noirish Los Angeles

[BDiH]

Originally Posted by BillinGlendaleCA

I think the platform entrance is out of frame to the right in the second photo, the center of that photo is where the entrance to Metrorail is.

Before the entrance to Metrorail was built, that are was a large janitorial room and a paymaster office. Although LAUS still looks original in many ways, major changes have altered the original buildings. The commissary, which moved to Eighth Street years ago, was once behind Fred Harvey's. The bus area was just outside the south gardens. Today, it is near the north gardens. Above the main building, there used to be a mail sorting area that sent mail over Macy to the Terminal Annex. And, of course, the trolley stop on the south/east corner no longer exists.

[odinthor]

Prompted by Mackerm's recent post, I was looking through various materials which turn out to be not much to the point; but perhaps some effluvia from my search will be of some stray interest:

Here's a detail from an 1852 sketch by William Rich Hutton (now in the Huntington Library) showing the area (but from a different direction) of the early photograph mentioned in the earlier post.


from Huntington Library item number HM-43214-32, sharpened and with enhanced contrast

For those who might want to locate very precisely the location of the Bath Street School (not that it was in question), here's notice (as "2nd") of its availability for purchase:


LA Times, 4/8/1883

I don't have a precise date on which it was originally built--I've run across a "ca. 1854" somewhere, say my hasty notes--but after its service as a school, it was bought by the interesting Andre Briswalter in 1883, only to be demolished with the widening of Bath St. in 1884.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here are two slides of Union Station taken in 1979.


eBay
_________________________________________________________________,

I took my first ever trip on a train in 1979 from Union Station to Santa Barbara. When I returned from Santa Barbara I was in a train car with broken air conditioning where they took all the old people out and brought in all young teens who were yelling at the employees saying, "you only put us here because we're young." True! Not a great ride back to Los Angeles! When I got back home Sunday evening there was a disaster movie about a train heading back to Los Angeles on TV, so I had to watch it!

Disaster on the Coastliner is the name of that movie, I just looked it up! IMDB says it aired on October 29, 1979. My memory is that this trip was not that late in the year, but if that's when the movie was on...but October 29 was a Monday and I came back on a Sunday.

Okay, wikipedia says the movie aired on ABC on Sunday, October 28, 1979. It's about a disgruntled employee who tries to make two trains heading toward one another from Los Angeles and San Francisco crash into one another. Reading further, none of this was filmed in California, but rather Connecticut...? So never mind, except that if one wants to see it, apparently Amazon has it available for streaming.

In 2018, I visited Union Station several times to take the Gold Line to City of Hope and was pleased to see the station so busy. That December I was invited on a tour of the station (I don't recall if it was an L.A. Conservancy tour or which one it was), but it was grand. There's some parts of it that are not used except for filming purposes, they said, that we got to go into and we also stood in locations where various movies were filmed and then shown the photos, or video segments from tablets. Among lots of other historical info. It was also Christmas time and the place was beautifully decorated.

Meanwhile, here's a photo I like from the Union Station's website, but no info about it as to what year.

UnionStationLA

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Mackerm

Did you get any feedback on whether this is indeed the oldest known photo of Los Angeles?

Thanks for asking -- and finding those maps -- Mackerm, but no, I have not. Maybe the Sisters of Charity building is just out of frame
on the right in the upper photo, dated 1860 at the Autry.


We may have seen this image before, but since we're talking about the old Sisters of Charity building, I believe this is it in its final days,
looking west at its "back" side, with the 1891 LA High School tower in the distance at the right edge:



Catalog Number SCWHR-P-002.2-1708R at Seaver Center

[ethereal_reality]

.
Here's a real treat.

Amateur slide showing the Olympic Stadium in 1965. ...(perhaps I should say the back of the Olympic Stadium)



eBay

At first glance I thought the word Olympic was placed on the image as a watermark but it's actually painted on the stadium's back wall. I don't recall seeing this before.


Oh, and that's my Aunt Tessie.



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[ethereal_reality]

.

Here are the W.A.M.P.A.S. Baby Stars of 1928 posing in front of First National Studios (later Warner Bros.)



eBay

I thought the young lady on top of the car was pointing a gun. ("offer me a studio contract or else. . . ")












The seller didn't mention First National I just noticed this sign


detail

but I'm unable to decipher "8 Miles" ..and...."Hour" ......(studio tour?)

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[ethereal_reality]

.
re: Union Station

Originally Posted by BDiH

Before the entrance to Metrorail was built, that are was a large janitorial room and a paymaster office. Although LAUS still looks original in many ways, major changes have altered the original buildings. The commissary, which moved to Eighth Street years ago, was once behind Fred Harvey's. The bus area was just outside the south gardens. Today, it is near the north gardens. Above the main building, there used to be a mail sorting area that sent mail over Macy to the Terminal Annex. And, of course, the trolley stop on the south/east corner no longer exists.

"The bus area was just outside the south gardens."

Is this the south garden, BDiH? (see below)


. . .Whatever it is, this is how it appeared in 1979. (same year as the two previous slides I posted Here)


eBay




I believe the lights are a nod to nearby Chinatown.


detail




BDiH, any idea where this 'mystery' door leads to?

If you look at the complete slide it looks like you could just walk around the end of the wall - several feet to the right.



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[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
re: Union Station

BDiH, any idea where this 'mystery' door leads to?

If you look at the complete slide it looks like you could just walk around the end of the wall - several feet to the right.

.

The Amtrak Bus connection terminal is on the other side of that wall now.

ETA: Looking at the Framefinder photos, it looks like there used to be a parking lot there.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

[snip]


The seller didn't mention First National I just noticed this sign


detail

but I'm unable to decipher "8 Miles" ..and...."Hour" ......(studio tour?)

.

I think it's a speed limit sign.

Cheers,

Earl

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here are the W.A.M.P.A.S. Baby Stars of 1928 posing in front of First National Studios (later Warner Bros.)


eBay

I thought the young lady on top of the car was pointing a gun. ("offer me a studio contract or else. . . ")

I recognize a few of the girls' names--Sally Eilers, June Collyer (who turns out to have been the sister of "To Tell the Truth"'s Bud Collyer), and the future
Mrs. Alan Ladd, Sue Carol, second from left. Seems she was only 5'3", so a good match for Ladd, who I always heard had to stand on a soapbox in some scenes....

ebay


I wonder if that's their Eldorado?





1955

[BDiH]

Originally Posted by BillinGlendaleCA

The Amtrak Bus connection terminal is on the other side of that wall now.

ETA: Looking at the Framefinder photos, it looks like there used to be a parking lot there.

The building at the end of the wall is not original (few decades old, now). It used to be the baggage area. I am guessing that the wall with the door extended further at one time, closing off the garden. The door may have been the only entrance to that baggage area and the turn-around area for trolley cars. That garden is the north garden. The south garden is closer to the Metropolitan Water District offices.

There is a brief scene in True Confessions that shows the baggage area similar to the way it was originally.

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by BDiH

The building at the end of the wall is not original (few decades old, now). It used to be the baggage area. I am guessing that the wall with the door extended further at one time, closing off the garden. The door may have been the only entrance to that baggage area and the turn-around area for trolley cars. That garden is the north garden. The south garden is closer to the Metropolitan Water District offices.

There is a brief scene in True Confessions that shows the baggage area similar to the way it was originally.

Right, it's the north garden I was looking at. There was a parking lot north of that wall in 1971 per the aerial from FrameFinder.

[ethereal_reality]

.
mysterysades.



This photograph showed up on eBay a few days ago.

"Birdseye View 1930s PACIFIC PALISADES - Church - Early Homes - LOS ANGELES"

I haven't been able to figure out where, exactly, this photograph was taken.


eBay

Does anyone recognize this large gully?

Also, what are those diagonal lines running down the sides of the hillside. . . fences? . . . pathways? . . . pipes? ....


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[ethereal_reality]

.
Take a look at this amazing amateur slide of Circo's c.1950s


eBay

What in heaven's name is going on with the lot next door? ...If you hold your hand over Circo's you'd think this was some poor rural area . . . not the Sunset Strip.

By the looks of the weeds and worn wood remnants it appears that the lot had been empty for quite some time when this photograph was taken.


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[Martin Pal]

No wonder all the photos of Ciro's usually cut that area off! Heh!

We've seen this 1949 photo before:

Calisphere


I've been trying to identify the names on the marquee, besides Rose Marie...but there are ROSEMARIE's, too.
? LLAN and ? HTON or ? NTON.

Since Ciro's has appeared, I'll post this photo taken in the opposite direction as the one above, that I saw on a Facebook page recently. There was no date or info about it, or who the guy is in the Corvette. It looks like the exterior is being painted.

Someone did comment that: "Shirley Claire still performs in Palm Springs!!!!" And another wrote "Open to Public" was one of my favorite acts.
For search purposes as well: Slim Gaillard, Mac Niles.


Facebook

Also on there was this interesting post from about a year ago:

The Belly Room (of The comedy Store), is being repaired and the old walls are getting replaced. At the top of the waitress' back stairs, is a short wall that used to have all the gay comics headshots on it.
Well, the photos have been removed, and last night I realized there was some old wallpaper behind it.



Then I noticed the board covering the bottom half of the wall was loose, and once removed, what was behind it? A full panel of vintage Ciro's wallpaper, circa 1939.




Besides these two photos, six more shots of the wallpaper HERE.

[Snix]

Rose Marie played Ciro's with Bebe Allen and Barry Ashton for six weeks in August and September of 1952.

The Dick Stabile orchestra and the Bobby Ramos orchestra were also on the bill.

Variety 9/3/52 and Variety 10/15/52
LAT 29 Oct 1952

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Take a look at this amazing amateur slide of Circo's c.1950s


eBay

What in heaven's name is going on with the lot next door? ...If you hold your hand over Circo's you'd think this was some poor rural area not the Sunset Strip.

By the looks of the weeds and worn wood remnants it appears that the lot had been empty for quite some time when this photograph was taken.


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[nadeau]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
mysterysades.



This photograph showed up on eBay a few days ago.

"Birdseye View 1930s PACIFIC PALISADES - Church - Early Homes - LOS ANGELES"

I haven't been able to figure out where, exactly, this photograph was taken.


eBay

Does anyone recognize this large gully?

Also, what are those diagonal lines running down the sides of the hillside. . . fences? . . . pathways? . . . pipes? ....


.

This is Temescal Canyon, between Palisades High and PCH. The diagonals looks to be a variety of things. The nearest one seems to be a fence, but could also be a swale for runoff. It does appear to be some pipes also, so I’d guess that the drainage from the properties goes down into the canyons.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by nadeau

This is Temescal Canyon, between Palisades High and PCH. The diagonals looks to be a variety of things.
The nearest one seems to be a fence, but could also be a swale for runoff. It does appear to be some pipes also, so I’d guess that the drainage
from the properties goes down into the canyons.

Thanks for answering my question, nadeau.


Here is an aerial of the same area on April 2, 1937


eBay







below: In this cropped view of the aerial I've circled the church(es) that are visible in the photograph I posted yesterday.


detail




And here's a cropped view from the other photo (from yesterday)



detail




Oh, I almost forgot.

This is the back of the aerial photograph.



hmmm. . .Huntington Palisades? ......



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[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

hmmm. . .Huntington Palisades? ......
.

So the Huntingtons were able to hold onto the Beach, the Park and the Library but the Palisades got away?

[ethereal_reality]

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Excellent follow-up post on Ciro's, Martin Pal.

Originally Posted by Martin_Pal

The small building in the background is obviously what stood on the empty lot as seen the eBay slide. ...Here



If I were to wager a guess that this was building a little real estate office.


detail

Does anyone know for sure what was in this little white building?



M P, I loved the wallpaper discovery! I wasn't aware that Ciro's had a basement.

Here's a bit of folk lore.

Why was/is one area of the club named 'The Belly Room'?

"The Comedy Store has multiple showrooms, including the main stage and a space known as the Belly Room. Though nothing online explains the name for the upstairs area, general manager Jody Barton said it may have something to do with the back-alley abortions performed on pregnant prostitutes during the building’s time as a club."


The basement.

"A popular stand-up comedy club on Sunset Boulevard, the establishment is haunted by a grim history. Before becoming The Comedy Store in the 1970s, the building was a Mafia-controlled nightclub called Ciro’s. The basement, which has since been renovated, was supposedly used to torture and kill those who posed a threat to the secrecy of the Mafia."

Both quotes from the Daily Bruin



Rediscovered wallpaper.


M P, your link to the other wallpaper photos doesn't work.
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