noirish Los Angeles

[odinthor]

"Conger notes that Weston passed this statue in front of the Hotel Chelsea near San Fernando, just north of Los Angeles, on June 3 (Conger 1020). Amused by the statue, he returned a few days later to photograph it. Weston sent the print offered here to his sister, who inscribed the verso as follows: 'This is an old plaster statue which caught my brother's attentive eye and excited his sense of humor.'

https://www.barnebys.co.uk/realised-...road-uwljryZop

("SAN FERNANDO ROAD" in the earlier description might mean "a road to/near/in San Fernando" rather than "San Fernando Rd.")

[Noir_Noir]

The writer Edmund Wilson, traveling in the LA area, mentions a bellboy statue at a Hotel Chelsea in his diaries from the 1930's.



The Thirties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period By Edmund Wilson


Seems to be describing the same one in the Weston picture. He sees it as a papier-mâché statue rather than plaster but that may be just for poetic effect.

I can't find any other mention or listing for a Hotel Chelsea around the San Fernando area.

[GaylordWilshire]

ER etc, it seems you have found the location of the Chelsea roadside advertisement for the Hotel Chelsea at 504 S Bonnie Brae, more recently the Cameo Hotel...

From this post and this post of March 13, 2011:

[ethereal_reality]

.

A 2011 nla mystery solved nine years later!

As a reminder here's what I asked back in 2011: "I'm a bit confused about the bellhop sculpture. Was it relocated to an empty field somewhere?"


Thanks so much odinthor, Noir Noir and GW.

You guys made my day.




There is another Weston photograph that was never solved. I'm going to dig that photo up and we'll have a go at that one as well.
.

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

ER etc, it seems you have found the location of the Chelsea roadside advertisement for the Hotel Chelsea at 504 S Bonnie Brae, more recently the Cameo Hotel...

From this post and this post of March 13, 2011:

No suitcase in the right hand as in the other photo?

[ethereal_reality]

.

Good eye Hollywood Graham!.... It probably broke off on its way to San Fernando and ended up in a ditch.

....am I the only one who finds this slightly amusing?.

[ethereal_reality]

Yes. It's the Tishman 615 building once again. Lucky you.

.





The blue panels on the Tishman 615 building were prefabbed off site in nearby Alhambra. (see below)


PDF. looking for it again

Is anyone familiar enough with Alhambra to figure out the location shown in the photograph? ....It was a 3 acre site.

I looked around the area in the google-mobile but failed to figure out where the former site might have been. (I was hoping the shape of the hills might lead me there)


.

[HossC]

Here's Tishman 615 under construction. I found your picture of the panels in a PDF at usmodernist.org, e_r, but I can't see any mention of Alhambra. It just says "The panels were manufactured in the open on a suburban lot; ordinary tools and equipment were used; no special problems were encountered, either in manufacture or in placing the panels on the building." Maybe you got the Alhambra link from a different source.

Tishman 615, 615 South Flower Street. The 22-story building gets its color from blue Italian mosaic tile embedded in panels.

Just east of Beaudry Avenue, on the overpass above the Harbor Freeway. The 1912 Noonan & Kysor Rex Arms at left, it had a 1930s streamlining, and the 1946 Holabird & Root Hotel Statler on the right. In the middle, the Tishman going up, by Victor Gruen Associates.


Huntington Digital Library

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Yes. It's the Tishman 615 building once again. Lucky you.

The azure blue panels on the (recently discussed) Tishman 615 building were prefabbed off site in nearby Alhambra. (see below)


PDF. looking for it again

Is anyone familiar enough with Alhambra to figure out the location shown in the photograph? ....It was a 3 acre site.

I looked around the area in the google-mobile but failed to figure out where the former site might have been. (I was hoping the shape of the hills might lead me there)


.

I'm thinking it's the corner of Lowell(and Concord) and Alhambra, it's now the El Sereno Arroyo Playground. Here's the aerial via FrameFinder from May 1960:

[HossC]

I also looked at the FrameFinder images, BillinGlendale. I was hoping to find the panels laid out, but they're probably on the 1959 "Request Scan" images.

Here's the area today. I think you've cracked it!


Google Maps

[ethereal_reality]

.
By JOVE I think you found the lot, BillinGlendalCa ! !

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's Tishman 615 under construction. I found your picture of the panels in a PDF at usmodernist.org, e_r, but I can't see any mention of Alhambra. It just says "The panels were manufactured in the open on a suburban lot; ordinary tools and equipment were used; no special problems were encountered, either in manufacture or in placing the panels on the building." Maybe you got the Alhambra link from a different source.

[I]Tishman 615, 615 South Flower Street. The 22-story building gets its color from blue Italian mosaic tile embedded in panels.

Yes, Hoss, that is the PDF where I found the photograph. I didn't know the prehab location was in Alhambra until I happened upon this 2nd article. (shown below)



I found the article in indiana (& my notes are in indiana.)....I'm now in illinois. sorry


The original azure blue panels should have never been removed but the new owners no doubt wanted larger windows.

Also. . .
I didn't know the building was known as the Wilflower Building.


.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

....

Yup, that's the most notoriously leaky one. So you do think Wright was a lousy architect. Just checking.

[ethereal_reality]

Are you purposely trying to start an argument? KevinW . . .please let it be.


.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Let's move on.

I haven't been on here in a couple days, so I'll move on shortly.

Originally Posted by KevinW

Wow are you and CBD a bunch of beauty hating old men. The Ruvo Center is, like Disney Hall, modern and beautiful.

You may have heard the expression, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?" And now I'm contemplating "beauty hating young men"?

Originally Posted by KevinW

Funny thing is he's giving the finger to someone with a negative opinion such as your own.

He gave the "questioner" the finger, not the people the questioner was citing. Mr. Gehry is either very touchy or very insecure. His response that "98% of the architecture being built today is pure shit" indicates that his ego feels himself to belong in the 2% and is disdainful of the other 98%. That's a lot.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I understand being a critic of his work but the visceral hatred is downright bizarre.

Perhaps because you don't live around his buildings and are being threatened with yet another one, actually five buildings, being built in your own backyard and another less objectionable one, actually two buildings, for Warner Bros. in the valley.

Visceral hatred of something is only bizarre if one agrees that visceral admiration of something (or someone) is also bizarre, but I think I will now use that term to describe Frank Gehry's style of archiecture.

Thank you all for your time...exit, stage left...

[nealberke]

I suspect from the 1946 date of this article, the dice were made of NITROCELLULOSE not simply cellulose. Nitrocellulose is a cellulose product such as cotton that's been treated with nitric acid. It is very flammable and can be made into a low level explosive such as gun cotton. Nitrocellulose film was responsible for many deadly theater fires in early days of the motion picture industry and several spectacular film vault fires. This film can burn under water and gives off toxic gases when burned. Eventually, Nitrocellulose film was replaced first by actitate safety film and then polyester film. It has also been fashioned into lacquer and hard plastics. If you want, I will try to post more articles about nitrocellulose film, it's dangers and film restoration.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Please do!... The subject is fascinating.

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by nealberke

I suspect from the 1946 date of this article, the dice were made of NITROCELLULOSE not simply cellulose. Nitrocellulose is a cellulose product such as cotton that's been treated with nitric acid. It is very flammable and can be made into a low level explosive such as gun cotton. Nitrocellulose film was responsible for many deadly theater fires in early days of the motion picture industry and several spectacular film vault fires. This film can burn under water and gives off toxic gases when burned. Eventually, Nitrocellulose film was replaced first by actitate safety film and then polyester film. It has also been fashioned into lacquer and hard plastics. If you want, I will try to post more articles about nitrocellulose film, it's dangers and film restoration.

Interesting stuff, nealberke!

The tortoiseshell pickguards on Fender guitars used to be made of nitrocellulose back in the 60s. They switched to some form of plastic eventually, but it's not nearly as nice looking as the old nitrocellulose pickguards as seen below:



Guitar picks used to be made of the same stuff, too.



I used to light them on fire as a kind of party trick. They would VANISH instantly in a flash of fire the moment you ignited them. POOF! Burst of light, then they would be gone without a trace. Incredibly flammable stuff!

[Bristolian]

I remember Johnny Carson once saying he was in a film that was so bad, it was the only one ever transferred from safe film to highly flammable nitrocellulose.

[odinthor]

I don't believe that NLA has visited the Canton Cafe, which was at 527 S. Main for about a year, mostly or completely in 1911. It was accused of certain liquor law violations (selling booze without accompanying food, as well as to minors).


odinthor collection

I wonder what accounts for the odd shape of the interior space, evidently narrowing (or shifting?) towards the rear...?


Earlier, in 1901, 527 S. Main had hosted a business of another sort:


LA Herald, 10/27/1901


And another predecessor was:


LA Times, 2/23/1902


But these earlier concerns were in a structure which had been replaced by the time the Canton Cafe started business:


LA Herald, 1/1/1904

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by odinthor

I don't believe that NLA has visited the Canton Cafe, which was at 527 S. Main for about a year, mostly or completely in 1911. It was accused of certain liquor law violations (selling booze without accompanying food, as well as to minors).

odinthor collection

The Canton Cafe had to be very noisy when the pianist (on the left) played. The hallway shape of the cafe and the tiles on the floor would make it very resonant and reverberate. Not very attractive to have a quiet lunch.