noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Thanks for your pictures of City Hall South, LA Kitty Kat. It looks like your sister was right - the interior has hardly changed at all .

Also, thanks to Earl Boebert for your story about the diamond scam at Security Pacific.


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For today's Julius Shulman post, we have the Lawry's Foods Center. It's "Job 3287: Buff, Straub and Hensman, Lawry's Foods, Inc. (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1961". This is just a selection of the full set.



Here are two color shots of what I'm guessing was the reception area. I'd like that desk if I had room for it.





The set includes a couple of images of people in rooms like this.



You can't have a food center without a kitchen.



Looking at food under a microscope.



I wonder what's cooking.



These labels are for Spaghetti Sauce Mix.



Lawry's food on display.



All from Getty Research Institute

I found an address of 568 San Fernando Road for Lawry's Foods Inc. That's the large white building in the 1980 view below on the left. Looking at the dates of the new construction permits, I think that the building went up around 1958. The demo permit is dated 1983.


Historic Aerials/Google Maps

Here's a slightly later building permit concerning the area in the center. Notice the building in the top left that's marked "Warehouse Type III-A One Story". This seems to have survived the demolition of the main building and is now labeled "Friends of The Los Angeles River".


Online Building Records

[ethereal_reality]

eBay

Originally Posted by HossC

I haven't found any vintage pictures of the Loma Cafe yet, but I did check the building records. I can't see a demo permit for 1507 W 6th Street, so I guessing that the Loma Cafe is now the pawn shop seen here.


GSV

Thanks for locating the building that was once the Loma Cafe Hoss!

There's so much writing on the pawn shop that I almost didn't notice it has the same name as the 1940s-50s cafe.




http://www.yelp.com/biz/loma-pawn-brokers-los-angeles

Obviously someone is aware of the building's history.

I wonder if they an old framed photograph of the Loma Cafe cocktail lounge hanging on the wall?
(wishful thinking)

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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Lawry's Foods, Inc.

Historic Aerials/Google Maps

If I'm not mistaken Hoss, this was Lawry's California Center; a popular tourist destination back in the 1970s.


1970s logo /


1978

https://www.kcet.org/confluence/romance-by-the-la-river



color postcard, 1970s

eBay






https://www.flickr.com/photos/stride...n/photostream/
______________________________________________________________________





still strikingly beautiful!













It even has a bell tower.........so charming.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/citypr...6705/lightbox/

A well kept secret.
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

There's so much writing on the pawn shop that I almost didn't notice it has the same name as the 1940s-50s cafe.


http://www.yelp.com/biz/loma-pawn-brokers-los-angeles

Obviously someone is aware of the building's history.

I wonder if they an old framed photograph of the Loma Cafe cocktail lounge hanging on the wall?
(wishful thinking)

I think it only retained the Loma name because Loma Drive is just to the right of KFC.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

I think it only retained the Loma name because Loma Drive is just to the right of KFC.

Burst my bubble.

[LA Kitty Kat]

e_r, Here are those weird gazebos with the points on top.:roll eyes:[IMG][/IMG]
Maybe they look noirish at night!

[Beaudry]

I thought this was pretty cool.

link

It's a shot from the Straight Satans Instagram—which is the most worthwhile thing on Instagram, but then I've a thing for vintage SoCal bike culture. The accompanying text:

"Back in the 50s and 60s the MCs in SoCal took to hot dog stands as their meet up spots. The food was cheap, they had plenty of parking, and they were open late. Hollywood had The Yankee Poodle (as seen in "Outlaw Motorcycles"), Culver City had The Clock/A&W, the Galloping Gooses hung out at Audrey's hot dog stand on Olympic & Alvarado, and the Straight Satans hung out at the Saucy Dog in Venice (pictured here). It was located on Pacific and 18th Ave, which is the last remaining brick street in Venice to this day. The original structure is actually still there. A restaurant named Benice operated out of it for a while, but I'm not sure what it's called today. This was THE Straight Satan hangout - the food was cheap and it was open until 4 am. The Satan's bar of choice, The Silver Dollar, was directly across the street. At one point, in the very early 60s, the Straight Satans club house was in the apartment above The Silver Dollar (apparently Ed Ruscha lived in it at one point). An actual "saucy dog" was a hotdog, with cheese, and special sauce, wrapped in a tortilla, and then deep fried. You can google the recipe, but no photos exist of this legendary Venice establishment (hence the double watermark). The geo tag is where it used to be."



link



Again, this may be in the "if you like that sort of thing, it's the sort of thing you'll like" category, but I'm thrilled at the forthcoming book "Halfway to Berdoo," a 150-pg compendium of biker shots taken in Baldwin Park, 1961-65. Available here.

Oh yeah, regarding the aforementioned Saucy Dog...

[ethereal_reality]

re: Subterranean 'tunnel' at the old Pickford-Fairbanks Studio.

I've been reading a biography of Douglas Fairbanks and was surprised to come across something quite curious that I hadn't heard of before.



Here's an excerpt:

"Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford purchased the Hampton Studios at the corner of Santa Monica and La Brea for $150,000. Doug, instead of a bungalow, occupied a third of the first floor of the administration building facing Santa Monica Boulevard. He had an office, dressing room, barber shop, make-up room, playroom, bar, and a saltwater plunge pool. A gymnasium was in a second building perpendicular to the administration complex, backing up to Formosa."

"There was a reason behind his willingness to headquarter in the long, barracks-like administration building. Fairbanks, it seems, liked to emulate the earliest Olympians and run in the nude. This, of course, was impossible in a busy town....but he found a solution. Workmen built a concrete-lined trench running parallel to Santa Monica Boulevard....over six feet deep, almost two city blocks long, and wide enough for Fairbanks to turn around in, enabling him to run multiple laps. It was isolated from view both from the street by a solid wall and from office windows by a trellis. An interior staircase within the building provided him access to his subterranean running track."

"Evidence of the interior staircase, torn out sometime in the years after his death, can be seen beneath the first floor of the building fronting Santa Monica Boulevard. Fairbanks would descend the private staircase to the trench entrance, shed his garb, conduct his run, and return to his offices with staff none the wiser. A portion of the subterranean trench survives to the present day, befuddling those few who stumble across it."
________________________________________________________________________________________________



I have found numerous other sources that mention Fairbanks' below-ground trench, so I have no doubt that it actually existed. What I'd like to know is, does it show up in any photographs of the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios or vintage or contemporary aerials? You all know about me and tunnels (well, this is a quasi-tunnel); they get my 'noirish' blood going.

Any help in locating pictorial evidence of this anomaly from Hollywood's past would be greatly appreciated.
(I mean, it was TWO BLOCKS LONG! -surely it shows up somewhere)





*Douglas Fairbanks appears to have been comfortable in public nudity. Multiple photos have surfaced of him sunbathing
in the nude on seclude and shielded sections of yachts or in native waters of foreign lands."




https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82472236899716818/

Douglas Fairbank and director Victor Fleming sunbathing nude on a yacht.



excerpts from page 285, "The first King of Hollywood", by Tracey Goessel [2015]

[ethereal_reality]

Here's Douglas Fairbanks with a NLA favorite, Anna Mae Wong, in 'The Thief of Bagdad', 1924. (I'm not sure who that is on the bed)


http://filmforum.org/film/the-thief-...d-menzies-film

[HossC]

Thanks for your pictures of Lawry's California Center, e_r, and sorry to burst your bubble about the Loma Cafe. It's only a couple of days since I spoiled John Maddox Roberts' paranoid fantasy (his words, not mine) about Bart Lytton's cuff insignia - I'll keep quiet from now on .


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I received an email from Photobucket last night saying they'd fixed their problems - their Facebook post has a similar message. They're not completely fixed, but things have improved slightly. With the image issues of the last couple of days, I picked a Julius Shulman photoset containing a single photo for today's post. Hopefully, this one will show up at full size. This is "Job 3264: Maurice Fleischman, Los Angeles County Public Library, Culver City Branch (Culver City, Calif.), 1961".


Getty Research Institute

I didn't get any likely results when I Googled variations of the library name, with most links offering me the Culver City Julian Dixon Library at 4975 Overland Avenue. I took a look at that building, but it's not the same. Then I drove the Googlemobile a little way north and found the Culver City Teen Center at 4153 Overland Avenue. I haven't got any proof, but I think this is the old library building with some obvious modifications. The left side is a very good match.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by LA Kitty Kat

e_r, Here are those weird gazebos with the points on top.

[/IMG]
Maybe they look noirish at night!

Thanks LA Kitty Kat. I didn't realize the 'gazebos' were even there.

aerial

google_earth
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As I was pulling the google-camera away, I noticed there are two more of these 'gazebos' along Los Angeles Street.


google_earth


The one of the right was a passport photo kiosk. (it appears to be closed)


gsv

The twin gazebo on the left, visible in the aerial, is an ATM for Chase Bank.
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[John Maddox Roberts]

[QUOTE=HossC;7438288]Thanks for your pictures of Lawry's California Center, e_r, and sorry to burst your bubble about the Loma Cafe. It's only a couple of days since I spoiled John Maddox Roberts' paranoid fantasy (his words, not mine) about Bart Lytton's cuff insignia - I'll keep quiet from now on

I forgive you HossC. After all, here in the City of Noir there's plenty more to be paranoid about.

[ethereal_reality]

I happened across these two very interesting amateur photographs of Culver City last night on eBay.













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for search purposes:
Thomas Ince Motion Picture Company, Main Street Culver City 1920.
_

[ethereal_reality]

And this.....

Los Angeles Fire Department Band, 1900s


eBay


detail


detail


detail

what shoes!

[ethereal_reality]

I think this 1937 illustration of the new California prison near Chino is really interesting as well.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1937-Sketch-...MAAOSwsFpWTiIs

It's rather grandiose wouldn't you say.





I don't know if this particular plan was ever realized.

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[Tetsu]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This afternoon's 'mystery' location.


eBay




A closer look at the houses down the street.


detail

Surprised no one caught this one (unless I missed it). This is Alvarado Street looking south toward the junction with Hoover Street. Incredibly, the towered Victorian in the distance is still standing (albeit stuccoed over). I have it in my notes as the "Sydney Smith residence" but I'm sure I've seen it listed under other names as well. A vintage shot:

my file, possibly came from LAPL

A GSV from roughly the same place. Everything on the right hand side in the original photo has been demolished:

GSV

A view from further down the street closer to the junction so you can better gain your bearings. The Smith house is at center:

[ethereal_reality]

gsv

Fantastic Tetsu.

No one found was able to locate this one, you're the first!

_
Tetsu wrote...
" Everything on the right hand side in the original photo has been demolished."

Now I'm left wondering about the large brick building with the fall-out shelter. I thought for sure it would still be standing.

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[HossC]

The building that housed the fall-out shelter is still standing, although it looked much better before someone painted it!


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

No Way! you've got an eagle eye Hoss! I would never have guessed that was the same building.

With the vibrant paint job it looks vaguely oriental....& at a glance, the vertical slats appear bamboo (to me, anyway)





Noirish connection across the street from the turreted house.


gsv

"Six years before he led a mass suicide in Guyana, Jones and his People’s Temple purchased an ornate old church at Hoover and Alvarado streets.
The Romanesque landmark was built in 1912 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist and became the Iglesia Adventista Central after Jones’s departure in 1978.
Like generations of mystics and spiritualists before him, Jones also rented the Embassy Auditorium at 9th and Grand for his preaching."

-lamag.com


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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

But here's a new one to me! A color snapshot with four soldiers being escorted around by a lady (?) driver.


Pinterest

Note: In the postcard view, the Hollywood Canteen sign has blue stars accenting it that are absent from the
color snapshot.

Martin Pal, thanks for the photographs of the Hollywood Canteen; this one is quite a treasure!

I still can't decide if that's a woman driving the car.
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re: The missing stars.

It looks like there was writing within the stars. (I hadn't noticed this before)


http://www.hollywoodcanteen.net/canteenhistory.htm

& what's that to the right of the 'for'.......a heart with an arrow? (it's also missing in color photograph)

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