noirish Los Angeles v2.0

[HossC]

Originally Posted by odinthor

e_r, could the building under construction be the building at the SE corner of Spring and 6th, at present that of the Thurman Lofts, but apparently built in 1960 (I don't know the original name)?


detail of previously-posted image

The Thurman Lofts were previously the SB Tower, but originally the the Claude Beelman designed United California Bank. It was completed in 1961. Early GSV images show openings being cut into the 3-story granite base.


Huntington DL

[ethereal_reality]

.
I don't know why I like this slide but I do.


"LOS ANGELES c1953 HILL STREET PERSHING SQUARE CA OOAK 35mm Slide Red Kodachrome"



eBay

.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Currently on eBay mystery location. [two slides]







.

[ethereal_reality]

.

An annotated dinner party with illustrious guests.


Michael and Virginia Back Collection

/ from the reverse


"Sidney Chaplin NOT Clive Brook."


.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

re: Sunset Strip Video

From Wikipedia:

The Crescendo was a West Hollywood music venue located at 8572 Sunset Boulevard. It opened in 1954, along with the Interlude upstairs, and ran until 1964.

It was primarily a jazz club, but also hosted comics.

BTW. I set the playback speed to 0.25 to make it a little easier to keep up.

I just happened upon this pleasing photograph of the Crescendo and the Interlude.


instagram/alisonmartino

"The Crescendo and comedy acts upstairs at The Interlude. For example Chubby Checker actually introduced “The Twist’, at the Crescendo in 1961 and Lenny Bruce was totally unknown when he started headlining upstairs.
Other legendary performers included Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Louie Armstrong, Count Basie
Oscar Brown, Jr., Eddie Cano June Christy, Sam Cooke, Billy Eckstine
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Harry James,
Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, Sarah Vaughn. Headlining comics acts included: Woody Allen, Shelley Berman, Lord Buckley, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Bob Newhart,
Don Rickles, Mort Sahl & Jonathan Winters.

The Crescendo closed in 1965. The Trip opened soon after in 1965." -alisonmartino
__________________________________________________________________________


I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of it when it was 'The Trip'. Help me out here.

.

[JScott]

Just plain California Bank at that time. :-)

Originally Posted by HossC

The Thurman Lofts were previously the SB Tower, but originally the the Claude Beelman designed United California Bank. It was completed in 1961. Early GSV images show openings being cut into the 3-story granite base.


Huntington DL

[HossC]

Fair enough.

The source for the photo I posted described it as the "United California Bank" and so does the 1961 CD, but it was definitely built as the "California Bank".


Huntington DL

Los Angeles Magazine has an article about how the bank abandoned their shiny new building after only 13 years as the banking sector moved west.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Currently on eBay mystery location. [two slides]

The West Coast Platen Co was at 643 S San Pedro Street from at least the 1950s to the 1980s (going by the CD listings) and the Ames Supply Co is there from the 1950s to the 1970s. None of the buildings around the streetcar are still standing.

[odinthor]

Now that we're on South San Pedro St. the next block south (700s) from the above has this interesting building on the east side:


gsv

Go round to the back and one can see that it's an old brick structure behind the nicely-maintained frontage on San Pedro St. Do we know anything about this place?

[HossC]

I couldn't easily find a build date, but it hasn't changed much since this 1965 photo.


LAPL

[odinthor]

Thanks, Hoss. Pickings are lean; but I finally found something:

"Cast Iron Commercial Building. 740-748 South San Pedro Street. This 1903 structure is one of the best examples in Los Angeles of buildings made with prefabricated metal. Declared : 3/19/1975." --from book: Landmark L.A.: Historic-Cultural Monuments of Los Angeles, by Jeffrey Herr, 2002, p. 432.

Metal? I see bricks. But no doubt the cast iron metal underlies the bricks. I haven't had a chance to piece through 1903 newspaper archives for any scraps of further information.

[Scott Charles]

There is some good information about the Cast Iron Building on the Big Orange Landmarks website:

No. 140 - Cast Iron Commercial Building
https://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.com/2008/05/no-140-cast-iron-commercial-building.html
______

Cast Iron Commercial Building
1903
740 – 748 South San Pedro Street
Declared: 3/19/75

One of the city’s last remaining partly cast-iron buildings, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 140 sits on land formerly the homestead of one of the city’s early leading native citizens.

The land used to be part of a twenty-acre ranch owned by Frank Sabichi. Sabichi was born in Mexican L.A. in 1842, married Magdalena Wolfskill, daughter of William Wolfskill and Magdalena Lugo, in 1865, and went on to become a prominent lawyer, city councilman, and land owner. The Sabichis lived on the ranch until they built a mansion at 2437 South Figueroa Street (then Pearl Street). (Although today the site of the St Vincent’s Church parking lot, part of the old Sabichi home can be seen in this picture of its next-door neighbor, HCM No. 212, the Stimson Residence).

In September 1897, the Los Angeles Times announced the parceling of the former Sabichi spread:

The Frank Sabichi tract, of twenty acres, at the corner of Seventh and San Pedro street, will be offered at private sale on Monday next, by the Los Angeles agents of the property. The tract has been divided into 176 lots, varying from 25 to 100 feet front, and from 110 to 122 ½ feet deep. The property fronts San Pedro street, Seventh street, Crocker street, Towne avenue, Ruth avenue, Gladys avenue and Agatha street. There are alleys 12 ½ feet and 15 feet wide. The streets are all graded, sewered, curbed and sidewalked, and a four-inch water main pipe along each street. The tract is well located, being only half a mile from the postoffice. The prices asked for the property vary from $450 to $600 for inside 25-foot lots, to $800 and $900 for 25-foot lots on San Pedro street, and from $45 per foot up for frontage on Seventh street. These prices are referred to by the agents as “hard-time prices.”

Anybody know for whom Gladys, Ruth (now Stanford), and Agatha Streets were named? Sabichi girls, I bet.

In 1900, Sabichi died in his home at the age of 58 from “a stroke of apoplexy.”

The monument is mainly Queen Anne in style with ten oriel, or bay, windows, the corner one topped with a witch’s hat. The lower floor is made of predominately flower shops, the upper floor contains apartments. The building measures 315’ x 62’.

The article only features modern-day photos of the building with no vintage photos. The article also contains a number of links, though most of the links are dead at this point.

[Scott Charles]

PS: Here is a good article about cast-iron architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast-iron_architecture. The article is chock-full of great photos of cast iron structures.

Cast-iron is very strong in terms of weight-bearing strength, meaning that it can support buildings with much more slender columns than if one were using masonry columns of the same weight-bearing strength.

However, cast-iron is extremely brittle, which would seem to make it a poor match for earthquake-prone Los Angeles. If you bend it, it starts to crack.

Cast-iron has high compressive strength, but low tensile strength.

Its usage was generally phased out by 1900.

In case anyone is interested (I had to look this up):

Tensile strength is a material's ability to resist being pulled apart.

Imagine grabbing both ends of a rope and pulling. The amount of force the rope can withstand before breaking is related to its tensile strength.

Compressive strength is a material's ability to resist being squeezed or crushed.

Imagine stacking weight on top of a concrete block. The amount of force it can withstand before cracking or collapsing is related to its compressive strength.

Concrete has very high compressive strength, but poor tensile strength. It resists crushing well but cracks when stretched.

This is why concrete is usually reinforced with steel rebar—the concrete handles compression, and the steel handles tension.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just happened upon this pleasing photograph of the Crescendo and the Interlude.


instagram/alisonmartino

"The Crescendo and comedy acts upstairs at The Interlude. For example Chubby Checker actually introduced “The Twist’, at the Crescendo in 1961 and Lenny Bruce was totally unknown when he started headlining upstairs.
Other legendary performers included Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Louie Armstrong, Count Basie
Oscar Brown, Jr., Eddie Cano June Christy, Sam Cooke, Billy Eckstine
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Harry James,
Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, Sarah Vaughn. Headlining comics acts included: Woody Allen, Shelley Berman, Lord Buckley, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Bob Newhart,
Don Rickles, Mort Sahl & Jonathan Winters.

The Crescendo closed in 1965. The Trip opened soon after in 1965." -alisonmartino
__________________________________________________________________________


I don't think I've ever seen a photograph of it when it was 'The Trip'. Help me out here.

.
_______________________________________________________________

^^^ I like the mention of June Christy!

Glad you happened upon this amazing photo!

There are few photos taken of this area head on. Can anyone make out what's on the marquee?
---

Most photos there are of The Trip are side shots with the marquee, like these:

VLA/Martino

It was right next to the new 10 story Playboy Club Building which opened in Dec. 1964 and dwarfed the club building.

An amazing napkin photo from The Trip (and matchbook) is on Worthpoint: LINK.

A website titled Tinnitist has a photo of The Trip where the subject of his article, Billy Preston, recorded a live album there.

Tinnitist

Wonder if the club played the top songs of the week?

If you look closer at that top area that looks like window panes...looking closer it also looks like boxes with items inside them.

---

Also nearby was The Sea Witch and Allison Martino recently (3 days ago) posted on Instagram a rare color photo of the place...14 related images and
some amazing color street footage of The Sea Witch!

AlisonMartino/instagram

[ethereal_reality]

.
THANKS for the photographs of 'The Trip', Martin Pal.

I appreciate it.



.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just happened upon this pleasing photograph of the Crescendo and the Interlude.


instagram/alisonmartino

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

There are few photos taken of this area head on. Can anyone make out what's on the marquee?

I think the bottom line reads "GEORGE S-------", which could be the George Shearing Quintet.

• Video Link

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

[...] hmm. . I vaguely remember that there was a 'bridge' walkway between the old Hall of Records and the L.A. County Courthouse.

[...]

Am I correct or did I just dream it up?..I tried to find a photograph of it but I didn't have any lunch.

.

https://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_LA_Buildings%20(1925%20+)_4_of_8.html

[ethereal_reality]

.


THERE IT IS! . . and it's three tiered.

Thanks, odinthor.

.

[Lwize]

Both are gone, including the mysterious floating red arrow!

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

I think the bottom line reads "GEORGE S-------", which could be the George Shearing Quintet.

• Video Link
_______________________________________________________________

Wow! Great album cover find, HossC!

I read on an Allison Martino post that all this live music people could go listen to "could be had for the price of a drink!" Really? No cover charges, admission fees...! How much were those drinks?!