The post-World War 2 race track dreams of Victor J Nelson

The race track dreams of Victor J. Nelson

Following World War Two, Victor J. Nelson, a successful Southern California building contractor tried several times to build a new midget auto racing track in the Los Angeles area.  Before and during the war, his eponymous engineering and construction company built a number of cadet training academy facilities for the Defense Plant Corporation on a fixed-fee cost-plus basis in Texas and California.

Victor faced a few challenges - during 1940 he became embroiled in a bitter dispute with the local building trade unions while building the Polaris Academy in Lancaster, California. In 1943 Nelson and his attorney, Robert Young, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government during the construction of Avenger Field and the Wright Glider School in Texas. Nelson and Young provided documents and testified for the government but their eight co-defendants were acquitted.

Calabasas

At the end of November 1945, reportedly with financial backing from Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, and Harry James, Nelson proposed to build “Pickwick Playland”, a $2.5 million dollar project in the Burbank Rancho neighborhood.  The plans called for a 1500-seat theater, a 65,000 square foot “roll top” ballroom with two bars, a swimming pool and an ice skating rink on a 21-acre site. The project died after the Burbank City Council refused to amend the City’s existing liquor laws.  

On January 10 1946, acting as the president of The Hollywood Speedway Association, Nelson petitioned the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission for approval to construct a $250,000 midget auto racing track. Nelson claimed the track, planned for 23600 Ventura Boulevard east of the town of Calabasas would be “the first ever track designed for the undersized racers.”  

The Hollywood Speedway Association listed Burbank race car builder, owner and parts supplier Gordon Schroeder as its vice-president.  The Association’s plan called for two race tracks - a 1/3-mile track encircled by a one-mile track on the 132-acre site located in a natural valley.

At the time, before the era of reality television and McMansions, Calabasas was a sleepy farming area with a town that had less than a thousand residents, but a powerful political force was in play in the area - a movie studio.   

The 2800-acre Warner Ranch, just a few thousand feet from the proposed site, was used for shooting outdoor scenes of adventure and western films.  At public hearings, the Warner Studio representative, attorney H R Kelley, maintained that the noise from the race cars would interfere with making sound films at the ranch.

Nelson stated that the 40,000-seat steel and reinforced concrete grandstand would block the sound from reaching the Warner site. He also emphasized there be no gambling or liquor sold on the site and racing would be held only on Sundays and holidays. Band leader Harry James, a partner in the earlier Pickwick project proposal, owned property on Ventura Boulevard that adjoined the site also opposed the project.   

The County Planning Commission rejected the Hollywood Speedway Association’s application a week later, on January 17. The five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors then denied the Hollywood group’s appeal on March 12^th.   A bitter Nelson claimed in an interview with Claude Newman of the Valley News that he “had not gotten a fair deal.” Nelson said he was undecided whether or not to sue Los Angeles County but that there were two alternate sites in the San Fernando Valley under consideration.

 

Burbank

On April 18, 1946 the Valley News announced that Nelson and Schroeder, partners in the San Fernando Valley Sports Association, received a building permit to build a new multi-use facility in Burbank, known as the San Fernando Valley Sports Center with financial backing from band leader Spike Jones and actor Donald O’Connor. 

The site would host football, baseball, swim meets, track meets and rodeos on 27 acres at 3200 Vanowen Street near the corner of Ontario Street and Vanowen Street. The site plan featured a prefabricated 10,000 seat steel grandstand used war surplus lighting. The next day’s report in the Valley News about the project indicated that future plans called for an ice and roller skating rink with no mention of midget auto racing.  

The following day, Claude Newman the Valley Times Sports editor, penned an opinion piece in support of the San Fernando Valley Sports Center. Mr. Newman stated “it is very much to be desired that the general public …..realize the need there is for such a center,” and “that we can think of no good reason why and individual or organization should oppose.”

Mr. Newman proclaimed his support because “this sports center, at least judging by the first announcement, will be one open to all sorts of organizations, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and perhaps some professional promotions featuring Valley talent.”

The citizens of Burbank soon learned the meaning of the phrase “professional promotions featuring Valley talent” at the proposed San Fernando Valley Sports Center – it meant midget auto racing.  This information quickly spread and triggered a groundswell of public opposition, as 750 property owners in the vicinity of the project banded together formed the Burbank Property Owners Protective Association (BPOPA) and hired an attorney. Leonard Hamner, a former deputy district attorney, wrote and circulated a petition which 1,389 Burbank residents signed.

In advance of the April 30 Burbank City Council meeting, Mr. Hamner told the Valley News that the members of the BPOPA “demand that the City Council immediately pass legislation forbidding midget auto racing.” The petition charged that “midget racers are noisy and smell of castor oil,” and that when the council approved the rights for the sports arena, no one mentioned a midget race concession.

Mayor Paul Brown admitted to the Valley News that he knew about the midget auto racers and found no objection to them. ‘The midget autos won’t be making as much noise as some of the planes and won’t be half as bothersome,” a reference to the Lockheed’s use of Union Field. Councilman Horace Thompson told the Valley News he thought “the site was ideal,” and that “midget auto racing is all right by me.” 

The April 30 council hearing lasted two hours. The community supported the concept of the sports center, but they were opposed to the weekly midget auto racing, which the project’s proponents said were required to fund the other parts of the project. The opponents claimed that the increased traffic and noise would hurt their property values, and Reverend Phillip Gibson claimed that “if the race track goes in, accidents and arrests of young men will mount immediately.”

Victor J Nelson had by this point down-played his role in the project, and he presented himself merely as the architect that drew the plans and allowed the Association attorney Gordon Stater took the lead. Stater claimed the signers of the petition were “confused.” The attorney said the center would be properly policed and racing will only be conducted 40 days a year,” and denied that the midget cars burned castor oil.

Stater said that the cars “will be equipped with mufflers” and “that only six cars would be permitted to race at a time.” He stated that the group picked the site next to the Lockheed field and Southern Pacific Railroad tracks “where there is a lot more noise 24 hours a day than the track would make in three hours every Tuesday nights 35 nights a year.”   

The Commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post and the field secretary of the California Temperance Association for Los Angeles both expressed support for midget auto racing while members of the Burbank PTA and numerous long-time Burbank residents voiced opposition.  Mayor Brown tabled the discussion and stated that the issue would be taken under advisement until the following Tuesday night.

The sports editor of the Valley News, Claude Newman, waded back into the fight on Monday May 6, with an opinion piece written after he said he visited the race track site already under construction.  “We found it ideally suited for such an arena. There are only houses on one side the closest 500 feet from the grandstand location.”  

Newman added that “on another side is an airplane plant and on a third the city pumping station and golf driving range.  The fourth side is industrially zoned.” Newman opined that “at the outside not more than 200 or 300 residents will hear the little noise of the midgets at all. Don’t forget either that the midgets only run approximately three hours a week and 40 weeks a year. 120 hours!”

That same day, the Valley News ran a front-page article entitled “Nelson champions new midget track,” in which Victor Nelson claimed to own twenty residential lots in the vicinity,” and “I would be the first to object if I thought that the property value would decrease.”  Nelson stated that property values near the famed Gilmore Stadium had increased 30 times over the last 25 years. Fact check: Gilmore Stadium was built in 1934, so it had only existed for 12 years.  The article stated that many petitioners changed their minds after they learned that the racing would occur only one night a week and be over by 10:30 PM.

Over the next week, Claude Newman tipped to Valley News readers that Victor Nelson talked to the Cincinnati Reds about the use of the San Fernando Valley Sports Center for spring training and that the Seattle Rainiers, Pacific Coast minor league baseball club and the Hollywood Stars women’s softball team considered relocation to the new facility.  

On May 14, the Valley News reported that Donald Spaulding, manager of the Burbank site for Victory J Nelson Engineering and Construction reported a vandalism incident to police. According to Spaulding three trucks, a tractor and a cement mixer had been “decommissioned by unidentified persons.”  “Wiring was cut and parts smashed by persons,” which according to Victor Nelson “were not amateurs,” as “the job was done too efficiently to be the work of kids.”     

On Tuesday night, May 14 the Burbank City Council voted 3-2 to revoke the building permit for the San Fernando Valley Sports Center. The Council also heard the first reading of a new ordinance for the regulation of automobile and motorcycle racing.

The new ordinance required any new license application among other requirements to spell out the kind of racing, whether passenger auto parking would be provided, indicate the number of races to be held and the type of fuel used.  The officers of the project would be required to post $25,000 with the City Clerk and provide $50,000 in injury insurance and $5,000 in property insurance.   

All work stopped on the site on May 16 when Burbank City Manager Howard Stites delivered the revocation letter. Asked for his response, Nelson told the Valley News “we’ve got three attorneys to handle our case,” and “he would let the case run its natural course.” Nelson said while work stopped, equipment remained on the site under guard to prevent more “deviltry.” 

On Tuesday night May 21, Association attorney Stater appeared before the Burbank City Council and requested they rescind their action. The Council summarily rejected Stater’s rehearing request, then passed the auto racing ordinance set to go into effect on June 20 on its second reading.

In defiance of the City’s action, construction at the site continued as Nelson pushed his crew to complete the track quickly. In the June 6 edition, the Valley News reported the race track complete, as well as the parking lot, offices, and the baseball diamond with turf placed on the football field. Nelson announced the site’s first activity, a rodeo, would be held on July 4^th. 

On June 24^th, Nelson filed for the required license to operate a midget auto racing facility in the City of Burbank. The hearing to “determine if midget auto racing will be a menace to the public health, peace, safety and morals” scheduled before City Council on Thursday July 25th.

Nelson’s license application proposed midget auto racing 45 nights a year on Saturday nights from 7:15 to 10:15 PM, weather permitting. The Association’s application stated that cars “will be muffled so they can only be heard across the width of the 45-foot track,” and “complete police protection to prohibit betting or drinking in the 10,000-seat steel grandstand.” Nelson stated that the decomposed granite track will be treated with calcium chloride to prevent dust and that the landscaping “will be as beautiful as any city park by next spring.”

After a tumultuous five-and-a-half-hour meeting that lasted until 1 AM on July 26^th, the Burbank City Council rejected the Nelson license application by a vote of 3-2.  First, the council heard a one-hour presentation from each of the attorneys that represented each side, then heard from the public. After midnight, Councilman Horace Thompson announced “I’ll be the bad guy,” and made the motion to approve the application, which was not seconded.  Mayor Paul Brown then made a motion to reject, which after it was seconded, passed on a roll call vote.

Nelson told the Valley News immediately after the vote that “a criminal would have gotten better treatment than we did.” His attorney Stater had no immediate comment but later on Friday told the Valley News that “if ordered by my clients, I can apply for a writ of mandate from superior based on the decision that the evidence submitted to the Council was not sufficient and ask for the issuance of the permit.”

On July 31 Victor J Nelson announced the group’s intention to sue the City for half a million dollars and added that they were interviewing attorneys to assist Stater.  In November, Nelson and his group attempted a legal end run and sublet the Sports Center property to the United Veteran’s Council of Burbank, but the Burbank City Council summarily rejected the veteran’s group license application on November 21 1946.

The veteran’s group, that included the Burbank posts of the VFW, American Legion and Daughters of America’s Veterans, attempted to collect enough signatures on a petition to put the issue on the ballot in April 1947, but eventually abandoned the plan. As the end of 1946 neared, Nelson revealed to the press that the group would pursue a two-pronged approach.

Nelson said the limited partnership’s first planned action was to file civil suit against the city, while the second action was to file a petition for a Writ of Administrative Mandamus wherein the court orders a government official or agency to properly fulfill their official duties or correct an abuse of discretion in this case issue the permit.

Nelson and his partners, Gordon Schroeder and Emanuel Mancuso, filed suit in Superior Court on February 14 1947. The suit claimed that the Burbank City Council deprived the group of their property without due process in violation of amendment 14 of the United States Constitution.   The group claimed they spent $30,000 to lease the property, $20,000 to build the fence, track and grandstand and obligated themselves to spend another $200,000. The first hearing was set for Wednesday March 19 in Department 43 of the Superior Court.

The case hinged on two key questions argued by opposing counsel before Superior Court Judge Frank G Swain. The first question - would the proposed racing be held in a zone authorized by the City zoning ordinance? Judge Swain held that the track was located in a zone proper for that type of business. The second question - whether the proposed racing would endanger the public peace, health, welfare safety or morals – would be answered in several weeks when the judge handed down his decision.  

On April 22 1947 Judge Swain handed down his decision that denied the Sport Center group’s Writ of Administrative Mandamus as he upheld the City’s police power. The Judge stated that “the reporter’s transcript of the City Council hearing revealed there was evidence that public peace would be menaced by noise, the public welfare would be menaced by declined property values, and public safety endangered by the heavy traffic in a concentrated area.”   

The Judge noted in his opinion that the plaintiffs had not been treated properly by the City, but that their only remedy was political not legal. “We agree that the plaintiffs have a grievance of considerable magnitude in the City of Burbank which allowed them to spend $80,000 before it exercised its police power, but plaintiff’s remedy is political not legal.”     

This legal defeat was not the end of the San Fernando Valley Sports Center, as two months later on June 16^th, Victor J Nelson sent a letter to Mayor Brown that requested a permit be issued for construction of a 600-foot long by 200-foot wide swimming pool, tennis courts, miniature golf and outdoor bowling lanes. Plans also called for a new concrete reinforced stadium with seating for 11,000 persons for rodeos, baseball, football, horse shows and dog shows, and conventions. Future plans called for a small auditorium and a roller skating rink.

In late September 1947, the race track site hosted the first annual San Fernando Valley Roundup with six events that included bareback riding, calf and bull roping and team roping. 

Months passed as the group reorganized and announced on November 1 1947 its emergence as a corporation known as San Fernando Valley Stadium Inc. with $500,000 in capitalization. Nelson as president of the corporation made the announcement that construction of the 20,000 seat circular stadium would begin within 30 days on a 15-acre tract adjoining the original site at 1901 Ontario Street. With the announcement, Victor J Nelson dropped his plans to host midget races at the site, and the Association never completed their ambitious plans.