The Crescenta Valley is an upper middle-class suburb of Los Angeles. It enjoys a low crime rate and high property values. But like any community, it has a distasteful side to its history. These are the stories you won’t hear from the local Chamber of Commerce–mildly amusing gossip and cringe-worthy history; racial hatred; a town close enough to Hollywood to provide quiet homes to not-so-quiet Hollywood stars, including the gossip that goes with them. And all of this in a valley between two mountain ranges that offer natural disasters on a seeming regular schedule. Like someone’s dirty laundry, this history book reveals some embarrassing stains.