noirish Los Angeles

[tovangar2]

Thanks so much Hoss.

One can see from the photos above that the vertical strips and window surrounds were tile. Dunno if it's the same tile we see today.


This shot interests me. It shows the Morgan Adams before the addition to the east, the bit that was later demolished:


csl

[HossC]

According to the date on this photo, it's exactly 60 years old today, so I thought it was the ideal time to post it. It's a seasonal reminder which is probably still as relevant today!

Photograph caption dated December 19, 1956 reads, "Burbank Civitan Club has placed this and six other autos at intersections to grimly remind motorists of perils of thoughtless driving, especially during holiday rush. Safety officials point out December as most treacherous motoring month."


LAPL

Drive Carefully and enjoy a Happy Xmas.

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location

I did a double-take when I saw the odd banner advertising "The Weakly Freak".

Here's the description from ebay.

"1915 RPPC (real photo postcard) Los Angeles California Touring Car & Advertising Banner"


ebay



Here's a closer look at that banner.


detail




The home the touring car is parked in front of appears to be a rooming house. (white sign on the pillar)



And if you look closely, I believe there are street numbers on the banister.

I haven't been able to establish whether 'The Weakly Freak' was an actual magazine.
_________________





Here's the link to the photograph on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/c-1915-RPPC-...3D122236853247

[HossC]

Various sources, including this one, say that The Weakly Freak was a humorous magazine which stopped in 1915. GW posted this back in 2011:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

Perhaps a precursor to Mad?



USCDL

The Tajo Building, home of The Weakly Freak--hard by the home of that other great periodical, the Times.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

detail

hmmm, could be odinthor

but it's a bit difficult to tell.


http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/20...e-25-2014.html


a dapper (and handsome) Ford Sterling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_S...rdSterling.jpg



sidenote:
I hadn't noticed the two bell-hops in the 'mystery' Vitagraph pic.
The location shoot was no doubt taking advantage of the exterior of Bellevue Terrace hotel.

& the people in the photograph appear to be looking up at one of the upper floors of the Bellevue Terrace

here's the whole photograph again.
ebay

See what I mean....

oops. I see that Beaudry already mentioned this.


So Bellevue Terrace is on celluloid. (think we could figure out what film they were shooting?)

__

Some more of Sterling's appearance:


Details from images at http://fineartamerica.com/featured/p...s-archive.html and http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/ford-steling.html.

His look in the left image approaches that of the person in the near-Bellevue-Terrace pic. (Bias warning: I'm a big big Ford Sterling fan.)

Which flick? I haven't been able to come up with it yet ; and I aired the question elsewhere, with similar results. But we'll see . . .

Edit: I'm thinking, based on it being Vernon Dent (he's in the silk hat in the pic), possibly Hank Mann (behind the possible Ford Sterling's elbow; Mann "discovered" Vernon Dent), and the appearance of the possible Ford Sterling, that we're in about 1919-1920 (when Dent and Mann made a lot of shorts together now mostly unknown--a pity, because I think highly of Mann as well). I'd like to say that it's 1920's Hopping Bells, except that Mann himself is a bellhop in that one, and in the pic he appears to be, well, not a bellhop (though maybe he has donned a disguise for plot reasons). Vernon Dent was in many, many films for decades. If anyone remembers the I Love Lucy with Santa Claus, Dent was the fifth Santa Claus (the one who wasn't Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, or Fred). Anyway, my bet is that the pic shows the shooting of one of the Hank Mann Comedies of 1919-1920. Sterling might simply have been a visitor to the shoot.

[ethereal_reality]

odinthor, I thought if we could locate a different photograph with the Vitagraph players identified we could compare the people
and figure out who's in the 'bellevue terrace' location photo.

The people aren't named in this photograph but I thought I'd post it anyway.


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


__

[HossC]

From the Wikipedia page, "[Vitagraph] created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California, in 1911, and a year later moved to a 29-acre sheep ranch on Prospect St. in Hollywood." They're now the Prospect Studios (also known as ABC Television Center [West]) at 4151 Prospect Avenue (see The Prospect Studios Wikipedia page).


GSV

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Which flick?

I think you're right about the date. According to IMDB, Dent's first film was in 1919 and the Streicher changed its name ca 1922, which would narrow it down to those years. If the film still exists, it will be found.


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

Originally Posted by HossC

The Weakly Freak was a humorous magazine which stopped in 1915.

According to this, the Weekly Freak debuted 4 April 1913. F[elix] Weber Benton (1855-1932) published, at least the initial issue, out of the Copp Building. Benton also wrote humorous books and at least one play, "The Lost Prince: A Spectacular Lyric Comedy in Two Acts" (1883), which is in reprint. In his later years he wrote travel-related books, mostly about California.

The Copp Building, later home of a Pig 'n' Whistle was on Broadway next to City Hall. It replaced the First Jewish Synagogue:


ca 1920 per lapl (detail)


One of Benton's books (also in reprint):


bucher

Quote:

"The horse is a grate animule, he is biggern a dwag but not as big az a elefunt but more useful. Pa sez a mule is bilt sumthing like a horse but is different in uther respecks. Thare iz several kinds uv horsis besides the animule horse, fur instunce thare iz the saw-horse and the kloze-horse, the horse-pistel, the horse-chestnut, the horspital, the hobby-horse, the horse-fly, and the horse-reddish. Thare iz a difrrunce buttwean a horse-reddish and a reddish horse same az thare is a difrrunce buttwean a horse chesnut and a chesnut…mehr"


You can read the whole thing online here, if you've a mind to.





.

[Martin Pal]

I see by this holiday pin-up photo of actress Shirley Ann Field,
that "ER" has his own gift collection boxes placed around for
our consideration! Is it too late to post early?

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by HossC

"[Vitagraph] created a second film studio in Santa Monica, California

Tourmaline took us to Vitagraph Santa Monica earlier this year in this post


wikimapia

Vitagraph rented the 1870s Rapp building (left, above) and built a larger space north of it as detailed in this item from the Mar 17, 1913 Daily Outlook:


smlocalhistory

A student hostel has replaced the Vitagraph. It now wraps around the back and to the north of the Rapp. I stayed there, just for the history, a few years back, while my building was being tented:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

gsv

_

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I see by this holiday pin-up photo of actress Shirley Ann Field,
that "ER" has his own gift collection boxes placed around for
our consideration! Is it too late to post early?

Good eye Martin Pal.

It took me a bit to figure out the meaning of E R. (until I realized Shirley Ann was British)

E for Elizabeth, R for Regina (Queen in Latin), Royal Mail.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the additional information on 'The Weakly Freak' T2.

Originally Posted by tovangar2

The Copp Building, later home of a Pig 'n' Whistle was on Broadway next to City Hall.

It replaced the First Jewish Synagogue:


ca 1920 per lapl (detail)

Your post made me curious about the first Jewish Synagogue.

Here it is:


http://www.jmaw.org/rabbi-abraham-wo...f-los-angeles/

-we no doubt have seen it before on NLA

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

According to IMDB, Dent's first film was in 1919 and the Streicher changed its name ca 1922, which would narrow it down to those years.
If the film still exists, it will be found.

Very good deduction tovanger2!

Here's Vernon Dent's films within that time frame.

1922 Golf (Short) The suitor
1922 Special Delivery (Short)
1922 The Barnstormers (Short)
1921 Up and at 'em (Short)
1921 Hail the Woman (Joe Hurd)
1920 Hopping Bells (Short)
1920/II Hot Dogs (Short)
1920 Mystic Mush (Short)
1920 Naughty Nurses (Short)
1920 The Gum Riot (Short)
1920 Way Out West (Short)
1920 When Spirits Move (Short)
1920 Broken Bubbles (Short)
1920 J-U-N-K (Short)
The junk dealer
1919 An Auto Nut (Short)
__________________________

hmm....how about 'Hopping Bells' (could it have something to do with Bell-hops?)....like the two in the Bellevue Terrace 'mystery' pic.

The female star of 'Hopping Bells' was Madge Kirby.

could our lady in the bellevue terrace photo be Ms. Kirby?


detail from the bellevue terrace pic
_




update:
Another featured player in 'Hopping Bells' was Hank Mann (shown below in J.U.N.K.)

If I'm not mistaken, there are at least two men who resemble him in the bellevue terrace pic.

https://free-classic-movies.com/movi...-N-K/index.php


for reference / the 'Bellevue Terrace' pic from my original post.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=38357



__

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Which flick? I haven't been able to come up with it yet ; and I aired the question elsewhere, with similar results. But we'll see . . .

Edit: I'm thinking, based on it being Vernon Dent (he's in the silk hat in the pic), possibly Hank Mann (behind the possible Ford Sterling's elbow; Mann "discovered" Vernon Dent), and the appearance of the possible Ford Sterling, that we're in about 1919-1920 (when Dent and Mann made a lot of shorts together now mostly unknown--a pity, because I think highly of Mann as well). I'd like to say that it's 1920's Hopping Bells, except that Mann himself is a bellhop in that one, and in the pic he appears to be, well, not a bellhop (though maybe he has donned a disguise for plot reasons). Vernon Dent was in many, many films for decades. If anyone remembers the I Love Lucy with Santa Claus, Dent was the fifth Santa Claus (the one who wasn't Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, or Fred). Anyway, my bet is that the pic shows the shooting of one of the Hank Mann Comedies of 1919-1920. Sterling might simply have been a visitor to the shoot.

Vernon's "credited" Vitagraph days were limited from between '22 through '25 (when Vitagraph folded its tripod.) I do not believe that the title list were all Vitagraphs. The ads for Vitagraph's 1922 "Golf" at first seemed to fit at least one of the images in the photo, but having watched the short, neither the characters nor their costumes nor the locale - fit the bill. My weary eyes did not immediately recognize Vernon as any of the characters in the photo, but a second look tips the hat toward the clean shaven man in black.

FWIW, "Golf" featured not only Vernon, but some yet-to-be-discovered talent named Oliver "Babe" Hardy. Vernon appears larger that Ollie, but the latter gets more screen time. Vernon is ready for his close up at approximately 26:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Qqb1Z0bU0

The image to the right near the hay wagon (below) appears to be Vernon.

http://silenthollywood.com/sitebuild...lf-853x728.jpg

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Your post made me curious about the first Jewish Synagogue.
-we no doubt have seen it before on NLA

The First Jewish Synagogue has come up on the thread several times. The 1873 building was sold to A.J. Copp when the congregation moved out. Copp demolished it in 1897 and put up the Copp Building. Actually, you posted my favorite photo of the old synagogue. The view really gives a sense of the neighborhood back then:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay

At the center of the photo is Harris Newmark's 1874 home. The front of it looked like this:


sixty years in southern california (facing page 464)



sixty years in southern california (pages 466-7)

[HossC]

As promised, today's Julius Shulman post shows the offices of Hugh and Don Gibbs. It's "Job 3828: Hugh Gibbs and Don Gibbs, Hugh Gibbs and Don Gibbs Offices (Long Beach, Calif.), 1965". I've left out two of the black & white images and both of the color ones.



This shot looks straight down the front.



There are a couple of images looking into offices at night, I just picked one.



And now, the interior. Does anyone recognize the model in the foreground?



There are another couple of models in the studio.



The last interior shot shows a mixture of art styles on the table and on the wall.



All from Getty Research Institute

The building is still at 3575 Long Beach Boulevard - you can see it tovangar2's recent post.

Here are a couple of previous Julius Shulman posts featuring designs by Don and Hugh Gibbs:

Bank of America (Long Beach, Calif.), 1968
Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corporation (Los Angeles County, Calif.), 1982

And here are two which are just attributed to Hugh Gibbs:

Young Men's Christian Association (Lakewood, Calif.), 1961
Buffums' (Long Beach, Calif.), 1961

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Edit:
I'd like to say that it's 1920's Hopping Bells, except that Mann himself is a bellhop in that one, and in the pic he appears to be, well, not a bellhop
(though maybe he has donned a disguise for plot reasons).

oops. I didn't see odinthor's Edit when I brought up my theory on 'Hopping Bells'.

__

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

oops. I didn't see odinthor's Edit when I brought up my theory on 'Hopping Bells'.

__

It gives us an opportunity to put it in the "Great Minds Think Alike" file!

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location

Here's the description from ebay.

"1910 era RPPC Real Photo Postcard MONETA California Gardena Street Los Angeles"


ebay

"This listing is for an original 1910 era real photo postcard of a Main Street scene after a fresh rain. No title or identification but found with postcards from Moneta Ca.,
today part of Gardena, Los Angeles County."

I can't find a Gardena Street, but if I remember correctly a section of S. Broadway used to be Moneta Avenue, right? -


link to photo on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1910-era-RPP...8AAOSwo4pYHCM8

[ethereal_reality]

And here's a second photograph connected to the Moneta area.


I LOVE this photograph.

ebay

This seller says this is a tulip field but I'm pretty sure those are Calla Lilies. (one of those lilies is a small child )


reverse / with a 1907 Moneta postmark



link to photo
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1907-RPPC-Re...wAAOSwKOJYHLm3