noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Unbelievable GAYLORDWILSHIRE!! Damn you're good at this. How do you do it??

I edited/added to my earlier post to include a Chinese restaurant that I loved (on Beverly...or possibly Melrose).
My friends and I would go there if the wait at El Coyote was too long.
I think you might have missed that part of my post. Sadly I don't remember the name.

[Beaudry]

Finally downloaded MP and've watched I & II; III is coming through the ol' bittorrent now. Thought the first installment a bit slow and was glad it picked up when Monte showed.

But as this forum is about architecture, and since I'm a picky SOB...no disrespect to the designers, whom I admire greatly, but I have to share a couple things I got a chuckle outta:



Manhattan, looking up...Broadway. So, I'm not trying to be bitchy, but come on. The Rialto marquee is at least five, probably ten years past 1931 and while I can't normally expect the production crew to know that, the Tower blade is outrageously sixties. Moreover, the Rialto marquee would have been advertising movies, not discount fashion as it has in its recent incarnation as a crap-o-mart.

A 1928 then/now:


http://lahtc.blogspot.com/search/lab...20and%20now%27

And then there's the alley by MP's restaurant gig in Hollywood,



which is a redressed street in Peerskill, NY (HBO has a bit about it here) with the mountains CGI'd in, the Broadway Hollywood neon in the bg, so, let's say we're on Selma west of Vine. We'd be looking right up at the reservoir (which, if I'm not mistaken, in 1931 would've had half a pile of dirt backfilled upon't). There are apparently no other buildings on Hollywood Blvd, except at far left, where the Title Guarantee has migrated from Fifth and Hill! Must be one of those earthquake things.

ucla

Let's see what Act III has to offer...

[Beaudry]

...and oh yeah, let me weigh in on the screen grab thing. I also dismayed, as a Mac user, at my inability to screen grab off my DVDs -- until -- I downloaded something called SnapNDrag. After a couple of minutes it was on my computer, I fiddled with it until I figured it out (and if I can figger it out, anyone can) and voila, now I can take DVD captures on my Mac!

(That the images still look terrible, in that all of my discs are transfers of third-generation VHS boots of old movies not on DVD, is another matter altogether.)

[GaylordWilshire]

ethereal:

Well, the Spanish Kitchen was a place I sought out the first time I went looking for old L.A. in the '70s after discovering Reyner Banham. I don't have my copy of Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies at hand to check, but maybe that's where I first read about it--anyway, it's the book that started my L.A. obsession, allowing me to understand the city beyond old movies. The Spanish Kitchen was iconic. (The book still is.)

As for the Chinese place you remember--across from El Coyote was once something called the Chinese Kitchen. No pictures of it after a quick search, but looking at city directories on the LAPL's website, you can see that it's listed at 7313 Beverly from at least 1956 (the next oldest book is 1942, and it's not listed in that one). It lasted at least until 1987 at that address (1987 being the latest directory on the library's site). Something called the Angelini Osteria is there now--the building is either heavily remodeled, or new.


Speaking of El Coyote, here's a shot of its former location at 105 N. La Brea:
LAPL
Love that Buick. The LAPL identifies this shot as "El Coyote, 7312 Beverly Blvd."--in spite of the "105" on the awning.
(They're going to hate me on W. 5th St. if I send them another email....) The blade sign is very similar to the Spanish
Kitchen's.

That building is gone with the Spanish wind:
Google Street View

[ethereal_reality]

^^^Thanks for the info GaylordWilshire.
So there was a Spanish Kitchen AND a Chinese Kitchen. I really appreciate your effort.


Beaudry
I am amazed that HBO's Mildred Pierce had 'discount fashions' on the Rialto marquee.
No one in the 1940s would have ever imagined that the grand movie palaces would become cheesy retail spaces.
It boggles the mind that someone on the production team didn't catch this absolutely stupid mistake.

[sopas ej]

SERIOUSLY. It would've really been funny if the production designers included a marquee that said "JESUS ES EL SENOR" in the new Mildred Pierce.

[LAboomer52]

Thanks Gaylord Wilshire for the Berkeley Square update. Those homes were extra special. Im very familiar with LaFayette Square and Harvard Heights as they are today, and some homes in those areas come close to the scope and size of Berkeley Sq., but it seems those homes were even grander in lot and house size, than anything adjacent that remains today. Really appreciate those images and info too!

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

But as this forum is about architecture, and since I'm a picky SOB...no disrespect to the designers, whom I admire greatly, but I have to share a couple things I got a chuckle outta:



Manhattan, looking up...Broadway. So, I'm not trying to be bitchy, but come on. The Rialto marquee is at least five, probably ten years past 1931 and while I can't normally expect the production crew to know that, the Tower blade is outrageously sixties. Moreover, the Rialto marquee would have been advertising movies, not discount fashion as it has in its recent incarnation as a crap-o-mart...........................................


And then there's the alley by MP's restaurant gig in Hollywood,



which is a redressed street in Peerskill, NY (HBO has a bit about it here) with the mountains CGI'd in, the Broadway Hollywood neon in the bg, so, let's say we're on Selma west of Vine. We'd be looking right up at the reservoir (which, if I'm not mistaken, in 1931 would've had half a pile of dirt backfilled upon't). There are apparently no other buildings on Hollywood Blvd, except at far left, where the Title Guarantee has migrated from Fifth and Hill! Must be one of those earthquake things.

i find it somehow amusing that they even went so far to include a semaphore traffic signal in that first screen cap. hey nothing says Los Angeles 1931 quite like a semaphore..........................but they forgot one dayum thing.......the semaphore.............................sheeeesh

also, if anyone on the production team had bothered to do even the meager-est of research, they would have found out that the building on the south/west corner of hollywood and vine in 1931, would not scream in neon the now all too familiar Broadway Hollywood, it would actually say......................


Source: USC Digital Archive

Dyas went under in 1932, and the sign was not changed until late 32, early 33.

oh, and what the hell is that structure that looks like a facade of the wtc just to the left of the seriously misplaced title guarantee building?

(sigh.............what we could create with 12 bucks a few crazies and a case of beer..................sigh.......)

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

Manhattan, looking up...Broadway. So, I'm not trying to be bitchy, but come on. The Rialto marquee is at least five, probably ten years past 1931 and while I can't normally expect the production crew to know that, the Tower blade is outrageously sixties. Moreover, the Rialto marquee would have been advertising movies, not discount fashion as it has in its recent incarnation as a crap-o-mart.

Well, this morning I happened to find myself at the Tower and the Rialto--or at least on their Manhattan footprints, which, in the HBO Mildred Pierce, are the NE corner of Madison Square and the middle of 26th street, respectively. Scaffolding on the block of Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th streets and a not-great phone camera hampered my efforts (somebody's got to do this very important work), but here are a couple of shots of some details along with some street views that help piece together Beaudry's screenshot above:

Gaylord Wilshire Fine Photography
The lamps and the small awning are actually at 50 Madison Avenue, also seen below. The tree
is at the NE corner of the Square, i.e., where the Tower theater is in the movie.

Google Street View


Gaylord Wilshire Fine Photography


Google Street View
822 S. Broadway, L.A. = 50 Madison Ave., N.Y.

Google Street View
Looking south on Madison Avenue--with the Metropolitan Life tower at center--the east side of the street differs from
Mildred Pierce's east side of Broadway, which differs from the actual east side of Broadway south of 7th in L.A. Where
did the film's east side of Broadway come from?

Google Street View


Are you now thoroughly confused? Me too. I'll hang up now.


P.S. gs: In an HBO promotional clip, there's a shot of the signal seen in the film being set upright as the set was being dressed, showing the semaphore itself. I posted a pic of it here somewhere.... I guess they couldn't get the blade to work... kinda like the series itself (IMHO).

[sopas ej]

Did someone say Hollywood 1931? Hollywood, that screwy ballyhooey Hollywood...

Oct. 30, 1931, Jess Willard's Market, 1334 Vine Street.

LAPL

For shits and giggles, here's Vine Street looking north towards Hollywood Boulevard some time in the late 1950s or so. This postcard was postmarked in 1960.

USC Archive

[gsjansen]

it's interesting how the original structure has been modified yet still remains over the years

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

i find it somehow amusing that they even went so far to include a semaphore traffic signal in that first screen cap. hey nothing says Los Angeles 1931 quite like a semaphore..........................but they forgot one dayum thing.......the semaphore.............................sheeeesh

also, if anyone on the production team had bothered to do even the meager-est of research, they would have found out that the building on the south/west corner of hollywood and vine in 1931, would not scream in neon the now all too familiar Broadway Hollywood, it would actually say......................


Source: USC Digital Archive

Dyas went under in 1932, and the sign was not changed until late 32, early 33.

oh, and what the hell is that structure that looks like a facade of the wtc just to the left of the seriously misplaced title guarantee building?

(sigh.............what we could create with 12 bucks a few crazies and a case of beer..................sigh.......)

Thanks for posting again this fantastic photo. A lost world. I'm intrigued by one of the old hillside real-estate signs that I don't recall seeing or hearing of before...It's the sign up near the reservoir (at the far left of the photo) and looks as though it might say "Bryn Mawr."

[GaylordWilshire]

I know there's a Bryn Mawr Drive up there somewhere-- I assume the big "H" in the hills above Dyas is for "Hollywood"--or maybe the kids at Hollywood High put it up there--or is it yet another subdivision?

[Los Angeles Past]

Me, I'm curious about the huge "V" near the top of Vine St. It's 10 years too early for it to stand for "Victory"!

-Scott

[LAboomer52]

Some fotos of the "Bryn Mawr" housing development below and around the dam in the hollywood hills. Bryn Mawr Drive is off Holly drive.
LAPL
LAPL

LA Times article on 11/15/1925 tell that "the street lights in Bryn Mawr will light up tonight for the first time". The development was owned by George Newberger and developed by R.W. Neiswendler. The article brags of home lots with views of Catalina, Long Beach and Venice, and Hollywood at night like a "twinkling like a sea of stars" and by day a "beautiful garden".

LA Times article in 1891 describes "Bryn Mawr" as a new style of architecture in homes that uses natural materials like wood, brink and stone("no disgusting paint or plaster"), and features turrets, shingles, colored roofs,and red brick chimneys. Maybe the tract was named thusly?? The article states that " Los Angeles is far ahead of San Fransisco in the individuality of it's architecture."

[gsjansen]

the big V was to advertise the Vincrest sub-division



The big H was to advertise Whitley Heights. (the H stood for Hobart, as in Hobart Johnstone "HJ" Whitley). it might have also stood for hollywood, as HJ, (as he was known to his friends), and his wife, were the actual people to have come up with the name Hollywood, on their honeymoon in 1886.

The H was to draw people from far away, he had another sign that spelled out the entire name in the development, but it could not be seen for miles like the big H


Source: LAPL

and just in case you were driving by, and missed all the other signs, there was this modest reminder


Source: LAPL

[JeffDiego]

Thanks everyone for the excellent photos and info. Had never heard of either Vinecrest or Bryn Mawr subdivisions. The Whitley Heights signs are always a treat to see. Then of course Outpost (Estates?) and Beverly Terrace had interesting hillside signs.
I seem to recall photo of a billboard in 20's Hollywood, maybe on Franklin, advertising "Las Colinas Heights."

[GaylordWilshire]

The girls are squabbling at the Woman's Club of Hollywood, per LACurbed yesterday (http://la.curbed.com/tags/womans-club-of-hollywood) and The New York Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/us...llywood&st=cse


USCDL
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3AF008C6C?v=hrLAPL
The club was once at 7078 Hollywood Blvd. The architect of this building was Arthur Rolland Kelly, whose grandson
maintains a record of his work--according to it, no less than Rudolph Schindler remodeled the building in 1944. Looking
for a picture of that.... (It's all gone now.) The tall, gothic-detailed building in the background at left in the second
shot is the Hollywood Professional Building at Hollywood and Sycamore, now apartments called the Seventy-46.

After the WWII, the club bought this house at 1749 N. La Brea:
LAPL
LAPL
It was once the Hollywood School for Girls, whose alumni, according to the club's
website, include "Jean Harlow, Carol [sic] Lombard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. [?], and
Anita Loos." Edith Head and Charles Laughton taught here. The property obviously
being more interesting to the club gals more than the old house, it was replaced
by the present clubhouse, designed by Arthur E. Harvey, in 1947:

Google Street View
Love the grocery cart--a little touch of '80s Hollywood.

Google Street View


Wasn't there a similar squabble not long ago about the fate of the Hollywood Studio Club building?

[andrea517]

Thank you GaylordWilshire! By the way you must be a mind reader. I was just thinking this week "Well since someone posted pictures of the Paris Inn, I should see if any one can find the Hollywood Woman's Club". And well...you did before I even asked. My grandparents met there. My grandma was "working" a USO dance and was supposed to dance with all the service men but once she met my grandpa, they snuck out to the patio so she wouldn't have to dance with the other men. Of course...the rest is history. I had found a postcard of a drawing of it, but never pictures. Thank you!! Someday maybe I'll even see inside ones.

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The girls are squabbling at the Woman's Club of Hollywood, per LACurbed yesterday (http://la.curbed.com/tags/womans-club-of-hollywood) and The New York Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/us...llywood&st=cse


USCDL
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...3AF008C6C?v=hrLAPL
The club was once at 7078 Hollywood Blvd. The architect of this building was Arthur Rolland Kelly, whose grandson
maintains a record of his work--according to it, no less than Rudolph Schindler remodeled the building in 1944. Looking
for a picture of that.... (It's all gone now.) The tall, gothic-detailed building in the background at left in the second
shot is the Hollywood Professional Building at Hollywood and Sycamore, now apartments called the Seventy-46.

After the WWII, the club bought this house at 1749 N. La Brea:
LAPL
LAPL
It was once the Hollywood School for Girls, whose alumni, according to the club's
website, include "Jean Harlow, Carol [sic] Lombard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. [?], and
Anita Loos." Edith Head and Charles Laughton taught here. The property obviously
being more interesting to the club gals more than the old house, it was replaced
by the present clubhouse, designed by Arthur E. Harvey, in 1947:

Google Street View
Love the grocery cart--a little touch of '80s Hollywood.

Google Street View


Wasn't there a similar squabble not long ago about the fate of the Hollywood Studio Club building?

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent post....I certainly hope the Women's Club of Hollywood gets to keep their 1947 treasure.
To be honest, I didn't know there was an active Women's Club of Hollywood.
The small town I grew up in had both a women's club and a junior women's club (for the younger set).
Neither one of clubs still exist, so I thought perhaps they were a thing of the past.




I guess the Ebell Club of Los Angeles would be considered a women's club.


usc

This beautiful building was built at the corner of Wilshire and Lucerne in 1927.


usc




The new facilities also included a 1,700 seat auditorium at the rear of the property facing 8th Street.


Corey Miller


They still have these GREAT neon signs that look like they're out of a 1940s film noir.


Jodie Summers






Jodie Summers



nytimes



What first piqued my interest was this 1909 postcard I found on ebay.....




....as well as this photograph I found on ebay.



I guess all that rampant foliage was a result of the meager plants you see in the above color postcard.
It looks like an image from the 'Life After People' tv program.


Below is a link to a great article about the Ebell Club of Los Angeles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/10ebell.html