Our Guesses
 

I would agree with these identifications, and with whoever said (I can't verify it from here) that the lady next to Burgess Meredith is Ethel Merman. The man to the left of Ethel is Victor Moore. The Man to Meredith's left is, I believe, Teddy Hart. I'm thinking that perhaps the lady next to Morley is Hedda Hopper.

My wife says the man to the possible Miss Hopper's right is Douglas Fairbanks Sr, and she further maintains that the couple sitting at the table with backs to the camera is Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck.

Does anybody know why Google Maps doesn't show "Street View" anymore? Does anybody know how to get a street view anymore?

Well, then, allow us to let sleeping dogs lie ;)

Just saw the movie, a VERY cheesy Mike Hammer film but very much noir and some great shots of L.A. including Bunker Hill...anyway FWIW currently on Netflix streaming in good quality video and sound and well worth watching.

I think the truth of the matter is that with the accelerating newyorkification of our fair city, land is becoming too valuable for freestanding restaurants to abide much longer. It's not just coffee shops that are going away; here in Pasadena, the always-crowded Beckham Grill, a nice restaurant and a local institution, has lost its lease and is closing early next month, no doubt to be replaced by yet another high-density mixed-use development.

I guess this is what progress is, but I sure don't like it.

Click on the little yellow man in the lower right of the screen and drag it to where you want to see the ''street view''. It still works.

The locations used in "My Gun is Quick" were delightful. There's more screenshots here and here of some highlights.

Mike Bray, who played Mike Hammer in the film, had a career that lasted from the post-war years to the late 60s. From 1964 until 1968 he had a part on the "Lassie" TV series which made him relatively well-known. Prior to "MGIQ", he did a memorable turn as the bus driver in "Bus Stop" in 1956.


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LA.curbed has been closely following the fight to save Norm's on La Cienega. Their series of articles is here. Norm's exterior (not the interior) has a bit of a reprieve at the moment.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...15521%2BAM.jpg
gsv



Fifteen Remaining LA Googies

detail / La Rue Nightclub
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...540/qyHqMZ.jpg

:previous: I think your wife is right on the mark Otis.






http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/tVSIQr.jpg
https://roberttayloractor.wordpress....bert-taylor-2/




Robert and Barbara (and their dog) at home.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/hmvcdo.jpg
https://reelhollywoodlegends.wordpre...ecret-affairs/
__

Kodachrome slide, Stan Kenton playing the Palladium 1941.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/yyrORM.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stan-Kenton-...item5b14bf1c74


"Stan Kenton played at the then-new Palladium on Sunset Boulevard from November 25 through December 31, 1941.
The "no blackout inside" sign is because California cities were routinely facing blackouts after May 27, 1941, when President Roosevelt
issued a proclamation of unlimited national emergency because of the European war.
All major cities began having regular blackout drills."


I thought American cities didn't experience blackouts until we entered the war.
__

:previous:
The Hollywood Palladium can be a very festive room.

Here during the war years:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...20225%2BPM.jpg
pinterest


LAT on the first WWII blackout (12/10/41) in LA

Nice series of photos and thanks for pointing out some of the details.

In the above photo, I like the stance of the woman crossing the street. She's
almost angled backwards, though she might be trying to avoid being hit by
the car.

Is that sailor's cap the wrong size?

I thought spelling words incorrectly (not cleverly as they seem to think it is)
was a newer phenomenon. Notice the spelling of "thoroughly" on the billboard
above Melody Lane.***

The headline on that vendor's paper looks huge. I wonder what happened that day?

(Though on looking at some of the other photos the headlines on most of the
papers look huge. Maybe it was standard then, or every headline was huge
during the war.)

By the way, it was either cloudy or a bad case of smog in those other great
pictures taken for LIFE magazine. You can hardly see down the boulevard.

***Thoroly is listed, however, in some dictionaries:

1.) (rare) Alternative spelling of thoroughly.
Usage notes: This spelling is seldom found nowadays.
However, the spelling is occasionally employed as shorthand.
Origin: Proposed as a phonetic spelling of thoroughly in 1898 by
the American National Education Association.

Notice in this photo is a lamp post advertisement for the Pilgrimage Play. As
it's pointing north, I am assuming it was for the Pilgrimage Play presented
each summer at the Pilgrimage Theatre in the Cahuenga Pass, renamed the
John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in 1976, near the Hollywood Bowl, built in 1920
for the purpose of presenting that play. A brush fire destroyed it in October
of 1929 and it was rebuilt, opening again in 1931.

I say I assume the sign is for this because on the theatre's current website's
history page, HERE, it states:

After re-opening in 1931, The Pilgrimage Play was again performed here until
1964, interrupted only by World War II.

This photo would make that debateable.

We've visited Hollywood Blvd. (during WWII) several times lately and in looking for something
else I came across this 1941 photo. Well, it's a screengrab from the film "1941" of one of the
miniatures of Hollywood Blvd.

https://hustonsite.files.wordpress.c.../05/1941-8.jpg

Warner backlot of Hollywood Blvd.:

https://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/10792_4.jpg

Though movie recreations are often meant to be general rather than historically accurate, I wondered
if anyone had ever seen Hollywood Blvd. decorated with anything other than Christmas Trees along
the street, rather than the Santa Claus option chosen by the art director of this film?

If anyone doesn't know, this film is loosely based on several Los Angeles and Los Angeles area events
from the time period including the shelling of an oil tank by a Japanese submarine near Santa Barbara,
the Zoot Suit riots, and the February 1942 panic attack when people thought we were being raided
by the Japanese--or by UFO's according to some "Alien Files" program I saw recently.

The film used other miniatures as well, like an aerial view of the city with the HOLLYWOODLAND sign featured
so that one character can shoot off the "LAND" part, and a miniature of the amusment park (Ocean Park) pier
in Santa Monica.

I enjoy many of the quirks of this film, but as a whole it can give you a headache. To me it's more like
a wind-up toy that spurts and sputters and entertains you for a bit before you move on. On revisiting
it awhile ago it was nice to see a film with all of the special effects done in camera and not one obvious
CGI moment to interrupt it.

:previous: When I first glanced at that photograph I thought it was from Blade Runner. (squint & you'll see what I mean)






I came across this interesting building quite by accident the other day.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...540/vz60tl.jpg
gsv

It reminds me a bit of the vintage buildings at Venice Beach, but this building is located at 2517 Pasadena Avenue in Lincoln Heights.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/am6PRK.jpg
detail / gsv



view showing the side of the building
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...538/YjjZfH.jpg
gsv

I haven't found a build date yet (it's oddly missing from the real estate sites I looked at),

but I found this interior photo of what looks like a hallway.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...540/6F18Ml.jpg
http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16072...os-Angeles-CA/

*I just realized it's the same space as the photo below. (so no, it isn't a hallway)



Several sites mention 30 ft. wood beamed ceilings (see below)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...673/g48zu7.jpg
https://foursquare.com/v/reincarnati...b0b13f4c7786ba



One of the real estate sites had this interior photograph. I'm having a hard time picturing this layout in this building. Did the real estate site make a mistake?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/Iar2VA.jpg
http://www.loopnet.com/Property-Reco...031/XKT1Vzz5Q/
:previous: click the link to check it out.


I re-checked the aerial to see if there was any circular aspects to the design.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...537/Tk4Cv6.jpg
google_earth

Nope..

Man Leaps From 21st floor of City Hall.


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...540/D7WUEq.jpg
eBay

"Michael Roomanoff, who was acquitted in Los Angeles three years ago on chargers of being a 'Hollywood Ponzi', today leaped to his death from the 21st floor of the city hall.
Roomanoff left a note directing that his debts be paid off by a $30,000 policy. Police had to retrieve the body from the roof by means of ropes."

"The body struck the tile on the roof about three stories from the ground."
12/14/1934

-note the crushed tiles...and then he rolled to the edge.

__

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...910/Yv1GSg.jpg
eBay

Lupe Velez impersonating Adolf Hitler.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/H1RFV9.jpg
eBay

reverse
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...540/NrvxQI.jpg

1941
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...538/jagu8J.jpg
http://hawaiiana.us/contents/en-us/d13.html

Babe Ruth has a BIG bat!


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/QB9L1C.jpg
eBay

I Can Hold A Position.....
 

Cool building design....ER...that's connected a local artist's model.

I did find out that Dave The Model was somehow associated with this building at one time.
http://www.meetup.com/LosAngelesFigu...nts/120437032/ He and a group of other models wanted to start a modeling something in this building.

LA's only contortionist male art model, with nine years' experience. Naturally flexible, yoga trained, sculptor background and a narrative posing style.
He also runs drawing workshops from time to time. ArtModelDave.com

"I CAN HOLD DIFFICULT POSES FOR HOURS IF NEED BE.
AS A CONTORTIONIST, YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED
AT WHAT I DEEM COMFORTABLE. AS A MODEL,
YOU WILL FIND THAT I AM..."

Here is Dave Larson ...Model, who's motto is "Hire me". Here's his website..he sounds serious and he lets you know he's
interested in ''ladies''.

http://www.artmodeldave.com/index.html

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psptpyifsg.jpg
http://www.artmodeldave.com/index.html

:previous:That is a big pack he's got and a huge headline. Must've been mighty big doings. I have some bound volumes of LA Times and LA Daily News from the war years, chucked by the libraries when they went to microfilm so I tried to find the biggest headline, but nothing comes close. This morning edition of the Times' 7-10-44 morning edition is typical, at 3/4 inch. And Saipan Conquered is big news I'd say! The Daily News typically ran to a double headline like this one from 2-17-44, 4-1/4 inches combined.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...e/IMG_1764.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...e/IMG_1765.jpg

The Pilgrimage Play- apparently they had ceased it for a while, but it just happened to have been revived for the first time since the war when those photos were taken. It opened July 31, 1944, was supposed to close the week of Aug 20 but due to demand they held it over until the week of Sept 3.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...belle/8144.jpgLAT 8-1-44 http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...lle/9-3-44.jpg LAT 9-3-44

:previous:
the 1941 blackout situation being referrenced above was a reaction to the immediate war emergency, not related to the west coast dimout regulations in place 1942-Oct 1943 that I cited earlier;

Yeah. Unfortunately nothing can be done about the eventual loss of one feature of these great old places, my favorite feature- the regular clientele. Elderly folks, men mostly, who look like retired gangsters and are talking about their poker game the night before, or the fights and swapping jokes. Once they aren't able to get about anymore or die off, the places, even if they survive development, won't be as fun.

Re the great photo on the previous page with Burgess Meredith:
Victor Moore's partner-in-crime William Gaxton is standing to the left of the pillar and Walter Huston, father of John is to the right. Wynn Murray is the blonde woman just to our left of Huston and am I totally mistake, but is that Lou Costello in the foreground left?