noirish Los Angeles

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Curious about the purported Joan C. residence on Argyle Ave . North or south of Franklin? Anyone have a street number to go with it?

Strangely, the simple facade seems vaguely reminiscent of Lucille Ball's former abode at 1344 N. Ogden Drive. http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=4375 Maybe it's the footprint with the stairwell and columns, or the fact that it was reportedly constructed in or around 1919, or the name Lucille. (Apparently 1344 started out as a single family dwelling and was "apartmentized" in 1938 before being reconverted to house a single family.)

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...2d931bcc88.jpg

Looking much closer at the best-available original source (Yes, it is big.), there is a street number on a stair above the sidewalk. Could it be 1618, or 1818?

Not surprisingly, some Argyle Ave. single family residences on the 1600 and 1800 blocks have similar "irregular" histories that continue to this day. Permits indicate some homes were built between 1913 through the early '20s, followed by additions and/or improvements. One example, i.e., "1612 Argyle Ave." started life at 6235 Hollywood Blvd. and was later moved to Argyle in 1920. By the 1950s, many homes were relocated to diverse SoCal locations, including Venice (e.g., Indiana St. and Westminster Ave.) and to East LA.

It is unclear when Crawford purportedly had any connection with the Argyle property. There are, of course, unsubstantiated rumors regarding Joan's early years as a New York chorus girl or when she first arrived in Hollywood, circa 1925. This could have given rise to similar rumors regarding names she might have used for business or even informally. The name "Joan Crawford" does not appear to have any obvious directory-connection with Argyle Avenue (or Drive). Naturally, she could have been using her given name, Lucille Fay LeSueur, or a variant thereof. Some have suggested that she might have used a favorite nickname, e.g., "Billie" or "Jessie Le Sueur." http://movielanddirectory.com/star.cfm?star=32135 Or perhaps she borrowed a sibling's name, e.g., Hal Hayes LeSueur. (Incidentally, Hal died in '63, at Parkway Motel at 1212 S. Alvarado St., where he was reportedly a motel clerk. It has been alleged that Hal may have blackmailed Joan regarding her sordid past just prior to his death. But these rumors are easy to allege and not-so-easy to substantiate. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ened-leak.html https://www.joancrawfordbest.com/hallatimesobit63.htm ) Alternatively, Joan may have been only a short-term tenant, or sublet with a roommate - or perhaps she only visited the property, like a hotel room.



Joan and her brother, Hal
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/...1825902547.jpg





(

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Forget the natural and political disasters we're living through--the outrage against them pales in comparison to the negative reaction in some quarters to the interior makeover of the Higgins-Verbeck house...which is pretty awful, as if done by someone who took a vocational-training course and then copied--badly--an outdated Pottery Barn catalog. Anyway, stripping the finish off 115-year-old woodwork (and replacing vintage lighting) is a desecration--but then it was clearly a depressing, dark old house that needed lightening. I'm wondering what NLAers think, not so much in terms of aesthetics--but of the question of--what to do with a white elephant?

The house has been unsellable--it is definitely unsuited to modern times, with awkward spaces, ancient bones, undoubted inefficiency in terms of its infrastructure...not to mention being on a lousy block in an old, relatively high-crime neighborhood, next to an office building and close to noisy Wilshire Blvd.... It seems to have been on the market forever...6 mil down to 4, now, with this atrocious and obviously cheap makeover, it has amusingly zoomed up to 9 million.

Oh well. I don't blame the owner for trying to unload the old girl by making it appear up-to-date--it's his house to do with as he pleases. It's always interesting how the dissenters in these cases never seem to come up with the money to save such a house. What are these unrealistic expectations that this kind of artifact should be preserved for their personal enjoyment with no financial risk of their own? A wish that life was the way they want to imagine it was in 1902 (in the case of this house)--or a fantasy that they would ever have been living like the Higginses & Verbecks?

Any thoughts?

I think someone ought to be shot for desecrating a beautiful old home like that.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

"Beige?" You are too kind. I refer to that color as Baby Poop Tan, with variants. The color of no imagination! It's everywhere, including automobile interiors.

It seems to me that's how most movies and TV series are filmed these days. There seems to be two choices, either the beige, brown, gold filming or the gray, steel, bluish look.

When I flip through TV channels I'm always stopping on the Retro channels where things used to be filmed in color. Heh!

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by jg6544

I think someone ought to be shot for desecrating a beautiful old home like that.

tovangar and jg...

The old mansion now resembles the cigarette stained lobby of a Bunker Hill transient hotel of the 1940s. All that's missing is the smell of cigars.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

tovangar and jg...

The old mansion now resembles the cigarette stained lobby of a Bunker Hill transient hotel of the 1940s. All that's missing is the smell of cigars.

There is a little bit of a bright side folks. At least they did not rip out all the old woodwork, just painted it a hideous color, which can be removed and refinished to its original appearance, someday.......

[ethereal_reality]

and that hideous lighting fixture looks like an upside-down christmas tree.



ugly
_

[ethereal_reality]

Back in 2013 BifRayRock posted a photo of the Robert Morton Organ Co. here



this clearer image includes the wooden water tower.*



this particular photo was hidden within a group of photographs labeled "Scenes in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, CA, 1926"




*If you look closely, there are actually two water towers.






Aerial taken in 1952. (it was all torn down in 1964)


robertmorton

The plant was located in Van Nuys at the corner of Van Nuys Boulvard and Oxnard Street.







I'll conclude with this photo that shows the employees of the Wood and Metal Pipe Departments celebrating the "big one"


Collection of Tammy Bain, grand-daughter of Archie March, Jr.

"big one" = big pipe





there's one in every crowd.


They should have had feet sticking out of the other end.
__



snapshot 9/14/ ?


I just checked and I don't see the smokestack in the other two pics.

or is it an utility pole?
__

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Unbelievable. How fascinating it would be to somehow actually see those old streets and roads lined with Pepper and Eucalyptus Trees.
Are there ANY streets lined with Eucalyptus in Los Angeles? There certainly are such streets in Northern California, such as a stretch of a busy boulevard in Burlingame and a residential boulevard in Fresno. They are amazingly atmospheric and picturesque.

Although not actually in Los Angeles, Torrance Boulevard between Madrona Ave and Crenshaw Boulevard, near the Torrance Civic Center, is one example.


GSV


Daily Breeze




Story on how the Eucalyptus trees came to be in the South Bay here: http://blogs.dailybreeze.com/history...d-harbor-area/

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location

listed on ebay as...

"VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPH 1935 APARTMENT HOTEL VENICE LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA"


ebay

I hope someone on NLA might recognize the building. (the distinctive elevated walkways might ring a bell)

Other than that there aren't many clues....

well, the sand is obviously a clue (which makes me lean toward a Venice location)



The seller also points out a small sign half-hidden by the palm on the right. (the seller says half a word is visible...."????IDAIRE")

I tried to read it myself but it's impossible.

detail

BUT....the seller later confesses this could possibly be San Diego. (say what!? )

EBAY

[CityBoyDoug]

Every movie theater had to have an organ back in the day.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

and that hideous lighting fixture looks like an upside-down christmas tree.

ugly
_

You're just not on the program e_r. You're sounding like the boy who impertinently pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. Listen to "spiritual teacher" to the stars, Marianne Williamson in her introduction to Xorin Balbes' book SoulSpace,

"Imagine the mythical wizard Merlin as an interior decorator, and you've got Xorin. Imagine a magical treatise on decorating your house, and you've got SoulSpace"

or how about Amazon's blurb on Balbes?'

"Xorin Balbes is an award-winning architectural conservator, designer, philanthropist, and co-owner of the interior and architectural design firm, SoulSpace Home. Xorin is well known for remarkable restorations of several architecturally significant properties...

Xorin is also the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Global Vision for Peace [now defunct]. The organization's mission is to create awareness and solutions for the burgeoning problem of homelessness; focusing on one person, one family at a time."

One could not make this stuff up.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

You're just not on the program e_r. You're sounding like the boy who impertinently pointed out that the emperor had no clothes. Listen to "spiritual teacher" to the stars, Marianne Williamson in her introduction to Xorin Balbes' book SoulSpace,

"Imagine the mythical wizard Merlin as an interior decorator, and you've got Xorin. Imagine a magical treatise on decorating your house, and you've got SoulSpace"

or how about Amazon's blurb on Balbes?'

"Xorin Balbes is an award-winning architectural conservator, designer, philanthropist, and co-owner of the interior and architectural design firm, SoulSpace Home. Xorin is well known for remarkable restorations of several architecturally significant properties...

Xorin is also the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Global Vision for Peace [now defunct]. The organization's mission is to create awareness and solutions for the burgeoning problem of homelessness; focusing on one person, one family at a time."

One could not make this stuff up.

Love the sarcasm T2. I never heard of this misanthrope until you mentioned him.

This brain-dead zombie Xorin [ Balbes] would ''redecorate'' a Greene & Greene house interior in ALL white. Everything...all painted white with all white furnishings and white floors....everything.

The exterior might be gray and shades of gray....everything. Even the brickwork and river rock would be painted gray. That's just one example. There are dozens more but I do not need to list them because they are ALL the same.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

This brain-dead zombie Xorin [ Balbes] would ''redecorate'' a Greene & Greene house interior in ALL white. Everything...all painted white with all white furnishings and white floors....everything.

Actually, that's how Gamble House got saved for us to enjoy. The Gamble heirs, when showing the house for sale, overheard prospective buyers describing how they were going to paint the interior all white to "update" it and make it livable. The heirs decided then and there to donate it instead to protect it for the future.

[Albany NY]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Forget the natural and political disasters we're living through--the outrage against them pales in comparison to the negative reaction in some quarters to the interior makeover of the Higgins-Verbeck house...which is pretty awful, as if done by someone who took a vocational-training course and then copied--badly--an outdated Pottery Barn catalog. Anyway, stripping the finish off 115-year-old woodwork (and replacing vintage lighting) is a desecration--but then it was clearly a depressing, dark old house that needed lightening. I'm wondering what NLAers think, not so much in terms of aesthetics--but of the question of--what to do with a white elephant?

The house has been unsellable--it is definitely unsuited to modern times, with awkward spaces, ancient bones, undoubted inefficiency in terms of its infrastructure...not to mention being on a lousy block in an old, relatively high-crime neighborhood, next to an office building and close to noisy Wilshire Blvd.... It seems to have been on the market forever...6 mil down to 4, now, with this atrocious and obviously cheap makeover, it has amusingly zoomed up to 9 million.

Oh well. I don't blame the owner for trying to unload the old girl by making it appear up-to-date--it's his house to do with as he pleases. It's always interesting how the dissenters in these cases never seem to come up with the money to save such a house. What are these unrealistic expectations that this kind of artifact should be preserved for their personal enjoyment with no financial risk of their own? A wish that life was the way they want to imagine it was in 1902 (in the case of this house)--or a fantasy that they would ever have been living like the Higginses & Verbecks?

Any thoughts?

I was just curious, GaylordWilshire, was the house ever used for commercial purposes? I noticed the old automatic door closer in the 'before' pic. It seems like a mighty unusual thing to have had in a residence.
Oh, and for the record, I like the original look better.

[Albany NY]

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;7931494]

Two rare photographs taken inside the Naud Junction (McCarey's) Pavilion

January 4, 1907.



History: On January 4, 1907 at Naud Junction Pavilion in Los Angeles heavyweights Jack "Twin" Sullivan and Fireman Jim Flynn
met in an important division matchup. After 20 rounds the fight was declared a draw. Offered here is an original, first generation
photograph taken by the notable Dana Studios depicting the two fighters in the ring squaring off before the fight began.

Price: $375.00 at josportsinc





February 4, 1908



History: On February 4, 1908 at Naud Junction Pavilion in Los Angeles lightweights Battling Nelson and Rudy Unholz
fought in the main event. Unholz prevailed winning a ten round decision. Under the city ordinance, no decision
could be given, but there was no doubt of the result. The Boer had all the best of every round in the matter of blows
exchanged and he punched Nelson considerably and had him bleeding freely at the nose and mouth almost from the start.
He knocked the Battler down in the first round with a lightning left to the point of the jaw. (The Ogden Standard).
Offered here is an original, first generation photograph taken by the notable Dana Studios depicting the two fighters
in the ring squaring off before the fight began.

Price: $400.00 at josportsinc

Ethereal_reality....is there any info on the 2 gentlemen standing to the left in the first pic? I ask because the man 2nd from the left looks strikingly similar to the boxer on the right in the 2nd pic, Rudy Unholz. One and the same? (Couldn't help noticing, 'cuz he's such a hottie! )

Either way, 3 months after the 2nd picture was taken, on May 8, 1908 Rudy Unholz lost to Joe Gans in the 11th round of a scheduled 20 round fight for the World Lightweight title at the Coliseum in San Francisco. Both fighters passed away from tuberculosis at very young ages; Joe Gans at age 35, and Rudy Unholz passed away in Glendale on June 11, 1916 at the young age of 34.

[ethereal_reality]

All mentions of Rudy Unholz in the Los Angeles Herald start in 1908 (he's mentioned just once in 1907...for an upcoming fight in Jan. 1908)
So I doubt he is one of the two men standing on the left in the Sullivan vs. Flynn photograph that took place in 1907. But I found a clue who they might be.

In this advertisement for the January 4th, 1907 bout there are four other boxers mentioned beside the two headliners.


los angeles herald

so perhaps the two men are....

George Brown
Abdul the Turk
Kid Webster
or
Joe Smith (this is just a guess mind you)

& by the way, 'Fireman' Jim Flynn defeated Jack 'Twin' Sullivan. You can read about it here
__

sidenote. note that McCarey's Pavilion/Naud Junction Pavilion is called the Pacific Athletic Club Pavilion in this particular ad.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Albany NY

...was the house ever used for commercial purposes? I noticed the old automatic door closer in the 'before' pic.

Indeed it was; as an office building. Check out JScott's post on the Higgins-Verbeck on his Los Angeles Past blog. He had an appointment in one of the offices there in the early 80s.


ETA: And here's IMDB's list of movies & TV shows filmed at the Higgins-Verbeck mansion.

If you want to check out the previous set of listing photos from the Hirsch's time at the home, before it was turned it over to Balbes' tender mercies, they're here. They're awful too, but in a different way. I think the house would have looked better with a relaxed, country-house look, rather than the garish high-Victorian look (judging by some truly ghastly pelmets/draperies) the Hirschs appear to have been going for in some of the rooms, an odd combination with all the modern white-upholstered furniture:


pricey pads

Larchmont Buzz says, "the renovations have been taking something of a beating from historic house fans and preservationists in social media and blog posts"

The Engstrum's Artemisia exhibits a much more successful approach to furnishing a large, older home without looking like a museum or a hodge-podge.

Many of the articles on this house describe it as "Victorian", but with a 1902 build-date, it is firmly Edwardian.

The Higgins Verbeck is somewhat reminiscent of our old friend 826 S Burlington (1899), also by John C. Austin. South Burlington is just half the size though.

[ethereal_reality]

I may have destroyed my own theory


I think you were right Albany_NY, that is Rudy Unholz in the Flynn/Sullivan photo.

here's the 'mystery' man again

from the 1907 pic.
[/URL]



& here's an image of Unholz in 1928.

http://www.pugilistica.com/bonecl1ruunm.html

I think it's the same guy (obviously much younger in the sepia pic)

Good eye Albany_NY!
__

[ethereal_reality]

I don't believe we have seen this proposal on NLA.

1936 Press Photo Los Angeles new proposed auto raceway track to be built


ebay

At first I thought this was a proposal to add an auto racetrack to Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, but this is further west and adjacent to LAX.

I've outlined the parcel of land today (obviously the proposal was decades before the 405 freeway)


North is at the bottom / I rotated it to match the 1936 illustration.

note the former site of Hollywood Park Racetrack on the far left.




lastly, here's the back side.

info. / date stamp


$1,400,000 in 1936 dollars. (and during the Depression!) How much is that in today's money CBD?
__
Oh and one more thing:

Did you noticed the dotted lines representing an aerial runway inside the race track-

Do you think there was a runway already there that was about to become obsolete, or were they planning
an auxiliary runway of some sort?

(I just took a look at the illustration again. From the precise fit, it appears they were planning to build the runway. (whaddya think?)

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Forget the natural and political disasters we're living through--the outrage against them pales in comparison to the negative reaction in some quarters to the interior makeover of the Higgins-Verbeck house...which is pretty awful, as if done by someone who took a vocational-training course and then copied--badly--an outdated Pottery Barn catalog. Anyway, stripping the finish off 115-year-old woodwork (and replacing vintage lighting) is a desecration--but then it was clearly a depressing, dark old house that needed lightening. I'm wondering what NLAers think, not so much in terms of aesthetics--but of the question of--what to do with a white elephant?

The house has been unsellable--it is definitely unsuited to modern times, with awkward spaces, ancient bones, undoubted inefficiency in terms of its infrastructure...not to mention being on a lousy block in an old, relatively high-crime neighborhood, next to an office building and close to noisy Wilshire Blvd.... It seems to have been on the market forever...6 mil down to 4, now, with this atrocious and obviously cheap makeover, it has amusingly zoomed up to 9 million.

Oh well. I don't blame the owner for trying to unload the old girl by making it appear up-to-date--it's his house to do with as he pleases. It's always interesting how the dissenters in these cases never seem to come up with the money to save such a house. What are these unrealistic expectations that this kind of artifact should be preserved for their personal enjoyment with no financial risk of their own? A wish that life was the way they want to imagine it was in 1902 (in the case of this house)--or a fantasy that they would ever have been living like the Higginses & Verbecks?

Any thoughts?

Oh my lord, I think I'm going to be sick