noirish Los Angeles

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Same to you and all posters and lurkers alike

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

Same to you and all posters and lurkers and stalkers alike

[Lorendoc]

Here is another of e_r's patented "mystery locations" from the 130,000+ photos at calisphere. (I don't think we're at risk of running out of subject matter).


calisphere.org

This is a Gary Leonard photo captioned "Police officers patrol a street as smoke billows out of a store on April 30, 1992." This was the day after the "not-guilty" verdicts were handed down in Simi Valley in the Rodney King police brutality case. I wondered if we could find out where was this photo taken.

The scale of the buildings seemed wrong for South Central, it looked more like downtown, especially with the "Pacific" (Hotel? Building?) bladesign and the two radio towers. But looking more closely, those towers couldn't be the KRKD towers because their base building was much too short to be the Spring Arcade Building.

I thought I could get a clue from the store at the left with display advertising. However, it seems to say "The World of Ears" which while unusual, did not seem likely to be helpful; possibly it was "The World of Bars" which made only slightly more sense. Neither could be located in the city directories.

Looking at the picture again, I thought I recognized the street lights from seeing them in Hollywood 25 years ago. Could the location be Hollywood? I found a map of riot-destroyed buildings and sure enough there were three along Hollywood Boulevard. The Googlemobile confirmed the location: Leonard's photo was taken looking east on Hollywood Boulevard just west of Hudson, the side street on the left. The "World of Ears" was something non-aural-related according to the 1987 street directory, but the shape of the roof and the dormers show it's the same building:


bing maps

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

Here is another of e_r's patented "mystery locations" from the 130,000+ photos at calisphere. (I don't think we're at risk of running out of subject matter).


calisphere.org
.
Leonard's photo was taken looking east on Hollywood Boulevard just west of Hudson, the side street on the left. The "World of Ears" was something non-aural-related according to the 1987 street directory, but the shape of the roof and the dormers show it's the same building:

Yes correct. I always remember how the south side of Hollywood Blvd is usually in shadow.
On Saturday in 1972 I used walk along the main mile or more of that street. Fun days.

[Martin Pal]

Yes, too, a couple fires were set along Hollywood Blvd. during the those days after the verdict in 1992.

This is the May 5, 1992, Los Angeles Times headline. I had one of those papers in my office where I worked. I kept it in a file cabinet. Every once in awhile over the years on a Monday I'd show it to someone and say, "Gee, I guess not much happened over the past weekend." Or something like that.

[Lorendoc]

...was actually "The World of Jeans" at 6529 Hollywood Blvd. Turkey overdose dulled my pattern-recognition cortex. What looks like a candy cane was a pair of jeans with one leg partially erased from the sign.

[ethereal_reality]

re: Hollywood Canteen, Thanksgiving 1944.


I believe the guy, circled below, might be Lou Costello.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

He appears to be on the server side of the table. (unless the table stops at the turkey)




for comparison

aecgallery

Whaddya think?

__

[Flyingwedge]

I do not think that is Lou Costello in the red circle.

[Bodin]

First time posting:
Looooooooong time reading.
Legendary thread. I'll be reading and rereading it for years. Thank you to all the contributors.
That said, I've seen almost very little about North Hollywood, aka Toluca, aka Town of Lankershim.
This building, I'd love to see if you all have anything on it

11044 Burbank Blvd.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

I do not think that is Lou Costello in the red circle.

I tried to find out if Mr. Costello was at the canteen on Thanksgiving 1944.

During my search I came across this photograph of Abbot and Costello performing at the opening the of Hollywood Canteen on Oct. 3rd, 1942.


margaret herrick library


By sheer coincidence, the man in the doorway wearing the apron might be the man I thought was Mr. Costello
in the Thanksgiving photo.


this guy


The apron makes me think he could be a manager/employee at the canteen.

(& that would help explain why he's in both photos two years apart )


_

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Bodin

This building, I'd love to see if you all have anything on it
11044 Burbank Blvd.

It was the Helms Bakery Distribution Center from 1932 to 1969 according to this.

ETA:

Survey LA gives a 1941 date for the building:


Historic Resources Survey Report  
North Hollywood‐Valley Village  
Community Plan Area
Industrial Development, 1850‐1980
Sub‐Context: Manufacturing for the Masses, 1883‐1989
Theme: Factories, 1887‐1980
Theme: Food Processing, 1883‐1965

Most of the resources found eligible under the Sub‐Context of Manufacturing for the Masses
are located along Burbank Boulevard between Vineland Avenue and Lankershim Boulevard,
reflective of the concentration of industrial development in this area.  Burbank Boulevard runs
adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, an important freight transportation route.  
Industrial buildings located along Burbank Boulevard are characterized by irregular set‐backs
that provide easier vehicular access to loading docks.  The concentration of
factories and distribution centers dating to the 1940s along Burbank Boulevard demonstrates
that resources eligible under this Sub‐Context needed to be close to multiple forms of
transportation (rail and truck) and to residential populations.  Recorded industrial buildings
feature distinctive street‐facing facades, while processing and manufacturing areas to the rear
are utilitarian in style and form.  The Helms Bakery Distribution Center is a food
processing facility that was constructed concurrent with the initial growth of residential
development in the area.  




Wiki says the main Helms facility in Culver City operated from 1931 to 1969 (which may be where the mix-up comes from). The Burbank Blvd location isn't mentioned, although Montebello is.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

It was the Helms Bakery Distribution Center from 1932 to 1969 according to this.

I visited that Helms location when I was about 10 years old. They gave us kids some sort of pastry and a souvenir....maybe it was a paper Helm's truck.


https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/i...8bbafe5ca0.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

The Cumnock School has been on NLA several times, but this color postcard is new.



1500 Figueroa / orig ebay

To see the interior and additional photographs go to an early GW post (from 2011) HERE
______________________________________________________________





Several sources say Martha Graham graduated from the Cumnock School in 1916. library of american choreographers

and here Where She Danced: The Birth of American Art Dance


But other sources say she went directly from Santa Barbara High School to the Denishawn School of Dance.


There's no mention of the Cumnock School in Martha Graham's timeline at the library of congress

& No mention of Cumnock on Martha Graham's wikipedia page.


Martha Graham in Santa Barbara.

cultural institute

Does anyone know whether or not Martha Graham attended the Cumnock School?

_

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent post on the J.F. Maier, Jr home at 2068 S. Hobart, Flyingwedge. You included so many interesting details.



I noticed this residence two doors up from Maier Jrs home. (north on Hobart)


gsv

Do you have any information pertaining to this house FW or GW?

I really like this home because it's elegant without being pretentious. (palladian?)

a closer look

detail




There is a butt-ugly apartment building between this home and the Maier JR. home. (built in 1963)


redfin

I wonder what home was torn down to make room for this thing.


__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Gosh, "not very tall" is the cat's meow, as far as I'm concerned!

Gee whiz, you're a man after my own heart odinthor.

Originally Posted by odinthor

I have Iris 'Superstition' in my garden

I have to say, superstition is a perfect name for a 'black' Iris.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

There is a butt-ugly apartment building between this home and the Maier JR. home. (built in 1963)


redfin

I wonder what home was torn down to make room for this thing.


__

Apartments like that virtually destroy a neighborhood and reduce the value of homes on the block by 1/2...or more..

The apt owner and city planners could care less. Even the color of the apt is offensive to the max and that parking area is reminiscent of LAX.

This is why LA has become such an unfriendly and ugly place to live. Its stylish glory days are long gone.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Excellent post on the J.F. Maier, Jr home at 2068 S. Hobart, Flyingwedge. You included so many interesting details.



I noticed this residence two doors up from Maier Jrs home. (north on Hobart)


gsv

Do you have any information pertaining to this house FW or GW?

I really like this home because it's elegant without being pretentious. (palladian?)
There is a butt-ugly apartment building between this home and the Maier JR. home. (built in 1963)


redfin

I wonder what home was torn down to make room for this thing.

2052 S Hobart was built in 1925 by glass company exec Louis Tyre, apparently on a lot not previously built upon...
late for the neighborhood, which was soon to begin its decline. (Tyre would have been smarter to built the house in
Windsor Square, say.) And, ER, it's funny you should use the word "pretentious." Back in the day, the word was not a
pejorative--in terms of domestic architecture, it meant "substantial" or "grand"....

The apartment building replaced a house built in 1905 by carriagemaker Stephen Wilder, one designed and
built by Arthur S. Heineman & co and demo'ed in 1961.

[tovangar2]

redfin


Why are we beating up on dingbat apartments? Have we no sense of history? Do we really prefer Geoff Palmer fortresses? C'mon.

Insensitive, haphazard zoning changes are the problem, not the iconic dingbats themselves. As the LA Conservancy says, "An entire street full of intact dingbats is a rare and special thing indeed"

"Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis reflects on the importance of the dingbat in thinking about the urbanization of Los Angeles and the making of a metropolis — even while some naysayers might call it a blight on the architectural beauty of the city.

The box-shaped buildings first emerged in the 1950s and '60s with evocative names like the Capri or the Palms. Dingbat 2.0 takes a scholarly approach to this structure.

“It’s this gesture toward the American Dream of owning your own property where you can park your car in the driveway and then walk up to your front door,” says Grant. “It’s a little more aspirational than, say, living in a 40-unit stucco monster where you park underground and go up an elevator and down a corridor into your apartment and there’s less of a sense of a small, tight-knit community.”

For Grant, the dingbat “can be considered an icon of the 20th century, in all its kitschy glory.” Tearing it down would take away an essential part of Los Angeles history.

“At the very end there is a section called 'Post-Dingbats' where we say, yeah, dingbats were criticized for, you know, maybe tearing down an old Craftsman house or something and replacing it with a dumb box,” says Grant. “But then after 30 or 40 years the dumb boxes get torn down and they’re replaced with bigger, uglier, dumber boxes that a lot of people refer to as stucco monsters. That becomes this example of 'be careful what you wish for' in terms of which would you rather have.”"
- LA Weekly




dopplehouse


"The dingbat apartment is just now coming into its own as a recognized and appreciated Modern architectural style"
- Los Angeles Conservancy



Ed Rucha loves 'em. They're right up there with palm trees, swimming pools and gas stations:

I live near this one:

art book


And I used to live near this one:

archinect



getty

[CityBoyDoug]

previously appeared in a Tovangar post.

These junk apartments are nothing more than money-making-machines for landlords. They are not ''appreciated'' for their style. The only possible secondary reason for their existence is to supply the need for shelter and a bathroom.
I used to own a large house that was converted into 5 apartments. Yes, being a landlord is monetarily rewarding but also a chronic 24/7 pain...one that never goes away. Glad that era of my life is forever finished.

Sidenote....A year after I sold it one of my intoxicated former tenants 'Jose' called me to detail his fetish for wearing his wife's silk panties. [Just what I didn't want to know.]

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

previously appeared in a Tovangar post.

These junk apartments are nothing more than money-making-machines for landlords. They are not ''appreciated'' for their style. The only possible secondary reason for their existence is to supply the need for shelter and a bathroom.
I used to own a large house that was converted into 5 apartments. Yes, being a landlord is monetarily rewarding but also a chronic 24/7 pain...one that never goes away. Glad that era of my life is forever finished.

Sidenote....A year after I sold it one of my former tenants called me to detail his fetish for wearing his wife's silk panties. [Just what I didn't want to know.]

Agreed, Doug.
Someone can say that ANYTHING, no matter how ugly and tacky, is "appreciated and recognized" if a few people get a kick out of it. Look at most contemporary "art." Dingbats are an absolute blight on the landscape - and apologies to those here who live in one out of necessity. I lived in one in Ocean Park during college in the 70's...a hideous grey stucco box with aluminum window frames...didn't even occur to me then that it had replaced a couple of lovely old houses. Nearby at the top of the hill on 4th Street, was a wonderful big circa 1905 Mission-style house with an elaborate tower and huge Canary Palms - it too was demolished in the early 70's and replaced with a ghastly large dingbat.