noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

I found this photograph a few years back, but never posted it.

It appears to show a traveling circus in Los Angeles. (the seller mentioned amusement park)


ebay

To me, the various rides and amusements look rather makeshift (as one would find in a traveling show)




written on the reverse, in the upper right corner.







and here's a close-up look/ note the buildings visible in the background.


I thought there might be a slim chance someone here on NLA might recognize the building(s)


for search purposes: Los Angeles May 18, 1904

[ethereal_reality]

Three people pose for a snapshot ion Signal Hill with a water tower in the background.


ebay

I thought it would be easy to figure out where this snapshot was taken. [not so]

Anyone know where this water tower was located? (I been looking through various aerials but haven't been able to spot it)
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[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Three people pose for a snapshot ion Signal Hill with a water tower in the background.


I thought it would be easy to figure out where this snapshot was taken. [not so]

Anyone know where this water tower was located? (I been looking through various aerials but haven't been able to spot it)
__

Pacific Coast Hwy and Harbor Ave.
http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/?p=1104

http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.co...iversary-2.jpg

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I found this photograph a few years back, but never posted it.

It appears to show a traveling circus in Los Angeles. (the seller mentioned amusement park)


ebay

To me, the various rides and amusements look rather makeshift (as one would find in a traveling show)


written on the reverse, in the upper right corner.




and here's a close-up look of the buildings visible in the background.


I thought there might be a slim chance someone here on NLA might recognize the building(s)


for search purposes: Los Angeles May 18, 1904

Your photo looks north at the Nat Reiss Southern Carnival Co. at Fiesta Park, with buildings along 12th Street in the background.
This center section of a panoramic photo of the carnival looks west, and in it you see the same stuff (guy balancing on ball, Ferris
wheel, etc.) from your photo. If look you through the center of the Ferris wheel, you can see the church on the NE corner of 12th
and Hope under construction:



167652 at Huntington Digital Library


I think this enlargement, from the right edge of the HDL photo (not seen in the center section above), matches the left half of your enlargement:




There's lots to zoom in on in the full photo. Check it out!

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by HossC

Getty Research Institute

Originally Posted by oldstuff

I'm wondering about the mural in the Children's record section. It bears a striking resemblance to a Mary Blair work.

Yes it does. Mary Blair's illustrations were very lively and charming:


wendy watson

Blair (1911-1978) is widely known for her work with Disney across every part of that empire (including several films and the design for "It's a Small World" at Disneyland).

Like Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky "Rojan" (1891-1970), who came up recently, I best remember Mary Blair for her many Little Golden Book illustrations.

Blair's style and color sense continue to influence designers and illustrators.


rhinestone armadillo

[HossC]

There's no mystery about today's Julius Shulman post (see the street sign). It's "Job 1659: Kemper Nomland, Logan Medical Building, 1954". I've picked six of the nine images in the set.



Imagine telling people that you were off to see James Dean in 1954!



Here's the parking lot at the rear.



The reception area...



... and waiting room.



The last shot appears to show one of the dental treatment rooms.



All from Getty Research Institute

In 2014, the building at 900 Crenshaw Boulevard was the Korean Resource Center.


GSV

By March 2016, its replacement (also the Korean Resource Center) was nearly finished. The latest GSV images show the completed building, but they're not as clear.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

For once, I'd say the new building is an improvement.

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Pacific Coast Hwy and Harbor Ave.
http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/?p=1104


http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.co...iversary-2.jpg

Thanks for locating the water tower Tourmaline.

I drove the google-mobile in the area & tried to locate the stone wall the young lady is sitting on.


ebay

but I couldn't find it.

gsv

It's no doubt gone. (unless I looked in the wrong spot)
_

p.s. I wonder why they didn't put the conical roof back on it during the renovation?

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Your photo looks north at the Nat Reiss Southern Carnival Co. at Fiesta Park, with buildings along 12th Street in the background.



167652 at Huntington Digital Library

Thanks so much for finding the location of the 1904 traveling carnival photo Flyingwedge.


" In the 1900s "Nat Reiss" Southern Carnival Co., known as the greatest and grandest carnival company, provided a multiplicity of attractions. They carried a twenty-car train, embracing 300 people in all, who presented a diversified combination of attractions, shows, features and performances. In addition, they held features, parades, tournaments, and contests demonstrating exhibits of the different skilled trades....

and Max (poor Max ) the diving dog.


http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/596

I don't know if Max made the trip to Los Angeles


The carnival was held for two weeks in Los Angeles beginning May 16, 1904.


Los Angeles Herald, Number 228, 14 May 1904




Los Angeles Herald, Number 160, 7 March 1904



Here are the sideshows visible in FW's panorama. (from left to right)

1. Shooting Gallery (three shots for a nickel)
2. Estelle (on a raised platform)
3. Curious Theater (it may be something other than 'curious')
4. unknown name (very extravagant front...) almost baroque
5. Mozelle
6. Alice the Wonder
7. Royal Midgets
8. unknown (perhaps something to do with sailing ships)
9. Dreamland (little Nemo perhaps?)
10. Dixieland
11. Trained Sea Lions (with a giant slide)
12. California Orange Cider 5 cents
13. Stadium (a chorus on the left side of the entrance, a band on the other)
14. Famous Cracker Jack
15. Society Shooting Gallery
16. Merry-Go-Round

Check out the photo here: Huntington Archive

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[ethereal_reality]

Meet the folks at Oakes


ebay

The Oakes Coffee Shop & Cocktail Bar
1320 E. 7th Street
Los Angeles



It turns out the Oakes was located at the north entrance of the Union Terminal Market.

I've often wondered about the old cafe sign.


gsv
_

[ethereal_reality]

I happened upon this old postcard on ebay a few days ago (undivided back 1900-1907)



"First House in Pasadena"

I imagine it's long gone, but does anyone know where it was located?
__


view it on ebay here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Old-Pos...wAAOSwbopZTF-1

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I happened upon this old postcard on ebay a few days ago (undivided back 1900-1907)



"First House in Pasadena"

I imagine it's long gone, but does anyone know where it was located?
__


view it on ebay here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-Old-Pos...wAAOSwbopZTF-1

The house, built by A. O. Bristol, was at the SW corner of North Orange Grove and Lincoln:



History of Pasadena (1895) by Hiram A. Reid at HathiTrust


1897 Maxwell's Pasadena City Directory:



Pasadena Digital History Collaboration


The A. O. Bristol home at 591 Lincoln is at the center of the 1903 Pasadena Sanborn Map below. The street on the left
is North Orange Grove. I bet the outhouse (591-1/3) is the house in your postcard, e_r:



ProQuest via LAPL


USC has the photo from your postcard and dates it c. 1895:



CHS-6053 @ USC Digital Library


Here's the same house on January 21, 1929; the photo caption says the house was built in January 1874:



EXM-P-S-PAS-CIT-BUI-043


The Pasadena Japanese Cultural Institute is at 595 Lincoln, but the first house in Pasadena may have been just
to the left, where the December 2016 GSV shows a nursery that appears to be going out of business:



GoogleEarth

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by HossC

There's no mystery about today's Julius Shulman post (see the street sign). It's "Job 1659: Kemper Nomland, Logan Medical Building, 1954". I've picked six of the nine images in the set.

[...]

The reception area...

detail from pic above plus detail from Cugat cover for The Great Gatsby.

[GaylordWilshire]

"Melvin J. McClean" could be a name on the famous list of Gatsby's guests....

[HossC]

The sign will tell you that we're staying on Crenshaw Boulevard for today's Julius Shulman post. It's "Job 535: Matcham and Heitschmidt, Walter Leimert Co. Building, 1949". Ted Owen offered "Thick Steaks and Thin Pancakes".



Here's the outside of the real estate offices of the William H Leimart Co.



The interior of the Ted Owen restaurant.



A look down the counter. I've omitted a third shot of the inside of the restaurant.



And now, the real estate office. The building location would be near the left of the map on the wall.



The final image looks out the front. I've also omitted an interior image of the office.



All from Getty Research Institute

The buildings are on the 4300 block of Crenshaw Boulevard. The restaurant appears to have been divided, and would look much better if they removed some of the signage. The real estate office is now the New Millennium Sports Barber Shop, and comes complete with a basketball area inside,


GSV

[CityBoyDoug]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/isle_o...in/dateposted/


Yes, that's Jack LaLanne with smoggy 1954 Los Angeles in the background.

In those days he sometimes posed nude. That was before his LA-TV fame as a fitness guru.

To see the nude Mr LaLanne go here [he always said that was not him but pssst...its him.]>>>>

http://www.clothesfreeforum.com/foru...lanne-has-died

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

The house, built by A. O. Bristol, was at the SW corner of North Orange Grove and Lincoln

The A. O. Bristol home at 591 Lincoln is at the center of the 1903 Pasadena Sanborn Map below. The street on the left
is North Orange Grove. I bet the outhouse (591-1/3) is the house in your postcard, e_r:




The first house in Pasadena may have been on the left, where the December 2016 GSV shows a nursery that appears to be going out of business:



GoogleEarth

Thanks so much Flyingwedge!

Guess what, I found another photograph of the Bristol House.


PDHC

"View of the Bristol House, 1st house built in Pasadena. This photo was clearly taken after its use as a house had passed." [no date]



"The Indiana Colony (named after Dr. Daniel M. Berry of Indiana) was a narrow strip of land between the Arroyo Seco and Fair Oaks Avenue. On the other side of the street was Benjamin Wilson's Lake Vineyard development. After more than a decade of parallel development on both sides, the two settlements merged into the City of Pasadena.

In January 1874, the new settlement was divided among the settlers and mapped. Generously sized parcels which were intended for the planting of orange groves were arranged on either side of the north-south axis of the colony, a street soon known as Orange Grove Boulevard.

Houses for the new residents began to be built on the parcels, the first of which was the A. O. Bristol home near the corner of Orange Grove and Lincoln Avenue, finished in March 1874. By the end of 1875, there were 40 houses set among orchards, groves and vineyards."

info from W&P
__

I'm curious about the white horse-barn on the right (in the photo I just posted )


Do you think it's this building? (with the red star)



What confuses me is that the two buildings look aligned in the photo (if you look at the roofs) & as you can see on the map, the Bristol house is at an angle.

_

[ethereal_reality]

used on a poster for a Long Beach event



but doesn't include the name of the bar?

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I was snooping around L.A. in the googlemobile this afternoon and happened upon this over-sized sign on the 8000 block of S. Vermont Blvd.



gsv

I could be wrong, but I don't believe we have discussed this sign on NLA.



M I L L I O N.....A R T I C L E.....T H O M P S O N


Just for fun....here's a closer look.


detail

Anyone know the history behind this doozy of a sign?

__

From what I can glean from censuses and old newspapers, the store was owned by a Frank Milton Thompson, born in New York in 1883. He and his wife Maude lived just down the street and around the corner from the store at 837 W. 82nd Blvd. in the 1930 census. He registered for the WW II draft, listing 8938 S. Vermont as the business address of the hardware store.

He lived in Detroit when he registered for the WWI draft and was employed there as a waiter. By the time of the 1920 census, he and his wife were living in New Orleans and he was employed as a clerk in an amusement park. In New Orleans they also took in lodgers. They did not appear to have had any children.

Frank Thompson died in August of 1942 in Los Angeles.

They must have carried a "million articles" in the hardware store (he may have counted each bolt and nut) Real estate listing give the building date as 1932. Some references say that the sign dated from 1935.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for information on Frank Thompson, the man behind that whopper of a sign.
____





The houses shown below are from the
1957 USC School of Dentistry Yearbook

Luckily, the street addresses were included below ea. photograph.

I thought it might be fun to see what the houses look like now (but I could use some help there are 21 houses!!)


#1

usc




#2

usc



#3

usc




#4

usc




#5

usc





#6

usc




#7

usc




#8

usc




#9

usc (I believe we've seen this one on nla)





#10

usc


Ok, that's the first 10.

You can learn more about the fraternities and sororities (that occupied the houses) here: 1957 School of Dentistry Yearbook. (it's the same link as the one at the top of the post)
__

I imagine alot of the houses are gone.


I'll post the remaining 11 houses later tonight. (I have to run an errand)

[HossC]

Today's Julius Shulman post takes us back to DTLA. It's "Job 692: Stiles Oliver Clements, National Automotive and Casualty Insurance, 1950". I've left a few images out.



A look from the other side.



Here's the rather impressive counter.



I've never seen an interior quite like this one.



Full-length curtains, wooden partitions and patterned pillars.



All from Getty Research Institute

The National Automobile & Casualty Insurance Co was at 639 S Spring Street. I think that most of the original features survive under the awnings. The upper floors certainly look unchanged. The same can't be said for the building on the left, which is now a parking lot.


GSV