noirish Los Angeles - Page 776

ethereal_reality · #**15501** Posted **Jul 8, 2013, 11:16 PM**

When I first moved to L.A., I came close to renting the top floor of the Fontenoy Apartments with two friends, but we ended up renting
a house on 6th Street. (my Hancock bungalow days were still in the future...as well as my brief stay on Cochran and Wilshire)

http://walknridela.com/roaming-the-r...llo-hollywood/

Whenever I would see the Fontenoy sign I'd regret not moving into the top floor.

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Interesting post on the Fontenoy by GW
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9810

and here are some photographs of the interior.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4033151...683067/detail/
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ethereal_reality · #**15502** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 12:01 AM**

Los Angeles Metropolitan Industrial District -scrapbook, circa 1920s

ebay

I've been trying to locate these buildings.

all from ebay
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ethereal_reality · #**15503** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 12:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blaster

I also forgot the Dresden and Dan Tana's.

ebay

...further information on Carl & Sara.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9493
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ethereal_reality · #**15504** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 1:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blaster

I also forgot the Dresden and Dan Tana's.

Dan Tana's today

http://www.deanjab.com/blog/2012/05/...-hollywood-ca/

Does the shape of this vintage sign remind you of anything? If you thought..."hmmmm, a horseshoe perhaps?"
-you would be entirely correct.

It turns out, this sign predates Dan Tana's and was originally the sign for Domenico's Lucky Cafe. (see below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scootermodster/6697294825/

dan tana's/domenico's today (the dormer window is missing)

gsv
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Wenders · #**15505** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 1:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

When I first moved to L.A., I came close to renting the top floor of the Fontenoy Apartments with two friends, but we ended up renting
a house on 6th Street. (my Hancock bungalow days were still in the future...as well as my brief stay on Cochran and Wilshire)

http://walknridela.com/roaming-the-r...llo-hollywood/

Whenever I would see the Fontenoy sign I'd regret not moving into the top floor.

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Here is an interesting post on the Fontenoy by GW
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9810

and here are some photographs of the interior
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4033151...683067/detail/
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Me too. Around 1995 I saw an ad in LA Weekly for Fontenoy's penthouse. The rent was $1000 and I eventually decided that it's too high. The ad run for months, now I regret being so cheap. What I was thinking...

Beaudry · #**15506** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 2:48 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Los Angeles Metropolitan Industrial District -scrapbook, circa 1920s

ebay

I've been trying to locate these buildings.

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3 outta 4!

After a little digging, I found the Pillsbury Flour Mills listed at 306 S Mission.

(another shot of 306/310 because the truck was in the way) --

I'm sorry that we lost the "Vitimin Products" structure -- look at all that glass! What a classic early American daylight factory. (Of course, it probably would've been cinder-block'd à la the poor Southern Shade Company...)

ethereal_reality · #**15507** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 3:09 AM**

To be honest, I am a bit jealous you were able to locate these buildings Beaudry. I couldn't figure out which part of Mission Road they were talking about. (the description in the scrapbook merely said 'portion')

-anyway, kudos to you.

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CityBoyDoug · #**15508** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 3:19 AM**

1

Beaudry · #**15509** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 5:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

To be honest, I am a bit jealous you were able to locate these buildings Beaudry. I couldn't figure out which part of Mission Road they were talking about. (the description in the scrapbook merely said 'portion')

-anyway, kudos to you.

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Why thank you, happy to serve! (Addenda -- City Records show the three buildings as having been built in 1926. The Vitimin replacement dates to 1951 & 1971.)

Earl Boebert · #**15510** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 2:25 PM**

Larry Harnisch has a noir story over on his LA Daily Mirror blog:

http://ladailymirror.com/2013/07/09/...st/#more-12397

Perp/victim's apartment: 672 S. Rampart Blvd.

Site of the shooting: "Roost cafe, 2700 W. Temple, site of the notorious 1937 slaying of Les Bruneman."

Cheers,

Earl

CityBoyDoug · #**15511** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 4:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Larry Harnisch has a noir story over on his LA Daily Mirror blog:

http://ladailymirror.com/2013/07/09/...st/#more-12397

Perp/victim's apartment: 672 S. Rampart Blvd.

Site of the shooting: "Roost cafe, 2700 W. Temple, site of the notorious 1937 slaying of Les Bruneman."

Cheers,

Earl

Hey thanks Earl for the info and the link to that website. Its great for a daily dose of LA history!

ethereal_reality · #**15512** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 10:35 PM**

I initially thought this might be letters spelling out Pillsbury.

ebay

...but as you see from Beaudry's photo it's actually some nice brickwork.

gsv

And if you take a closer look at the worse for wear Southern Shade Co.

original posted by Beaudry

it too has some nice architectural flourishes and creative brickwork. -notice the 'shield' above the door.

And now for the last building in the photograph, the Southwest Lithographic Co.

ebay

356 S. Mission Road

I once suggested this building to a production co. looking for a 'small town bank'.

-built as the Southwest Lithograph Co. 356 S. Mission Road at Artemus Street

gsv

I'm pretty sure we've seen this building on 'noirish', but I wasn't able to find the earlier post.
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ethereal_reality · #**15513** Posted **Jul 9, 2013, 10:51 PM**

I also suggested this building, a block away at S. Anderson & Artemus St., as a location for a 1950s-style supper club/nightclub.
(the fence wasn't there at the time)

gsv

-add some neon...fix the awning...voila!..instant nightclub.

ethereal_reality · #**15514** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 12:13 AM**

Nine levels!! of parking. -I had no idea.

1975 ad/ebay

It's virtually impossible to tell what kind of shape this so-called 'garden' is in since it hovers 60 feet above the sidewalk,

gsv

and to think this was once a vibrant streetscape. Architects from the 1970s and 80s should be reprimanded for building this type of foreboding
shit.*

*I realize parking podiums are still being built. Hopefully with better transit solutions they will eventually become a thing of the past.
-wishful thinking I know.
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Moxie · #**15515** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 1:13 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

extinct club..

La Conga 1551 N. Vine Street

http://www.martinturnbull.com/

A noirish thumbs up to whoever locates a photograph of Chiquita, the talking marionette.
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I found some information for you on Chiquita, though most refer to her as a "talking doll" rather than a marionette. Apparently there is disagreement about when she died. A photographic guide at Harvard says it was either 1928, 1939, or 1945. Since the caption about La Conga is from 1939, that seems to confirm one of the later two dates, though someone else could have been playing the role in the 30s if she did die in 1928. Here's the Harvard site: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou02083

And another description from the Omaha Public Library: http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/transmiss.../chiquita.html

This is their image, a bit larger than it shows on their page:

And another, longer description: http://phreeque.tripod.com/chiquita.html

This page is in Spanish, and has a nice picture of her sitting like a marionette on her partner's lap: http://us.fotolog.com/chumbera/44981851/

Someone even started a FB page for her, then promptly stopped posting anything on it: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chiqu...36108313095097

ethereal_reality · #**15516** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 1:37 AM**

Wow Moxie, I had given up on finding anything more on Chiquita.
So you're thinking La Conga's Chiquita, 'the talking marionette', was a puppet based on a real human being,
or are you saying La Conga's Chiquita was actually an actress playing a marionette?
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-I had to laugh when I re-read my post.This is very surreal.

Flyingwedge · #**15517** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 1:46 AM**

First off, to get oriented, here's the 1873 map of Los Angeles, which I've brazenly stolen from MR's earlier post (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...tcount=14027):

PlazaMap3

I first came across the photo below -- which I'll subsequently refer to as the mystery photo -- at the USC Digital Library site, where it is undated and unlocated
(http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...d/24663/rec/79), then I found it at the Autry National Center site, where they have ID'd the photo as Sonoratown, 1860.
The angular white buildings(s) in the foreground of the northeast-looking mystery photo are on the corners of Eternity (not named on map), Church* (or Bread),
and Calle Principal. If I'm not mistaken, the large two-story building on the right side of the photo is the Bath Street Public School, built c. 1854. The street
that comes in from the left side of the photo and seemingly disappears behind that building is Alameda Street, and I'm pretty sure that the white line running
eastward from the back of the two-story building is Macy Street:

theautry.org -- http://collections.theautry.org/mweb...=93_21_234.jpg
*The side with eight doors and one window.

Compare the mystery photo with this one, which LAPL says is c. 1875 (and taken from the Pico House, which is impossible). USC has the same photo without
identifying where it was taken from but also says it was taken c. 1875 (although the USC print has 1869 written on it):

LAPL -- http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011128.jpg
USC -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...25373/rec/1473

In the above photo, we see on the left the northwest corner of Church and Calle Principal. The building two structures south of the two-story building now also
has a second story. The three-story building in the background, on the southeast corner of Alameda and Macy, is the Sisters of Charity Orphanage, built in 1857
(http://www.maryvale-ca.org/about-us) or 1858 (LAPL). That orphanage was replaced by the big one in Boyle Heights in 1891, which we've seen here before.

I know the two photos were taken from slightly different angles. But if the mystery photo was taken after the Sisters of Charity Orphanage was built, shouldn't we
be able to see just a sliver of the orphanage on the right edge of the mystery photo?

The payoff here is that if the mystery photo was taken before 1858, it would apparently be the oldest known photograph of Los Angeles:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_fo...s-angeles.html

Moxie · #**15518** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 1:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Wow Moxie, I had given up on finding anything more on Chiquita.
So you're thinking Chiquita 'the talking marionette' was a puppet based on a real human being?

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No, I think she actually was a person, who pretended to be a marionette. Most of the pages I found refer to her being a sideshow act, and that seems like the sort of thing they'd do...claim she was a puppet when she was, in fact, a human.

There's a biography of her now too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...=9788466322980

ethereal_reality · #**15519** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 2:11 AM**

You absolutely deserve a 'noirish thumbs up' Moxie!

-kudos to you.

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ethereal_reality · #**15520** Posted **Jul 10, 2013, 2:28 AM**

A glimpse of Googie's on Sunset behind the 'Steak and Stein' sign, circa 1968.

slide/ebay

Note the Julie Andrew's STAR! billboard....one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history.

more on Googie's on Sunset here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=15414
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