noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

I recently found this photograph of myself outside the Producer's Building on the M.G.M. lot (circa 1987).



After starting out in the accounting department, I eventually moved to the publicity department for Lorimar Productions.

The Producer's Building was/is located in the northwest corner of the MGM lot (now Sony Pictures) at Overland Avenue and Washington Blvd.
Lorimar moved to Warner Bros.

____

[GaylordWilshire]

The Western Architect
Great angle on the Examiner building... the picture information was unclear, but there seems to be a
parade going on to celebrate its dedication.


Speaking of L.A. hoopla...

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

Perhaps when the pyramids were being built some Egyptian citizens felt the same way.

G_W, here's a shot of the pebble itself -- perhaps it will captivate and inspire a change of heart.

I love this at LACMA...



But the other thing... well, I've always been a staunch defender of L.A. to disdainful New Yorkers (who, I find, have become generally more curious about it over the years and even, in some less-secure cases, anxiety-ridden, wondering if L.A. is actually the cooler of the two cities), but I had to laugh when I heard it referred to yesterday as "L.A.'s Pet Rock"....

...and e_r... how were you not plucked out of the accounting department on the first day and given a 7-year contract? If Henry Willson had been around, he'd have made you the new Rock Hudson...dare I say it?... you'd have become L.A.'s new pet Rock. (I would love to hear your comment about the other rock.)

[GaylordWilshire]

Los Angeles Times, 1938

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

...and e_r... how were you not plucked out of the accounting department on the first day and given a 7-year contract? If Henry Willson had been around, he'd have made you the new Rock Hudson...dare I say it?... you'd have become L.A.'s new pet Rock. (I would love to hear your comment about the other rock.)

I would have been a mini-me Rock Hudson...I am barely 5' 8".
____

The article in today's L.A. Times converted me into a fan of the rock.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7477852.story

That said, I found the following sentence from the article ridiculous.

"the rock is swaddled in high-thread-count Egyptian sheets so it doesn't get scratched."

Heaven forbid the rock gets scratched!



http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...2039.htmlstory

[3940dxer]

e_r, I'm surprised and glad to hear that you have joined the pro rock team. BTW, I saw your comment before you deleted, but was not bothered by it. Not everyone loves this sort of concept. In the projects defense, I would say that while it is not "art" to me I think it will make for an interesting "installation". (We can all agree on that term, I think!)

I have a plan. At the risk of divorce or losing my wife's respect forever, I'm going to load my bicycle into the car and head down to Gage and Figueroa at about 11 tonight with my camera and tripod, then follow the convoy all the way over to LACMA. It's supposed to arrive around 5 AM. I hope to get some good shots and it will be fun to see the arrival, not far from my grandfather's statues on the grounds. sopas, see you there?

BTW e_r, I agree with G_W, you do kinda look like a movie star.

[ethereal_reality]

A family vacationing in Hollywood, 1950s.



found on ebay

I love the old Western Air Lines sign...notice the Champagne Flights ad below it.

Gabbe Lutz & Heller were talent agents that represented Liberace, among others.

____

[GaylordWilshire]

The New York Times today

OK, guys, I'm trying not to be cynical about the rock. But I can't help but want to tell Sandy to get a grip, and that I don't think this is quite on the scale of the pyramids. And God knows a New Yorker would never cry over a rock! I'm relieved that despite its cultural and high-rise aspirations, L.A. is still L.A.

"...as much hoop-de-doo as we get in Los Angeles when they open a super market."--Joe Gillis on the swarm of newsreel crews at 10086 Sunset Boulevard after he'd been shot by Norma Desmond

[GaylordWilshire]

Google Books

An early shot of one of the more familiar Pasadena houses (1365 S. Oakland)... built in 1915 by Harlow Bundy, who with his brother invented the time clock (their upstate New York company was a building block of IBM). Bundy died in the house only a year after building it. It was seen in many TV shows, including "Benson" (ca. 1980), and in print ads (I have a copy of a old Sony ad stuck in a copy of Gebhard and Winter's book, which refers to it as the Rochester house).

Google

iamnotastalker.com

[Joe Vogel]

Someone at the USC Archive got the caption information wrong on the photo of the Galleria Real (I'll give them a pass on using the Spanish spelling galeria instead of the Italian-English galleria which the hotel itself uses.) The Galleria is not in the Hotel Baltimore at Fifth and Los Angeles, but in the much larger Biltmore Hotel five blocks down at Fifth and Olive. This error was probably just a careless typo, but I've found several photos in the USC Archive that have been mislabeled, and there are an even greater number of captioning errors in the L.A.Public Library's photo collection.

Originally Posted by rcarlton

The Baltimore Hotel....Absolutely Fireproof!

http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal1a.html

"Baltimore Hotel, at the southwest corner of Fifth and Los Angeles Streets. Formerly, the Baltimore Hotel was at the northeast corner of Olive and 7th, on the other side of the downtown area; this new edition of the Baltimore Hotel was built in 1910. Two buildings to the right—that is, west on Fifth Street—we see a brick building with white oriel windows projecting. This is the Charnock Block, built April to October 1889, and located at the southeast corner of Fifth and Main Streets."

From A Visit to Old Los Angeles.

Galeria Real in Baltimore Hotel, Los Angeles (10-1-23):
USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

I've always been a bit enamored by the "enchanting" Portal Motor Hotel located in Cahuenga Pass.



ebay




above: I especially like the area on the right where the cabins seem to gradually climb the hillside.






below: A portion of the Portal Motor Hotel can be seen on the right in this wonderful photograph.


http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/

above: I wonder what type of construction is going on in the foreground (lower left). Does anyone know?







below: Another postcard view.....with my favorite cabins on the right.


ebay







below: You get a glimpse of the pool in this postcard from the 1950s. If you look closely
there is sign that acts as an archway over the entrance to the motor-hotel.


ebay




After finding the previous postcards I was finally able to place this photograph because of the Portal Motor Hotel sign-archway.


ebay





below: A negative of tourists enjoying the pool at the Portal Motor Hotel.


ebay






below: The former site of the Portal Motor Hotel as it appears today.


google street view





below: In this view you can see the area (that I had mentioned earlier), where the cabins were located up the hillside.


google street view






below: In this aerial you can still see the outlines of the long lost Portal Motor Hotel.


google street view

____




One last note:

This matchbook has the address as 2775 N. Highland instead of 2775 Cahuenga Blvd. Were these addresses interchangeable?


ebay

____

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I recently found this photograph of myself outside the Producer's Building on the M.G.M. lot (circa 1987).



After starting out in the accounting department, I eventually became a coordinator in the publicity department for LORIMAR Productions.

The Producer's Building was/is located in the northwest corner of the lot at Overland Avenue and Washington Blvd.

____

You oughtta be in pictures! Seriously.

You're 5'8"? So am I. Well, 5'7-and-three quarters" in my bare feet. :-P

Tom Cruise is somewhere in between your height and mine. And Dustin Hoffman is REALLY short--I've seen him in real life in Century City some time back in the 90s. He must only be 5'4" or 5'5" at the most.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

iamnotastalker.com

Ah, the Benson House. When I first moved to South Pasadena, I actually walked to this house from my apartment when I was first exploring my neighborhood and the surrounding environs. I walked up a knoll, saw the house, and had a weird sense of déjà vu--and then I started thinking of the "Benson" theme song, it was a weird experience, and I started laughing out loud. When I walked home, after thinking about it more, I wasn't sure it was the Benson House; but then I looked it up, and learned that it really was, and was kind of impressed.

[kanhawk]

e_r, were those golf carts behind you used for riding around the studio lot?

[ethereal_reality]

...and don't forget that Alan Ladd was 5'5" sopas_ej. (a few sites say 5'6")


The Glass Key

____

[sopas ej]

Alan Ladd was 5'5" or 5'6"? I didn't know that. I imagined him to be much taller. Great post too, ethereal, on the Portal Motor Hotel. Hmm, saying that out loud, I'm more inclined to say "Porto Mortal Hotel."




LACMA under construction, 1963.

LAPL


LAPL

LACMA, 1965

LAPL

NAACP Awards at LACMA, 1968

LAPL

I went to LACMA today (Saturday, March 10, 2012), to look at the boulder and take photos, and just enjoy the architecture at LACMA. I know some people don't like the new buildings, but I like the look of the new buildings, from within the LACMA campus, anyway.

Wilshire Blvd. in front of LACMA in the early 21st Century---food trucks, and a piece of the Berlin Wall. Fitting place for a piece of it, being that Berlin is a sister city of Los Angeles.

Photo by me

Could something neo-noirish happen among the food trucks of Los Angeles? A murder among competing food truck chefs, maybe? German Wurst foodmeister versus Mrs. Kwon the Korean BBQ maven?

Photo by me

LACMA, 2012

Photo by me

Photo by me

The trench where the boulder will rest, and where people will be able to walk beneath it.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

The boulder itself, awaiting its final resting place.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

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


*FROWN* I wanna go back, to a simpler, gentler time...

Wilshire Boulevard near the Tar Pits, 1950--before food trucks, before the Berlin Wall.

USC Archive

La Brea Tar Pits, 1932. I can even see the old Wilshire Special street lamps. There's no place like home.

USC Archive

[Wenders]

Portal Motor Hotel was a very popular & busy youth hostel until around 2001 or 2002. When I moved to L.A 1995, I spend my first 2 nights there in one of those cabins. There were 4-6 bunk beds per cabin if I remember correctly. The pool was still in use in early 2000's when I stopped by to meet a visiting friend.

Edit: Just remembered; The name was "Banana Bungalow." It's a chain, there should be another one somewhere near Hollywood Blvd.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Joe Vogel

Someone at the USC Archive got the caption information wrong on the photo of the Galleria Real (I'll give them a pass on using the Spanish spelling galeria instead of the Italian-English galleria which the hotel itself uses.) The Galleria is not in the Hotel Baltimore at Fifth and Los Angeles, but in the much larger Biltmore Hotel five blocks down at Fifth and Olive. This error was probably just a careless typo, but I've found several photos in the USC Archive that have been mislabeled, and there are an even greater number of captioning errors in the L.A.Public Library's photo collection.

Just wanted to say--whenever anyone sees a mistake, please send the institution an email--they do appreciated it, especially if you point them in the right direction for correct ID.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

*FROWN* I wanna go back, to a simpler, gentler time...

So do I... to a time before museum stunts and starchitecture... to something that's not a mashup of the '60s, the Pompidou, and contemporary Midwest art museum... to something with a nice cannon out front, say....

LAPL

I guess museums have no choice but to compete with each others' fantabulousness and things like CityWalk... as for the new project, all I can think of when I see the trench to be the subway under the damn rock are the dank pedestrian tunnels under some L.A. streets that we've seen here....


Google

[3940dxer]

e_r, great post on the Portal. Though I must have driven past it thousands of times it seemed completely unfamiliar at first. Seeing Wenders post that it was later renamed Banana Bungalow jogged my memory a bit and now I do vaguely recall it. Funny that it has just been erased from the landscape.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I recently found this photograph of myself outside the Producer's Building on the M.G.M. lot (circa 1987).

Cute! Based on that pic, I'm guessing the photo you use for your avatar, of the face behind the apple, is you?

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Photo by me

*FROWN* I wanna go back, to a simpler, gentler time...

Wilshire Boulevard near the Tar Pits, 1950--before food trucks, before the Berlin Wall.

I kind of know what you mean when you say that.

Then there's also the phrase "you can never go home again".

Since LA has long had a reputation of being a city with an imperfect history, & cuz I think in some ways it's much better today than it was in the past, I'm forced to modify any nostalgia I may have with an awareness that----as one example----it took LA yrs & yrs to build an art museum in the first place. What was that delay all about??!!

the pic of wilshire from 1950 shows the bldg with the lighthouse tower that once sat on top of that bldg at the NE corner of wilshire & La Brea. Originally the mutual of omaha bldg & now with a large neon sign that promotes asahi beer. I've often wondered if the owner of the bldg decided to remove the lighthouse for earthquake reasons or because they actually thought their bldg would look better without it. Maybe they thought the lighthouse was too corny?

thanks to your pic, I decided to do some google sleuthing. I had to trace the date of the following article back to 1993 based on another article on the same bldg run that yr in the LA times. But neither writer mentioned the lighthouse that used to be on top & why it was removed. Or was it removed well after 93? I've lost track of time.

Published on AllBusiness.com

A list of the world's greatest (or most-garish) neon wonderlands would definitely include Las Vegas; New York City's Times Square; Piccadilly Circus in London; and Tokyo's Shinjuki, Roppongi and Ginza districts.

Could the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles be next?

Last week, Ashai Breweries Ltd. of Japan hoisted what it claims is California's largest neon sign onto the top of the historic Mutual of Omaha building at 5225 Wilshire Blvd. It's all part of Asahi's effort to better establish itself in the U.S. marketplace and to launch its new Ashai Draft Beer "Z."

Asahi's four-sided, solid-neon sign -- which cost $750,000 to make -- contains nearly two miles of neon tubing. Each of the four panels measure approximately 22 feet by 50 feet. That's nearly 5,000 square feet of solid neon. Eat your heart out, Hollywood.

Unlike other top-of-building signs in Los Angeles, which are used to identify major office tenants, Asahi's sign is purely promotional. The Japanese brewer does not lease a single square inch of interior space at 5225 Wilshire.

Ironically, it was on the northeast corner of Wilshire and La Brea Avenue, where the 5225 Wilshire building now sits, that a Packard car dealer named Earle C. Anthony erected L.A.'s very first neon sign back in 1923, points out Farshad Safaie-Kia, president of Capital Triangle Properties Inc., which owns the building.

And last week, 68 years later, the massive Asahi Beer neon sign was hoisted into place by helicopter and illuminated for the first time at dusk on Nov. 11.

The Art Deco-style 5225 Wilshire Building, built in 1932, for decades served as the local headquarters for Mutual of Omaha. All four sides of the building's tower held Mutual of Omaha's distinctive Indian-in-profile logos. But Mutual of Omaha sold its Miracle Mile building in June 1988 to Capital Triangle. And in the summer of 1990, Mutual of Omaha vacated the premises and shipped its landmark Indian signs back to the company's headquarters in Omaha, Neb.

I'm surprised the boulder was able to roll down wilshire, mainly cuz of the landscaped medians. I was under the impression the transporter was so wide that it would have required an area wider than either the north or south lanes of wilshire on either side of the median. I guess not.

fwiw, the museum's newer footprint, from the east side of the original bldgs to the west side of the eli broad art bldg is longer than the length of the metropolitan museum along 5th avenue. but the met is one solid structure while LACMA is broken up into different bldgs with open plazas all over.

The central court shows the architect dropped the ball. His additions, as mentioned by some others, are too reminiscent of an elementary school. The red uprights & plain concrete floor, & eames chairs scattered about are a far cry from the splendor of the grand hall of an older museum like the Met In that case, I can understand why anyone would have nostalgia for the past, at least when it comes to things like features of the natural history museum in Expo park, esp its original rotunda.