Verdugo Hills Bowl – The End

Verdugo Hills Bowl was responsible for some great childhood memories for many residents. It remained popular well into the early ’70s. Perhaps with that in mind the bowling alley financed a major expansion in June 1977. The alley expanded from 28 lanes to 40 lanes, adding new ceilings, carpets and seating.

But the expansion may have been too much. One person who worked there told me, “Before VHB expanded from 28 lanes to 40 it was always full. Unfortunately, when they expanded it was the same time more parents were going to work and adult bowling was slowly declining, [though not] the kids.”

An LA Times article from 1982 noted the decline in business for not only Verdugo Hills Bowl, but all other bowling alleys in the area. The various bowling alley owners blamed the decline on several issues. Blue-collar workers, long the mainstay of bowling, had less income to spend. Women who made up a huge portion of the business in the 1960s were taking jobs outside the home, and kids had other options for their recreational time. The alleys were increasingly surviving on profits from video games and liquor sales. The manager of Verdugo Hills Bowl said that business was down to nearly half of what it should be to remain profitable. He admitted that they lost money the preceding year.

But the problems didn’t stop there. In 1989, there were labor issues regarding unionization of the employees of Verdugo Hills Bowl and two other bowling alleys under the same owner. Compounding that were complaints from neighbors in the ’90s about rowdy drunks hanging out behind the alley. Those complaints even went to the level of Glendale holding a hearing to consider revoking the bowling alley’s liquor license. The bowling alley was living on borrowed time.

Dennis McNerny was there to see it all end.

“At the age of 15, I was offered a job at the front desk and from then on I was dedicated to the place. On Dec. 3, 1996 I was called in to cover a shift for someone. I was in high school, struggling to pass an algebra class. After two phone calls I reluctantly decided to skip the homework and go to work. I am so glad that I did as that night would be the last for Verdugo Hills Bowl. It wasn’t as profitable as it was in the ’70s and ’80s, so the owners ended up losing the place. The owners showed up at 10 p.m., cleaned out every safe and till and left. Next morning the bank showed up and locked the doors. I stood outside that morning and had to tell all the students from the high school bowling class that the place was history.”

So in the end, it was foreclosed on by a bank. That bank sold it to Foothill Nissan, which had the car dealership next door. It in turn sold it to Vons, and it was demolished in 2002, a big Vons supermarket taking its place.

But the old bowling alley had one last date with fame. During the years it sat abandoned it was used in a hit music video! Dennis McNerny tells us that in 1998 the group Matchbox 20 shot the music video for their hit “Real World” in the abandoned Verdugo Hills Bowl. In true music video bizarreness, the front man for the group leads a camel – yes, a real camel – across the bowling lanes. In the background you can see the dangling wires from the removed pinsetters. The last portion of the video is shot in a tiny coffee shop and Dennis is pretty sure it was filmed in Delrod’s Coffee Shop (now a veterinary office) located across from the bowling alley on Foothill Boulevard. The video is found easily on YouTube and well worth a watch.

The only thing left today from Verdugo Bowl is logoed T-shirts. They are all over the internet with two different designs available. I bought mine from Moonshot.com. You might see me wearing my Verdugo Bowl T-shirt, wandering the aisles of Vons supermarket, looking for my lost bowling ball.