Quote:
Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
I used to know a woman [Joanie] in 1972 who worked at an X-rated photo studio that was located in the Crossroads of the World building on Sunset Blvd.. They took photos of people who were interested in nude modeling and acting in X-rated films. They always gave the patrons wine and then took nude photos of them. They always had an endless supply of male and female models. Its Hollywood so there's no surprise there.
I don't remember the name of the studio but the year was around 1972.
HollywoodLocations |
I dunno what was going on in 1972, but Crossroads of the World has a bit of a
noiry backstory:
Racketeering crime Boss
Charles Crawford, "The Wolf of Spring Street", had many underworld connections. In 1921, he and his associate,
Kent Kane Parrot, chose lawyer
George Cryer to be candidate for mayor to defeat "reform" incumbent
Meredeth Snyder. Parrot ran Cryer's campaign, and, on election, became shadow mayor, giving Crawford's "City Hall Gang" firm control of the city government from 1921 until 1929, with particular control over the LAPD. This politicians/cops/criminals racketeering arrangement was known as "The Combination" and by some as "The System". Business leaders (even those not on the take) and the newspapers enthusiastically supported this because the City Hall Gang gave full rein to the LAPD's vicious "Red Squad", keeping LA union-free.
Eventually, even the newspapers had had enough of graft and corruption and promoted
John C Porter, a senior Klan member, for mayor. On Porter's election in 1929 (which didn't slow down the Red Squad one tiny bit), without Parrot's and Cryer's protection and after narrowly escaping conviction in the Julian Oil scandal (the indictment was dismissed at the last minute), Crawford tried to go straight. Charlie opened a real estate office in a bungalow he'd had built in 1924 on Sunset Boulevard (next to Blessed Sacrament RC church) and started a periodical, "Critic of Critics", run by newspaperman Herbert Spencer, to harry his opponents. Charlie also made seeming efforts to act like a family man. Here he is with wife Ella and daughters Joan and Eleanor:
LMB Couture
However, Charlie could not escape his past. In May 1931 Crawford and Spencer were gunned down in the bungalow. David H "Debonair Dave" Clark, prosecutor and candidate for judge confessed to the killings, claiming self-defense. Clark's first trial resulted in a hung jury (the one "Guilty" holdout juror found a bomb on his front lawn the next day). Unsurprisingly, Clark was acquitted of all charges at the retrial, but went downhill from there,
killing again.
The scene of the crime (before Crossroads of the World) 6665 Sunset Blvd, circa 1929-1935:
uscdl (detail)
Clark's run for judge was interrupted by his indictment
on double homicide charges:
deranged crimes
It's what sells newspapers:
crossroadsoftheworld
The widows, Ella Crawford and Frances Spencer, at Clark's trial (LAT 8/6/1931):
kcet
Clark and his wife Nancy in court, 1931. She looks like she has her doubts. (Nancy divorced Clark in 1939):
lapl (detail)
Mayor Cryer left office a millionaire, living to 87. He had a massive funeral, his body lying in state in the rotunda of City Hall accompanied by an Honor Guard of LAPD officers.
Kent Kane Parrot died in bed at 73, a rich and unrepentant man.
For more info see
here, here, here,
here,
here and, of course,
here
Meanwhile, after the murders (and a disastrous, but brief, second marriage), Crawford's widow,
Ella Crawford, left with two young children, needed an income. She invested her extremely ill-gotten inheritance in a shopping center and office complex, the Crossroads of the World, on the site of her husband's murder, hiring architect Robert V Derrah (who concurrently worked on his Coca-Cola building):
onlyinhollywood
Heralding the 29 October 1936 opening:
thecrossroadsoftheworld (previously posted by
Martin Pal)
The 57 shops and 36 offices were charming. Alfred Hitchcock and The Screen Actor's Guild moved in. In 1955 the complex was converted to offices only, except for the Sunset Blvd frontage.
Some of the initial shops:
kcet
The complex in 1936 when it opened:
Ella Crawford and an unnamed companion celebrate the opening:
The tower of the First Baptist church in the background:
The tower on the left was the one
originally built for Blessed Sacrament. Both the church and tower were later replaced:
Pix above from a total of 19 at the Crossroads of the World
site via Jim Heimann (Taschen Publishing is a CotW tenant)
Ella Crawford, her marriages behind her, looking happy at last, in her Crossroads of the World office circa 1935-36:
LMB Couture
Neon close-ups:
experiencingLA (previously posted by
Martin Pal)
crossroadsoftheworld
crossroadsoftheworld
The Derrah proposal:
crossroadsoftheworld
As built (the building on the right covers the footprint of the bungalow where the slayings took place):
gsv
Martin Pal's taken us down this road before:
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=19705