Canoga Park! Then slowly I turned...

To my 19-year-old (or maybe slightly older) imagination, Canoga Park, California was the world capital of hot catfighting babes.

Because Canoga Park was the home of the legendary Triumph Studios, which occupied (I assumed) a sprawling catfighting, wrestling and foxy boxing complex at its landmark address of 7106 Alabama Avenue.

I had never been to Los Angeles at that point in my life. I had grown up in the flyover, and I'd never been west of the Rockies. My impression of southern California had been formed by movies and TV shows.

I assumed Triumph's operation wasn't as big as Paramount or Warner, probably, but still pretty impressive. There would be gates you'd have to drive through, of course, with the Triumph Studios logo in polished copper overhead.

The Hollywood sign would be visible from the entrance, certainly, and if you parked in the right place, the creeping shadow of the Capitol Records building would shield your car from the afternoon sun.

And wasn't Helen O'Connell discovered in a drugstore right down the street?

A golf cart might cruise by as you stood there, taking it all in.  Was that Gretchen Gayle and Candy Costello in the back? They looked like they were laughing – I thought they were feuding prior to their next big showdown match.

As it turned out, of course, Triumph Studios was nothing like that. It was in a shabby building now occupied, according to Google Earth, by a pest control company.

So they weren't part of the big, corrupt, old guard studio system. They were indie filmmakers!