noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

There are some interesting statistics in this 1928 directory.

I always forget that many of the City Directories have a load of statistical facts about Los Angeles in their opening pages. To keep with the late-1920s theme of e_r's post, and the Motion Picture Producers list, I've gone with the 1927 CD again.




Both from LAPL

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

The "famed" Schwab's was indeed on Sunset. If I recall correctly Schwab's over the years became more or less a local chain and had some five or six locations.

As for PEP BOYs being on the Walk of Fame:


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pep+Bo...2bf3886d50937:0xfc69c634ca9f709f!6m1!1e1

Sure looks like some 25+ Stars are along the front entrance and parking lot.

Looks like the Walk of Fame extends all the way to Gower rather than Vine St. Well, maybe something new and glitzy will replace Pep Boys in the near future now that Hollywood is on the rebound.

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Looks like the Walk of Fame extends all the way to Gower rather than Vine St. Well, maybe something new and glitzy will replace Pep Boys in the near future now that Hollywood is on the rebound.

In all fairness to PEP BOYS, it appears they have spruced that store up quite a bit since the last time I was in it about ten years ago.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

The "famed" Schwab's was indeed on Sunset. If I recall correctly Schwab's over the years became more or less a local chain and had some five or six locations.

As for PEP BOYs being on the Walk of Fame:


https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pep+Bo...2bf3886d50937:0xfc69c634ca9f709f!6m1!1e1

Sure looks like some 25+ Stars are along the front entrance and parking lot.

I could be wrong but I believe Pep Boys has had a presence in Hollywood since the 1920s .

Lots of Stars embedded in the sidewalk in front of Pep Boys. There appears to be about 47 Stars in front of the Pep Boys property, including their parking lot.


GSV 2014



PEP BOYS AT 1612 N. CAHUENGA AVE, June 1933

pinterest & hollywoodphotographs.com

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

I could be wrong but I believe Pep Boys has had a presence in Hollywood since the 1920s .

Lots of Stars embedded in the sidewalk in front of Pep Boys. There appears to be about 47 Stars in front of the Pep Boys property, including their parking lot.


GSV 2014


pinterest

PEP BOYS first came to Los Angeles in 1933 as a separate corporation to PEP BOYS of Philadelphia. They supposedly opened two locations that year. Maybe you can find where from your CD's. I've been unable to pinpoint either of their first locations. The Stores may have been called Manny, Moe, & Jack Auto Parts in 1933.

[HossC]

The first CD after 1933 that's available at LAPL is 1936, and that lists three locations for The Pep Boys: 1612 Cahuenga, 1344 S Figueroa and 5866 S Vermont. The 1942 listing shows that they were expanding quickly (and also mentions Manny, Moe and Jack).


LAPL

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

You never know where it will lead.

For some strange reason a closer look at Saratoga Springs' sidewalk or tower clock reminded me of a glossed over image of the Van Nuys Building in downtown LA. I have no information other than what you see, including some very small pedestrians. Whether height is added by the camera angle remains uncertain. The clock is certainly imposing, but apparently not Montgomery Brothers-BIG.


1967
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibris/aleph/a19_1/apache_media/YEGKRIGEXMGFB6E2AKFNJ78GDABI3F.jpg


This may be a repost that I missed the first go round. Sorry if it is. Marveling over all of those glass globes. (There could be a clock amongst them, but you'd never know it. )

1924 Fourth and Main
http://waterandpower.org/Historical_DWP_Photo_Collection_LA_Public_Library/Main_and_Fourth_1924.jpg

1920's Fifth Street and Broadway, Sidewalk clock
http://waterandpower.org/1%20Historic%20Photos%201/Broadway_and_5th.jpg

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by HossC

The first CD after 1933 that's available at LAPL is 1936, and that lists three locations for The Pep Boys: 1612 Cahuenga, 1344 S Figueroa and 5866 S Vermont. The 1942 listing shows that they were expanding quickly (and also mentions Manny, Moe and Jack).


LAPL

Pep Boys Hollywood Blvd., '80s

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039260.jpg

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5681655&postcount=7541

[ethereal_reality]

A rare attempt by MGM at the film noir genre.

Originally Posted by gsjansen

Looking west on 5th street from Wall Street. Screen cap from 1949 Van Johnson noir flick, "Scene of the Crime"


GSJ, on Flickr

GSJ, I watched "Scene of the Crime" a week or so ago on TCM. I saved some screen grabs myself.


Here's a different street corner.
tcm


I'm not sure what street corner this is, but I found this photograph of the crew between takes.


greenbriarpictures.blogspot


exiting the club (glass blocks and faux-stone) -great old door with a 'port-hole' window. (I can almost smell the smoke wafting out)
tcm



-a tussle
tcm




In the night scene below there appears to be a New York Hat Shop in the background, as well as something Avon on the corner.

tcm
__




below: Daylight again, driving towards Hippo's Coffee Pot.

tcm


speeding by-
tcm


below: Here's pretty much the same screen-grab gsjansen posted.

-note the Rosslyn Hotel in the distance.



Here's Hippo's today. GASP!!

GSV



-a wider view, showing that the building across the street has been replaced. (but there's the Rosslyn Hotel's roof-top sign in the distance)



-next came this interesting view.

tcm




-here's a closer view of the building s down the street. (does anyone recognize these building by chance?)

detail



A night view of Hippo's.

tcm



tcm



shooting a U-
tcm




note the man leaning against a utility pole on the left. (is he dead?)
tcm




Film noir staple...a flashing neon sign outside a transient hotel.




I had to snicker at the set dressing for this scene. Obviously overdone by MGM's set designers.

tcm

case in point

mysteryfile blog
__


For the big finale, MGM resorted to the backlot. -it looked fake compared to the rest of the film.





IMDB



publicity still

MGM publicity

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[Hollywood Girl]

Originally Posted by HossC

USC's Digital Library has a fairly large collection of Citizens National Trust & Savings Bank photos, mostly from the late 1920s. I've also found a few contemporary shots from other sites, so I'm going to work through the list in the advert below. I've split up the photos so they're not in one monumental post. My aim is to make the most complete list I can, so there may be a few repeats from previous posts.

This is their full-page advert from the 1929 City Directory.


LAPL

The building shown in the advert is their head office at Fifth and Spring.

Citizens National Bank, exterior view


LAPL

The building is still there, but has lost the ornamentation on its upper floors.


GSV

This is the Hill Street Office at 736 South Hill Street. The building is now a parking lot.


USC Digital Library

I also found this 1925 picture which has the bank on the right. The building to the left of the bank has also gone, but the Paden-Pelton Building is still there. There's probably enough detail in this picture to make a post in its own right!


USC Digital Library

The Broadway Office at 308 South Broadway.


USC Digital Library

The "...BURY" on the left of the picture above is part of a sign saying "BRADBURY" because the bank was on the right side of the first floor of the Bradbury Building. It's now a Subway!


Panoramio

I didn't find any pictures of the Atwater branch, but the building that's currently at 3224 Glendale Boulevard looks like it could date from that period.


GSV

Citizens Trust and Savings, branch at 5415 Broadway, Southern California, 1927


USC Digital Library

The building currently at 5415 South Broadway has a similar footprint, so could the original bank be underneath? The surviving buildings to the right have similar brickwork to the picture above.


GSV

We know that the Union Stock Yards have gone, and I didn't find any pictures of the bank there. It's the same story with the Echo Park-Sunset and Eighth-Vermont branches. The former is now a Walgreens parking lot while the latter is a strip mall.

More to follow ...

https://www.diigo.com/item/image/395lj/swcj
Screen shot from Google earth this is next to LACC where I grew up I saw the post and thought wow they looks alike maybe it was the style of the time

[Hollywood Girl]

I can't stop laughing you are hilarious!!
''Did she really think she looked good in this picture''
She swore she was the cats meow from things I have read. Joan Crawford was always a drunken hag in my mind ... I am still laughing about your comment.

[FredH]

Los Angeles County Fair - 1924


L.A. Times

The L.A. County Fair Midway - 1935


L.A. Times


Lets check out the attractions:


Sadu the Iron Tongued Man (I'm not sure what that's all about) and Moroccan Moments (Looks like belly dancers)



L.A. Times


Here we have Torture of Delhi (Looks more like chopping to death) and Julianne (I think it is a guy that turns into a woman)


L.A. Times

The World's Fair Freaks ( Mostly a sad collection of people with birth defects)


L.A. Times

This all brings to mind the county fair in Ohio when I was young. The freak show featured Carl The Frog Boy and The Giant Man Eating Rats From Korea.



More old L.A. County Fair photos here:
http://framework.latimes.com/2014/08/28/los-angeles-county-fair/#/1

[HossC]

Originally Posted by FredH

Los Angeles County Fair - 1924

Sadu the Iron Tongued Man (I'm not sure what that's all about) ...


L.A. Times

I have to admit, my first thought was of Jebediah Springfield and his silver prosthetic tongue from The Simpsons. In reality, it's a sideshow act where the performer lifts heavy objects with their tongue. The following excerpt is from a book called 'Secrets of the Sideshows' by Joe Nickell. A quick Google shows that you can still find iron tongue performers today!


http://books.google.com

[Earl Boebert]

My wife just sold these on eBay:



And while doing so got this email:

"Hi:
Re. those Adohr bags...my dad was an Adohr Milk Man and I grew up around the dairy biz. Those bags you're offering are ice bags that we loaded with crushed ice on the dock around 2 am in the morning. We then covered all the milk in the milk crates with those ice bags to keep the milk cold. This was before refrigerated delivery
came along in the mid-'50s. I used to deliver milk for a lot of dairies too working my way through art school. We still used ice bags well into the '70s, altho' by that time Adohr home delivery in Los Angeles was only a fond memory. "

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

A giant balloon Elf floating past the Mona Lisa Restaurant on Wilshire Blvd. (1940?)

ebay

__

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

If I were a tourist hoping to see anything as history on the WEB and in books might reflect I'd be a bit disappointed to find no Brown Derby, No Schwabs, etc. I would certainly be a little surprised to find my favorite entertainer's star among those in front of the PEP BOYS auto repair and parts store in the 6100 block of Hollywood Blvd.

Of course if I were an entertainer who had been approached about a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, there are locations I simply wouldn't shell out the $15,000 it costs, which a number have refused to do.

Thanks for correcting my error. I forgot that the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME extended another block from Vine to Gower Street, alhough I should've remembered that as there are stars around the Pantages and the subway stop.(I also thought Pep Boys was further east, but hey.)

As for celebrities having a star in front of Pep Boys, I think they'd be honored to have one included anywhere on the Walk of Fame. If they don't, their loss. And P.S. it now is $30,000 since 2012. The money's used for the installation and upkeep of the Walk of Fame.

Latest recipient, Katy Sagal, about two weeks ago.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A rare attempt by MGM at the film noir genre.

For the big finale, MGM resorted to the backlot. I pretty much lost interest at this point.


__

Lost interest because it was on the backlot or the film wasn't very good?

According to the book MGM - Hollywood's Greatest Backlot (p. 208), this film used the "Waterfront Street' section of the backlot for this film. The street had no water or water area and they surmise it was named that because some of the facades were moved there from their original home beside the artificial lake on Lot One.

The most famous use of this street was as "Paris" in the film An American in Paris. Although MGM approved the shooting of this film in Paris itself, it was that city that denied the requests.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here are some black and white images of the protest outside of Pandora's Box on Sunset Blvd. in 1966.


tumblr/memoriastoica
___

In this first image, what do you think the building is on the left with the neon? I can't read the sign above it; a lot of glare... Could it be Googie's, or whatever was there in 1966? The angles in the photo have compressed the space...the Sahara billboard, for example, is quite aways down Sunset, at the base of the road leading up to the Chateau Marmont.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

1930 Hollywood shopping guide cover

GSJ

yup, purty good shoppin' dirtrict.................

Indeed, that was the genesis of the Hollywood "Santa Claus Lane Parade"...
as a promotional event to signal the start of the holiday shopping season
on Hollywood Blvd.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

I always forget that many of the City Directories have a load of statistical facts about Los Angeles in their opening pages. To keep with the late-1920s theme of e_r's post, and the Motion Picture Producers list, I've gone with the 1927 CD again.

Originally Posted by HossC

Los Angeles Statistics

LOS ANGELES has a water supply sufficient for a population of 2,500,000.

That's definitely true for THIS year, too!