noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Fascinating find. -sad what was lost in this art deco redo. (although I do like the triangular art deco windows)

Originally Posted by HossC

1221 South Hope

USC Digital Library



GSV

This is also an interesting before and after HossC.

In May of 2012 a fire destroyed the Terrell Moore Gallery at 1221 S. Hope. (I wonder if the Google-Street view is pre-2012?)


http://lafd.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html



http://lafd.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html
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[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Sometimes you see something that's equivalent to sticking needles in your eyes.
this is one.

3rd and S. Union Ave.
-google street view-
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This color scheme, maybe even the construction, brought to mind the Ramada Plaza/Trader Joe's area of Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

This is a great shot! (It was at the corner of La Cienega and Venice Boulevards, by the way.) I am currently reading the book M-G-M HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST BACKLOT and they mention this site where the Ben-Hur set was constructed. The photo they use of the completed set pales in comparison to one or more of the aerial photos that were posted on this thread previously and I have been looking for them, but I cannot locate that post or posts. Can someone help?

The only previous post with an aerial shot that I could find is this one:

Originally Posted by KevinW

While looking around at aerials of Culver City and the Speedway I found this shot of the Circus Maximus set from Ben Hur. It's an MGM set. Any idea where this is?

LAPL

MichaelRyerson correctly identified the location in the following post.

[ethereal_reality]

Before we move on, I'm curious about the two radio towers in the background (to the west).

Anyone know where they were located?

USC
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[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by HossC

I finally found a shot showing the whole front of the MacDonald Dodson tire shop, and it looks like they had a small roof sign in 1933. It also shows that the "simulated tire tracks" (mentioned by GW in post #10205) went up both sides of the building.


USC Digital Library

What a difference a year makes. In the original Vogue Tyres post, GW noted "The building still stands, although its façade has been ruined". You can imagined how surprised I was to see this 1934 picture showing that MacDonald Dodson "ruined" their own façade with a Deco makeover. Of course, this façade has also subsequently been ruined.


USC Digital Library

Fantastic finds, Hoss-- as much as I like the tire-track facade, the Deco incarnation is great.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

In May of 2012 a fire destroyed the Terrell Moore Gallery at 1221 S. Hope. (I wonder if the Google-Street view is pre-2012?)

How sad . The GSV image is dated May 2011, and I can't find out what happened to the building after the fire. The Terrell Moore Gallery Facebook page jumps from February 2012 to May 2013, but does list a new address of 1601 South Hope.


GSV (also May 2011)

I wonder if Terrell realizes that the gallery moved from one old tire shop to another. Here's Frank W. Dillin's building in 1932. The 1932 CD lists his business addresses as 1017 S. Olive and 416 W. 10th, so I'm guessing 1601 South Hope was quite new.


USC Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

You're on a roll HossC. I love it.
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My before/after isn't nearly as interesting.




still standing/but unrecognizable

GSV

They've stripped the building of anything that's interesting.
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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

This color scheme, maybe even the construction, brought to mind the Ramada Plaza/Trader Joe's area of Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.

You hit the nail on the head with the Ramada Hotel Martin.

GSV

I dislike this building so much. The Tropicana Motel, one of the last vestiges of old Route 66, was destroyed for this steaming pile.




below: I was shocked to see that they actually use the old Tropicana in their marketing.

Here's a screen grab of their website. (with a photo of the destroyed Tropicana)

http://www.ramadaweho.com/history/






-they even pay homage to Duke's Coffee Shop (destroyed along with the Tropicana)

http://www.ramadaweho.com/history/




a bit of Tropicana history from the Ramada website


I walked past the old Tropicana Motel every day on my way to the gym.
It's truly one of my special Los Angeles memories.
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Before we move on, I'm curious about the two radio towers in the background (to the west).

Anyone know where they were located?

USC

USC have this 1931 birdseye view taken from near the Belasco and looking along 11th Street.


USC Digital Library

I think I spy the radio towers over on the left. They seem to be either side of the Trinity United Methodist Church at 1201 S. Flower Street.


Detail of picture above.

I can't find any better shots of the church with the radio towers, but here's what it looked like a few years earlier (ca. 1925).


lapl.org

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by HossC

What a difference a year makes. In the original Vogue Tyres post, GW noted "The building still stands, although its façade has been ruined". You can imagined how surprised I was to see this 1934 picture showing that MacDonald Dodson "ruined" their own façade with a Deco makeover. Of course, this façade has also subsequently been ruined.


USC Digital Library

Quick with the antennas, Eric-- great job.


A little info on the MacDonald-Dodson Deco remodel:


LA Times, July 1 and Aug 19, 1934

[ethereal_reality]

alright! you located the towers...thanks HC.
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Al's Bar
lapl





305 South Hewitt today

GSV
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[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The Old Motor


Bandleader Paul Whiteman (apparently retouched) poses with his Cord L29 sporting elaborate Vogue tires. I assumed that this was Los Angeles and that the address was on down on Figueroa, Flower, or Hope. After a bit of digging, I found that the MacDonald-Dodson Tire Co. was at 1317 S. Hope.

As with Pennsylvania Tires , it would appear that MacDonald-Dodson associated with many different Tire-Rubber manufacturers over the years, as indicated by recent posts. This also includes "Falls Cords," which probably fell short of Paul Whiteman's tastes. Curious if Paul would have bought tattersall sidewalls . . . if they were available.


http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTk3WDQyMw==/z/WucAAMXQVERS3dg5/$_3.JPG






Hard to keep track of the various tire players. For example, in 1930, Falls Cords is said to have merged with the Cooper Corporation and the M and M Company to form the Master Tire and Rubber Company. The company name was changed to Cooper Tire & Rubber Company in 1946. Cooper eventually swallowed several other well known foreign and domestic companies. However, it was reportedly being acquired by an Indian concern in 2013.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Tire_%26_Rubber_Company

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

This is a great shot! (It was at the corner of La Cienega and Venice Boulevards, by the way.) I am currently reading the book M-G-M HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST BACKLOT and they mention this site where the Ben-Hur set was constructed. The photo they use of the completed set pales in comparison to one or more of the aerial photos that were posted on this thread previously and I have been looking for them, but I cannot locate that post or posts. Can someone help?

Some of the fascinating text from the M-G-M book (page 133) related to this parcel of land seen in the above photo:

In 1925, after the three-way merger that had created the company, Thalberg was forced to shut down production on Fred Niblo's spectacularly out-of-control Ben-Hur. The entire unwieldy project then limped back home to Culver City to await redemption and completion. But once cast and crew had been transplanted onto the lot, Thalberg (with Mayer looking over his shoulder, no doubt) realized that the Lot One backlot was too small and already too congested with standing sets to contain the massive coliseum which, Griffith-like, would have to be built for the picture's chariot-race climax.

The solution was an abandoned lot several miles up the road at the intersection of La Cienega and Venice boulevards. Unfortunately, in a potentially disastrous oversight, no one bothered to actually rent the property from anyone, and when a city bulldozer started to disassemble the still-unfinished set for a county construction project, it took a great deal of pleading and probably greasing of more than a few outreached palms in order to postpone the project so set construction could continue. At a cost of $300,000, a most generous budget for an entire picture at the time, the Roman Circus Maximus was eventually recreated and thousands of extras (including then unknowns Myrna Loy and Marion Davies) were called upon to watch several dozen gladiators (actually local cowboys) tear around the track as recorded by an unprecedented 42 cameras.

When the dust had settled on the spectacle...Mayer and Thalberg realized, sadly, that they could not keep the magnificent set, and, in fact, it was soon bulldozed. Knowing they would need area to shoot equally epic scenes for the forthcoming The Big Parade, the idea of a second, expanded backlot, a magnum opus of backlots--Lot Two--was born.

Very interesting MP. Kevin Brownlow had a slightly different take on that story in The Parade's Gone By . . . (University of California Press, 1968):



Google Books -- http://books.google.com/books?id=wCD5EH64Qw8C&q=Venice#v=snippet&q=Venice&f=false

Perhaps neither version is true? This July 8, 1925, story seems rather straightforward:


Los Angeles Times

The Ben-Hur set -- or at least its former site -- is apparently visible northeast of the corner of Venice and La Cienega in this 1926 aerial looking east from over Culver City:

LAPL -- http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035859.jpg

KevinW's photo again, looking west:


And a closeup of part of the same area in 1940; it almost looks like some of the set's footprint is still visible, although the angle in relation to the RR tracks is a little off:

USC Digital Library -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll170/id/21939/rec/28

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Graybeard

I have often wondered what effect that had on my generation.. The constant reminder of possible global nuclear annihilation, the Doomsday Clock and "Duck and Cover".

I can well remember these drills in grade school. They always gave me a strange undefined feeling of insecurity. We never had these drills at home or even talked about it. It was just another part of the unpleasantness of having to go to school. Grade school was for me a place of immense sadness. I really disliked it.

I especially hated those stupid ''Dick and Jane'' reading books. When I was in 3rd grade I preferred reading TIME or LIFE magazine.

[FredH]

See Spot run.


http://www.tagnwag.com/forsale/022806/funwithdickjaneCATH46-01.jpg

[Mstimc]

I would agree with your assessment, BRR. What little knowledge of tire construction I picked up working at my old man's service station in high school taught me there's a reason tread patterns are asymmetrical. A symmetrical pattern across the tire's width makes an annoying whining noise because air is being compressed beneath the tire at the same time. So, the "vacuum cups", if they really worked, would have made one heck of a racket as well.

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

War Bonds suggests date is probably post 1917. (Probably unnecessary for the competition to make any efforts at debunking the notion of road sucking tires. First, the vacuum principle probably worked best on nonporous glass or steel streets. Second, unlike an octopus, which has the ability to relax its tentacle's grip, additional force would be needed to g[/IMG]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2804/4180300358_211c14cc24_o.jpg

[Graybeard]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

I can well remember these drills in grade school. They always gave me a strange undefined feeling of insecurity. We never had these drills at home or even talked about it. It was just another part of the unpleasantness of having to go to school. Grade school was for me a place of immense sadness. I really disliked it.

I especially hated those stupid ''Dick and Jane'' reading books. When I was in 3rd grade I preferred reading TIME or LIFE magazine.

When we went to the library, I would head to the National Geographic section. Though I was too young to understand much of what was written, the pictures were excellent. A picture is indeed worth a 1000 words.

[ethereal_reality]

ebay

[ethereal_reality]

ebay






for closer inspection

[ethereal_reality]

1042 traffic deaths in 1936!

ebay