noirish Los Angeles

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

I believe that was later called Good Samaritan Hospital after the name of the street changed. Any other ideas?

I have a thread somewhere about the various names, maybe three or four. I'll find it and post them.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

Born in 43 at Queen of Angels, lived in Silverlake and Sunset area till going in the Navy. Got out and eventually married and moved to Glendale then La Crescenta. Now in Ojai. I remember street cars to downtown and Hollywood (Red Cars) occasionally rode a yellow car or two. Bike riding to P.O.P. and theaters in Hollywood. Loved the old buildings downtown that are no longer there. Give me old L.A. any day.....

I remember most of those things although I never biked to POP. Good memories and they seem to get better as you get older.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by BillinGlendaleCA

Is it this one
? It was Temple Community Hospital, it closed in 2014. I've seen a couple of posts about it here. It's slated to be torn down and they're planning on building apartments on the site.

That's the one Bill, maternity ward was on the ground floor as my mother remembered it. Our doctor (Randall) delivered my younger brother as well two years later. He had an ill-fated affair with a nurse and jumped to his death from his office. I don't believe his actual office was in the hospital. Tales of the big city.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

An absolutely er...fantastic story. I'm a tad confused though. Is the house in the picture in Los Angeles or San Gabriel? You say it's still standing--where? I'd like to GSV it. And what happened to your sister? Or is she "Gleam"?


Here's your post from July 7, 2014:

Thanks GW for searching out and posting my old report.

My mother had four children. One half sister [Susan] and myself are the only ones left of our family...my two brothers have passed on. My younger half brother and his friend robbed my house in the 1980s and then threatened our mother with a gun via a telephone recorded message.. Its a good thing I didn't catch them in the act or I might have been killed on the spot. He's the only person who knew where my valuables were hidden....and yes, that's exactly what he took. That same brother, I had to bail him out of jail on a minor drug charge at about this same time.

The girl ''Gleam'' was one of my stepfather's several out of wedlock children. She went to one of our church friends. She'd be about 62 now.
My stepfather's ''adoption'' scheme was slick. He had the mothers check in to the hospital under the new parent's name. When the baby was born my mother would get the baby from the hospital room of the birth mother. Then walk out and give the infant to the new ''mother'' who was waiting in a car parked at the curb. Of course she had the bogus Berth Cert. in hand. Those days were long before CCTV cameras. Lord only knows what the nurses thought when they might have realized that a new infant was ''missing''.
GW....I'll work on the San Gabriel house thing for you.

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location....somewhere downtown.


EBAY


a bit closer


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________



There's a 2nd photograph as well.

In this one you see a bit more of the two story building.


EBAY

[ethereal_reality]

I believe odinthor will really like this cabinet card. (imagine a soft wind blowing)


EBAY



the complete card.

[ethereal_reality]

One more cabinet card for this evening.

"C B Waite Cabinet Photo of Spanish American War Officers at Arcade Depot in L A"


EBAY

If only someone had written their names on the back.





I was surprised to see how young these two are.


DETAIL

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location....somewhere downtown.


EBAY

The Weld grocery was at 519 S Bway. In the background you can see the Mueller Block (Robert Brown Young, 1890) at 456 S Bway:

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

Born in 43 at Queen of Angels,

My middle older sister was born at Q of A. I remember when half the embankment in front slid onto the 101 after torrential rains in the 80's.

I also have a physical connection to West L.A. When my elderly cousin passed away in 2016 at 90, I inherited her house in Westchester. Its a true classic--semi-custom home built in 1948 as a tract house but heavily modified by the original owner, who was a contractor and made it a Deco gem! My cousin bought it in 1962 for the princely sum of $24,000. She paid it off in two years. I couldn't bring myself to sell it to someone who'd turn it into a McMansion, so we fixed it up and rent it out.

Oh, and for Gaylord Wilshire, one of the first things we did was trim the overgrown Magnolia in the front yard so you can actually see it from the street!

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by Slauson Slim

Scott Charles wrote:


I left in 1966 and live in Northern California.

As an aside, I am curious as to how many posters here live in or grew up in LA or SoCal.

Born and raised in Santa Barbara. That said, we had LA television stations. As such, my formative years were filled with this and this and this, etc.

When I was ten I went to Groucho's last public appearance, at the Wilshire Hyatt House, and then had dinner at the Brown Derby. Soon Groucho was dead and the Brown Derby demolished and so began my association of Los Angeles with loss.

Then spent a lot of lost youth driving down for shows and getting into all sorts of gross and improbable mischief before moving to LA proper in 1993. My first job was a retail gig at a vintage clothing store on 6th near La Brea called The Palace Museum—neither a palace nor a museum, and it didn't have a lot of customers, and on moving to LA my buddy Scott handed me The Black Dahlia and said "you moved here, now you have to read this." So in the two years I worked that gig I read lots of LA-themed crime and noir and there's been no looking back ever since.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Can we all agree that CBD deserved the "Noirest of the Noirishers Award"? We read it and watch it on movies and tv. CBD actually lived it.

[Lorendoc]

Very interesting to read all the LA bona fides.

I've lived here for 40 years, most of my life. I was preceded to Southern California by many cousins, and by my mother who lived here in 1947-8. After graduating from Northwestern in 1945, she moved to NY and got a job with an ad agency. When radio moved west, she went with it and got a job as a script girl for Lux Radio Theatre. She lived at the Hollywood Studio Club on Lodi Place and walked 15 minutes to CBS Columbia Square every day for work.

The Studio Club was a Julia Moore building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, I'm sure it must have been mentioned here before.


GSV

[stuckinexeter]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

I have never heard that. But of course until just a few years ago I didn't know about the Lindberg Beacon either. Would like to know if this is correct.

Not sure how it works in this case but I can say the Canada Life Bldg. on University Ave. in Toronto has something similar and uses the following ...

Flashing red: rain

Flashing white: snow

Solid red: cloudy

Solid green: clear

The strip of lights running up and down the tower communicate temperature.

Lights shooting up means the city is warming up, down and it’s cooling. When the lights do nothing, the temperature is steady.

[ScottyB]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I believe odinthor will really like this cabinet card. (imagine a soft wind blowing)


EBAY



the complete card.

Not a lot of clues for guessing the location (Brentwood area?), but it is ironic that the notes on the back describe the Pampas grass growing "in the natural state", as it is a particularly persistent invasive species.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I believe odinthor will really like this cabinet card. (imagine a soft wind blowing)


EBAY



the complete card.

Thanks, e_r! Cortaderia selloana. My earliest acquaintance with it was at Knott's Berry Farm, where my brother and I would play hide and seek amongst several clumps . . . and where we found that the leaves were saw-toothed along the edge! Walter Knott had quite an interest in exotic plants--trees, especially--and the parking lot was full of unusual trees. I don't know if they have been preserved.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Sorry, I do not remember either of those teachers, CaliNative - when were they teaching? As I stated somewhere above, I graduated NHHS in 1984.

Lyle Wolfe the history teacher was probably about 40 when I graduated in 1969, so perhaps he retired before you attended. Took American History & International Relations from him. Excellent teacher. Corbin the physics teacher was in his mid 50s probably, so he probably left years before. Mr. Kennedy the biology teacher was good. At Walter Reed I had a great art teacher named Karen Barnard. I drew for the Skyline Yearbook in the class she taught. I also remember a good science teacher named Mr. Malone, although he liked to be called "Commander Malone" because he was a commander in the Navy.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Mstimc

My middle older sister was born at Q of A. I remember when half the embankment in front slid onto the 101 after torrential rains in the 80's.

I also have a physical connection to West L.A. When my elderly cousin passed away in 2016 at 90, I inherited her house in Westchester. Its a true classic--semi-custom home built in 1948 as a tract house but heavily modified by the original owner, who was a contractor and made it a Deco gem! My cousin bought it in 1962 for the princely sum of $24,000. She paid it off in two years. I couldn't bring myself to sell it to someone who'd turn it into a McMansion, so we fixed it up and rent it out.

Oh, and for Gaylord Wilshire, one of the first things we did was trim the overgrown Magnolia in the front yard so you can actually see it from the street!

Much appreciated, Mstimc. I'd ask for the address of the house to check it out on GSV, but understand that you may not want to give it out. Maybe you'd consider finding the view yourself and posting it here? Curious to see it.

[Slauson Slim]

From the New Yorker. I went to some of the places mentioned in the article - trip, Hullaballo, Whisky, Blue Grotto, Free Press Bookstore, etc. And the Human-Be-In.

A great scene, music, and a good time to be alive.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1...QyMDA4NTI5OQS2

[Slauson Slim]

Thanks for chiming in all you Angelenos.

My dad dropped out of high school to work and worked in the grocery business until WWII - he told me it was the Depression and people had to eat so there would be work, plus he was a chauffeur, bartender and hung out with boxers. He also played pool - what he called pocket billiards - for money. After the war he worked the railway mail - carrying a pistol and later at LAX. He worked part time at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar. He loved USC football (especially the Howard Jones and John McKay teams) and the Dodgers. Mom went to Holy Cross School (and was married at HC Church), St. Mary's HS when it was at Slauson and Crenshaw (surrounded by agriculture) and LA Poly HS (Tom Bradley was a classmate). After dropping out she worked as a beautician around Hollywood, then worked in a defense plant and then settled down and became a mom. From her Hollywood time, she knew all kinds of good gossip. In late 1966 my parents moved to the South Bay.

My parents owned a latin music nightclub on 52nd and South Broadway when mambo and cha-cha were big in the '50s.

My Greek grandfather owned the Royal Cafe in downtown LA in the 1920's with his brothers. My Mexican grandmother was friends with folks who worked at the Sennet and other studios, and her best friend was the wife of Hillbilly singer Len Nash - country music used to be huge in LA.

I was born at Queen of Angels, raised near Slauson and South Broadway from birth until I left home at 18 to join the military. Attended Holy Cross School and Mount Carmel High School, which closed in 1976. I saw the Watts Riots first hand. In our neighborhood there were Afro-Americans (lots of Louisiana people), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Palestinian, Filipino, Hawaiian, Mexican, Lebanese, German, Italian and Irish families. As a teenager made mobile by the LA car culture my friends and I went to Sunset Blvd., Hawthorne Blvd. and Whittier Blvd. - pick your scene.

Los Angeles, and California, have been good for my family. Maternal and paternal sides came here from Mexico about 100 years ago, and many of my relatives have done well and moved up the economic and educational ladder.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

An absolutely er...fantastic story. I'm a tad confused though. Is the house in the picture in Los Angeles or San Gabriel? You say it's still standing--where? I'd like to GSV it. And what happened to your sister? Or is she "Gleam"?

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Thanks GW for searching out and posting my old report.

My mother had four children. One half sister [Susan] and myself are the only ones left of our family...my two brothers have passed on. My younger half brother and his friend robbed my house in the 1980s and then threatened our mother with a gun via a telephone recorded message.. Its a good thing I didn't catch them in the act or I might have been killed on the spot. He's the only person who knew where my valuables were hidden....and yes, that's exactly what he took. That same brother, I had to bail him out of jail on a minor drug charge at about this same time.

The girl ''Gleam'' was one of my stepfather's several out of wedlock children. She went to one of our church friends. She'd be about 62 now.
My stepfather's ''adoption'' scheme was slick. He had the mothers check in to the hospital under the new parent's name. When the baby was born my mother would get the baby from the hospital room of the birth mother. Then walk out and give the infant to the new ''mother'' who was waiting in a car parked at the curb. Of course she had the bogus Berth Cert. in hand. Those days were long before CCTV cameras. Lord only knows what the nurses thought when they might have realized that a new infant was ''missing''.
GW....I'll work on the San Gabriel house thing for you.

Roland R Woolley--and a shot of him in duds borrowed from Leo Carrillo?


You're welcome, CBGB. Well, I was pretty sure I'd seen the story of your charming parents and their bizarre church-sanctioned baby scam before, although it took a while to find it--you know how the search feature here is. (It's always turns out to better to go to google and put "noirish" in the seach box along with what you're looking for.) Thought at first it might be from the days of you posting as DouglasUrantia (boy, you do get around on google with that name!).

BTW, while I was looking back on the thread, I saw the post about Leo Carrillo being one of your stepfather's clients. (See post 31820.) As it happens, I was looking into some info on Mary Astor's house in the Hollywood Hills, and saw that her lawyer was none other than, it seems, your stepdad! And he was Aimee Semple McPherson's attorney too! And Lita Chaplin's when she was divorcing Charlie! We'd love to hear about all that here on NLA. The only thing is, Roland Rich Woolley seems to have been married to the same woman from 1916 until he died in 1979 and they appear to have had only one child, a daughter. Is this Gleam??