noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

The one's who've posted personal photos so far are from L.A. and environs.
Is that what you had in mind, E_R?___

Nice photos so far, too!

From anywhere is A-OK with me M_P.

Originally Posted by Bristolian

I love the idea. Heres me on Walnut Avenue in Manhattan Beach in 1969
about a mile away from where Handsome Stranger's beach photo was taken. It looks like this must have been
just before I got my first Schwinn Stingray because I have definitely outgrown that Pixie.

I really like your photo Bristolian. It looks like Walnut Ave. was a cozy little neighborhood.
I kept asking myself, "Where have I heard of Walnut Avenue before?" then I realized it's one of our nla 'mysteries' we haven't solved yet.
this one: Walnut Avenue Stereo-view

I had a purple Schwinn Stingray that I named the 'Purple People Eater'.

I labeled it using one of these 'thingamajigs'.


I also labeled EVERYTHING in our house. lol

__

[ethereal_reality]

The Apartment (1960)

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I labeled it using one of these 'thingamajigs'.



I also labeled EVERYTHING in our house. lol

I hope you don't owe the Betty Crocker Co a letter of apology .

• Video Link

[Earl Boebert]

Well, since locations outside L.A. have been deemed acceptable for the New Year's "me as a young 'un" picture, here I am to your left on the Sea Scout Ship Argonaut, circa 1955. We're about to leave Berkeley Yacht Harbor for a two week cruise up the Sacramento River system, much to the relief of our parents and the Albany and Berkeley CA police departments. The Argonaut was home to a bunch of artful dodgers and street kids who were very inventive in acting out their attitudes toward what was then a very uptight pair of towns. Our boat obviously needed paint, a problem we solved by exercising our midnight requisitioning skills on a construction site somewhere near Rio Vista.





Best Wishes to everybody for the New Year.

Cheers,

Earl

[Los Angeles Past]

Well, since we're sharing childhood Manhattan Beach pics, here's my contribution. The year is 1960, and that's little 5-year-old Me with my Nana (left), and her sister who is visiting from Utah.



My Aunt Lorraine lived in Manhattan Beach, so we went there fairly often when my age was in single digits. To be honest, I didn't care much for the place. Before the Santa Monica Freeway opened all the way, MB was a lonnnnng, tedious drive from our home in Covina, and even worse on the return when I was fidgety with my inevitable sunburn.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The Apartment (1960)

This is pretty much how I feel on New Year's Eve.

Fran Kubelik: "Ring-a-ding-ding..."

One of my favorites, movie-wise.

A friend just got a new blu-ray with all the works, even with a small book about the whole film. And last night I rode by the studio where it was filmed!

P.S.: We did not have the "dense fog" I was looking forward to. At least not anywhere around where I was. Just some haze.

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay

The spirit of Noirish takes many directions.
Best Wishes to everybody from the frenchie of the Thread.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Fran Kubelik: "Ring-a-ding-ding..."

One of my favorites, movie-wise.

A friend just got a new blu-ray with all the works, even with a small book about the whole film. And last night I rode by the studio where it was filmed!

P.S.: We did not have the "dense fog" I was looking forward to. At least not anywhere around where I was. Just some haze.

Lots of people felt some haze the morning after New Year's Eve . . .

But right, no fog and just slight haze here (near Long Beach).

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Paris

The spirit of Noirish takes many directions.
Best Wishes to everybody from the frenchie of the Thread.
_______________________________________________________________

My friends are in Normandy and will be arriving in Paris tomorrow!

.

[BillinGlendaleCA]

_1010003-Edit.jpg by BillinGlendaleCA, on Flickr

Happy New Year. Yes, it was a bit hazy in LA this morning.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by HossC

The picture below was uploaded in 2009, but the church still looks pretty much the same.


Laurie Avocado on Flickr

Originally Posted by Eddy87

Thanks for the help...I haven't had any luck with this particular church there's no info on the architect or construction firm no other photographs besides the usc b&w and a few google street view pictures from the early 2000s..I know it looks kinda rough ...but it's really sad that another part of la history will most likely be demolished pretty soon..the city posted a demolition date bill on the corner entrance last march but they haven't done anything yet....

It's too bad about that church. There were plans to save it, but apparently they came to naught some time ago.

In the 1924 photo of the church that HossC posted, the building at far left, which shares some design elements with
the church, caught my attention:



CHS-9054 @ USCDL


Here it is a little closer. Today it is the African-American Unity Center at 944 W. 53rd Street:




Would you believe it was built between September and October 1918 by the government as a barrack for military
trainees at USC? That's what the evidence points to. Check it out . . . .




September 14, 1918, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC


Constructing barracks for 850 men in 17 days turned out to be a little optimistic:



October 29, 1918, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC


When the war ended two weeks later, the barracks were no longer needed:



May 13, 1919, Los Angeles Herald @ CDNC


This is the May 28, 1919, building permit to move a 30' x 60', two-story barrack from what is now the USC campus to
5308 S. Vermont for the Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church. According to the 1922 Sanborn Map, 3717 University
Avenue (now Trousdale Parkway) would have been at the NW corner of Exposition Blvd., across from Exposition Park:



LADBS


Here's a reference to the church buying a barrack in 1919 (Santa Barbara Avenue, now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.,
is on the south side of Exposition Park, and Exposition Blvd. runs along the north side of the park, so perhaps the
article's author got the streets mixed up):



July 10, 1920, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL


Here, as 5310 S. Vermont, is the old barrack on the 1922 Sanborn (north is at the left):



ProQuest via LAPL


When the now-abandoned church was built on the corner of Vermont and 53rd, the old barrack was moved around the
corner to 944 W. 53rd Street, as shown on the October 1, 1923 building permit excerpts below. Please note that the
building is getting stucco on three sides and a brick veneer front:





LADBS


Here's a c. 1919 photo showing boarded-up barracks on what was then known as University Avenue at USC.
Please note the size of the side windows:



USC


Now let's check the side windows on 944 W. 53rd Street . . . I'd say that's a pretty close match:



Google Aerial


The building seems to have stucco on three sides, and we've already seen the brick veneer front in the 1924 photo:



Google Aerial


The building opposite the alley from the Unity Center looks like it could have been one of those 30' x 120' barracks for
sale in the 1919 ad above, minus the house-like front on 53rd Street:



Google Aerial


Henry M. Patterson, who is said to have designed many Presbyterian churches in Southern California, was
the architect of the Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church (see under MODERN EDIFICE below). Perhaps he
also supervised the makeover that the old barrack received when it was moved around the corner to make
room the the big church:




September 16, 1924, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Oh my FW, that's some interesting information! You just made Eddy87 very happy.

[Lorendoc]

This photo is captioned "Motel Exterior, Los Angeles, 1962."


Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, CSUN

For some reason I like it.


GSV

Happy New Year to all.

[Beaudry]

Well as long as we're on the subject of our youth—I'm not from Los Angeles, but Santa Barbara. We had LA television, though, and growing up with ads for Pete Ellis Dodge and Carpeteria and Colton Piano and Organ Supermart, I had a lot of Angelenic influence.

Here I am in my nonage as a punk miscreant, ca. 1983—



—which I'll admit I never quite outgrew, and most importantly I, then as now, loved English Gothic churches as designed by Pasadena architect Philip Frohman. Ok, I'll also admit that at the time of this photo I was more likely thinking about getting some liquor from Cantwell's across the street.

[odinthor]

Is it my imagination, or are all NLA members very good looking?

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Is it my imagination, or are all NLA members very good looking?

Well, those that posted pics...I have the looks best suited for BEHIND the camera.

[ScottyB]

This was taken almost exactly 50 years ago on S. Catalina Ave. in Pasadena. The football uniform was a Christmas present that I was so very pleased with I decided to wear it to choir practice the following day. Questionable judgement demonstrated for sure, and not for the last time, either.
Happy 2018 to all Noirishers, posters and lurkers alike. Here's to a good year!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Sea Scout Ship Argonaut, circa 1955

It sounds like you were a real rascal back then Earl.

What kind of boat was the Argonaut? (it looks like you have a still onboard)
_______________________________________________________________


update:

I see Los Angeles Past and Beaudry have added photos to our rogue's gallery.

I don't know if I should keep commenting on each individual photograph.
I'm afraid I might over-step some boundaries.

like asking....

My God, is that ALL your hair Beaudry?

or more calmly...

What are you holding in the beach photograph Los Angeles Past? (you're really concentrating on it)
___




Beaudry's photo HERE
Los Angeles Past photo HERE

[Otis Criblecoblis]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

That's cool you remember seeing those marquees! Do you remember any one in particular for any reason?

Do you ever remember the place with the name Nude-A-Go-Go?

I don't recall any particular Loser of The Week, but I do remember that it often annoyed my Dad. I recall the place's becoming a strip joint, but not that name.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

In my disappointment last October, I may have said that myself a time or two.

HA! Yes, Angels fans often felt that way last season as well.

[ethereal_reality]

Did you know Cecil B. DeMille had a 'secretive' ranch near Tujunga?

A few days ago I happened upon this bit of ephemera concerning an organ that Mr. DeMille had purchased.


www.periodpaper.com

In 1916 DeMille had his attorney, Neil McCarthy, check out an advertised piece of property in the Angeles National Forest.

McCarthy told DeMille that it was the "wildest, most terrible place" he ever saw in his life. But DeMille bought it anyway.
It was exactly what he wanted--secluded, with a stream, and only 25 miles from home.

The ranch grew as DeMille bought more land--mountainsides and a "Middle Ranch," where he stabled his horses on flatter ground.
He built the main ranch house with a 60-foot-long living room, added a stone cottage for himself with a mirror over the bed,
and dug a swimming pool that he filled with the numbingly cold water of a brook he dammed up. DeMille named it Paradise Ranch.

In 1923, DeMille shipped a $25,000 Wurlitzer pipe organ to the ranch so his composer, creating the scores for upcoming films,
could work in solitude. Screenwriter Jeannie Macpherson periodically moved herself into one of the cabins for weeks at a time
as she wrote and collaborated on 90% of DeMille's films.

DeMille's wife, Constance, did not like the ruggedness of the ranch so Mr. DeMille recruited his longtime mistress, actress Julia Faye,
to travel with him and spend weekends at the ranch. Female guests often found oysters seeded with cultured pearls in front of them
at the dinner table.

condensed from an 1997 article in the L.A. Times



& I'll add this:
but no mention of Julia Faye
Cecil B. DeMille: His Life and Art

The ranch also housed DeMille's private library, including a mint collection of European erotica.
A guest described the books as "beautifully bound and illuminated" and included a "privately printed
three-volume edition of shockingly illustrated works of Francoise Rabelais."

I didn't didn't know Cecil had a kinky side. I wonder where all these erotic books ended up?

I almost forgot the organ....where do you suppose it is?








also this land and farm