noirish Los Angeles v2.0

[ethereal_reality]

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I just came across this glass slide on eBay & it's a mystery location.


"EAST LOS ANGELES BUS TERMINAL Original 3"x4" Antique Glass Film"

As a thumbnail I thought they were Universal Studios Tour buses.


eBay

So where in East Los Angeles was the East Los Angeles Bus Terminal located? ..



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[HossC]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Caption: "L.A. downtown, Nov. 1953"....image is out of a Flickr album.

I ran "Mu Bros" in the '53 Central area phone directory, no luck.

Mu Bros appears at 463 Gin Ling Way in the CDs from 1956 to 1973.

Lion dance in New Chinatown

A crowd in New Chinatown at 463 Ginling [sic] Way watching a lion dance in front of Dun Sow Hong, later known as Mu Bros. Gifts. Stanley Mu and little Lily Mu stand in front of the doorway. Mr. Soo Hoo is the heavy-set man on the far right edge of the photo in the white shirt and tie.

LAPL

LAPL also has a better picture Lily Mu and her brother in front of the counter at their father's shop here.

Excerpt from a 2023 Chinese Historical Society of Southern California newsletter:

In Remembrance of Stanton Mu

June 3, 1927 – December 24, 2022

Stanton Mu, a Charter Member of CHSSC, was born in Los Angeles in
1927. The construction of Union Station forced his family to move from
Old Chinatown to East Kensington Road in Echo Park. His father’s herb
store was relocated to Gin Ling Way in New Chinatown. There it became
a gift shop named Mu Bros.

[riichkay]

Thanks for the i.d. HossC.

After posting the image I did some searching, because the photo just did not look like any part of downtown that I knew.

I concluded "New" Chinatown was the only location candidate, but I could not pin it down.

[Alkapone]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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I just came across this glass slide on eBay & it's a mystery location.


"EAST LOS ANGELES BUS TERMINAL Original 3"x4" Antique Glass Film"

As a thumbnail I thought they were Universal Studios Tour buses.


eBay

So where in East Los Angeles was the East Los Angeles Bus Terminal located? ..



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It’s the Union Pacific rail station that was in Postman Rings 2X. The photo may be reversed as East Los Angeles is spelled backwards just below the roof.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Amateur aerial of Universal Studios 1968 with mystery mound.


eBay

I am specifically intrigued by the mystery mound in the upper right corner of the photograph.



THIS.


If the mound was out in the desert somewhere I'd say they are waiting for an UFO to land!



What movies were in production in 1966 - 67? Did any of them involve a volcano? / or a Mayan pyramid?..
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Checking Historic Aerials shows the mound was around until at least 1980 and seemed to be covered in vegetation from at least the 70's. Does look like a volcano. What was at Uni in the 60's and 70's that involved a volcano? I don't remember one on the tour. By 1985 it had been totally wiped out, replaced by buildings.

[Alkapone]

Here’s a blowup of postcard detail where the area just above the big parking lot is now the Universal Ampitheater site. The other reduced cone beyond it was probably what was left of the second ridge where the foilage had been. I expect they took those hills apart one dumptruck load at a time which could explain the dirt-like roads running in circles, sort of an inverted version of an open pit mine.The cone in the postcard is too far away from the parking lot to be the same one in the 1960’s aerial photo. Shots from around 1920 show how big those two ridges were in the beginning. Where did the fill dirt go? Road & freeway construction?

[Alkapone]

Lincoln Park Auto Camp viewed in 1928: https://calisphere.org/item/57b00f03543e2c9a69fc647db011c05f/

Presumably the same cabins referred to previously as the Tourist Camp on Valley Boulevard below Ascot #2? I expect we’re looking eastward(*) behind the main structure with the Soto/PE hillside to our backs. There was a tunnel from the park area,through the berm, that reached here.



sourced as above: Security Pacific Collection/LAPL/Calisphere

(*) After looking at the E.S.H.S. aerials again, I’d say we must be looking north or south given the cabin arrangement.

[Alkapone]

And yet another view from the road in 1928 with its’ own gas station: https://calisphere.org/item/7d2451bd2c47695e3c26473e7b874cd4/



sourced as above: Security Pacific/LAPL/Calisphere

[ethereal_reality]

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Here are two snapshots of the Centro Theater, Los Angeles area.



eBay








The Damned Don't Cry was released in 1950.


IMDB



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[ethereal_reality]

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Here's another view of the 1984 Olympic Tower that none of us remember.



eBay




I also forgot about the block-like pinnacles (for lack of a better word) placed on the ends of the colonnade at Olympic Stadium.




I wonder if all the decorations were destroyed immediately after the games.



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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here are two snapshots of the Centro Theater, Los Angeles area.


eBay

The Centro Theatre was at 7764 S Central Avenue. According to cinematreasures.org, "It was opened by 1941 and was still open in 1957". At some point it became a church, but was demolished between 2014 (as seen below) and 2015. Cinematreasures currently has no photos, so the one above may be quite rare.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

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Interesting...Thanks, Hoss.

I should send the snapshots over to cinematreasures.

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[Snix]

1939 DeSoto postcard at the Carthay Circle Theater

eBay

[ethereal_reality]

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Currently on eBay.


"Original slide 1970's Los Angeles Hollywood Blvd Capitol Records sepia"


Here




Let's take a closer look.




The first thing to catch my eye was the huge refrigeration unit on the roof of the um old Hollywood Playhouse/Palace Theater (now the Avalon Theater) because it looks like someone dolled it up,
embellishing it with decorative elements.


I'm talking about this do-hickey.

detail


OR am I seeing things?


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[ethereal_reality]

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I'm not sure why someone would take a photograph of Philippe's parking lot sign.



eBay


Looks like someone backed into it.

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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just came across this glass slide on eBay & it's a mystery location.

"EAST LOS ANGELES BUS TERMINAL Original 3"x4" Antique Glass Film"

As a thumbnail I thought they were Universal Studios Tour buses.


eBay

So where in East Los Angeles was the East Los Angeles Bus Terminal located? ..

Originally Posted by Alkapone

It’s the Union Pacific rail station that was in Postman Rings 2X. The photo may be reversed as East Los Angeles is spelled backwards just below the roof.

From losangelesrevisited.blogspot.com:

Located at 5480 Ferguson Avenue, the station was opened on May 15, 1929 by the Union Pacific Railroad. Architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood was hired by the railroad to design the building. He was also the designer of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, built in 1927. Some of the features of the hotel also appear in the East Los Angeles Train Station, including heavy beams painted in bright patterns. The exterior of the station had a cameo appearance in the 1946 film The Postman Always Rings Twice. This station ceased operation in 1971, and the building was designated a Cultural/Historic Landmark of the City of Commerce in 1990.

It's still standing, but currently surrounded by fencing and it's about 150 feet from the road.


GSV

[Alkapone]

1929 images of Union Pacific busses loading at East Los Angeles which had replaced the old L.A. Terminal facilities on the east bank after U.P. became a partner in S.P.’s Central Station, Whittington photos via USC : https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-management/2A3BF1O5L7V1M?&WS=SearchResults&Flat=FP

Image #1 from above:



sourced: USC Digital.

[ethereal_reality]

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Originally Posted by KevinW

Checking Historic Aerials shows the mound was around until at least 1980 and seemed to be covered in vegetation from at least the 70's. Does look like a volcano. What was at Uni in the 60's and 70's that involved a volcano? I don't remember one on the tour. By 1985 it had been totally wiped out, replaced by buildings.

Until I saw your post I pretty much agreed with Alkapone that they're constructing the Universal Amphitheater EVEN THOUGH you would think there'd be a hole and NOT a hill.


The amphitheater was open air until the neighbors started to complain. I believe a roof was added sometime in the 1980s. Of course now it's gone and it's 'Harry Potter World' I think.

I saw Bette Midler there on New Years Eve when she did her mermaid routine. (mermaids dancing -ala Busby Berkeley- in wheel chairs)

[ethereal_reality]

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Los Angeles Harbor 1954

Does anyone know if this 'Foreign Trade Zone' building is still standing?






Shall we take a closer look at it?


OK



It says #4 on it. ..Does that mean there were at least 3 others!?

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[ethereal_reality]

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Here's another.


1954 Ready To Debark Ship Long Beach California Kodachrome Slide











It looks over crowded if you ask me.

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