noirish Los Angeles

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

That's it? No Statler Hilton? Hoss






What is in the back window of the car down the street? (circled in red above)



Is this the police car.....because it looks like a BULLET HOLE.


DETAIL

or should I chalk [pun intended] it up to my noirish imagination again?


detail



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It is a red light, square E license signifies it is a city vehicle (sq. E city, round E county and diamond E state) two way radio antenna on bumper, appears to be 1946 Ford.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

re: Catalina Incline

Now you've really picqued my interest odinthor. I wonder if any of those remnants [or foundations] are visible from Google Earth?

One problem: I'm not sure where I'm supposed to look.



GSV

Using the best of my madd geo-locatin' skilz, e_r, I'd say about here:


gsv with arrow added in odinthor workshop

The funicular would--as is the wont of funiculars--go up the one side of the slope, and its twin on the other slope would go down to the beach-edge on the other side. And vice-versa.

[ethereal_reality]

Thank you odinthor.

I can start snooping!

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

. (did you know if you enlarge a PERIOD to make a dot it turns into a square?) I didn't either. . I just tried to do it again. the period does, in fact, turn into a square.

Just do this, ER:

•

To type a circle on the Mac, press Option-8.
To type a circle on a PC, press Alt-8.

See this website for all kinds of symbols you can type on your computer keyboard: https://typefacts.com/en/articles/keyboard-shortcuts

Here are a few more: ¡, ¿, €, ¥, ‰, ®, ™, †, ˇ, ‡, °, Æ, ÷, ∞...

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

Having a few empty minutes at lunch, I decided to take a stab at finding the Auto Wheel.

I started with Noir_Noir's find of the parcel description from the Oxnard newspaper from a couple of pages ago. It connected Emma Diltz with land transactions from the late thirties, which contained two parcel locations: Lots 2 and 4 in Block 46, Thousand Oaks Tract.

I remembered the county property bureaucracy from when I was looking for the Lookout Mountain Inn, and hoped that Ventura County would have the same system. It does. After three phone calls, I reached someone in the map department at the recorder's office. They said that the county had been resurveyed and remapped many times since 1937 and would call me back if they found anything. I didn't expect a response, but 30 minutes later my cell's caller ID showed "Ventura County" was calling. The person couldn't find lot 4, but said they found that lot 2 corresponded to what is now 1350 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. They thought that Lot 4 would be nearby. This is a bit to the east of the area mentioned by Tourmaline, BillinGlendaleCAand Scott Charles a few days ago.



Google

I was able to find two UCSB aerials (from 1947 and 1952) of the general area. Each contains a light-colored building that might be a motel (or chicken house?)

1947:

UCSB

1952:

UCSB

Both show what is now N Rancho Road coming down from the top middle of the frame south to TO Blvd (then called Ventura Blvd). The Google map shows a gas station at the NE corner of Rancho and TO, I wonder if it is somehow a descendant of the Auto Wheel.

The deed index for Ventura County is online and there are about a dozen transactions between various Diltz's and banks, the state etc. between 1927 and 1944. I am sure these deeds contain enough information to locate the Auto Wheel beyond dispute; the person from the map office said it is indeed possible for title companies to find the modern parcel that exactly overlays those old lot descriptions. Just takes $

Very interesting, Lorendoc! And thanks for making those calls - you found some interesting stuff!

If I were made of money, I'd certainly pay to get it tracked down! Sadly, that is not the case, and things are actually a bit tighter financially than usual right now.

[ethereal_reality]

Here is a rather intriguing photographs of the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The ebay seller describes the festive illumination as "Christmas Lights" but that's incorrect. You can clearly see the Shriners emblem below the large glowing orb.


EBAY



The seller has a 2nd photograph of the event that has a negative-like effect.

It looks like this.

HERE



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[ethereal_reality]

I almost forgot this third one.



EBAY

"Original Photo LOS ANGELES COLISEUM Palm Tree Landscape Night Shot"

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[HossC]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Just do this, ER:

•

To type a circle on the Mac, press Option-8.
To type a circle on a PC, press Alt-8.

See this website for all kinds of symbols you can type on your computer keyboard: https://typefacts.com/en/articles/keyboard-shortcuts

Here are a few more: ¡, ¿, €, ¥, ‰, ®, ™, †, ˇ, ‡, °, Æ, ÷, ∞...

Thanks Scott Charles, I didn't know about the single- and double-digit Alt codes. I used to know a few of the handy four-digit codes for common symbols like ¼, ½ and ¾, but I've spent 10 years using laptops without a numeric pad, so they've been forgotten along the way.

Just to be clear to others: on Windows PCs, hold the Alt key, type the relevant number(s) on the numeric pad (with Num Lock on) and then release the Alt key. Alt-8 actually gives an inverse bullet (◘) on Windows computers, so you'll need Alt-7 for a normal one (●). Alternatively, use Alt-0149.

Programs like MS Word have built-in functions for inserting non-keyboard characters and symbols, but for simpler formatting tasks, like replying on NLA, you can use a little app called Character Map on Windows computers. To run Character Map, either type Character Map into the search box on the taskbar or press Win+R to open the run dialog, type charmap and click OK. This will show you all the extended character sets in regular fonts and fancy symbols in fonts like Wingdings. You can then copy/paste them into your posts.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the correction flyingwedge....and the link (see below)

" Extremely little is known about this incline railway. The photo (the only one known to exist) tells the whole story."


excerpt: "(the only photo known to exist)" -I guess they're unaware of the photograph with the two ladies!

___

This morning, before I read this post above I had looked at the link Flyingwedge included and saw the "only photo known to exist" notation and so I emailed them at EHRA and linked them to this discussion if they were interested and before a half hour was out someone from EHRA purchased the photo and sent me an email reply thanking me (you guys, really) for the referral and that depending on the quality of what they receive said they'd be posting it on the site!

So thanks E_R and Flyingwedge!

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thank you odinthor.

I can start snooping!

Set your time machine for about 1910, e_r: According to Catalina! Wish You Were Here, by Ray Miller and Jo Miller (1993), it ran starting in "about 1905," and was dismantled "about 1915." The great fire of Avalon was in 1915 (November 29) . . . but destroyed the other side of town.


pinterest

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

This morning, before I read this post above I had looked at the link Flyingwedge included and saw the "only photo known to exist" notation and so I emailed them at EHRA and linked them to this discussion if they were interested and before a half hour was out someone from EHRA purchased the photo and sent me an email reply thanking me (you guys, really) for the referral and that depending on the quality of what they receive said they'd be posting it on the site!

So thanks E_R and Flyingwedge!

That was nice of you to let them know about the photo, MP. I'm glad it will go to a good home.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

It is a red light.

It's a red light!?

hmmm.....



I see something like....this.

ajaxall


but then again, I'm crazy.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Great fire of Avalon, 1915.


pinterest

This is an astonishing photograph odinthor. When I first glanced at it I thought it was Pittsburgh!



during the coal mining boom

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks Scott Charles, I didn't know about the single- and double-digit Alt codes. I used to know a few of the handy four-digit codes for common symbols like ¼, ½ and ¾, but I've spent 10 years using laptops without a numeric pad, so they've been forgotten along the way.

Just to be clear to others: on Windows PCs, hold the Alt key, type the relevant number(s) on the numeric pad (with Num Lock on) and then release the Alt key. Alt-8 actually gives an inverse bullet (◘) on Windows computers, so you'll need Alt-7 for a normal one (●). Alternatively, use Alt-0149.

Oops!

As I am a Mac user, with no PC in sight, I thought that the Mac ‘Option’ simply became Windows ‘Alt’ - that's the way it usually works, the two keys being interchangeable. But not this time!

Thanks for the correction, Hoss!

[ethereal_reality]

Unless I missed the discoveries, two [of the four] 'mystery' slides, from last week, remain unsolved.


Slide #2


ebay

At first glance this street scene is rather unexceptional, but if you look a bit closer at the apartment building you see that there are a few distinctive characteristics.



Not quite Chinoiserie...not quite Tiki...not quite Hollywood Regency....

Most impressive (if you want to call it that) are the long vertical rods interspersed with colorful doo-dads.
These decorative "doo-dads" also appear on the entrance way handrails and on the balcony railings.

Oh, I almost forgot...the address appears to be three numbers. [circled above]
___


There, I've almost solved it for you.

[ethereal_reality]

The other unsolved slide is #4. The one with the gas station sitting incongruously on the hill.


ebay


detail
__

I'm mentioning the slide again because I have a group of four more ('mystery' slides) queued up and ready to go.

[ethereal_reality]

Take a look at this amazing photograph that was recently listed on EBAY


EBAY

"Early original vintage mounted photograph of employees of the Kaestner & Brown General Book Binding Company posing for a photograph outside their location in Los Angeles, California."

Does anyone recognize the building?

__

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Take a look at this amazing photograph that was recently listed on EBAY


EBAY

"Early original vintage mounted photograph of employees of the Kaestner & Brown General Book Binding Company posing for a photograph outside their location in Los Angeles, California."


Does anyone recognize the building?

__

That is a great image! According to the directories, Kaestner & Brown were at 317 New High, which puts them in the middle of this Baist excerpt:



I assume there's at least a birds-eye of the area that might show the building, if not an actual streetscape. I have to run out till the morrow so don't have time to dig one up myself, but am confident there will be an image on my return!

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Take a look at this amazing photograph that was recently listed on EBAY


EBAY

I don't know if it helps anything, but I cleaned the photo up a bit in Photoshop, straightened the verticals, etc:

[GaylordWilshire]

USCDL


We've seen this image before--looking east on Wilshire from just west of Wilton...the apartment building at left was a mystery I thought we'd covered a while back, but the posts elude me. Anyway, at the risk of repetition, it was built facing Gramercy in 1921 and moved 14 years later to Seventh St just west of St. Andrews, where it survived until 1986. The full story of the Wilshire/Gramercy corner is here.


NEVERMIND on that...found the old post. It was #37759, not even two years ago.


How about something new re the building at the NEC of Wilshire & Gramercy? Pictures of the Hi-Hat taken by Willard D. Morgan are featured in a new post on historian John Crosse's invaluable blog Southern California Architectural History. (With more here.)




HLA