noirish Los Angeles

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just happened upon this amazing old postcard on ebay.

"1911 Los Angeles, California - REAL PHOTO Apartment Bldg, Hotel, Devon Inn"


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1911-Los-Ang...IAAOSwImRYZZJ3

turned for easier reading



"This is a poor picture. I am on the side that doesn't show."

link to the photograph in ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1911-Los-Ang...IAAOSwImRYZZJ3

_

It looks like a complete firetrap to me.

Devon Inn was at 957 S Broadway per the CDs, there is a demolition permit from 1918, site is now a parking lot. I walk by that corner on my way to the bus stop just about every weekend; hard to imagine that structure there.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay


I like the deep niche above the fireplace. I don't recall seeing one quite like it.
__

We had a very similar fireplace in our family room. I never actually much liked it. Too bulgy. The '94 earthquake generously took care of the demolition and I replaced it with French doors opening onto a terrace. The flush Batchelder tile hearth made a very nice mat set into the hardwood. Not a big loss as there was another (undamaged) fireplace in the living room.

The outfit looks like a fancy dress/costume party effort. Or maybe high school theatrics?


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



Have we seen these 'hen & chicks' style street lamps before, like this one at Devon Inn?


ebay via e_r



.

[ethereal_reality]

Now for something a bit noirish.


"Earl Carroll Girl Charges Attack Attempt."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1944-Photo-W...MAAOSwA3dYRe9e

Gene Ellis, 30-year-old bartender, is shown as he appeared before the preliminary hearing on charges of attempted rape and assault with a deadly weapon.
His accuser was 17-year-old Earl Carroll showgirl Beverly Rush, who said she was saved from attack when she cried that she was 17 years old. [9/5/44]


from this



So was Beverly legally employed at the age of 17?

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[ethereal_reality]

One last bit of ephemera for tonight.


An invitation to a dinner honoring William Randolph Hearst at the Biltmore Hotel, Oct. 14, 1930.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1930-Dinner-...AAAOSwx-9WzJVT






Boy, they really knew how to lay it on thick.

"When he fights valiantly for an American nationalism untrammeled by foreign domination."

made me throw up some in my mouth.





How many names do you NLA'ers recognize?


R.S.V.P.


I tried to find a photograph of the event (found nothing, not even close)
__

[Lorendoc]

Another Daily News photograph, captioned "U.S. Army soldier on duty, Terminal Island (Calif.)" and dated 1941. We're in deep noir territory here.


UCLA Special Collections

Can anyone read this soldier's expression?

I wondered if this corner could be identified. And indeed the 1940 San Pedro city directory has this:


ancestry.com

...which was at the SW corner of Cannery and Tuna in San Pedro. Dr. Fujikawa's office is gone, but the telephone pole and manhole cover are still there, 75 years later:


GSV

From the LA Times on May 10, 1992:

Ethnic Persecution Didn't Stop Doctor : Y. Fred Fujikawa, Retired surgeon.

SEAL BEACH — Y. Fred Fujikawa's hands aren't what they used to be.

His right forefinger is bent like a sickle from the painful arthritis that eventually forced him to retire from performing chest surgery. But the 81-year-old Seal Beach resident has a bull's-eye memory.

Fujikawa was born on the Fourth of July, 1910, in San Francisco. His father had immigrated to the United States in 1900 and had lived a migrant life, working on the railroads and in fields.

Fujikawa was one of the first Japanese-Americans to attend medical school, paying his way by working at a fruit stand.

In 1936, he opened a general practice on Terminal Island, where his father worked in a fish cannery. On the island, a half-mile sliver of land connected to Long Beach by ferry, Fujikawa found a sense of community and a haven from the ethnic slurs and racial violence. Among the 3,000 Japanese-American fishermen and cannery workers, he counted himself in the majority.

"It was a unique settlement," he recalled. "There were only two non-Japanese in the whole grammar school there, and they used to fly big Japanese koi (carp) flags over it."

Then the United States entered World War II, and on Feb. 25, 1942, an unidentified plane flew over Los Angeles. Jittery antiaircraft gunners opened up all over the city, sending shells into neighborhoods that killed a few people.

The next day, Japanese-American Terminal Islanders were ordered to evacuate within 48 hours.

"It was one of the most chaotic situations I have ever encountered. Fujikawa said. "The younger generation asks why we didn't resist. I've tried to explain we had been persecuted for most of our lives. The attitude was shikataganai : it cannot be helped."

During the war, Fujikawa was one of eight doctors who cared for about 10,000 internees at the internment camp in Jerome, Ark. As the government loosened restrictions on Japanese-Americans deemed loyal, Fujikawa was allowed to move his wife and son to Missouri, where he worked in a sanitarium treating tuberculosis patients.

One patient, Jessie Greer, at first refused to be treated by a "Jap" doctor. But Fujikawa treated her anyway and later received a letter of thanks from Greer, who said that she owed her life to him.

"That is one of the most satisfying letters I ever received in my life," Fujikawa said.

His presence at the hospital caused a stir in the Missouri Legislature, where one lawmaker introduced a bill to prevent Fujikawa from working.

Another lawmaker, O.K. Armstrong, defended Fujikawa: "Regardless of intolerance elsewhere, we're not going to stand for it here in Missouri." The bill was defeated, and Fujikawa continued working. In 1984, Fujikawa tracked Armstrong down and thanked him in a tearful reunion.

In Missouri, Fujikawa began to study chest surgery, which became his specialty for more than 40 years. He has treated tens of thousands of patients in his life.

Seven years ago, Fujikawa moved to Seal Beach. Terminal Island became part of a naval base and the Japanese-American community was forever dispersed, living only in annual reunions and the memories of people like Fujikawa.

Dr. Fujikawa died two weeks after this was published.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Everything about this is stylistically atrocious, in a fun way. The satin, the bustier, the ruffles, the antimacassars.... Obviously shot by an LA counterpart of Diane Arbus

This sort of niche (nicho in Spanish) is very common in the Southwest. Usually it holds a crucifix or a saint's figure. Where the walls are adobe you can dig a new nicho out with a garden trowel to place the santo you just bought or made.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Thank you CBD, I'm one of the ones who did not know that:


etsy


etsy

A Navy friend once told me the buttons were "13 chances for a girl to say no."

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

One last bit of ephemera for tonight.


An invitation to a dinner honoring William Randolph Hearst at the Biltmore Hotel, Oct. 14, 1930.








__

Wow a who's who of 1930 LA royalty, great find, e_r. The invitation committee is easy

John C. Austin: Englishman in LA from 1895, celebrity architect (Griffith Park Observatory, LA City Hall, Shrine Auditorium), president of the LA Chamber of Commerce in 1930

Louis Mayer: movie producer guy

Oscar Lawler: lawyer to the Establishment, went from bellboy to President of the California Club.

H.L. Carnahan: republican Lieutenant Governor of California 1928-31, shot himself in the head in 1941 due to "failing health."

Earle C. Anthony: the LA perfecta of car dealer and radio/TV man, owner of KFI radio and TV.

W.W. Mines: real estate developer, promoter of Mines Field, now LAX.

D.W. Pontius: president of the Pacific Electric Co.

I bet this event was front page fodder for the LA Examiner. Online digital resources for that time are pretty much limited to Hearst's mortal enemy, the Times.

[mrfredmertz]

The photo of the dead man and the man standing over him from a page ago is part of a set called "A Body In Watts" by Lawrence Schiller. The photos are available on Getty Images Stock Photo Site. Here is the caption: "A member of the press photograph the lifeless body of a man on a sidewalk beside a wrecked car at a gas station in the Watts neighborhood during ongoing riots, Los Angeles, California, mid-August. 1965."

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

A Navy friend once told me the buttons were "13 chances for a girl to say no."

I have the feeling that I'm missing something that should be obvious; but . . . why are the trousers designed like this? Is there, or was there at some time, a reason of utility or convenience for the lace-up back and the takes-a-while-to-button-or-unbutton front? Is it perhaps, for appearance purposes, the sailor is supposed to look fancy in front, but the back-lace makes it easy to go trou down rather quickly when nature calls and is rather insistent? Things like this intrigue me.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

An invitation to a dinner honoring William Randolph Hearst at the Biltmore Hotel, Oct. 14, 1930.




Boy, they really knew how to lay it on thick.

No doubt Hearst wrote it himself.


As for the other more credible names, several lived on Wilshire Boulevard over the years, among them Earle Anthony, Joe Crail, and perhaps the most interesting, Oscar Lawler, whose principles got his house firebombed....








The story of Lawler and his house is here: https://wilshireboulevardhouses.blog...ue-please.html

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Now for something a bit noirish.

"Earl Carroll Girl Charges Attack Attempt."

Gene Ellis, 30-year-old bartender, is shown as he appeared before the preliminary hearing on charges of attempted rape and assault.

His accuser was 17-year-old Earl Carroll showgirl Beverly Rush, who said she was saved from attack when she cried that she was 17 years old. [9/5/44]

_______

So was Beverly legally employed at the age of 17?

_________________________________________________________

I wondered that, too. Maybe she just yelled that she was 17 and she really wasn't. Seems young to be employed at a place like Earl Carroll''s.

I also wonder if Gene Ellis was a bartender at Earl Carroll's.




There's an L.A. Times article about this, with a photo of Beverly and her bruised eye, but I don't have access to it:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/160210469/

[tovangar2]

I think, even now, if one is not actually serving liquor, it's legal

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by odinthor

I have the feeling that I'm missing something that should be obvious; but . . . why are the trousers designed like this? Is there, or was there at some time, a reason of utility or convenience for the lace-up back and the takes-a-while-to-button-or-unbutton front? Is it perhaps, for appearance purposes, the sailor is supposed to look fancy in front, but the back-lace makes it easy to go trou down rather quickly when nature calls and is rather insistent? Things like this intrigue me.

Keep in mind that the trousers were designed over 200 years ago in the age before zippers, etc. It was also the age when trousers tops were at the ''waist" which is just slightly below the navel. The top of the trousers are "form fitting" so to speak, therefore a belt and its loops would be unnecessary.

As I recall from my Navy days, the back laces were only tied one time...and this was done by a shipmate. After that it was not untied. I never used more than about 3 or 4 of the front buttons to dress-undress or for other practical purposes. The 12 buttons are just a part of the design of the flap to keep it flat. Of course one had to always unbutton the center top "Jesus" button [#13] which is part of the inner cinch band in front and behind the flap..

When its laced tight in back and buttoned in front it will not fall down. No belt is needed.

Yes, the whole thing is archaic and strange in 2017 but just an eternal part of iron clad Navy tradition....of which there are many.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

There's an L.A. Times article about this, with a photo of Beverly and her bruised eye, but I don't have access to it:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/160210469/

I don't have access to it either. (which means I can only see it teeny tiny)

I've enlarged it a bit, but it's blurry.

If I'm looking at the correct article, it says Beverly was a hat-check girl.
...remember the article I posted last night said she was a showgirl.

[GaylordWilshire]

[ethereal_reality]

Interesting discussion on the 13 button navy trousers.

I wore my dad's in a Centennial 'pageant' back when I was a freshman in high school. They were so tight I could barely fit into them.
My dad said they were like a cheap hotel....no ballroom.

Unless I missed it, no one has figured out the location of the accident pic. (we know it was somewhere in Long Beach)

Can anyone make out the strange name to the right of the _ _illion Bar? (circled below)


detail

It looks like "Lauraekege", but something tells me that's not right.

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[GaylordWilshire]

It says "Laundereze"-- which is arguably a little catchier than "Schwacofer's Cleaners" (it was owned by Raymond and Harriett Schwacofer). It had moved from Magnolia Ave around the corner to 547 W Ocean Blvd in 56/57.... As they say in New Orleans, "Ain't dere no more"....

[ethereal_reality]

not Laundereze?

Truth be told I didn't realize it was the cleaners. I thought the cleaners was next door.

With the 'fancy' script lettering I was thinking more along the lines of a dress shop. (designs by Laura Ekege )

[GaylordWilshire]

ER-- that was my typo--


Maybe Laundereze was something of a chain, although no Long Beach location is mentioned in this ad in the Times of September 21, 1952....