noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Homes and Gardens of the Pacific Coast Vol II via Kansas Sebastian

Los Angeles Times, January 15, 1922

FULL STORY HERE: http://losangeleshistory.blogspot.co...ease-also.html

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

A sconce in the front half of the space.

Perhaps it's still there and was just out of camera range, but a closer pic of the lighting sconce seen in your top shot is in the third link here. (I have to laugh at my apparent inability not so long ago to post pics here.) From what I can tell, and it's no surprise, all the original lighting fixtures are gone. Is that right? Looking forward to more new photos, David.

[3940dxer]

Here are a few more images from last night at The Dutch Chocolate Shop, that give a better sense of the way it looks inside. As photographic amateur capturing this was WAY over my head to due the camera-challenging interior lighting but my friend Barry helped by shooting different exposures, and then combining them in Photoshop. Thanks, Barry!


This one shows the two statues above the archway that leads into the back of the space. (GW, I don't think any of the original lighting fixtures survive.)




This shot is looking back into the southeast corner of the room, and shows about a quarter of the room. You should have seen this one before Photoshop! (Great work, Barry.)




And this last one shows one of the beautiful and complex arch systems, near the center of the room. The ceiling here reminds me of the creature's cavern in the opening scenes of Alien.




Oh, and here's an old B&W screen grab that is posted on the Countdown to Batchelder site. The film was called The Hope Chest.



http://countdowntobatchelder.com/

[GaylordWilshire]

The vaulted ceilings of the Chocolate Shoppe remind me of some in Grand Central here in NYC. I've always heard them called them the "Guastavino arches" after the designer--they are in GCT as well as downtown in the disused City Hall subway station (if you pretend not to hear the announcement to get off at the last stop of the Lex local, you can see them by staying on and riding through it). Anyway, back to L.A.... tourists are always hanging out in the corner of the arches in Grand Central, whispering--and it's clearly audible to a person listening at the opposite corner. You might try this the next time you're taking pictures in L.A.'s version...


NYPL


(Some pics of the [amazing] City Hall station here.)

[ethereal_reality]

I adore the lighting fixtures of the dutch children blowing bubbles.










http://www.flickr.com/photos/katinth...rd/5047028293/

Why did they hold the bubble pipe upside-down in the old days?

___


3940dxer/David, thanks for answering my question concerning the Royal Laundry Building in Pasadena.
Oh, and your chocolate shop photos are great!

[KevinW]

When I saw these pics of Wilshire and San Vicente, which I work two blocks from I first got confused by the two different crossings but now see the aerials were all from the Eastern Crossing so I went out and shot it.


FROMhttp://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2579

Wilshire and San Vicente Boulevard, Aerial '22







http://www.flickr.com/photos/albaum/...n/photostream/[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]


Panorama Facing West 2012


by me

[GaylordWilshire]

There seems to be some confusion about which intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente these pictures show. One of the things that has always seemed odd to me is that there are two San Vicente Boulevards in L.A., one from Venice Blvd to Sunset, the other from Wilshire just west of the old Soldiers Home/Vets Administration to the ocean through Brentwood. These are pictures not of the "east" version but of the western one through Brentwood. When I first saw them a few weeks ago I wondered what the fencing was in the old pics--were they some sort of early Beverly Hills gate? Finally it dawned on me that they belonged to the Soldier's Home. Here's a history of Brentwood to confirm it, with the pictures we've seen here plus more: http://brentwoodpark.org/index.php?o...d=46&Itemid=68

LAPL

GoogleSV
I don't think this is necessarily the same view as the vintage shot, but it's of San Vicente north from Wilshire, with
the Vets Admin at right and its modern versions of the old posts.

GoogleSV
This shot up San Vicente looks like it might be the same as the old shot. Below is a closer shot of the modern gateposts.


Huffington Post

[KevinW]

Thank you so much for clearing up my confusion. I couldn't figure out what the gate would have been at the eastern SV/W intersection and I completely forgot the one just west of the 405. San Vicente, like Exposition are twisty streets. The fact that Santa Monica and Wilshire cross in Beverly Hills threw me off when I first got to town. In Santa Monica, SM is four blocks south of Wilshire, in Hollywood, SM is about six blocks north of it. We might be able to see the Wilshire/SV intersection in the aerials of the 405 under construction. I'll have to go back and check. Again, thanks for setting me straight. Maybe I'll stick to doing now and thens of the building across from my office which used to be the Carthay Circle Theater...

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I adore the lighting fixtures of the dutch children blowing bubbles.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/katinth...rd/5047028293/

Why did they hold the bubble pipe upside-down in the old days?

I'm going to guess that in this case, among many others, gravity is your friend.
Was the idea to be blowing chocolate bubbles?
What's in the plate in the bottom of the photo? Something glutinous maybe?
Heavier and more dense than soap bubbles, I'd imagine.
A mystery begging answers. Good question.

[MichaelRyerson]

And with not a little irony, an apparently homeless person sleeping just outside the gates to the 'Soldiers Home'. Wonder if he's a vet.

[fhammon]

It's a standard European style clay pipe, the same used centuries before this illustration was made. Fragments of them turn up regularly in 15th century (etc) rubbish pits. You can probably still buy them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katinth...n/photostream/



http://www.dawnmist.demon.co.uk/pipdex.htm

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

And with not a little irony, an apparently homeless person sleeping just outside the gates to the 'Soldiers Home'. Wonder if he's a vet.

On Googling "Vets Admin gates Los Angeles" not one pic turned up without a sleeping homeless vet in it. It has been haunting me ever since.

[GaylordWilshire]

I'd never heard of the the Ontra Cafeteria, and it's not like there was only one. There were five in L.A./Hollywood/Beverly Hills (plus one in Chicago). Here's what is apparently Stephen Sondheim's memory of the Beverly Hills Ontra: "My mother and I would argue endlessly about the pronunciation of said Ontra Cafeteria. She thought it should be pronounced On-truh and I was convinced it was On-tray, a logical assumption since the food was served on a tray. We never came to a meeting of the minds, but we did love our meals there. There was something exotically wonderful about eating in a cafeteria."

While there is some discrepancy as to the labeling of the interior shots below, it seems that, clockwise below, are the Wilshire, Crenshaw, Vine and Vermont locations.







265 N. Beverly Drive



A later interior remodeling of the Vermont location

More info: Los Angeles Times


Pics: Top, Zilf; 265 N. Beverly: O.C. Tax Atty; all others: Ebay

[ethereal_reality]

I checked out each address and none of these buildings still stand.

G_W probably checked that out as well.

___


Thanks for looking into the upside-down bubble pipe 'mystery' fhammon.

[GaylordWilshire]

The Department of Water and Power has a surprising number of offices of interesting design still standing. Just found this Midcentury DWP office at 4030 Crenshaw Blvd. It even
has a community auditorium. I haven't seen any vintage shots, but at least this gem still stands. A 1993 Times article here describes it in detail, though the actual opening date
is in question. The Times published this on August 27, 1959:





Pics: Film LA

[fhammon]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

I love that photo. Definitely a Civil War Vet. standing there.

This should be a familiar site to many who pass under the 405 heading west on Wilshire Blvd.



The Old Soldiers Home Chapel was built around 1900. Great article about it here:

http://www.losangeles.va.gov/chapel/about.asp

[ethereal_reality]

Since my initial post on Denels Music Store I found some interesting information on the Turnabout Theatre.


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8032


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8032

____


The Turnabout Theatre was located at 716 N. La Cienega Boulevard from 1941 to 1956. Regularly selling out all seats (attracting both general public as well as many of Hollywood's top stars), the theater offered entertainment that combined both puppet (marionettes) for the first half of a show and a stage revue for the second half.

Below: A view of the theater entrance from the courtyard.


http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/


Now here's the interesting part.

The name of the theater derives from the fact that the seats were old 'red car' trolley seats that could be turned* to face a puppet stage at one end or the live revue stage at the other. At intermission theater-goers would 'turn about' to see the show continued at the opposite end of the building.

* At the end of a route, instead of turning the trolley, the seats would be folded up & then unfolded to face in the opposite direction.
You can still experience this on the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans (G_W's old stomping grounds).



below: The unique interior of the Turnabout Theatre.


http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/




The seats were covered in blue seatcovers and each was given humerous names such as 'Hot n' Bothered', Salt n' Pepper', 'Knit n' Purl' among others.


below: One of the blue seatcovers.


http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/

____

This theater interested me because I have a bit of a 'puppet' chapter in my background.
I worked with Redmoon Theater in Chicago for about 5 years.

I was a feature player in the outdoor spectacle below...
http://www.redmoon.org/events/third-...ectacle-parade

and in this, my favorite.
http://www.redmoon.org/events/long-l...e-king-is-dead

___

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

[IMG]

You beat me to it G_W!
I came across this exceptional building while 'hitching' a ride on the google-car.
I was amazed by it.

[ethereal_reality]

A few more photos of the Turnabout Theatre.


below: The audience 'turning about' (two to a seat).


http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/



below: Another view of the interior (showing the 'revue' stage).


http://dbase1.lapl.org/turnabout/




below: A few of the Turnabout Theatre puppeteers.


unknown

____

[ethereal_reality]

A kodachrome slide of Dodger Stadium circa 1963 (sorry for the watermark).


found on ebay






below: Aerial view of Dodger Stadium, late 1970s or early 1980s.


unknown

___

[ethereal_reality]

....and something a bit more 'noirish' than a puppet theater.

Serial killer Henry Adolph Busch, circa 1960


found on ebay

above: I wonder what restaurant his father owned?





stamped 1960

___