noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

When was the gasometer in this photo torn down? Were all the gasometers in the city required to be dismantled at some point? I don't recall reading about the reasons for their disappearance.

I posted a 1948 aerial view of the gasometer in post #17671. It's still visible in the 1964 image, but gone by 1972.

[MartinTurnbull]

[QUOTE=Martin Pal;6807891]I would've thought so, too, though some souvenir photos of this place show military men and their dates in them and the advertising of "big bands" which would mean alot of dancing. (The place doesn't look "that" big from the street, though!)

A poster recently said they had a list of the places that were considered off limits and was going to post that list. I wonder if there's an online source for that?

I have a partial list of LA bars banned by US military during WWII on my website

http://www.martinturnbull.com/2014/1...y-during-wwii/

which I got from Jon Ponder at "Playground to the Stars." His theory was that the banning occurred largely in the first year or so when servicemen on shore leave had nowhere to go. Then places like the Hollywood Canteen and the various USO venues gave them a destination and the banned places weren't quite so heavily policed.

[CityBoyDoug]

[QUOTE=MartinTurnbull;6809951]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I would've thought so, too, though some souvenir photos of this place show military men and their dates in them and the advertising of "big bands" which would mean alot of dancing. (The place doesn't look "that" big from the street, though!)

A poster recently said they had a list of the places that were considered off limits and was going to post that list. I wonder if there's an online source for that?

I have a partial list of LA bars banned by US military during WWII on my website

http://www.martinturnbull.com/2014/1...y-during-wwii/

which I got from Jon Ponder at "Playground to the Stars." His theory was that the banning occurred largely in the first year or so when servicemen on shore leave had nowhere to go. Then places like the Hollywood Canteen and the various USO venues gave them a destination and the banned places weren't quite so heavily policed.

Martin:

If you ''search'' this thread using the words 'out of bounds' and of course the search engine above.......it will show names, maps and places that were off-limits. Hope this helps as there have been many posts on this topic, including military letters from the era.

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

...and while we're down in Long Beach.

I had forgotten there was a giant mural on the façade of the old Long Beach Municipal Auditorium.


ebay

Was it saved?

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I was in Long Beach the past few days so got a couple shots of the mural. It was saved and reinstalled on the side of some sort of mall/parking garage, located on Third St. at one end of The Promendade (a pedestrian-only walkway).




The other end of The Promendade terminates at Ocean Ave. where the Breakers (aka Hilton aka Wilton) & the Skyroom are- featured in another recent post of yours:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=24637

The Breakers is a retirement home now.



Lots of closed up doors and windows (the Skyroom has its own entrance on the Locust Ave. side of the building)


While in the vicinity, back in Jan 2012 you had a post about the subway under the demolished Jergen's Trust Building once located at Ocean Ave. and Pine. The tunnel has been sealed up since 1967 or so: http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=5952

There was supposedly a condo project in the works that would cover up the tunnel entrance again, but I found it looking exactly the same as it did in the 2012 picture. (The plywood is covering the tunnel entrance).



Across Pine, the Ocean House Building (1929) is still there. The north side of it is surface parking, and an outdoor cafe kind of place is currently installed in the space that once carried The Pike's Seaside Walkway under the building (the street in the foreground is now called Seaside Way).





Here's what it looked like about 1950, from the other side of the building looking south:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics50/00074658.jpg

some later views of it from Rick Warren's fabulous Pike set on Flickr, here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/thepik.../45688665@N03/





Here's a view of Ocean Ave. near Pine showing, left to right The Breakers, the Jergen's Trust Building and the Ocean Ave. facade of the Ocean House:

from this site: https://sites.google.com/site/losang...epalaces/state

E-R's image from his Skyroom post the other day shows the Municipal Auditorium, where the mural started out; The Breakers (aka the Hilton at this time); the Jergen's Trust Building, and Ocean House:



The waves once lapped up against Ocean House at high tide and the west facade of The Breakers was only a few yards from the sand- they're at least 1/4 mile from the sea today, and nowhere near a sand beach.

[Noircitydame]

I flew in and out of Long Beach Airport this week and the original 1941 terminal is looking swell. They light it up with neon at night- it changes from green to pink- and the light beam still sweeps the sky from the top of the control tower.

Front:


Back:

(my photos)

I think those tall, curved windows were for the cocktail lounge. It looks like they have curtains over them now. I went upstairs looking for the room, but the only way I could figure might lead to it involved going down a narrow hallway that led to the men's restroom. There was an unmarked door just beyond it but I didn't dare.

Vintage views:
http://lgb.org/images/community/hist..._field_350.jpg

(from this article: http://www.losangelesregister.com/ar...each-long.html)

They've also ripped up the carpet and exposed the wonderful Grace Clements mosaic tiles. I couldn't get any good shots of any of them but found these online:



(from this article about them: http://lbpost.com/life/2000001454-hi...airport-carpet)

[ConstructDTLA]

Did a little writeup on the Richfield Oil Building, which has been covered extensively in this thread - but can you ever get too much of the most beautiful LA building ever demolished?

South On Spring - Richfield Oil

[HossC]

Thanks for your Long Beach pictures, Noircitydame. I'm glad the mural and the tiled floor at the airport survived.


------------

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

below: We've pretty much seen this same view before....but the gas-o-meter looks especially good in this one.

ebay

I found these pictures of the Hollywood gasometer at Formosa Avenue & Romaine Street on a Facebook page called Classic Hollywood/Los Angeles/SFV. From the brief description, I'd guess that the buildings in the foreground of the first image are part of Goldwyn Studios.


Facebook


Facebook

[Fishzilla]

"MartinTurnbull This photo was dated 1946. I'd love to know if anyone here knows the building in the background. It doesn't look familiar to me but thought it's striking enough to perhaps ring some bells around these here parts."

Thats the southeast corner of DeLongpre Ave and N. Harper Ave. in West Hollywood.


Mariyln Monroe lived at 1309 N. Harper with her female acting coach.

[HossC]

Thanks for the identification, Fishzilla. You've saved me driving the Googlemobile up and down the streets of Hollywood .

Armed with the address, I did some Googling, and found an article on la.curbed.com. It names the property as the Harper House, and says it was designed by Leland Bryant in 1929. The article also claims that the Harper House once boasted silver screen stars Norma Talmadge and Joe E Brown amongst its residents. Below the brief description, you'll find several interior photos.

Here's a current picture:


GSV

And a reminder of MartinTurnbull's original photo:

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

This photo was dated 1946. I'd love to know if anyone here knows the building in the background. It doesn't look familiar to me but thought it's striking enough to perhaps ring some bells around these here parts.

(The woman in front is Marguerite Chapman, FYI)

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for sharing your photographs NoirCityDame of Long Beach (the saved mural....so colorful!) and the deco remnants of the airport.

I especially liked this gritty photograph you posted of the arched passage-way beneath the Ocean House Building. ( I'd so love to see inside that boarded up cocktail lounge)


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=24666




Your post inspired me to finally upload this photograph of the Hotel Stillman (I'm almost certain we haven't seen it before on NLA).


old file of mine / possible ebay

My question is... what is this passage-way to the left of the hotel? A minor entrance to the Pike? ...a side entrance?
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[ethereal_reality]

This is an amazing (and exceedingly rare) brochure from the 1900s advertising night-time excursions into Los Angeles' Chinatown from the Broadway Hotel.


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Number 1 on the list.....the Opium Den!


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[ethereal_reality]

transit pass-1934.


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[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by HossC

I found these pictures of the Hollywood gasometer at Formosa Avenue & Romaine Street on a Facebook page called Classic Hollywood/Los Angeles/SFV. From the brief description, I'd guess that the buildings in the foreground of the first image are part of Goldwyn Studios.


Facebook


Facebook

This (below) happened to be on my desk when I opened the Noirish window (above). Too much serendipity here not to post it!

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

old file of mine / possible ebay

It looks like you could buy airline tickets from the Hotel Stillman in the late '40s. The Metro Coach Lines building in the picture above replaced the PE Station mentioned in the advert below. The advert is from the April 4, 1949 edition of the Long Beach Press Telegram.


newspaperarchive.com

Across the page from the advert was this bizarre story about feeding a headless rooster with an eyedropper. I thought it was an urban myth!


newspaperarchive.com

BTW, there's a larger version of e_r's picture on flickr. Underneath it there are a couple of reminiscences evoked by the picture.

[ethereal_reality]

HossC, thanks for the link to this larger photograph of the Hotel Stillman.


Howard Gribble at https://www.flickr.com/photos/806433...ream/lightbox/


This comment is especially interesting. He's describing the photograph is such a wonderful way I just had to post it.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/806433...ream/lightbox/
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[ethereal_reality]

A few days ago I came across this glorious menu from the Paris Inn (I couldn't find it among NLA's Paris Inn related ephemera)



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Worn step at the Paris Inn. (it would take many years, and many feet, to wear a step down like that)



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/80082/rec/1



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/80082/rec/1
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detail / nice art deco design. -inlaid?

[ethereal_reality]

When I first glanced at this newspaper I thought it was from the late 1960s, early 1970s.
Believe it or not, the man with the long hair and the beard isn't a summer of love 'hippie'...he's the "Lookout Mountain Hermit" Leroy Walsh aka Tuan, and the date is 1936!!


ebay

-It appears he beat up a couple men. (not sure why this warranted a front page photo)



detail / close up


Does anyone have any information on Tuan/ (Lorendoc...have you heard stories of this guy?
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[HossC]

I found a little more about the incident on newspapers.com. I don't have a subscription, so I could only get access to the transcript. It's from the March 3, 1936 edition of The San Bernardino County Sun:

"HOLLYWOOD, March 2. District attorney's investigators arrested Leroy Walsh, husky young hermit poet and mystic, at his Lookout mountain shack home near here today on two felony assault charges. F. C. Parsons of San Diego and Jim Gallagher appeared at the district attorney's office this morning and complained that the long-haired, bewhiskered hermit attacked them Sunday. Parsons' nose was broken and Gallagher was injured about the head. Investigators John McDonnell and Jack Sumner said Walsh denied his victims' charges that he used brass knuckles or similar weapons on them. He said he started a quarrel with them because they parked their automobile too near his shack, officers reported. Walsh said he had lived alone on mountain for seven years. At first he refused to give any name except that of "Tuan" by which he known in the vicinity."

[ethereal_reality]

interesting...thanks HossC.


below: I really like the look of these three prints. (almost like a tilt-shift...or whatever it's called)

I'm unsure of the locations.


1962

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1963

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above: 'Pico Wheel Service'....so my guess would be Pico Blvd.





1962

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I take it that the tracks were elevated like this for repairs.
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[srk1941]

Yes, this is a 1941 Cadillac Series 62 convertible coupe. I actually have this same car, so it was easy to determine... All 1941 Cadillacs had this hood badge, all series. It was also used on the 1942 Cadillac, though the '42 didn't have the distinctive hood grilles seen here, so this is a '41.

The average selling price for a very good example averages about 75,000 these days, though one recently sold for nearly $185,000!

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

ER....this car had me very puzzled. I did a lot of research and finally ID'd it.

This is a 1941 Cadillac Series 62 convertible. It has a very distinctive hood badge. As far as I know, this is the only Series Cadillac and the only year this badge was ever applied.

This was one of the last Cadillacs built before war production began. During the war, Cadillac made tank engines.

Recently this rare type of car sold for $46,000.


carpictures dot com


galleryhip dot com