A THOUSAND REASONS TO CELEBRATE 40TH BIRTHDAY, ARTS FAIR WILL LURE CROWDS.Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer THOUSAND OAKS Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. - People from throughout the Conejo Valley The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both Southeastern Ventura County and Northwest Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It was discovered in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and eventually became part of the Rancho El Conejo land grant by region are expected to gather Saturday at the former Jungleland site for one of the biggest celebrations in Thousand Oaks' history. The daylong celebration of the city's 40th birthday starts at 10 a.m., in conjunction with the inaugural Thousand Oaks Arts Festival An arts festival or art fair is a festival that focuses on the visual arts, but which may also focus on other arts. Arts festivals in the visual arts are exhibitions. , which is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 19. After the festivities fes·tiv·i·ty n. pl. fes·tiv·i·ties 1. A joyous feast, holiday, or celebration; a festival. 2. The pleasure, joy, and gaiety of a festival or celebration. 3. Saturday, singer Debby Boone Debby Boone (born Deborah Ann Boone, on September 22, 1956) is an American singer and theater actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit "You Light Up My Life", which spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and won her a Grammy award the following year for will perform at 8 p.m. in the Civic Arts Plaza in a concert with the New West Symphony and the Cabrillo Music Theater. ``We expect from 5,000 to 7,000 people,'' said Richard Williams of Newbury Park, who is coordinating the festival with his wife, Elaine, and scores of artists, volunteers and contributors. ``It's a great opportunity for local artists to be seen and to perform.'' Thousand Oaks was a small town on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of explosive growth when it incorporated 40 years ago. Until then, it was primarily known as the home of Jungleland, which closed in 1968 after decades of keeping wild animals WILD ANIMALS. Animals in a state of nature; animals ferae naturae. Vide Animals; Ferae naturae. for the movies and circuses. The Civic Arts Plaza was built on the Jungleland site 10 years ago. For decades since the 1920s, people around the world saw the open hillsides and oak trees of Thousand Oaks as backdrops for films such as ``Tarzan,'' ``Robin Hood'' and ``Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights remotely situated home where Heathcliff nurses his vengeful plans. [Br. Lit.: Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights in Magill I, 1137] See : Houses, Fateful Wuthering Heights .'' ``It was an idyllic location out here, so the movie industry was attracted. The people who lived here were pioneers, until the Janss Corporation started building houses in the 1960s,'' said Frank Schillo, a former mayor of Thousand Oaks, former Ventura County supervisor and chairman of the inaugural Thousand Oaks Arts Festival. He said the festival will help showcase the talented people who now make Ventura County home. ``We have a huge number of artists and performing people who haven't been recognized in our community,'' he said. ``We have as good quality artists as anyplace in the world, including Carmel and Laguna Beach Laguna Beach (ləg  `nə), city (1990 pop. 23,170), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast; founded 1887, inc. 1927. , as far as I'm concerned. That's why we're having a Thousand Oaks Arts Festival.'' Mayor Bob Wilson Bob Wilson is the name of:
``Today we have 15,000 acres of open space, plus 42 parks and 100 miles of hiking trails,'' he said. ``We're the No. 1 safest city in the nation, we've won statewide awards for our schools, and we're the capital of Little League baseball in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , with this year's national champions.'' Schillo said one reason Thousand Oaks has a reputation as a safe city is because police have been involved in planning development so homes and businesses do not become easy targets of crime. Philip Gatch, the city manager and former planning director over the years, ``did an outstanding job implementing the policies of the City Council, particularly the concept of being a self-contained community where people can work and be entertained. ... We've almost reached that goal,'' Schillo said. The birthday celebration at the Civic Arts Plaza at 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, with a cake-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. Food vendors, displays of historic photos, and special activities for children will be offered at the party, along with nonstop music at the adjoining arts festival. The Thousand Oaks Library at 1401 E. Janss Road is supplying the historic photos, and maintains a display of other photos showing movie sets dating back to the 1920s. A special element of the arts festival will be the Children's Art Experience, offering children an opportunity to create art that will be digitized and memorialized in a CD. Music will include choral groups, individual singers, and instrumentalists changing performances with new acts every 30 or 40 minutes. Next month another special event is planned Oct. 23 - the 10th anniversary gala celebrating the opening of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is a performing arts and administrative center located in Thousand Oaks, California. It was built in 1994 on the former site of "Jungleland" at a cost of $63.8 million. . Eric Leach, (805) 583-7602 eric.leach(at)dailynews.com IF YOU GO The city's 40th anniversary celebration will be held Saturday and the Thousand Oaks Arts Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19, both 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., and across the street at the Gardens of the World. For information, go to www.toartsfestival.org or www.ci.thousand-oaks.ca.us. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Klaudi Englund of the Thousand Oaks Library holds an old photo of the city, showing Thousand Oaks Boulevard and where The Oaks mall would stand. (2) A still from the 1939 movie ``Wuthering Heights'' starring Laurence Olivier shows the backdrop of the city's Wildwood Wildwood, city (1990 pop. 4,484), Cape May co., SE N.J., on an island off Cape May; settled 1882, inc. as a city 1911. It has large commercial fisheries and is a popular summer seaside resort with many vintage motels and other buildings from the 1940s–60s. area. (3) Errol Flynn as Robin Hood darts among the trees that made Thousand Oaks such a prime shooting location for the movies. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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