Today's Wall Street Journal has an article call the "L.A. Noir Tour" which features many of the noir haunts of the city's past. It even has an interactive map of some of the best noir spots to visit.
Here it is:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Tabs%3Darticle

All your work on 411 N Main and surroundings. Amazing.

You note on your site that you think it may be '04 because the Lankershim is under construction; I would second that in that the Moore Cliff, in the center of the right panel of the card, is covered in scaffolding. It TOO was constructed (and opened) in aught-four!

That's an amazing piece, congrats.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Reminds me of the quote from Ask the Dust -- "The hotel was called the Alta Loma. It was built on a hillside in reverse, there on the crest of Bunker Hill, built against the decline of the hill, so that the main floor was on the level with the street but the tenth floor was downstairs ten levels." (Fante's Alta Vista, on the W side of Bunker Hill Avenue [at 3rd], rode the down the hill à la the Sawyer.)

But then, if architectural homogeneity is a motivator, wouldn't the same be arguable for Irvine? I may be proven wrong, but will we mourn Tustin so when it's erased come 2050? (Of Bunker Hill's allure there are no quick answers, but at least the road to understanding her is paved with enormous pleasure. However bittersweet it may be.)

Do you mean the SW corner? Because that's this bldg, and I'm interested to know how you came across the St. Mark name -- I've always called it either the Cecil or by its later name The Gladden. Anyway, I can definitely say yes, it's this building, because I've got a full-frontal image of it clearly at this corner just before demolition (unfortunately, a photo of an unpublished slide I don't own so can't post it here).

However, I am happy to say that this movie star of a building is in more than just Brasher Doubloon (post #1930). Having done a bunch of shot examinations of The Turning Point back on pp. 69-70, here's another one:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5126/...28b97598_b.jpg

Ed Begley walks into the Hotel Gladden, 102 S Olive:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5003/...1305bc27_b.jpg

Here's William Holden checking out the scene:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5208/...58a31533_b.jpg

But where's he checking out the scene FROM? Good question! Kitty-corner, there was a market in the apartment building at 501 W 1st/103 N Olive. It's obscured a bit by this mother and daughter --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5130/...2decd60b_b.jpg
Hylen, Cal State Lib, http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...JQJXH173PA.jpg

...and of course one thing leads to another...

...so here's that market in better detail, October 09, 1951. Oh, still partially obscured...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5169/...f04564c4_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5088/...c8e5fed3_b.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1292043519751

the st. mark name that i used comes from the 1909 birdseye map of los angeles

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/...6998e81f_b.jpg

the st. mark (corner of 1st and olive) is on the far right, just above center.

B Man! thank you so much for posting the images from the turning point, i was never quite sure where that building was that holden tailed begley to. i always thought the corner shop where holden knows the storekeeper was filmed at the store at grand and third in the nugent, but now i know that it's actually pollinger's market at 1st and olive!

A-ha! You're absolutely right. I shoulda looked at that.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5010/...c8e198c5_z.jpg

Weird. It's the Cecil in the 1906 Sanborn map, the St. Mark in the 1909 Birdseye, the Gladden in the 1922 Baist's Atlas.

My copy is pretty crummy but as he gets out of the car you can just make out the "Olive Court" gun street sign behind him; I just noticed that for the first time as I was putting this together...

So much good stuff on here lately. Thought I'd contribute some new material...fire up the old scanner and dig around for motels that caught my eye as being particularly...evocative.

Because I love motels. I love the people who work there, who eye you with that mix of distrust, disinterest, and disgust. That first cold blast of the clamorous, rattling A/C. Thin towels, disinfectant, getting to know the other long-termers. Won't even go into the beds, that is, discuss them.

Here are some motels 'round town:

First off, the Town Motel:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5128/...732c3600_o.jpg

Really nice International/Streamline. Dig the lone car. (Also see the even more imperious http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilf/2949669127/ )

Another streamline --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/...7139c468_b.jpg

"Beautiful" is code word for "oil derrick". That towers over.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/...97922d1a_b.jpg

...in case you're checking your Google Street, we're 0 for 3. However, this one still stands:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...9062c967_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/4842549732/

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/...a95b8aaf_b.jpg

Should we assume "Back" means "on your"?

The Sun Motel:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5167/...ec800824_b.jpg

Deco masterpiece The Sun has had some work done, but looks more bleak, in this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilf/1118714044/ ...but look at the cars. The card where they have the addition and improved signage appears to predate this image by a good ten years. Uh-huh.

Though no sun shall enter
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5128/...5d701cc4_b.jpg

...where at Vine Lodge -- 1818 N Vine -- the patio is forever empty and shadowed. (At least it's still extant.) (Though the back of the card reads "All rooms cross ventilated, insuring constant fresh air." Needless to say, Vine Lodge has since been hemmed in by massive developments.)

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5282/...6cc1b278_b.jpg

5154 Sunset -- "Largest Motel in Hollywood -- 125 Rooms -- 35 Kitchens."

They've blocked up the arch, but everything is still back there:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5087/...c2bf5f69_b.jpg

And now, my favorite of the set --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5088/...78565a3f_b.jpg

Not only because it's the greatest image of all time (Tick Tock Motel -- just seems to connote "Because Your Time is Running Out!"), but because it still looks basically just like this. Granted, it's been painted beige, and the neon is gone (and so are the cars) but all its streamline trimmings are there and the giant Cargill Foods grain silo still looms o'er.

:previous:

Beaudry-- That was one of my favorite posts yet. I might add to your list of thin towels, smell of disinfectant etc, those gas wall heaters with ceramic crosshatched burners.... and of course I couldn't resist driving around town via Google Street View. It turns out that the La Brea Towers does still stand--note the window pattern and roofline of the Summit Motel at the same address. It still has its tower although it's now a billboard rather than a derrick. (I love the idea that someone might have imagined a glamorous highrise before arriving at the the La Brea Towers Hotel....)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...24539%20PM.jpg
Summit Motel nee La Brea Towers Hotel, 5005 S. La Brea


The Paradise is still The Paradise. And it even has a great "new" sign:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...81926%20AM.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...82003%20AM.jpg
Don't you hope Paradise is like this? 1116 Sunset


The Sun Motel seems to have been replaced, building and all, by an America's Best Value Inn. But the house to its left remains:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...21704%20PM.jpg
5265 Sunset


The Vine Lodge--same name, same place:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...23506%20PM.jpg
1818 N. Vine


The Nity-Nite (my favorite name) is now the Copacabana Inn. And it's still eminently respectable--weekly specials are available, but there is no mention here of hourly rates.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...22100%20PM.jpg
5316 S. Figueroa


And the Tick-Tock--another great name (even if a little odd and perhaps suggestive). As you say, it's still there with the silo above. It doesn't seem to be receiving guests any longer, however.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...22724%20PM.jpg
1444 S. Atlantic Blvd., East Los Angeles


All photos via Google Street View

Gadzooks! You're absolutely right (especially about the gas wall heaters, and their younger cousin, the dust-covered coil heaters that glow orange). But also about the La Brea Towers, I didn't look hard enough and was thrown by the "Custom Window Blinds" store or whatever it is they plopped down in the middle of the parking lot.

I like how the derrick in the far distance is basically replaced by a cell phone tower:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/...97922d1a_z.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5123/...6c01f0ee_z.jpg

Oh, the times, they are a-changin'.

And the Sun is apparently still with us -- sort of --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5167/...ec800824_z.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5046/...8307c43c_z.jpg

The tower, the basic fenestration, the slight hint of the filled-in door (if you do a close-up on Google Street at the Copacabana, you can see where they "filled in" the Nity-Nite entry)...as is true with so many motels around town, it's had some sort of "Tuskan" makeover.

Glad you liked the post, I certainly had fun doing it! It's about time I put my years of fetishism to some good use. There'll be more...

Amazing motel postcard pics. I realize that I drive by some of those all the time.

I thought I'd do a then and now. Or rather, a then, then and now.

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, circa 1950-1951 (?). Notice the PE tracks and tunnel. I believe the PE stopped running here in 1950. Or was it '51? Hmm.
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6241/19511953.jpg
USC Archive

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, circa 1955. What I found odd was the long overpass, because I don't remember it ever existing...
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/3307/1955f.jpg
USC Archive

Santa Ana/San Bernardino Fwy merge east of downtown LA, December 11, 2010. See, no overpass. I can't think of where it went from/to. Might anyone know? And might anyone know when it was knocked down, and why? Also in this pic, I see a few of the old lamp posts still exist.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/224/p1150633g.jpg
Photo by me

You can add this to the motel list, on Alvarado St south of MacArthur Park. I thought the sign was neat, reminded me of the early sixties. Had I known about this thread, I would have gotten a picture of the building.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1256.jpg


Not a motel, but I thought this sign was pretty neat also (geez, I'm talking like Beaver Cleaver). I could be wrong, but I thought the sign had to be old. I couldn't see new money being put into this McDonalds. The neighborhood was a little rough.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1269.jpg

I dig that Alvarado too and its crazy atomic starburst. Might have a postcard of it somewheres...hmmm...notice how it has the same accents the Sun now sports...

Speaking of the Sun...can't get enough of that one...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5002/...2065ddc3_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5043/...dc2f1a8c_b.jpg

going airborne over hollywood
 

1938 view looking east up hollywood boulevard towards barnsdall park

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-9-ISLA?v=hr
source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-9-ISLA?v=hr

1937 aerial looking north east towards los feliz

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-1-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-1-ISLA?v=hr

1938 aerial looking south east towards downtown

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-8-ISLA?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...30-8-ISLA?v=hr

1918 aerial looking north from highland and sunset

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-10041?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-10041?v=hr

1926 aerial looking north

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-35266?v=hr
Source: USC Digital Archives http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-35266?v=hr

^^^Great then/then/after sopas_ej. Beautiful aerials gsjansen.


Beaudry, your motel scans were great!
I hope you have many more to share with us.




Here are some examples I have in my files.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2...sandslodge.jpg
ebay

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8...andslodge2.jpg
ebay




Below: Stillwell's Auto Hotel, 2 miles east of the new Union Station.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/633...llsautomot.jpg
ebay

This is my favorite.



http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7...tel1136nla.jpg
ebay




Below: Contemporary photos of the Crown Motel.....nothing seems to have changed at all.





http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9...telisstill.jpg
walterworld



http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/3...ownmotel2a.jpg
walterworld



http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4...tel1awalte.jpg
walterworld




http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5...rownmotel3.jpg
walterworld




http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6...rownmotel4.jpg
walterworld

A mystery! From my 1960 Renie atlas, and Bing Maps...now you see it, now you don't...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5202/...70ddb9b5_z.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5126/...de05d8c4_z.jpg

Couldn't find anything in Proquest on the overpass other than this, Dec. 2, 1953 --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/...f2cc6497_o.jpg

-- a viaduct with verve! "Adequacy of this width remains to be seen." Guess it wasn't so adequate.

I know there are freeway experts out there who'll know a thing or three about this one...

The picture of the gas tanks reminded me of the scene in "The Best Years of Our Lives" when Dana Andrews meets Theresa Wright at the lunch counter with the tanks in the background.

Here's where Theresa Wright lived with her parents,Fredric March and Myrna Loy. The apartment building is on Beverly between LaBrea and Highland. There was scaffolding covering two sides of the building so this was the best view I could get - this year.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1279.jpg

Beaudry-- I think you're absolutely right--that the front part of the current hotel is not new, but a remodeled Sun. The slim sign tower is the same. Great stuff.

That flyover ramp (completed in 1955) connected to the 101 and was removed in 1995 due to redundancy of the same connection in the early 1970's reconstruction, and mainly because of seismic damage from the Northridge quake in 1994 (it didn't collapse).

City records give the year built as 1946. The white house to the left was built in 1920, which looks it. What I didn't realize at the time is that that structure at the far right in post #2163 still stands! It's pretty clear in both 2163 photographs but I didn't look hard enough. It was built in 1916 (with a small addition in 1922) -- stucco'd, with the addition of some concrete screen, but at least it maintains its original windows!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5086/...c22c9b53_o.jpg

(Just for the record, the Paradise was also 1946, the Vine Lodge 1942, Nitey-Nite is 1947; La Brea Towers and the former Tick Tock are "off the grid" when it comes to Zimas.)

Ta-da! Cool. Thanks.

Spent a year working on a site called 1947project http://1947project.blogspot.com/...
"To visit a list of cases that took place in Los Angeles we dug up a site called 1947 project [sic] which lists an enormous number of criminal cases that took place in the city during that period of time..." -- glad to see someone got some use out of it! http://www.gameguru.in/action/2010/2...-life-murders/

Bumper crop of goodies
 

Those vintage Motel postcard scans are a dream. Thanks! More please! (Wish I knew how to scan and post some of my postcards.) My favorite is that Sunset Bungalow Motel Court at 5154 Sunset. A classic 40's shot). Vine Lodge sounds very familiar...In singer Rosemary Clooney's bio, "Girl Singer" she wrote that when she and her sister Betty first arrived in Hollywood in 1947, traveling with a big band, they stayed at the Vine Lodge. She said it was "where all the bands stayed." It was very near the huge Palladium on Sunset, "Hollywood's Premier Dancing and Dining Spot in the Heart of Hollywood," where the top big bands played.
The Bunker Hill photos were a great treat too.
I'm still trying to hunt down info on what was definitely called "Normandie Village" or "Old Normandie Village" apts on the Sunset Strip., described as "a picturesque jumble of peaked roofs, jagged chimneys and meandering walkways from Hollywood's old party days." (LA Times) 1962). Came across this photo (scroll down) of "Normandy Village, Hollywood 1928," but it looks like a recent photo. so not sure of its connection to the old Normandie or Normandy Village which was razed in the 60's. http://www.preservenet.com/archtime/ArchTime.html
Also, here's a blog with good photos about "French Hollywood" architecture. http://doves2day.blogspot.com/2010/1...hollywood.html
So that French style apt. house on Beverly is the one featured in "The Best Years of Our Lives." Very interesting.

Thanks so much for your response. You too Beaudry, thanks for that article and that scan from your Renie Atlas.

I'm now wondering how a driver today would transition from the westbound 10 to the southbound 101, if that's even possible to do now...

I live in the building at the top of this 1924 photo of Main Street in Culver City. Now it has a 1980's stucco facade.
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6...tsouthside.jpg
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6...tsouthside.jpg

You do it at the interchange with I-5 just east of there, that was built in the 1970s. I-5 and the 101 merge together just south of there.

:previous:

Ah OK. So I guess if you did want to get to points just east of the LA River from the 10, say, just west of White Memorial, you'd just have to get off the freeway a little east of there.

I rarely drive through that area on the freeway; being that I live in South Pasadena, I just take the 110 or even just surface streets to get to downtown.

I remember this place! It was south of the SB Fwy just past Soto St. It vanished after the freeway was widened there in the mid-'70s...

-Scott

i apologize in advance for making everyone have to scroll on this photo, due to it's size, however, this is definitely an image that needs to be seen full size to truly appreciate.

it is a screen capture from the 1921 harold lloyd thrill comedy, Never Weaken

apparently some hopped up developer is building a large steel framed skyscraper on top of the hill street tunnel, (wonder how they worked the piling's around the hollywood
in and out-bound P&E tracks??!!??).

I just realized that the building behind harrold lloyd is not the cecil, st. mark, gladden....(whatever), that i first identified it as, ..........it's actually a building on olive court
next to the moorecliff with a nifty rear exit on to hill street

the building down hill street with the union league sign on the side is the hotel belmont, (the old ywca) just north of third. the mission hotel can be clearly seen
at the intersection of 2nd and olive.

the railings of the roof terrace of the nelson building, (third and clay), is visible, as is the cupola bell tower of the astoria just north of third on olive.

lloyd was working with the hal roach studios at this time, so they wouldn't have had to travel very far for this location shot, as the studio was located almost from
the vantage point of the photographer, in the bradbury mansion at hill and court street .

enjoy!

http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Ll...Weaken)_01.jpg

:previous:

Great picture, gs--interesting to see Lloyd's prosthetic glove in it. There's another shot from Never Weaken in this post:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1294 and in the post, a not-to-be-missed link to a short documentary about Lloyd's downtown shooting, with terrific "then and nows." (Note the sequences of Lloyd racing a buggy past the Angels Flight Pharmacy.)

Thanks for the tip on "French Hollywood". Although the names should have been a clue, I never thought about the style. I just liked all the old buildings.

In "Best Years", the cab carrying the three vets pulls out of Orange Dr....

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part1280.jpg

and across Beverly is the apartment. You get a good view of this buillding next door on Beverly.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...10part2055.jpg

Sorry I don't have screen grabs to go with the pictures.

Such a shame about Stillwell's, but it reminds me of a wonderful little thicket of surviving older motor hotels just east on Ramona, a road not often traveled since it's uncomfortably freeway-close. You'll find them where Ramona turns into Garvey, around Montezuma and Carlos. (see crummy Google streetview image below)

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5209/...823cbb1369.jpg

Cuter still, cruise south down Atlantic and look left to spy this gem at 438 El Mercado Avenue, tucked amidst much new development but still just as cute as the day it was hatched.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/...127af629eb.jpg

Mike D-- Here's a screen capture of the Stephenson's "Boone City" building, and another street view:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...12458%20PM.jpgSamuel Goldwyn Company/RKO Radio Pictures

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...13750%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

The motels of The Facts of Life
 

No, not the tv show I never watched. In this 1960 Bob Hope/Lucille Ball movie about marital boredom in Pasadena, in spite of all the motels we see, not a thing happens. I looked along Ventura Boulevard in the vicinity of Fruitland Drive, fruitlessly, to see if anything still stands. A not-completely-in-depth check of the 1960 city directory didn't help--maybe these places are out of range of it. Anyone have any ideas of the locations of these motel gems?

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...reen%20capture

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...reen%20capture

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...reen%20capture

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...reen%20capture

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...11931%20AM.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...12211%20AM.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...12229%20AM.jpg


And a few more vintage L.A. shots from The Facts of Life:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...10730%20AM.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...10810%20AM.jpg


EDIT 1-28-2016: A history of the "mobile" Olympic Drive-In theater is here: http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...histories.html


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...11858%20AM.jpg

All photos United Artists/MGM Home Entertainment

I recognized the top hat so I looked in my files.




Below: Studio City 1950

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/5...udiocity19.jpg
usc archive

Pretty cool huh.

Hey Esotouric, and welcome to the forum! I have some swell shots (on another computer) and postcards of these motels, I'll have to see if I can dig them up, I agree they're my favorites in town...

Totally. More Topper!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/...986aba28_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5122/...076d8ae7_o.jpg

11733 Ventura Blvd

Re: The Facts of Life, lots of info and more pix of the late lamented Olympic Drive-In here
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/3756/

I would imagine that many of the motels that might've existed on Ventura Blvd. would've long ago been demolished for office developments and strip malls during the 1980s. Ventura Blvd. was the original alignment for US-route 101 before the freeway was built.

There are also many motels along Colorado Blvd. in Glendale and Eagle Rock, I assume before the freeways that Colorado Blvd. was a major road/highway leading into/out of Pasadena. In the eastern unincorporated portion of Pasadena on Colorado Blvd., there are a few old run-down motels left; I think they might charge by the hour, being that you also see some prostitutes hanging around in that area. Valley Blvd. in the San Gabriel Valley as well as Garvey Ave. also used to be major highways prior to the freeways; you can still see some rundown motels along those streets as well in cities like El Monte and La Puente. I've heard that street prostitution exists around those motels in El Monte.

I trust I don't have to tell YOU how insanely great that is! Like so many large-formats, you just get lost in 'em...

The one you talk about that you thought might've been the C/SM/G is a single-family dwelling at 109 S Hill, ca. 1890, that fronted on Hill. Some time prior to 1906 it had that whole back part added on (that stretched onto Olive Court) and became known as the El Moro Hotel. The Cecil/St. Mark was back and to the right of the El Moro.

...the big building under Harold's armpit (at the fold of his jacket) is the 1910 Hotel Northern, btw.

Too cool. Never Weaken also has a swell 3rd & Grand Angels Flight pharmacy gag in it as well!

I read here http://fpk.homestead.com/files/ghost...of_justice.htm two films (Just Nuts, Haunted Spooks) were filmed inside the Bradbury. Could this be true? Haven't seen either.

No shortage of neo-noir bedbug-and-clap traps remaining along Ventura in Studio City--here are a couple still standing. I thought at first that the Charles might be the Valley Springs, but now don't think so. And there's an even older tourist court next door. Can't make out the name on the sign, though.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...45444%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...45403%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...23841%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

What a fantastic Harold Lloyd photograph!

I'd love to see some of these silents, especially Haunted Spooks.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...55610%20PM.jpg
Annette Lloyd/Petrografix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynuOQvVaFMo

That was really enjoyable. But I'm still going to be a persnickity bastard (with love). At 4:15 when she describes the shots from Girl Shy and For Heaven's Sake where the horse cart/runaway bus travel, respectively, on Grand (and while she mentions being between the 400 and 500 block, but is actually between the 500 and 600) -- in both cases Lloyd does not travel on Grand, but on Third, from near Olive, north across Grand (where the manhole cover is), toward (and shot from) Bunker Hill Avenue.

A wee quibbly, but still.

There was also one I can't remember the name of; at the beginning he's a callow youth leaving home. He leaves the Biltmore on Grand and one can see the Dome in the distance. Saw it at Silent Movie and know I wrote it down somewhere...

I missed the youtube link earlier.

That video was very interesting.
Can you imagine if all of us got together for a project like this.
It would be epic!

The Charles sounds positively regal. Maybe not as regal as the La Brea Towers, but...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5042/...f508aba2_b.jpg

Don't know what that older court is next door -- this may require a road trip!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5041/...00748cbc_b.jpg

Also, with the FOL screen grabs, the Patio Motel seems to still be kicking at 11466 Ventura Blvd. You'll note that next door the Valley Crown is still very much around (in structure; it's been repurposed) at 11472...

I remember this place! It was south of the SB Fwy just past Soto St. It vanished after the freeway was widened there in the mid-'70s...

This is on Stillwell's. I remember it too for how it looked at night. The highway facing buildings were trimmed in blue neon giving it a most distinctive look. I guess to match the color motive in the postcard.

I drive past The Charles regularly. Known for many a sleazy rendezvous over the years (no personal experience,sorry to say). Great motel history gents!

Like so many large-formats, you just get lost in 'em...

Yes, you do Beaudry. Ain't it fun?