noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.Believe it or not the group of slides (being sold individually) includes this one of The Extension.


eBay

I wouldn't have made the 'connection' between the Phone Booth and the Extension if not for your research, M P.
One Ringy Dingy
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That's a find, I've never seen a photo of the Extension! A lot of rock n' roll articles have mentioned it, because of the recording studio that was next door. The address for it is 8500 Santa Monica Blvd., the SW corner of the intersection. It's now Bikes & Hikes, a place that allows one to tour around the area on rented bicycles, and it also sells bikes. For a good many year's before that it was Al & Ed's Auto Sound. And for a long time, when you were here, E_R, it was Hamburger Habit or Haven or Hamburger something...?

And in trying to find a photo of the Hamburger place, I discovered that this has recently been announced for consideration to build on that corner:

Urbanize

L.A. is rising...the more people, the more height buildings are getting...until we have a tremor...or something...and they'll have a second look.

[Snix]

So I think we have concluded that there were TWO locations for The Phone Booth

9011 Sunset (Above the Roxy Theater)
AND
8505 Santa Monica Blvd.

The address on Santa Monica Blvd. cycled through many restaurants and other tenants until it was demolished for a mini mall around 1980.
All that and I get to say "Belcher's Broiler" over and over again.

Kiefer’s Pine Knot Drive-In Café
Daily News 5/2/39

Vetry’s Den
4/2/46

Belcher’s Broiler
(Later Beecher’s)
Citizen News 7/6/48

Ted Steele’s Steak House
11/29/55

Dover House
Evening Citizen 5/2/60

Albert Califano’s Dover House
LAT 10/17/65

Phone Booth fire
LAT 1/1/70

Tomorrow’s Antiques
LAT 3/23/75

Leo’s Flower Shop (in new mini mall)
LAWeekly 4/3/80

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
This 35mm slide was recently listed on eBay



I don't believe we have seen the PHONE BOOTH on NLA.


eBay

I'm pretty sure this is the Sunset Strip. Does anyone know what this place was before it became a strip joint? It looks familiar but I can't place it.

.

[Mackerm]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
I don't believe we have seen the PHONE BOOTH on NLA.
.

I didn't mention that strip club, but I did make a link to this page created by members of the band The Doors which contains some photos and memorabilia for The Phone Booth toward the top.

www.rayandrobby.com (archived)

[odinthor]

Meanwhile at 9011 Sunset:

1939:


LA Times, 2/4/1939

1960:


LA Times, 3/25/1960

And something of 9009 Sunset in 1958:


LA Times, 2/7/1958

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Mackerm

I didn't mention that strip club, but I did make a link to this page created by members of the band The Doors which contains some photos and memorabilia for The Phone Booth toward the top.

www.rayandrobby.com (archived)
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Mackerm, that website [ww.rayandrobby.com] is where I first learned about the Phone Booth...but it's been defunct. So how did you locate it on the Web Archive link? (I just tried doing it myself, but didn't come up with it as you did.) The following photos have not been lost!


Two photos of the intersection of Santa Monica Blvd. and La Cienega Blvd., 1969.

The building in the bottom right corner of both photos is the Extension. I see there's a an actual "phone booth" outside it. Also notice the La Cienega Bowling Lanes across the corner. If you were standing in the exact spot these photos were taken you'd now be standing in the relocated Tail o' the Pup stand.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Snix

So I think we have concluded that there were TWO locations for The Phone Booth

9011 Sunset (Above the Roxy Theater)
AND
8505 Santa Monica Blvd.
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As Jerry1656 noted, there was also a Phone Booth at some point across the street from the 9011 location at 9016 Sunset Blvd., which is this one:

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

...a 1973 photo of the Phone Booth:

H.P./Torrence
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Currently the Tenmasa Sushi Restaurant.



The Ruscha photo I posted showing the Phone Booth at 9011 was taken in 1966, so it must've moved by 1973, unless for some reason there were two of them across the street from one another.

[Mackerm]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Mackerm, that website [ww.rayandrobby.com] is where I first learned about the Phone Booth...but it's been defunct. So how did you locate it on the Web Archive link?

I remembered it from this post

I was dubious about the address given for the photo of the band standing on the stairs, since the building looks different, but eventually stumbled on a site which linked to the dead www.rayandrobby.com and then took a gander at the archived version.

Update

I now see that Martin Pal and HossC wrote about The Phone Booth back in 2013. Includes some dead hotlinks

[ethereal_reality]

.
Here's The Classic Cat from the same photographer. (circa 1970s)

I am almost certain this was a video store when I lived on Hancock in West Hollywood. (1980s)


eBay




Here's pretty much how it looked when it was the video store.


gsv - 2011 - Southeast corner of Sunset Blvd. and Larrabee.





And today.


GSV

Outer-Spacey



All I can say is the photographer of all these recent slides must have been a strip joint connoisseur.
.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Case in point..The Losers Club.


eBay (location unknown)


The LSD Revue? ..The mind boggles.

.

[Martin Pal]

E_R, the original Classic Cat opened in 1965 at 8844 Sunset Boulevard and closed in the late '70s.

There's a NEW Classic Cat next door to the original location at 8830 Sunset Blvd. and I believe it opened in the fall of 2021, where Pono Burger was, but has been having trouble with "authorities" when they ignored coronavirus restrictions still in place at first, and they've recently been cited for after hours drinking. And noise. The place, for some reason, doesn't even have a sign outside advertising itself. I don't know much about it. Supposed to be a supper club. I don't think the employees are topless.

Before the original Classic Cat on the corner at Larrabee, it was Bublichki's Russian Restaurant and then torn down and remodeled as Jerry Lewis' Restaurant ("Jerry's") and became the Classic Cat after that. It then was University Stereo before it became Tower Video until the building was torn down in 2012:

SunsetandClark

Then the bank, as you mentioned.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
All I can say is the photographer of all these recent slides must have been a strip joint connoisseur.
.
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Heh! I was thinking that, too! But the photos are great. Not seen a better one of the Classic Cat and never seen one of the Extension!

I gotta see if I can find out anything about these restaurants. I've never heard of them, either!

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

eBay

This must be La Cienga Blvd. (the fabled 'Restaurant Row') but I don't believe I have ever heard of the Longhorn (down the street a bit) nor the Casa Escobar.

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[Martin Pal]

Nothing on the Longhorn, but I found a matchbook cover that lists several locations for Casa Escobar Restaurants and one of them was located at 806 N. La Cienega Blvd.
which is at Waring Avenue. I couldn't find any other photos of the Casa Escobar there, but I found a photo from the mid-'50s at that address
which was the Encore, where the Gross Trio is appearing...how appetizing! (E_R found this photo in a 2013 post.)

OnBunkerHill

The street sign indicates it is indeed located at Waring.

The link for the photo says: In 1946, the building at 806 N. La Cienega was home to Billy Gordon Originals, custom fashions, and by the late 1970s,
it was the Jeffrey Horvitz art gallery. In years between, it was the Encore, a joint that was something of a magnet for trouble.

No mention of Casa Escobar, but the link details the trouble at the Encore joint.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

And here's another one!



eBay

This must be La Cienga Blvd. (the fabled 'Restaurant Row') but I don't believe I have ever heard of the Longhorn (down the street a bit) nor the Casa Escobar.

.

e_r, the Longhorn:


LA Times, 4/13/1969



LA Times, 6/20/1969


LA Times, 6/20/1969

[Martin Pal]

Odinthor, thanks for finding the Longhorn...at 826 N. La Cienega Blvd.!

[Martin Pal]

When I was searching the La Cienega and Santa Monica Blvd. intersection becauae of the recent posts, I happened upon a photo concerning Art Linkletter's La Cienega Lanes.


(Photo by Bert Parry/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

The caption: Art Linkletter on the left with a group of people, c.1955.
I think they might be notable people! Some guesses...agree?

1. Art Linkletter
2. Donald O'Connor
3. Shelley Winters
4. Lex Barker
5. ?
6. ?
Not to mention the guy with the bowling shirt: Linkletter's | La Cienega.

[Bristolian]

Just a guess but #6 kind of looks like Jonathan Winters. He seems to be a logical fit with that crowd and time.

[GaylordWilshire]

Mercury tablets in a school water cooler is interesting, but the ad for the Hormone Pharmacy really caught my eye.

[Martin Pal]

It would've been a better "prank" to put the hormones in the water cooler.
___

Until the mid-20th century, mercury salts were considered the main cure for syphilis. Its toxic effects on workers in the hat factories in England in the 19th century, where mercury was used as a cleaning agent, gave rise to the term “mad hatter.”

[GaylordWilshire]

Christmas is coming...



Daily News 7-7-52

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Case in point..The Losers Club.


eBay (location unknown)

The LSD Revue? ..The mind boggles.

The Losers was at 881 N La Cienega Boulevard. That's roughly opposite Willoughby Avenue, but the building has gone. There are a few more pictures and clippings here.

Next door in the photo above is the McKenzie Gallery at 861 N La Cienega. It was open for about 10 years. Its owner, Richard (Dick) McKenzie, married Fred Astaire's daughter, Ava. There's a little more info about the gallery here and here.