OLD BUNKHOUSE GOOD 'HOME' FOR VETS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

You'd need more than a dozen different city and county permits to do today what John DeHennis and his pals did on the sly - in the dead of the night - 50 years ago.

They moved Harry Warner's old bunkhouse from his ranch on Canoga Avenue down Ventura Boulevard to an empty lot on Fallbrook Avenue, where it has stood for the last half-century as the first and only home of Woodland Hills American Legion Post 826.

It's one of those grand old stories from the San Fernando Valley's rich past when film moguls like Harry Warner and actors like Ronald Reagan were rubbing shoulders with GIs coming home from World War II looking for a little fun and camaraderie.

They found both over at the old bunkhouse on Fallbrook Avenue.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, the doors will swing open to the public, and a few of the original cast of characters from that middle-of-the-night run will be on hand for a 50-year rededication ceremony.

If you're around, stop by. The laughs will do you good.

Meeting in Bill Ralls' real estate office just wasn't cutting it, so the 65 members of the fledgling American Legion Post 826 went looking for a real home in 1951.

First, though, they needed some land to put it on.

``We got a big truck and went around town picking up old newspapers and selling them for scrap,'' said DeHennis, who was post commander at the time.

``One of our members was Doc McWilliams, who was a secretary to Harry Warner at Warner Bros. When he told his boss what we were doing, Warner invited us out to his ranch to cut down a stand of walnut trees so we could sell the wood for our building fund.''

The vets wound up raising $1,500, enough to buy the vacant lot at 5320 Fallbrook Ave. in late 1951. Now all they needed was a building to put on it.

``Warner was impressed with our gung-ho spirit, and offered us an old bunkhouse used by the jockeys training his racing horses,'' DeHennis said.

``We got a big trailer and hauled it away at 3 a.m. on a Saturday. I sat in the back with a bottle of wine, and as I recall, all the guys had a pretty good time.''

Larry Welte, a Woodland Hills vet who was there that night, said he sure did. He was sitting up on the roof of the bunkhouse as it rolled down Ventura Boulevard.

``We had a few problems on the turns, but other than that, we were having a great time,'' he said.

Warner's generosity toward the vets did not end there. He paid to refurbish the old bunkhouse, then he bought the vacant lot next door so the guys could use it as a parking lot.

The vets, though, had other priorities in mind. Fun.

``We played donkey baseball on it,'' DeHennis said. ``There was a ranch with burros across the street, and we'd bring them over on weekends.

``All the players were on burros, and when you hit the ball, you rode the donkey around the bases. Then you had a beer. Those were great days.''

The donkeys were nowhere in sight, though, when Warner, Reagan, Danny Thomas, Will Rogers Jr. and other entertainment figures showed up with dignitaries - including Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, Lt. Gov. Goodwin Knight and Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker - on July 27, 1952, to officially dedicate Woodland Hills American Legion Post 826.

Not much has changed in the old bunkhouse since then, says Larry Van Kuran, adjutant of the post.

``The exposed beams are still the way they were - there's just a little paint over them - and the parking lot's been paved over, so there's no more donkey baseball,'' he said, laughing.

But the heart of this historic American Legion hall is still intact.

It's home to 600 veterans now, not 65, but the idea is still the same 50 years later - to have fun and camaraderie.

Just not at 3 a.m., sitting on top of an old jockey's bunkhouse traveling down Ventura Boulevard.

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Photo:

American Legion Post 826 members Rudy C'Dealva, Al Reiter and Steve Vlasich still drop by Jack Warner's old bunkhouse, for the past 50 years - after a wild ride in the middle of the night - the legion's meeting place.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer