noirish Los Angeles

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #2

This photograph looks vaguely familiar...but I still believe it's new to nla.



same label



The other photographs in the group are of firemen visiting radio stations. (those pics are on my computer in Indiana) I'm in Illinois.
__

What a great shot! And Hoss C is right, they're at the LAFD HQ at 217 S Hill. (And THANKS for getting all the way up to Frame 94, I hadn't made it that far yet!)

Rather than their being in the parking lot, though, I believe they're on the roof. On the right you have the top four stories of the nine-story Hotel Northern. The gabled and flat-roofed buildings at far left are the tops of the backsides of 224 and 218 S Olive. Just for fun I made this handy-dandy little graphic!

ucsb

[ethereal_reality]

That's so great Beaudry! your aerial explains everything quite clearly.
It didn't even cross my mind that the firemen might be line up on a roof! & you're correct...if you look closely you can see it's a roof.
__________________________________-





re: "5-Star" fixtures


ACORN8332 PHOTOGRAPH

Originally Posted by acorn8332

The stars were not reflective, and had no illumination of their own. Instead, holes cut in the internal reflectors
above the three large lamps provided "spill light" for the five stars. The stars were originally a dark orange-red,
but had faded almost to pink.

I haven't heard anyone discuss these particular lights in detail before.
Thanks for the information acorn8332.

Hmmm....I wonder if any workmen nabbed a fixture for their personal collections?

__

[Handsome Stranger]

OK, location sleuths...can anyone figure out where this house is? It appears several times in the 1956 Roger Corman sci-fi movie It Conquered The World as the home of Dr. Tom Anderson. Most of the locations used in this movie have been easily identified, including Bronson Caves and Beachwood Drive. Not this house, however.







Perhaps the biggest hint: the address is 5815.





One shot reveals a house next door.



Here's a view of the topography leading up to the house.



[source: Japanese DVD issued by Run Corporation]

"I seen a funny looking bird!" "That was no bird. That was the guy in front of you."

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #2

This photograph looks vaguely familiar...but I still believe it's new to nla.



same label



The other photographs in the group are of firemen visiting radio stations. (those pics are on my computer in Indiana) I'm in Illinois.
__

I just noticed the chap standing fifth from the left in the front row seems to be wearing an older-style uniform--notice the different button arrangement and cap.

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

OK, location sleuths...can anyone figure out where this house is? It appears several times in the 1956 Roger Corman sci-fi movie It Conquered The World as the home of Dr. Tom Anderson. Most of the locations used in this movie have been easily identified, including Bronson Caves and Beachwood Drive. Not this house, however.









Perhaps the biggest hint: the address is 5815.





One shot reveals a house next door.



Here's a view of the topography leading up to the house.



[source: Japanese DVD issued by Run Corporation]

"I seen a funny looking bird!" "That was no bird. That was the guy in front of you."

5815 Green Oak Dr. Still there, largely unaltered, painted red.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by UphillDonkey

5815 Green Oak Dr. Still there, largely unaltered, painted red.

That was fast! Thanks, UphillDonkey!

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Hmmm....I wonder if any workmen nabbed a fixture for their personal collections?

__

At least one got saved, just in case anyone wants to pay it a visit:

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Speaking of which, I just found out there's a city-owned Streetlight Museum which has one of the star-studded "bathtub" heads (did anyone else know of this place?):

" Streetlight Museum, Downtown L.A.

L.A. has kind of a love affair with streetlights. And now, there’s a museum for us streetlight people — on the second floor of the Public Works building, courtesy of the Bureau of Street Lighting. Surrounded by Bureau of Sanitation workers, there's a tiny room that chronicles the history of how L.A. has lit its streets since the early 1900s. This breathtakingly beautiful collection is only open to the public once a month, only by appointment, for only 30 minutes. If you hadn’t noticed already, on your visit you’ll learn that L.A. has had an amazingly wide variety of streetlight styles — and actually still does, among its 200,000 lights standing today.


It doesn't sound (or look) as though they have entire electroliers displayed (it is after all just a room), but it's something:

kcet

[Lorendoc]

Sorry about the redundant post, I'm still several hundred pages behind.

Here are the 1910 and 1921 Baists of this block:


http://historicmapworks.com


http://historicmapworks.com

The 1910 map shows 312-4 California as the Hotel Osborn. The LADBS has a 1906 demolition permit for a two-story frame building issued to a Mr. John Osborn for that address, and advertisements for the Hotel Osborn start showing up in the LA Times in 1910. Around 1915 it was renamed the Armagh Apartments, which it remained until its 1949 demo.

The Osborn/Armagh made it into the newspaper a few times:


http://www.newspapers.com


There are a couple of interesting things in this:



...a ghost sign for the Armagh at the top of the photo, and the sign at the bottom which looks like

La Salle apts
____ Decorated
Singles Doubles
Batchelors

and two lines too small to read, except the bottom right might say 314 California.

This is mildly puzzling, as the La Salle was (and is) at 1249 W. 6th Street, a long way from Fort Hill. It almost looks like it was designed by the same architect. Same owner, maybe?


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

That's the ever-lush and cooling Ficus nitida, e_r.

Thanks for answering my question odinthor.

Originally Posted by odinthor

The new tree is a Jacaranda, a beautiful and desirable tree

2014_________________________2017


Jacarandas must grow pretty fast! Do they eventually slow down?

Originally Posted by odinthor

The Jacaranda causes its own amount of problems, for instance when the beautiful blossoms fall en masse and make the sidewalks slippery.

GIPHY



_

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

the group of photos were labeled like this.



__

W6AM was the ham radio station of the #1 ham radio operator in the world, Don Wallace. He had a 24-acre "radio ranch"
in Palos Verdes (originally over 100 acres) that was turned into a housing tract after his death.

If you are interested, you might want to read this, this, this, and this. Oh and this too.

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

...a ghost sign for the Armagh at the top of the photo, and the sign at the bottom which looks like

La Salle apts
____ Decorated
Singles Doubles
Batchelors

and two lines too small to read, except the bottom right might say 314 California.

If you look at the larger version of the image posted by Beaudry, the sign is much easier to read:



Direct link to full-sized version of above photo (33 MB): http://catalog.library.ca.gov/high-res/1990-1369.tif

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc;

[IMG

https://i.imgur.com/KtfPBvs.jpg[/IMG]
GSV

Knock it off.....

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for answering my question odinthor.

2014_________________________2017


Jacarandas must grow pretty fast! Do they eventually slow down?

The ones I've been able to observe over a long period of time, e_r, if they're happy, they sprint up to about 30-40 feet, then they start saying to themselves, "Hmm. Maybe I'd better start filling in a bit more." The mass bloom is quite beautiful; but, if you're walking in just the wrong way over a layer of shed blossoms on concrete . . .


GIPHY

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

GIPHY

_

[acorn8332]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

At least one got saved, just in case anyone wants to pay it a visit:

I know of one more in captivity. (No, it's not mine). There were originally 154 of these street lights. On Hollywood Blvd. they ran from Sycamore to Gower. On Vine Street, it was from Yucca to Sunset.

So, what happened to the other 152?

[Scott Charles]

PS: One of my favorite details of the image posted by Beaudry:



Here is a vintage Nesbitt's sign almost identical to the one in the above photo:

LINK

I used to drink a lot of orange soda when I was a kid, and Nesbitt's was my favorite. My family would take vacations in our car, and I used to buy Nesbitt's from those old soda machines where you would grab the bottle by its top and pull it from the machine (remember those?). Those machines used to be everywhere, in front of hotels, liquor stores, etc.

You can still buy Nesbitt's today:

LINK

Sadly, the company that produces them does not duplicate the cool and unique vintage bottles:

LINK

Here is a Nesbitt's promotional video from the 1940s, featuring vintage footage of Union Station, Olvera St, Downtown, and the La Brea Tar Pits: https://archive.org/details/75634BehindTheScenes

They sure make orange-picking look like a lot of fun! Is this really what citrus farmers look like?! I need to find me a citrus orchard, pronto!



Another favorite of mine is NuGrape grape soda:

LINK

Again, the vintage bottle design is not used:

LINK

Here is a 1926 promotional jingle for NuGrape: https://archive.org/details/Nugrape

Before anyone starts thinking “Vintage sodas? This guy might be the most pretentious person in the world!”, allow me to point out that I hate the aftertaste of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), so I refuse to drink sodas that contain it (which means every soda available at the supermarket). I like my sodas with real cane sugar, just like in the old days. Sooo much better tasting.

For people in the LA area, my highest recommendation goes to Galco's Soda Pop Stop, located in Highland Park. They specialize in vintage sodas (nearly all of them HFCS-free), unique imported liquors, vintage-style candy, even some old-fashioned toys! They apparently do mail order as well.

I try to go easy on my sugar consumption, but every few months I will go to Galco's and treat myself.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Mexican sodas still use cane sugar, no HFCS in Mexico. You can get Mexican Coca-Cola everywhere here (New Mexico).

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by odinthor

https://www.tuxboard.com/nature-homm...-homme-angkor/

Thanks Odinthor!!

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by HossC

Could this be the mystery "'flue'-like thingy"? It's quite near the backlot. The photo below is from 1930. The arrowed object is absent from mid-40s images that I've found. The area today would be just east of the Blue Sky Tank.


hollywoodphotographs.com

Here's a reminder of the original picture:

"by George, I think he's got it" Good Eye. I did not have time to search very much for old photos of the lot. People came in who actually wanted me to do work!!! Imagine the gall! Thanks (quote from My Fair Lady)

[Hollywood Graham]

In the line up of Firemen the different uniformed Fireman is a Chief. In that day the high ranking officer in the Police and Fire Departments wore a more dignified uniform to show they were of rank..

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Returning to the image in front of the Station, looking to the (left) south side of the street is a big dark structure, that would have clearly predated Park La Brea. CD search has not yet revealed anything about that structure. Haven't tried aerial views, yet.

I found a Chas A Malby at 5862 W 3rd Street. He was a tile contactor (sometimes listed under "Mosaic Work") who built a store and residence there in 1926, and added three bedrooms, a bathroom and a closet on the second floor over the warehouse in 1929. Could it be our mystery building? I've looked at a couple of contemporary aerials, but they don't give any clue to its identity.


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


Well done for figuring out that the firemen were on the roof of 217 S Hill, Beaudry. The buildings behind fooled me into thinking they were on the ground, but your aerial can't be disputed.