noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Or they fed the cottonseed meal to the steers.(see 1917 advertisment shown below)

& perhaps the short word obstructed by the trellis (behind cottonseed) could be "Fed"?


1917 ad from http://www.ebay.ie/itm/1917-INTERSTA...IAAOxyTMdTKZ4E

[Blaster]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Also brings to mind the "Tamara Bane Gallery" on Melrose not far from Fairfax. I don't know if it still exists. It was a large and prosperous-looking gallery filled to the brim with huge "aggressively sexual" paintings of women, most of them either nude with spike heels or in various kinds of bondage outfits.

I remember the Tamara Bane Gallery but I think it is gone or has moved. It sold a lot of art by Olivia (Olivia De Beradinis) whose stuff was pervasive in the 80's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_De_Berardinis

[ethereal_reality]

A startling and enigmatic photograph.

The only information is Watts #38


http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2016/06/watts-38.html

so many questions...

Is the guy on the ground dead?

who's the young man using the movie camera?

does the video exist?
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[GaylordWilshire]

WBH



When I began my surveys of Berkeley Square, St. James Park, Westmoreland Place, Windsor Square, Fremont Place, and Wilshire Boulevard--so far, about 500 dwellings--I never expected to find much in the way of illustrations of the lost houses. Surprisingly, only a few have remained in the shadows. Once in a while a spectacular new image of one of the more obscure houses turns up. While I'd found distant, murky views of 2721 Wilshire--once at the northeast corner of Wilshire and Lafayette Park Place--it wasn't until I was looking through an old file of undated, unidentified houses on an old stick that I realized I'd already found an overlooked gem...seen above. (Note the "Benton Boulevard" sign at right--Benton being the original designation of Lafayette Park Place on the greensward's east border--Benton is also said to have been nearly chosen over "Wilshire" as the subdivision's main drag, btw. Nice enough name, but without the lilt of "Wilshire," I'd say.)


More of the story of 2721 Wilshire is here: https://wilshireboulevardhouses.blog...e-see-our.html


In the image above, the more humble 2715 Wilshire--built by actor-married-to-a-Banning Gilbert Gardner, the same man who built 2721--sits to the right. It spent its last eight or so years in the morning shadow of the Bryson before it and 2721 were moved to new locations in 1921.


More of the story of 2715 Wilshire is here: https://wilshireboulevardhouses.blog...e-see-our.html

[Blaster]

Gaylord, thanks for your extensive research. I live in Windsor Square so I walk and drive past these houses every day. It's fun to single one out, then go home and check out its history on your website.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Or they fed the cottonseed meal to the steers.(see 1917 advertisment shown below)

& perhaps the short word obstructed by the trellis (behind cottonseed) could be "Fed"?


1917 ad from http://www.ebay.ie/itm/1917-INTERSTA...IAAOxyTMdTKZ4E

Ah, here we go--it's a combo:


San Bernardino Sun, May 15, 1935.

Hmm, somehow my bright red underlining went gray!

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A startling and enigmatic photograph.

The only information is Watts #38


http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2016/06/watts-38.html

so many questions...

Is the guy on the ground dead?

who's the young man using the movie camera?

does the video exist?
__

Very interesting view--well, I know newshounds will practically walk on a body, dead or alive, for a scoop, but I'm hoping this one has at least called the cops before filming... the car is a '55 Mercury, which appears to have hit something hard and thrown the driver out... Although I'm not so sure this is vintage...looks staged...and if people carried little belt-purses around in 1955 or 1965, what was in them?

[ethereal_reality]

thanks for the follow-up GW.

I hadn't really thought about the thing attached to his belt.

detail

below: and here's a closer look at the electric box on the utility pole. (I lightened it a bit)


detail

# # # # # # # # # # # # # #




A bit more on 'La Fleur de Pico Nursery'.

This is British expat Mr. Newman, supervisor at La Fleur de Pico Nursery in the 1950s.


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...e9004ed57c.jpg

"The house behind Mr. Newman on Purdue Avenue was on the property of the nursery, where he lived."

I had no idea anyone lived on the property!


below: Do you think Mr. Newman's bungalow is visible in Hoss' aerial?

Originally Posted by HossC

Historic Aerials

In 1947, the area bounded by Sawtelle Boulevard, Purdue Avenue, W Pico Boulevard and Tennessee Avenue looked like this.

but I'm not sure which street is Purdue Ave. here.
__

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

thanks for the follow-up GW.

I hadn't really thought about the thing attached to his belt.

detail

[snip]

__

Looks a lot like a pager to me.

Cheers,

Earl

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by Blaster

I remember the Tamara Bane Gallery but I think it is gone or has moved. It sold a lot of art by Olivia (Olivia De Beradinis) whose stuff was pervasive in the 80's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_De_Berardinis

Hi Blaster:

I googled Tamara Blane Gallery and came across an article about a multi-million dollar "fraud" judgement against the owner (who owned a lot of other "business entities") by a Japanese artist who seemed to specialize in large prints of "female sex robots."
Whatever. May all the parties involved rest in peace, wherever they may be.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by unihikid

Funny you should mention that! about 4 yrs ago me and my friend went to every single norms..someone contacted us and we were to be in a Norms Commercial that never happened..but here is me and Keenan Herr at Norms Pico. https://youtu.be/N3F1ZrNmFxc

Thanks for this, Unihikid! Now I have a face to associate with your great posts!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

The 26 Sawtelle nurseries were famous.

From LAT: "West L.A. neighborhood to be recognized as 'Sawtelle Japantown''

UCLA Newsroom: "How West L.A. became a haven for Japanese-Americans"


lapl

Thanks for the links tovangar2. I had no idea about the Japanese-American community in Sawtelle. Quite an amazing history.
__

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' church.

A group of men standing in front of a Los Angeles Osteopathic Association float, 1920s.


ebay

I've gone through the First Christian Churches in the LAPL archive but none seem to match the church the float is parked in front of.




Here's the information on the reverse of the photo. (I believe some writing at the top has been cut off)



"Third from the left"

"of Los Angeles Calif"

"N E A July 192(?)"

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' street

"Injured sailor, Long Beach CA, 1950s."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-8x1...AAAOSw-itXti-h

hmmm....I wonder if the sailors were coming from that Beer hall across the street.


__

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

"The house behind Mr. Newman on Purdue Avenue was on the property of the nursery, where he lived."

I had no idea anyone lived on the property!


below: Do you think Mr. Newman's bungalow is visible in Hoss' aerial?

but I'm not sure which street is Purdue Ave. here.
__

A guess:


hossc


................................................................................................

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the links tovangar2. I had no idea about the Japanese-American community in Sawtelle. Quite an amazing history.
__

Little Osaka is a great place to spend an afternoon. Hashimoto Nursery still has the most fragrant Narcissus to help celebrate the New Year

[SLO]

Originally Posted by unihikid

Funny you should mention that! about 4 yrs ago me and my friend went to every single norms..someone contacted us and we were to be in a Norms Commercial that never happened..but here is me and Keenan Herr at Norms Pico. https://youtu.be/N3F1ZrNmFxc

Thats great, you never know how long they'll be around. I was at that Norms within the last six months. Seems like Norms could work in a concentrated mixed use area.

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' street

"Injured sailor, Long Beach CA, 1950s."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-8x1...AAAOSw-itXti-h

hmmm....I wonder if the sailors were coming from that Beer hall across the street.


__

Interesting....when I was in the NG, we were taught never to put our hands in our trouser pockets while in uniform. And this from a full Commander no less!

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Mstimc

Interesting....when I was in the NG, we were taught never to put our hands in our trouser pockets while in uniform. And this from a full Commander no less!

The sailors were still wearing dress blues with 13 buttons when this picture was taken. Nice.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by austlar1

The sailors were still wearing dress blues with 13 buttons when this picture was taken. Nice.

Sailors in dress blue uniform are still wearing 13 button trousers in 2017.
Tradition is hard to change in the Navy.

The famous dress blue trousers made their debut in the early 19th century as part of an effort to develop uniformity within the enlisted ranks while creating a distinct appearance. Bell-bottoms are easily distinguishable.

In 1817, after 42 years of confusion over enlisted men's attire, the War Department finally dared to enforce a uniform regulation for its rag-clad naval force, demanding that enlisted men wear "blue jackets and trousers, red vest with yellow buttons and a black hat."

Few people know it but the bell-bottom trousers are actually fixed tight to the body by shoe-string laces in the back.

[Lorendoc]

Browsing some more through the Daily News archives just now, I found a picture that reminded me of the discussion of the "staged/not staged" photo at Ciro's:


UCLA Special Collections

The caption was: "Overhead view of crowded auditorium during Jitterbug Dance contest Los Angeles, Calif., 1939."

With all that motion artifact, the scene must have been really alive. It looks like there were multiple simultaneous exhibitions, as groups of people are looking in different directions at different dancers. Does anyone know how these contests worked? In the center of the photo, is that a loudspeaker suspended above the (amazingly well-dressed) crowd?

A search of Newspapers.com revealed there were at least a dozen jitterbug contests big enough to be mentioned in the Times at various places all over Los Angeles, Venice, and Long Beach in 1939.

Where was this venue? The only legible sign is a banner for Central Chevrolet, which was on E 7th, downtown.

Looking more closely at the decorative motifs of the chandelier (center top), a bell rang:



But, interior views of the Shrine Auditorium don't match this place at all. Google Image Search came to the rescue:


Google

...which is the Shrine Expo Hall, not the main auditorium itself.

So this particular jitterbug contest was probably the one in this Times article:


LAT 4/15/39

Mary Pickford's audition was in the Chandler Building at 5364 Wilshire which I think has been mentioned on this thread before. I'm almost certain the camera-tavern next door has been seen here before:


GSV

Mary Pickford was pushing 50 and had retired as an actress (although not as a producer). It seems odd that she would be involved in a dance craze among people half her age.