Edgar Rice Burroughs bought the sprawling Harrison Gray Otis estate in 1919 which he named Tarzana Ranch. The years here were happy ones but the operation ran into financial difficulties after a few years.  Ed's mounting debts from his unsuccessful farming and ranching ventures resulted in the Tarzana Ranch livestock and equipment being auctioned off on January 15, 1923. The Burroughs Tarzana Tract subdivision project was very slow in getting off the ground. Sales of residential lots in the Ventura Boulevard section of the ranch were sluggish. Film companies made occasional use of the Koonskin Kabin location of the ranch for film production, but income from this source was sporadic. After some initial excitement, the Golden Gate Oil Company had little success in finding oil reserves on the ranch. Book sales were in a bit of a slump. Income from all sources was not enough to balance the mounting debts from bad investments, high overhead, and extravagant lifestyle.

In desperation, Burroughs sold 120 acres of the Tarzana Ranch in early 1924. The property sale included the main house and grounds. Investors planned to turn the property into an exclusive country club called the El Caballero. Ed, in his role as managing director of the Club, was very involved in membership drives, building plans and the running of the Club. He seemed surprisingly contented with this turn of events, as it lessened his financial difficulties and family pressures... temporarily, at least. The move to a rental home in Los Angeles got them out of the social whirl trap that they had gotten into at the Ranch, and it was also more convenient for the kids' education. Perhaps the move could have been predicted as in the 24 years that Ed and Emma had been married they had moved to about 24 different homes. 

Burroughs severed all official connections with the foundering club in late 1925. A year later the Burroughs family moved back to Tarzana to live in a small house they had built on a lot on Mecca Avenue,  from which they had an excellent view of their former mansion on the nearby hill. The lodgings may have been somewhat humble but their new location still gave them free access to their beloved hills and trails to the south.

 Although not a great financial success, the El Caballero golf was highly respected and the course played host to the Los Angeles Open Golf Tournament in 1927. The booklet featured here, and in the two following Web pages, was produced as a souvenir of that event which was won by Bobby Cruickshank.