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  #16941  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2013, 6:34 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srk1941 View Post
Steve Vaught at the wonderful Paradise Leased has all the answers, and Pickford and Fairbanks are not in the equation...

http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/...-parade-again/

Well, there is no better expert in these waters than Steve and his mentor, Nellie. Old friends.
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  #16942  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2013, 10:16 PM
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I've searched the thread, and somehow we have missed the Radium Sulphur Springs.


ebay


notice that it says 'Colegrove', that's pre-Hollywood



"Oh how it sparkles! Oh how it foams!
It chases a microbe wherever it roams!"



brochure/ebay



Southern California Practitioner, 1885 via lacreekfreak



Believe it or not, there is still a hot spring spa in operation that uses the same thermal aquifer as the long lost Radium Sulphur Springs.
And yes, the water still has radium.


The Beverly Hot Springs Spa is located at 308 N. Oxford Ave. just north of Beverly Boulevard.

GSV



Locations of the two spas.

The Radium Sulphur Springs site is upper left, and about a mile away is Beverly Hot Springs, lower right.

google_earth


-from their website:

Located just 10 minutes from Downtown and 15 min from Beverly Hills lies Los Angeles's only 100% Natural Hot Spring Spa. The spa is fed by a strong flow of 96 to 105 degree water from the artesian well Richard S. Grant found in 1910. Dug near the turn of the century by drillers looking for oil, the 2,200-foot well supplied water to early residents of the area near Western Avenue and Beverly Boulevard until city water mains were installed in 1915. Later the Water was sold as drinking water bottled as 'Wonder Water' under the Angelus Club label with the slogan "Nature's Own Formula".

Business lagged after World War II, and the stream of bacteria-free water was turned down to a feeble flow just strong enough to keep clear the one pipe coming from the well. The well was 'rediscovered' in 1984, and the Beverly Hot Springs Spa was opened soon after.

The water issuing from the hot spring is heated by geothermal heat, essentially heat from the Earth's interior. The hot springs contain various mineral and elements such as alkaline, silica, radium, iron, sulfur, sodium, alkaline sodium chloride, aluminum oxides and magnesium carbonate which have healing properties and health benefits.

(on the spa's current website radium is left off the list)

Beverly Hot Springs Spa
http://www.beverlyhotsprings.com/

__

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 4, 2013 at 10:46 PM.
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  #16943  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2013, 10:44 PM
CityBoyDoug CityBoyDoug is offline
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The cure that kills...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
I've searched the thread, and somehow we have missed the Radium Sulphur Springs.
"Oh how it sparkles! Oh how it foams!
It chases a microbe wherever it roams!"
Believe it or not, there is still a hot spring spa in operation that uses the same thermal aquifer as the long lost Radium Sulphur Springs.
And yes, the water still has radium.


The Beverly Hot Springs Spa is located at 308 N. Oxford Ave. just north of Beverly Boulevard.
(on the spa's current website radium is left off the list)

Beverly Hot Springs Spa
http://www.beverlyhotsprings.com/

__
ER got me rather curious about the "radium" treatment.

"He drank radium water and then his jaw dropped off"...from an early 1900s magazine article.
Evidently one could go to Dr. Burner's clinic at 2033 East Fourth St., Los Angeles and drink some of his radium water. He also had an office in the Pettebone Building, at 512 South Broadway, LA.

This is a worry. As for myself, I do believe I will forego the ''drinking radium water treatment'', at least for now.

Los Angeles Times ..1906
SAYS MILK PUNCH FAILED TO CURE
For the second time within the month, the marvelous “cures” by the milk and radium process, advertised by a certain Dr. H. Russell Burner at a “temple of health” institution, have been attacked in . . . a suit for $5,450 filed yesterday by Mrs. Rhoda E. Mitchell. . . .
Mrs. Mitchell alleges she was suffering with cancer of the breast and that she entered into contract with Burner whereby he agreed to cure her of the cancer within three months if she paid him $450.
Mrs. Mitchell alleges that . . . Dr. Burner was to furnish her with an osteopath for massage work and with radium to put into milk to drink.
Mrs. Mitchell alleges that no osteopath was supplied, that something else besides radium was supplied her and that her treatment was so careless that she is now in a worse condition than before.
Dr. Burner is well known to all the readers of the Sunday papers. He and himself are said to form one of the strongest mutual-admiration societies in Los Angeles, and he takes great delight in a large cut of himself . . . in frock coat with arm outstretched in beatific attitude, bringing “radium and milk” and other queer dope to all the world.
A few weeks ago, Burner had a long story in the daily newspapers to the effect that he had cornered the radium market, and all the radium in the world would be used in his peculiar “rest cures.”


See the Pettebone building at the right - sign on top side of building.

ULWAF archives

Last edited by CityBoyDoug; Oct 4, 2013 at 11:19 PM.
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  #16944  
Old Posted Oct 4, 2013, 11:05 PM
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Good find CBD. -very interesting.
__

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 4, 2013 at 11:18 PM.
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  #16945  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 12:07 AM
sportbiker sportbiker is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire View Post
Well, there is no better expert in these waters than Steve and his mentor, Nellie. Old friends.
This is in the comments (emphasis added):

Quote:
I lived in The Trianon in the mid 80′s, and was good friends with Mr. Hopkins. he was very old and frail and lived with his very longtime companion (who’s name escapes me), who later died, and his “houseboy”. As a young gay man in my early 20′s, it was fun and fantastic to see these old geezers be together for so long. He had many great old showbiz stories, including Pickford and Fairbanks renting the place upstairs, but rarely staying there. Usually friends of theirs or someone working on a film at UA.
If that's to be believed, the origin of the story of Pick and Fair owning the building may have come from them renting a unit so their friends and co-workers could have a place to stay. From tiny acorns grow mighty oaks.

Ayn Rand lived there? Back in my college days, that would have given me a woody.
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  #16946  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 12:24 AM
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1440 N. Highland Ave. -revisited, yet again.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=16910


I just found this on ebay, Betty Hutton advertising for KECA.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Phot...-/290990432527





detail/ebay
__

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 5, 2013 at 12:34 AM.
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  #16947  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 12:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
Charles E. Miles......the last volunteer Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, ca. 1870s


usc digital archive

I admire his uniform and fire helmet.
I notice it says 38 on his belt buckle. This must be the number of his Engine Company. ?
The Thirty-Eights were a volunteer outfit organized in 1875 according to the Wikipedia entry. I can't find a cite offhand, but I've read elsewhere that there were 38 members at the time this was established, hence the name.

Having sufficiently many stations to require two-digit numbers would have been preposterous at that time.
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This Is Probably The Oldest Intact School Building In L.A.
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  #16948  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 9:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm View Post
The Thirty-Eights were a volunteer outfit organized in 1875 according to the Wikipedia entry. I can't find a cite offhand, but I've read elsewhere that there were 38 members at the time this was established, hence the name.

Having sufficiently many stations to require two-digit numbers would have been preposterous at that time.
From www.lafire.com:

In April, 1874, many of the old members of No.1, with the addition of others, altogether numbering thirty-eight, reorganized the company under the name of "Thirty-Eights-No.1" with the following officers:

Foreman, Chas, E. Miles
First Asst. John Cashin
Secretary, Sidney Lacy
Treasurer, J. Kuhrts



www.lafire.com

The caption for the picture above reads:

Photo: 26 Plaza Street
Circa 1884
Los Angeles Engine Co. No. 1
(The First Volunteer Company)
Organized November 1869, Effective September 1871
Disbanded in Spring of 1874
Re-Organized April 14, 1874 as
Thirty-Eights Engine Company No.1
(The First Permanent Volunteer Company)
also known as
Original 38's Engine
First station located at Spring St. near Franklin
In 1884 moved to 26 Plaza Street
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  #16949  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 1:13 PM
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Radium Radia

Supposedly manufactured in Los Angeles.



eBay



I did a little searching around and the consensus appears to be that this product actually did NOT contain radium, but I'm not so sure about that. The residue on that box above looks suspiciously like raw radium to me...


Also, whatever the contents were, it sure mutated the hell out of that stopper/cork over the years.



eBay



Anyway, radium or not, there's no way I'd use this stuff as a "medicine!" (I wouldn't even handle that bottle without gloves on!)



eBay
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Last edited by JScott; Dec 27, 2017 at 1:24 AM. Reason: Repaired broken image links
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  #16950  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 2:39 PM
Earl Boebert Earl Boebert is offline
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Heard a lecture some years ago by a physical chemist who collected radioactive quack stuff (after removing the emitting source) and other stuff that was used before people really understood ionizing radiation. For example, the orange glaze used by Fiesta ware in the 30's and 40's contained uranium, enough so you can take an x-ray of your hand using an orange dinner plate as a source.

Anyhow, in the 70's he'd go around to antique stores with a sensitive radiation counter looking for hot stuff. He said he parked in front of one place in Connecticut and turned on his counter while still in his car, and it pegged. He went inside and discovered a quack 5-gallon ceramic water jug with a substantial slab of radium in the bottom. The guy that owned the store was pretty upset when a crew in hazmat suits showed up with a lead bucket and long tongs. The chemist said that the Good Lord only knows how many people that jug had killed. Right up there with the xray machines in shoe stores that zapped kids' feet in the 50's (mine included).

Cheers,

Earl
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  #16951  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 3:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post

notice that it says 'Colegrove', that's pre-Hollywood
In 1909 the director of the Radium Sulphur Springs was Gustave P Gehring. There's also a listing for a masseur named Otto Bames.


rescarta.lapl.org

Gehring gets an entry in the 1915 directory, but there's no mention of the Radium Sulphur Springs by 1923. There are, however, a few companies using radium in their names.


rescarta.lapl.org

By 1932 there's even a company taking out a larger advert for its radium based products.


rescarta.lapl.org

In 1942 there's only one doctor still advertising radium therapy, although Montecito Heights acquired a street called Radium Drive somewhere along the way.


rescarta.lapl.org

This decline seems to fit the growing understanding of the dangers of radium in the first half of the 20th century. Although not directly linked to LA, I found an interesting blog about the Radium Girls, the young workers who painted luminous watch faces during the 1920s:

The Radium Girls
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  #16952  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 8:57 PM
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Terrific story about the jug of radium Earl. -frightening stuff.

Believe it or not, there was even a Radium Apartments!

L.A. City Directory (I forgot to write down the year)
-but I know it's early because it has the Rex Arms on Orange (which of course, became Wilshire)

Radium Apts. site

google_earth




-maybe that guy under the tree has a geiger counter in his satchel.

553 Stanford Av/GSV



I was hoping to find RADIUM carved in stone over the door.

detail/GSV
__

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Oct 6, 2013 at 1:23 PM.
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  #16953  
Old Posted Oct 5, 2013, 11:23 PM
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I've just come across a color video of the Arroyo Seco Parkway taken in 1939. It's a 16mm Kodachrome movie which shows parts of the new road still under construction. I don't think it's been posted before.

Arroyo Seco Parkway: Dawn of the Freeway Age:




Both pictures are from the YouTube video 1939 Arroyo Seco.

The video was uploaded by Caltrans, and they have another video where they match up some of the film with present day footage to celebrate the road's 70th anniversary back in 2010:

Arroyo Seco Parkway Then and Now 2010

I'm guessing that the different colored parts of the road surface were supposed to indicate lanes, although the 1939 drivers don't seem to pay much attention to them.
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  #16954  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 12:44 AM
CityBoyDoug CityBoyDoug is offline
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Inner city nitty gritty....

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
Terrific story about the jug of radium Earl. -frightening stuff.

Believe it or not, there was even a Radium Apartments!

L.A. City Directory (I forgot to write down the year)
-but I know it's early because it has the Rex Arms on Orange (which of course, became Wilshire)

I was hoping it had RADIUM carved in stone over the door.

detail/GSV
__
This area is one rank above Third World. It reminds me of places in Brazil. Many shopping cart homeless fill the nearby City Park, which appears to be well-kept and clean. They at least have several Port-a-Potties and a Pay-to-Pee LA City installation on the sidewalk outside the park gates, which are probably locked at night.

This neighborhood hosts the wholesale seafood businesses.
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  #16955  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 5:41 AM
alanlutz alanlutz is offline
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HossC, Thanks much for that link to Arroyo Fwy. While I was watching I also found this from the 50's Los Angeles: http://youtu.be/n77NxU0CHPw
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  #16956  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 7:32 AM
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I'm not sure why the popular media (and CalTrans) perpetuate this myth that the Arroyo Seco Parkway was the first limited-access expressway in greater Los Angeles, because it's simply not true. Ramona Boulevard was constructed a whole half-decade earlier, and it was every bit as much a prototypical freeway as the expressway to Pasadena, yet this fact seems to be totally forgotten. Cahuenga Boulevard was also a limited-access expressway before Arroyo Seco Parkway was built. Not that the latter wasn't an important stage in the development of L.A.'s later freeway system, but it certainly was not the first interurban road of its kind.
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  #16957  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 1:32 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post

Believe it or not, there was even a Radium Apartments!

553 Stanford Av/GSV
__

malumot CBG-- it was never a great neighborhood. In fact, the more you read about Los Angeles in its supposed heyday, the more you realize that robbery and all kinds of noir goings-on were common even in the best neighborhoods.

As for 553 Stanford Avenue... here's a little possible insolvency, kidnapping, and suicide:




July 23, 1916; Jan 28, 1935; Oct 2, 1943


And, apparently Stanford Avenue was once Ruth Avenue--from May 25, 1913, and Feb 28, 1914:




All latimes.com

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Oct 6, 2013 at 2:41 PM.
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  #16958  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 3:03 PM
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Originally Posted by alanlutz View Post
While I was watching I also found this from the 50's Los Angeles: http://youtu.be/n77NxU0CHPw
Thanks, Alan. A 6-pack of Coke for 33 cents!


YouTube

While we're talking about YouTube films, back in post #5849, GW posted a link to an hour-long 1995 feature called Things That Aren't Here Anymore with Ralph Story. Sadly, by the time I reached that post, the video has been removed for copyright breach. However, when I watched the extract about Lucas Kiddie Land/Beverly Park that GW posted in post #1811, I found that someone else had uploaded the hour-long version again (see link below).

It covers so many of the places that have come up in this thread, many in moving pictures, interspersed with interviews. Here's my quick list: The CBS/KNX building; The Hollywoodland sign; Red cars; Clifton's Pacific Seas; Cawston's Ostrich Farm; Mount Lowe Railway; The Pike at Long Beach; Gay's Lion Farm; Marineland; Ocean Park Pier; Angel's Flight (still in storage at time of filming); The Honeymoon Elevator; Rifle and Pistol Shooting sign; Drive-in restarants; Shaped buildings; Central Avenue; Helms Bakery; Bullocks Wilshire; Gilmore Stadium; China City; The Spruce Goose; Schwab's; The Garden of Allah; The Cocoanut Grove; The NBC building.


Things That Aren't Here Anymore with Ralph Story (KCET - PBS)

Last edited by HossC; Mar 15, 2015 at 10:04 AM. Reason: Replaced dead YouTube link.
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  #16959  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 3:05 PM
Barry Bird Barry Bird is offline
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Engstrum Hotel / apts

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
The Engstrum Apartments far left and the Sherwood Apartments far right in 1930.
In the center is the very beginning of the wonderful art deco Edison Building.


lapl


below: A short time later, still showing the Engstrum and Sherwood Apartments.


lapl



below: The Engstrum Apartments in the shadow of the Edison building.


lapl



below: The Engstrum Apartments and the Bonaventure Hotel. I am completely surprised that the Engstrum still existed into the 1980s.


lapl
The Engstrum was demolished in 1973 - it didn't make it into the 1980s
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  #16960  
Old Posted Oct 6, 2013, 3:31 PM
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Well... I couldn't find a definitive demolition date--though it did survive into the '80s; the US Bank Tower/Library Tower began construction in 1987. Here's an excerpt from a Times article from December 2, 1979:






latimes.com

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Oct 6, 2013 at 4:02 PM.
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