Quote:
Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
The main charity work of the Shriners is their Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. They treat about 100,000 children per year.
Shriner's Hosp. |
Also, any child unable to pay gets the same care as any other.
They've been in that facility at 4th & Virgil since 1952. I don't think they're going to keep it after their giant, new $80million medical center on Fair Oaks opens next year.
Now, the problem here is that there's nothing
noirish about it. In fact, it's just the opposite, a heart-warming tale of helping children!
Soooo, in the interests of maintaining a noir bent, a bit of vaguely Masonic-related murder:
Y'all are, I trust, familiar with the Scottish Rite Temple at 150 N Madison in Pasadena? Opened in 1925:
newspapers.com
The architect was JJ Blick, best known for his
Pasadena homes. He designs the SRT in a proto-Deco, "Monumental" style that evokes in its massing the Temple of Horus (Egyptian is a key stylistic impulse in Masonry, for reasons I won't go into here) but it's also a remarkable Modern building in its construction and design.
umass
Anyway, December of 1933, a ladies-man dentist (in the depths of the Depression, when a vast number of men were out-of-work, being a dentist could really nab you some dames) named Leonard Siever was shot down outside the SRT; the shooting became known as "The Sphinx Murder" in that it happened under the watchful, silent eye of the Sphinx. (The Sphinxes, btw, are not exactly a copy, but definitely a reference to
those at the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple [John Russell Pope, 1915] in Washington D.C.)
It became a media sensation, and to this day, remains a cold case.
Read all about it
here. Also, I recommend a trip on Esotouric's
Pasadena tour; it visits this site and so many more.
Of course, Siever was murdered not in front of a sphinx, but in the parking lot alongside the building...not at the back, granted, where he'd parked, but nearer the street...closer, but not exactly in direct sphinx territory...
ucla
...but who would let a simple fact like that get in the way of a good story?
(Speaking of stories, the depression was not kind on the Pasadena Scottish Rite, who were scheduled to lose this home to their creditors. A member by the name of Charles Cobb donated enough to save the Pasadena Scottish Rite, in a story that involves a magnificent house, haunted grounds, a cemetery battle, and the Marx Brothers. Google that!)
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I can't tell if the two men in uniform are airline pilots or serving in the military.
ebay
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