noirish Los Angeles

[riichkay]

There will be another song for me
And I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it


I will drink the wine while it is warm
And never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life, you'll still be the one


I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers from the sky
Oh, and after all the loves of my life
After all the loves in my life
You'll still be the one
And I'll ask myself why

---Jimmy Webb
"MacArthur Park", 1967



MacArthur Park, 1952....



flickr

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I'm sure your Mom enjoyed that!

Well, with all of the money I spent on the bass, I didn't have enough left to buy an amplifier - so at least she got a bit of silence before the next summer vacation, during which I earned enough to buy my first amp!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

For what it's worth, my own follow-ups to the posting advanced--correctly or otherwise--the gent being Elmer J. Bussell of (in 1929) 1030 W. 49th and of (in 1940) 6342 6th St., who was born around 1901.
But I don't believe we ever figured out where he was in the photo.

Thanks for the reminder about the unsolved mystery odinthor.


I don't believe we ever discussed what this huge 'stand alone' cement(?) 'wall' might be.


DETAIL 1



As I was making my red lines I saw something else that I hadn't noticed before.

It appears to be a hanging shingle sign with a white post.


DETAIL 2

At first I was excited because I thought that it might say 'Dr. Parker'. . . but on closer inspection I believe it says something a lot more generic like 'No Parking'.
But I've never seen a No Parking sign that looks like that one!

Color me baffled.


Thanks again, odinthor.
.

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I'm DYIN' .

[[email protected]]

The No Parking sign is a So. Cal Automobile Club sign of the 20's and used for many years. Several variations of this sign here is one from my collection.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Thanks for your help, callboxsam. We would have never figured out that sign.

And welcome to NLA.

.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

The No Parking sign is a So. Cal Automobile Club sign of the 20's and used for many years. Several variations of this sign here is one from my collection.

Thanks for this. A few questions occur to me--I wonder if you have any thoughts:

--Under what circumstances would the Auto Club signs be used (rather than signs erected by the city)?

--Is there any part of (greater) Los Angeles that was more likely to make use of these signs ca. 1929?

--What parts of L.A. are known for certain to have used these signs?

[[email protected]]

For the first part of the 1900's there were no signs, the need became great as more people bought cars. Some signs appeared home made, some by corps. that put their product names on them. Automobile clubs were formed and they started to have signs made and posted them (Automobile Club of So. Cal. and Ca. State Automobile Association in N. Cal.)
Cities, counties and the state did not put signs up till much later. In a nutshell there was a need and it was neglected by the governments till the middle part of the century.

[riichkay]

The album was released on Jan. 17, 1966.

Paul and Artie were out of Queens, so I always assumed this photo was taken somewhere north of the city, maybe a place like Dutchess County....the vibe is late-April after things have greened up, or perhaps a chilly morning in early fall.....

I would never have imagined the location was L.A., but indeed it is.....the photo was taken in Franklin Canyon Park by Guy Webster in 1965.

These folks claim this is the location....https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3531787120172061&set=a.1112910698726394

[quickstop]

I've been to Franklin canyon a million and those two pictures are not in the same place, if that's whats beeing said

[Martin Pal]

From a little research, there's no doubt the album photo was taken in Franklin Canyon by Guy Webster. It's true that the linked facebook photo doesn't look exactly right as it looks wider with a manhole cover in the pavement, but the linked photo (2020) is also 55 years later.

A commenter on Reddit wrote: Spent the better part of two years worth of dog walks looking for this spot. Lot of possibilities and places that it could be, but nothing definitive enough to say "yes, this is it."

Another Webster photo:
Tumblr

This San Francisco Art Exchange LINK has this anecdote:

Paul Simon, and Art Garfunkel visited Franklin Canyon with Guy Webster for the cover shoot of their 1966 album Sounds of Silence. Webster listened to it before meeting them and was stunned, calling it "so literate and beautifully evocative." The shoot was a long one; Webster took pleasure in getting to know them and invited them back to his dad's house in Beverly Hills. His dad, Paul, a three-time Oscar-winning songwriter, hit it off with them over their love of literature, especially Dickens.

Paul Webster, not a familiar name to me, won three Oscars? Well, he sure did.
He was nominated 16 (!) times and won for:
1953: "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane.
1955: "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" - title song.
1965: "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper, which I happened to have just watched for the first time a week or so ago.

That same year, Guy Webster also photographed The Rolling Stones in Franklin Canyon for their US compilation album Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).


Discogs

[JScott]

I agree - the road with the manhole cover is not even remotely similar topography as the shot on the album sleeve.

Originally Posted by quickstop

I've been to Franklin canyon a million and those two pictures are not in the same place, if that's whats beeing said

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by JScott

I agree - the road with the manhole cover is not even remotely similar topography as the shot on the album sleeve.

Particularly as in the album photo, there's a very large hill on the right side of the photo. On the current-day photo, there's a small valley.

[Martin Pal]

We're not disputing the album cover was shot in Franklin Canyon, only the photo linked that said that's where it was, correct?
---
Franklin Canyon Park has changed significantly in the last 60 years, primarily due to safety concerns after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake, which led to the emptying of the lower reservoir and a lowered water level in the upper reservoir, creating a marshy area. The National Park Service purchased the land in 1981 and the area was converted from private land, which previously wouldn't have had any manhole covers, into the Franklin Canyon Park in the 1980s, with the construction of educational facilities like the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom. These changes transformed a largely unchanged open space and filming location into a public park with a new ecological landscape and developed educational resources. Despite the changes, Franklin Canyon remains a popular filming location, with about 25 films shot there annually.

[Martin Pal]

I did a search, but didn't see this mentioned before...

Franklin Canyon Park is widely recognized as being at or very near the geographic center of Los Angeles,
and a plaque marking the specific "Exact Center Point" of the city is located within the park.

Historical Marker Data Base

[odinthor]

The Huntington Building, alias the Pacific Electric Building, on Main Street, under construction.


Somewhat enlarged, from Llewellyn Iron Works ad at unpaginated back of 1904 book Our Architecture https://books.google.com/books?id=AFRDAQ...IHVAeL2MQ6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

And from another ad of another contractor--same book reference as above--the finished building:

[ethereal_reality]

.
Four old negatives have turned up on Ebay of a family enjoying a grand day out at the Lick Pier in Venice/Santa Monica. The pier burnt down in 1924 so the negs pre-date the fire.


eBay





eBay

I'm little confused by the couple 'promenading' arm in arm inside the umbrella store. They look like they should be outside. ....or is it an optical illusion?

..perhaps

.

[riichkay]

Yet another Hollywood scandal from the Noir years (photo and caption are courtesy the Hollywood Heights Assn. via Instagram)....




"Actress Alice White, who lived in Hollywood Heights until her death in 1983, is seen here with her husband screenwriter Sidney “Sy” Bartlett on Broadview Terrace. A scandal erupted in 1933 after they were accused of arranging the beating of British actor John Warburton . Though the grand jury did not bring charges, her career never recovered and she soon returned to secretarial work."

This is perhaps a composite photo, as the couple stand out in bold contrast to the background.

[ethereal_reality]

That's interesting about actress Betty Alice White, riichkay... I'm going to look it up on the Google.

But first . . .

this framed illustration of a proposed apartment building just popped up on eBay
.


eBay

Does anyone know whether or not it was built.

.

[HossC]

I can't find any reference to the Thernwall Apartments, but I found the Lucille Apartments on the south-east corner of Sunset Boulevard and Lucile Avenue (not Street). Notice that Lucile Avenue has one "l" and the Lucille Apartments has two. This may be because the earlier CDs list two Lucile (one "l") Apartments and they wanted to be different. The address was 3724 Sunset Boulevard.

Looking at various old aerial photos, there was a building which appears to match the footprint of the one in the picture above up until about 1980.

The road geometry also matches - see GSV.

My searches are yet to turn up any photos.