noirish Los Angeles v2.0

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A mystery location currently on eBay.


eBay

We're on Wilshire Boulevard looking east across Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills.


GSV

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is another mystery location for you sleuths.

Seller's description:...Los Angeles, California CA Mobilgas Station West Wilshire Apartments


eBay

The West Wilshire Apartments building is still there at 1021 S Park View Street, but is no longer visible from the same spot on West Olympic Boulevard.


GSV

[Alkapone]

More on Rainbow Grill: Los Angeles Theaters blogspot relaying map section of Hollywood & Vine businesses in a post about the Laemmle/Universal building: https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2025/09/laemmle-hollywood.html

Note Ivar extension is not yet built, so this may be the pre-CocoTree era when the Cross Key Cafe occupied that corner circa 1929-31 (?). The 1925-36 post office building has both a cafe and the secretarial school shown as present. Name of the cafe is not given.

That map:



sourced as above: Los Angeles Theaters blogspot.

[Alkapone]

More on Rainbow Grill: Los Angeles Theaters blogspot relaying map section of Hollywood & Vine businesses in a post about the Laemmle/Universal building: https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2025/09/laemmle-hollywood.html

Note Ivar extension is not yet built, so this may be the pre-CocoTree era when the Cross Key Cafe occupied that corner circa 1929-31 (?). The 1925-36 post office building has both a cafe and the secretarial school shown as present. Name of the cafe is not given.

That map:



sourced as above: Los Angeles Theaters blogspot.

Er…Cross Key Fountain, not Cafe.

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
I didn't know the Ashbury had its own bar!

. . .sounds noirish, was it dark? - what did the interior look like?

IIRC, and this is going back 54 years or so, the bar had its own entrance on Carondelet St. (apparently still there but not in use) as well as through the lobby. That hillside was fairly steep, so most of the barroom space was in a quasi-basement. It was pretty compact, as befits an "apartment hotel" the Asbury's size. The bartender looked like he'd been there for decades. Philip Marlowe would've felt right at home if he could've been served gimlets made the way he liked.

[Bristolian]

From what I see online, It's unclear whether the hotel bar still exists. I don't believe it does and if that's the case, it seems like the perfect spot for the NLA clubhouse.

[Alkapone]

Can anyone identify the humpback building on Ivar seen past this Vine Street theater in the circa 1936-38 image on Cinema Treasures here: https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/9863/photos/126893

From the images I could examine,the signage appearing on the roof seems to read “Grand Central Market” which was a name previously found east of Vine (see J. H. Graham blog) for a short while. So was this an open front market just off Hollywood Boulevard north of where the library had been re-sited? And is that the building or spot where Wallich was before opening Music City at Sunset? Look beyond CBS on the left to see it.

The photo from Vine westward:



sourced above: Cinema Treasures site.

[Scott Charles]

Does anybody know what restaurant used to be at 4100 Cahuenga Blvd, Toluca Lake, CA 91602, around 1973-1975?

It's currently called Ca Del Sole... here is the location on Google Maps: LINK
____

When I was a kid, we took a field trip from Toluca Lake Elementary to Campo de Cahuenga. It was just over a mile, so we walked there instead of taking a school bus.

When we walked past the restaurant that is now Ca Del Sole, all us kids were delighted to see that they were filming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man there... and who should be standing right in front of the place but Lee Majors himself!

All of us kids positively freaked out! We were huge fans. We started hollering across the street, and when Lee Majors spotted us, he yelled out “hey, kids!” and waved enthusiastically.

After that, Campo de Cahuenga was a bit of a bore.

Does anyone know what this restaurant used to be called? The name was in my memory for years, but eventually faded away...

[HossC]

Here's a 1959 photo which says it shows 4100 Cahuenga Boulevard, at which point it was Bill Storey's Restaurant. The property websites I checked give a build date of 1949 and an alteration in 1972, so it may have changed names just before you saw it.


lacountylibrary.contentdm.oclc.org

[Noir_Noir]

For a period in the 1960s 4100 Cahuenga Blvd. was home to Merrick's.



archive.org - Hollywood Studio Magazine May/June 1968


From the early 1970s well into the 1980s it was Maison Gerard.



archive.org - Architectural Digest July/August 1975

[Martin Pal]

Not sure I understand this neon figure...person... Are they being tempted with something...?

v

v

v

[posted by HossC]
lacountylibrary.contentdm.oclc.org

[Noir_Noir]

I think they were been tempted with fresh foliage - all the leaves you could eat.



cdnc.ucr.edu - Valley Times (North Hollywood), 8 February 1961

[Scott Charles]

Many thanks, you guys - and the winner is...

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

From the early 1970s well into the 1980s it was Maison Gerard.


archive.org - Architectural Digest July/August 1975

Maison Gerard! Yes, that's it! Thank you, Noir_Noir!

Knowing the name of the restaurant, I was able to find the exact episode of the show. It was called “The Seven Million Dollar Man”, and it aired on Nov 1, 1974.

I was able to find the scene on YouTube, and IMDB actually has a screenshot of the exact spot we saw Lee Majors standing in front of the restaurant!

[Snix]

Has anyone looked through the Sony stock footage site? There are some great 1970s street scenes in there. I looked at some restaurants. All but one are pretty easy to identify.

Phil’s Diner, 1982 Hart to Hart

Clip Name1457-07 PHILS DINER
https://sonypicturesstockfootage.com/preview/145707-phils-diner-474

Phil’s Diner, 1986 Night of the Creeps

Clip Name 6239-027 DINER
https://sonypicturesstockfootage.com/preview/6239027-diner-58816

Arthur’s Drive-In, 1975 Police Story (and of course later, Happy Days)

Clip Name 0067-22 COFFEE SHOP
https://sonypicturesstockfootage.com/preview/006722-coffee-shop-7852

Coffee Shop, 1978 American Girls

Clip Name 0973-14 COFFEE SHOP

Colony Coffee Shop 1982, Malibu

0973-09 SHOPPING AREA PARKING LOT
https://sonypicturesstockfootage.com/preview/097309-shopping-area-parking-lot-965
Sony Pictures Stock Footage

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Snix

Has anyone looked through the Sony stock footage site? There are some great 1970s street scenes in there. I looked at some restaurants. All but one are pretty easy to identify.

Phil’s Diner, 1982 Hart to Hart

Clip Name1457-07 PHILS DINER
https://sonypicturesstockfootage.com/preview/145707-phils-diner-474

I don't know which place you cannot identify, Snix, but your first link says that Phil's Diner was “ACTUALLY ON SUNSET BLVD”.

It was not. It was actually in the Valley, on Chandler, approximately here.

I know this because my mother and I used to eat there. It was also used as an album cover by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

E_R, that eBay photo of Sunset Blvd./Fllthy McNasty's you posted is quite good considering it's from a 4.75" by 3.5" snapshot!

I post this snapshot below because it also shows that building we discussed recently on Sunset Blvd. with the glass elevator.

PB
_______________________________________________________________

Near the end of the NLA-1 thread, riichkay had posted some Ed Ruscha photos of that building and elevator.

Here's one of them.



This is a song from Jackie DeShannon's album, Laurel Canyon, that I am not familiar with: L.A.

Info says: Released in late 1968 (and 1969/1971 in some markets), Jackie DeShannon’s Laurel Canyon is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter album capturing the LA music scene.

A note says: L.A. is a track from Jackie's album, made into one of the very earliest music videos.

At the 47 second mark, Jackie is riding up in this elevator with shots from both inside and outside.

• Video Link

[ethereal_reality]

.
...Snix, I didn't know the SONY stock footage site existed. ..Thanks for the heads up!

This one in particular caught my eye.

Originally Posted by Snix

Colony Coffee Shop 1982, Malibu

_______________________________________________________________________________

I found some information on it.

"Built in approximately 1957 the Malibu Colony Coffee Shop was the heartbeat of middle Malibu and home to generous portions of pancakes and eggs.

It was where celebrities and locals alike would gather each morning for breakfast or lunch. It would be common to see Michael Landon, Joni Mitchell, Robert Altman,
Rod Steiger, Burgess Meredith, Pia Zadora, Rob Lowe, Neil Diamond, and Ali MacGraw. The person I most remember was Burgess Meredith, he was there almost every day.

Unfortunately, the old oval shaped coffee shop did not survive.

The old Malibu Colony Coffee Shop location is now home to the Ralph’s."

merrickrealestate
brianmerrick

But in the photograph below it looks like the round section is being moved!


brianmerrick


What happened to it . . did it fall apart?


.

[ethereal_reality]

I just found out.

The Developer agreed to save the building and it was lifted and put on support beams and moved across the PCH to the vacant lot at Webb Way and PCH.
There it sat for months and one day disappeared never to be seen again. To this day there is no idea of what happened to it.


Find it!

...I'm kidding.


.

[riichkay]

In re: the Martin Pal post referencing the office building on the Sunset Strip with an exterior elevator, I came across a 1964 film called "3 Nuts In Search of A Bolt", starring Mamie Van Doren and Tommy Noonan....the picture featured another building with an elevator on the exterior....


Noonan pulls his Caddy up here.....






....and proceeds to an appointment with his analyst....note the elevator behind Noonan....





....he enters a building with a 5077 street number....





....we next see him in the elevator....





....as he ascends we get a pretty good location clue....Phil Rauch Chrysler was at 5101 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, corner of Otsego St....





....Noonan looks out over the Valley from the elevator....I think I can see snow-capped Mt. Baldy rising up behind the Verdugos, so likely a winter shoot....





The building was still with us in the 2011 GSV.....





It's since been replaced with a mixed-use retail/apartment building.


As to the film I only scanned through it, from what I can tell it's awful....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuqh4y9Ca6s&t=1393s

Perhaps the only redeeming quality is Van Doren's nude bathtub scene at around the 54:00 mark.

[rick m]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

I don't know which place you cannot identify, Snix, but your first link says that Phil's Diner was “ACTUALLY ON SUNSET BLVD”.

It was not. It was actually in the Valley, on Chandler, approximately here.

I know this because my mother and I used to eat there. It was also used as an album cover by Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers.

Jeez--- Phil and wife were the best diner owners-- He would make a mean Devil's Mess-- Said a fond goodbye when they were closing and returning to Seoul Korea SIGH