noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm curious about the odd looking structure on the hillside.

After I enlarged the pic to get a better look I noticed it appears in the other photograph as well!

Could this be the same structure? The picture's titled "View of the Santa Monica coastline, looking south from Palisades Park, ca.1910-1911".


USC Digital Library

Here's a closer view showing what the description calls "a twisted wood fence" and "several wooden structures".


Detail of picture above.

I've still got no idea what it is!

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by HossC

Could this be the same structure? The picture's titled "View of the Santa Monica coastline, looking south from Palisades Park, ca.1910-1911".


USC Digital Library

Here's a closer view showing what the description calls "a twisted wood fence" and "several wooden structures".


Detail of picture above.

I've still got no idea what it is!

It looks like an elevated, "rooftop," viewing area or dining area with a ramada-like framework structure above, and some sort of flat thing at the peak, perhaps from which shadecloth or awning-cloth can be unrolled in time of need. Just a guess! (My first thought was, "Look! A lathe-house for nurturing plants!")

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

No duh moment at all, it's hard to see:


___________________________________________________________________

Thank you Lorendoc, there it is!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Could this be the same structure? The picture's titled "View of the Santa Monica coastline, looking south from Palisades Park, ca.1910-1911".


USC Digital Library

I've still got no idea what it is!

By jove I believe you found it Hoss! I hope we're able to find out more about this exotic looking place.
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I have one more question (you knew that was coming didn't you)

Last night I noticed a line of trees that appear to have been windswept to a perilous angle. (if you look closely you can see the tree trunk)

from yesterday


HoosC detail


The angle is so severe the trees could have been a tourist draw all by themselves. (not unlike the Cypress trees on Monterey Peninsula )


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And I'm not even going to mention the little look-out spot with the fence and bench across from a well groomed pocket park.



It's obviously meant for automobile tourists since there's no other way to get there.

(nothing mysterious...just a small detail I hadn't noticed before)
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I have one more question (you knew that was coming didn't you)

What about the line of trees that appear to have been windswept to a perilous angle.

At first glance they look like a rock formation but on closer inspection you can even see the tree trunk.

from last night

At full zoom, the "tree trunk" is actually the roof of a building.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'MYSTERY' home, Beverly Hills

"1960s 35mm Photo slide Beverly Hills CA House"

ebay




ebay





ebay


Do you think there are enough clues to figure out where this home is located.
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update:

I've decided to add this fourth one.

ebay

I wasn't sure if it belonged with this house..but I just noticed a house in the distance that also appears in slide #1.

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We are looking at 440 Walker Drive, Beverly Hills CA 90210
The house sits at the corner of Carla Ridge and Walker Drive.
This is in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills.

This is the house you can see from the lawn of 440 Walker Drive. https://www.thepinnaclelist.com/prop...-hills-ca-usa/

[CityBoyDoug]

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4684/...0206b6_b_d.jpg


Thanks Uphill.
440 Walker Dr.
The landscaping has changed considerably for the better.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

At full zoom, the "tree trunk" is actually the roof of a building.

Ah...so it is. sorry about that.

There are a stand of trees to the left of the small building that are standing upright.

The slanted "trees" (they still look like trees to me) are a bit further down the road.

contrast adjusted

I won't even mention that shadowy figure walking through an opening in the trees

(I'll chalk that one up to my imagination )

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by UphillDonkey

We are looking at 440 Walker Drive, Beverly Hills CA 90210
The house sits at the corner of Carla Ridge and Walker Drive.
This is in the Trousdale Estates area of Beverly Hills.

Good job UphillDonkey. I had just about given up on finding this location.



front entrance

440 Walker Drive



I'm still trying to appreciate the architecture of Trousdale Estate.
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[GaylordWilshire]

The garden hose among the uninteresting planters and outdoor bric-a-brac is a nice touch.

I prefer "old" Beverly Hills myself. Something like Lucy's, as it once was:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

http://www.mexho.com/images/celebrit...cille-ball.jpg

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The garden hose among the uninteresting planters and outdoor bric-a-brac is a nice touch.
___________________________________________________________________

[Martin Pal]

.

Anyone "Driving Home for Christmas?"


Long Room


"Driving Home for Christmas
Oh, I can't wait to see those faces
Driving in my car, driving home for Christmas.
It's gonna take some time,
But I'll get there
Top to toe in tailbacks
Oh, I got red lights all around
Soon there'll be a freeway (?)
Get my feet on holy ground...
I'm driving home for Christmas...
..with a thousand memories..."


Hear this upbeat song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU2IeveIJ_A

[CityBoyDoug]

https://www.jamesellroy.net/uploads/...08a863c106.jpg


Los Angeles, 1950. Red crosscurrents and a string of brutal killings.

The characters: Danny Upshaw—a sheriff’s deputy stuck with a bunch of murders that nobody cares about. Mal Considine—DA’s Office brass, climbing on the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his own career. Buzz Meeks—bagman, ex-goon and pimp for Howard Hughes, a man who fights Communism for the money. All three have purchased tickets to a nightmare worse than their darkest dreams.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_C6kND_Ezjv...-the-Man_1.jpg

Hunt the Man Down is a snappy thriller from the RKO B-Team with Gig Young out in front of a cast of relative unknowns. A cheap, 68 minute quickie, it’s nevertheless an entertaining film that strays into the realm of film noir in unusual ways.


The film script opens at an anonymous L.A. watering hole....

[ethereal_reality]

I wasn't aware of Hunt the Man Down CBD. I'll have to check it out.

Any film that starts at an anonymous L.A. watering hole sounds good to me.

[ethereal_reality]

I don't believe we have seen this photograph on nla.

"Whittier Boulevard, East Los Angeles, California"


donated by Donald R. Swickard

If you look closely one of the signs on the tent says 'Olympic Games', so the date is probably 1932.

this one

And it appears they're welcoming someone back to town.



the plaster company is selling bathtubs and backyard incinerators --->
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update:

The person they're welcoming back is Buck Jones.



I concentrated so much on the Olympic sign I missed his name on the car.

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[ethereal_reality]

The negative of this photograph was on ebay last week.

ebay

In case you didn't know; Yma Sumac was a Peruvian singer with an otherworldly vocal range of four and a half octaves, from B2 to F♯7.
At the peak of her fame, in the 1950s, she topped record charts, filled nightclubs and ultimately became a cult heroine.
She was also (apparently) able to sing in a remarkable "double voice".

Ms Sumac lived most of her life in Los Angeles and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.


A photograph of her appeared not so long ago in the Los Angeles Times.


ymasumac




(hopefully I posted this large enough so you can read it)


You can also read the article HERE.

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[Lomara]

Originally Posted by HossC

Could this be the same structure? The picture's titled "View of the Santa Monica coastline, looking south from Palisades Park, ca.1910-1911".


USC Digital Library

I've still got no idea what it is!

I took the googlemobile to the area on Ocean next to Palisades Park, just above the California Incline, and I found a structure still there that looks much like this one. When I saw the previous posts with the view of the road below, and the parks, I thought it looked like what the California Incline could have been before it was shaped and paved for auto traffic.


image by Kimberly, on Flickr

Satellite view

image by Kimberly, on Flickr

[ethereal_reality]

Let's briefly return to a post from six Christmas's ago. (page 285!)

Miss Velma at her Universal World Church in Los Angeles.


skyscraperpage

Miss Velma was most famous for her extravagant Christmas Pageants.


Here's Velma (dressed as a Christmas angel) as she 'flies' horizontally over the stage at the Universal World Church"'

• Video Link



in this clip Santa arrives in a mini-bus. (i.e. glorified golf cart)

• Video Link

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update:

I just came across these newspaper clippings earlier today.


Apparently, at some point in her reign Miss Velma started the "Miss Velma's Campaign for Youth".


banardesign



Velma as Cinderella.

isn't that the Easter dress?




Another theme was Outer Space where Velma "goes to the Moon"




I was bonkers about the Outer Space when I was a kid.




M E R R Y - C H R I S T M A S - E V E R Y O N E !

& Happy Holidays Bruce
_____________________________________________________________






If you're a newcomer to nla...or a glutton for punishment

you can go HERE to meet Velma's husband (who also happens to be her first cousin)

and HERE for an informative follow-up.

view the 'otherworldly' World Church plans HERE

one last post HERE

[odinthor]

Pre-Yankee Los Angeles taps me on the shoulder and says it would like to wish our genial preceptor e_r and everyone at NLA the warmest and best Yuletide!

Here is a little about the Christmas traditions typical of the 1830s-1840s from the reminiscences of Don Arturo Bandini (quoted from Navidad/Pastorela, edited by Susanna Bryant Dakin, 1958):

"Navidad! Pasquas! Noche Buena! Christmas! What memories of good
old times gone, never to return, must the above words bring back to
the minds of old Californians. [ . . . ] For us muchachos and
younger folks, however, the Vispera de Navidad, or Christmas Eve, was
the day of great expectations. I remember how a lot of us would get
on the roof of our large adobe house to watch for the arrival of the
different great rancheros escorting [from his rancho to the area of
the Plaza in Los Angeles] each his individual gaily decorated carreta
(ox-cart) which contained his family. What canopies these humble
conveyances carried! Great silken bedspreads, worked with the most
beautiful flowers, the fringe serving as a screen and reaching to the
axle. Others had coverings of gay rebosos, China crepe, and lace
curtains, with flowers and figures embroidered in vivid colors. And
the escorts: how shall I describe the trappings of the gallant horse
and his still more gallant rider, and not be charged with
exaggeration? Fortunately, I know many, both Americans and Spanish-
Americans, that can corroborate my statements.

"The costume of the early Californians was picturesque and
serviceable; for riding, especially, it was most appropriate; the
short, graceful jacket, beautifully embroidered in silver or gold, the
trousers snug at the seat, but expanding from thigh to ankle; the
side-seams being open, the wearer, if he so preferred, could bring
them together by means of silver buttons or clasps in the shape of
tiny shells; underneath all this was the snowy calzonillo, or riding
drawers. Others used knee-breeches and botas, a species of leggings
worn to protect the lower part of the leg. On the bota the
embroiderer used her greatest ingenuity to show it to the best
advantage; indeed the early Californian was more particular about the
beauty of this article than almost any other part of his dress. The
bota was wrapped two or three times around the leg and fastened at
the top by a wide and tasseled garter. As in the middle ages some
knights carried to extremes the length of their pointed shoes, even
to the extent of attaching the end to their girdles, so did some of
the early Californians with the cords and tassels of their botas, the
ends of which would touch the ground. [ . . . ]

"Such were some of the sights of olden California. In those days
everybody knew everybody else, and as the well-known families passed
by, the bright curtains would part, young and old faces peered out,
and shrill greetings flew from carreta (wagon) to house, and vice
versa. But the event was yet to come. Gaily decorated and festooned
carretas, prancing horses, and splendid horsemen were a common enough
sight for us, but the Pastores--—Ah! that was something that occurred
but once a year during Navidad— Christmas time. Los Pastores— The
Shepherds— is a species of sacred drama, something like the Passion
Play [ . . . ] The last play given by the pastores in Los Angeles
City was on the Christmas eve of 1861. The place selected for the
occasion was the site on which now stands the present Pico House,
then a large courtyard pertaining to the Pico homestead [ . . . ]

"It is a sad task to recall to mind, and more so to note down, all
the events and customs of those happy days. Still some comfort may
be derived from the knowledge that the perusal may afford the reader
pleasure, and that he may join with the chronicler in heartily
bidding the good old times a 'Feliz Noche Buena!' ."

And so, to the members of NLA, who I know take great pleasure in contemplating the old days of our little Pueblo, I wish you a hearty and heart-felt Feliz Noche Buena!

[Martin Pal]

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MERRY CHRISTMAS NOIRISHERS!


Caption: Shooting of snow scene at studio, Ford and Santa Claus, Hollywood, Southern California, 1935.


USC Library/Dick Whittington


Here's a Busby Berkley-esque photo of some ladies with a bare legged Santa around a Christmas tree on an unnamed Los Angeles beach in 1927.


Smithsonian Institution, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

We've seen a lot of similar images, but I don't recall this one before; a Getty Images photo of Hollywood Blvd. at the holidays, looking east from Las Palmas.
No date is given, but the Vogue Theatre has a banner showing The Story of Molly X playing, which premiered in November, 1949.



Notice the ladder leading up to an opening in the bottom of the tree. Could a person crawl inside them?

To the right of this tree is a blade sign for a place I don't recall before. It looks like it's the Royal Room, or the curved neon above "Royal" indicates it might be the Royal (something) Room. I believe this location was later the Gold Cup.


https://media.gettyimages.com/photos...87?s=2048x2048

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos...75?s=2048x2048

Getty Images

Since we're at Hollywood and Blvd. and Las Palmas, here's a mid-60's look down the street.


Los Angeles Theatres

You can see a Christmas tree on either side of the photo. On the left is Miceli's restaurant and the Las Palmas Theater. Straight ahead is the First Baptist church at Selma Ave. On the right corner, the location doesn't seem to be the "Royal" anything and hasn't become the Gold Cup yet, but I can't make out the name. The blade sign facing Hollywood Blvd. might say "Cheese Shop."



VIntage SoCal/History in photos

And lastly, not enough information to find the location, but here's a lady mailing her Christmas packages in Los Angeles, 1933.


Happy Holidays!

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