Martin Prager Jr. writes seeking information about the Riverside Rancho:

Has anyone heard of this place? From what I've read, this was a "western swing" music venue in the 40's and perhaps the 50's. Spade Cooley performed there. It's decline seems to coincide with the opening of the Palomino in North Hollywood in the late 50's. Any idea of where it was located?

I recently researched the Riverside Rancho — the old country music club, not the Burbank-Glendale horse neighborhood — but didn't post about it because, as it turns out, the Rancho wasn't located in the Valley. So I'm glad Martin asked. He's right that it was a major western music spot. Spade Cooley was the headliner for several years. (So was Tex Williams.) The club was at 3115 Riverside Drive, on the far side of Griffith Park just south of Los Feliz Boulevard. The site had been the home of the Los Angeles Breakfast Club in the 1930s and 40s, then opened as the city's hottest country music nightspot. After it closed, the Los Angeles Fire Department torched the building on Sept. 3, 1959 as a training exercise. Two years later, Cooley murdered his wife and went to prison.

Riverside Rancho's closure led indirectly to the popularity of the Palomino, the Lankershim Boulevard club that became the preeminent West Coast venue for country music. When the Rancho shut down, acts moved over to North Hollywood and the Palomino's legend grew.