noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a fantastic slide dated 1952 of the American Broadcast Company (KECA) on Vine Street. (and what a clear blue sky!)

I like to try and decipher the marquees of theatres and th elike in many NLA photos.

It took awhile, but most of the above ABC marquee finally came to me.

The top line of the front of it says:
"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (then the next two words I do not know.)

The second line reads:
Starring Ozzie - Harriet - David & Ricky Nelson

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I like to try and decipher the marquees of theatres and th elike in many NLA photos.

It took awhile, but most of the above ABC marquee finally came to me.

The top line of the front of it says:
"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (then the next two words I do not know.)

The second line reads:
Starring Ozzie - Harriet - David & Ricky Nelson

This photo may have been taken at ABC radio studio on Vine St.. The Nelsons began their show on the radio.

Feb. 20, 1949 – David and Ricky Nelson start playing themselves on the radio show. [The original Nelson radio show began in 1944, with actors for the 2 boys.].

It looks like Ricky is in the process of getting his teeth straightened. Its hard to believe they're all deceased.


ABC archives

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

Nice find! I've wondered about that Southeast corner of the Paramount lot, in part because of how much it has changed from the way it looked in Sunset Boulevard.

It certainly looks as though this was a public street right up to the gate at Bronson and Marathon.

When did Paramount take over this block to add a parking lot? The magnificent Bronson gate still exists but it's quite difficult to see from Melrose Ave.

I don't know when the public street right up to the Bronson and Marathon gate stopped being public, but I know that when my sister visited me in 1981 that it was still accessible.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

google-aerial
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Something some might find interesting in the above photo.

In the blue colored square you can see parking spaces there. On the north end you see a wall. This is a cyclorama painted to look like the sky. Paramount occasionally floods this entire parking lot area and uses it to film things in where water and sky is needed. Offhand, I don't know anything that's filmed there except that I read once (if true) that the first Gilligan's Island reunion film used it for some scenes.

I was invited by a friend to a film screening on the lot once and this is where we parked. As you might expect, it is recessed. I do not recall that the bottom was painted blue at the time, though.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We've seen many, and I mean many, photographs of the northwest corner of Hollywood & Vine on NLA-
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You're welcome, lol!

[ethereal_reality]

A rare glimpse

"Neighborhood Palm trees destroyed for Figueroa St. exit, circa 1937."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Neighborhood...item5415e8af99

I imagine the two people examining the trees live in the houses in the background. Maybe oldstuff can use their last names (shown below) and figure out the addresses.



reverse




So what exit are they talking about? -isn't 1937 too early for highway construction?
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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I like to try and decipher the marquees of theatres and th elike in many NLA photos.

It took awhile, but most of the above ABC marquee finally came to me.

The top line of the front of it says:
"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (then the next two words I do not know.)

The second line reads:
Starring Ozzie - Harriet - David & Ricky Nelson

You certainly have better eyes than I do Martin_Pal.

Good job on the 7 million views Hollywood Star CityBoyDoug.
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[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a slide, dated 1952, showing an elaborate advertisement for the film Macao.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-195...item339a6fcea9

Does anyone have an idea where this was located? (I see there's a Drama School at left) --and quite a bit of litter on the ground and along the curb.
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Really evocative slide e_r!

There was a customer where I worked that I talked to frequently back in the 80's and 90's and one day I was watching this film "Macao" and noticed the costume designer's name was the same name as his, so I asked him if that was him. Sure enough, it was. The same year of 1952 he also did the costumes for the film Clash By Night, which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe. He proceeded to tell me about a party he held at his home that he invited Marilyn to attend. He said she was quite shy and didn't think she'd go...be uncomfortable not knowing anyone etc. (For various reasons I know of, I'm assuming that this party was mostly his gay friends and acquaintances.) She did show up at his door. She wouldn't come in until Michael came to the door and escorted her in. (She felt comfortable with him because she knew him.) He said she was smartly attired in a black and white outfit, complete with a hat featuring a large red feather sticking out of it. He said that the boys were agog.

LOL! I wish there were circumstances that I could have talked to him more at length! Much less working with her, but imagine giving a party and having Marilyn Monroe show up!

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is the first time I've noticed flags flying on the roof.*


eBay

Is it a case of artistic license? -or were they really there?

* I stand corrected. I just looked at HossC's postcard again and I see flagpoles in the darkness!!

I just went back in the thread and yes there ARE flagpoles there....but none seem to have flags flying.

update:
Here's a group of photograph I posted way back on page 5...and yes, one photo has flags flying. < I'm red faced.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...0&postcount=88

The flag poles on the Richfield Building are certainly quite anonymous, but here are a couple more images. This picture shows the poles complete with flags on a still day in 1957. The full picture was posted by FredH in post #18884.


Detail of picture in Huntington Digital Library

An article on ladailymirror.com includes the undated picture below. It clearly shows two flags flying.


ladailymirror.com, courtesy of Mary Mallory

[ethereal_reality]

"Car 1405 on Ave. 28 and Figueroa, circa 1955."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOS-ANGELES-...item58ba3880ae

The first thing that caught my eye was the large barn-like building down the street.

I was surprised to see that it's still there in the current view, as are the two buildings on the corner that once housed a liquor store on the left and an Italian-American Market on the right. (shown below)

today

GSV


Here's a closer look.- It certainly looks like a substation.


GSV detail



...and here's the opposite end on the corner of Avenue 28 and Huron.


GSV detail
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After a couple google searches...this is in fact, the old Los Angeles Railway Huron Substation built in 1906.
It is the second oldest surviving substation in the city. It housed equipment to convert high-voltage electricity supplied by the Edison Company to the 600 volts current
used by the L.A. Railways "Yellow Cars."



Here are some interior photographs.


http://www.huronsubstation.com/Welcome.html




http://www.huronsubstation.com/Welcome.html


More photographs here:
http://www.huronsubstation.com/Photos_-_Interior.html

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My next mission is to find out what this classical looking building is at the end of the street. (a library? school? civic building?)


eBay




today

GSV


from a couple of block closer. (what we're looking at is a curved wall at a MTA Maintenance Center)

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A rare glimpse

"Neighborhood Palm trees destroyed for Figueroa St. exit, circa 1937."


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Neighborhood...item5415e8af99

I imagine the two people examining the trees live in the houses in the background. Maybe oldstuff can use their last names (shown below) and figure out the addresses.

reverse




So what exit are they talking about? -isn't 1937 too early for highway construction?

In the 1936 and 1938 CDs, Emma E Lagomarsino's address is 1438 12th Avenue, and Loa A Bullard's is 1629 S Curson Avenue. Loa was a fireman with the LAFD. 1438 12th Avenue was built in 1910, while 1629 S Curson Avenue was built in 1928. Both houses are still standing, but neither of them is close to Figueroa.

Rather than "Figueroa St. exit", I think it may say "Figueroa St. ext" as in "extension". From Wikipedia, "The Figueroa Street Viaduct, connecting the Riverside Drive intersection with North Figueroa Street (then Dayton Avenue) across the Los Angeles River, opened in mid-1937,", so could this be another 1937 extension to Figueroa? I'll have another Google ...

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We've visited Venice many times, but I don't think we've looked closely at the Hotel Antler across the lagoon at the end of Windward.

Here are two snapshots I came across on ebay last week. The seller had one dated 1915 and the other 1923. To me they look like they could have been taken
the same year (actually, the same day...same shadow angles..same trash on the sidewalk).
Anyway, here are three tourists (one woman appears twice) posing in front of the Hotel Antler (where I presume they were staying at the time)










Here's an even earlier view of the Hotel Antler. (no roof-top sign yet)






virtualvenice.info.

(perhaps it had one of the rum-runner tunnels HossC mentioned back in June.



Here's a very interesting view with an elaborate roof-top billboard. I can't quite make out what it says..something KING. (date unknown)


old file photo






I was looking at the site today, and I believe the Hotel Antler could possibly still be standing, albeit beneath an extreme makeover.


GSV

The dimensions appear the same. (compare it with this sepia postcard)





So what do you think? Is this post-modern poster child the old Hotel Antler?


GSV


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Underwater undertakers?

1921 - A wet Hotel Antler
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...2F4GKY1325.jpg

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by FredH

View eastward along Malibu Road (now Pacific Coast Highway) at Santa Monica Canyon. Taken from south side of
highway at West Channel Road. Showing flooding down Santa Monica Canyon to beach with piles of debris at base
of flood water. Pedestrian sign for tunnel to beach access and Texaco Gas Station in road east of flooding. Despite
heavy rainfall exceeding six inches that day there appears to have been a break in the rain when the photograph
was taken. - 03/02/1938 - March 1938 Flood



http://lacityhistory.pastperfect-onl...81002;type=102

A second look at Fred's 1938 flood damaged PCH image reminded me of various '38 aerial shots of the event that I don't recall being posted. Not clear (to me) that each photo evines flooding or flood damage, but the images offer a wonderful historic context for now and then comparisons.



Huntiington Drive, east of San Marino
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...PUL27T3R2Y.jpg



Elysian Park
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...9DKRKDB1UF.jpg


Universal City (Pre-Monkey Island? The road to Bliss seems clear http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8001)
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...J34KMK441N.jpg



Ventura Blvd
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...L6LF4AYHQK.jpg



North Hollywood
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...LSB9LH2VD2.jpg


North Hollywood
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...64JTNRXCF1.jpg


North Hollywood - Tujunga Wash
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...C64259FB5L.jpg

More Tujunga Wash
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...8MTX9RR8FV.jpg




Van Nuys
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...8167LKMLNU.jpg


Maywood
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...TXU2JAGV2K.jpg

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Huntington Drive, east of San Marino
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...PUL27T3R2Y.jpg

Here's how the area looks today. It looks like the house with the pool on La Presa Drive has remained relatively unchanged.


Google Maps

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a slide, dated 1952, showing an elaborate advertisement for the film Macao.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-195...item339a6fcea9

Does anyone have an idea where this was located? (I see there's a Drama School at left) --and quite a bit of litter on the ground and along the curb.
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I don't know for certain where it was located, but I have a hunch based on the origins of that gigantic picture frame.

The following is a transcript from an episode of a 1987 BBC documentary series called The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood, plus a couple of frame grabs showing BBC's recreation of the scene. The man telling the story is Mario Zamparelli, a painter and graphic artist who worked for Howard Hughes when Hughes was running RKO. Zamparelli relates an incident involving a painting he made to promote the 1951 RKO film His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.

"[Hughes] had the painting made. He liked it very very much. And then one day I was told that a brilliant idea had come up, and I asked what was this about. They said, 'Well, we're going to do something very special.' So at the RKO lot...I didn't see this being constructed, but I saw it being moved at two o'clock in the morning. And this was to a site at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard, directly across from The May Company. There was a large parking lot there and a restaurant which no longer exists. And they put on that corner a huge gilded frame, like a masterpiece if you will. This was all framed, gold-leafed, and the center was going to house my painting, twenty, thirty times the size of the original, if not a hundred times the size. It was enormous! The painting was completed. But while that was going on, people were passing by, cars were going by and they were monitoring how many vehicles would pass the corner. Mr. Hughes had an idea that to emphasize the concept of the hottest combination ever to hit the screen, they would have two or three or four large gas jets throw flames up into the air about twenty or thirty feet high."

[Source: BBC]

"Now everybody thought this was marvelous, and that it would certainly be an exciting event to have this happen. And these gas jets would go up, they would be programmed every so many minutes to flame up. And I was there, and I saw all the gas people come and all the pipes were being put up, and the tests were being made with short gas jets, and the publicity people were there. And while all of that was going on, a phone call came: 'Stop everything.' Well it seemed that there was something on the docket that we were not aware of; it came out in the newspapers later. Some kind of dealings with Hughes and the city fathers, well advised that maybe they would have been very irate that this was going on, and the possibility that those jets going up into the air would be prone for accidents from motorists passing by who wouldn't expect that thing to occur. And [Hughes] just said, 'I just wanted you to know, Zampi...' (he used to call me Zampi), he said 'I want you to know Zampi that sometimes things happen where we just have to change plans.' So I guess I had a very sad look on my face, you know. So he made a fist and bumped me on the jaw and said, 'You gotta learn to roll with the punches.' And I said, 'Yes, Mr. Hughes.' "

Could it be the same frame? I suspect as much. Could it possibly be the same corner as well?

[ethereal_reality]

Great find Handsome_Stranger! -very interesting.

Originally Posted by HossC

As has already been pointed out, this part of N Bronson is no longer open to the public or the Googlemobile.

Historic Aerials has images from 1948 and 1952 (just either side of 'Sunset Boulevard'), so I went for the earlier 1948 view because it's clearer. The café is just to the left of the "N" of the upper "N Bronson Avenue" label. Could that be e_r's United Service Station on the corner of Melrose and Van Ness? The Valentino Place apartments in e_r's later post also appear on the image below. It looks like Marathon Street used to go all the way across to Van Ness, with a little kink before it reached N Bronson. Both Historic Aerials and Bing Maps show Marathon Street continuing west of N Bronson, with N Valentino Place being the north-south street to the left of the apartments.


Historic Aerials

Thanks for posting this vintage aerial HossC and for the additional information. I think you're right, that's the gas station and the apartment I pointed out earlier.

I just found this photograph that shows the Parmount Gate and a Marathon street sign.


from our pal gsjansen at https://www.flickr.com/photos/334551...0375/lightbox/


Here's a great MAP as well. The apartment building I pointed out yesterday is labeled 'Valentino'. -I also see 'B' Tank mentioned earlier today by Martin_Pal.


http://www.retroweb.com/tv_studios_and_ranches.html



below: The large fountain where Bronson and Marathon used to meet.


http://www.retroweb.com/tv_studios_and_ranches.html



The Paramount Gate under construction in 1925.


http://www.paramountstudios.com/
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Sooooooo this brings me to my new question.
When did the iconic gate lose all that fancy architectural ornament that used to be on top.


http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/523622.html



The ornament in question, can be seen in this very noirish photograph of the Paramount Gate. Note the wet streets. All that's missing is someone in the shadows smoking a cigarette,
.....or a dead body.


http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/523622.html



In this exceptional photograph we're looking west down Marathon. (date unknown)



http://toutlecine.challenges.fr/imag...de-cinema.html



below: The same gate in 1961 without the ornament.

posted yesterday by Handsome_Stranger.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=25033

Do you think the ornament was lost due to earthquake liability?
How else were they able to shave off the top of one of the most famous symbols of Hollywood?
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a slide, dated 1952, showing an elaborate advertisement for the film Macao.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-195...item339a6fcea9

Does anyone have an idea where this was located? (I see there's a Drama School at left) --and quite a bit of litter on the ground and along the curb.

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

The following is a transcript from an episode of a 1987 BBC documentary series called The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood, plus a couple of frame grabs showing BBC's recreation of the scene. The man telling the story is Mario Zamparelli, a painter and graphic artist who worked for Howard Hughes when Hughes was running RKO. Zamparelli relates an incident involving a painting he made to promote the 1951 RKO film His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell.

"[Hughes] had the painting made. He liked it very very much. And then one day I was told that a brilliant idea had come up, and I asked what was this about. They said, 'Well, we're going to do something very special.' So at the RKO lot...I didn't see this being constructed, but I saw it being moved at two o'clock in the morning. And this was to a site at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard, directly across from The May Company. There was a large parking lot there and a restaurant which no longer exists. And they put on that corner a huge gilded frame, like a masterpiece if you will. This was all framed, gold-leafed, and the center was going to house my painting, twenty, thirty times the size of the original, if not a hundred times the size. It was enormous! The painting was completed. But while that was going on, people were passing by, cars were going by and they were monitoring how many vehicles would pass the corner. Mr. Hughes had an idea that to emphasize the concept of the hottest combination ever to hit the screen, they would have two or three or four large gas jets throw flames up into the air about twenty or thirty feet high."

Could this be the back of the picture frame billboard (arrowed) in a 1954 Dick Whittington aerial? It's exactly where Handsome Stranger's transcript describes. I can't find a drama school on S Orange Grove Avenue in the CDs, but the building to the right of my arrow seems to match the building in e_r's picture. The shadow of the arrowed structure appears to show what could be the lighting bar from e_r's picture.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

In 1962 the site became the home of Japanese store SEIBU, which became Ohrbach's in 1964. It's now the Petersen Automotive Museum. You can see more about these in post #6275 by GW and post #6277 by e_r. I think the first picture in GW's post (below) may also show the picture frame billboard, but it's quite small.

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

[jtown]

Originally Posted by FredH

First Street viaduct, looking north toward First Street viaduct from roof of Fourth and Mateo Streets. Railroad yard
and trains in foreground. First Street viaduct was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2008. - 02/13/1929



http://lacityhistory.pastperfect-onl...55605;type=102

This photo posted by FredH has interest for me as it is just around the corner from my office. As has been mentioned before, the building on the left is the old Santa Fe Freight Depot, which still stands in its new iteration as SCI-Arc (the Southern California Institute of Architecture).

Recently as redevelopment takes hold in the Arts District, the landscape has been dramatically changed by the completion of the multi-residential and commercial building known as One Santa Fe by Michael Maltzan.

The view along Santa Fe Avenue today:

Image from: http://onesantafeliving.com

The perspective is higher and likely taken from a helicopter a bit east of the 1929 image.

The SCI-Arc structure ends just north on East 3rd Street. My office is situated another block north and can be seen in the current photo.

[jtown]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

LAPL identifies that as a 1929 photo of the 1st Street viaduct, so that would make the street coming in on the right Santa Fe Street, with a portion of the grounds of the Santa Fe La Grande Station in the background . . . (edit by jtown) . . .The corner of this 1924 aerial of La Grande Station is cut off so we can't see 1st Street, but I think in the lower left corner is a sign in the same position as the one in the 1929 photo, with the same forest of palms behind the sign:

LAPL -- http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics23/00031419.jpg

The current photo from a bit more distant perspective:

Source: http://www.onesantafeliving.com/los-...t-home/photos/

In the present day photo, First Street is shown along the left border going east over the 1st Street Bridge. Vignes Street intersects 1st at photo's lower left. Following Vignes to the right (south), we see 2nd Street going east to hit Santa Fe Avenue as a T intersection where it meets, not the La Grande Station, but the new One Santa Fe residential/commercial complex. None of the buildings from the 1924 image apparently remain. Although in the modern photo, several buildings, including the Newberry Apartments (the brick structure at the lower left of the photo, on the southeast side of Vignes and 1st Street, are holdovers from as early as 1909.

[ethereal_reality]

Really interesting 'before and afters' jtown. Good job!


That new project is amazing. It's like a skyscraper lying on it's side.


GSV



GSV
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2007

GSV


2014

GSV

[ethereal_reality]

1960s slide.


eBay



...and today. The mid-century awnings are still in place. (but it's one-story neighbor appears to be struggling...somewhat unusual for Wilshire Blvd.)


GSV
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