noirish Los Angeles

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the parking lot between Prudential Savings and the Century Plaza Hotel in 1971. It remained undeveloped until the early 2000s. The Prudential Savings building survived until around 2012, by which time it was Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin (an investment bank). It can be seen on the early StreetView images.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

As with anything else, The Prudential Building was absorbed into one of Westfield's parking structures. IIRC, they repurposed the steel superstructure.

Curiously, the 2025 Google satellite view shows a rooftop pool on the northside of the Century Plaza hotel and a green swamp(?) on the southside.

(still don't have picture hosting capabilities - you'll have to use your imagination...)

[ethereal_reality]

.
You guys blew my mind by how fast you figured out the mystery vantage point.










Guess what, noirishers. .I have a mystery locations for this fine Monday afternoon.

Seller's description:...1920's Photo Los Angeles, CA. Nu-Way Market Drive-In Open Air Grocery 4.5 x 3"


eBay





There's writing on the back but no address. ..(although there's a date, 2/29/29)


eBay

There was supposedly a Nuway Laundry at 797 Towne Ave. but, as far as I can tell, we haven't seen a Nuway Open Air Market on NLA. (I checked Nu-Way as well)


.......
.

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

That is a very peculiar uniform that gentleman is wearing. It has the cut of a WWII era US Army uniform but is completely devoid of the nationality and rank markings called out by the Geneva Convention or any unit patches or specialty pins (e.g., aircrew wings, paratroop wings, etc.) or award ribbons.

Cheers,

Earl

Earl Boebert, are you knowledgeable about American military uniforms of the WWII era? Or is anyone else here well-versed in such matters?

The reason I ask is because I have a number of photos of my father during the war, and I have a few questions about the uniform(s) he was wearing... for some reason, I never thought about asking you folks at Noirish LA before...

[fullpower]

Looks like the Hollywood Hills in the background of the Nuway

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
You guys blew my mind by how fast you figured out the mystery vantage point.







[/URL]










Guess what, noirishers. .I have a mystery locations for this fine Monday afternoon.

Seller's description:...1920's Photo Los Angeles, CA. Nu-Way Market Drive-In Open Air Grocery 4.5 x 3"


eBay





There's writing on the back but no address. ..(although there's a date, 2/29/29)


eBay

There was supposedly a Nuway Laundry at 797 Towne Ave. but, as far as I can tell, we haven't seen a Nuway Open Air Market on NLA. (I checked Nu-Way as well)


Blow my mind again!..
.

[Martin Pal]

A shot in the dark. There's a Nuway Market listed at 6101 Holmes Ave. on the corner of 61st Street. The GSV image is in the right framing with the side street and Holmes Ave. to the left. An older GSV image has a sign written Nuway as well as one written Nu-Way. Link: GSV

Zillow, Movoto, Trulia and Loopnet all list a home residence at this 6101 address built in 1930, and all linked photos on those sites go to this Market location, showing a residence to the right. Listed as South Los Angeles, Florence-Graham area, west of Huntington Park.

By the way, the 1929 photo has the spelling on the top signage as Nu·Way and on the bottom as Nuway.

Someone, me I guess, has to mention the camera positioning showing the sign spelling: RAPE JUICE.

[August-Marathon]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

A shot in the dark. There's a Nuway Market listed at 6101 Holmes Ave. on the corner of 61st Street. The GSV image is in the right framing with the side street and Holmes Ave. to the left. An older GSV image has a sign written Nuway as well as one written Nu-Way. Link: GSV

Zillow, Movoto, Trulia and Loopnet all list a home residence at this 6101 address built in 1930, and all linked photos on those sites go to this Market location, showing a residence to the right. Listed as South Los Angeles, Florence-Graham area, west of Huntington Park.

By the way, the 1929 photo has the spelling on the top signage as Nu·Way and on the bottom as Nuway.

Someone, me I guess, has to mention the camera positioning showing the sign spelling: RAPE JUICE.

An old semaphore type traffic signal is hiding the G in Grape Juice. The need for a traffic signal at the intersection of 61st St and Holmes Ave seems unusual. In the left margin of the photo there appears in the distance the faint illusion of a hillside dotted with houses. Everything else lines up nicely.

[odinthor]

Here are two open-air drive-in markets getting built in 1927:


LA Times, 1/23/1927

TL;DR edition: The markets were being built at Vine & Fountain, and Vine & Barton.

[odinthor]

This one's not the market in question, but perhaps it's of sufficient interest to look at:


LA Times, 3/4/1928

Drive-in/open-air markets seem to have been a bit of a fad from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s.

[HossC]

The 1928 El Adobe Market building is still standing. There's an article about it on jhgraham.com.

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Guess what, noirishers. .I have a mystery locations for this fine Monday afternoon.

Seller's description:...1920's Photo Los Angeles, CA. Nu-Way Market Drive-In Open Air Grocery 4.5 x 3"


eBay

This revolves around the Saperstein family who were involved with at least four markets in the late 1920s/early 30s,



rescarta.lapl.org


They had Nuway Open Air Markets at 4011 Beverly Blvd, 5157 W. Pico Blvd, 5245 Santa Monica Blvd and 4353 Arlington Ave.

The last one, 4353 Arlington Ave. Leimert Park, maybe the best fit for the one in the ebay picture.

It was at the NW corner of W. Vernon Ave. and Arlington Ave. Here in a 1938 aerial.



mil.library.ucsb.edu


Here's the view down the adjoining street in the ebay picture and a GSV view west along Vernon from the Arlington intersection.



Google Street View


I think the building to the very left of the old picture is 2406-08 W. Vernon Ave. which was built in 1926.

You can also just about see the distant houses in the hills in both views.

[fullpower]

Looks like a match to me.

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

This revolves around the Saperstein family who were involved with at least four markets in the late 1920s/early 30s,



rescarta.lapl.org


They had Nuway Open Air Markets at 4011 Beverly Blvd, 5157 W. Pico Blvd, 5245 Santa Monica Blvd and 4353 Arlington Ave.

The last one, 4353 Arlington Ave. Leimert Park, maybe the best fit for the one in the ebay picture.

It was at the NW corner of W. Vernon Ave. and Arlington Ave. Here in a 1938 aerial.



mil.library.ucsb.edu


Here's the view down the adjoining street in the ebay picture and a GSV view west along Vernon from the Arlington intersection.



Google Street View


I think the building to the very left of the old picture is 2406-08 W. Vernon Ave. which was built in 1926.

You can also just about see the distant houses in the hills in both views.

[riichkay]

You have nailed it Noir_Noir, excellent sleuthing.

Here is a more modest open-to-the-street produce market/stand, photo is undated and courtesy of Flickr....

[ethereal_reality]

Wow, that's a great find, riichkay!


Thanks for all the follow ups to the Nu-Way or Nuway photographs. I really appreciate it.


I have a mystery location! It was just listed on eBay.

1970s Ray Rodriguez Headquarters Los Angeles California Slide


eBay

I'd say the little house is an old real estate office. (we have seen many of them over the years on nla) .


Here's a fuzzy detail of the street number. (there appear to be four)


detail

I don't know anything about Ray Rodriguez or the year of his campaign. (except that it was sometime in the 1970s)

Hopefully we can figure out the location.
.

[Those Who Squirm!]

The remodel done by CB&TL is less than esthetically pleasing, but they did obtain room for many more seats and tables. The lack of adequate seating had always been a problem when it was a Starbucks. That's not to say I didn't miss the Starbucks, which had preserved much of the midcentury Googie-inspired detail.

For those who dont' know, the Starbucks occupied only the southern end of the original restaurant space, and they didn't have a lot of space in which to run a coffeehouse. The rest of the space was occupied by a Subway and a juice bar (Robek's?). When the Coffee Bean took over they extended their portion out to the south, providing them more space without interfering with the other businesses.

Originally Posted by KevinW

Wow, I haven't been down Overland for awhile. At least the old Starbucks kept the Ship's building. This modern mishmash is horrible.


October 2012:


January 2015:


gsv

[fullpower]

I believe the old Ship's building was once a very old post office.

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm!

The remodel done by CB&TL is less than esthetically pleasing, but they did obtain room for many more seats and tables. The lack of adequate seating had always been a problem when it was a Starbucks. That's not to say I didn't miss the Starbucks, which had preserved much of the midcentury Googie-inspired detail.

For those who dont' know, the Starbucks occupied only the southern end of the original restaurant space, and they didn't have a lot of space in which to run a coffeehouse. The rest of the space was occupied by a Subway and a juice bar (Robek's?). When the Coffee Bean took over they extended their portion out to the south, providing them more space without interfering with the other businesses.

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I have a mystery location! It was just listed on eBay.

1970s Ray Rodriguez Headquarters Los Angeles California Slide


eBay

5775 Whittier Blvd.



Google Street View


Ray was a cool dude.

"Raymond Rodriguez was born to Ysidrio and Francisca Rodriguez on January 5, 1924 in the heart of East Los Angeles. He was one of seven siblings and grew
up during the height of the depression when all of the Mexican kids in the neighborhood would walk to school barefooted everyday. He said, “On rainy days,
the janitor would stand at the door and wash our feet off with a hose.” He learned the how to hustle a meal in grammar school by making friends with girls who
would share their lunch with him. As a boy, he did whatever he could to make money including shining shoes and selling newspapers on the corner of Rowan Ave
and East 1st Street.

As a teenager, he spent a lot of time playing dice and hustling craps games with his East 1st street buddies. His love for USC football was established early on as
he would occasionally jump the fence at the L.A. Coliseum to watch USC football games. He went to Magician’s school to learn sleight-of-hand techniques he utilized
in craps games, and attended Garfield High School when the Japanese attacked the United States Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941."

legacy.com - Ray Rodriguez obituary


He owned the Latin Lover bar at 4036 and later 4125 Whittier Blvd. from the 1960s into the 1980s at least.



cdnc.ucr.edu - El Sereno Star, 4 May 1972


He did not win the election that year, 1974.


Found with the invaluable assistance of this associated ebay picture.



ebay.com

[nealberke]

Originally Posted by fullpower

Looks like the Hollywood Hills in the background of the Nuway

Grape Juice was a "thing" in the 1920's. Grape juice was considered a health food and even a cure for cancer. Then, Prohibition got folks back to the art of making wine and beer at home. There was even something called a "grape brick" dehydrated grape juice that carried a warning label reminding the buyer not to ferment their product to make wine. https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/07/rare-prohibition-grape-brick-that-turns-into-wine/

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by nealberke

Grape Juice was a "thing" in the 1920's. Grape juice was considered a health food and even a cure for cancer. Then, Prohibition got folks back to the art of making wine and beer at home. There was even something called a "grape brick" dehydrated grape juice that carried a warning label reminding the buyer not to ferment their product to make wine. https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/07/rare-prohibition-grape-brick-that-turns-into-wine/

... and perhaps the most popular grape drink was called NuGrape. It seems that the “Nu” prefix was quite popular during the 1920s.


Check out the tires with the holes in them! alamy.com

• Video Link

[quickstop]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

... and perhaps the most popular grape drink was called NuGrape. It seems that the “Nu” prefix was quite popular during the 1920s.


Check out the tires with the holes in them! alamy.com

• Video Link

Early truck tires were solid rubber, no air, so the holes probably gave a little cushoning.

[HossC]

I assume the grape juice was real, whereas NuGrape claims to be "Imitation Grape Flavor". Radar O'Reilly's favourite drink, Grape Nehi, also came out in the 1920s, and also seems to have had artificial flavorings.