noirish Los Angeles

[Muji]

I think I've figured it out, ethereal. The angled roof you see in both photos is of the same building. However, the photo you posted was taken from Hill Street, not Broadway, which means that the printing building is actually behind all of the structures in the foreground. Its only an optical illusion its roof looks like its stuck to the building that's closer to the photographer. I hope that makes sense!

[ethereal_reality]

I was re-editing my post while you were answering my question.

I had added the scenario you just presented to my post, but in that scenario the cross street in the distance appears to be behind the Times Mirror Printing & Binding House instead of in front where it's suppose to be. You're probably correct that it's somewhat of an optical illusion.

Thanks for your help Muji!

[Los Angeles Past]

Got this 1934 Bekins map from eBay just this past Friday! Perfect timing, as it gives an aerial view of the new Times Building and its printing and binding house annex. It clearly shows the physical connection between the two buildings.


Bekins Van & Storage Co., from my personal collection.

You can also just barely see the top of the clock tower of the old Times Building still peeking out from behind the new State Building.

Personally, my favorite aspect of this view is seeing the Bank Of Italy (International Savings & Exchange Bank) Building and its close proximity to the north entrance of City Hall. I always knew they were next-door neighbors, but I never realized before now just HOW close the two buildings were to each other. ^^

*smiles* The more I think about it, I'd also really like to take our noirish time machine back specifically to the L.A. of 1934-'35 – not only to be able to dine at the Paris Inn , but also more in general to see the city as my mom first knew it, when she moved to L.A. from Utah at age 17. I would truly love to be able to talk to her now about all these places, which she surely must have visited and seen firsthand. I really do miss her an awful lot...

-Scott

[gsjansen]

this pleasant small village image seemingly lifted from a norman rockwell painting must have been taken in some sleepy little town in the new england berkshires......right?

nope, it's looking south on bunker hill avenue across third street, taken april 1st, 1959.........right in the heart of downtown los angeles.


Source: LA Times Archive

the same view, 8 years later


Source: LAPL

[mdiederi]

Mines Field race track on the corner of Sepulveda and Century Boulevards in the 1930s, next to the Mines Field airport (later to become LAX).


http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=17


http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...446547&page=17

[gsjansen]

1917 hotel clark brochure

(I particularly like the 2nd panorama image view which says, "looking from hotel clark", when it really is a view looking east from the zelda apartments across the dome of the rose mansion apparently before the clark was built)









Source: LAPL California Index

[gsjansen]

1911 hollywood hotel brochure
















undated floor plans of the hollywood hotel




Source for all: LAPL California Index

[GaylordWilshire]

To tell you the truth, I'd rather search for the real thing, but I am impressed with the
promoters of the game. Above is a shot taken today at the corner of Ninth Avenue and
17th Street in Manhattan, one of many intersections with the decal--

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past

Got this 1934 Bekins map from eBay just this past Friday.


Bekins Van & Storage Co., from my personal collection.


Personally, my favorite aspect of this view is seeing the Bank Of Italy (International Savings & Exchange Bank) Building and its close proximity to the north entrance of City Hall. I always knew they were next-door neighbors, but I never realized before now just HOW close the two buildings were to each other. ^^
-Scott

Below: Here is an interesting photo of the Bank of Italy Building that I don't remember seeing before.
I'm guessing it was taken from City Hall. There was no date indicated.

Next to the Bank of Italy building is the old Los Angeles Post Office.


usc digital archive



below: These two photos have been posted (back in 2009) but they're so damn interesting I thought I'd go ahead and post them again. You can see the Bank of Italy building in the lower right.


uscdl


uscdl




below: This aerial clearly shows the proximity of the Bank of Italy building to City Hall.


LAPL


_________________



Scott, your 1935 Bekins map of L. A. sounds great. I recently bought a 1946 Bank of America street map of Los Angeles.
It's such a treat to see the city without all the freeways.


below: Here's my new map!


my collection


sidenote: If I remember correctly Bank of America originated as the Bank of Italy. (I'll have to googled it)

[sopas ej]

I believe the building was originally the International Bank building before it became the Bank of Italy.

Here it is in 1910:

USC Archive

Another shot of it circa 1910s:

USC Archive

[ethereal_reality]

Another view of the Bank of Italy building. I find the smaller buildings in the distance very interesting. I wish I knew more about them.
(I posted this pic before I noticed sopas_ej had already posted a VERY similar photo)


uscdl


below: Here is a rather odd photo.


uscdl

The caption attached to this photo was....."City-owned International Bank Building which has marred the beauty of Civic Center for years. It is declared that if the city is forced to buy the Times Building, there will be no money to remove it and it will form a second eyesore." Dated-May 21, 1934


Huh? I'm not sure I fully understand this caption.

[Los Angeles Past]

Couple more views. Hate to say it, but I do think it was kind of an ugly building. (I'd much rather they'd've preserved the Temple Block next to City Hall, rather than the old International Bank Building.)


View of intersection of Spring and Temple, showing (former) Bank of Italy building at lower right. Must be 1938-1939, as the old Post Office is gone, but the perimeter wall of the old Court House still stands.


eBay



Interior shot, though I'm not sure if this is the bank building at Temple and Spring. (I think the Bank of Italy had another branch Downtown in addition to this one.)


eBay

-Scott

[gsjansen]

harold lloyd scaling the bank of italy building in safety last
(previously posted, but certainly on topic now!)

[gsjansen]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Awhile back, when we were taking a look at the apartment buildings of North Rossmore (the Mauretania, El Royale, Ravenswood etc), I came across a few shots of a vanished hotel at #445 (on the site of something new called the Marlowe--whether named after Philip, I don't know). The library tags hint at some juicy, noirish goings-on at the Country Club Hotel (also sometimes referred to as the Country Club Villas), an interesting midcentury hacienda that apparently didn't last much past midcentury. I haven't found much about it online. (And what was there between the Country Club and the Marlowe?) Anyone?


Those bathtub Dodges parked in front definitely enhance the scene...
LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics40/00054908.jpg

Per the LAPL: "A rousing legal battle loomed today over the future of the swank $2,000,000 Country Club Hotel on Rossmore and Rosewood Avenues, which yesterday was ordered demolished or removed by Judge Vernon W. Hunt. Co-operator Maurice Miller, sentenced to jail on charge of violation of building codes, says he'll seek right to keep hotel open. Photo dated: February 25, 1950."




Penthouse dwellers at the El Royale apparently had quite the floor show across
Rossmore... well, maybe with binoculars.
AP/Examiner/USC Digital Library http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...OS-ANG-MIS-008

Per USC: "Photograph of the pool courtyard of the Country Club Villa hotel. This is the swimming pool around which he saw 'drunken women fighting,' declared Municipal Judge Vernon W. Hunt as he yesterday ordered complete demolition of the $1,000,000 Country Club Villa at 445 North Rossmore avenue. The newly constructed hotel is an 'architectural monstrosity,' he added. Wrong type of permit has been charged. Dated February 25, 1950."
Also: "This is the luxurious Country Club Villa, completed in Los Angeles recently at a cost of $2,000,000, which an iratic [sic] judge ordered torn down or moved to another location. Two owners, Maurice and Zimmel Miller, were charged with building the place without a permit, failing to obtain a certificate of occupancy, maintaining a public nuisance, and operating a cafe, night club and swimming pool in violation of zoning ordinances. The judge, after a personal survey, termed the hotel a 'glorified quickie motel.'" So apparently no one noticed this huge place going up smack in the middle of Los Angeles without a permit....




LAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics40/00054913.jpg

so while stmblin' about in the lapl california index, i happen upon this.......






why, it's our old friend, the judiciary proclaimed den of filth and and vice, the country club hotel!

as the front cover shows the grand opening of the film the Robe at the Chinese, this brochure must be from 1954, as the Robe opened at the Chinese in September of '53.

i will see if i can find out more about the algiers. (apparently they cleaned up their act, as they offer a peter pan play area......you know, for kids!)

[gsjansen]

ok! found some noirish dirt on the country club, nee algiers, (and apparently nee casablanca too)

April 6th, 1957 Los Angeles Times

Ruth Newgarden Goldsmith, 52, a New York fashion designer, had been dead about 12 hours when she was found after 3:30 p.m. by two maids in a $25-a week room at the Hollywood Algiers Hotel, 445 N. Rossmore Ave. on the edge of the Wilshire Country Club.

Goldsmith, a widow who gave her address as 15 Christopher St., New York, N.Y., had checked into the Algiers a month earlier. According to police, she made frequent business trips to Los Angeles, selling belts out of her hotel room. Her hands were tied with a silk stocking and she apparently suffocated on a washcloth forced into her mouth and held in place with another silk stocking.

The Hotel Algiers, formerly the Casablanca and the Country Club Hotel

There were traces of cold cream on her face, leading authorities to believe she was getting ready for bed when she was killed. Her light green negligee was "disarranged," but there were no outward signs of a "criminal attack." The only sign of a struggle was shoe prints on the rumpled bed, Detective James Close said.

Investigators found that her wallet was empty and although acquaintances at the hotel said she had expensive-looking jewelry, nothing was found in a search of her room. Her bank books showed that she sometimes withdrew as much as $2,000. Police said she had frequent business callers and kept a display of belts in her room.

Marine Pvt. Brad Arnold and his father, Charles, who had a room a few doors down, said Goldsmith was a quiet woman of excellent character. In an interview, Charles Arnold said Goldsmith was trusting and "took everyone at face value. If someone came to her door she would have let them in." He added, "She had no enemies and lived very quietly. She usually went to the movies by herself."

Her only apparent survivor was a son named Walter, described as a Korean war veteran who was studying law at New York University.

Source: Los Angeles Times Archive

[nostalgie]

First - thanks to ethereal for the warm welcome. Somehow "touching" doesn't quite fit in with noirish-ness, but it was sweet of you to say that.

About the Hotel Rossmore (as it was known at one point)...in the early '60s, it was a favored spot for touring theatrical companies to bed down. All of Scott's favorites from LA Civic Light Opera stayed there at one time or another. A particular memory: summer of 1962, the very young cast of "Oliver!" on the show's pre-Broadway tour, stayed at the Rossmore. There were some memorable parties with huge numbers of neighborhood teens hanging at the pool with Davy ('Artful Dodger', pre-Monkees) Jones.

...and about Scott's CLO recollections: it was 1963 when Edwin Lester brought in a revival of "Carousel" with original leads John Raitt & Jan Clayton, as well as a touring company of "Camelot" with Kathryn Grayson (they had to cover her cleavage to keep the Baptist landlords from apoplexy) and Louis Hayward as King Arthur. Ahhhhh....THOSE were the days!

...and one more little thing about HBO's "Mildred Pierce"...yeah, it was cringe-worthy in many respects, but my major teeth-gnashing moment was watching what must have been a perpetual Santa Ana wind whipping around Mildred's "Glendale" house & making those imported palm trees swoon. Every exterior shot had those damn trees bent at the waist. At least Carol Burnett's hysterical "Mildred Fierce" was shot right here town.

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by nostalgie

...and about Scott's CLO recollections: it was 1963 when Edwin Lester brought in a revival of "Carousel" with original leads John Raitt & Jan Clayton, as well as a touring company of "Camelot" with Kathryn Grayson (they had to cover her cleavage to keep the Baptist landlords from apoplexy) and Louis Hayward as King Arthur. Ahhhhh....THOSE were the days!

Wow, really, I actually saw Raitt and Clayton? That is awesome! I had no idea I'd seen the original leads! Of course, I was too young to appreciate that back then, but now – their "bench scene" in "Carousel" is absolutely legendary to me.

And it's interesting – one of my distinct memories of "Camelot" was before the curtain rose, a voice came over the PA system announcing that Kathryn Grayson would not be appearing at that matinee, and Guenevere would instead be played by her understudy. Groans went up from the audience. I don't remember who the understudy was, but she was actually VERY well-received and got a standing ovation at the end. In fact, the "understudy" announcement and that ovation at the end are my most vivid memories of Philharmonic Auditorium. I've wondered ever since just who that brilliant unknown actress was who so stunned that audience with her performance...

-Scott

[ethereal_reality]

Great finds on the Algiers Hotel gsjansen. It seems that place was jinxed from the get-go.
It's been a lot of fun perusing the brochures you've been posting. The two maps included in the Hotel Clark were great
and I also liked the floor plans of the Hollywood Hotel.

_____________

A month or so ago, someone (sorry I can't remember who) mentioned an area of 'quasi-European/french chateau' architecture
concentrated in the West Hollywood/Hollywood area (other than Sunset Blvd.). None of us were able to come up with an answer.

Recently I was looking through the 1939 street maps via USC digital archive.
I enlarged one of the maps and noticed this area named 'Flemish Village'.



uscda

Could this possibly be the area in question?
The major north-south street in the center of this screen capture is Western Avenue.
As you can see, Santa Monica Blvd. is the east-west artery just south of the mysteriously named 'Flemish Village'.

[Los Angeles Past]

Jan Clayton and John Raitt perform the "bench scene" from Carousel on live television, March 28, 1954.

If you're unfamiliar with it, this is widely regarded as one of the superlative scenes in the history of the American musical theatre...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aThs1QIU0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL8i5P1CvUE

[unihikid]

i could be wrong but didnt they tare down the cc hotel not too long ago,i want to say i remember seeing it in the mid 90s.