noirish Los Angeles

[BrandonJXN]

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[ethereal_reality]

The backside of the Ambassador Hotel looking north toward Wilshire Boulevard in 1932.


LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Hollywood call girl Helen Keller arrested in 1949.



Press photo ebay







NO blind jokes....it's way too easy.

[ethereal_reality]

A stockpile of drinking water and crackers beneath the state buildings circa 1963.
I wonder if any of these cold war provisions still exist? I would love to search the lowest levels of the Civic Center.



LAPL

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

L.A. Times May 8, 1955

[srk1941]

"Why didn't they hire an architect to design an entrance that was sympathetic to the original design?
Maybe I'm wrong.....perhaps this IS the original entrance, but I highly doubt it"


That is part of the original design of the hotel, done by architect Myron Hunt. It was added on to over the years...

[GaylordWilshire]

Citizine

Not an especially clear pic--it doesn't really help identify what the original center of the facade looked like--but it must be from very soon after the Ambassador's opening. I'm surprised not to find any good, clear shots from the time of its construction online.

[GaylordWilshire]

The Atlantic

I think we do it better, but the article did bring my attention to a neighborhood I knew nothing about:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/nei...1894-2011/785/

"East of the Los Angeles River, Prospect Park is still intact but its surroundings have changed a bit. No longer a quiet residential area, the neighborhood has filled in and a cluster a freeways surround it to the north, west, and east."

[ethereal_reality]

It would be interesting to find out more about this area.
It's in close proximity to the Los Angeles County Hospital (the hospital is a few blocks to the northeast).
The park that it's named after appears as a heart on some old maps if I remember correctly.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

below: I also noticed a heart shaped park in the Boyle Heights area.


uscdl

Now I remember, e_r--

(Maybe it's me, but I usually have a hard time when searching for old posts here--they never seem to be on the page to which the "search" box takes me--but I did find this, and I'm reminded of the incredible treasure trove of information that has been gathered here.)

[ethereal_reality]

Yep, that's it G_W! It looks like the park is slowly morphing into a circle in that aerial google photo.

_____


The first day of trackless trolleys at the corner of 6th Street and Broadway in 1947.



UCLA Digital Archives

I was looking at this photo today and noticed the store on the right. The visible portions of the two signs say LLDOM and SW....so I was trying to figure it out when I noticed the name in small print above a window. It was SWELLDOM? I had never heard of SWELLDOM.



I googled a bit and found this photo showing the store in 1938 (and a Paul Revere impersonator)



http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=70587



...here's another.


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067422.jpg




Here is the beautiful building today minus the Swelldom Store.




google street view




This detail of the building shows it was originally The Sun Drug Co. Building.


google street view






Lastly this came up in my search. I remember seeing this wonderful postcard from numerous postings in this thread and elsewhere.
Much to my surprise there on the right hand side in vivid blue is the Swelldom sign! I have NO IDEA how I missed it!!!
It was such a surprise to me that I would have bet money that the Swelldom sign had been photoshopped in.


postcard view


Does anyone have any other information on the Swelldom Store?

_____

[GaylordWilshire]

Google Books

Fantastic post, e_r, full of info. I've run across Swelldom in pics before too, thought it an odd name, but never until now wondered what it sold. Here's a little history from a 1915 issue of "American Cloak and Suit Review." Looks like they moved twice on the same side of the same block--521, 535, and then into the Sun Building at 559, where it still was in the 1956 city directory--listed by then, interestingly enough, as "Swelldom Cloak and Suit House." Apparently it soon went way of so many of the old downtown stores--it doesn't appear in CDs after 1960...

Not that I wouldn't prefer them to modern buses.. but I don't like seeing those trackless trolleys. Next thing you know, the semaphore and the PCC car at the lower right corner of your first picture will be gone... and then Swelldom--and then the corner of 6th and B'way will look like it does now.... well, at least there is still the Sun Building itself, which I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out.

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the information on the Swelldom Store G_W, I really appreciate it.

____


This is Miss Velma, Queen of the Christmas Pageant. Her Universal World Church was/is located in none other than Los Angeles.


http://ellenbloom.blogspot.com/2011/...-holidays.html




below: Miss Velma's invitation to "the most splendiferously beautiful event in 6000 years!"


unknown




Click on the Links below to see Miss Velma in all her glory!!




The best part of this clip is her entrance in a tiny home-made bus. It's hilarious!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH4m4g3MOAQ link broken, sorry





In this clip Miss Velma enters as a floating angel.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoN9MeKI0tk [link broken, sorry]



In my brief venture into the land of Miss Velma I was unable to come up with a photograph of the actual Universal World Church.
This seems a bit strange since the building had to be HUGE to hold all her props, her ego, and that three and a half ton tree of life.

______

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Citizine

Not an especially clear pic--it doesn't really help identify what the original center of the facade looked like--but it must be from very soon after the Ambassador's opening. I'm surprised not to find any good, clear shots from the time of its construction online.

That lower structure was where the Cocoanut Grove nightclub/ballroom was located. In fact before the Ambassador was torn down, there were initial plans to save the Cocoanut Grove part (and the pantry where RFK was shot and killed) but I think it all fell to the wrecking ball.

1937

LAPL

The high school, from Curbed LA:


Conga Line at the Cocoanut Grove, 1940

LAPL

Also in 1940, the Andrews Sisters were headlining the Cocoanut Grove.

USC Archive

Hmm, now that I think about it, I think the shell of the Cocoanut Grove was saved, or part of it was:

Wikipedia

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember hearing that it was going to be converted to the school's auditorium or cafeteria or something.

In this shot from 1987, it looks like that awful modernistic facade was just tacked on to the front of the original Cocoanut Grove.

LAPL

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Hmm, now that I think about it, I think the shell of the Cocoanut Grove was saved, or part of it was:

Wikipedia

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember hearing that it was going to be converted to the school's auditorium or cafeteria or something.

I think you could be correct sopas_ej. They wiped the slate clean except for the area that was once the Cocoanut Grove.



It looks as if they saved the bare minimum.....perhaps to satisfy historians.

______

[ethereal_reality]

Oh...I almost forgot, this is Miss Velma's husband Dr. O.L. Jagger, her first cousin.


unkown

I'm very close to my first cousins but I can't imagine marrying one of them. (ick)




His credentials..


I found this once and can't find it again.

Miss Velma is also known as Dr. Velma Jagger.......but without as many doctorates as her husband.

______

[ethereal_reality]

I said WOW when I came across this illustration for the proposed Universal World Church in Los Angeles.


found and lost/the jaggers are working their hocus-pocus.

I've seen this structure before on a god awful postcard. Thinking it was pure fiction I filed it away.

I can't wait to dig it up and see if it's the same design. Off I go!

[3940dxer]

http://www.downeu.net/t/The+1940s

[GaylordWilshire]

Wiki

According to the site, "The Mother Church of the Universal World Church occupied a building at 123 N. Lake Street in Los Angeles, California from the time of the church's founding in 1958, until the time the building was demolished in 2003. The building was described by Frank Zappa as a "quonset hut". Prior to 1958, the site was the home of Calvary Temple whose pastor was Leroy M. Kopp. The site is now occupied by the Lake Street Primary Center, a public school of the Los Angeles Unified School district and its address is 135 N. Lake Street."

I'm reeling here, e_r-- such an embarrassment of noir/crazy L.A. riches, a real Christmas present. Leave it to you, our esteemed founder, to find Velma and Lee.... who appears to have a touch of Liberace in him. Why have I never before heard of this Aimee clone? Santa Claus in high heels, appearing more drunk than holy in one of the video clips? "The Miss Velma Singers and Musicians and Orchestra"? The "Great Vision Christmas Tree of Life"?



LA Times 7-22-1957

LA Times 2-28-1959

I wish I could stay here and dig up any current info on the Jaggers.... are they still around? Dead? In jail? Not that I'm a cynic or anything, but surely there must be some more high-noir twists to their story....

[Wrightguy0]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

His credentials..


I found this once and can't find it again.

Miss Velma is also known as Dr. Velma Jagger.......but not as many doctors as her husband.

______

I wonder how many of those credentials are Fraudulent or Embellished, I seriously Doubt the University of Research Fellow of Biblical Manuscripts would teach Nuclear Biology or Human Genetics

[Handsome Stranger]

Seasonal-type Greetings to the whole gang here at Noirish Los Angeles. You all make this place my absolute favorite corner of the Internet.


[source: GlamAmor]