http://patch.com/california/monrovia...able-socialist


Maybe not surprising that the source misidentifies the image as "the Sinclair Lewis house in Monrovia." http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=26861 Both well known authors and Upton Sinclair mentored the younger Lewis. Sinclair Lewis may have visited the Monrovia residence of Upton Sinclair, but there is no evidence he, Sinclair Lewis also lived there.:previous:

Upton - Time
http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine...341022_400.jpghttp://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine...341022_400.jpg

EPIC pamphlet
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...a7fb0a86aa.jpghttp://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...a7fb0a86aa.jpg


Author and politician Upton Sinclair was responsible for a political movement called End Poverty in California "EPIC". The movement lost its momentum when Sinclair lost his 1934 gubernatorial race. More here: http://hometown-pasadena.com/history...t-1-of-2/34234 Upton Sinclair spent time hiking with Henry Ford in the San Gabriel mountains and entertained businessman, whisker eviscerator and NLA notable, King Gillette. Another friend and Pasadena neighbor was Gaylord Wilshire. http://books.google.com/books?id=pYi...ddress&f=false Upton Sinclair reportedly entertained the likes of Debs, Darrow, Mencken and Einstein, but it is unclear whether this took place in Pasadena, Monrovia or elsewhere. http://www.dabelly.com/columns/bohemian34.htm


Upton Sinclair had been a Pasadena resident too, beginning in 1916.

Upton in his Pasadena abode on Sunset Avenue.
http://hometown-pasadena.com/wp-cont...Picture-13.jpghttp://hometown-pasadena.com/wp-cont...Picture-13.jpg


Below is an End Poverty League headquarters located at 23rd Street and Figueroa. It would appear that the house was eventually supplanted by Interstate 10.
1934 - End Poverty League
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics29/00049406.jpghttp://jpg2.lapl.org/pics29/00049406.jpg


This image is identified as the End Poverty League headquarters but no location is provided. Perhaps someone recognizes it.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044158.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044158.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044158.jpg

You were on the right track, e_r, although your picture was in Los Angeles and not in San Pedro.

The "Little Giant" Garage was at 649 S. Grand, as can be seen from this 1917 ad from the LAT:
http://i.imgur.com/JlLGAOY.jpg
And e_r, as you can see your picture features the "649" street number.


It also was called the "Automobile Exchange Garage" at that same address in the 1910-1920 CDs.

Here's an article from a promotional publication which shows how San Pedro got into the mix.

http://i.imgur.com/K3vNGuD.jpg

Your (pre 1920) picture shows an old Queen Anne survivor which might be on the next street west (Hope). I am too tired tonight to track down the Casa Grande Family and Tourist Hotel, which looks like it might be around 5th and Flower or Hope. Maybe one of our DTLA mavens can pick up the torch as my head is about to hit the keyboard. Thanks :)

Well, obviously I agree. It is a very evocative image. It's hard to look at
these Depression-era, large format pictures and not fall into some
wool-gathering of our own. Most of us heard the stories from our parents
and aunts and uncles. In this case, I think a couple of things are going
on. First, to my eye, the camp appears to be emptying out. It
being November, harvesting has largely ended with the almond crop
(still small in 1936) either in or mostly so, the peach, plum and nectarines
are all boxed and gone, cotton will be done unless late this year and
table grape production for Kern County is still very modest but, in any
event, would be over by November. These fields we can see are pretty
barren, it doesn't look to me as though they've been in production this
year. Maybe, but I don't think so. Some pruning and brush clearance would
be going on but the labor-intensive part of the year is over and the bulk of
the migrant work force will have moved on to Imperial Valley. (1) This
looks like some people just out for a walk, maybe with a couple of
kids. Impossible to know what awaits around that curve, likely more
hard times. (2) Could be a field boss driving out on the week-end to tell
these guys where to show up Monday morning, maybe they are going
to prune some fruit trees, maybe one of them is a good mechanic and
he's going to help put equipment in order and winter storage (very
mild winters here in Kern County). (3) No, I don't think any of the
government camps distributed much food, maybe none. But providing
this kind of area helped with general cleanliness, keeping at least some of
the food and trash out of the tents. (4) Yep. (5) Check. (6) No idea.
Probably a trick of the light. (7) This looks like farm equipment to me. So
this would belong to the local farm owner. Maybe the guy in the car (no. 2)
is hiring one of these guys to wrestle a new (or used) tire onto that rim
for fifty cents. (8) Mostly children worked, if they were able. This is
another reason I think this may be a week-end shot. (9) This could be
the camp manager giving a quick trim to a guy who's got a shot at a
more permanent job or the local farm owner didn't want to drive all the
way into town and stopped by for the haircut. The little boy in the white
shirt and tie(!) is a mystery isn't he. Maybe his dad is the barber and
they drive out on the week-ends to give away haircuts. Such things
happened. I hope he paid attention, the lessons which surrounded him on
this day were priceless.

Lorendoc, you've beaten me to it again :). I'd come to the same conclusion via a different route, but then spent too long looking for photographs to prove my theory.

The Casa Grande is the building directly behind the "Little Giant" Garage. It's listed as the Hotel Casa Grande at 647 S Grand in the 1909 CD, and then as the Casa Grande furnished rooms in the same CDs that have the "Automobile Exchange Garage" at 649 S Grand. The final listing I can find is as the Casa Grande Hotel in the 1921 CD, which also has Braley & Co, a wholesale confectionery company, at the same address. For the rest of the 1920s, 647 S Grand is the address of a florist named Herbert Bateman.

The "APA..." in the top right corner of e_r's picture belongs to the Wilhelm Apartments at 639 S Grand. The top of the Casa Grande can be seen to the left of the Wilhelm Apartments in this picture which I posted about a week ago.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...d.jpg~original
Library of Congress

For search purposes: Hotel Baltimore, YMCA Building, Pellissier Block, Martz Flats, Orena Hotel, Wilhelm Apartments, Hotel Francis.

This larger version is from the Library of Congress.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
Library of Congress

There's an even larger version of a slightly different shot available at USC (you can zoom in much closer than this). It's also a Dick Whittington
photo from 1930, and the only variation I can see is the positioning of the cars. I've previously posted a detail of this picture when I labeled the
buildings on the Bunker Hill section of 4th Street in post #23483. Is the strange blurry shape on the far right part of the Richfield tower or part
of the equipment used to capture the image?
NB. I've fixed some of the brightness variations.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...a.jpg~original
USC Digital Library

The detail below highlights the area around 7th and Grand where the "Little Giant" Garage and Casa Grande stood only a decade or so earlier. The
Wilhelm Apartments has become the Woman's Hotel, and the "Little Giant" Garage and Casa Grande have been replaced by the Security Trust &
Savings Bank. I wonder if the residents knew that Orange Street (Wilshire Boulevard) would be extended through to Grand Avenue (splitting the
blocks at the bottom of the image) the following year.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...s.jpg~original
Detail of picture above.

For search purposes, the picture also shows the Knickerbocker Building, the Bank of Italy Building, the Brack Shops, the Quinby Building, the Brockman
Building, the Union Oil Building, the Criterion Theatre and the Univeristy Club.

"May be stick to the buildings ?"
 

"May be stick to the buildings ?" Presarch #24308 to CityBoy

1. This post has no building ;
2. is not in the Greater Los Angeles ;
3. doesn't have the sophisticated noirish mood.

So why is it 100% in the spirit of the thread ?

"This car sticks out like spats at an Iowa picnic." -- Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

Cheers,

Earl

How the home looks in 2013.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps700ea2e3.jpg
google street view

SIDEBAR: This musical has a song still well-known today: Look for the Silver Lining.

I know I've heard it on a recent commercial, but which one I don't recall.

Upton Abbey?

Nice post on Upton Sinclair, one of the most fascinating individuals in California history.

Kern County and Los Angeles County share a border. I'm sure many of these 'dust bowl' emigrants eventually found their way to the Los Angeles Metropolitan area.

My open-air barber shop ad obviously made Michael_Ryerson think of the depression era. During that time, California was like a magnet, drawing millions of unemployed people to the 'Land of Milk and Honey'.

I'm a bit surprised you questioned the photograph, especially since it was the impetus for a rather beautiful conversation about the hardships people faced
during the dark days of the 1930s.

__

Most of the waterandpower.org pictures of the Biltmore are originally from LAPL.org, although their copy of the one above is mirrored. Here's a daytime view of the Bilmore Theatre from March 4, 1924, which should be the day after it opened. This picture was previously posted by tovangar2 in post #10346, although I've tweaked the contrast. Work on the Central Library can be seen in the background.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...reTheatre1.jpg
LAPL

Fifteen years later and the Bilmore Theatre still looks popular. Notice that the arches on the right have been filled in. This picture is dated September 14, 1939.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...reTheatre2.jpg
LAPL

Someone in 1964 had a sense of humor with the sign. This picture was taken just prior to demolition.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...reTheatre3.jpg
LAPL

Uh oh. I rise to Mr. Legido's defense.
 

I think you've misread Alvaro. I think he was reacting to an exchange between CityBoyDoug and someone I've never heard of 'Presarch' wherein Presarch takes exception to several conclusions which 'Doug' has drawn regarding the Nelson family based on little more than public information and suggested Doug 'may be stick to the buildings'. Doug then responded by welcoming him to the forum, defended his conclusions as being consistent with his ability to know someone if enough public information is available, and trotted out Joan Crawford and Mommie Dearest as an example. Presarch acknowledged the difficulty he faced arguing with someone who 'imagines it is possible to know the actual person who was Joan Crawford from watching or reading Mommie Dearest. Then slides into passive-aggressive by apologizing for chiming in and bids Doug (and maybe the rest of us) so long. In the end, I was disappointed, having begun to expect one or the other of them to suggest the other guy 'piss up a rope', but no such luck. I'd like Presarch to stick around and take us and the site seriously and I'd like CityBoyDoug to continue to share his insights with us whether they be buildings or broads. I posted the Dorothea Lange pic without hesitation. First, there is plenty of variety around here to make it germane. Secondly, the California and Arizona FSA camps of the thirties were teeming with people who would go on to become fodder for the greater Los Angeles urban mass. They would populate both sides of the noir meme, some driven by need and desperation would turn to the quick buck becoming stick-up artists, embezzlers, con men, bigamists, wheelmen and assorted punks and muscle for Cohen and the rest. Others, ostensibly on their way to the Imperial Valley, would get stuck passing through Los Angeles, pausing to visit relatives or a turn at day labor or a job working for their crummy brother-in-law and never get to the Imperial Valley. They would come to feel life was stalking them, that their best intentions seemed to always turn out wrong. They'd be swindled by a fast talking salesman, marry a gold-digger, lay out cash for a muddy lot down in the Bixby Slough, buy a car with a busted main bearing. They would become the other essential part of the noir dynamic, the victim. I think what Alvaro was saying or asking was even though this photograph fails to qualify for inclusion in the thread on the basis of having no building, is not in greater Los Angeles and doesn't have the sophisticated noirish mood (I'd take exception with this one), why then is it 100% in the spirit of the thread? I believe Alvaro was defending my decision to post it and asking, perhaps rhetorically, why it was so obviously appropriate when it so obviously fails his three tests.

Biltmore Theater 1962.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/zzPPHe.jpg
old file

-also showing the San Carlos Hotel and the modernized Auditorium Building.
(I didn't notice a barber pole in the other Biltmore Theater photos posted)

__

Los Angeles sightseeing bus, 1920s. (I changed the photograph from sepia to black & white because the watermark was bright red)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/909/PI0qq5.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-Photo-1...item1e93d8f059

In some directories, the 'Disabled Veterans of the World War' is listed at 246 S. Hill Street.



Here's a detail, in the original sepia.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/745/zNvKex.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Real-Photo-1...item1e93d8f059

Looks like a rowdy bunch. ;)

__

Too rhetorical !
 

Yes dear Bruce : you've misread me. Michael is right.

Thanks Mr Ryerson for your eloquent report....most enjoyable.

I wonder if anyone ever noticed that I never attack anyone of this thread. But I'm pounced on rather frequently. Its all very amusing to me.

I may or may not like various replies here but hey, what the heck, that's their reply and they liked it or they wouldn't have posted it.

Cheers.....my noir life goes on.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

http://depts.washington.edu/epic34/f...andidate11.jpghttp://depts.washington.edu/epic34/f...andidate11.jpg



Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Upton Sinclair was a most interesting character whose influence on California was wide reaching. There is an Upton Sinclair Drive in Oxnard 93033 and it had not occurred to me until now that his 1927 novel, "Oil," was the basis for the movie, There will be blood." http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1956 Sinclair's liberal grass roots causes and '34 candidacy provoked political chicanery to blur party lines so much that Sinclair's Republican opponent (Merriam) appealed to dyed-in-the-wool, New Deal Rooseveltian Democrats. Even NLA favorite, Sister Aimee McPherson, got into the fray.


Upton Sinclair and Chaplin
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tXd4nBg6Hl...4478026002.jpghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tXd4nBg6Hl...4478026002.jpg



http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibition...5045a-1000.jpg



1926 - Sister Aimee at the Sante Fe Station. Gasometer in the background.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics10/00024626.jpghttp://jpg3.lapl.org/pics10/00024626.jpg



1930 - Angelus Temple Service in progress
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075062.jpghttp://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075062.jpg


Tangentially related discussion: "Why does LA attract so many cults?" http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...many_cults.php and LA's weirdest cults: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...s_to_1940s.php

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pscfdc9796.jpg
Paramount Pictures ~ June 1974 :cool: