noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Tonight's 'mystery' billboard location.

"Four Roses Bourbon billboard, Los Angeles 1957"


http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-bil...-75467467.html

From left to right, there appears to be an appliance store, a hamburger stand and a flower shop.

I'm going to guess that this is the southwest corner of W Olympic and S La Brea. The 1960 CD has Pop's Hot Dog Stand at 1001 S La Brea Avenue, Brady's Appliance Co at 1009 S La Brea Avenue and Bud Seiger's La Mirror Olympic La Brea Florist at 5300 W Olympic Boulevard. I can't match any of the current buildings to the vintage shot.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Fans of the Hotel Antlers--and, deep inside, who isn't a fan of the Hotel Antlers?--will be interested in this bit of ephemera I picked up. Front, and the back with its jottings.


odinthor collection

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is a great find odinthor!

I know we've seen numerous photographs of the Hotel Antlers, but I believe this might be new to the thread.

It's from 1912!


http://www.nileguide.com/destination...E_3b17019u.jpg

Just to clear things up, the building in Venice was the Hotel Antler (singular).

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a very interesting view with an elaborate roof-top billboard. I can't quite make out what it says..something KING. (date unknown)


old file photo

The card posted by odinthor if for the Hotel Antlers on the corner of 4th and Clay Streets.

Originally Posted by HossC

eBay

[Hollywood Graham]

Looks like White King on the billboard above the Hotel Antler.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Its a small detail but I noticed one thing. In the orange square I point out those nasty little metal garbage cans that everyone used to set on the curb each week. A truck would come by and dump the contents into their truck box. I remember my mother taught me how to line the little can with old newspaper pages. One page went into the floor of the can and the others were folded and placed around the inside. It was one of my many household chores.

The paper trash was burned in the ubiquitous backyard incinerator. During the summer of 1957, those smoke belching incinerator contraptions were banned in LA.


HIfiles

We talked about this a few weeks ago.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by mrfredmertz

Friends, excuse me for sounding stupid. I've been away from the site for a few weeks ('m writing a pilot for a TV series) and I must have missed something. Where are all these amazing LIFE magazine photos coming from? Thanks in advance......

Chris

From BifRayRock's secret source, I guess!

Just curious...care to elaborate on the subject of your pilot?

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Looking west to the next block, one sees John and Donald Parkinson's 1930 towered building for California Bank at No. 5620 Hollywood Blvd.:
Well maintained, but very anonymous:

gsv

5620 is, of course, famous for its role as the faux "El Centro" theater in the "movie-premiere pot-bust" scene in "LA Confidential" (1997):

warnerbros/amazon

Here is the whole line-up back in 1951:

usc dl (detail)
_________________________________________________________________

1994, just after the Northridge Earthquake.

Ken Fowler

I thought I'd be able to find a better photograph, but this is the only one that I located.

[HossC]

We've seen this larger picture before.

Originally Posted by rcarlton

Here is why some towers are no longer standing in LA.
LAPL
Tower atop a commercial building at 5620 Hollywood Boulevard is damaged during the Northridge earthquake, January 18 1994.

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Your 1936 Pantages photos made me wonder when the Frolic Room appeared, since it isn't in the picture, or doesn't appear to be.

One online source says: Rumored to be an uber-exclusive speakeasy lounge, opened by a dude allegedly named “Freddy Frolic”,
for vaudeville performers at the adjoining Pantages Theater (reachable through a now-bricked-up side entrance) in 1930, the
Frolic officially opened to the public in ’34.

I would like to thank the Frolic Room and my manager and the academy . . .

More alleged Frolic history: http://www.drunkenhistory.com/bar-tr...oom-travelogue


http://guestofaguest.com/wp-content/...13/11/1948.jpg


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/4264e85d3bcc12a2_large



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/361beb36ecb0f6d9_large



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/6e24bfaa4db9209a_large

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

From BifRayRock's secret source, I guess!

Martin, did you let your subscription lapse?



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/255d5be67dd83250_large



Hardly a secret. Google is a repository for Time-Life archives. Many images exist if you provide the right search terms. Some of that comes from having perused LIFE when it was still a going concern - and - a little hit-or-miss-luck, since many of the images are poorly identified, lack detailed descriptions or order. (BTW, the Library of Congress is the repository for LOOK.)

FWIW, here are two examples: for I Love Lucy and aerial Santa Monica. I included the latter as an example of images that are easily overlooked for obvious reasosn. But they can be salvaged. Go for it!

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...a8dfbfb13.html

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...fdebff46c.html


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/66c329d7c3c77aaa_large

[mrfredmertz]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

From BifRayRock's secret source, I guess!

Just curious...care to elaborate on the subject of your pilot?

Thanks for the reply, Martin. The network I am writing this for would murdalize me if I gave away the pilot details but suffice to say it's very noirish and set in the 1930s. I am also one of the producers of the new Robert Downey Jr. version of "Perry Mason" which is very, very noir and set in the 30s. It's being written by Nic Pizzolatto, who created "True Detective," one of the best detective series I have ever seen on television. NLA is a never ending font of information and I marvel at the ability of the folks on here who can pinpoint a location from a mere fragment of a building in a photograph. That's why we love this group and all of your august and arcane knowledge.

And I STILL want to know what pool I can dive in to see the totality of the Life photo collection.

[mrfredmertz]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Martin, did you let your subscription lapse?



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/255d5be67dd83250_large



Hardly a secret. Google is a repository for Time-Life archives. Many images exist if you provide the right search terms. Some of that comes from having perused LIFE when it was still a going concern - and - a little hit-or-miss-luck, since many of the images are poorly identified, lack detailed descriptions or order. (BTW, the Library of Congress is the repository for LOOK.)

FWIW, here are two examples: for I Love Lucy and aerial Santa Monica. I included the latter as an example of images that are easily overlooked for obvious reasosn. But they can be salvaged. Go for it!

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...a8dfbfb13.html

http://images.google.com/hosted/life...fdebff46c.html


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/66c329d7c3c77aaa_large

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I will follow your lead.

Thank you for the advice!

[Tourmaline]

Looking for a specific subject is not always that easy since few sources are perfectly catalogued and even the best descriptions can vary. This includes most if not all libraries and digital libraries. It helps if sources are listed too.



More from Life including a link in that post. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=35807 http://images.google.com/hosted/life...a7a59562d.html



On that score, can anyone shed some light on these interesting structures from source?




















Nice Cord.

[HossC]

Today's Julius Shulman post comes from Lakewood. It's "Job 1437: Kanner and Mayer, Lakewood Building (Lakewood, Calif.), 1953". The larger May Co building is in the background.



There was a Woolworth's at the other end of the block.



A look around the back. The area on the right would get more stores shortly afterwards, but it's looking a bit untidy here.



Due to the number of storefront shots, I decided to post them in a smaller size and in pairs. I left out the interior images. Here's Bond Clothes and Leed's QualiCraft Shoes.



Hartfields appears to be another clothing store. I like the slogan of Kay Jewelers - "it's OK to owe KAY".



The last indivual shots show Rhodes Jewelers, Choates Bakery, Curries Ice Cream and Lee's Department Store. Note the five skylights above the gap between the stores.



All from Getty Research Institute

I also found this 1952 image of the opening ceremony.

"Another unit of specialty stores between Butler Brothers and the May Company opened on October 3, 1952. Shoppers thronged the 17 new stores that included Bond Clothes, Lee’s Department Store, Leed’s shoes, Harfield’s Jewelers, Woolworth’s, Sav-On Drugs, and Kay Jewelers. National chains were initially reluctant to open a new store so far from the traditional downtown streets where they had been located for decades. Lakewood Center’s instant popularity help change the face of retailing throughout California and the West."


lakewood-ca.smugmug.com

I've studied the historic aerial photos, and I think that the original buildings are behind the more recent (and uglier) façades. The five skylights are still visible. The May Co building is now Macy's.


Google Maps

[CityBoyDoug]

When LIFE magazine sent a photographer on an assignment they often took 100s of photos. But for that single assignment maybe only 10 or less photos ever appeared in LIFE.

The good thing is that those gazillions of additional assignment photos are still in the google-LIFE archives.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by HossC

Today's Julius Shulman post comes from Lakewood. It's "Job 1437: Kanner and Mayer, Lakewood Building (Lakewood, Calif.), 1953". The larger May Co building is in the background.



There was a Woolworth's at the other end of the block.



A look around the back. The area on the right would get more stores shortly afterwards, but it's looking a bit untidy here.



Due to the number of storefront shots, I decided to post them in a smaller size and in pairs. I left out the interior images. Here's Bond Clothes and Leed's QualiCraft Shoes.



Hartfields appears to be another clothing store. I like the slogan of Kay Jewelers - "it's OK to owe KAY".



The last indivual shots show Rhodes Jewelers, Choates Bakery, Curries Ice Cream and Lee's Department Store. Note the five skylights above the gap between the stores.



All from Getty Research Institute

I also found this 1952 image of the opening ceremony.

"Another unit of specialty stores between Butler Brothers and the May Company opened on October 3, 1952. Shoppers thronged the 17 new stores that included Bond Clothes, Lee’s Department Store, Leed’s shoes, Harfield’s Jewelers, Woolworth’s, Sav-On Drugs, and Kay Jewelers. National chains were initially reluctant to open a new store so far from the traditional downtown streets where they had been located for decades. Lakewood Center’s instant popularity help change the face of retailing throughout California and the West."


lakewood-ca.smugmug.com

I've studied the historic aerial photos, and I think that the original buildings are behind the more recent (and uglier) façades. The five skylights are still visible. The May Co building is now Macy's.


Google Maps

Noirishers will like to linger on the thought that there was another branch of Clifton's Cafeteria at Lakewood Center. That place was very dear to me; and I was literally stunned when one day, after it chanced I hadn't been there for about a year, I parked to eat there and the familiar Clifton's sign wasn't where it should have been!!! Bah. The location had a somewhat dim basement "lounge"--basically a restroom foyer with pay phones and plastic plants. Probably the idea was to get people who wanted to have a phone conversation away from the clatter of the plates and glassware in the dining area (as well as to get the sound of flushing away from the diners). The wooden stairs would squeak as you trod on them; and, in the close atmosphere in the foyer, there was always a smell of vinyl from the upholstery of the couches along the wall. Upstairs, in the dining area, for a long time they'd have a live organist playing off and on to entertain the customers. My earliest memory of the place--when I was quite young indeed--was that my family brought me there on my birthday, for which such occasions they'd provide a free cake with the celebrant's name on it. They brought the cake, and . . . it had the name of some unknown girl on it. There's a good side to that incident, though, as my therapists have benefited from it for decades.

[riichkay]

I'm sure we've seen this photo before:




Here's our girl ready for her close-up, from the avant-garde 1960 film "The Savage Eye":




Another still from the same film. In this one you get a partial view of the pole signage for the Marquis restaurant (see my post on that building on pg. 1827). Also visible is the House of Jazz/The Body Shop building.




In this shot the film's protagonist, played by Barbara Baxley, is leaving Hollywood for the airport:




The film was done in a semi-documentary style, with voice over "beat" type poetry recited by Gary Merrill...the entire picture is not online but here's a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcECPAdQ_fw


And the cowgirl as reimagined for the film version of Gore Vidal's "Myra Breckenridge"

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location #1

"Franilla Ice Cream, Feb. 15, 1956"


www.alamy.com

__

[ethereal_reality]

This billboard pic is a mystery location, but it's interesting none-the-less.

"Forest Lawn billboard, Hollywood and Vine 1950s"


www.alamy.com

__

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by HossC

That's Foreman & Clark at their 106 W 3rd Street address, seen here in 1913. It was "also known as the Cotton Exchange Building". The newspaper headline appears to be "MAHAN GIVEN SIXTY-YEAR TERM", which probably refers to the 1936 story of William Mahan being sentenced for kidnapping George Weyerhaeuser - you can see the Chicago Tribune's coverage here. The 1936 CD still includes the 106 W 3rd address in the Foreman & Clark listing.


USC Digital Library

Gads, I love the Cotton Exchange. Harrison Albright's work is always splendid, so refined and elegant; this building's 1984 demolition by the CRA underscores my pet theory that 1984 was the nadir of American culture.

Funny we should mention Foreman & Clark. I wouldn't necessarily say I "collect" hangers, but I always grab 'em when I see 'em. This one I picked up Friday night.



The other F&C here:

lapl

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

http://guestofaguest.com/wp-content/...13/11/1948.jpg

Just out of curiosity, when did the cocktail glass (shown in the shot above) go missing from the Frolic Room sign? It's on the drawing accompanying the 1948 permit for the sign.