Early in the movie, the Army Sergeant hero going undercover ends up at The Moonfire Inn to infiltrate those rapscalious (?), brother-killing bikers in their local haunt. When watching bad 70s movies and I see a named restaurant or bar, or a phone number, I get obsessed with a search for any remnants of it that may still exist. Either to see a record that it once-had-been or to see it manifest in its current form. When I was reading S.T.A.R. Flight (1969), there was an insert for the DeVry Institute (yes, that one) that was to be mailed back to 4141 Belmont Ave. Chicago, IL 60641 and I had to screen cap the current street view. (When my dad no longer was, one artifact left behind that fascinated me was a jar of matchbooks from various restaurants and hotels he ate and stayed at as a salesman throughout the 70s and 80s. Since then, I wanted to create a blog with an entry for each matchbook and what could be discovered of its origin. Still a good idea (and TBD) but probably a manifestation rather than source of my obsession.)
The Hellcats [ IMDB | Wikipedia ]
The Moonfire Inn was/is an actual place in Topanga Canyon just north of Los Angeles. There’s a symbolic reference here regarding the moon and angels and–what I learned–that “Topanga” may mean “a place above” in the Native American Tongva language, but I don’t quite have a bon mot on that right now. And Wagner’s “Fire Music” from Die Walkuere has Bruennhilde captured in a ring of fire to be saved (yes, there is a female-in-distress in this movie).
So The Moon Fire Ranch is on a “hippie resort” with The Moon Fire Temple that was created for the Paul Newman film Harper. The resource that is referenced by most sites is the article “Take a 1967 Visit to Topanga’s Green Stamps Hippie Ranch” from LA Curbed. It, and others, points out that the Manson Family frequented there. (Unrelated, we just re-watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last (Friday) night.)
But her spine does look weird.
Now, I’ve done lazy, Saturday nite research on this, but let’s find out to the best of our abilities where the Moonfire Inn used to be.
Anybody remember the Moonfire Inn? (I think that was the name). I helped out in the kitchen back in the mid to late 60’s. I remember we made some called “The Great Depression Soup Line” Or did I just dream this…
Doug Ellington to Topanga Historical Society
A site called The Great Hollywood Hangover (I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation, I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation, This is my generation, This is my generation, baby). From Holly McKimson:
It was 1970 when I worked for the Moonfire Inn located in Topanga. I was one of the cooks. I really was not a very good cook to be honest, and it really was not where my heart was. However, I had an interesting time there. There was a room downstairs where some people would go to get away from everything, and often times, clothing would be left behind. One evening, a friend came in needing to do laundry. He needed something to wear while he did his laundry, and I suggested he go downstairs to see what he could find. About 10 or 15 minutes passed, and he came back up in a dress! That was all he could find.
Then there was the time, that I made a potato soup, and it was burnt on the bottom of the pot. I didn’t want to serve it, but was told to. So needless to say, it was served. Sure enough, someone asked to see me about the soup. But his comment was not what I expected. He asked me what my special ingredient was. I could not bring myself to tell him it was burnt, so I just said it was a special ingredient…yes, special ingredient–burnt bottom of pot…I was thrilled though, that people liked the soup. Then there was the time when I fell into the food that had temporarily been place on the floor, and ended up with spaghetti sauce all over my bottom…
I could go into other stories about Hollywood, the valley, and Topanga, but they are fairly private, and don’t want to embarrass anyone who might still be around.
There are only a handful of buildings on the main road that leads to the Moonfire Ranch. The most likely candidate for the Moonfire Inn is the abandoned (hopefully) Fernwood Market. I can kinda see a dive bar having been there. I can definitely see one opening up again.
