Palomino Horse History: Lyle V. Williams, Alla's Lei Lani, and The Silver Saddle Inn

Lyle V. Williams on his Palomino mare Lei Lani

When I go to estate sales, I am always on the lookout for items that show the small details of the rich history of horses in California. 

I went to such a sale in Simi Valley recently, where someone had saved a postcard that sheds light on one of those small details that might otherwise be forgotten. It shows two photos of Lyle V. Williams' Silver Saddle Inn, in the Southern California city of Downey.

In the years following World War II, much of America was in love with itself and also with cowboys and their horses. It was not uncommon during this time for the owners of restaurants, hotels, and motels to promote their properties using postcards. And for such a property to have an equestrian motif -- particularly a "cowboy" or "western" theme -- was not unusual in the Western US. 

But the Silver Saddle Inn had pretty unique exterior design elements that made it stand out: horseshoe-shaped door frames and a very large horse weathervane on the roof. 

The back of the postcard gives us the details:

Lyle V. Williams

Silver Saddle Inn

7339 East Florence Ave.

Downey, California

TOpaz 1-8246

Lyle V. Williams on his Champion Palomino, Lei Lani

Posed in front of his Famous Restaurant

Owner of SILVER SADDLE INN

One of California's finest & most interesting restaurants

Luncheons - Dinners - Banquets

Our Famous Sunday Las Vegas Brunch

"The Family Favorite"

And to the right of the Inn's exterior, are Williams and Lei Lani. She was registered as a half-Arabian mare, Alla's Lei Lani; more on that in a minute.

Apparently Lyle V. Williams (1914-1993) was involved with one or more car dealerships in Downey before he got into the restaurant business.  A newspaper article on the Palomino Exhibitors Association of California, from 1950, says the address 7339 E. Florence Ave. was his residence.

The first mention I see of the Silver Saddle Inn in local newspapers, is in 1956.  The inside of the building must have been as visually interesting as the outside.

Long Beach Independent, 7 June 1956

"One of the most unusual restaurants in California has been built by Lyle Williams in Downey... Named the Silver Saddle Inn, there is on exhibition the silver saddle used by Williams in rodeos and major parades, including President Eisenhower's inaugural parade. Williams is also a member of the Long Beach Mounted Patrol, and the Trophy Room in the restaurant holds the various trophies and awards he and his prize palomino mare, Leilani, have won. The interior is of glowing mahogany planks, with the walls covered half way up with hand-picked rocks from all over the world, collected by Williams."

The silver saddle on display was said to have been worth $7,000.

Another newspaper article said the Inn also featured a "celebrity walk" in which Williams' friends, including TV and film stars, had placed their footprints. It noted that the Inn was the culmination of a dream Williams had had in 1932 when he was working as a waiter in Minnesota.

On September 4, 1961, local TV station KTTV aired a feature program on the Silver Saddle Inn. 

Williams took out a full-page ad in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on 14 August 1962:

(I could editorialize about the non-Western/Cowboy-themed "entertainment" mentioned in this ad -- a "lingerie luncheon show?" -- but I don't want to digress too much from the horse aspects of the story.) 

I tried enhancing the picture of Williams on his Palomino, without much success.

On Sundays, the Inn offered free stagecoach rides (a photo of the stagecoach appears later in this article), free train rides, and "Indian singing and dancing." 

Lyle Williams was involved with Palomino horses in Southern California from the late 1940s. This ad in the 16 September 1948 Southwest Wave newspaper shows he had a mare for sale, in foal to the famous Arabian stallion Alla Amarward. The chestnut Alla was renowned as a sire of half-Arabian palominos. I'm not sure what happened to the foal the mare was carrying.

Alla Amarward, chestnut Arabian stallion, 1935 (Stambul x Makina, by Letan). 
He was owned by Herbert H. Reese. Photo from the Western Livestock Journal,
15 January 1942.

Alla Amarward was bred to a palomino mare called Williams' Golden Dolly, who produced the palomino filly Alla's Lei Lani in 1951. I think it's reasonable to assume that Williams' Golden Dolly was also owned by Lyle V. Williams. Here is a color closeup of Alla's Lei Lani, from the postcard:

Alla's Lei Lani (Alla Amarward x Williams' Golden Dolly)

When researching subjects like this, I often turn to other equine historians for help. Dee Adkins saved two photos of Alla's Lei Lani. This one is from an old Horse Lover's magazine from the mid- to late 1950s.

And this one from Arabian Horse News magazine in 1962:

And Pat Mefferd pulled this photo of Williams and his mare from an old issue of Western Horseman magazine.

Lyle V. Williams served as the head of the Palomino Exhibitors Association of California. In this photograph in the Wave from 3 August 1950, he is seen with other club members Jordon Dunaway and Cecile Turner, and horse trainer Mark Smith, who had worked for years at the Kellogg Ranch in Pomona.

A palomino mare owned by Williams, who may have been Lei Lani herself, appeared in the 4 November 1955 Los Angeles Times, with a young ventriloquist.

It appears that Williams put "my famous Pal [omino] parade mare" up for sale a few years later, based on this 10 August 1958 classified ad in the LA Times. I don't know if he actually sold her or not, nor what happened to the foal:

Williams also owned a stagecoach-and-four that participated in regional equestrian activities and may have been the one that appeared at the Silver Saddle Inn during the early 1960s. Here, the team is ready to perform in the mountain community of Wrightwood.

San Bernardino County Sun, 3 July 1960.

Williams is listed as participating in numerous parades and equestrian events in Southern California during the 1950s and early 1960s, including several Tournament of Roses Parades in Pasadena.

By April 1967, however, the Silver Saddle Inn's days were numbered. A classified ad in the LA Times shows that  the property was up for sale.

In 1968, Williams put the Silver Saddle Inn itself up for sale.

And a local newspaper reported on the closure of the "once-magnificent restaurant."

By Spring 1969, the Silver Saddle Inn had been purchased by Warren L. Ward, remodeled, and renamed The Raffles (after the legendary English highwayman).  It was said to have been built on the site of a "one-time Downey farmhouse" of 12,000 square feet, seating 500 people.  Ward got into the catering business in 1985, out of the same location.

By the 31 July 1988, The Raffles' days were over. The building was demolished, according to this ad in the Los Angeles Times.

It appears that Lyle V. Williams eventually ended up in Riverside County, California. According to Arabian Horse DataSource, Williams co-owned and bred several other horses, including Arabians and part-Arabians, between 1956 and 1980.  He died in 1993.

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Thanks to Dolores "Dee" Adkins and Pat Mefferd for the photos of Alla's Lei Lani.

And thanks to the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, part of Special Collections, Cal Poly Pomona University Library, for access to their back issues of Western Livestock Journal.

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Sidebar, since so many people took organ lessons during this time period: Williams employed the Philippines-born musician Porfirio "Pomping" Vila (1912-1995) to play the Silver Saddle Inn's Hammond organ.  

Vila entertained Southern California audiences on the keyboard in lounges, restaurants, music stores, benefit concerts at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and on the Crown Theater in Pasadena's (okay, I'll say it) Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ, from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s.