The Dark Chapter in the History of this San Bernardino Building

Like so many buildings in the Inland Empire this building has many stories. It is celebrating its 72nd birthday this month, and it has had only 3 owners. From 1950 – 1969 it was the home of Citrus Belt Lanes. It was a state of the art (in 1950) 14 lane bowling alley. From 1969 thorough today it has been the home of (Bob & Bernie’s) Brandin’ Iron. But wait.. I did mention 3 owners, and that is what this story is about-the 3rd owner. For 3 months in 1969 it was a teenage nightclub. That is what this story in this video is about. It’s very first concert was also the very first concert anywhere in the world for a group called Eric Burdon and War, the group Eric Burdon formed after the Animals disbanded. For some reason nobody has ever been able to explain why the club was called Mother Lizard, and it was started by a shirttail relative (twice removed) of mine named Billy Elliott. It had a great start, but things started going downhill quickly. If fact it was about 4 hours before the first aforementioned concert it started careening out of control. Our host Chuck Street actually attended the concert, (Which by his own admission, he has little memory of), but his guest has more memory of it, because he was the emcee of the concert, and had a front row seat as events started tumbling out of control 4 hours before the concert started. His name is Bobby Blue, whose regular job was the top rated disc jockey in the Inland Empire from 7 till midnight on KFXM. We figured that since 53 years (this month) have past, the statute of limitations have also past, and it is now time. To visit out other projects involving Southern California nostalgia projects please visit: https://irememberproductions.com/