noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

I had forgotten Forest Lawn Memorial Park used to be spelled out on a hillside.



detail



from this

ebay

Does anyone remember when it was like this?

I believe that long line of trees at far right is the property line.

__

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

They are commonly called Century Plants around here, but that may be in error. One for odinthor.


robert patrick

Awp, didn't check in until just this moment! Yes, "pepper" trees back on the postcard a page or so ago; and the other plant, with the big inflorescence, is most likely an Agave attenuata (pic above); but in truth the first thing I thought of--wrongly, I think--was that it was perhaps one of the Madeira or Canary Island Echiums--however they don't have that droopy end, which is very Agave attenuata.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Does the site say anything about the photograph? it's an odd pic. to highlight.

Nah, nothing about the photo. The building info given is:

Biedler-Heuer Building
2701-2705 Main St
1922
Joseph F Rhodes, architect
Designated 2012

Joseph F Rhodes seems to have mostly built houses, from modest bungalows to homes on large lots in historic styles.

P.S.

Excellent, informative article from the Santa Monica Mirror is here

SM Conservancy's bit on the Biedler-Heuer Building is here:


sm conservancy

What is the blue street furniture? I get the bus stop w/ the hat, but what's w/ the single chair?
(Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main banquet facility is in the two southern bays w/ the restaurant next door to the south):

gsv

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


A couple of the gents in one of your Iowa picnic pics are sporting spectator shoes :-)







.

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

April 4, 1910 L.A.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/RPPC-Victori...QAAOSw241YZWXE

I'm hoping someone here on NLA can identify this building. note that the street appears to go down hill off to the right----->

"April 4, 1910 L.A."

"dear old friend "

"This is a picture of my California home
where the mocking birds sing in the ___ trees
moonlight nights. don't that sound fine-
but I feel like wringing their necks."

Flaggis




Can anyone decipher what's written for the type of tree?

Perhaps odinthor, our resident horticulturist, can tell us what kind of trees they are from the picture.

__

Okay! This is of the McBurney house at 256 So. Bunker Hill Ave-- Used in a late scene of Angel's Flight with a frantic old coot landlady reacting to murder at the benches across the street.. My latter day images show it to be modernized from it's 1910 appearance a wee bit- such as stripping away the porch to it's basics and some simpler siding treatments.. The lead Liz (Indus Arthur lodged in this rooming house in the film.

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

That was quick GW! Thanks for figuring out the location.


Here's Governor Earl Warren (soon to become a Supreme Court Justice) and the Governor of Iowa at the 1951 picnic. (dig the policeman on the right)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/15411/rec/32

The picnics (which we've covered before on NLA) became so popular, one picnic topped 100,000 people!

(I can't even visualize 100,000 people at a picnic)

__

More reading on Iowa Picnics here:
http://historylosangeles.blogspot.co...elsewhere.html

Does anyone else think the cop on the right in the dark uniform and hat looks an awful lot like Joe Pesci?

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by odinthor

...the other plant, with the big inflorescence, is most likely an Agave attenuata; but in truth the first thing I thought of--wrongly, I think--was that it was perhaps one of the Madeira or Canary Island Echiums--however they don't have that droopy end, which is very Agave attenuata.

Are we in error calling them "century plants" odinthor? Checking wiki, I see they are also commonly called "lion's tail", "swan's neck" or "foxtail", while Agave americana (below), with a very different bloom, is also, or instead, called "century plant".

wildflower.org

There's a patch of Agave attenuata over the road from me, but I've never seen them bloom in the more than 20 years I've been here:


gsv

[CaliNative]

[QUOTE=John Maddox Roberts;7677625]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

That was quick GW! Thanks for figuring out the location.

I was wondering the same thing tovangar2.

Does the site say anything about the photograph? it's an odd pic. to highlight.





originally posted by HossC

Julius Shulman Getty

Hoss, I couldn't help but notice the Iowa plate.

& what do I think of when I see Iowans in CA?

Iowa Picnic.


August 11, 1951 (same year as the license plate in Hoss' photo)


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/15411/rec/32







looks like one of the pensioners on Clay Street..............................

Here's another long-gone piece of the era. He's holding a hand-carved Mexican cane. They were painted in the Mexican national colors of red, white and green and you could buy them in any souvenir or junk shop in the Southwest from Texas to CA. I like to think he bought his in some joint on Olvera Street.

That young woman is lovely. I wonder what became of her? If this pic was taken in 1951, she'd be approaching 90. The saddest thing in life is the fading of youth, next to the fading of life itself.

The old codger (who looks like the actor who played the angel Clarence in "A Wonderful Life", but probably isn't) is probably thinking one of 2 things (or maybe both)--"Oh you are so young and beautiful--I wish I were young again so I could make a pass at you" or "You are so young and beautiful now, but old age approaches even you. One day you will be old like me". And the long departed old coot was right--now she is old, if she is still with us. A challange to the detectives here--who was she and what became of her? If someone can find out, I'd be very impressed.

H.L. Mencken right before his stroke--"I am rusting rapidly now". Mencken thought aging was basically oxidation (or "rusting") or failure to repair oxidation damage, and as it turns out, he was probably right. Hence the current vogue for "anti-oxidants".

"Age and treachery (and oxidation) defeat youth and talent"

"In the end, we're all food for worms"--Zorba

"Gather yee rosebuds why yee may.." Shakespeare? I'm not sure. Or was it Mr. Keating in "Dead Poet's Society"?

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I had forgotten Forest Lawn Memorial Park used to be spelled out on a hillside.

"Before the kitsch"...http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...ease-also.html

[HossC]

It's been a while since we've had a Carl Maston design from Julius Shulman. This is "Job 4329: Carl Maston, Interstate Electronics (Anaheim, Calif.), 1968". There was a slightly closer view of the building, but I left it out because this one shows the landscaping too.



Here are the external steps seen in the image above.



I'm not sure why all these seats are facing the parking garage.



I think that this is the top of the atrium. I've omitted a couple of similar images.



All from Getty Research Institute

The building is difficult to see from the road, but it's still part of the L-3 Interstate Electronics complex at 602 E Vermont Avenue, Anaheim.


Google Maps

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Are we in error calling them "century plants" odinthor? Checking wiki, I see they are also commonly called "lion's tail", "swan's neck" or "foxtail", while Agave americana (below), with a very different bloom, is also, or instead, called "century plant".

wildflower.org

There's a patch of Agave attenuata over the road from me, but I've never seen them bloom in the more than 20 years I've been here:


gsv

With common names, everyone has a certain degree of authority; so if everyone in one's set calls an Olive tree a Goldfish, the local ethos is such that it's not an error to say "I process olive oil from my orchard of Goldfish." That said, Century Plant is usually associated with Agave americana; but since people usually think of A. americana when they think generically of Agaves, you could call any Agave a Century Plant, maybe with further specifics if it would be germane to the conversation: "Yeah, I have one of those Century Plants with the droopy flower stalk and no stickers along the leaves" would be perfectly acceptable in referring to A. attenuata.

I like Agaves, and I've grown a good number of species of Agaves from seed to bloom, all the way from miniature species to pretty big 'uns. If the plants are coddled--good ground, a nice amount of water, intelligent conversation on subjects of interest--they'll bloom within a dozen years; but if they're in challenging conditions as they'd see in the wild, they'd pout and not bloom until they get a sufficiency of what they crave, making it seem as if one has to wait a century until they bloom. Is it poignant that they're once-bloomers (monocarpic)? After they bloom and set seed, the specific plant that bloomed dies (though some form offsets [you can call 'em "pups" if you like] and so the offsets endure). And this is what makes them something to consider carefully before putting in the garden: You might end up having to dig out a dead clump of prickly, tough Agave leaves with a 25-foot bloom stalk . . . which ain't fun, lemme tell you.

[ethereal_reality]

ebay

Originally Posted by rick m

Okay! This is of the McBurney house at 256 So. Bunker Hill Ave-- Used in a late scene of Angel's Flight with a frantic old coot landlady reacting to murder at the benches across the street.. My latter day images show it to be modernized from it's 1910 appearance a wee bit- such as stripping away the porch to it's basics and some simpler siding treatments.. The lead Liz (Indus Arthur lodged in this rooming house in the film.

Thanks for recognizing the house rick m!

Actually, the McBurney house is seen through-out the film "Angel's Flight: (and maybe even some interiors).

I'm going to keep my screenshots small/medium because the print of the film on YouTube is abysmal (grainy...blurry...fuzzy...

Towards the beginning of the film the landlady sees a murder victim on one of the benches down below and screams
from an upper window in the McBurney house.



victim



Lodger "Liz" sneaks in the back-way of the McBurney house (actual interior?)



# # #



Later in the film, lodger Liz stares out her bedroom window in the McBurney house.




Here's what she sees (I'm not sure if this is actually what she would have seen from that vantage point) -we're looking west here, right?



And then the view fades to NIGHT.



The bright horizontal building in the distance caught my eye.(the first floor appears to blink) Anyone know what building that would be??

If you want to watch this cool fade-to-black scene on the video, it occurs at 26:26)

# # #

I believe this might be the interior of the McBurney house as well.




front porch McBurney / man comes running out



# # #



I believe they also filmed inside the old B.P.O.E. (Elks) building at the top of Angels Flight.(at Olive & Third)







out the front door





advertising various amenities in the old BPOE.







Later in the film, he sees 'Liz' out of his upstairs window in the BPOE. (he's looking for his lighter , then he sees her)



(that's Liz in the white dress in front of Angels Flight Cafe............................


then the film cuts to Liz. -his window in the BPOE is visible behind her (I've circled the one I think he's in)



He comes running out to help Liz



I've avoided giving away spoilers.
_





You can watch the complete film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81HvMHetMJg

It has a catchy theme song too!
_

[ethereal_reality]

One more tid-bit about Angel's Flight (1965)


There's a great scene with Rhue McClanahan playing a very fiesty floozie.





the brawl pours into the street (in front of an unnamed bar)





here's her credit


Rhue's scene is 44:44

__

[John Maddox Roberts]

Thanks for that. Now I have to watch it. Interesting that a film from as late as 1965 has such a thoroughly late-40s look to it.

Edit: Just checked IMDB and apparently this is the only movie where her name is spelled "Rhue"(probably just a mistake).

[CityBoyDoug]

Paramount Studio - Melrose Ave., Hollywood.


google-open.edu

[ethereal_reality]

They need to put the tower back on the Earth.

__

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

One more tid-bit about Angel's Flight (1965)



the brawl pours into the street (in front of an unnamed bar)





__

That's Bob's Cafe in the Havlin Hotel—

from this post

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks so much Beaudry. I wouldn't have figured it out in a hundred years.

Do you know what strip club was used?

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

They need to put the tower back on the Earth.

__

Ha! Not only are they not doing that, they're tearing it down.

Or so they will should they have their way:

https://www.change.org/p/paramount-p...s-in-hollywood

http://www.lavatransforms.org/2015/1...the-rko-globe/

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks so much Beaudry. I wouldn't have figured it out in a hundred years.

Do you know what strip club was used?

According to Jim Dawson, who'd spoken with Dean Romano about it years ago, that was actually "out in San Gabriel somewhere."

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks again Beaudry. One more quick question if you don't mind.

Towards the end of the movie the two leads park near the bottom of Angels Flight. The word ELEVATOR is painted on the cement wall.



What elevator would this be??
__