noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

GW-
Great details about the magnificent apartments along Rossmore in Hancock Park.
I used to love driving through that area. I found it much more impressive than Hollywood (obviously)
and perhaps even Beverly Hills (more tasteful).

I had to laugh imagining Mae West and Ethel Merman as room-mates. Funny!



I just read your post gsjansen. Amazed that were able to discern the Outpost sign.
(and your before/after pics from #1911 were really interesting)

[malumot]

Finally got my membership accepted (It takes days!...What's with that?)

Anyhow - thanks to Ethereral and all the rest. I stumbled on your site a week or so ago and have spent HOURS on here!

I'll write more later, and contribute what I can, but one thought: While many of us are saddened that the old Bunker Hill is no more, I'm reminded of something I read several years ago, which basically made this point - while the old hill was scraped clean (and then some) it did in an indirect way save much of what is left on Broadway, Main, Spring, etc. Post-1960 development was entirely directed to the new hill, and older (1900-1930) downtown was forgotten about, left to just sit there. As a result, old Downtown has the has one the the densest, uninterrupted concentrations of pre-War architecture anywhere. The silver lining in a dark cloud I suppose.

Gotta go. Write to me - I'm staying at the Elmar. Me and my Old Grand-Dad. =)

[ethereal_reality]

Welcome to the thread malumot.
I'm not sure why it took so long for your membership to be accepted.
I'm sorry for your delay.

Your statement about Los Angeles' urban renewel is definitely true.
I think one reason they chose the Bunker Hill area was that it was much cheaper
to tear down a victorian home or two (or three...), than some massive block sized office building.
I'm sure the land itself was cheaper as well.


-non sequitur-
Doesn't it seem much easier to romanticize about a missing building than one that survives.
I don't know why that is. (simple nostalgia perhaps)



Below: A night photo of Bunker Hill. The quality isn't great, but it does have a distinctive moody vibe.
I can't pinpoint this view. Anyone?


unknown


Again, welcome malumot.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Below: A night photo of Bunker Hill. The quality isn't great, but it does have a distinctive moody vibe.
I can't pinpoint this view. Anyone?


unknown

LAPL

The Angels Flight Pharmacy was on the se corner of 3rd and Grand. Looking east in your shot, ethereal, you can see the upper part of the Metropolitan Water District building at 3rd and Broadway (the building with the flattish dome):


you-are-here.com
Also home to the Million Dollar Theater, and the only thing left
in ethereal's picture.

[GaylordWilshire]

Princeton Online


1313 Mockingbird Lane, Universal City

[ethereal_reality]

^^^Now THAT is cool GW!


Re: The noir Bunker Hill photo.
I never would have guessed that the end building was the TOP of the Metropolitan Water District Building.
So thanks for the info.




Happy Halloween everyone!

[GaylordWilshire]

After watching William Castle's 13 Ghosts at JeffDiego's suggestion, I decided to take a look at some other Castle films, figuring I'd be likely to find more L.A. location shots.

In Castle's 1963 13 Frightened Girls, set in England, among actual London locations we find a building, supposedly in the English city but actually in L.A.: the Fontenoy apartments at 1811 Whitley Avenue in Hollywood:


Columbia Pictures/Sony

Google Street View


Columbia Pictures/Sony

Google Street View


Columbia Pictures/Sony
A body falls from atop the Fontenoy. The sidewalk markings haven't changed.

Google Street View


Some of the veteran character actors in 13 Frightened Girls are Murray Hamilton (who went on to fame as Mr. Robinson in The Graduate); Hugh Marlowe (I never thought he could act his way out of the proverbial paper bag, but what do I know? He had a long career, playing among many other roles Lloyd Richards in All About Eve as well as starring in The Day the Earth Stood Still); and Norma Varden, an English actress in everything from National Velvet to The Sound of Music to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to I Love Lucy.

[JeffDiego]

GW: Another comment about the first of those great shots of the Russell Waters/"Julia Farren" house in Wm. Castle's "13 Ghosts" that you shared: Interesting how it appears that a photograph of the house and trees has been superimposed against some kind of rear projection of a gloomy grey sky to give the house a more isolated, ominous look. Studio magic.
Thanks again EW for those wonderful photos of classic Rossmore Ave, apt. buildings.
A rarely seen (and I believe unavailable on DVD) film noir is the 1946 "Brasher Doubloon" (a Phillip Marlowe movie with George Montgomery) which begins with a wonderful scene of what is supposed to be a great mansion in Pasadena at dusk, with massive palms blowing in a Santa Ana wind. The house is one of those "gothic chateau" style places with the pointy "witch hat" towers that probably dates from around 1890, I should think. I later saw a picture of the Hershey mansion on Bunker Hill (the lady who built the Hollywood Hotel), and it looked very similar. The film also features a rambling Crafstsman-style house in the Hollywood Hills, also on a very windy day with lots of shadows against the house of thrashing Sycamore trees. None of the other Phillip Marlowe films of the 40's have as much realistic location photography.

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

GW: Another comment about the first of those great shots of the Russell Waters/"Julia Farren" house in Wm. Castle's "13 Ghosts" that you shared: Interesting how it appears that a photograph of the house and trees has been superimposed against some kind of rear projection of a gloomy grey sky to give the house a more isolated, ominous look. Studio magic.
Thanks again EW for those wonderful photos of classic Rossmore Ave, apt. buildings.
A rarely seen (and I believe unavailable on DVD) film noir is the 1946 "Brasher Doubloon" (a Phillip Marlowe movie with George Montgomery) which begins with a wonderful scene of what is supposed to be a great mansion in Pasadena at dusk, with massive palms blowing in a Santa Ana wind. The house is one of those "gothic chateau" style places with the pointy "witch hat" towers that probably dates from around 1890, I should think. I later saw a picture of the Hershey mansion on Bunker Hill (the lady who built the Hollywood Hotel), and it looked very similar. (There was also a vast towered mansion/chateau of similar style in Pasadena (I forgot the name) which was demolished pretty early on, but it's possible it is the house in the film).The film also features a rambling Crafstsman-style house in the Hollywood Hills, also on a very windy day with lots of shadows against the house of thrashing Sycamore trees. None of the other Phillip Marlowe films of the 40's have as much realistic location photography.

Google hershey apts. bunker hill to see a photo of Miss Hershey's house, moved from its original location and remodeled into the "Hershey Apts.," the photo probably dated about 1935.

[GaylordWilshire]

Jeff-- You can watch--sort of--The Brasher Doubloon on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lfE895sJqg), but the print is so bad (maybe it was filmed off of tv) that it's really unwatchable, which these stills of the house, while still identifiable as the still-extant Rindge house at 2263 S. Harvard, show:

20th Century-Fox

20th Century-Fox
Montgomery-as-Marlowe desribes it as being "way out in Pasadena."


LAPL
The Rindge House, closer to its 1903 construction date.

More information and contemporary pictures of the Rindge house are at http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...dge-house.html

Frederick Roehrig designed it. A quick look doesn't reveal if he might possibly have also done the similar-feeling Hershey house I think you're thinking of, but there is alot of interconnectedness in that Roehrig also designed the W. E. Ramsey house near the Rindge, on property sold to Mr. Ramsey by...Mira Hershey ( http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...lla-maria.html)

The house you must have in mind, which was at 4th and Grand on Bunker Hill:

LAPL

The full story of the Hershey house (long gone by the time The Brasher Doubloon was made in 1947), is here:
http://www.onbunkerhill.org/Hershey_CastleTowers


It looks like there are some other good L.A. establishing shots in the movie, including these:

20th Century-Fox
Marlowe's Hollywood office

20th Century-Fox
In the movie George Montgomery, as Marlowe, describes Bunker Hill as a place "people live because they
haven't got any place else to live." I'll have to look for this building in the various Bunker Hill resources,
but can anyone identify it in the meantime?

Its entrance:
20th Century-Fox

[Jarrod]

Such an awesome thread!

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Jeff-- You can watch--sort of--The Brasher Doubloon on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lfE895sJqg), but the print is so bad (maybe it was filmed off of tv) that it's really unwatchable, which these stills of the house, while still identifiable as the still-extant Rindge house at 2263 S. Harvard, show:

20th Century-Fox

20th Century-Fox
Montgomery-as-Marlowe desribes it as being "way out in Pasadena."


LAPL
The Rindge House, closer to its 1903 construction date.

More information and contemporary pictures of the Rindge house are at http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...dge-house.html

Frederick Roehrig designed it. A quick look doesn't reveal if he might possibly have also done the similar-feeling Hershey house I think you're thinking of, but there is alot of interconnectedness in that Roehrig also designed the W. E. Ramsey house near the Rindge, on property sold to Mr. Ramsey by...Mira Hershey ( http://bigorangelandmarks.blogspot.c...lla-maria.html)

The house you must have in mind, which was at 4th and Grand on Bunker Hill:

LAPL

The full story of the Hershey house (long gone by the time The Brasher Doubloon was made in 1947), is here:
http://www.onbunkerhill.org/Hershey_CastleTowers


It looks like there are some other good L.A. establishing shots in the movie, including these:

20th Century-Fox
Marlowe's Hollywood office

20th Century-Fox
In the movie George Montgomery, as Marlowe, describes Bunker Hill as a place "people live because they
haven't got any place else to live." I'll have to look for this building in the various Bunker Hill resources,
but can anyone identify it in the meantime?

Its entrance:
20th Century-Fox

GW: What can I say? My God, there the house is! The Rindge house on S. Harvard Blvd....and built later than I would've assumed. I never would've known had your genius not come to the rescue. LOL. You and others here are the greatest. Thanks much. Loved the stills, and I'll check out "Brasher Doubloon" at youtube, at least to look at the location shots...again, it never occurred to me to look there.
Now let's see who can identify the Bunker Hill bldg.

[GaylordWilshire]

20th Century-Fox

The house in the poster here is no Rindge, that's for sure. Anyway, take a look at the movie on youtube--it's in four or five parts. Check out the locations, and stop at the bits with Florence Bates, who's great as the rich old battleax who lives in the Rindge.

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Below: A night photo of Bunker Hill. The quality isn't great, but it does have a distinctive moody vibe.
I can't pinpoint this view. Anyone?


unknown

here's a much clearer william reagh photo of the same view looking east on third from between bunker hill avenue and grand avenue in 1955


California State Library

[GaylordWilshire]

Castle's 1961 Homicidal is said to have been made either in homage to Psycho, made the year before, or in competition with Hitchcock (it even has a cross-dressing aspect). Homicidal has some good, noirish location shots in Ventura (though none in L.A. that I could see), and the film appears as a film-within-a-film (on a drive-in screen) in Castle's 1962 Zotz!--which itself somehow seems to have been inspired by The Absent-Minded Professor of the year before and which offers us some interesting then-and-nows from its location shooting in and around Occidental College:

Columbia Pictures/Sony

Google Street View
1803 Campus Road, Eagle Rock. It's great that even the classic old L.A. black-and-white "pistol" street
signs are still there.


Columbia Pictures/Sony

Google Street View
A "Beaver" house just across Ridgeview Avenue from the one in the top shot.


Columbia Pictures/Sony
Tom Poston and Jim Backus at Oxy, view toward Belle Wilbur Thorne Hall.

historichighlandpark.com

historichighlandpark.com
Belle Wilbur Thorne Hall today.

[JeffDiego]

More interesting items, GW.
Several years ago, someone's personal print of "The Brasher Doubloon" was shown at a local museum noir festival here in San Diego.
Who the hell (LOL) came up with the tag line on the movie poster: "Some women hate cats...with her it's men?"
The Ventura and Solvang location photography in Wm. Castle's "Homicidal" adds to the interest of that film.
Having never seen Occidental College, your photos answer a question I've had: where were the campus scenes filmed in a Joan Crawford film from 1952 "Goodbye My Fancy," (and some other films as well).

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

20th Century-Fox
In the movie George Montgomery, as Marlowe, describes Bunker Hill as a place "people live because they
haven't got any place else to live." I'll have to look for this building in the various Bunker Hill resources,
but can anyone identify it in the meantime?

Its entrance:
20th Century-Fox

the best that i can figure, this building is the old st. mark apartment that was on the se corner of olive and 1st. I can't find a photo of the building's olive street entrance, (which is the entrance shown above), but here is a 1952 image of the 1st street elevation


LAPL

of course i could be wrong......................

[GaylordWilshire]

gs, I think you have it. The architecture seems to fit, and the 1st and Olive corner aligns with the view of city hall in the movie shot.

[GaylordWilshire]

LAPL


you-are-here.com


I found the top pic here while looking for shots of the big apartment buildings on Rossmore, and was intrigued by what I thought was an Art Deco commercial building, out of place in a residential 'hood. Then I wondered if it was some sort of Art Deco Unity Temple, a forgotten L.A. jewel. Anyway, it looked larger to me than it turns out that it is--I didn't recognize it as The Mauretania, which, wonderfully, still stands (at 520-522 N. Rossmore). It's a building I've read about for years, one that has a great Hollywood history, best told here:

http://www.larchmontchronicle.com/Ar...?ArchiveID=132



Google Street View


Google Street View

[gsjansen]

an undated photo of The Mauretania, (i'm guessing mid-thirties)


LAPL