noirish Los Angeles

[odinthor]

We've reached page 1980. Do we throw a party when we reach 2017?

[Bristolian]

In a couple of weeks are we going to party like it's 1999?

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by odinthor

We've reached page 1980. Do we throw a party when we reach 2017?

We must throw a party when we reach page 2000, but we'll party like it's page 1999.

EDIT: D'oh! Beaten!

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just found this.


It's from the same group of photographs...but the more I look at it, I believe it's a different location than the 2 exterior photos I posted above.



https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz0027zbgm/



__

Here is a display ad for Ernie Primm's Embassy Palace in Gardena; this was the first semi-legal poker club in Los Angeles County (1936).


#FreewayCity

I'll go out on a limb and say that ER's photo above might be of the Embassy because of 1) a specific welcome to women, and 2) motifs of squares in the photo and the display ad (bottom left corner).

It looks like there might be a street number on ER's picture ("111") but the Embassy's address was 15331 S. Vermont.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

:previoud:


Soon after the wedding (LAT 1-7-1934); 5-17-1936; 9-2-1938





..

Clew.....?

Odd how the paper spells the word ''clue". A ''clew" is usually the lower part of a sail on a boat.

[GaylordWilshire]

"Clew" was used by the Times instead of clue at least through the '30s, more or less. I've noticed that there were were a number of style changes at the paper starting in the '40s, including the change from full directionals in street names ("West Pico") to abbreviated "E. Pico").

CLEW per Merriam-Webster:

1: a ball of thread, yarn, or cord
2: clue
3a: lower corner or only the after corner of a sail
3b: a metal loop attached to the lower corner of a sail


"The 'ball of thread' meaning of clew (from Middle English clewe and ultimately from Old English cliewen) has been with us since before the 12th century. In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave a ball of thread to Theseus so that he could use it to find his way out of her father's labyrinth. This, and similar tales, gave rise to the use of clew for anything that could guide a person through a difficult place. This use led in turn to the meaning 'a piece of evidence that leads one toward the solution of a problem.' Today, the spelling variant clue, which appeared in the 16th century, is the more common spelling variant for the 'evidence' sense, but you'll find clew in some famous works of literature. Clew is also the only choice for the sailing senses."

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks GW! But it's a bit confusing.

Did the forgeries come before or after the supposed kidnapping?

Did the kidnapping end up being a hoax?

__

I dug a little more-- sounds like the kidnapping angle may have been a deflection by the family of William's waywardness--gambling maybe? Then there was this attempt to explain his behavior (LAT 5-16-1936):




Martha Seeley's mother was a Coulter, as in the department store--Martha the granddaughter of B. F. Coulter. By 1940, her crooked hubby was living back with his p's at 1230 Orange Grove in Pasadena; there was indeed a divorce. Rather than go on to marry Howard Huntington, her parents announced her engagement to another William, a Mr. Quade, in the Times on 11-22-1940. She died in 1995. Hart died in 1960.

[CityBoyDoug]

Spectators watch the christening of the American Clipper aircraft by Pan-American Airways for regular flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco.... Terminal Island, California, July 1939


getty images

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I dug a little more-- sounds like the kidnapping angle may have been a deflection by the family of William's waywardness--gambling maybe? Then there was this attempt to explain his behavior (LAT 5-16-1936):




Martha Seeley's mother was a Coulter, as in the department store--Martha the granddaughter of B. F. Coulter. By 1940, her crooked hubby was living back with his p's at 1230 Orange Grove in Pasadena; there was indeed a divorce. Rather than go on to marry Howard Huntington, her parents announced her engagement to another William, a Mr. Quade, in the Times on 11-22-1940. She died in 1995. Hart died in 1960.

I have to agree....there was something wrong with his head.

Here is their Arnaz Drive address...the building with balcony at the right. Not a fancy building but at least they had an up-scale Beverly Hills address....if that is the original structure, which I suspect it was.

[Ed Workman]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I don't believe we've seen this P.E. car photo before because I know the location and might have remembered it.

Caption: This subway terminal car from Beverly Hills is at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Holloway Drive (west) and Olive Drive (north), Croft Ave. (to the south), blocking a view of Barney’s Beanery. It is heading east toward downtown Los Angeles through Hollywood, Silverlake and Echo Park, 1955. (Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Administration Library and Archive)


WeHoVille

A commenter disputes the date. Another source labels it c.1953.

The building on the left of the P.E. Car was demolished at some point. It's now a hotel of some sort. The building on the right of the car might still be there, with modifications. I believe it's currently empty. It's always seemed out of place, design wise, and am surprised it was there as far back as the 50's at least. (Olive Dr. is to the right of that building and across Olive is the former Bekins storage building.)


Here's a driver of the times, 1955. (Is this a bus or a P.E. Car?)

WeHoVille

The top pic is no later than 1953, the year PE sold all but one of its lines=the Santa Monica Airline. Service from the Subway Terminal to Glendale, as Metropolitan Coach Lines, ended in 1955
The bottom pic is a bus, most probably, but it could be a PCC car

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I dug a little more-- sounds like the kidnapping angle may have been a deflection by the family of William's waywardness--gambling maybe? Then there was this attempt to explain his behavior (LAT 5-16-1936):




Martha Seeley's mother was a Coulter, as in the department store--Martha the granddaughter of B. F. Coulter. By 1940, her crooked hubby was living back with his p's at 1230 Orange Grove in Pasadena; there was indeed a divorce. Rather than go on to marry Howard Huntington, her parents announced her engagement to another William, a Mr. Quade, in the Times on 11-22-1940. She died in 1995. Hart died in 1960.

Orange Grove must have been an interesting neighborhood. It was Pasadena's "Millionaire's Row," and had other noirish associations. 1003 S. Orange Grove was "The Parsonage," the home of John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons, rocket scientist and co-founder of JPL, and his wife, artist and actress Marjorie Cameron. Parsons was also an occultist and for a while a disciple of famed British occultist Aleister Crowley. Parsons had inherited the mansion and rented out rooms to make ends meet. Among their boarders was no less a luminary than L. Ron Hubbard. The neighbors complained of loud parties and suspected occult rituals, but the police could find no evidence of anything but noise. Parsons and Cameron were a striking couple, both with movie-star good looks. J. Edgar Hoover grew suspicious of Parsons and yanked his security clearances. Unable to work at JPL, the couple planned to leave the country but the night before they were to leave Parsons was killed in a mysterious explosion in his garage lab. The death was ruled an accident caused by careless handling of explosives (Parsons was famed for this at JPL), but to the end of her long life his wife remained convinced that he was murdered, and that Hoover was behind it.

Only in L.A.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Spectators watch the christening of the American Clipper aircraft by Pan-American Airways for regular flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco.... Terminal Island, California, July 1939


getty images

A little more than just LA-SF flying...


LAT 7-11-1939




From the PAA timetable of June 1941

[HossC]

After yesterday's posts about the Ritts Co building at 8445 Santa Monica Boulevard, Martin Pal told me that Julius Shulman had taken photos of the building in 1947. When I checked the archive, I found a set with 12 photos. I've only left out three because I liked the other nine too much. They're all from "Job 89: Ritts Furniture, 1947". "Tropical & Modern Furniture" must be a pretty unique combination.



This is the Olive Drive side, as seen in 'Lethal Weapon'.



The three images I omitted are all views of this corner (two are almost identical), but I decided that you can have too much of a good thing.



Tucked away inside the corner is this little room.



Here's a more conventional office on the upper floor.



The downstairs showroom has that mixture of "Tropical & Modern Furniture".



A reverse view of the image above.



It's an unusual fireplace, but I like it.



I'll finish with the only picture of the workshop.



All from Getty Research Institute

I hope that was worth the 24 hour wait, Martin Pal .

[ethereal_reality]

I didn't realize the furniture was manufactured at this location. I thought it was just a retail store.

Excellent set of photographs Hoss. What a place!

and that fireplace.....


Makes me want to go and peek in the windows.

_

[GaylordWilshire]

You'd see Herb Ritts Jr. around NY in the '90--miss him and his photographs, signifiers of a time and place. Anyway, it seems that he was HR Sr's child by a second marriage that got off to a rocky start....



LAT 1-3-1950/Chicago Tribune 1-13-1951



LAT 1-5-1954


Misc real estate item...


LAT 10-7-1951

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

Orange Grove must have been an interesting neighborhood. It was Pasadena's "Millionaire's Row," and had other noirish associations.

1003 S. Orange Grove was "The Parsonage," the home of John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons, rocket scientist and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and his wife, artist and actress Marjorie Cameron. Parsons was also an occultist and for a while a disciple of famed British occultist Aleister Crowley. Parsons had inherited the mansion and rented out rooms to make ends meet. Among their boarders was no less a luminary than L. Ron Hubbard. The neighbors complained of loud parties and suspected occult rituals.

Parsons and Cameron were a striking couple, both with movie-star good looks. J. Edgar Hoover grew suspicious of Parsons and yanked his security clearances. Unable to work at JPL, the couple planned to leave the country but the night before they were to leave Parsons was killed in a mysterious explosion in his garage lab. The death was ruled an accident caused by careless handling of explosives, but to the end of her long life his wife remained convinced that he was murdered, and that Hoover was behind it.

www.cvltnation.com

I thought we had covered Jack Parson's exploits, but maybe not. (I read a book about him so maybe I'm thinking of that)






This aerial shows the dry riverbed Arroyo Seco site where Jack Parson and associates experimented with explosives and early rocketry research


photo taken Feb. 1942 https://www.caltech.edu/content/jet-...ion-laboratory





Their first liquid-fuel motor test took place near the Devil's Gate in the Arroyo Seco on Halloween 1936. (see below)







Left foreground to right: Rudolph Schott, Amo Smith, Frank Malina, Ed Forman, and Jack Parsons. [early November 1936]




GAINS FAME IN TRIAL

Parsons appeared as an expert explosives witness in the 1938 trial of Captain Earl Kynette, the head of police intelligence in Los Angeles
who was accused of conspiring to set a car bomb in the attempted murder
of private investigator Harry Raymond, a former LAPD detective
who was fired after whistle-blowing against police corruption.


cvltn



below: Captain Kynette 'feels the heat' as he listens to testimony.


http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/vie...198/zz0027z9ck

"Captain of Police Earle E. Kynette (center) was charged with conspiracy to commit murder after the vehicle of Harry J. Raymond was bombed on January 14, 1938. Kynette was in charge of a special police intelligence unit that had been conducting surveillance on Raymond’s home from a nearby bungalow. Before the car bombing, Raymond had been conducting investigative work on Mayor Shaw and his possible connections with illegal gambling.

Two other officers, Fred Browne and Roy J. Allen, connected with the intelligence unit were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder. However, Fred Browne was eventually acquitted. Kynette and Allen were both found guilty."






note the use of the word CLEW in the headline.



Larger version of the above newspaper
http://cf.collectorsweekly.com/uploa...ES_raymond.jpg


We covered the Raymond car bombing a long time ago on NLA.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

1003 S. Orange Grove was "The Parsonage."

Jack Parsons posing by a fireplace.


http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/bb/babalon004.htm

I'm thinking this was probably taken at the old mansion.


Why it is so hard to find a photograph of 1003 S. Orange Grove?
I've google it and other mansion come up but not the old Parson's mansion. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

# # #





below: The following poem is the most famous written by John 'Whiteside' Parsons (1914-1952)

"I high Don Quixote, I live on peyote,
marijuana, morphine and cocaine,
I never know sadness, but only a madness
that burns at the heart and the brain.
I see each charwoman, ecstatic, inhuman,
angelic, demonic, divine.
Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon
that brims with ambrosial wine." (1)

John Whiteside (Jack") Parsons (1943)

_

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We covered the Raymond car bombing a long time ago on NLA, but I wasn't able to locate the old post(s)

You can start with these:

Post #21415
Post #21428
Post #21429
Post #21445

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks Hoss. I don't why they didn't show up when I searched.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

Ritts Co building at 8445 Santa Monica Boulevard.
[...]
I hope that was worth the 24 hour wait, Martin Pal .
_______________________________________________________________

Yes, HossC, thank you! I didn't think there'd be that many photos in the set! I wonder what it looks like in there now?
I walk by there frequently, but it doesn't look like anything is going on there presently.

LoopNet says it's for sale and the asking price is: $29,995,000.

If you Google the address there are several sites with photos of the interiors, which look quite spacious. Here's one of them of the fireplace:

Jay Luchs


In the Julius Shulman workshop photo, this guy looks like he is naked:

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

[T]he Ritts Company, which was founded by Herbert Ritts Sr. and gained notoriety for their rattan style furniture.
___________________________________________________________________

Here's a 1950 ad that was in the L.A. Times:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I didn't realize the furniture was manufactured at this location. I thought it was just a retail store.
___

I wouldn't have thought so, either, E_R, but this aerial shows quite a large area this place covers. Looks like a whole work and storage area surrounds the designer part of the location.