Hoss, I'm still in awe of this sleek banister in yesterday's Shulman post.

I was sorry to see that it was replaced (with something sturdier no doubt)

The other day I ran across a source that said the classic swimming pool sequence in CAT PEOPLE (1942) was "shot at a hotel in the Alvarado District of Los Angeles."

The building and lobby where Jane Randolph and Simone Simon arrive look as if they might have been shot at the studio (RKO) but the pool itself looks like it could have been an actual location.

Does anybody have any candidates for possible underground hotel pools in the "Alvarado District?"

Here's the famous sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKWp2ixW5vs

I remember push-button light switches. The ones at my great-aunt's house were particularly nice. The ends of the buttons were inlaid with discs of abalone shell.

One can still buy push-button switches.

I'm still searching for pool possibilities, but I found this interesting.

"RKO held a test screening for Cat People at a downtown Los Angeles theater. Everyone connected to the film was apprehensive, including Simone Simon, who feared that her performance would be laughed at. Writer DeWitt Bodeen, who was there that night, recalled, "The preview was preceded by a Disney cartoon about a little pussy-cat and Val's spirits sank lower and lower as the audience began to catcall and make loud mewing sounds. 'Oh God!' he kept murmuring, as he wiped the perspiration from his forehead. The picture's title was greeted with whoops of derision and louder meows, but when the credits were over and the film began to unreel, the audience quieted, and, as the story progressed, reacted as we had hoped an audience might. There were gasps and some screaming as the shock sequences grew. The audience accepted and believed our story, and was enchanted."

tcm

I've read, despite an extermination order on them ca 1870, by the late 1880s some Yavapai were employed as scouts by the US army.

I don't believe we've seen this motel with the generic name

East L.A. Motel

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/gHwlw9.jpgebay
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/xpN214.jpgebay

re: Pioneer western photographers
Godzilla, I found a death notice for Flanders.

He died of consumption on May 10, 1875 when he was 37 years old.

Los Angeles Herald, Volume 9, Number 139, 11 May 1878

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/51wWvV.jpg
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=...anders-------1

Thomas Elwood Stanton (7 April 1854 - 21 Jan 1940)

He's buried out at Calvary:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VH...Q=w554-h638-no
findagrave


...and that's that.

:previous:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/vttiQO.jpg

Los Angeles Herald, December 7, 1889

A couple more mentions of T.E. Stanton.

Safety Council 664 (anyone know what that is?)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...923/1rU2DG.jpg

Los Angeles Herald, January 8, 1886
________________



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/XwYzhK.jpg

Los Angeles Herald, November 5, 1905

IMDB lists stages 7 & 14 as the filming locations for "Cat People", but then there's this:

"Paramount Studios - Stage 32

Date of Construction: 1930

Stages 29-32 (all adjacent to each other) were originally capable of being opened up into one huge stage, to allow long camera moves and continuous dancing sequences associated with the golden days of Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals. Stages 30 and 31 still have a soundproof partition between them which allows them to be joined to this day.

The end of Stage 32 marks the dividing line between the old RKO and Paramount Studios.
Stage 32 was originally named Stage 10 prior to the Desilu merger with Paramount. A 'Stage 10' sign is shown briefly during the trailer for Citizen Kane, which Paramount records show was filmed on this stage. (reference)

Pool

In the basement of this stage is a large swimming pool which Howard Hughes had constructed. The pool was last believed used in Mel Brooks' 'The History of the World Part One'."
-ParamountTour


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/k9...Q=w584-h397-no
paramount map




CBD do you know anything about a basement pool? I couldn't find a picture of it.



ETA:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uQ...w=w778-h496-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YX...A=w820-h350-no


I can't figure out if its a possible match or not. Some major reconstruction would have had to happen.

The swimming pool in CAT PEOPLE looks pretty small. Why go to the trouble of major reconstruction and redressing when they might find the right pool nearby in some hotel or apartment building basement? (And that's only if we believe the source that said it was in a hotel in the "Alvarado District.)

T2:

When I worked at Paramount Studio, stages 29-30-31-32 [450' x 150'] were opened up into one huge stage. There was a real asphalt street built on the floor with sidewalks and curbing. It was really amazing to see and I'm hard to impress.

Since I was assigned an exact position directly in front of the scene star Karen Black, I had to be ready for lighting-filming set-ups at a moments notice, therefore I didn't have much free time.

I had to be there 8+ hours a day even though they only filmed for about 15 minutes a day. There were dry run setups twice a day, each lasting about 15 minutes. Also, since the scene was nighttime, the stage interior was always pitch black.

To your question....I don't recall talk about a pool in any of those 4 stages but there could be one ....somewhere unseen. Much of the ''floor'' of those 4 stages was actually just plain compacted dirt....

That's me, CBD, in the light brown suit, staring at Karen's ice cream cone. They gave her a new cone every five minutes. This photo is not an actual still from the film...its a publicity shot made by a studio photographer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psldikww30.jpg
http://jake-weird.blogspot.fr/2013/0...-dystopia.html


I'm standing just to the right of that red canopy....see me? The set is about 2/3 and 1/2 scale buildings....and smaller in back. :previous:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8t3lfo0r.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i6myrirVhL...he-Locust2.png

'mystery' glossy

This 8 x 10 photograph is currently on ebay (you can buy it now for $49.99)

Any idea what movie this is from? -that's Betty Grable in black on the right.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/BDcQ2p.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-COLLECT...sAAOSwCGVX~~ds

I know my movies, but this doesn't ring a bell at all.

__

It was stretch I know, but when I read that there was a basement pool on the lot I was intrigued. Later, after I found the "HOTW" shot, not so much.

I just didn't think the "CP" pool looked like a hotel. So institutional. I actually thought it might have been boxed in, the walkway around it is so narrow.

Are the pools very different sizes? I can't judge.

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


Thank you CBD. I'd know you anywhere :-)

I thought it might be fun to try and figure out where the photographer was situated when he took these slides. (from what roof-top)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...924/Uj3drM.jpg

#1
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/Zc8rCv.jpg
ebay

We recently saw this corner in a previous post.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=39264






#2
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/924/hW93B2.jpg
ebay

:previous: Naked darts. ;)




#3
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/922/ByyjCO.png

Kid






#4
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/922/xW1JIl.jpg

Groovy phone pods :previous:





#5
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/wgVb7T.jpg
ebay

Greasy Spoon







below: In my opinion this is the most intriguing.

#6
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/JCflo9.jpg

It looks like a decrepit mexican restaurant set back in an alley or something similar to an alley.

the plants have pretty much taken over the entrance-

________________________________









I've enlarged the first two vertical slides.

Who knows, maybe there's a murder happening in one of windows. (that thought crosses my mind whenever I inspect these old photos)

enlargement #1
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/wDISuM.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/KdXSeM.jpg
ebay











enlargement #2

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/4Ne6av.png
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/LLISq9.jpg
ebay

I don't know for sure that the house wiring was used as an antenna, that was just what I was told. I saw that one online yesterday, and then forgot to go look at it last night. It is in a corner, behind some heavy furniture now. The plug in our house was not a double, electrical and radio, just a single plug. It is adjacent to a regular double outlet.

A friend's 1920's home on the Arroyo in Pasadena has those inlaid switches. They also have ornate brass switchplates.

You're right about it having an institutional look, or possibly the kind of pool you'd find in a residence hotel/apartment building or possibly a private club or small health club.