Griffith

There is an apocryphal story that a thrifty Golden Age movie producer1 once said, “A tree is a tree, a rock is a rock, we’ll shoot it at Griffith2 Park!”

I thought of that quote while riding through the Nikko National Forest.

Then I saw a pen of cows.

Griffith Park doesn’t have cows.  They have horses.  But still, a tree is a tree, a rock is a rock, right?

Then I saw a wild monkey.

No, this is definitely not Griffith Park3.

1 No, Griffith Park was not named for famed silent era director D.W. Griffith.  In fact, it was named after unrelated wealthy mining investor Griffith J. Griffith who donated the land to the City of Los Angeles…and several years later was convicted of attempting to murder his wife.

2 This quote has been attributed to everyone from minor producer Abe Stern to “someone” King Vidor worked with to mogul Jack Warner to documentarian Al Gore. Okay, I made that last one up, but the attribution does remain disputed.

3 Yes, there are monkeys in the L.A. Zoo. That’s missing the point of the story. And, yes, yes, technically the zoo is located within Griffith Park. What are you, Huell Howser? Give it a rest.