It was the night that the city fathers gathered at the old Feliz adobe to celebrate the city's acceptance of the former rancho as a park. In your great honor I have brought an escort of sub- demons. For decades afterward, whenever anything went wrong in the park, someone, usually a journalist, would bring up the curse. As with all such tales, the curse underwent occasional revision. For example, Ed Curl, Sierra Club hike leader and founder of the Griffith Park Quarterly , added his own twist, placing Petranilla atop Bee Rock rather than her uncle.
Some local historians have little use for the curse.
It is an area that a historian pays some attention to because it sheds some light on the culture of the time. As folklore, stories like the curse contain a particular kind of truth, said Steve Taylor, associate professor of English at Glendale Community College. Taylor instructes his students to look at the values inherent in particular myths. If those values still have relevance, the myth lives on.