noirish Los Angeles - Page 467

oldstuff · #**9321** Posted **Sep 20, 2012, 9:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dwelling_in_LA

San Fernando Road Burbank

Are we sure this is San Fernando in Burbank? It really reminds me of Ventura Blvd. at Laurel Canyon...

On a side note, I LOVE this forum!!!!![/QUOTE]

It is taken from the south west side of San Fernando at Palm, looking north toward Magnolia which is just beyond the Thrifty sign. Both Thrifty and Newberry's next door had lunch counters in those days. Savon had an ice cream counter. It was not too many years later (about 1966 or so) that our city fathers in their "infinite wisdom" decided to give us the "Golden Mall" through this area which spawned the jokes about "beautiful downtown Burbank". My family has lived in Burbank since before it was incorporated. My Grandparents and Great-Grandparents farmed where the Burbank (Bob Hope) airport now is.

oldstuff · #**9322** Posted **Sep 20, 2012, 9:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

The lamps tell all. The LAPL describes this pic this way: "View of the principal retail shopping section of San Fernando Road, Burbank, looking southeast from San Jose Avenue on October 8, 1963."

Some big shopping center seems to on top of this intersection now; it looks like gs's pic and the LAPL shot are of the same block from different directions, at least looking at the Thrifty Drugs, Seaboard Loans, and Sav-on signs. So whatever happened to "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" anyway?

The previous color picture with Savon in the foreground was taken from Palm. This one is taken from San Jose looking back toward Thrifty which was at the eastern corner of Magnolia and San Fernando. The Thrifty building is still there but now is a store selling cell phones. The "Media Center Mall" now fills up the entire area that is shown in the picture up to Magnolia. They cleared the land for the enclosed mall, which was about 40 acres, and then let it sit for years and years. Around the time that this was going on the movie "Neverending Story" came out and we started to call the empty 40 acres "the Nothing" after the lack of imagination which caused all the trouble in the movie. Once they had the enclosed mall built, they took out the pavement, playgrounds and kiosks which had been part of the "Golden Mall" and opened the street to traffic, ending the "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" jokes.

MichaelRyerson · #**9323** Posted **Sep 20, 2012, 10:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Kudos.

As noted, the not-always-infallible IMDB lists the station as being in Norwalk. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038854/locations Oddly enough, the only filming listed for the purported station is the 1946 version of "Postman" without a physical address. As I am unfamiliar with Norwalk, I expected to see a few shots of an overlooked or long forgotten depot that may have served that location. A cursory search reveals only a modern Metrolink station. Wiki mentions Norwalk as having a train station: Unfortunately, no address is provided, nor does there appear to be any photos of a station. Perhaps in later years the depot devolved into a series of streetcar stops, with "heavier" rail traffic being available in nearby communities or hubs like Grand Central?

Yeah but while you're down there take a gander at the city hall. a little jewel.

BifRayRock · #**9324** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 12:43 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Yeah but while you're down there take a gander at the city hall. a little jewel.

Image of Norwalk Station added to previous post.

Curiosity is piqued re City Hall.

Norwalk Blvd meets Telegraph Rd (Santa Fe Springs) Photo clearly midlabeled as "1961" and more likely early '20s.

Same intersection -add water ca. 1952

Norwalk Front Street date unknown

Norwalk Front Street 1890

1909

Undated "Norwalk Streets"

All images courtesy LAPL

BifRayRock · #**9325** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 12:55 AM**

Norwalk is depicted on these 1919 Auto Club Road Maps

USC Digital

BifRayRock · #**9326** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 4:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck

" [Hotel Snow aka Southland] Built in 1910, it has the name 'FINKLE' carved on the top front of the building." . . . (1909 Directory lists a Fredrick C Finkle as a consulting engineer Hellman Bldg., 411 S. Main.http://rescarta.lapl.org:8080/ResCar...rch_doc=finkle (1915 Directory lists SNOW Hotel at 804 W. 6th Street)http://rescarta.lapl.org:8080/ResCar...el&submit=Find

See also Beaudry's post on the the Snow: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2099 and http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=91539

Curiously, there is another building bearing the FINKLE name. In or around 1920, it was located at 316 South Spring Street. (Have no idea if this name is directly associated with the HOTEL SNOW.) Coincidentally, the 1942 directory lists a "FINKLE ARMS" at 912 S. Figueroa.

all photos from lapl

Guessing this was at or near 912 S. Figueroa in 1941. Source indicates anticipated street widening required moving the pictured buildings. Wonderful early lighting still intact!

USC Digital

MichaelRyerson · #**9327** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 11:54 AM**

Ran across this little jewel of a building a while back and now I can't find it! Jesus, I hate when that happens. I should have captured it when I saw it the first time but thought it would be easy to go back to later, and now, here we are. I can't really seem to bring back what I was doing when I ran across it or I would simply recreate that search and voila! But alas, even that escapes me. It is a smallish, Streamline Moderne sitting on the northside of an east/west street/blvd somewhere in the great, flat, dairy-farm plain to the southeast of the civic center. Norwalk, Paramount, Downey, Artesia,...? None of those, it turns out. But I saw it on google streetview so it was a very recent shot, so I think it's still there...but where? I'll keep looking today. Maybe someone else knows what I'm talking about. And, by the way, next door to the east sits a little moderne commercial building, apparently vacant, with a for sale/lease sign on it.

GaylordWilshire · #**9328** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 6:36 PM**

"...smallish, Streamline Moderne..." My fantasy is that you are thinking of this mystery building:

This LAPL shot has been on the thread a few times, posted by ethereal and myself:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5846

The Thomas Jefferson idea is a longshot... but maybe it's out there somewhere... rack your brain, Ryerson. Could it have been the one you saw?

FOUND: See its story here: https://wilshireboulevardhouses.blog...e-see-our.html

MichaelRyerson · #**9329** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 7:22 PM**

you won't believe how close you are Gaylord! Sorry for the wild goose chase, Bif. Give me a sec.

MichaelRyerson · #**9330** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 7:41 PM**

Maywood2

Maywood1

And just down the street this little beauty sits empty and alone...

Maywood3

Wow, that was a frustrating day...I will never again pass up an interesting building thinking I can always go back any old time. Is it happy hour?

ethereal_reality · #**9331** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 9:04 PM**

Amazing find MichaelRyerson! We have been trying to find the location of that building for a couple years now. Good job!

I could be wrong, but I believe the second smaller building used to be the library. Also notice the faux brickwork... probably added later.
__

ethereal_reality · #**9332** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 9:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I was mixing up Lana with Barbara as far as whose husband was dropped off in East L.A.--Barbara dropped hers off at the Tropico station (rebadged "Glendale" for Double Indemnity). Lana's husband Nick was dead by the time of the train station scenes with Audrey Totter when Lana arrives back from Iowa... anyway, the station in Postman was indeed the East Los Angeles station. Here are some screenshots:

Great screengrabs from the 'Postman Always Rings Twice', and thanks for clarifying the scene GaylordWilshire.

When I first saw the East Los Angeles Station I immediately thought I was looking at the old Tropico (Glendale) Station.
The designs are similar and they are about the same size and time period. So I was amazed when I realized I was looking at an entirely different station, one that hasn't been discussed on this forum (even after 3 years). I hope that there are other gems out there just waiting for us to find them (as MichaelRyerson found the Maywood City Hall).

"Long live noirish Los Angeles!"

__

Chuckaluck · #**9333** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 9:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Wow, that was a frustrating day...I will never again pass up an interesting building thinking I can always go back any old time. Is it happy hour?

Nice catch. Often the treasure is worth the effort. hic'p.

If you hadn't found it, Mr. Hughes had employees looking for it. If they couldn't find it, he'd have put on his favorite tie and built it.

1951

USCDigital

ethereal_reality · #**9334** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 9:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldstuff

The bones of the building are the original "Brick Block" from 1888, the oldest brick building in Burbank. Photos from the Burbank Historical Society show the building when it still had the dome at the corner. The elaborate cornices were put in somewhat later.

Thanks for the information!

http://wesclark.com/burbank/

below: oldstuff, here is an earlier photograph with the dome/turret.

http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm/...n/SFVH/id/4172

After comparing the two photos, the building didn't simple lose the corner turret, it looks to have been redesigned as well.
Notice the addition of ionic 'columns' and the loss of the traditional triangle pediments. Even the size and spacing of the windows is different. Are we a hundred percent sure this is the same building?

__

GaylordWilshire · #**9335** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 10:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Amazing find MichaelRyerson! We have been trying to find the location of that building for a couple years now. Good job!

__

Whoa e_r--are you referring to the building below? Am I missing something? (Could be--it's been a long week.) Anyway, I'm not sure we've found that one. I naturally had to check for it at 4032 East Slauson, on the chance that the street was one long dream of Streamline--not there now if it ever was. I think I once checked every major east-west boulevard--and alot of north-south streets too.

.

ethereal_reality · #**9336** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 11:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Whoa e_r--are you referring to the building below? Am I missing something? (Could be--it's been a long week.) Anyway, I'm not sure we've found that one. I naturally had to check for it at 4032 East Slauson, on the chance that the street was one long dream of Streamline--not there now if it ever was. I think I once checked every major east-west boulevard--and alot of north-south streets too.

.

...I was.

In my haste I thought we had found it. My bad.

westcork · #**9337** Posted **Sep 21, 2012, 11:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

...I was.

In my haste I thought we had found it. My bad.

It's the Noirish LA Unicorn

malumot · #**9338** Posted **Sep 22, 2012, 12:28 AM**

Great find, BifRay......that shot of Fig looks new to this site.

Everything I love is in that photo......the billboards, the wires for the streetcars, the "Safety Zone" , streamlined cars, semaphore signals, the street lights, telephone poles at cock-eyed angles, the Coca-Cola stand, the hazy/smoggy sky.....heck I even like the wadded-up newspaper in the gutter and the chewing gum residue in the sidewalk.

I guess it just seems so different from the hermetically-sealed, perfectly-planned, round-edged, not a tree out-of-place environment I inhabit.

That's p0rn to me, quite frankly

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Guessing this was at or near 912 S. Figueroa in 1941. Source indicates anticipated street widening required moving the pictured buildings. Wonderful early lighting still intact!

USC Digital

BrandonJXN · #**9339** Posted **Sep 22, 2012, 2:25 AM**

I have a question despite it not falling into the 'norish' department: Do any of you have any info on LA's skyscrapers? I mean from inception to construction to completion? From what was there before and why it was torn down because I think LA's skyline has a bit of history: making room from what used to be there.

BifRayRock · #**9340** Posted **Sep 22, 2012, 2:33 AM**

(Malumot)

Never easy to determine which images might be better viewed alone or as part of a series.

Here is another image with the "Finkle Arms" clearly visible. It has been previously posted by Beaudry, (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3311 ) and deserving of a second look.

Do not recall the “20¢ Times” Theater having been mentioned or pictured on this forum except in this image. Peter Lorre and Gene Autry on same bill with smoking in the balcony! Did it ever go by a different name?

USC Digital

Risking a bit more repetition for continuity's sake (All circa 1941):

All from USC Digital