noirish Los Angeles

[BDiH]

• Video Link

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The shot of Olivia de Haviland's stand-in included, not an extra, as the narration indicated, but Leslie Howard's stand-in, Arthur Tovey (time code 2:52). Tovey was one of the most prolific extras and stand-ins in Hollywood history. He appeared in 485 films and TV programs over a 72 year career. Back in the day, he was a "dress extra," that is an extra who had an extensive personal wardrobe, which put him in demand. We have all seen him many times, always in the background, never uttering a word, without remembering him.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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What's going on with the palm trees? (odinthor?)

"c1910's (or 1920s) Busch Gardens Street View Pasadena California CA Vintage Photo"


eBay

The dirt(?) roads are unnamed but they're (supposedly) along the perimeter of the old Busch Gardens in Pasadena.
[...]

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e_r, it appears that we're at the corner of Madeline and Grand (going north, to the left in the above and below, Grand becomes Arroyo) . . . and that the palm trees are still there, considerably elongated:


gsv

It seems that they went to some trouble to get palm trees which were precisely the same height, and went to further trouble to protect the young trees in their initial years, hence the sturdy looking fixtures around their trunks in the older pic.

[ethereal_reality]

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Thanks, odinthor. ..I wasn't expecting you to figure out the names of the streets but YOU DID.

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[GaylordWilshire]

"An old voluptuary"

Into every house creeps a little noirishness, even into fancy Hancock Park digs. While researching 415 South June Street, I came across the sad tale of an old
codger apparently slipping into senility and trying to slip it to every gal in sight. And his wife had her own crushes.



LAT May 21, 1936


The young gal in the image above was apparently the daughter of the Crookshanks' maid and was married to Thad Pickens in whom Mrs. Crookshank took a
special interest. It might seem to a cynic that Aurelia and Thad were working both sides hoping for a payoff.

More in my story of 415 S June here.

[beachboyz2men]

Parking garage conversions in DTLA

I recently noticed that the former Bullock's department store at 7th & Broadway was converted to a multistory parking garage. You can literally park on all the sales floors (above the ground level).


GSV

Which made me wonder - are there other buildings in DTLA which have been similarly gutted & converted to parking?

I wonder about this parking structure, which is across the intersection from Bullock's. It was "renovated" in 1992 - not sure what it was like before.


GSV

On the flipside, there are plans to convert parking garages into other uses. For example, the May Company parking garage at 9th & Hill may someday become an Erewhon with offices on the roof.



Note there are remnants of an old luncheonette inside the May Company structure, behind the shutters that are next to Blackstone Court. I wonder if anyone knows anything about that?

Apparently the South Park Lofts on Grand were a former parking garage.

Any other interesting parking garages conversions in DTLA - either to or from?

[JimCraig]

[QUOTE=GaylordWilshire;10104057]"An old voluptuary"


LAT May 21, 1936

The young gal in the image above was apparently the daughter of the Crookshanks' maid and was married to Thad Pickens in whom Mrs. Crookshank took a special interest. It might seem to a cynic that Aurelia and Thad were working both sides hoping for a payoff.




Mrs. Crookshank died in 1936 and left the bulk of her estate to Pickens. She left her estranged husband $1.00. Mrs. Crookshank's will said of Pickens, "I want him to reach the goal in life that he is aiming for. Seek his friendship, for to know him is to adore him."

Mrs. Crookshank is interred in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Mr. Crookshank died in 1940 and is interred in Pomona.

[GaylordWilshire]

All that and more is in the story of 415 South June Street here.




In its 60 most recent years the house saw a long controversy over being used as a temple; it was sold in March of this year for $7,075,000



LAT

[riichkay]

This snapshot was posted on the jalopyjournal.com site, no city/address or date provided.....but it certainly looked like 1940's L.A., so I ran S. W. Kohn in the '45 White Pages....


.....the business turned up at 5027 S. Figueroa.....





....detail....





1945 directory....






The business survives as the Kohn-Megibow Company, this undated photo is from their website at kmcsales.com....






A company history from the site identifies "Sylvia & Rose"....

"Kohn-Megibow Company was founded in 1916 by S.W. Kohn.  He was the first auctioneer in Southern California to specialize in selling restaurant equipment at auction.  In 1924, he moved into a building he built at 5025 S. Figueroa, which still stands.  The building was named the Sylvia and Rose Building after his two daughters.  In 1947 after returning from World War II, Sylvia’s new husband, Sol Megibow, joined his father-in-law in business and Kohn-Megibow Company got the name it bears today.

This duo operated an auction company specializing in selling restaurants, bakeries and markets at auction in Southern California until Mr. Kohn’s passing in 1956.  The company continued at the direction of Mr. Megibow until he was joined by his son-in-law Stephen Grove in 1973.  In the mid 1960’s, Mr. Megibow rented a small warehouse and would buy failed restaurants and move the equipment into the warehouse where it would be sold at auction.  He was the first to do this on a regular basis in California.

In 1980, at the direction of Stephen Grove, Kohn-Megibow Company purchased a 20,000 square foot warehouse in an industrial section of Los Angeles that allowed the company to continue its growth.  By 1990, that growth compelled the company to buy a 40,000 square foot building in a much nicer section of Anaheim, California.  About that time, Mark Alderson and Sherrie Gailey joined Stephen Grove in the management of the company.

Today Kohn-Megibow Company moves on the average of more than one whole restaurant/bakery/market every day.  With such volume and using economies of scale, Kohn-Megibow can sell good used quality equipment cheaper than anyone in California.  For the past ten years, new equipment has also been added to our auctions. Starting in 2020 we moved our auctions to a online platform to better serve our customers.

There is no better place to buy a combination of new and used equipment in California than at Kohn-Megibow Company, located at 1341 N. Kraemer Blvd., Anaheim, California. Our facility is large, clean and staffed with many years of experience."



Birth of Sylvia Kohn, 6/10/1919 (following docs courtesy of FamilySearch.org).....



....note the family home address at 515 W. 51st St., this is adjacent to the rear of the Sylvia & Rose Building.



Sylvia marries Sol Megibow, 3/10/1940.....






Rose Kohn was born in 1921, she married in 1941.....






Sigmund W. Kohn was buried at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park on Forest Lawn Drive.....


findagrave.com

[ethereal_reality]

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Wow! . . .well researched post, riichkay. Excellent job.


Interesting stuff about the Crookshanks, GaylordWilshire & JimCraig.

Thaddeus Pickens made me think of the. .um. .Woo Woo Kid. (I think that's what the press call him) He was another lady slayer.

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The old May Co. parking garage is certainly impressive. I don't believe I've notice it before your post, beachboyz2men ... (I might have but I didn't realize it was a parking garage!)

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[ethereal_reality]

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Found on eBay



414 S. Irving Blvd Los Angeles California Residence Home 1920’s Orig. Photo 4 x 6

eBay

Nice place.
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[odinthor]

Several nice Palm survivors lately:


detail from earlier post


gsv


detail from earlier post


gsv

[Flyingwedge]

I first fell down this rabbit hole when I came across this photo, dated 1889 and titled "Northwest Los Angeles." I finally recognized Second Street running
(right to left) horizontally from the foot of Bunker Hill west toward the Second Street Cable RR engine house, which is above the large building left of center.
Flower Street runs diagonally across the bottom foreground, but what was that large building left-of-center?



00031433 at LA Public Library


It turns out to have been the Fremont Avenue School, on the east side of Fremont between 2nd and 3rd Streets:

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's part of an 1894 map which Diamond-X linked to recently.
For reference: #24 in the center is the Fremont Avenue School. [the red arrow refers to something else]


Detail of map at Library of Congress

It was built in 1890 and originally named the Beaudry Street School, but Beaudry Street was later changed to Fremont Avenue:



February 2, 1890, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


The front of Fremont Avenue School:



December 18, 1903, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


Here's a later, distant view of the school looking SE from 1st Street, between Beaudry and Boylston. The school is in the middle, just above dead center
(the narrow alley above bottom center, on the east side of the empty field, is Corto Street, which ran from 1st Street to an alley just north of 2nd Street).
The photo is dated 1923 but was apparently taken a few years earlier. At the right side of the image, at the same level as the school, is the four-story
Gail Apartments at 230 S. Beaudry; its west-facing front is at the extreme right edge:



ebay


Replacing the old wooden school with one of masonry may have been hastened by a late 1919 fire:



January 1, 1920, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


Here is a drawing of the school from the December 4, 1925, Illustrated Daily News. The building on the right was built in 1922.




Oh, no, they had no idea what kind of plants they were :



May 17, 1949, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


The school was eventually identified as an earthquake risk:



December 9, 1963, Los Angeles Times @ Newspapers.com


And that risk -- even more than the school's freeway-close location -- seems to have been the primary cause of its demolition.
Note that Fremont Avenue now dead-ends in front of the school, next to the 3rd Street on-ramp:

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's an aerial view showing the school buildings between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The 1956 CD lists the Fremont Avenue Child Care Center and Fremont Avenue Elementary School at 238 S Fremont Avenue.


Detail from picture in USC Digital Library

The demolition permits for the school are dated April 30, 1964. Here is the school site on June 29, 1964:



Flight c-24801 Frame 395 @ UCSB

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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[...]
Thaddeus Pickens made me think of the. .um. .Woo Woo Kid. (I think that's what the press call him) He was another lady slayer.
[...]
_______________________________________________________________

It must be noted that the Woo Woo Kid, aka Ellsworth Clewer "Sonny" Wisecarver Jr., was an Angeleno, born in 1929.

Alchetron

ClickAmericana

The price of love:




They made a movie of the story in 1987 with Patrick Dempsey, Michael Constantine and Beverly D'Angelo. They decided not to call it The Woo Woo Kid, though, even though that was what the press called him and he was known as back in the day. They called it "In the Mood." It's not a bad film, but it could've been so much better. Mr. Wisecarver, himself, makes an appearance in the film as a mailman.

[ethereal_reality]

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Yep, that's him!, M-Pal.


I read that he was. .um. . .quite "gifted" in a certain area of his anatomy ....*blush*




Just found this.


historicimages

info:

The judge was probably envious.

[ethereal_reality]

.
And speaking of wieners.

Does anyone remember a Manya's located somewhere along Melrose Ave?


eBay






eBay







eBay

I don't remember it at all. ...(and I like hotdogs)




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[ethereal_reality]

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And while we are on Melrose


Seller's description:.."Vintage Melrose Cafe Lunch Counter & Interior w/ Men Los Angeles CA"


eBay


From the seller:

"A nice sharp interior photograph of a cafe, that I believe is part of the Melrose Circle Cafe & Lounge 5005 ~ 5009 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA. It was owned by Lorenz Schweitzer.
This could be a sister cafe but I have only located these two businesses being linked so far. The owner also owned a Pie & Cake Shop, at a different location and was active in the community.


Interesting here is one African American* employee and a man of color customer reading the funnies eating at the counter. There is good detail in the photo.
You can read about the reopening of the renovated cafe on the wall, magnifying glass...The poster states 'June' will be playing the Hammond Electric Organ, in the lounge."




Here's a closer look at the sign. ..(sorry for the bluriness)




*The employee that the seller mentions looks Italian to me.

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[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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And speaking of wieners.

Does anyone remember a Manya's located somewhere along Melrose Ave?


eBay





[...]


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e_r, Manya's, 7350 Melrose, about five blocks west of La Brea and Pink's.


LA Times, 7/3/1979

Today (well, 2014):


gsv, 3/2014

[odinthor]

FW: Magnificent posting on the Fremont School. Thanks!

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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And speaking of wieners.

Does anyone remember a Manya's located somewhere along Melrose Ave?


eBay






eBay







eBay

I don't remember it at all. ...(and I like hotdogs)




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Many's of the early/mid seventies looked rebuilt and enlarged a tad-- quality chow served--- was it near Martel?

[Snix]

I didn't realize the art deco Kress store on Hollywood Boulevard was a replacement for an earlier two-story brick Kress store that burned. Here's a great photo from a grand opening ad. 6608 Hollywood Blvd.

Los Angeles Evening Citizen News
27 Nov 1934

"Blazes swept through the SH Kress 5 and 10 cents store at 6608 Hollywood...many film folks...pajama clad residents… fiery spectactle… three firemen and a citizen were injured slightly .. police had to arrest two men who insisted in aiding the firemen on drunk charges…three alarm blaze.. 2am to 4am… roof was burned away and the huge asst of merch in the stockroom of the two story brick building was destroyed… Los Angeles Evening Citizen News 14 Sep 1933

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Frederick's of Hollywood, replete with Hollywood "star" street lighting, circa '60s
ttps://scontent-ams4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18447558_612511122288699_7410008037434308814_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_ohc=wTew7J_MpGYAX8gD1Zj&_nc_ht=scontent-ams4-1.xx&oh=5061b78780c1cbe5260861e43a6d8075&oe=5EC02055