noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Max Tower

Fun to see you guys solve this mystery. I’m the author of the above article on the “golden mirror” tower, which is one of my major local historical obsessions — building’s just not the same without it, and it’s great to see these period photos. Just to defend the honor of my hometown for a second, I wanted to mention that the photo of downtown Austin posted above is actually a few years out of date — the tower you can see under construction on the left side was completed in 2016, and we’ve gained a few more standout projects since then: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7gTWLBU22Ck

The Austin SSP forum is very active, and if you’re interested you’ll find a lot more historic and current photos there — we’re not exactly competing with LA architecturally speaking, but we’re working on it.
_________________________________________________________________

Thanks for introducing yourself, Max Tower. I did enjoy your article very much!

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

Isn't the photo of downtown Austin designated as "now" rather outdated?
_________________________________________________________________

I guess you two Texans know your city really well! I didn't post the link to where I got that photo (which I should have), but it was from an Austin based company named Red Wing Aerials, and they have this photo on their home page. It wasn't dated; I assumed it was rather current since this is the business they're in. How much "out of date" do you think it is?

https://www.redwingaerials.com/austi...ography-austin

[AviationGuy]

The stairstep building under construction on the lower left in downtown Austin was topped out in September 2015, so the photo may be from about late 2014. A great deal has changed since then. Also, there are talls to the left and right of the photo, most notably to the left, where the tallest in the city is located (The Independent). The real experts post in the Austin forum, particularly KevinfromTexas. I don't want to get into it too much since this is an L.A. forum, but if anyone is interested, the Austin forum is one of the best at SSP. It contains lists of talls being constructed and prosposed, and it's mind boggling.

Edit: I just realized that Max Tower posted something similar to mine!

Someone mentioned snow. We have had snow here many times in my 50 years here, although it's not common, and is usually light when it does occur. I've seen single digits several times regarding temperatures (around zero in 1989 in the valleys within the city). I haven't seen anything like the storm we had in February, with regard to snow depth and persistence of very cold temperatures.

Since this is the L.A. forum, I'll mention that relatively few Americans know that there has been snow in L.A. (not just in the mountains nearby).

[BDiH]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

Since this is the L.A. forum, I'll mention that relatively few Americans know that there has been snow in L.A. (not just in the mountains nearby).

We built a snowman in our back yard in Burbank in January, 1949. Almost five inches fell.

[Snix]

Spotted a trailer for a 1980 film called "On the Nickel" about Skid Row. There was a great shot of the Hard Rock Cafe at 5th and Wall Streets (300 E. 5th St.) and other locations in the area. Here's a then and now.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMys8GO7WXc
http://www.onthenickeldvd.com/


GSV

[Martin Pal]

Interesting that the bar would be advertising Color TV in 1980, no?

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Interesting that the bar would be advertising Color TV in 1980, no?

I actually don't find that so odd... I remember seeing motel signs with "Color TV" on them well into the 1980s. Maybe it's an old sign...

Or, maybe because well into the 1970s, many little portable TVs were black-and-white. My experience having been born in 1970, my family had a "big" TV in the family room that was in color, and in the mid and late 1970s, when my dad was watching sports on that TV but my sister and I wanted to watch Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Little House on the Prairie or Donny & Marie (haha!), we had to watch it on the "little" TV in my parents' bedroom, which was a 12-inch portable that was black-and-white.

When I was in the 5th grade (1980-1981 school year), my teacher said that she only had a little black-and-white TV in her apartment, so she couldn't tell that the Incredible Hulk was green, hehe.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

When I was in the 5th grade (1980-1981 school year), my teacher said that she only had a little black-and-white TV in her apartment, so she couldn't tell that the Incredible Hulk was green, hehe.

In high school (late 1970s) I had a friend whose family did not own a color TV, just a black and white one. He told me that the first time he saw Star Trek on a color TV it kind of ruined the show for him. He never expected the colors to be so garish.

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I actually don't find that so odd... I remember seeing motel signs with "Color TV" on them well into the 1980s. Maybe it's an old sign...

Or, maybe because well into the 1970s, many little portable TVs were black-and-white. My experience having been born in 1970, my family had a "big" TV in the family room that was in color, and in the mid and late 1970s, when my dad was watching sports on that TV but my sister and I wanted to watch Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Little House on the Prairie or Donny & Marie (haha!), we had to watch it on the "little" TV in my parents' bedroom, which was a 12-inch portable that was black-and-white.


When I was in the 5th grade (1980-1981 school year), my teacher said that she only had a little black-and-white TV in her apartment, so she couldn't tell that the Incredible Hulk was green, hehe.

Ha, Sopas! you are telling the exact story of my childhood! Right down to the black and white in the parents room. I'm the same age

[GatoVerde]

Two new images on ebay today:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/40284950491...IAAOSwoWdgoT9C




https://www.ebay.com/itm/18484121684...p2047675.l2557

In the first image of the Plaza church, I am wondering if the house on the hill is Banning's old place on Bunker Hill, but probably not since there are two houses and Banning's place stood alone, as far as I remember from images seen.

In the second image, the Boyle Heights Sisters of Charity Orphanage is clearly visible ( https://boyleheightshistoryblog.blog...ns-asylum.html )

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Interesting that the bar would be advertising Color TV in 1980, no?

The sign is from the mid 70's when color TV was still a thing. I found it really odd that it was called the Hard Rock Cafe since by the mid 70s I was already a definite fan of Hard Rock myself, and I didn't really believe there was any Hard Rock being played there -- it looked a lot more like an R&B place, and it seemed to be for locals (skidrow) only.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I actually don't find that so odd... I remember seeing motel signs with "Color TV" on them well into the 1980s. Maybe it's an old sign...

Or, maybe because well into the 1970s, many little portable TVs were black-and-white. My experience having been born in 1970, my family had a "big" TV in the family room that was in color, and in the mid and late 1970s, when my dad was watching sports on that TV but my sister and I wanted to watch Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Little House on the Prairie or Donny & Marie (haha!), we had to watch it on the "little" TV in my parents' bedroom, which was a 12-inch portable that was black-and-white.

When I was in the 5th grade (1980-1981 school year), my teacher said that she only had a little black-and-white TV in her apartment, so she couldn't tell that the Incredible Hulk was green, hehe.

Reminds me of the late discovery that The Wizard of Oz turned from b&w to color...


youtube


KTLA was apparently started by Paramount, so may not have shown MGM's Wizard...anyway, note the "mount" in its early logo:


http://www.earlytelevision.org/w6xyz.html

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

The sign is from the mid 70's when color TV was still a thing. I found it really odd that it was called the Hard Rock Cafe since by the mid 70s I was already a definite fan of Hard Rock myself, and I didn't really believe there was any Hard Rock being played there -- it looked a lot more like an R&B place, and it seemed to be for locals (skidrow) only.

Hard Rock on skid row was in business serving the inebriated long before there was a Hard Rock Cafe or Hotel. Hard Rock was the most popular bar on 5th Street and provided the Glasshouse Jail with most of its drunk bookings.

[RyeRyeLA]

Found this snippet of an article from the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express from September 14, 1940.



Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express



And here it is today (915 N Mansfield Ave):

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Interesting that the bar would be advertising Color TV in 1980, no?

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

The sign is from the mid 70's when color TV was still a thing.

Season 4 of M*A*S*H ended in February 1976 with an episode called 'The Interview'. It contained newsreel style interviews with the main characters in black and white. After the color opening credits, there's a voice-over stating "The following is in black and white." I guess the network didn't want millions of viewers trying to "fix" their color TVs.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by sadykadie2

Ha, Sopas! you are telling the exact story of my childhood! Right down to the black and white in the parents room. I'm the same age

Cool! Nice to know there's someone on here who is the same age as I---fellow Gen-Xer, and someone I assume also graduated high school in 1988.

Originally Posted by HossC

Season 4 of M*A*S*H ended in February 1976 with an episode called 'The Interview'. It contained newsreel style interviews with the main characters in black and white. After the color opening credits, there's a voice-over stating "The following is in black and white." I guess the network didn't want millions of viewers trying to "fix" their color TVs.

Yeah; in the mid-1980s, there was a "Moonlighting" episode that featured two of the main characters' dream sequences both shot in black-and-white, that were homages to 1940s film noir, one being done in the glossy MGM style (Maddie/Cybill Shepherd's dream sequence), the other being done in the grittier Warner Bros. style (David/Bruce Willis' dream sequence). The episode opened with an introduction by Orson Welles, saying that there was nothing wrong with your TV, or something. From what I learned later, the episode was expensive to produce, because by the mid-1980s, black-and-white film stock was rare, and it was even rarer to find a good black-and-white cinematographer. The network originally wanted to shoot the episode in color and just chroma down to black-and-white for broadcast, but the producers were afraid that in reruns, the whole episode would just be shown in color.

BTW "Moonlighting" was my favorite show when I was in high school.

Below is the episode, minus Orson Welles' intro:
• Video Link

Hmm, it seems slightly sped up. Oh well.

[CityBoyDoug]

my personal collect

That's my aunt's home east of downtown Los Angeles, Jan 1949....that's her at the right side. Snow was everywhere....we also made little snowmen.
I lived in this house for the year 1947 while our new home was being built in San Gabriel Village.

[Arch2000]

Any thoughts on where this could be? This is photo of a relative of a relative, he died in Los Angeles in 1926, so likely the photo is from the late 1910s to early 1920s. I'm guessing the photo was taken in Boyle Heights/East LA area (note the Hebrew lettering on the far left).

I don't really think there are enough clues in the photo, but perhaps someone has seen a similar one before to help identify the area. If not, please enjoy this 100-year old photo of Los Angeles!

[Noir_Noir]

A speculative punt but here goes.


On the window frame what I make to be the number 1702 is scrawled.





Which leads to the closest applicable grocers I could find to Boyle Heights in the time frame.



rescarta.lapl.org

[CityBoyDoug]

LAX


The iconic LAX Theme structure. I had dinner in the round restaurant in the 1960s. If I recall correctly, it was salmon with red caviar.

The Encounter Restaurant closed for business in December 2013 with no future plans to reopen.

The Observation Deck may be open on the weekends....there may be a Coke machine for the thirsty.

[Snix]

This is great! I spoke to 102-year-old Raymond Borun, the son of Thrifty's founder, last fall and here's what he said when I asked about this building.

“I don’t recall the beginning. They (Borun brothers) had a plant in West Hollywood and that was just a single piece of property and that was the sole source of the original (ice cream) and then eventually they moved the manufacturing, making it somewhere in the east side of Los Angeles (El Monte in 1976) and I inherited the building, the original ice cream plant, after my father’s death. We had inherited it with my cousins. We decided we probably should sell it. It was old brick type of, original type of construction of those days. Definitely not earthquake (safe) and when we put it up to sale and the agent said ‘you know the problem is when they defrost this building its gonna fall apart’ because it was frozen for (many years). At any rate we did sell it I don’t remember where it was. I don’t know if it was torn down.”

Originally Posted by RyeRyeLA

Found this snippet of an article from the Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express from September 14, 1940.



Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express



And here it is today (915 N Mansfield Ave):