That's it! Sopas, I have been scratching my head thinking about where I've read about a creek or a wash west of Crenshaw, south of Wilshire, it seems to me it was-- I read it in the Wilshire Blvd book. Ok--someone in Los-Ang-liss has got to sneak into those back yards and take a picture...

I got this satellite shot from Google Earth; you can see where the natural creek runs in the Brookside neighborhood:

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2016/brookside.jpg

^^^That's an excellent find sopas_ej.

Here are a couple more photos I found of the Bimini Baths and Rainbow Gardens/Palomar Ballroom.


Below: The entrance to the Bimini Baths.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/209...athentranc.jpg
usc digital archive



Below: The Rainbow Gardens would eventually become the Palomar Ballroom.



http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/840...bowgardens.jpg
usc archive


Below: Palomar Ballroom.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5...09palomar2.jpg


Obviously the same place.

I'm guessing it was originally the Rainbow Gardens by the early make of automobiles
and the rainbow shape on the sign that carries over to the Palomar days. Does anyone know for sure?



postscript:

I did find some answers at this web site.

www.iajrc.org/archive/palomar.htm

The article is written by Floyd Levin.
He was actually at the Palomar Ballroom on the night of the fire Oct. 2, 1939.

The internet never ceases to amaze me.
A hour ago I only knew the building as the Palomar Ballroom.
As one clue led to another...all the pieces fell into place.

It was originally built as the El Patio Ballroom, then it was Rainbow Gardens
and finally the Palomar Ballroom.




By knowing the ballroom's original name I was able to find this aerial.


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/4...biminiaeri.jpg
lapl


The Bimini Baths and the Rayfield Building are on the left, and the El Patio Ballroom
(the future Palomar Ballroom) is on the right.



Thanks to the following blog
http://laecovillage.wordpress.com/20...-bimini-baths/

Awesome find! The present-day Vons is directly on top of the old Palomar building site (and then some -- it's a big market).

Interesting to see how much more hilly the neighborhood looks in that aerial. The hills are still there (unlike much of downtown), but they are camouflaged by development. One thing that's NOT there now is the green space of the Bimini Slough. Also, it looks like the 3rd St extension hadn't gone through yet when that picture was taken.

Johnny Socko you mentioned the Bimini Slough ;
several times today I came across references to Sacatela Creek.

I believe they are possibly one and the same.

http://militantangeleno.blogspot.com...search-of.html

Thanks, that name didn't ring a bell until I re-read the "Lost Streams" article from LA Weekly.

That was a great blog entry you linked to, btw. Finally, an explanation for the Shakespeare Bridge! It's weird how something you've always wondered about in one part of the city is directly linked to something you're already familiar with in another part (and this is far from the first time that's happened to me). LA...it's a trip.

How's this for serendipity

Today's L.A. Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home...sica-hall.html

A few weeks ago I posted a photograph showing the 102 Brewery.


The following are 4 more photos taken on that same day from atop City Hall.



http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5...yhall1952d.jpg
usc archive







http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7...yhall1952e.jpg
usc archive








http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7...tyhall1952.jpg
usc archive








http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8...ountyhospi.jpg
usc archive

Great pictures, ethereal. Obsessive as I am, I began comparing them to my Thos Bros atlas--which is not as easy as it might seem, given the telescoped images. For example, at the bottom right of the second picture is Philippe's--but is this the location in the 300-block of Aliso Street taken out by the 101, or the 1950/51-to-present one at Alameda & Ord? Compared to maps, the streets don't seem to make sense either way. But it doesn't really matter--all these pictures reek of noir LA. Keep 'em coming. Btw--I might have said it here before, but it bears repeating-- nothing brings noir back alive like a visit to Philippe's at night... the place, the characters, Union Station down the street.... not to be missed.

NOTE: Finally figured out the photo-to-map coordination--in the second of ethereal's pictures (with Philippe's at the bottom right), the street coming from the bottom-right corner is Main; Alameda is less evident, just on the other side of Philippe's--so this is the post '50/'51 location--and now I remember that these pictures are from 1952 so it all adds up. (I know you have all been waiting for this information with baited breath.)

Agreed -- those were fantastic pictures, and yet I too had trouble reconciling some of the locations to modern-day LA!

If the name "Bozzani" on the car dealer at the bottom of the first picture rang a bell, it's probably because they're still around: Bozzani Motors

:previous:

Those are indeed great photos, ethereal.

I'm fascinated by the first one, the one with the Bozzani Motors. That area is now a parking lot. In fact this photo is of the current Chinatown, which used to be LA's Little Italy, so I see the Bozzani connection. The street on the left is Hill Street, leading to the Pasadena Freeway, and the street on the right is North Broadway. At the bottom of the photo, where Broadway curves, is where the old Broadway tunnel was before the hill was leveled; that little building on the corner is the one that still exists and has survived all these years even after the hill and tunnel adjacent to it was removed. You can even see the Little Joe's Italian restaurant on the east side of Broadway, which used to be a 3-story building but was later reduced to one. Though the restaurant has been long closed, the building still exists, as well as the Little Joe's sign. In the background is Cathedral High School, which also still exists but I think it has new buildings. I'm amazed at how dense this area once was, being that there are now many surface parking lots.

Re the Paris Inn on N. Broadway (middle right of the first of ethereal's pics), which helped me locate things on maps--I came across this great site about the history of old LA restaurants:

http://www.latimemachines.com/new_page_23.htm

^^^GaylordWilshire, JohnnySocko & Sopas-ej

All your comments have made the photos that much more interesting to me.

sopas-ej, your explanation of the first photo (below) was great.
I didn't realize the building at the bottom was the one we had discussed earlier in the thread.


http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5...yhall1952d.jpg
usc archive





I remembered the earlier post because you mentioned it was the building with the long gone Broadway tunnel behind it.


http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5396/1la00013680.jpg
lapl posted earlier by sopas-ej



http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/3...innsigntoo.jpg
lapl


It's cool that the building had a giant sign for the Paris Inn, which GaylordWilshire had pointed out.






Below is a re-post of the illustration that started our conversation about the building in the first place.


http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/7...iaductadja.jpg

:previous:


And N Broadway & Sunset now...

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogleSV

I like this picture too:

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7...tyhall1952.jpg
USC archive

In the center you can see a 3-story apartment building; it has a sign on top that I can't read, "????? APT-HOTEL." Anyway, in 1927, a notorious, shocking murder occurred here. Back then, the apartments were called the Bellevue Arms. In December of 1927, 19 year-old William Edward Hickman kidnapped 12 year-old Marian Parker, the daughter of an LA banker. He murdered her in his apartment, which was in this building. The crime was particularly shocking and gruesome because he dismembered her but used her armless and leg-less body as a decoy to pick up the ransom money, pretending that she was still alive and fooling the girl's father, who dropped off the ransom money. The apartment building still exists and is being converted into expensive condos.

The house that the Parkers lived in also still exists. I wonder whatever happened to the family...

You can read about the crime here; the website misspells her name as Marion Parker: http://markgribben.com/?p=288

Wow, it's been too long since I've checked in at this forum (have had to deal with that dubiously beneficial and breathtakingly annoying "life" stuff) and I have to say, you guys are nuts. I mean, in the good way, I am after all among you. There's so much I want/need to comment on, I don't know where to start.

I liked the stuff some weeks ago about the Hotel Clark, for some reason I have a Hotel Clark fetish, and this being The Season, I'll direct you to something holiday-related I wrote here.

Oh, and I was elated to hear mention of Shockproof, as mentioned also here -- I've been collecting Bunker Hill movies and so far (I still have about seven to get through) the big winners are:
-- the remake of M: the opening with Angels Flight, the Foss/Heindel at 9:21, the 3rd and Bunker Hill bench at 31:05, the Nugent at 38:26, Hope Street at 48:03, and the tunnel chase at 49:22
Kiss Me Deadly: Third Street stairs at 27:30, the "Castle" (325 S Bunker Hill) at 29:26, Angels Flight at 55:45 and the Hillcrest right after that
The whole frickin' movie Angel's Flight
The Turning Point and Cry Danger are also primo Bunker Hill. So are Criss Cross and Indestructible Man. And noir as noir gets (Ok, Indestructible Man is less noir than, what, monster? Lon Chaney Jr. pulls a Vampira and says "I know, I'll play the part mute!" Yes, the script is that bad. However, also real cool shots of Main St, specifically the bump n grind house that was the New Follies at 548.) About 39 minutes in is where the Bunker Hill begins.

Though The Unfaithful has amazing shots of the Elmar on Hope at 1:10:33, it's a moralistic little film, and creeps me out, and about fifteen years later The Money Trap, boy, that's a predictable, dull picture, but nice shots of the Brousseau ...and some good Angels Flight action...

...plus all and sundry should buy the new 2-disc set of The Exiles, cool film, great extra features too.

Ok, more when I can get away. God bless us, everyone!

Ah, jeepers. Here I was about to go "productive things" and sopas, you go on and bring up The Fox. Like I'm gonna stay away from that.

Say what you will about Elizabeth Short as the hallmark of LA noir -- the Fox, Edward Hickman, and his killing of Marion Parker (the correct spelling of her name, truth be told) -- is in my estimation, hands down, the weirdest, darkest tale in LA history.

I won't go into the whole rigamarole here -- it's been written about enough elsewhere -- but one does have to wonder if anyone moving into the Bellevue has any idea...

...the school (Mt Vernon Jr) from where she was abducted still stands, as does her home on S Wilton, but the site where her body was dumped, its lifeless eyes pulled open by wire, on the east side of Manhattan between 4th and 5th, is now 50s apartment buildings.

:previous:
I stand corrected on the spelling of poor little Marion's name. I'm pretty sure that in the book I have called "Stolen Away" her name is spelled as "Marian." Oh well.

Her remains are at Glendale Forest Lawn:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...e=gr&GRid=8978

I've driven to her junior high school and the home on Wilton Place. The Wilton Place home looks eerily unchanged, at least to me; I wonder who lives there now and if they know about the Parker kidnap/murder. Unfortunately the jr. high looks nothing like it did back in 1927. It's not even called Mt. Vernon Jr. High anymore, it's been renamed the Johnnie Cochran Middle School.

I last drove by the Bellevue Arms about a year ago or so and it was all covered in scaffolding due to the condo-ization. I'm wondering if I should pay it another visit. ;)