noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for reversing the images odinthor. I appreciate it.

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

Here's an interesting business card from the 1920s.


eBay LINK
...............................................................................................................Harry E. Herndon. ....810 S. Olive....



What makes this card exceptional is that the flipside is a photograph.

No doubt the car is a Stutz-Bearcat since Mr. Stutz is mentioned on the front of the card.



. . .and if I remember correctly, Stutz-Bearcats were very popular with the movie colony. I wonder if the two young ladies are silent film stars!

I'm also curious about that estate in the background.


Not that long ago I posted another business card with a photograph on the back. You can revisit it HERE
.

Stutz was the brand name, and the Bearcat was one of their models - a sports car based on a race car of the same name. It was much smaller than the car pictured. It was a two-seater with low sides rather than doors.

It turns out that the car is not a Stutz at all. The slogan on the card identifies this as advertising the HCS Motor Car Company, which Harry Stutz created after abandoning his namesake company amid financial malfeasance by others. HCS made cars from 1920 to 1925. The car on the postcard resembles a Series 4 touring car, two of which are pictured on the Wikipedia page for HCS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._C._...or_Car_Company

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the correction and superb information, ProphetM.



The silent film, The Roaring Road [1919], starring Wallace Reid, features both a Stutz-Bearcat and a Stutz-Bulldog.


LINK (51 min.)

I haven't watched the complete film but from what I have seen, I believe it was filmed at the annual Santa Monica Street Races in 1916.



Here's a screenshot showing both cars.


oldmotorcar

In the movie Wallace Reid drives a Stutz Bulldog Touring Car and the object of his affection Dorothy Ward is behind the wheel of a Stutz Bearcat.




"Wallace Reid, in his action-hero roles as the dashing race-car driver drew huge audiences to theaters to see his daredevil auto thrillers such as The Roaring Road (1919), Double Speed (1920), Excuse My Dust (1920), and Too Much Speed (1921). One of his auto-racing films, Across the Continent (1922), was chosen as the opening night film for San Francisco's Castro Theatre, which opened 22 June 1922."....wikipedia


IMDB

Mr. Reid died in Los Angeles on January 18, 1923. He was only 31 years old.

(drug addiction)


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[ethereal_reality]

........................................Wallace Reid in The Roaring Road. [1919]

............................................Directed by Cecil B. DeMille.



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[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

Here's an interesting business card from the 1920s.

Some Harry E. Herndon related material.



Los Angeles Herald - 15 December 1920


"Harry Herndon's sales organization and the new H. C. S. with Herndon at wheel; G. F. Stephenson in front seat, and Harry Heber in rear."


Los Angeles Herald - 28 August 1920

[ethereal_reality]

Hey, thanks for the additional information, Noir Noir. I appreciate it.




A Mystery location. (from a group of six negatives dated 1947)

"Looking down on an unnamed street in downtown Los Angeles." [c.1947]


eBay





Below:...Here's a closer look of the bottom half third of the photograph.

I can't tell if the marquee belongs to a theater or some other business. (like a cafeteria)


detail

And, unless my eyes are tricking me, I believe the sandwich shop is named. . .Veronicah(?)




I'm working on the other images.
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[ethereal_reality]

Ok, here are the second and third mystery locations.



The first shows a small parking lot behind some run-down buildings. Downtown Los Angeles [c.1947]


eBay





This next one shows pedestrians crossing the street at a busy street corner. Downtown Los Angeles [c.1947]

I made it extra-large so you can pick out Elizabeth Short.


eBay

I don't see her. (but I always look)


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[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Hey, thanks for the additional information, Noir Noir. I appreciate it.




A Mystery location. (from a group of six negatives dated 1947)

"Looking down on an unnamed street in downtown Los Angeles." [c.1947]


eBay





Below:...Here's a closer look of the bottom half third of the photograph.

I can't tell if the marquee belongs to a theater or some other business. (like a cafeteria)


detail

And, unless my eyes are tricking me, I believe the sandwich shop is named. . .Veronicah(?)

Veronica's Sandwich Shop was at 321 W 5th in the 1956 CD, next door to Manning's Coffee Cafe at 319, which is also in your picture.

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

And, unless my eyes are tricking me, I believe the sandwich shop is named. . .Veronicah(?)




I'm working on the other images.
.

I would say it's Veronica's.

there is something very familiar about that larger building with the round balcony, but I haven't been able to locate it with the GoogleMobile.

EDIT: Beaten!

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This next one shows pedestrians crossing the street at a busy street corner. Downtown Los Angeles [c.1947]

I made it extra-large so you can pick out Elizabeth Short.


eBay

I don't see her. (but I always look)

I can see a sign for 5th Street, so I think this is the Owl Drug Co at 5th and Broadway, which means that the picture above was taken from roughly the same location as the Veronica's/Manning's photo (albeit at a lower elevation). The image below is vaguely dated 1920/1939. Click the link under the image to see the full picture.

"The Metropolitan Building on the northwest corner of Fifth Street and Broadway".


USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for tour help Lorendoc, ProphetM and HossC.



Here is the 4th photograph.

Looking down an unidentified street. Los Angeles [c.1947]


eBay




And 5th. Downtown Los Angeles [c.1947]







.

[ethereal_reality]

Here is the sixth and final 1947 snapshot.


eBay

I thought the date might be wrong because the movie Dillinger with Lawrence Tierney was released in 1945. . .
but the headline movie, Tarzen and the Huntress was released in 1947. so the date is correct.



.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Ok, here are the second and third mystery locations.

This next one shows pedestrians crossing the street at a busy street corner. Downtown Los Angeles [c.1947]

I made it extra-large so you can pick out Elizabeth Short.


eBay

I don't see her. (but I always look)


.

Miss Short is at the right side by the man with dark glasses. Sad, it was one of her last days on this earth. RIP Elizabeth.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is the 4th photograph.

Looking down an unidentified street. Los Angeles [c.1947]


eBay

I originally thought we were looking up Market Street towards the Amestoy Block, but then City Hall should be visible on the left. Instead, we're looking up E 4th Street towards the Westminster Hotel. A quick google couldn't find another shot from the same angle, so here's one from about 50 years earlier (any over 10 years ago on NLA!) taken from 4th and Main. The building on the left in the image above is actually the extant Hotel Barclay. The Salvation Army divisional headquarters was at 125 E 4th Street (1956 CD).

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Below: The Westminster Hotel Main Street at 4th 1893.


usc digital library

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for tour help Lorendoc, ProphetM and HossC.



Here is the 4th photograph.

Looking down an unidentified street. Los Angeles [c.1947]


eBay[...]

Aren't we looking west on 4th street towards the corner with Main? That building at the end of the block looks very Westminster Hotely to me . . .

Edit: Oh, golly, Hoss beat me by a split second!

[Engineeral]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for reversing the images odinthor. I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by HossC

I can see a sign for 5th Street, so I think this is the Owl Drug Co at 5th and Broadway, which means that the picture above was taken from roughly the same location as the Veronica's/Manning's photo (albeit at a lower elevation). The image below is vaguely dated 1920/1939. Click the link under the image to see the full picture.

"The Metropolitan Building on the northwest corner of Fifth Street and Broadway".


USC Digital Library

PCC streetcars were first used in Los Angeles in 1937, so that's the earliest date for this picture.

[odinthor]

411 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles. The Original Spanish Inn, and a selection of items pertaining to its address.


odinthor collection


1893:


LA Herald, 8/13/1893


1894:


LA Herald, 6/22/1894


1898 (January):


LA Times, 1/6/1898


1898 (December):


LA Herald, 12/25/1898


1903 (May):


LA Times, 5/6/1903


1903 (October):


LA Herald, 10/1/1903


1922:


LA Times, 6/17/1922


1926:


LA Times, 11/24/1926


1927, not about 411 W. 4th but rather about the owner of the restaurant, Charles B. Aber and his family:


LA Times, 12/23/1927

Sadly, the boy, Walter Texas Aber, died, indeed had died the day before the above item was published.



1933:


LA Times, 1/11/1933

[GaylordWilshire]

SYNCHRONICITY:

It just so happens that I'm working this week on the story of 60 Westmoreland Place...and have been intrigued by the tangential story of the wife of a short-term owner of the house, olive-oil producer Sherman E. Knapp, She happens to have been...Kate Lampman. She advertised in LA papers from at least 1893 until the month before marrying Knapp on Christmas Day 1900. She died a few years before Knapp acquired 60 Westmoreland...but in 1910 was arrested in New York on a charge of being "a dangerous person pretending to foretell the future"; she claimed she was a minister of spiritualism and a teacher of metaphysics and was quoted in a wire dispatch appearing in the LA Times: "For many years I have taught the beautiful, constructive philosophy of practical idealism, unfolding lives into fuller consciousness of boundless love, wisdom, health, happiness and life more abundant."

More on 60 Westmoreland Place will soon appear at
westmorelandplacelosangeles.blogspot.com

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by Engineeral

PCC streetcars were first used in Los Angeles in 1937, so that's the earliest date for this picture.

The Manning's in e_r's photo shows up for the first time in the 1938 CD at 319 W 5th. This agrees with the earliest date possible inferred by the presence of the streetcar.

I thought the location might have been a movie theater with a stripped-down marquee, but it turns out to have been a Boos Brothers cafeteria for many years before 1938.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by odinthor

411 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles. The Original Spanish Inn, and a selection of items pertaining to its address.


1903 (May):


LA Times, 5/6/1903


]

That bartender from Needles died of heart disease, alcohol [ 2 years on the wagon.] and excitement.

I try to keep my excitement to a very low level. Be careful guys of too much excitement in your lives.....it can KILL. That's what I like about NLA...not too much excitement.

Good that his friend Frank was there to catch Bill's fall. Frank [a barber] was a boy from Needles. I've been to Needles....the village is microscopic in size.