Quote:
Originally Posted by BifRayRock
|
Apollo Theater (interior)
cinematreasures
CS Albright's The
Apollo (1921-1976) may be long gone, but the listed building to its left, 5540, is still very much with us. Frank Meline did the design (he was also responsible for the Garden Court Apartments, 1917-1984) in 1921. It's been a furniture store, rehearsal studios, law offices, the Great Lester's School of Ventriloquism, a Rompage Hardware, a model-building shop for films and, for many years, recording studios:
gsv
Here's a peek inside when it was Grinder Recording Studios (the last tenant):
yelp
It's on the block immediately west of the intersection of Hollywood and Western:
gsv
That's S Charles Lee's Hollywood-Western Building down at the east end of the block (I've dragged you there
before). In between is a one-story, 1919, Frank Rasche design at No. 5526. It was taken over in 1928 by Ralph B Faulkner for his Falcon fencing studio (Edith Faulkner taught dance in the same building):
dearlydeparted
Ralph Faulkner, born in 1891, was a two-time Olympian (in his 40s) and racked up an
impressive record as actor, double, fight choreographer and stunt coordinator for films from the teens until the 70s. Errol Flynn, Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Cornell Wilde, Douglas Fairbanks, etc, all came to Falcon to be instructed by Faulkner. He was still teaching at Falcon in his 90s. He died in 1987:
dearlydeparted
Looking west to the next block, one sees John and Donald Parkinson's 1930 towered building for California Bank at No. 5620:
gsv
Well maintained, but very anonymous:
gsv
5620 has hidden charms round the back:
google maps
5620 is, of course, famous for its role as the faux "El Centro" theater in the "movie-premiere pot-bust" scene in "LA Confidential" (1997):
warnerbros/amazon
Here is the whole line-up back in 1951:
usc dl (detail)
Anyway, big changes,
years in the planning, are finally going down on the 5500 block. 5540 is to be saved, but only the facade of Falcon Studios (Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument #382). That's the Hollywood-Western Building on the left:
urbanize.la
The back's been pulled off 5540 to integrate it into new construction. That's the Trianon over on N Serrano to the NE. The Hollywood-Western Building is on the right this time:
gsv
The new 5550 complex will abut the Hollywood-Western Building on the east and miss an abused-looking 1919 building on the western end of the block:
la curbed
It's a tight squeeze for No. 5540, but it's saved:
gsv