noirish Los Angeles

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

^^^

Interestingly enough, on Hawaii the Japanese were not interned as they couldn't go anywhere. When I worked in Culver City in the late '70s - early '80s, a woman of Japanese ancestry also worked there. In the file room one day I walked in and several people were there. It was December 7 and I said, "Today's Pearl Harbor day, I think I'll go out tonight and get bombed." (Do people still say "bombed" as a term for getting drunk?) After a few titters, that woman said, "I was there that day."

When one thinks of something as a historical event you don't necessarily think anyone you're acquainted with would've been there. I was floored. I asked her about it. She said she was a small child and out playing with other children in the morning. They saw all of the planes flying overhead on the way to the Harbor and the kids were all waving at them and enjoying the spectacle. She didn't use the word enjoying. She did feel the need to say, "We were just children, we didn't know," something I just understood to be the case. At the time she then would've probably been in her 40's. 50 at most. Now I wished I'd asked her to sit down later and talk about it all and what it was like in Hawaii and all that, but I was too young to realize that at the time.

I think "bombed" and "smashed" are still in use, but "tipsy" has left.
****
After the recent death of my beloved mother, I ponder the arc of my life. I was born just 87 years after the end of the Civil War, 49 years after the Wright's first flight, 23 years after the Crash of '29, 7 years after the end of World War 2. President Truman was still in the White House when I cried my first breath. I was 8 when JFK became President, 10 when John Glenn orbited the Earth, 17 when Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, 22 when Nixon resigned, 32 when I attended the perfect opening ceremony of the '84 Olympics in the Coliseum. We are all living in history.

Youth is fleeting, the decades whoosh by, and soon we will be part of history ourselves, joining the countless generations who have come before in whatever comes after our brief stay here. It is all a great mystery, but we the living are all brothers and sisters sharing this momentous sliver of time. Life and human consciousness has been a gift, painful at times, but a gift, of a Creator or perhaps just evolution. I just wish it weren't so brief. The Iongevity of a Galapagos Tortoise, 175 years or more, would better suit a species of our awareness and talents.

I would love to know how it all turns out. It is like getting halfway into a good novel, but not knowing how it ends. Hopefully I have more years to read more pages of the book of life. I hope we survive this dangerous period of war in Europe. I would like to be here see the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the city of my birth and youth, another mile post not far ahead. A solution to mass homelessness would be gratifying to see. And after that, perhaps witness a mission to Mars if the "grim reaper" allows. I don't want to leave the party of the living, it is all so interesting. Just 10 years more, please. I must know how it turns out.

[ethereal_reality]

.
I looked through past posts and didn't find anything on Todd's Department Stores which is surprising considering it had six locations!


eBay




eBay



The seller included this small pic.




.

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

I think "bombed" and "smashed" are still in use, but "tipsy" has left.
****
When I ponder the arc of my life, I was born just 87 years after the end of the Civil War, 49 years after the Wright's first flight, 23 years after the Crash of '29, 7 years after the end of World War 2. President Truman was still in the White House when I cried my first breath. I was 8 when JFK became President, 10 when John Glenn orbited the Earth, 17 when Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, 22 when Nixon resigned, 32 when I attended the perfect opening ceremony of the '84 Olympics in the Coliseum. We are all living in history.

Youth is fleeting, the decades whoosh by, and soon we will be part of history ourselves, joining the past generations who have come before in whatever comes after our brief stay here. It is all a great mystery, but we are all brothers and sisters sharing this brief but eventful sliver of time. Life and human consciousness has been a gift, painful at times, but a gift, of a Creator or perhaps just evolution. I just wish it weren't so brief. The Iongevity of a Galapagos Tortoise, 175 years or more, would better suit a species of our awareness and talents.

I would love to know how it all turns out. It is like getting halfway into a good novel, but not knowing how it ends. Hopefully I have a few more years to read a few more chapters. I hope we survive this dangerous period of war in Europe. I would like to be here see the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the city of my birth and youth, another mile post not that far ahead. And after that, perhaps witness a mission to Mars if the "grim reaper" allows. I don't want to leave the party, it is all so interesting. Just 10 years more, please. I must know how it turns out.

That's lovely, CaliNative. Brought a lump to my throat

[ethereal_reality]

.
I agree sadykatie2.

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us, CaliNative.






Today we have a mystery location and mystery movie.


Seller's description:..."Mickey Rooney dangling from a building over vintage Los Angeles unknown."

I've seen a lot of actors dangling from windows but I've never seen a dangling Mickey Rooney.


eBay (reprint)

3 questions.

1 Is he dangling from a real building or a studio mock-up?

2 If it is a real building. . what building is it?

3 Does anyone know what movie this is from? (the seller doesn't even know)





4 What is the building under construction? (I couldn't resist asking)
.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Today we have a mystery location and mystery movie.


Seller's description:..."Mickey Rooney dangling from a building over vintage Los Angeles unknown."

I've seen a lot of actors dangling from windows but I've never seen a dangling Mickey Rooney.


eBay (reprint)

3 questions.

1 Is he dangling from a real building or a studio mock-up?

2 If it is a real building. . what building is it?

3 Does anyone know what movie this is from? (the seller doesn't even know)

4 What is the building under construction? (I couldn't resist asking)
.

From Mickey McGuire series, "Rescue", 1934. In upper image there are two people dangling, Mickey and Billy Barty and/or their stunt doubles.


https://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.fi...pg?w=300&h=233








https://www.aaavintageposters.com/wp...14-768x512.jpg


https://www.aaavintageposters.com/wp...8-1024x683.jpg

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

From Mickey McGuire series, "Rescue", 1934.

https://thrillingdaysofyesteryear.fi...pg?w=300&h=233
_________________________________________________________________

I looked up the link you provided. I thought Billy Barty, in this photo, was hanging on to a ladder! This paragraph says differently and also who's holding it at the other end!

In Mickey's Rescue, 1934, Mickey’s Kid Brudder (played by Billy Barty—the series cemented his movie fame as well) is adopted by a wealthy couple in order to further his education; Mickey and his gang attempt to locate his whereabouts. The short winds up with a “high-and-dizzy” climax in which Billy is holding on to dear life to a slide trombone outside an apartment window, with Hattie McDaniel on the other end!

44 years later wasn't Billy Barty hanging out a window in Foul Play with Goldie Hawn?
______

ETA: Yes, he was...

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Today we have a mystery location and mystery movie.

Seller's description:..."Mickey Rooney dangling from a building over vintage Los Angeles unknown."

I've seen a lot of actors dangling from windows but I've never seen a dangling Mickey Rooney.


eBay (reprint)

3 questions.

1 Is he dangling from a real building or a studio mock-up?

2 If it is a real building. . what building is it?

3 Does anyone know what movie this is from? (the seller doesn't even know)

4 What is the building under construction? (I couldn't resist asking)

As we're looking down W 1st Street, I can't think of any real buildings that looked like the one that Mickey Rooney is hanging from. Also, the angle of the wall doesn't appear to align with the streets. I'm going to guess that the film makers users the hills to trick the viewers into the illusion of greater height as they did with Harold Lloyd. It's the Times Building under construction.


USCDL

[odub]

I'm trying to locate where the "death curve" part of Washington Blvd. in Venice used to be located.

It's referred to here in 1914 as: "Washington Blvd. between "Death Curve" and the baseball park".

"The baseball park" probably refers to Venice Park, where the Venice/Vernon Tigers once played, originally at Virginia and Washington so I'm guessing death curve refers to where current day Abbot Kinney is?

Note: there's other mentions of Death Curve in 1910s Venice so it sounds like a stretch of road that locals would have known about even though it's not on any map.

[odinthor]

odub

Most of the references I see give no location other than "Death Curve," as if, like you mention, locals would have known about it without further description. Here are the few references giving location . . . each of which differs from the others in how described . . .

[riichkay]

Kodachrome-oh-ome
They give us those nice bright colors
Give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

-Paul Simon, 1973





Olive Ave. and Warner Blvd., Burbank.....photo courtesy wesclark.com.







6th and Hill, 1952.....courtesy fineartamerica.com.







Unidentified street in Hollywood, 1947.....courtesy Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries.







From tumblr.com.....the Market Basket was at 6298 W. 3rd St., it's now a Ross Dress for Less....I believe the photo was taken in the parking lot of Farmer's Market....





This one looks vaguely familiar, could be a re-post.....



From blogspot.com, coming down the hill and headed south at Western and Franklin....the ram's head hood ornament indicates we are in a Dodge vehicle.







Fisherman's Wharf, Redondo Beach....August 1953....courtesy flashbak.com.







Crenshaw and Manchester, Inglewood....1956....from fineartamerica.com.


The liquor store and Moby's Coffee Shop survive, although it appears Moby's has taken a portion of the liquor store, and their former space was converted to a 7-Eleven....





The remodeled Ralph's....

[HossC]

Originally Posted by odub

I'm trying to locate where the "death curve" part of Washington Blvd. in Venice used to be located.

It's referred to here in 1914 as: "Washington Blvd. between "Death Curve" and the baseball park".

"The baseball park" probably refers to Venice Park, where the Venice/Vernon Tigers once played, originally at Virginia and Washington so I'm guessing death curve refers to where current day Abbot Kinney is?

Note: there's other mentions of Death Curve in 1910s Venice so it sounds like a stretch of road that locals would have known about even though it's not on any map.

Originally Posted by odinthor

odub

Most of the references I see give no location other than "Death Curve," as if, like you mention, locals would have known about it without further description. Here are the few references giving location . . . each of which differs from the others in how described . . .

Here's a picture and map that e_r posted seven years ago. I matches the first of odinthor's locations, but it looks like there was more than one.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Dead Man's Turn at Ocean Ave. and Wilshire blvd.

http://www.trackforum.com/forums/sho...irthday!/page5


Santa Monica Road Race Track.

http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/bl...bilt_cup_races

"Death Curve" at arrow, lower left corner.
__

note:
The race was held in Santa Monica in 1914 and 1916.

[CanyonKid]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Unidentified street in Hollywood, 1947.....courtesy Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries.

I believe this was taken looking north, close to the intersection of Whitley Ave. and Padre Ter., right off of Franklin in Hollywood.

Sadly, it looks like the white house with the gable roof was torn down recently.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by odinthor

[...]

Most of the references I see give no location other than "Death Curve," as if, like you mention, locals would have known about it without further description. Here are the few references giving location . . . each of which differs from the others in how described . . .

Here's where the "Frederick Station" mentioned in one of the blurbs above was, evidently at Washington and Lincoln (8th):


Touring Topics, V. 8, p. 9, 1916

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Apropos of, well, very little...I just noticed that by the end of the year this forum thread could reach 3000 (!) pages. Or 6000 if you set the posts per page at ten instead of twenty like I do. So that would mean there's 17 or 34 pages to go, or 340 more posts to make. Which would be around 14.2 posts a day. However, 340 posts previous to this one occurred around October 12th. So unlikely.

Anyway, I saw this interesting article:

The Japanese Fishing Village That Vanished From Los Angeles
Link HERE.

© National Archives
80 years ago: View of main street at Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor, 1942.

Martin: Thanks for the link to this fascinating article. Another surprising and utterly sad chapter in American history.

[stanklem]

Growing up in New York City there were few Japanese. As I got older there were some weird experiences regarding Pearl Harbor. Here are some from the late 1970s.

One of my employers was the son of Mitsuo Fuchida who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor. His father survived the war and moved to America where he became something of a Christian missionary. His son would never talk about his father except that his father hated fish and enjoyed eating meat.

There was a Japanese restaurant near our office that strangely resembled a Chinese restaurant. I should know as my wife is Japanese. Her father was a bomber pilot. One day I asked about the history of the restaurant and the owner explained they were ethnically Chinese but of Japanese nationality. Prior to the war the restaurant was a Japanese restaurant. After Pearl, overnight, it became Chinese and sometime after the war reverted to Japanese.

The father of one of my consultants led a contingent of troops in France in WWI. He was an officer who originally acquired his commission with the Hawaiian National Guard. He was retired by th Army with the onset of WWII.

The war years were very difficult for all Japanese in the Americas.
None of this has anything to do with noir LA. Sorry.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
I looked through past posts and didn't find anything on Todd's Department Stores which is surprising considering it had six locations!


eBay




eBay



The seller included this small pic.




.

e_r, despite its several locations, Todd's seems to have led a very quiet and unassuming existence. Its advertisements are modest to the extreme. It seems to have prospered at least mildly in the 30s and 40s. I find a listing for it in a business directory of 1961; and probably scrutiny of telephone books would bring more refinement of their continued or discontinued existence. Below are samples of the few materials I could find in the Los Angeles Times; perhaps they had other ads/articles in other papers.



The 1940 statement that the firm had at that time 35 years' experience sends me to the 1905 CD, where indeed we find Anna (seamstress) and Bertha Todd (laundress) at 454 N. Grand; but I haven't examined the CDs further, and I don't know if these clothing-related Todds are the Todds of the department store.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by stanklem

The war years were very difficult for all Japanese in the Americas. None of this has anything to do with noir LA. Sorry.
_________________________________________________________________

I appreciate the occasional sidebar! I liked it.

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Martin: Thanks for the link to this fascinating article.
_________________________________________________________________

I thought it was fascinating, too.

[Handsome Stranger]

I stumbled across an amazing set of photos on Twitter taken in old Chinatown, courtesy of The Hungtington. They're from a set of glass plates that were discovered in the 1940s and only recently digitized.



Link to Twitter thread with several photos.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

From Mickey McGuire series, "Rescue", 1934. In upper image there are two people dangling, Mickey and Billy Barty and/or their stunt doubles.

I had completely forgotten about the Mickey McGuire series.






Does anyone remember the movie The Fireball (1950) where Mickey Rooney roller skates down Temple Street?




I thought we had discussed it on NLA but a search for "fireball" brings up nothing about the movie.
I also thought the scene would be on YouTube but I wasn't able to find it.




screengrab

He looks like a fool.



screengrab


Oh, and one last thing. Marilyn Monroe is in several scenes in The Fireball. One of her earliest screen appearances.



I'm not sure who the dude in the middle is.


Thanks for the follow-up on Todd's Department Store, odinthor. I appreciate it.
.

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I had completely forgotten about the Mickey McGuire series.






Does anyone remember the movie The Fireball (1950) where Mickey Rooney roller skates down Temple Street?




I thought we had discussed it on NLA but a search for "fireball" brings up nothing about the movie.
I also thought the scene would be on YouTube but I wasn't able to find it.




screengrab

He looks like a fool.



screengrab


Oh, and one last thing. Marilyn Monroe is in several scenes in The Fireball. One of her earliest screen appearances.



I'm not sure who the dude in the middle is.


Thanks for the follow-up on Todd's Department Store, odinthor. I appreciate it.
.

The guy between Marilyn and Mickey Rooney in your "Fireball" photo was an actor named James Brown. He was in many films from the early 40's on, but his biggest roles were as "Lt. Rip Masters" in the 1950's TV show "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," and as a sinister, corrupt police detective in "Dallas," late 70's.