noirish Los Angeles

[austlar1]

What is going on across the way with the four billboard arrangement? It looks rather imposing, but I can't figure out whether that bill board is covering up the side of a building or is the side of a building.

[Ninja55]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/5523257043_ab01e68da2_b.jpg

I'm not sure this is noirish enough or at all, but it's a cool pic. That's Bert Rovere on the left, then L.A. County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz (1932-1958) and Silent Screen star Roman Navarro next to Bert. The other gent is unkown, but the back of the pick says "commish man", whatever that means.

[Ninja55]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5092/5523256721_498e235726_b.jpg


One of the wall murals from the Paris Inn.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Ninja55

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/5523257043_ab01e68da2_b.jpg

I'm not sure this is noirish enough or at all, but it's a cool pic. That's Bert Rovere on the left, then L.A. County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz (1932-1958) and Silent Screen star Roman Navarro next to Bert. The other gent is unkown, but the back of the pick says "commish man", whatever that means.

Well, ninja55, I'd say that Ramon's sad end qualifies that pic as noirish. Quite a story.

Reporters gathering at his house after his brutal murder in 1968:

Los Angeles Times
3110 Laurel Canyon, Studio City, Halloween 1968

findadeath.com

This site tells the story well: http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/n/Ramon_Novarro/The_Murder_of_Silent_Film_Star_Ramon_Novarro.htm

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Ninja55

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5132/5523257043_ab01e68da2_b.jpg

I'm not sure this is noirish enough or at all, but it's a cool pic. That's Bert Rovere on the left, then L.A. County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz (1932-1958) and Silent Screen star Roman Navarro next to Bert. The other gent is unkown, but the back of the pick says "commish man", whatever that means.

This is such an amazing photograph Ninja55!
I gasped when you said it was Ramon Navarro. It is very rare to see a photo of Mr. Novarro from this time period.

As GaylordWilshire pointed out...he was murdered by two male hustlers in 1968.

[elvenaditoevan]

I'm quite impressed with all the beautiful photography in this forum. Los Angeles' history is quite fascinating to me, and as i can tell, to all of you too (: I love going through these posts looking at those impressive pictures of downtown LA from the early 20th century. And sadly, i cannot help but notice that all those extravagant structures and buildings have now become places that have been mistreated by the owners and landlords. Those great buildings on Broadway that has sadly fallen into despair. I would love to see each one of those buildings be revived from the grave. They deserve better!
I cannot help but notice too the immense artistic talent those architects and builders have. OMG. those columns, those reliefs on the facades. AHHH. i could go crazy by just staring at them with awh. (I'm a historic architecture LOVER LOL) and everytime i see these pictures, it kinda brings me down a little. :/
but anyhow, GREAT THREAD.!! I LOVE IT! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORKS GUYS

[ethereal_reality]

USC Digital Archive


I love the magazine/refreshment stand at the left edge of this photo.

[ethereal_reality]

UCLA

A very 'noirish' image of a Flying A Service station at Western & Jefferson in 1962.

[gsjansen]

definately another image from the usc archives that i had never ever seen before................

looking east from temple and hill 1927


Source: USC Digital Archive


wow!

[ethereal_reality]

^^^ That is such a great image gsjansen!



I believe this photo is new to the archive as well.


USC Digital Archive

There are quite a few photos of the famous Temple Block in this thread...but this is the first view of the side of the building.

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

USC Digital Archive


I love the magazine/refreshment stand at the left edge of this photo.

Dr Pepper is good for life? And if I live in certain development I'll live forever?

Here's a reverse of that shot:

usc

And a 20s shot looking up at the Variety Arts, before it became the Times --

lapl

[jg6544]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

Dr Pepper is good for life? And if I live in certain development I'll live forever?

Here's a reverse of that shot:

usc

And a 20s shot looking up at the Variety Arts, before it became the Times --

lapl

Smog or fog these and the one of City Hall under construction?

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

definately another image from the usc archives that i had never ever seen before................

looking east from temple and hill 1927


Source: USC Digital Archive


wow!

Yeah, what is it about the assorted archives and the assorted additions therein? There should be a little button up top that says "See What's New!" or something. For example, all of a sudden there are new Bunker Hill residence shots at LAPL. I mean, are they slowly pulling them from the files and uploading them, or are they new acquisitions from folk who wander in with piles of grandpa's images? Anyway, I dug these new pix of Bunker homes --

256 S BH:



232 S Olive:



251 S BH:



209 S BH:



232 S BH:



301 S BH (you always see that lattice and double pitched roof in the bg of the benches over the 3rd St tunnel terminus):



Here's a pic of 215 N Hill, where Burt Lancaster famously lives in Criss Cross:



They're calling this 523 S BH http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=106&controlNumber=29869 but of course there was no 523 S BH -- I'm fairly certain this is 523 Court St, but don't quote me on it just yet.



They say http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=71&controlNumber=29049 this one is 123 Bunker Hill, but that's a bit misleading, as 123 was its original street number before the street renumbering ordinance of 1889. It's commonly known as 221.



That's a smattering of them, anyway.

[gsjansen]

B! thanx for the heads up on new photos at the library.

great images that were unkown prior

looking east from the union bank building site between 4th and fith on figueroa - 1956.....a great view of the oliver house


Source: LAPL

from that to this in 10 years


Source: USC Digital Archive

olive street between 2nd and 1st. the melrose hotel on grand is visible on top of the hill


Source: LAPL

demolition of the melrose is almost complete as viewed from olive street


Source: LAPL


looking west from the 200 block of bunker hill avenue (between 2nd and 3rd), 1886


Source: LAPL

looking west from the former location of 215 n hill street, the st. angelo hotel is the victorian structure on temple and grand


Source: LAPL

[GaylordWilshire]

USCDL

I love this shot of Mrs. Mary Conner Rasche standing in front of the Melrose a year or so before its demise. Apparently, it was built by her father.
Her classic clubwoman chic (ok, perhaps not the right word for her outfit in the era of Audrey Hepburn...) reminds me of ethereal's recent pic of the
Figueroa Street clubhouse of the Friday Morning Club:

USCDL


Although there was some overlapping membership, the FMC was a more exclusive version of the Ebell Club. Whatever her
actual name, its president was always referred to as "Madame Severance" in honor of the first (1891-94), the estimable
Caroline Severance (see http://www.westadamsheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=56). As time went on, the club's 1000-seat
Playhouse was given over to the Variety Arts and Times theaters, the ladies gradually retreating to a small top-floor room as
some of their number began to resist driving to increasingly declasse downtown for meetings. The FMC gave the building up in
the '80s for rooms in a Wilshire Boulevard high-rise. I can't tell whether it still exists in an era of Beverly Hills tv housewives--
although if the Woman's Christian Temperance Union could survive, so should these stout ladies have been able to:

USCDL


Below, the forebears of the ladies above lay the cornerstone of their Figueroa Street digs:


USCDL

[sopas ej]

Such great photos lately!

Last night I watched "Ask the Dust" starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. I actually liked it. Yeah, it was actually filmed in South Africa, yeah, the production designer should've recreated the 3rd Street tunnel instead of the 2nd Street tunnel; but I liked the movie (if anything, I had a problem with the style of street lamps that were used-- totally incorrect). Almost makes me wanna read the actual John Fante novel it's based on. I liked that the film tried to accurately portray the LA of the early 1930s; that it was still a very transient place, with most residents having come from some place else, either to escape from something, or to accomplish something; either way, they came to LA to reinvent themselves, and the city of LA was reinventing itself along with these people (and the city still continues to reinvent itself).

But anyway, there's a part in the film that deals with Adohr Farms milk, which I thought was a very southern California thing, like Alta Dena Dairy. So I looked it up...

Not sure if this photo has already been posted, but there's an Adohr sign on one of the buildings; this is Broadway some time in the 1920s:

USC Archive

1951; here an Adohr milk man had an accident.

LAPL

1957; the caption to this photo is "Cherie Leveque, 7-year-old daughter of Rene Leveque of Van Nuys, takes safety pledge from her father in Southern California Milk Distributor's school children's safety campaign. Leveque, milk routeman, along with other men who deliver milk have offered their assistance in providing safety for children on streets."

LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Got Milk?



I found this rarity on ebay the other day. The construction of the Los Angeles Santa Fe Depot.....also known as La Grande Station.


ebay



below: The completed depot in 1897...notice the La Grande Station sign.





below: The Santa Fe Station a little worse for wear in it's later years.
The central dome is gone (perhaps due to the 1933 Earthquake?), and there appears to be an utilitarian addition on the right hand side.



unknown

[Beaudry]

Though we thread through the City of Angels four, five, six score behind us, there's something about LA in recent memory--unbelievably now largely lost--that's oddly beguiling. (Cf. recent posts about the Olympic, and Wall of Voodoo, and the Starwood.) Those of us whose sun has passed its midpoint think wistfully upon our youth but somehow it's not all wisteria & red tile. Nesmith's Cruisin' remains one of the most accurate depictions of early-80s LA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRWTz3zY1WY

Ah, SoCal of my childhood. The culture portrayed: avowed reason to become punk rock and destroy stuff. But were we not anarcho-hedonistic brethren, against The Man? Never ceases to amuse when the good folk of to-day wring their hands over modern youth, who are noticeably bereft of Us v. Them v. Them. Whatever: in the greater pantheon of Old LA and its music, this may be its Zeus.

The SoCal culture depicted there kind of portrays everything punks became punks fer. (Apart from the sociological argument, being punk-rock was just about being smart kids with irresponsible parents.)

A passage that really sums up noirish LA as it existed in the early 80s -- there's something ineffable about his inflection on "buses". In this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6u43zoZ2Zs Eugene defines (here's a rough transliteration) the LA experience at 1:26:

PS: What's the pent-up aggression, where's that come from?

Eugene: Well with me it just comes from like, living in the city and just seein' everything, seeing all the ugly old people, 'n just the fuckin', the buses, and just the dirt, that's what I see all the time -- all the time, I'm just fuckin' bummed, from just thinkin' about that. So, when I go there, I just, sometimes I can get out some aggression, maybe, by beatin' up some asshole.

[LAboomer52]

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/la...6164&searchType=subject&subjectID=216861
1964


http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/la...8471&searchType=subject&subjectID=216861
Jo Jeanne Angeloff rubbing eyes from effects of smog atop the Occidental Center building in Los Angeles, Calif., 1965


http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/la...1925&searchType=subject&subjectID=216861
1961 heavy smog seige

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by LAboomer52

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/la...1925&searchType=subject&subjectID=216861
1961 heavy smog seige

Only people who lived in L.A. before the age of the catalytic converter (mid-'70s) can really understand/attest to how serious the air pollution problem was back then. A thick brown/orange pall hung over everything, your eyes stung all day, and you'd get real lung pain after any kind of exertion. It was awful growing up in that, having to play and do sports – a kid could hardly breathe. I hated it, and I didn't even have asthma like some of my friends did. The air may still seem bad at times today, but smogwise, things are so much better in L.A. now than historically.

-Scott