noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

With that in mind....Cary Grant and Randolph Scott lived as a couple in Malibu for ten years until 1940. That's when nervous movie studio execs told the guys to knock-it-off. They lived separately after that.
_________________________________________________________________

They also moved into an apartment together in 1932 at 1129 N. Sweetzer Ave. in West Hollywood.

I've always liked this 1955 photograph of Cary Grant walking his cat in Beverly Hills. No mystery where he is here!

KCET/Artbound

There's alot of new-ish "dish" on Cary Grant:

Ninety years ago, future screen legend Cary Grant shared a Greenwich Village love nest with an Australian man who went on to win three Oscars. That’s the provocative claim between Orry Kelly’s recently published, long-suppressed memoir “Women I’ve Undressed," and in “Women He’s Undressed,’’ a new documentary [2016] by Gillian Armstrong, about the celebrated costume designer, that adds a tantalizing new chapter to decades of speculation about Grant’s sexuality.

http://nypost.com/2016/08/08/inside-...life-with-men/

[HossC]

Here's a little jewelers for today's Julius Shulman post. It's "Job 54: Davies and Keusder, Genser-Lee [sic] Store, 1947".



The building on the left was a Safeway store.



Both from Getty Research Institute

Although I can't back it up with proof from the CDs, the Gensler-Lee store was at 8805 S Broadway. That tree really screws up my comparison shot, but I think the horizontal lines are enough. It doesn't look like the sort of neighborhood where you'd find a jewelers today!


GSV

There aren't many of the original features of the front of the Safeway store remaining, but the side view from 88th Place is easily recognizable.


GSV

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by 3940dxer

http://dbase1.lapl.org/dbtw-wpd/exec...=&MF=&MQ=&TI=0



]

Nobody checked the accuracy in French of the 9th dish above.
You have to say « Coq au vin de la vieille France ». Besides, the word « Vieille » (which means « old ») has a typo. Mmmm...

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

They also moved into an apartment together in 1932 at 1129 N. Sweetzer Ave. in West Hollywood.

I've always liked this 1955 photograph of Cary Grant walking his cat in Beverly Hills. No mystery where he is here!

KCET/Artbound

There's alot of new-ish "dish" on Cary Grant:

Ninety years ago, future screen legend Cary Grant shared a Greenwich Village love nest with an Australian man who went on to win three Oscars. That’s the provocative claim between Orry Kelly’s recently published, long-suppressed memoir “Women I’ve Undressed," and in “Women He’s Undressed,’’ a new documentary [2016] by Gillian Armstrong, about the celebrated costume designer, that adds a tantalizing new chapter to decades of speculation about Grant’s sexuality.

http://nypost.com/2016/08/08/inside-...life-with-men/

The famous Hollywood fashion writer and actor, Mr. Blackwell, was well acquainted with Cary and Randy. He attended parties when both were together. He wrote in his memoirs that he considered them, "deeply, madly in love, their devotion complete...Behind closed doors they were warm, kind, loving and caring, and unembarrassed about showing it." [Blackwell, "From Rags to Bitches,"]. I think the photos also make that rather obvious. We all know that old cliche about photos and words.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Have we seen the interior of the Little Country Church of Hollywood?

thompsonian


Not forgetting Mr Bartlett:

calisphere

Here's another of the Bartlett Estate, pre-Country Church.

Try to picture the Capitol Records Building nearby.


waterandpower

[tovangar2]

Wow, what's the year on that photo?

Things had changed dramatically by 1914:

baist 1914 plate 40

And even more so by 1921:

baist 1921 plate 40

Judging by the placement of the homes on Vista Del Mar, those bulky 1953 apartments facing on Yucca, were built on the actual home site

gsv


..................................................................................

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I've always liked this 1955 photograph of Cary Grant walking his cat in Beverly Hills. No mystery where he is here!

KCET/Artbound

It's damn mysterious these days. What comes over people?

gsv

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It rained in LA today, so that's an excuse to post these photos from Wilshire and Mariposa. This first one looks north at Wilshire,
with 647 S. Mariposa at left (on the NW corner of Wilshire), and in the background at center-right is the Chapman Park Hotel:



uclamss_1429_2393 at UCLA


This photo looks west on Wilshire from about where the previous photo was taken. In the upper right corner is a bit of the
Wilshire Christian Church:



uclamss_1429_2398 at UCLA

The Wilshire Christian Church was being finished at the time of the February 1927 flooding--it would be dedicated that April 3rd. The two houses with Wilshire frontage seen in these images are 647 S Mariposa (top view--more here) and 3555 Wilshire (second view, in the distance--with the undulating dragon on top--more here).

[ethereal_reality]

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Earl...0)_Page_2.html

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Wow, what's the year on that photo?

Sorry about that t2.

Here's the caption.

(ca. 1905) - "Photograph of the residence of A.G. Bartlett on Hollywood Boulevard between Vine Street and Gower Street.
A plowed field is separated from crop rows by a picket fence, behind which a mansion, next to which a windmill stands, is visible on a hill, overlooking the crops.
To its left, steps with railing lead down the hill to a smaller house, possibly a barn."

The 'barn' looks like a carriage house to me.


__

[ethereal_reality]

Refresh my memory; have we seen this on NLA?

Pier Avenue bus turntable in Ocean Park, showing the Ocean Park Hotel and Jack Posner Jeweler. [c.1930]


Adelbert Bartlett (Carolyn Bartlett Farnham Collection)

In Raymond Chandler's novel 'Farewell, My Lovely', the protagonist Philip Marlowe describes a scene in Bay City (Chandler's version of the City of Santa Monica) -wiki

"Outside the narrow street fumed, the sidewalks swarmed with fat stomachs. Across the street a bingo parlor was going full blast and beside it a couple of sailors with girls
were coming out of a photographer's shop where they had probably been having their photos taken riding on camels. The voice of the hot dog merchant
split the dusk like an axe. A big blue bus blared down the street to the little circle where the street car used to turn on a turntable. I walked that way." -Philip Marlowe

He mentions "big blue bus" (Santa Monica has blue buses to this day) but then switches to 'street car' turntable.




turntable photograph found at:
http://www.oceanparkhx.com/1900-1950...e-pier-av.html

Raymond Chandler quote found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Bus
__

[ethereal_reality]

I found this amazing photograph-postcard of a billiard emporium located at 640 S. Broadway called Morley's.


ebay

note the impressive art nouveau stenciling on the ceiling beams near the support pillars. (I believe there might be full length mirrors on each pillar)



reverse. (postmark 1914)



The pool hall in the photograph, with it's low ceiling, looks like it might have been in the basement, so I thought I'd try and find out using past directories.

It was rather confusing.

I found...

Morley's Skating Rink at 920 S. Grand (1906 directory)

Morley's Bowling Alley at 416 1/2 S. Broadway (1908 directory)

Morley's Cellar at 110 S. Spring (1918 directory)

but no Morley's Billiard Palace


What I did find out...640 S. Broadway is the Forrester Building (still standing)


lapl

_

[tovangar2]

A curious aside: Has it come up before that the paving, steps and retaining walls at the Little Country Church of Hollywood were constructed from remnants of the sidewalks outside old City Hall?

Both of these articles mention it:

LAT
"The terracing and steps were constructed with pieces of sidewalk from the old City Hall, which had been torn down at the time of the church's construction.
The paving was free to anyone who would haul it away, recalled Hogg. So her father put out a call on his broadcast for volunteers with trucks."

Daily Mirror
"Volunteers built the 250-seat chapel almost entirely from donated goods. Recycled stone from Los Angeles’ old City Hall sidewalk became terracing and steps."

The demo permit specifically said to leave the foundation, etc alone.

• Video Link


(Just a heads-up in case anyone ever gets around to redeveloping that site...don't let it end up in the dumpster people)


google maps

[Otis Criblecoblis]

Originally Posted by Rustifer

For sure the 50's landscape of the show is fascinating to me. As I've explained in past posts, I always freeze frame anytime there's a true LA location shot (which was fairly rare as all the outdoor scenes were generally shot on the Warner Bros. back lot -- the fake buildings were designed more to replicate a NYC street scene rather than LA) to carefully study the landmarks of that period. I even Google any store names that appear readable to see if they're still around.

For good old LA landscapes in films, three that immediately come to mind are Chinatown, LA Confidential and Mulholland Falls. I've recently gotten into the Amazon Prime streaming series "Bosch", set in present day LA with some fascinating noirish on-location scenes. Pretty cool series if you're familiar with it. Titus Welliver, a heretofore venerable character actor, is in the title role as a Beverly Hills homicide detective. Gritty stuff.

Ever since I was a teen I've been interested in identifying LA-area shooting locations. I remember one time in the early Eighties when my friend and I examined minutely the Three Stooges' "Three Little Beers" in order to identify (successfully!) the locations involved with the rolling of the barrels at the end. More of the buildings were still extant then.

Decidedly not noir, but still fun.

[tovangar2]

Redevelopment is coming perilously close to the Victorian house at 1314 Wilshire Blvd (the oldest home left on Wilshire) with its Wilshire Special out front:

gsv


gsv

Here's No. 1314 in the late 70s, when I first remember it. It was appreciated then and the Wilshire Special looks terrific too:

via la conservancy

The Isaac Lowmans (who may have been the original residents) entertained at home in April of 1900:

la herald 3 April 1900

In 1903 the Lowmans engaged Hudson and Munsell to build them a new home on the West side of Elden between 10th (Olympic) and 11th Streets on the Westmoreland Tract:

Los Angeles Herald, Number 15, 16 October 1903

( A 1989 three-story apartment building is now at 1029 Elden)

There was a pretty wedding at No. 1314 in 1904 when it was the Black home. Next, from 1905, up until the early 20s, The Los Angeles Herald carried many ads for furnished rooms, including the attic, to let at 1314 Orange. This is the first of those:

la herald 8 jan 1905

Things got a bit fraught on the evening of 11 January 1908:

la herald

I cannot tell from the curbed LA article if the apartment building at 1316 and the commercial building at 1330 are coming down too or just the false front masking two homes at 1324. Every since the developers named the "wrong" side of the Harbor "City West", there's been enormous pressure on Westlake. All these buildings were moved back in 1932 to widen what-once-had-been Orange St into Wilshire Blvd. The homes lost their front yards, steps and porches and the apartment building had to be rolled back 15 feet:

google maps

'Round the back:

google maps


La Parrilla at No. 1300 has been discussed here before, so I'm skipping it now.

The scene in 1910:

baist 1910 plate 8

DTLA rolls ever westward. It did it before and is doing it again. A Wilshire Blvd address is still a huge selling point:

gsv

Residential development a block west looks pricey (and uncaring about what happens beyond those trees):

wilshirevalencia

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

A curious aside: Has it come up before that the paving, steps and retaining walls at the Little Country Church of Hollywood were constructed from remnants of the sidewalks outside old City Hall?

Both of these articles mention it:

LAT
"The terracing and steps were constructed with pieces of sidewalk from the old City Hall, which had been torn down at the time of the church's construction.
The paving was free to anyone who would haul it away, recalled Hogg. So her father put out a call on his broadcast for volunteers with trucks."

Daily Mirror
"Volunteers built the 250-seat chapel almost entirely from donated goods. Recycled stone from Los Angeles’ old City Hall sidewalk became terracing and steps."

The demo permit specifically said to leave the foundation, etc alone.

• Video Link


(Just a heads-p in case anyone ever gets around to redeveloping that site)


google maps

I might be wrong but I can't imagine that in 2017 there would be much sentimental emotion about that old brick from the city hall except maybe to sell it as a charity souvenir.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Redevelopment is coming perilously close to the 1901 house at 1314 Wilshire Blvd (it may be the oldest home left on Wilshire) with its Wilshire Special out front:

gsv

I cannot tell from the curbed LA article if the apartment building at 1316 is coming down too or just the false front masking two homes at 1324. Every since the developers named the "wrong" side of the Harbor "City West", there's been enormous pressure on Westlake. All these buildings were moved back to widen Orange St into Wilshire Blvd. The homes lost their front yards, steps and porches and the apartment building had to be rolled back 15 feet:

google maps

Residential development a block west looks pricey (and uncaring about what happens beyond those trees):

wilshirevalencia

It's sad about the old Orange Street/Wilshire Blvd houses along this stretch, but redevelopment of the area is long overdue. As for 1314 Wilshire--it appears to have been built in 1899 by Isaac L. Lowman, a downtown clothier. His family was in residence by Feb 1900. Lowman built 3087 Wilshire six years later, employing Frederick Roehrig--perhaps he had also designed 1314.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

reverse. (postmark 1914)

________________________________________________________________

I had to write the text of the Morley's postcard here, in case anyone didn't look at it, it's rather poignant.

Dear (Former Pal
but ala[s] strangers
now) I'm still on
earth (sometimes)
and would like
a letter much.
Love
[.?.]

Those parts I can't read are because of the watermark.
The name at the close might be Lois or Doris or Boris...?

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I've always liked this 1955 photograph of Cary Grant walking his cat in Beverly Hills. No mystery where he is here!

KCET/Artbound

Originally Posted by tovangar2

It's damn mysterious these days. What comes over people?

gsv
_________________________________________________________________

These two photographs remind me of a movie screening I'd gone to where a production designer was talking about the problems of location shooting for period films. While not everyone notices things in movies, a lot of people do. and the way sidewalk corners are constructed these days, with sloping and easier access for wheelchairs and the like, it poses problems if one wants to be accurate in a period film. He talked about one film where there was not time to do anything about it so the director just decided not to show the sidewalk corners, but he felt that was a distraction.

Not pertaining to streets, but to props: Pet peeves of art directors--after this was pointed out to me once, you wouldn't believe how many times I've noticed it since. Often when you see a bedroom or dining room scene, they use new sheets or tablecloths on the tables. The proper thing to do is to iron out the folded creases in them, but you'd be surprised how often you might notice people getting into bed and the sheets all have those fold marks because this wasn't done. The worst case of that I recall is a film in which people were in a scene by a clothesline and the sheets or tablecloths on the clothesline had the fold marks still on them!

[Blaster]

Yes, the folds in the hanging laundry is ridiculous.

But in households where I have lived, the newly washed sheets are often ironed, then folded and put in the linen closet until a bed is changed - resulting in folds.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

odinthor, I thought you might like to see this postcard.

'Gold of Ophir' roses, Pasadena 1902.


https://www.etsy.com/listing/2323109...902?ref=market

I wasn't familiar with 'Gold of Ophir' roses, so I did some googlin' and found...

"Rose Bush at Horatio Rust Residence, South Pasadena, California, about 1890."


https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/kt0p3023t5/

I'm guessing the gentleman on the right is Mr. Rust.


odinthor's book(s) on roses:
http://web.csulb.edu/~odinthor/books.html

Horatio Nelson Rust was born in Massachusetts in 1828. The 1900 Census indicates his occupation as "orchardist". He died in Los Angeles in 1906. The picture of the roses was taken around the time of the death of his first wife in 1899. According to an obituary posted on "Find a Grave" he had a very interesting life, being an abolitionist and a friend of John Brown, serving as a surgeon in the Civil War before coming to California in his later years. Find a Grave also has a picture of him which does seem to match the man shown on the right of the picture with the roses.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I had to write the text of the Morley's postcard here, in case anyone didn't look at it, it's rather poignant.

Dear (Former Pal
but ala[s] strangers
now) I'm still on
earth (sometimes)
and would like
a letter much.
Love
[.?.]

Those parts I can't read are because of the watermark.
The name at the close might be Lois or Doris or Boris...?

Thanks--that is very touching. I'm thinking there might be an exclamation mark after the "alas," which adds to the poignancy.