noirish Los Angeles

[tovangar2]

Thx riichkay for the very interesting post

Originally Posted by riichkay

A couple of pages into the browsing, who turns up but the Godfather of Noir L.A., the man who started it all. Author of "Double Indemnity", "Postman Always Rings Twice", "Mildred Pierce"... Mr. James M. Cain:

I couldn't resist looking up James M Cain's former home, half hoping it was a hulking, sinister pile or even, "...one of those California Spanish houses everyone was nuts about 10 or 15 years ago...".

Turns out 2966 Belden is, confusingly, a cheerful little cottage; the very antithesis of noir.


gsv - 2009

But, like many homes on the downhill side of streets, the bulk of it is round the back, so not a cottage after all. More of a chateau:


google maps 2016

The big rectangular tower is an addition:

google maps -2016


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

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I take then, the tree in her front yard is carob, right? (even though it looks 'wackier' than the one out by the street)

I think Delores' patchy-trunked tree is a sycamore. There's a long-popular fashion here (and maybe elsewhere) to plant multi-trunk sycamores and then train their trunks (when young and slender) into 'artful' arrangements as a sort of sculptural effort on the front lawns of homes.

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


I haven't been able to find a depth for the Lake Pit e_r, but this noirish item gives a sense of what's under the surface:


"Police find evidence linked to homicide in La Brea Tar Pits"
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun...earch-20130607





.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' structure


Can anyone tell me what's going on in this photograph taken at Fox-Malibu Ranch?



I know the answer, but I thought it'd be fun to see if anyone can figure it out . (no googling!)
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Did someone smell smoke?

[ethereal_reality]

Getting warmer. (pun intended)

[LA Kitty Kat]

The Towering Inferno?

[ethereal_reality]

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!


http://www.thestudiotour.com/movies.php?movie_id=2013



#2

http://www.thestudiotour.com/movies.php?movie_id=2013

The miniatures cost $1,110,000 and the tallest of these was 70 feet high and was guyed off in all four directions and filmed against a blue screen on the concrete floor of Sersen Lake at the Twentieth Century Fox Ranch in Malibu, California. Similarly, five floors of the building were built in full scale at the same facility for close up shooting of action scenes.


also...

The upper 15 floors of The Glass Tower was built as a facade in the dirt parking lot of the 20th Century Fox Ranch in Malibu, including drapes for all the windows and an explosion hole at the outside elevator track. It remained standing in the same location for many years, even after the state of California bought the land and opened the ranch to the public.

the above trivia is from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072308/trivia

So there appears to be some discrepancy about the height of the 2nd structure that was constructed in the parking lot. (5 floors vs. 15 floors)
And I find it hard to believe that it remained standing for so long.





and just for fun
• Video Link


The pivotal scene for me was when Jennifer Jones falls out of that elevator.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

There's a long-popular fashion to plant multi-trunk sycamores and then train their trunks into 'artful' arrangements as a sort of sculptural effort
on the front lawns of homes.

Very interesting T2, I didn't realize you could do that with sycamores.

Speaking of sycamores, I don't believe we've seen this one on NLA.


http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=73034

"Elaine MacKenzie points to a sycamore tree, which is one of the oldest landmarks in the San Fernando Valley. The exact location of the tree is not indicated,
but it appears to be near a large estate or park. Pacific Electric Streetcar tracks are visible on the right. Photo dated: May 15, 1930."

KCET has a different caption for the same photograph.

"This massive sycamore near the entrance to Forest Lawn cemetery doubled as a survey point when Rancho San Rafael was partitioned in 1871."

"It delineated the border between the cities of Glendale and Los Angeles and later guarded the entrance to Glendale's Forest Lawn cemetery. Though scarred by spike holes and other marks left by surveyors, the tree was made a monument in 1930, when the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a plaque at its base."


Here's the plaque.


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics29/00049246.jpg

I drove the google-mobile to the entrance of Forest Lawn and couldn't find hide nor hair of the sycamore or the plaque.




And we must not forget about the grand dame of all sycamores, El Aliso.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10490

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[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

[...]

And here's a line for odinthor.

"The estate has various trees including “Mexican palms, Italian cypresses, birds-of-paradise, jacaranda, oleander, carob, coral, eucalyptus, and Chinese lantern trees.”

OK, I just have to ask, what is a Chinese lantern tree? It sound beautiful.

[...]


video

I take then, the tree in her front yard is carob, right? (even though it looks 'wackier' than the one out by the street)
_______
[...]

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Ach, often a delayed response from me on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays because I tend to be outside getting dirty (and doing gardening too).

Chinese Lantern Tree could be a couple of things, either a Dichrostachys cinerea

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

or an Abutilon of one sort or another (some of them grow tall enough to be called trees)

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

or maybe Physalis peruviana

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

which doesn't grow big enough to be called a tree at all, but which looks more like a Chinese lantern than the other two put together...

On the other tree, yes, I thought Sycamore the second I saw it. The bark is characteristic.

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Very interesting T2, I didn't realize you could do that with sycamores.

Speaking of sycamores, I don't believe we've seen this one on NLA.


http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=73034

"Elaine MacKenzie points to a sycamore tree, which is one of the oldest landmarks in the San Fernando Valley. The exact location of the tree is not indicated,
but it appears to be near a large estate or park. Pacific Electric Streetcar tracks are visible on the right. Photo dated: May 15, 1930."

KCET has a different caption for the same photograph.

"This massive sycamore near the entrance to Forest Lawn cemetery doubled as a survey point when Rancho San Rafael was partitioned in 1871."

"It delineated the border between the cities of Glendale and Los Angeles and later guarded the entrance to Glendale's Forest Lawn cemetery. Though scarred by spike holes and other marks left by surveyors, the tree was made a monument in 1930, when the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a plaque at its base."


Here's the plaque.


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics29/00049246.jpg

I drove the google-mobile to the entrance of Forest Lawn and couldn't find hide nor hair of the sycamore or the plaque.




And we must not forget about the grand dame of all sycamores, El Aliso.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10490

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Pretty sure that's the Forest Lawn entrance, e_r. And the adjoining right-of-way wasn't PE's, it was Glendale & Montrose Ry./Union Pacific. G&M's history:
http://www.erha.org/g&m.htm

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' structure


Can anyone tell me what's going on in this photograph taken at Fox-Malibu Ranch?



I know the answer, but I thought it'd be fun to see if anyone can figure it out .
__

Here is a John Berkey illustration of the doomed tower. He's well known for his science fiction art.


John Berkey

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Back to the Mirren/Hackford property.


So will this tiny strip of land always be considered a separate parcel? Why wouldn't it be 'consumed' by the adjacent parcel since it's owned by the same person?
-or am I just not understanding how this property stuff works?

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I don't really understand it, either. It's 3 parcels, but one estate, with 2 addresses (main house and guest house I assume). You can of course do a split or subdivision of property into multiple parcels and I see no reason why you couldn't go the other way, but maybe there's just no point in doing so.

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's another wonderful slide from Edna.

& lunch on me at Chasen's for whomever can tell me what this 'art deco' building is (below)


detail
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I have been away from this thread for a long time, and am nowhere near caught up. So, if someone has already claimed the lunch at Chasen's, I'll settle for an Irv's burger instead.

The building in question was a Thrifty drug store. You can see the letters "T H" on the blade sign, and the 1942 city directory has a Thrifty's at 8901 Santa Monica Boulevard. I might call it Streamline Moderne (curvy surfaces, horizontal grooves in walls), rather than Art Deco.

BiffRayRock posted this view of Santa Monica Blvd from 1933 a while ago:


USC

USC's digital archives contain another, similar, picture:

USC

Compare these with Edna's (1950?) slide:

http://www.ednasantiqueshop.com/holl...olley_line.htm

...and you can see something significant changed between 1933 and 1950. A three-martini lunch at The Palm's West Hollywood location, e_r, for anyone who can explain what changed, and why

[BillinGlendaleCA]

I noticed the guy that fell into the tar pits in an earlier post(initially I thought he was a burn victim), and told my step-daughter about the nurses in white treating this guy who'd gotten, eh, tarred. Being that she's a new RN, she noted that there's a reason that nurses currently don't wear white.

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Someone mention the Fox Malibu Ranch? When they first opened Malibu Creek State Park, my dad and I hiked there. The M*A*S*H set was still being used for outdoor shots for the TV series. Here are a couple of slide scans from my archives:

The latrines:
2016-12-10-0001-1
by Me(actually my dad, since I'm in the picture), on Flickr

The hospital:
2016-12-10-0002-1
by Me(actually my dad, since I'm in the picture), on Flickr

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

The building in question was a Thrifty drug store. You can see the letters "T H" on the blade sign, and the 1942 city directory has a Thrifty's at 8901 Santa Monica Boulevard. I might call it Streamline Moderne (curvy surfaces, horizontal grooves in walls), rather than Art Deco.

I think CBD posted this view of Santa Monica Blvd from 1933 a while ago:


USC

Clearer views may help. http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=34826

[Martin Pal]

Thanks for identifying the location as a Thrifty's Drugstore, Lorendoc! I'm pretty sure, though, that the b&w photos above were taken 2-3 blocks east of 8901 Santa Monica Blvd., at Westbourne Dr., so you might have to settle for Barney's Beanery.

[HossC]

Today's Julius Shulman post takes us to the library. This is "Job 3472: Maurice Fleischman, West Covina Public Library (West Covina, Calif.), 1962".



I've just noticed the kids waving on the right.



Here's a close-up of the front...



... and a look behind the columns.



All from Getty Research Institute

The building is still standing at 1601 W Covina Parkway, although, as you can see, the center section has been modified. It's also been extended to the north (left). The sign now says "Regional Headquarters, Los Angeles County Library Service".


GSV

It looks like the library had more space at the front in the Shulman pictures, but I think it's because the road used to curve away to the north. Below is a comparison between 1964 and Google current view.


Historic Aerials/Google Maps

[tovangar2]

Maurice Fleischman also did the 1947 Gerry Building, DTLA, a favorite on NLA:


gsv

[ethereal_reality]

One of my favorite, somewhat overlooked, buildings in all of Los Angeles.

It looks more like an art deco movie set than an actual building.



It's always interesting to compare 'then' and 'now' aerials Hoss. thanks for posting them

I have to admire the fir trees around the library. Boy have they grown!

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[ethereal_reality]

First of all, it's great to hear from you Lorendoc! ! !

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

...and you can see something significant changed between 1933 and 1950. A three-martini lunch at The Palm's West Hollywood location, e_r, for anyone who can explain what changed, and why

Well, there's a lot less litter in the 1933 photograph, but I don't think that's going to win me the three-martini lunch )


I'm curious, is this 'The Palms' you had in mind?

This Palms was located between my bungalow on Hancock and the gym. I conveniently picked up the weekly newspapers
just inside their front door. (which was kept open during business hours)

(note the archaic stencil of the palm tree on the backside of the front door)

https://www.facebook.com/The-Palms-Bar-105512139919/

Despite being a historic lesbian bar, The Palms closed in 2013 and the building was demolished soon after.




It was rather seedy looking on the outside. (not that there's anything wrong with that )




Oddly enough, I don't remember the other two doors on the right. -and to be totally honest...I never noticed there was a second floor until now.



"The Palms' history as a bar dates back to at least 1953, according to records discovered by filmmakers Kate Eggert and Krisy Gosney,
who are working on a documentary about the bar and building, which was originally constructed in 1930. The space came to be known
as a quiet place for Hollywood to get away from fans and the press, a perfect location given its proximity to the clubs and recording studios
in the surrounding area."

By the late 1960s, the Palms was a watering hole for rock 'n' roll royalty, serving the likes of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
While Tom Waits held court at the famous Tropicana Motel across the street, he would go to the Palms to escape fans."

from http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun...palms-20130607

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[ethereal_reality]

We've visited the Inglewood Santa Fe Station on NLA, but I don't believe we've seen these two slides dated 1966 and 1969.


First, 1966.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Original-S...UAAOSwLpdW8wlH

What would have been stored in that orange wooden box?




And in 1969. (obviously the lighting is quite different)


http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Original-S...UAAOSwLpdW8wlH



Here's the station with a bright red train engine next to it.
http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=29324


4 black and white negs.
http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfm20.html