noirish Los Angeles

[John Maddox Roberts]

Here's a closer look at the actress (to me, she looks Janet Leigh-ish). . .frustratingly the writing on the placard is still blurry.


detail

.[/QUOTE]

I would say that indeed IS Janet Leigh, and that this is a prop as seen in the 1953 movie Houdini. Maybe Tony Curtis under the thing? Here's a screencap of the trailer from IMDB:
[/QUOTE]

The contraption is a water tank. In the black-and white picture it is empty and you can see the big taped X's on the glass panels, as you still see on glass doors sometimes. In the color pic it's filled with water. Undoubtedly for one of Houdini's escape stunts, inverted in a straitjacket and chains. I suppose in the scene he's under it to gimmick the tank for his escape.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Noir Noir, George Marshall was the director of Houdini.

Bingo!


Great find vexedbystuff.

.

Agree completely. I still think it was a real iron works. The guy in the second picture is leaning against a drill press next to an oxyacetylene cart. The forge and anvil would have been used for wrought iron work, like decorative fencing.

So where was the Sherman Iron Works located?

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

.
Take a look at this amazing cabinet card dated 1884.

Seller's description: ..."Crescent Steam Laundry, Los Angeles...1884... Cabinet Card"

eBay

Per the 1896 city directory (shown below) the laundry was located at 1800-1806 N. Main Street.


lapl

This places it just east of the Los Angeles River and just past the San Antonio Brewery.

The starting bid for the cabinet card is only $20. [O bids] I imagine Beaudry might be interesting in it....Link
.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I took the google-mobile to 5348 Lemon Grove Avenue and this is what I found...




Obviously Mr. Clair's shenanigans created some sort of time portal.

I do enjoy a good time portal so I moseyed on over to take a gander. Just my luck...the portal was not on today.



Apparently this is a duplex; only the left half is 5348.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

Here's a closer look at the actress (to me, she looks Janet Leigh-ish). . .frustratingly the writing on the placard is still blurry.


detail

.

I would say that indeed IS Janet Leigh, and that this is a prop as seen in the 1953 movie Houdini. Maybe Tony Curtis under the thing? Here's a screencap of the trailer from IMDB:
[/QUOTE]

The contraption is a water tank. In the black-and white picture it is empty and you can see the big taped X's on the glass panels, as you still see on glass doors sometimes. In the color pic it's filled with water. Undoubtedly for one of Houdini's escape stunts, inverted in a straitjacket and chains. I suppose in the scene he's under it to gimmick the tank for his escape.[/QUOTE]




This "water torture" tank was the one that Houdini (in the film anyway) couldn't escape. They had to break the glass with a sledge hammer before he drowned. This scene may have followed the one where a young college punk slugged him in the gut by surprise, rupturing his intestines or appendix and causing the case of peritonitus that killed him. I wonder if Jamie Lee Curtis was conceived under that tank?

**************
I guess we pretty well beat "The Loved One" to death

One final comment: I'm quite mystified that Anjanette Comer ("Aimee Thanotogenos") didn't have a bigger film career. She was quite lovely and sweet, and not a bad actress. She only starred in a few films and T.V. shows after. I wonder what happened? Bad agent? On the other hand, if you only are remembered for one film, you could do much worse than "The Loved One". Maybe the oddball satirical-noirish L.A. comedy was a bad career choice for a new actress, and it wasn't exactly a huge box office hit, so it may have hurt her career. But the film will be long remembered as a classic, and has many fans 56 years after it was released.

The Loved One was ahead of it's time in 1965, and people didn't know what to make of it. Maybe if it had been released a year or two later, as the "counter culture" took hold, it would have been more of a hit. Maybe with a few Simon & Garfunkel tunes, and Dennis Barlow freeing Aimee from Mr. Joyboy & Whispering Glades and they elope on a bus. The End

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

I guess we pretty well beat "The Loved One" to death

I hope so...

[ethereal_reality]

.

A 75th Birthday party is celebrated at 3837 So. Hill Street. (May 3, 1909)



eBay



Here's the writing on the back.


detail


It's a bit blurry but I believe the birthday girl is. .um. . .Sarah(?) Francis Hughes.

.

[Snix]

I shared Ethereal's Houdini cell photos with John Gaughan, who has been building some of the world's great magic props at his shop in Atwater Village for decades. His response:

"I remember when I came out here in the early 60s I looked for that piece whenever we (crew of TV show "Magic Land of Allakazam") had a chance to be at the Paramount lot. I remember George Boston had been the Technical Adviser on the film. No one remembered where it went…"
http://www.johngaughanmagic.com/

I also saw this interesting letter from Paramount about making the replica referenced on a Houdini site.

"Below is the text from a letter dated May 8, 1952 from Gordon Cole of Paramount Pictures, Inc to Hillar:

Dear Hillar:

Herewith two photographs of the Chinese Water Torture Cell. You will note that they are apparently two different cells in construction and I do not know which one you have located in New York.

As I explained to you by telephone, we will undoubtedly have to fake the cell as far as our actor is concerned. It may be necessary to put a double glass in the front with water between the two glasses so that our actor in the back doesn’t drown. We estimate the cost of construction here of the cell at roughly Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1500.00), and it may prove in the final analysis, better that we build it here for picture purposes, rather than use the original but we cannot afford to overlook the one in New York for the moment. It may be that the cost of getting the cell from Massachusetts, shipping it to the Coast, reshipping it to you, working it over, etc. can be more costly than starting from scratch.

If you do not think it favorable to attempt to ship the cell from New York here, and it does match either one of the photographs, it would be a great help to us if you could give us detailed dimensions, as we have nothing but photographs from which to construct the cell.

Thanks for all your trouble and hope to see you out here this summer. Best regards,

Gordon Cole"

http://harryhoudinicircumstantialevidence.com/?p=1079
The same website had this photo. Is that Houdini on the right in the case that inspired this one? Or is it a scene from the movie?

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Mystery photograph.

Seller's description:


eBay





For search purposes: 11495 - 40 Int. Sherman Ironworks

The back of the photograph is stamped with the date (OCT. 20, 1952).

When I first looked at the photograph I thought the contraption was a vertical multi-plane camera developed by Fleischer Studios Walt Disney Studios. (Fleischer Studios invented the rotoscope.)



One of these. . .

hoatimeline


. . .but what is shown in the eBay photograph is something much simpler. . .except for the vaguely oriental bric-a-brac.
(also note that the whole thing is on wheels!)

I tried to read the movie placard but it's way too blurry.

. . .and I don't recognize the actress.



Postscript:

I decided to include the blurry movie placard because I just noticed the 11495 corresponds with what is written at the top of the eBay photograph.


detail
.

[GaylordWilshire]

We've touched on Harrison Post here on NLA before (in post 52382)....

There is a book out recently about his life--kind of a sad vacuous mimbo but his life with William Andrews Clark Jr on Adams Boulevard--Clark being the founder of the LA Philharmonic and the son of Montana copper mogul WA Clark Sr--is very well illuminated in Twilight Man by Liz Brown, the great-grandniece of Jr. Excellent study of the vintage closet and of a segment of LA's noirish high life in the '20s.




https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Man-Shadows-Hollywood-Empire/dp/0143132903

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Snix

Below is the text from a letter dated May 8, 1952 from Gordon Cole of Paramount Pictures, Inc to Hillar:

"As I explained to you by telephone, we will undoubtedly have to fake the cell as far as our actor is concerned. It may be necessary to put a double glass in the front with water between the two glasses so that our actor in the back doesn’t drown. We estimate the cost of construction here of the cell at roughly Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1500.00), and it may prove in the final analysis, better that we build it here for picture purposes, rather than use the original but we cannot afford to overlook the one in New York for the moment. It may be that the cost of getting the cell from Massachusetts, shipping it to the Coast, reshipping it to you, working it over, etc. can be more costly than starting from scratch."

Best regards,

Gordon Cole"

I have a question:

If the double glass idea (with water between the panes) was eventually used in the film I wonder how the special effects team produced the bubbles coming out of Curtis' mouth.


wildabouthoudini


Amazing information in your post, Snix.


.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I have a question:

If the double glass idea (with water between the panes) was eventually used in the film I wonder how the special effects team produced the bubbles coming out of Curtis' mouth.

Here's how it appears in the movie:



Look at the way his hair moves and it becomes obvious that he is in fact underwater. The air bubbles are real.

Also want to share this frame from the movie:



Janet Leigh's costume is identical to the one seen the Sherman Ironworks photos, as is the costume of the man beneath the Water Torture Cell. Could that be Tony Curtis in the ironworks photos as well?

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Start here Boss: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-then17feb17,0,7106561.story

The Outpost Building, 6715 Hollywood Blvd is named for the Outpost adobe (as is Outpost Dr, etc)

There were adobes all over the Los Angeles area during the era of them, roofed with brea from the tar pits. There's still a few scattered about.

The Capitulation of Cahuenga actually wasn't signed at the adobe pictured, that's just more of our fictionalized history, and it wasn't between the US & Mexico (the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago was a separate event), but just to end local hostilities between Fremont and the Californios.

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

google
No idea?

Johnny and Spanky

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/80/b1/1580b10c14904b48a8207dca30b84220--tarzan-movie-cute-pictures.jpg


Johnny and Buster
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/12/6b/c5/126bc5154e3c14ab1f78c8d245f4a71e.jpg


Johnny and Cheetah
https://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/242/95/95242/1489542735-0.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

.
Mystery pic.


Here's an especially intriguing photograph from an old photo album that is currently listed on eBay




An emoji for anyone who can figure out what is going on.

..........................................And what, in homeopathic hell, is going on in the background?



for searches purposes:..East Lake Park Area..Eliz. Sessions on 12
.

[ethereal_reality]

Here's an equally intriguing photograph from the same photo album


....................East Lake Park - L.A. ........................circa. 1904


eBay

I don't recall Sulphur Baths being anywhere near East Los Angeles. (I might have just forgotten)



.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Mystery pic.


Here's an especially intriguing photograph from an old photo album that is currently listed on eBay




An emoji for anyone who can figure out what is going on.

..........................................And what, in homeopathic hell, is going on in the background?



for searches purposes:..East Lake Park Area..Eliz. Sessions on 12
.

*******

e_r, 'tis a set of sales booths for


LA Herald, 3/2/1902

Note "Indian" in the ad. In the background in the photo, it's an Indian whooping it up, presumably because of the vim and vigor which Callala Herb Tea bestowed on him (or maybe it's a tree).

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's an equally intriguing photograph from the same photo album


....................East Lake Park - L.A. ........................circa. 1904


eBay

I don't recall Sulphur Baths being anywhere near East Los Angeles. (I might have just forgotten)



.

Another Eastlake Park phenomenon:


LA Herald, 5/30/1907

Note the identical phraseology between the ad and the writing above the door.

[GaylordWilshire]

Speaking of bath houses--

While working on the story of the 1928 house at 635 S Rossmore Avenue in Hancock Park last week, I came upon an apparently still-flowing artesian well on Oxford Avenue:



LAT May 14, 1972

[odinthor]

Some more on Eastlake Sulphur Baths:


LA Times, 11/5/1904.

It didn't always go well:


LA Times, 10/14/1909.

[corriganville]

..........................................And what, in homeopathic hell, is going on in the background?



for searches purposes:..East Lake Park Area..Eliz. Sessions on 12
.[/QUOTE]

What you see as "12" is really "R". Ellie Sessions on R.

[JimCraig]

It didn't always go well:


LA Times, 10/14/1909.[/QUOTE]

John Ching must have liked Los Angeles enough to stay there, He is buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale, Section A, Lot 88888, Space 44.