noirish Los Angeles

[Otis Criblecoblis]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

illegally subdivided, as in 400 10x10 lots!
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Thanks for filling in the vast gaps in my knowledge about the forbidden area beyond the gate. I now wish I'd been bolder as a child, so I could have seen the lodge while it was still there.

400 10-by-10 foot lots, eh? I wonder what that was all about? I guess it could have been simply for camping and the like, a little base of operations from which to utilize all the amenities available there.

It is an odd arrangement, however. One question that immediately comes to my mind: if this was just for camping, why sell the plots? Who would want to buy such a tiny piece of land just to hang out on? This causes me to suspect that there was something more here than meets the eye.

It occurs to me that there are two distinct features to this setup. Firstly, when the owner sets up a tent on his plot, once inside he would have the full protection of the Fourth Amendment: probable cause, search and seizure, all that good stuff. Secondly, whatever happens in that tent, Mountain Oaks is not liable for it legally.

What I see here is a fairly safe place to indulge in a little illegal imbibing.

It would have been a nice setup for this. Mountain Oaks would provide the place, the amenities, and I would imagine some advance warning of police activity. The property owners themselves would provide the liquor.

Of course, this is just a supposition, but it's the only way this setup makes any real sense to me.

[Tourmaline]

Certain style clocks, and especially neon-lit time pieces on the wall of a dark theater, evoke a certain noir charm. Not surprisingly, some of them originated in Los Angeles.




American Clock Co. at 315 West Fifth Street (The Metropolitan Building) in 1936. (http://rescarta.lapl.org:8080/ResCarta-W...-3421068c0f1c/LPU00000/LL000003/00000002)

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5149/5634615402_cdac1e7b73_z.jpg

http://www.neonclock.org/images/Display/American/American2.jpg






Metropolitan: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5117022&postcount=2441 and http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5117852&postcount=2449

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2846/la1223metropolitanbldgn.jpg *Edit per MR's correction vvvvv.






One site describes a "Lewis Clock Co." of Los Angeles, of which little is known. (So far no listings found) See: http://www.neonclock.org/Pages/Manufacturer/ManLewis.htm
http://www.neonclock.org/images/Display/Lewis/lewisgreen11_2011a.jpg




Gratuitous sidewalk clock. Doubtful that it has any historic significance, but nice touch. http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6657680&postcount=22625; http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6657296&postcount=22619 and http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6657365&postcount=22620
http://dtfjihky7xwic.cloudfront.net/site...archmont-village-clock.jpg?itok=K4KfAnpS

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

One site describes a "Lewis Clock Co." of Los Angeles, of which little is known. (So far no listings found) See: http://www.neonclock.org/Pages/Manufacturer/ManLewis.htm
http://www.neonclock.org/images/Display/Lewis/lewisgreen11_2011a.jpg

I found a clock manufacturer named Sidney Lewis listed at 4922 Santa Monica Boulevard in the 1938 CD - could he be the maker of the clock above? He's listed as S A Lewis in the 1939 CD, and again in the 1942 CD, where his address has moved to 7274 Beverly Boulevard.

Here's the building on Beverly Boulevard - 7274 is directly under the "Poinsettia" sign. According to propertyshark.com, it was built in 1931.


GSV

[Tourmaline]

Thank you for the followup HossC!

I recalled discovery of one of the Beverly Blvd. addresses for Lewis in a catalog but could not confirm. Another site mentions a "Robert K Lewis" of Los Angeles. http://mb.nawcc.org/showthread.php?98458-Robert-K-lewis-Clock-Info

Not knowing much about the subject, it seems each clock was assembled from available components with the addition of blown glass containing neon at the shop. Assuming Lewis used the location depicted, it would be hard to say his clocks were mass produced.


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics30/00034849.jpg

6111 Wilshire - Fred W. Klein tells good time.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4337/krandill.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00098/00098002.jpg http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5747041&postcount=8396



I suppose we should also include Glo dial Clock Corp (922 West 23rd St.) and the Neon Clock Co. (1110 W Second St.) as part of the list of LA neon clock makers/ retailers.

http://www.neonclock.org/images/Display/Neon%20Clock%20Co%20of%20LA/neonclockcoofla1b.jpg


Speaking of ubiquitous neon and clocks evokes this image with Gruen Time.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3392/3214236536_db8a7e6f84_b.jpg

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Certain style clocks, and especially neon-lit time pieces on the wall of a dark theater, evoke a certain noir charm. Not surprisingly, some of them originated in Los Angeles.

You brought back a blue-neoned clock memory, Tourmaline. During a movie I saw recently I remembered a long ago theater when they had a blue neon clock above the exits on both sides of the screen and it made me wonder if that would seem annoying nowadays. (I must've been bored!) It wouldn't be as annoying as people and their lit cell-phones, I guess.

Have you noticed that clocks of all kinds have practically disappeared from most businesses and new buildings and that you rarely see anyone wearing a watch?

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

You brought back a blue-neoned clock memory, Tourmaline. During a movie I saw recently I remembered a long ago theater when they had a blue neon clock above the exits on both sides of the screen and it made me wonder if that would seem annoying nowadays. (I must've been bored!) It wouldn't be as annoying as people and their lit cell-phones, I guess.

Have you noticed that clocks of all kinds have practically disappeared from most businesses and new buildings and that you rarely see anyone wearing a watch?

You don't see clocks in Dr's waiting rooms..LOL They don't want you to see how long you've been waiting.

I stopped wearing a watch when I got a cell phone. Yeah, most movies these days are a giant bore. I just don't bother anymore.

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by Ed Workman

I guess I assumed that everybody on here has read all the Raymond Chandler one could find. But have y'all ? And although I looked at all the old pages of lanoir before I joined up, I don't recall any study of Chandler locations. [but maybe Geiger's house on La Verne Terrace has been ?] Usta be folks ran Chandler bus tours to visit existing buildings that Chandler used in his stories- often under disguised names, such as the town of Rialito.

I've spotted a concealed game by Chandler on his fictional locations. In « The Big Sleep », a blackmailer named Arthur Geiger lives in a house on Laverne Terrace in Laurel Canyon (a fictional place, there's no Laverne Terrace). Later in the book, Philip Marlowe kills Canino (a killer) in a frame-house, 10 miles east of Realito (a fictional town located 40 miles east of Los Angeles). Which corresponds to... La Verne.

[ethereal_reality]

16 Thornton Avenue

gsv

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Yes there are, er! Below, north is on the left, so 16 Thornton Avenue is on the SE corner:


1918 Santa Monica Sanborn Map @ LAPL

Thanks for this Flyingwedge!


A group of neighbors posing on the curved steps of Thornton Towers, circa. 1970s.


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1qBfouxIQAM/TPh6WoOh9cI/AAAAAAAAAd0/X5F-dmnQMRg/s1600/Thornton%2BAve.jpg

reposted
__

I still haven't found any proof that Isadora Duncan had anything to do with Thornton Towers.

[ethereal_reality]

Here's an impressive photograph of the La Crescenta-Montrose Flood of 1934, showing the massive amount of stones (and mud) that was swept out of the mountains.



http://www.cvhistory.org/

[Tetsu]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

As GW foretold, 321 S. Alvarado was built by Frank Garbutt:

September 21, 1900 Los Angeles Times @ LAPL

Here's the house on the 1906 Sanborn. There was no 3rd Street, and Ocean View continued east of Alvarado:

LAPL

A recent Google Earth view shows how much the area has changed. Ocean View now stops at Lake. The intersection
of 3rd and Alvarado is at right, marked by the four red crosswalks. The Burger King is on the NE corner, so
321 S. Alvarado was kitty-corner from that:


As GW also advised, there don't seem to be any good photos of the house. Here it is a little closer from that 1936 aerial:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll59/id/1414/rec/98

You can see a little of the roof in the lower right corner of this January 1930 shot from St. Vincent's Hospital across the street,
along with those two apartment buildings -- 310 and 320 S. Alvarado -- you pointed out:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/3784/rec/6

BTW, the apartment building in the left foreground of the above photo is the Westbrook. You can see
a 1912 photo of the Westbrook in my post here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=6458636&postcount=19697

The only street-level view of the house I could get was by lightening and zooming in on this 1928 shot facing west at
3rd, Alvarado and Ocean View:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll59/id/796/rec/3

A 1948 aerial photo at HistoricAerials.com shows a gas station at the site of 321 S. Alvarado.

Thanks to both you and GW for the info! I'm familiar with the Garbutt residence in Silver Lake, the all concrete and supposedly "fireproof" house. Very interesting to know he built the house at 3rd (or rather Ocean View) and Alvarado! And thanks FlyingWedge for lightening that last pic - it sure looks like it was quite a beauty in its day, however shortlived its existence was. I wonder who the architect was? That dormer window in the turret kind of reminds me of John Parkinson's Bernard residence, which we recently discussed on NLA, in comparing that with Frederick Roerhig's Durand residence in Pasadena.

LA Conservancy

Also, FW, I totally remember your post on the Westbrook now! Saved the photos to my hard drive and everything.

[Tetsu]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Tetsu, so this is the same building? My God, how awful.

I wouldn't have believed it was the same building myself if I hadn't seen the remodel take place with my own eyes.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by onyx91977

Hi, I just found this post which made me join this forum. I would like to say THANK you for posting this. I know it was posted 4 or years ago but THANK you! Also the links for three of the pictures are broken and I was just wondering what those pictures are of and do you still have them?

Thanks again!!

Welcome to noirish Los Angeles onyx91977.

I 'm not sure what post you're referring to.

[ethereal_reality]

La Crescenta Women's Club, 4004 La Crescenta Avenue.



http://www.lacrescentawomansclub.org/historydepartment.htm


It's still there today! -minus the wooden shingles; and the beautiful stone chimney has been decapitated (it's behind the tree).


GSV


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Nazarene Publishing House, Washington at Bresee, Pasadena.


eBay

and today; all gussied up!

gsv

reverse of vintage postcard / with address

ebay

__

[MichaelRyerson]

on the NE corner of 6th and Hill Streets. It will soon (after this pic) become the Paramount.

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Metropolitan: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5117022&postcount=2441 and http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=5117852&postcount=2449

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044405.jpg

I think this is the Metropolitan Building we're looking for...

The Metropolitan Building, NW corner of 5th Street and Broadway, ca.1918

[ethereal_reality]

I think this group portrait is a great snapshot of 1930s Los Angeles.

"Walter & Bea's Wedding Breakfast at Eunice & Leo's place, corner So. Figueroa & 58th St. L.A., 1930."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1930-GRO...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2350cc5b57

I think there are some sexy people in this photograph .




reverse




One or more of Eunice and Leo's apartment windows might have looked out on this DWP building that was built the year before the vintage group photograph was taken.


gsv

The DWP building is on the northeast corner of So. Figueroa and 58th Street....the southeast corner is a messy empty lot (former site of the apt?), while the southwest corner
looks like it might have been a train depot (there are tracks next to it), and the northwest corner appears to be a more 'modern' apartment bldg.

--check it out yourself if you like. (tell me if you think the southwest corner was a depot)
__

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I think this group portrait is a great snapshot of 1930s Los Angeles.

"Walter & Bea's Wedding Breakfast at Eunice & Leo's place, corner So. Figueroa & 58th St. L.A., 1930."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1930-GRO...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2350cc5b57

I think there are some sexy people in this photograph .

__

Be careful ER...they look like actor types. Hollywood, you know...the fast set. Drinking and probably smoking too.

[Slauson Slim]

Walter, Bea, Eunice, Leo and friends look relatively prosperous during The Great Depression. Well dressed and stylish.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

gsv

The DWP building is on the northeast corner of So. Figueroa and 58th Street....the southeast corner is a messy empty lot (former site of the apt?), while the southwest corner
looks like it might have been a train depot (there are tracks next to it), and the northwest corner appears to be a more 'modern' apartment bldg.

--check it out yourself if you like. (tell me if you think the southwest corner was a depot)

I can't see any sign of a train depot on the southwest corner. The earliest image at Historic Aerials is 1952, but the 1963 image (below) is clearer and roughly the same (obviously the big change between those dates is the coming of the freeway just out-of-shot to the right). Both images show a building on the southeast corner.


Historic Aerials

The building on the southeast corner is gone by 1972, and the lot seems to have been vacant since then. The later images at Historic Aerials appear to show the yard on the southwest corner covered in grass in the mid-2000s, but it looks more like mud now.


Historic Aerials

[BifRayRock]

8100 Melrose Ave. - Mancuso Realty Evidently subsumed by the Fred Segal Complex at the same location.


1962 - 8100 Melrose Blvd.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070826.jpg

Vine-clad Fred's
https://chromelive.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/fred-segal-melrose.jpg

Mancuso Realty open house - 1962
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070822.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3236/2730264048_f77395fdc0.jpg



Drug store in background (circa '62) currently houses a business known as Jonathon Adler.
http://rumorfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/nasty-gal-line-goes-around-jonathan-adler.jpg


Mancuso interior
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070823.jpg



Cheerful and courteous staff. (Maybe one of them is thinking about designer leather)
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070824.jpghttp://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070825.jpg