noirish Los Angeles

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #2

"Hacienda Airlines Billboard, Los Angeles CA. June 15,1960"


www.alamy.com

__

I'm guessing this is Ventura at Radford, b/c there's Republic Pictures in the background.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #2

"Hacienda Airlines Billboard, Los Angeles CA. June 15,1960"


www.alamy.com

Must have been a fun flight....there was a piano on board!

__

Not only fun, but free -- it was run by the Hacienda Casino. According to:

http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles...uttle-airlines

they generated so much traffic the CAB shut them down.

In 1969 and 1970 I was practically commuting from Minneapolis to West Covina on a project. In those days Western Airlines red-eye fares in first class were the same as day fares in coach, so I'd fly the night nonstop from LAX to MSP, which left at 1 AM. That meant I'd leave work in Covina at the regular time, take in dinner and a movie someplace, check in the rental car, and sleep all the way home in first.

The flight to Vegas left from the same terminal around midnight. Observing the hookers, faux high rollers, and thugs that boarded that flight was a very noirish experience.

Cheers,

Earl

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

That's some noirish-looking guys there. I'm guessing that this business was a front for a protection racket.

If someone can figure out what the designation of the letters P S on the plates maybe we can learn who and what they were. I have tried to find it but no luck.

[HossC]

It's cost a lot of money putting gas in the Googlemobile this week (), so I thought I'd stay in Long Beach for today's Julius Shulman post. This is "Job 1719: Beckstrand Medical Clinic (Long Beach, Calif.), 1954". I've picked six of the twelve images.



I contemplated cropping this image to landscape, but decided to keep more of the palm tree.



The upper floor seems to be covered with a thin fabric.



A couple of the photos show large mirrors and large scenic pictures.



This must be the waiting room, located in the corner of the second floor. The thin fabric covering the windows doesn't show from the inside.



I'll finish with the stairs and elevator.



All from Getty Research Institute

It was only after I started Googling for an address that I found the building was a Richard Neutra design (the info is in the description, but I didn't look!). The old Beckstrand Medical Building can still be found at 1090 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach. I'm not a fan of the makeover it's received - it must be very dark inside. As you can see, the latest GSV images show "For Lease" signs on the building.


GSV

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

If someone can figure out what the designation of the letters P S on the plates maybe we can learn who and what they were. I have tried to find it but no luck.

"Public Service"

Then there are the letters PS, placed vertically to the left of the numbers on some license plates. These are issued to public service corporations or common carrier motor vehicles. The telephone, gas and electric, water, and railroad companies display this plate on their machines. Stages and other carriers also use this license. Motor vehicles owned by the United States government have US placed vertically in front of the numbers on their plates. The federal government also has a license plate of its own in some cases. DLR is not difficult to interpret on license plates as meaning “dealer's car.” https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19291016.2.33

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location #1 [for Sunday, March 3rd, 2016]

"Par T Pak Cola Billboard, Los Angeles 1950s"


www.alamy.com

This is a bit unusual....you drive under the billboard to enter that small parking lot.

But I don't believe there are enough clues to figure out the location.

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location #2

"Hills Bros. Coffee Billboard, Los Angeles 1959


www.alamy.com

Anyone heard of Almquist?

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location #3

"Black Sunday Billboard, Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles 1977"


www.alamy.com

I like the blimp.

[HossC]

Corner of Sunset Boulevard and Marmont Lane. The Imperial Gardens is now the Pink Taco.


GSV

[rbpjr]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Any personal photographs you'd like to share with us rbpjr?

_

I'd like to but someone needs to "instruct' me on how to do it...

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #3

"Black Sunday Billboard, Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles 1977"


www.alamy.com

I like the blimp.

A year or two back we had a picture of the billboard for Polanski's "Chinatown" at that same corner.

[Martin Pal]

^^^

I remembered that great picture, too, JMR and tried to find it. On this forum, searching for "Chinatown" didn't prove to be too fruitful,
but I googled the picture itself and was able to find the post!

It was post #832 way back in 2010!

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's another great billboard photo from 1974. I believe it's the same billboard as the Sahara billboard in post #827.


unknown/someone emailed me this great photo

"Chinatown" is one of my favorite movies, so I let out an audible 'gasp' when I first saw this photo.
______________________________________________________________

I'm not quite positive now, but this may have been the photo that brought me to NLA in the first place!

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #1 [for Sunday, March 3rd, 2016]

"Par T Pak Cola Billboard, Los Angeles 1950s"


www.alamy.com

This is a bit unusual....you drive under the billboard to enter that small parking lot.

But I don't believe there are enough clues to figure out the location.
______________________________________________________________

Not sure if this will help...there's quite a few "Lakeside" businesses in Toluca Lake, perhaps that is Lakeside Cleaners?

[ethereal_reality]

Camper show at Gilmore Stadium, 1947


ebay





ebay

'Trailer Village"






ebay






ebay

[ethereal_reality]

Here's an interesting snapshot of an American Airlines Sleeper Plane on the front lawn of the Ambassador Hotel. [date unknown]


ebay

So what's with the huge 0s on front of the Cocoanut Grove?

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Speaking of WWII, the 75th anniversary of
The Great Los Angeles Air Raid is this weekend.



Is anyone going?
______________________________________________________________

Originally Posted by Blaster

I wonder if they'll play John Williams' march from 1941.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYIGy0E3ps
______________________________________________________________

I forgot to mention that I attended this event last Saturday and had a really great time.

They didn't play that, Blaster, it was all strictly period music!

Here's a youtube video of photos taken (not posted or taken by me) at this year's incarnation of the event.

• Video Link

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by HossC

Corner of Sunset Boulevard and Marmont Lane. The Imperial Gardens is now the Pink Taco.


GSV

Some more from the "old" neighborhood. These are undated and without any accompanying text, not that they need much explanation. Both from an unsorted group of LIFE images.



Well before Myra Breckenridge or Mr. Marlboro.




Casanova Club around the bend.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

By the way, if you turn left on McCadden and go up a building or two you'd see the famous Don the Beachcomber's restaurant. It was first a bar on the west side of McCadden and then a restaurant and bar opened across the street in 1937. A famous "studio publicized date" took place there with Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe. I ate there a few times in the 80's and they had a booth with a picture of Joan Crawford above it. She apparently used to take lunch there on occasion and sign autographed pictures for the publicity department. The bar contained photos of celebrities and military men of the 1940's making up drinks that became famous, like the Zombie and Navy Grog. It is said the first pu pu platter was served there.


http://travilla.blogspot.com.html

Alas, it's one of those places that in 1985, like the Wilshire Brown Derby, was closed for remodeling, which meant they tore it down after no one was looking.

MP, here is a closer look at that photo of Don the Beachcomber's on the west side of McCadden Pl., just north of Hollywood Blvd.:



488166 @ Huntington Digital Library


The entrance:




A lani lei is made from flowers of the vanda joaquim orchid (see page 27 at the link).

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

There have been a number of Bob's Air Mail Posts, the first of which might be http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7493 Since that 2012-post additional information has come to light.

A Building Records Search for 5453 Wilshire reveals that Sorrell's Auto and Finance Inc., of 5514 Wilshire obtained a permit for an "office" in 1932. An "A V Spencer" then obtained a permit for a gas station in '33. Another permit was obtained in 1934 for a gas pump "canopy" and the size of the building apparently says in cursive "aeroplane." There is a 1936 CD listing for A V Spencer at 5453 Wilshire and a '38 CD listing for Bob's at the same 5453 address. The party was over by March 1939 when a demolition permit was obtained. The estimate for the destruction and removal was $50.


A couple of sources suggest that "A V Spencer" was also known as Bob Spencer, hence the name, Bob's Airmail Service. (FWIW, the manager in the '38CD for Bob's is listed as "Robt. Kreisler") One of the same sources states that the ten constructed Fokker F32's were bona fide white elephants, especially after the bad publicity received following Knute Rockne's March '31 death in a different model Fokker and the Great Depression.

Spencer reportedly took advantage of the inexpensive Fokker as an attraction, and according to the same source, "Spencer's brainwave was a runaway success. In 1934, Bob's Air Mail Service Station sold more Mobiloil and Mobilgas products than any other dealer on the West Coast."

"Painted white and rechristened The Happy Landing with the company's Flying Red Horse on the wings, the F-32 was illuminated at night. The two forward Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines often roared to life to the astonishment of passing drivers. Neon signs along the wings' leading edges proclaimed: 'BOB'S AIR MAIL SERVICE ... IT'S FASTER - IT'S BETTER.'" http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showt...lly-Big-Fokker




1938 - (At least that's what the license plate supposedly establishes. Black on yellow was also used in '36.)
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...l.jpg~original



Note that the forward propeller may actually be moving. Seems perfectly safe, quiet and sane.
http://imageshack.us/a/img23/5346/aa...station193.jpg



http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...757be61f0b.jpg

Different angles make for better viewing?

As before these images are culled from an unsorted, undated group of LIFE photos.











Would be remiss not to credit NoirCityDame with this find!



Bob's would have been directly to the left in this image taken roughly from Cochran and looking east on Wilshire. This A&P has been mentioned several times on NLA. It later became Roman Foods and is currently occupied by a Staples Store. This image predates the "Glorified Hamburger" that later became the "Flying Saucer," Judy Garland's flowers and Brown's Bakery.








http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11861




http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7492



And slightly further east, an adjacent structure is being completed.




Approaching La Brea




Somewhat out of sequence, here are two more Miracle Mile-shots facing east on Wilshire. Beautiful Ralphs gone but clearly not forgotten (like a thorn in one's paw,)







Never enough street parking?


Sen. Estes Kefauver, "The People's Choice," and his entourage crisscrossed Wilshire and La Brea passing some long forgotten Fox theaters, "The Fox Ritz" and the "Fox La Brea."


The A&P is now marked by a 4-leaf clover (upper right).


Fox La Brea

[BifRayRock]

More images of Wilshire from the unsorted LIFE magazine files and a surprise (or two).


Starting in Beverly Hills. Victor Hugo to the left, BWilshire to the right.




Skipping past Miracle Mile . . .








Before leaving the area, at roughly Highland and Wilshire once (until recently) stood the Four Star Theater also mentioned on NLA. It served to Premiere several well remembered Films. Here are some images when it was featuring H.G. Wells' 1936 - "Things To Come."


















Not certain, but this could be the eastern side of the theater.





After the last show, day break?























Seeing double?


In this remarkable image, there are two Brown Derbys. Assumed the bowler was was reassembled. But this picture disproves that notion and the hat was resized - for more headroom..


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...b9015ec672.jpg




Stay hydrated! Ambassador, next right!



(You saw two Brown Derbys. Remember to tell your friends.)



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/86bfdb1d66b6d76e_large