noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

While looking for the name of the drug store at Ventura & Verdugo, I happened across this ad in the 1961 Van Nuys directory.


http://rescarta.lapl.org/ResCarta-We...50604/00000013



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Farah Fay Hall...born 1888 died in 1989...100 years old...Van Nuys CA.


newspapers.com

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' locations.

Four 1960s negatives that were on eBay a few months ago.


#1

eBay



#2

eBay





#3

eBay

#3a detail / looking past the Rodeo Bowl at the businesses down the street.


Best Buy Pies on the left (topped with a mid-century 'Saturn').....but the horizontal rectangular sign a bit further down the street is a mystery (_ _ UUM?)

On the right, there's an interesting 'noirish' sign, "The Stake Out, West" (red arrow). I'd say that was probably a neighborhood bar; wouldn't you?
And there's also a vertical "TOYS" sign visible with jabberwocky letters.





#4 (this one obviously has the best clue; you can clearly see an Eighth Street sign)

eBay


#4a detail (there's a hotel down the street)

eBay

#4b...and there's another hotel on the opposite side of the street.

detail


Here's the intersection today


gsv

red arrow on the right = old 'hotel' sign



here the sign, close-up. (does that say "Olive" beneath "Hotel"?)

detail


Here is the hotel entrance we could see in the 1960s photograph (#4b)

gsv

detail #4b
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But I still need some help on the other locations.
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Second door over was the 754 S.Olive St. entrance to the so popular Crown Jewel two floor gay bar in the 50s-- a dressy spot unlike all other downtown spots.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by rick m

Second door over was the 754 S.Olive St. entrance to the so popular Crown Jewel two floor gay bar in the 50s-- a dressy spot unlike all other downtown spots.

I'm confused rick m....which doorway would this be? Was it in the old hotel?


gsv


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[unihikid]

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;7185841]'mystery' locations.

Four 1960s negatives that were on eBay a few months ago.


#1

eBay



Im pretty sure this is Pico near Alvarado looking west.

[Bristolian]

http://www.franklinhills.org/sunsetpacific.html


http://www.you-are-here.com/building/lafayette.jpg




http://www.franklinhills.org/lafayette74.jpg



Strange but true story about the Hotel Lafayette is that UCLA football coach Red Sanders suffered a heart attack and died there in August 1958, just weeks before the football season was to kick off. The story was he was at the hotel "visiting a friend". Many Trojan fans are convinced it was not as innocent as that sounds.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

#3

eBay

#3a detail / looking past the Rodeo Bowl at the businesses down the street.


Best Buy Pies on the left (topped with a mid-century 'Saturn').....but the horizontal rectangular sign a bit further down the street is a mystery (_ _ UUM?)

On the right, there's an interesting 'noirish' sign, "The Stake Out, West" (red arrow). I'd say that was probably a neighborhood bar; wouldn't you?
And there's also a vertical "TOYS" sign visible with jabberwocky letters.

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

I'm pretty sure this is looking east on Rodeo Road at La Cienega, just north of the Baldwin Hills.

I agree with Flyingwedge. Rodeo Bowl was at 5755 Rodeo Road. That looks like a first generation Firebird under the Rodeo Bowl sign, so this must be at least late-60s. The best fit I could find for the businesses is the 1973 CD, which has the cleaners, the toy store and the gas stations at the intersection. I'm pretty sure the "_ _ UUM" sign actually says "LIQUOR", so probably belonged to The Wine Cellar.


LAPL

Here's the intersection today. The Rodeo Plaza sign looks like it's probably on the same pylon as the "FREE DRY WITH EACH WASH" sign in e_r's picture. According to an article at baldwinhillsvillageandthevillagegreen.blogspot.com, the Rodeo Bowl was "Designed by architects Armet & Davis, the plush 32 lane bowling alley opened in April, 1957. Stripped of the mid-century detail, it is now the Baha'i Center." I think the mahole cover in the intersection is still in the same place.


GSV

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' locations.

#1

eBay

Originally Posted by unihikid

Im pretty sure this is Pico near Alvarado looking west.

This is Pico Boulevard a couple of blocks west of Alvarado. We're looking west on the section of Pico between Magnolia and S Westmoreland. From the 1969 CD (below), the "COFFEE SHOP" sign belonged to Sam's Coffee Shop, and the "PICO SQUARE" sign belonged to Pico Square Liquor. I'm guessing that the RCA truck may have been visiting G-G Record Distributors at 2360 Pico.


LAPL

I believe that this is the old Coffee Shop sign from e_r's picture, and the strip mall looks relatively unchanged too.


GSV

The building with the fancy brickwork on the right of e_r's picture (under the "Find him" poster") also survives. The current graffiti paint scheme and signage makes it difficult to compare, so here's a view from 2011.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for your research Hoss.

also thanks to Flyingwedge and unhikid. Now I know the locations.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

I agree with Flyingwedge. Rodeo Bowl was at 5755 Rodeo Road.

According to an article at baldwinhillsvillageandthevillagegreen.blogspot.com, the Rodeo Bowl was "Designed by architects Armet & Davis, the plush 32 lane bowling alley opened in April, 1957. Stripped of the mid-century detail, it is now the Baha'i Center."

It's boggles the mind how something as visionary as this.....


http://baldwinhillsvillageandthevill...lls-flood.html



became this by the next decade.


eBay / detail

The huge sign harks back to the middle-ages. I don't get it.

Is the 'futuristic' design to the left, out of sight?
_

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

This undated photo, which I've enlarged a bit, looks west across Alameda Street at the old LA City Water Co. building,
which was owned by the city from 1902 on. I don't believe we've seen the front of this building close up before:

UCLA -- http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla.../laviews%3A296

Thanks FW. We see the L.A. City Water Company Building « in motion » in Charlie Chaplin's « Easy Street » (1917) at 17:20.

[ethereal_reality]

detail / ebay

Originally Posted by HossC

I'm guessing that the RCA truck may have been visiting G-G Record Distributors at 2360 Pico.


LAPL

I had to smile when I read your excellent deduction.

You my friend, are the sleuthiest of the sleuths! You're making this thread way too much fun.

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[ethereal_reality]

re: LA City Water Co.

originally posted by Flyingwedge

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

Thanks FW. We see the L.A. City Water Company Building « in motion » in Charlie Chaplin's « Easy Street » (1917) at 17:20.

Is this the scene you're talking about AlvaroLegido? (it happens at 17:56 in the version I watched)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg




A lot of the street scenes in Easy Street look like movie sets to me.

This is the "street scene" you see over and over again in the film. (it gets a bit monotonous)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg


at the end it's all gussied up with new signs and lampposts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg





That said, I believe this is a real building.

(you see this building just once at 17:51, just before the LA City Water Co. view)

youtube

What do you guys think?

if interested, here's the link to the film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg

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[tovangar2]

Ok, I think that's the Marie Hammel Building (Hudson & Munsel, 1909) and Italian Hall (Julius Kraus, 1907). This bit of Olvera St was also used in "The Kid" reunion scene as detailed here. Map of Olvera Street.


silent locations



P.S.

Here's the confirming quote:

"As I explain in my book Silent Traces, Chaplin was already familiar with Olvera Street, as he previously filmed chase scenes from Easy Street (1917) along the same spot."

-John Bengtson in silent locations



.....I may still be confused about this (obviously). Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, here's another view:


LAT

And plate No. 5 of the 1914 Baist map (sort of) identifying the building at the end of Olvera St (across Macy) in the screen grab:

[HossC]

We're going out east with this Bank of America, which was located at 2845 South Diamond Bar Boulevard in Diamond Bar. This is Julius Shulman's "Job 4328: Carl Maston, Bank of America (Diamond Bar, Calif.), 1968".



Here's a view of the entrance. The address is over the door, although I struggled to read the street name.



And from a different angle.



A look along the front - I wonder if that was a gas station next door.



The photoset also includes a couple of darker shots showing the lighting.





All from Getty Research Institute

While I was confirming the address, I came across a couple of entries relating to the bank at USC. This one is "Bank of America building, Diamond Bar, California, ca.1969, artist's rendering".


USC Digital Library

The other entry is a collection of PDFs which includes images, letters and planning diagrams. The photographs in the set are credited to Julius Shulman, and, going by the job numbers on the back, are all from the same set as the Getty images above. One of the black and white images that's missing from the Getty set is this interior shot.


USC Digital Library

Julius Shulman took at least two color photos of the bank while he was there - this one of the right end ...


USC Digital Library

... and this one of the left end.


USC Digital Library

In 1968, the building was entered into the Architectural Awards of Excellence. The entry form also gives details of the engineer, contractor and steel fabricator.


USC Digital Library

The "yours was not among the winners" letter is dated over a year later. At least it was among the finalists.


USC Digital Library

Here's the architectural description which was submitted with the awards entry. It explains the site and reason for choosing steel.


USC Digital Library

I'm aware that this post has been image heavy, so you can check out the rest of the USC images and documents here. I'll finish with a current view of 2845 South Diamond Bar Boulevard. The main car wash and Jiffy Lube building occupies the same footprint as the Bank of America, so is the old bank structure under there somewhere?


GSV

[tovangar2]

What a handsome building. Hard to believe it's gone.

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent post Hoss.
Of the modern banks we've seen; this one is my favorite.
I'm saddened that it's gone already.
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Here is a view of the downtown Googie's (5th and Olive) from an angle that we usually don't see.


1979 episode of "The Incredible Hulk".

https://plus.google.com/wm/trollface...explore/googie

That exhaust duct sticks out like a sore thumb.






below: I first mentioned the exhaust duct years ago in this old post.
-I guess it bugs me that there wasn't a better solution other than running it up the front of the San Carlos Hotel.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

NW corner of 5th & Olive.

no date/ebay

Notice how the Googie's exhaust duct slithers up the front of the hotel to the roof.
-at least it's painted the same color as the building.

*The San Carlos Hotel was demolished in 1988.

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[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I thought I had finally found a photograph of one of the color "domes"used to manipulate the light of the Dana Point street lanterns.


http://www.danapointtimes.com/its-hi...he-oil-please/

In actuality, this is the beacon that was atop the 125-foot Richfield tower at Dana Point!!
*The beacon was donated to the Dana Point Historical Society by Richard Deffenbaugh (the man in the photograph)

You can read the entire story here:
http://www.danapointtimes.com/its-hi...he-oil-please/



below: ProphetM's earlier post showing the Dana Point Richfield tower at it's original location.

Thanks for that! I do have this photo in my collection and can note that although this was the light atop the tower when it was taken down in 1971, this is not the aerial beacon as erected in 1928. That beacon was a much larger, rotating affair of 2 million candlepower. I have never seen a photo of the original beacon apparatus up close, but I do have this ad by the manufacturer where you can at least make out the round beacon on top of the tower (or perhaps they drew it there for the ad):


Aero Digest, August 1929, via archive.org

And it just so happens that this ad photo is of the Dana Point beacon (known at the time as Capistrano Beach).

e_r: Just for the photo hosting discussion, I have used Picasa for all of my hosting and it works wonderfully with the Picasa desktop app, which also has simple editing, adjustment, cropping, etc. You can upload via the web but I use that very rarely because I already use the desktop app for organizing my photos anyway. Don't know if you use a Mac or if there's a Mac Picasa app.

Picasa is a part of Google; the desktop program and Picasa Web Albums are free with my Google (Gmail) account. They attempted to merge Picasa Web Albums into Google+ as "Google+ Photos" but that never really took off so they are separating them again. The thing is, Picasa Web Albums never actually went away. The Google+ link and forwarding just used an alternate URL to get to the same photos. I used to just use a 'noredirect' tag as part of the URL to go directly to Picasa, and it appears that is no longer needed, you can just go to picasaweb.google.com .

There is a space limit - mine is 15GB but I'm not sure if it was enlarged through some old offer that I've forgotten! Current pages indicate that this is now shared across Picasa aka Google Photos (which is I guess what they're calling it now), Google Drive, and Gmail. A 100GB limit is $2 per month.

However, and this is the biggest help - the limit does not apply to images below a certain size - 2048 pixels on the longest dimension. Which is more than big enough for nearly everything posted on web forums. The Picasa desktop app lets you choose a 'best for web sharing' option when you upload, so that it automatically uploads it at that size, and you can upload hundreds of pictures at a time. If you have used captions in the desktop app, it includes those. I don't know if there's a limit on albums (folders), but I have over 50 at the moment; each folder can hold 1000 photos. I have something like 15,000+ photos uploaded and I'm barely over 2GB out of 15, most of which is probably Google Drive and Gmail stuff, since nearly all my Picasa photos are uploaded at 2048px or less.

In the web interface you have link & embedding URLs available. There are some pre-selected sizes in a dropdown menu, but in truth every picture is infinitely scalable, up to the size you uploaded. For instance, in the photo I posted above there is part of the URL which reads "s1000" - you can change that to whatever you want and it makes the picture that size, in pixels of length. If you use "s0" it uses the original upload size.

Just for fun, here is that picture again at 20, 30, and 40 pixels high, same URL except for the "s20"/"s30"/"s40":


You can make any folder public or private or semi-private (must have direct URL), so I have used it to make a few photos available to people at original size, like family pics for relatives that won't fit in email. But mostly I use it for web forum pics and for hosting captioned trip photos for other people to find in web searches.

I'm sure many (most?) image hosting has pretty much the same options and probably more, but Picasa works great for me.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for suggesting Picasa ProphetM. After the recent difficulties with Imageshack I am going to make a change.


About that very cool Sperry Gyroscope Co. ad.
I didn't realize a gyroscope was needed to have a rotating beacon (since the tower itself is stationary).

Am I missing something?
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[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for suggesting Picasa ProphetM. After the recent difficulties with Imageshack I am going to make a change.


About that very cool Sperry Gyroscope Co. ad.
Not to sound stupid, but I didn't realize a gyroscope was needed to have a rotating beacon (since the tower itself is stationary).

Am I missing something?
__

Maybe they just started with gyroscopes and by 1928 had expanded to some other products that didn't actually use any. I am totally unversed in what goes in to a rotating airway beacon, or a stationary one for that matter!

One note about Picasa - my desktop version still directs to Google Photos when I use its links to view online, and the button that used to say "Share on Picasa Web Albums" still says "Share on Google+". I don't know if they have updated the app again to change that but it uploads to the same place regardless, and I just use a bookmark in my browser to go to the MUCH more helpful Picasa web interface at https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg

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I've been trying to figure out where the spectators are standing in the screengrab above.


Here's another a second or so later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxZcgpG1Gqg



Could it be on the porch of the Olvera Adobe?



Here's the scene 3 decades earlier, in circa 1888:

Originally Posted by HossC

USC Digital Library

Detail from above:


The Olvera Adobe sometime after 1903, but before the curbs and sidewalks went in:

waterandpower

The Olvera Adobe was demolished in 1917, the year "Easy Street" was made.



I made such a hash of IDing the last screen grab, I'm hoping someone will help me with this one.