noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I found this slide from the 1950s (60s?) a couple months ago on eBay.

Wearing Keds high tops.....super cool in the 1950s. I had several pairs.
This guy has a tattoo and smokes, so I suspect he may be in the.... Navy.

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location.

While looking for photographs of the Copernicus Monument

I happened upon this photograph of Cecil B. DeMille and his wife with their granddaughter.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pic-Cecil-B-DeMi...3?hash=item4b08cbdfa9:g:iXQAAOSwLnBX5EL4

For the life of me I can not figure out where this photograph would have been taken.

-note that you can clearly see Griffith Observatory in the distance.


Surprisingly, there appears to be a small farm down below.



a plowed field (crops in a row) is visible to the left of the granddaughter. (the larger field looks like a vineyard)

Anyone have an idea where the DeMilles are?
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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

This guy has a tattoo and smokes, so I suspect he may be in the.... Navy.

I noticed the tattoo CBD, and the Navy had crossed my mind as well.

I hope some additional photographs of him show up on eBay. He's an intriguing character.
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[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location.

While looking for photographs of the Copernicus Monument

I happened upon this photograph of Cecil B. DeMille and his wife with their granddaughter.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pic-Cecil-B-DeMi...3?hash=item4b08cbdfa9:g:iXQAAOSwLnBX5EL4

For the life of me I can not figure out where this photograph would have been taken.

-note that you can clearly see Griffith Observatory in the distance.


Surprisingly, there appears to be a small farm down below.



a plowed field (crops in a row) is visible to the left of the granddaughter. (the larger field looks like a vineyard)

Anyone have an idea where the DeMilles are?
__

Looks like the DeMilles were on their property, south of Los Feliz Blvd... what looks like a farm would be in the area between the boulevard and the observatory, which was more or less north of CB's house.... Must just look undeveloped-- Los Feliz was thoroughly settled by the time he'd have had a grandchild.

[ethereal_reality]

I didn't realize they had property in that area.

At first I was thinking Hancock Park, but they're too close to the observatory.
DeMille is beyond middle age here (he has a granddaughter) so the date could be in the late 1940s-early 50s(?); that's why I was so surprised to see a farm still in the area.

Thanks for your help GW.
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[ethereal_reality]

I looked back through the blog at the various tree related posts.....the Arcade Palm.......El Aliso.......the Avenue of Palms
well I'm pretty sure this amazing cabinet card from the 1890s is new to NLA.



It shows a young boy sitting between two giant twin-palms near the rail yards just north of downtown Los Angeles.


eBay



Here's a closer look at the flour mill (which I believe is still standing by Chinatown), and a portion of an elevated rail line.

#1

detail

The young boy is at far right (I can't leave him out.



#2



I'd love to know what that small signsays on the tree.

If I'm not mistaken, the old Catholic (Calvary) Cemetery is in the vicinity of that hill in the background, right?
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[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I looked back through the blog at the various tree related posts.....the Arcade Palm.......El Aliso.......the Avenue of Palms
well I'm pretty sure this amazing cabinet card from the 1890s is new to NLA.



It shows a young boy sitting between two giant twin-palms near the rail yards just north of downtown Los Angeles.


eBay



Here's a closer look at the flour mill (which I believe is still standing by Chinatown), and a portion of an elevated rail line.

#1

detail

The young boy is at far right (I can't leave him out.



#2



I'd love to know what that small signsays on the tree.

If I'm not mistaken, the old Catholic (Calvary) Cemetery is in the vicinity of that hill in the background, right?
__

Yes, a little leftish, I think.

The palms are not the more common skinnier Washingtonia robusta palms (native to Mexico), but rather the less common California native Washingtonia filifera palms (the eponymous palms of Palm Springs).

For your viewing pleasure, here's a slightly trimmed color postcard version of the pic:


odinthor collection

The sign says, "MUST BE THIS TALL TO READ SIGN."

[FredH]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I looked back through the blog at the various tree related posts.....the Arcade Palm.......El Aliso.......the Avenue of Palms
well I'm pretty sure this amazing cabinet card from the 1890s is new to NLA.



It shows a young boy sitting between two giant twin-palms near the rail yards just north of downtown Los Angeles.


eBay



Here's a closer look at the flour mill (which I believe is still standing by Chinatown), and a portion of an elevated rail line.

#1

detail

The young boy is at far right (I can't leave him out.



#2



I'd love to know what that small signsays on the tree.

If I'm not mistaken, the old Catholic (Calvary) Cemetery is in the vicinity of that hill in the background, right?
__

OK ER - I'm a little confused (my normal state) but let's see what we have here.

I believe that this is the Capitol Milling Co. building, which is located at 1231 N. Spring Street.


Google Maps

The old Catholic cemetery was located up on North Broadway, where the Cathedral High School football field (top of photo) is now located.



The printing on the photo says "Roller Process Flour Mills". I believe this is a description of a type of flour mill and not the name of the factory.




I assume that the 505 1/2 Spring Street address belongs to the photographer, Best & Co.


In the movie "Save The Tiger" you can see the Capitol Milling Building when Jack Lemon exits a taxi by the Chinatown gate on Broadway.




I think the small sign says "Don't Sit On The Trees".



Oh, one more thing. I believe Dodger Stadium is up on one of those hills in your photo.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the follow-ups on the Twin-Palms cabinet card odinthor and FredH.


I suspect the sign on the tree was placed there a long time before the photograph was taken. Don't you think it was once at eye-level?
-and after years of growth, it ended up that far from the ground.

detail

Originally Posted by "odinthor'

The 'Twin Palms' are the less common California native Washingtonia filifera palms.

I'm curious odinthor, does this type of palm grow relatively fast?
__




update:

oops, I just rechecked my old files and realized I have the reverse of the cabinet card!




The "southern part of Los Angeles".......surely this is a mistake, right?


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[Martin Pal]

I'm still trying to find out the address/location of the Chanteclair Restaurant (or Restaurant Chanteclair) on Sunset Blvd.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location.

Chanteclair Restaurant Hollywood California, 1940's


eBay
_________________________________

One thing for sure, in HossC's screengrab of restaurants, it is definitely the same building as the Sphinx Club was located in.

TOP RIGHT BELOW:

Originally Posted by HossC

I remembered some screengrabs I posted of 1940s restaurants in post #17699. Sadly, the video now appears to be private, so I can't go back for a larger image. Take a look at the Sphinx Club in the top-right - it appears to be the same building. There was a Sphinx Club at 8477 Sunset Boulevard, which Tourmaline posted pictures of (when it was the Clover Club) in post #70545, but that's a different building. Then I found an article at jhgraham.com which says that the Sphinx Club briefly operated at 9236 Sunset Boulevard, which may be the one in the photo below.


YouTube
___________________________________

The J. H. Graham article lists all of these places at the 9236 Sunset Blvd. address:

The Willows (early 1930's)
Club Eugene (1935)
Club Morocco (May, 1938)
Jerry’s Mandalay (October, 1938)
Neville Fleeson’s Mandalay (February, 1939)
The Sphinx CLub (1940)
Garden at Scheherazade (1941)
The Little (Troc) Club (1942)
Colony House (1945)
Henri's (1946)
Le Pavilion (1947)

That's as far as the article goes.

The only known photo of this 9236 address, taken from the article, is here:



This is facing east toward Doheny. On the right you can see the sign for Henri's. In the article is an ad which notes "luncheon on the patio" where you can see the umbrellas in the photo. Of the two photos we have of "a" Sphinx Club and the Chanteclair, this 9236 address is not that location.

(The interesting article notes many name changes, as you can see, and accompanying raids at this address over the years.)

So where is this place?

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Enlarged for your inspection.


detail
_________________________________

Can anyone make out the number on the front awning? To me, the two in the middle look like "17". The blade sign nearby isn't really legible, but it looks like that might be a gas station on the left side of the photo, perhaps.

Also, in the color photo as The Sphinx Club, the blade sign on the left looks like it says Cooper or Copper?

[ethereal_reality]

The mysterious case of the 'Black Lily'.



eBay

"Little Annabelle Elliott poses with a rare Black Lily in the garden of her home at 2424 Fourth Avenue." [5/25/36]



Appropriately enough, 2424 Fourth Avenue looks rather decrepit, and shall I venture to say....cursed.


gsv




Here's a side view from 25th St. -note that one dormer window is missing....as well as another on the second floor


gsv

and a closer look from the front


It would be such a shame if this building is torn down.



and from above:

google_earth

Hmmmm.... if the building's empty, maybe there's a black lily growing in the courtyard and nobody is aware of it.




cropped


Is that even a lily? it looks more like one of those 'corpse flowers'..............................

and the info:



I've circled 2424

detail

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[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

As posted on ebay.


La Cienega & Black?

detail




-the running lady reminds me of a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.


-note the huge ladder hanging on the utility pole.

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

La Cienega and San Vicente.

If this photo is indeed at La Cienega and San Vicente, where other roads do intersect around there, and to my mind it looks like that area, then that oil well at far left might probably be the one in the middle of La Cienega that NLA has tried to pinpoint exactly over the years, but never quite satisfactorily done so?


A couple references:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Ansel Adams ca. '40 LaCienega
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=24&controlNumber=4780957





_________________________________________________

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

After spending too much time studying the early aerials I think the dark blob indicated by my arrow was in fact the La Cienega oil well.

Beverly is at the top if the image with the big Rexall store at the Southeast corner of La Cienega, 3rd St. is at the bottom.



_____________________________________________________

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Good to see that Zorro is keeping active!

Speaking of keeping active, I just heard that Gael Garcia Bernal has been signed to play Zorro in a new version.

[Martin Pal]

Bruce Petty

Caption: One thing you will see along both sides of the L.A. River are the cast iron drainage covers of all sizes. From the earliest time I can remember as a child, I recall seeing the Five Cat Faces painted on the iron castings.

From a post on L.A. River Railroads.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the follow-ups on the Twin-Palms cabinet card odinthor and FredH.


I suspect the sign on the tree was placed there a long time before the photograph was taken. Don't you think it was once at eye-level?
-and after years of growth, it ended up that far from the ground.

detail




I'm curious odinthor, does this type of palm grow relatively fast?

[...]
__


__

Ve-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-r-y slowly . . . much more slowly than the other, "skinny," palms I mentioned. But they're handsome and sturdy. And yes, you're likely right about the sign moving upward. It's not so much that the mature part of the trunk where the sign was posted elongates (it just grows at the leafy tip), but rather that the root growth pushes the plant upwards bit by bit. Where the trunk widens towards the base was probably the original soil level.

Concerning the "lily" in the other pic, right, it's not a Lily proper (genus Lilium in family Liliaceae)--it's a member of the Araceae (Arum family), like the Calla "Lily" etc. etc.. The term "lily" isn't used very carefully, same in other languages: For instance, the well-known iconic French Fleur de Lis ("Lily Flower") is a conventionalized representation of an Iris (which is in a totally different family from lilies).

And it's something of a coincidence that we're discussing Palms and Arums. The Arum family is the Araceae, and one name for the Palm family is Arecaceae (taxonomic conservatives can also refer to the Palm family as the Palmae).

[HossC]

We visited the TRW Space Park campus recently in post #37105. These Julius Shulman images show more of the buildings. They look quite like the Aerospace Corporation buildings from a couple of days ago, although these ones use black glass panels instead of white. This is "Job 4010: TRW Inc. (Redondo Beach, Calif.), 1966".



I don't know much about modern art - my guess is that someone let their kite fall in the water while they were spearing a Möbius strip.



I've left out the other two color shots and some of the black & white ones too. Here's a building with an elevated entrance on the side facing us. This one isn't clad in black panels.



The dining area is nearly empty. I wonder if that's the catering staff wearing white hats in the background.



I'm not sure what's going on here, but the microscopes suggest some sort of lab.



There are various shots of equipment in the set. This one looks like a milling machine.



All from Getty Research Institute

Here's a current view looking west. The water feature seems to have been filled in, but the other buildings are all there.


Google Maps

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I'm still trying to find out the address/location of the Chanteclair Restaurant (or Restaurant Chanteclair) on Sunset Blvd.

One thing for sure, in HossC's screengrab of restaurants, it is definitely the same building as the Sphinx Club was located in.

...

The J. H. Graham article lists all of these places at the 9236 Sunset Blvd. address:

The Willows (early 1930's)
Club Eugene (1935)
Club Morocco (May, 1938)
Jerry’s Mandalay (October, 1938)
Neville Fleeson’s Mandalay (February, 1939)
The Sphinx CLub (1940)
Garden at Scheherazade (1941)
The Little (Troc) Club (1942)
Colony House (1945)
Henri's (1946)
Le Pavilion (1947)

I've just come across this matchbook for the Sphinx Club, but it still places it at 9236 Sunset Boulevard.


eBay

The search continues for another location...

[ethereal_reality]

I have to confess, I got a little behind with this conversation.

So why isn't 9236 the correct address?

The Sphinx building in the video matched the building in the Chanteclair photograph, right?

And now Hoss' matchbook (which is a very cool find by the way) has the address as 9236 Sunset Blvd.

Is it just because the Chanteclair is missing from the J.H. Graham list?

__

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

If this photo is indeed at La Cienega and San Vicente, where other roads do intersect around there, and to my mind it looks like that area, then that oil well at far left might probably be the one in the middle of La Cienega that NLA has tried to pinpoint exactly over the years, but never quite satisfactorily done so?


A couple references:

Thanks.

Intending to type Black[burn] I typed San Vicente. That would have been a block or so north of House of Murphy's at 410 S. San Vicente. Strangely enough, there was a concerted effort to avoid confusion with nearby San Vicente and Wilshire. Original post has been corrected, at least for the moment.


Google Maps

[odinthor]

Not sure if the following is of any help on the Chanticlair question, but I did some not-very-fruitful trawling, poking in various directions. The first item is seemingly too early; but item no. 4 will explain my interest in item no. 1:

--“Aid for 49 inmates of German concentration camps will be provided by a ‘V for Victory’ dinner to be given by Hollywood motion picture stars, civic leaders and businessmen, it was announced yesterday. The dinner will be given at 7:30 p.m. November 10 in a restaurant at 8433 Sunset Blvd. Presiding at the dinner will be Ida Lupino and Louis Bromfield” (Los Angeles Times 10/24/1941 via ProQuest via CSULB Library).

--“Bill [Happel Jr.] was also seen with Jack Nelson, of the Jack Nelson Company, Chicago, at Chanteclair’s Restaurant on the famed Sunset strip in Hollywood” (Billboard, November 15, 1947, p. 107).

--“Things looked mighty good the other night at the newly opened Chanteclair on Sunset Strip with Harold Stern’s haunting melodies on that Stradivarius and later with his boys. Quite a turnout, too” (Los Angeles Times 8/5/1949 via ProQuest via CSULB Library).

--“Ida [Lupino] saw him [Louis Bromfield] occasionally at the Chanteclair Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard where he was part-owner. Ida was a sought-after date, seen with the most eligible escorts, including David Niven, attorney Greg Bautzer and singer Tony Martin” (from Ida Lupino: A Biography, by William Donati, 2013, Chapter 9, pages not numbered).