been there for more than a year, the Daily News reports.

The doorways of the home, in the 6700 block of Vantage Avenue, were so filled with refuse and debris that Los Angeles Police Department officers could not get inside when they arrived Monday evening. Only after the Los Angeles Fire Department got there and helped remove a door were the officers able to search the home, with the consent of the man who lives there.

Police found the adult body inside. They declined to elaborate, saying they don’t know its age or sex because it had decomposed for so long. Coroner’s officials said the body was “skeletony” and believe it had been there for “quite some time.” The home was found in “pack rat” condition, said Ed Winter, a spokesman with the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Authorities were tipped off by someone involved with the pending foreclosure of the home who was concerned about the welfare of the resident, said Lt. Alan Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department.

– James Wagner

Come to think of it…… where’s my cat?

This has to stop. I know we’re in the middle of a Depression an economic downtown, and you’re just looking for something to make you feel better. To make you feel happy again. To forget all about 2008. You’re looking forward to Christmas. Yeah, I dig that.

But, this does not excuse breaking the rules.

I can forgive the early shopping. I can even let slide the early light displays all over town. What I cannot forgive, is you buying a Christmas tree on November 30.

I’m talking about you, Mr. Mercedes SUV, rolling through NoHo at 12:34PM on Thanksgiving Sunday. Sure, the 7ft. Douglas Fir tied to your roof may look great tonight. But, your tree will be dead before it counts.

Nobody likes a dead tree on Christmas. Nobody.