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  #8041  
Old Posted May 30, 2012, 9:28 PM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Director King Vidor and Eleanor Boardman attend (second) Sept 1929 Premier of Marianne. First Premier was in '25 when film was silent. Unk theater. Is Auto Park in third photo?

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039146.jpg Eleanor Boardman google


January '30
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...view/CHS-35282


Beverly Hills Map '26. Vidor's home is listed as No. 214 upper left quadrant.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0052.jpg

Reverse
http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0051.jpg



From Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/print/19...7_1_king-vidor

"King Vidor loved to acquire real estate.
The director of film classics such as "The Crowd," "The Big Parade" and "The Fountainhead" moved from Hollywood's most modest neighborhoods to the hilltops of Beverly Hills, trailing wives and children and business deals as he traded up in addresses.
Suzanne Vidor Parry, of Los Angeles, a daughter from his first marriage to actress Florence Vidor, believes her father had lived in at least a dozen local boardinghouses, apartments and mansions.
From the lean days, when he and his casts took the red streetcar to get to Hollywood locations, to the gravy days when two trains were needed to carry crew and equipment to Idaho for the filming of "Northwest Passage," Vidor was a Hollywood insider.
His name hadn't come up much for years, however, until author Sidney D. Kirkpatrick wrote "A Cast of Killers," based upon records and diaries found in Vidor's garage.
Film Director's Murder
Vidor had investigated the mystery of silent film director William Desmond Taylor's murder in hopes of using the evidence and conclusions in a screenplay. Kirkpatrick's 1986 account of the 1967 investigation of the 1922 murder was a "page turner" that some day may be seen on the screen.
Last July, Vidor's name appeared in print again, this time in an advertisement placed by Stan Herman & Associates in the Hollywood Reporter. One of Vidor's homes with a Beverly Hills mailing address is for sale at $7 million. It was the small print, "remodel or tear down" that startled the Vidor family, who have not seen the house for years.
In 1936, soon after he helped to organize the Directors Guild of America, Vidor, who was reared in Texas and was named for an uncle, made plans to build one of his largest estates.
Paying $16,000 for a six-acre knoll on Summitridge Drive, he hired Wallace Neff to design a chalet-lke home, as well as a barn and guest quarters. Neff's papers indicate that the complex was budgeted to cost $30,000, plus the architect's customary 10% fee. Vidor moved into a house at 1120 Summit Drive, across the street from Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard's home as well as from Pickfair, and kept an eye on the construction on the hillside above.
In late 1938, following the filming of ‘The Citadel’ in England, he and his third wife, Elizabeth Hill, moved into "the ranch," at 1636 Summitridge Drive and remained for a dozen years.
Chickens and Horses
The white clapboard house, made of redwood, was not baronial, especially during the war years, when chickens and horses were penned near the victory garden. Yet it was well cared for, with half a dozen rooms provided for maids and groundskeepers.
After Elizabeth's son was killed in World War II, they decided to move, and after the war, hired architect Wlliam Stevenson to design a contemporary-style home on La Altura Road, not far from the Doheny Greystone estate.
According to his daughter, Vidor sold the Summitridge house in 1956, the year his film, "War and Peace," was released, to Col. C.C. Moseley, an aeronautics pioneer, for less than $150,000.
Vidor died in 1982 at his ranch in Paso Robles.
Today, while the outside of the Summitridge estate has changed and the grounds are nearly wild with untended vegetation, the interior appears much as it did when Vidor lived there, including a kitchen and streamlined 1930s bathroom fixtures in black.
The living room walls have been covered by more ornate wood paneling and the porch, which enclosed the house, has been walled in, but those seem to be the only changes. A teak-railed staircase, hand-carved in a palm-frond motif, leads to a second floor master suite544696692department.
Rented to Film People
According to Stephan Shapiro, the Stan Herman & Associates realtor representing the buyer, the lot is one of the largest, flat view sites in the area.
The present owner, who resides in Europe, bought it in 1976 for about $600,000, and has rented it to film industry people ever since.
If the house is sold and demolished, it will experience the fate of the first mansion Vidor owned in Hollywood at 7919 Selma Ave. A year or so ago, the Tudor-style home that he and Florence Vidor bought after World War I was torn down and replaced by an apartment building.
'It had one of the finest tennis courts in town," Suzanne Vidor Parry remembers. "Dad sold it to Fay Wray, and later owners included Lewis Milestone and Dick Powell.'"



Director/Producer Vidor was not shy about expressing himself.
http://www.google.com/

Last edited by BifRayRock; May 30, 2012 at 9:57 PM.
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  #8042  
Old Posted May 30, 2012, 9:54 PM
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ethereal_reality ethereal_reality is offline
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It looks like 'Monkey Island' might have had some competition after all.

detail of Amusement Map 1929.


I also thought 3940dxer/David might like to explore the 'Magnetic Hill' area. I've never heard of it before
(nor the Monkey Farm in Culver City for that matter).

___

In the upper right (not circled in red) is a 'Palace de Glace (ice)'. Do you think this was an ice skating venue?.
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  #8043  
Old Posted May 30, 2012, 10:06 PM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
It looks like 'Monkey Island' might have had some competition after all.

detail of Amusement Map 1929.
Ventura Blvd. was no slouch when it came to wildlife: "30,000 Chicks," "Flowers," "Squab Ranch," "Bird Wonderland," and "Hollywd Zoo." (Did someone count all of those chicks?)
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  #8044  
Old Posted May 30, 2012, 10:08 PM
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MichaelRyerson MichaelRyerson is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BifRayRock View Post
1914 "Ideal Tours" Road Map, Thurston. Entertaining ad at top: "The Webber Garage, Open all night, Phone 211." 'He makes good' Covina - no street address.

'The firms whose names appear on this map are recommended as thoroughly reliable.'

http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0023.jpg

Reverse
Gaylord-Wilshire and Moxie, interestingly, do you notice in this map, ca.1914, there is very little development in the Valley but you can see the basic route of Sherman Way taking shape, originating in Lankershim making a ninety degree turn north at Van Nuys and another ninety degree turn to run west and end in Owensmouth. And here's a couple of interesting things, first the east/west section is called Van Nuys Blvd(!) on this map. I've never heard of that before. Also if you look closely you can see that 'Sherman Way' north of the Owensmouth cut-off is called N. Sherman Way, hence G-W, your address for the piano manufacturer was exactly right being 6001 S. Sherman Way. Great stuff.
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  #8045  
Old Posted May 30, 2012, 10:26 PM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
An electrical parade at the Coliseum in 1932.



usc digital archive
Tenth Olympiad
http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0046.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0047.jpg
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  #8046  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 12:13 AM
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Thanks for the Olympics posts! I'm actually going to be teaching a short course on Olympics history in July, so those will come in really handy.
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  #8047  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 12:58 AM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post
I got this satellite shot from Google Earth; you can see where the natural creek runs in the Brookside neighborhood:

More on the Brookside neighborhood and Bimini Slough.

Ambassador Hotel, facing east x southeast. "7th and Vermont area -1924" Notice Slough-marshland-creek to the west of the Hotel. (bottom of picture)

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics42/00040738.jpg

Undated photo. Looking north at path of "Sacatele Creek" aka Bimini Slough.
"It passes next to Bimini Hot Springs in upper right and continues to the lower left near the Ambassador Hotel, foreground."http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/D...catele%20Creek

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics23/00046105.jpg
________________________
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For more on Los Angeles Creeks, see also: http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/

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  #8048  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 1:09 AM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Originally Posted by Moxie View Post
Thanks for the Olympics posts! I'm actually going to be teaching a short course on Olympics history in July, so those will come in really handy.
Don't overlook this thread!
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=171850
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  #8049  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 1:30 AM
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Excellent, thanks for letting me know about that page. Not surprisingly, I'll be focusing a lot on London in 1908 and 1948, but I'll be trying to include as much as I have time for from other years, and the changes in the types of ephemera is always great for sparking conversation.
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  #8050  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 6:56 AM
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At this point in the thread I am surprised to find a theater that I've never heard of before.

Let me present the Studio Theater located at 6525 Hollywood Boulevard, designed by S. Charles Lee.


http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/



below: This little jewel of a theater must have been amazing at night (I imagine the marquee featured many 'traveling' lights)


http://cinematreasures.org/




below: Illustrations by S. Charles Lee.


http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/






http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/





below: I'm not sure if this photo is of the projection room or the air conditioning unit.


http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/


below: Trying to read the inscription.







below: A rare view of an interior room in the Studio Theater.


http://cinematreasures.org/






below: A brochure featuring the Studio Theater.


http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/





below: Surprisingly, this snapshot shows the Studio Theater as the Music Hall. (?)


http://cinematreasures.org/




below: Eventually the Studio Theater became the Loew's Holly Theater (complete with this tasteless facade).


http://cinematreasures.org/



http://cinematreasures.org/






below: The building that once housed the elegant Studio Theater still stands on Hollywood Blvd.


google street view

Last edited by ethereal_reality; May 31, 2012 at 7:12 AM.
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  #8051  
Old Posted May 31, 2012, 4:04 PM
BifRayRock BifRayRock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
At this point in the thread I am surprised to find a theater that I've never heard of before.

below: Surprisingly, this snapshot shows the Studio Theater as the Music Hall. (?)


http://cinematreasures.org/

below: Eventually the Studio Theater became the Loew's Holly Theater (complete with this tasteless facade).


http://cinematreasures.org/
_________________________

I think one of the reasons this theater is mostly an ignored or forgotten footnote is because it never distinguished itself as anything but. The connection with Howard Hughes and the neon lights are interesting, but the venue was comparatively tiny next to the larger movie palaces. Per your linked source, it started out as a coin-operated novelty, and evidently sat directionless from there. A series of seven unmemorable name changes and included (1) Studio Theater (2) Colony (3) Music Hall (5) Academy (6) Lowe's Holly and (7) Holly. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1132

__________________________

With your indulgence, I am going out on a limb with two large images, that have a limited nexus to this topic, but may also be of use with other discussions. In this 1956 realty map, the theater is listed as the "Academy Theater" and is somewhat lost next to its neighboring retailers. Parenthetically, I was looking at these images to see an overhead shot of the Muller Bros establishment (now occupied by the Cinerama Dome).


http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0033.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/maps/lg//MAP_0034.jpg
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  #8052  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 5:16 AM
BDiH BDiH is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
At this point in the thread I am surprised to find a theater that I've never heard of before.view of an interior room in the Studio Theater.
____________________

In the 1950's and 1960's the theater was called the Academy.
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  #8053  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 5:57 PM
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If the thread is going to survive, forumers need to limit throwing hundreds of photos/maps at us nonstop.
The discussions that made this thread so special over the years have all but disappeared because of this onslaught of images.

I write this because numerous members have contacted me about this matter. Several have even said they're taking a break from 'noirish Los Angeles'.

This saddens me immensely.

___

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Jun 1, 2012 at 8:15 PM.
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  #8054  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 6:46 PM
KevinW KevinW is offline
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Thread Survival

The thought of this thread "Not Surviving" truly worries me. Is there any way to have a backup that duplicates everything in case Skyscraper goes belly up or someone feels like deleting things out of spite? As I've said, this is a major resource for me in my 3D historical models of the city so please let's not limit anyone. I'd rather say keep posts to a single subject and when quoting posts, don't copy an entire long bunch of pictures, just the one that you're talking about. I'm currently working at the site of the old Carthay Circle Theater and just walked over to shoot the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente to compare to one of Bif's posts last week. Everyone, please don't delete anything from this thread.
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  #8055  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 6:49 PM
fhammon fhammon is offline
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Originally Posted by BifRayRock View Post
More on the Brookside neighborhood and Bimini Slough.

Ambassador Hotel, facing east x southeast. "7th and Vermont area -1924" Notice Slough-marshland-creek to the west of the Hotel. (bottom of picture)

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics42/00040738.jpg

Undated photo. Looking north at path of "Sacatele Creek" aka Bimini Slough.
"It passes next to Bimini Hot Springs in upper right and continues to the lower left near the Ambassador Hotel, foreground."http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/D...catele%20Creek

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics23/00046105.jpg
________________________
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For more on Los Angeles Creeks, see also: http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/

Thanks for posting these photos and info on the Bimini Slough. I've been interested in it ever since I saw this photo but didn't even know it had a name. I always wondered what happened to that little canyon that required a bridge to cross. It got filled in. I hate when they do that...


Quote:
Undated Aerial Photo, facing northeast, probably from the 1910's. The Bimini Baths are in the center. Across the street, in the lower left corner is the Rayfield building. Sacatela Creek is on the right. Streetcar tracks cross the creek on a wooden bridge. First Street runs along the top edge, Second Street along the bottom and Bimini Place is along the left. Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library.
http://laecovillage.wordpress.com/20...-bimini-baths/
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  #8056  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 8:13 PM
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MichaelRyerson MichaelRyerson is offline
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Well, that's all pretty bad news. I can't really tell from your description what is being done to lead some 'forumers' to take a break. Too many pictures? Perhaps you could be just a tad bit more specific. I hope I'm not one of the miscreants (although it's altogether possible). I'm sure some of us would be perfectly willing to go back to lurking if it would help insure the thread's wellbeing.
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  #8057  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 9:10 PM
jg6544 jg6544 is offline
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ER, it would help if there were some way to respond to specific posts without reproducing the pictures and it would also help if there were some way to respond to a specific picture without responding to every last one of them in a post.

I like this page - it's the only one I pay a lot of attention to on Skyscraper Page, in fact.
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  #8058  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 9:21 PM
3940dxer 3940dxer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinW View Post
The thought of this thread "Not Surviving" truly worries me. Is there any way to have a backup that duplicates everything in case Skyscraper goes belly up or someone feels like deleting things out of spite? As I've said, this is a major resource for me in my 3D historical models of the city so please let's not limit anyone. I'd rather say keep posts to a single subject and when quoting posts, don't copy an entire long bunch of pictures, just the one that you're talking about. I'm currently working at the site of the old Carthay Circle Theater and just walked over to shoot the intersection of Wilshire and San Vicente to compare to one of Bif's posts last week. Everyone, please don't delete anything from this thread.
I don't think e_r is afraid of the thread literally vanishing, I think the concern is about it becoming diluted -- just a big pile of photos -- if the outstanding research, narratives and dialogue that we have come to expect, diminish.

As I mentioned recently (and maybe this was lost in the general business also) I've been maintaining an archive of the whole thread, just in case. I have saved everything up to page 380 or so, and update it every few weeks to stay caught up. My main worry was and is that skyscraperpages.com might pull the plug one day. If this site vanished, I have no idea how the thread might be resurrected, but there must be some way to do it.

And Kevin, I want to add that I totally agree with your comment "keep posts to a single subject and when quoting posts, don't copy an entire long bunch of pictures, just the one that you're talking about." PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. It's not THAT hard to edit out the extra photos, it just takes a little more time. The Preview function is your friend. If everyone follows this guideline, thread clutter will be greatly reduced and each page of the thread will offer more bang for the buck. If you are confused about post editing ask here and I'm sure someone will help. Or PM me.

While we're on the subject of "house keeping" I have a general question for all -- in general, what's a good maximum pixel width for photos? I have kind of settled on 1200 pixels wide because that size is about average of what other posters go with, displays on my PC and laptop without scrolling, while still offering good detail. YMMV, of course. In general, what size do YOU think is good? (Of course, much larger images are necessary at times, like for detailed maps, graphics, and hi-def "Shorpy" type photos. And the opposite is sometimes the case -- low res and small images just look bad when enlarged, and are better kept small.)

Thanks all, Noir on!

Last edited by 3940dxer; Jun 2, 2012 at 12:28 AM.
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  #8059  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 9:21 PM
fhammon fhammon is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
If the thread is going to survive, forumers need to limit throwing hundreds of photos/maps at us nonstop.
The discussions that made this thread so special over the years have all but disappeared because of this onslaught of images.

I write this because numerous members have contacted me about this matter. Several have even said they're taking a break from 'noirish Los Angeles'.

This saddens me immensely.

___
This is disturbing...but I sort of understand why some people are getting overwhelmed. It takes a while for a page to load for all of the images.

Part of the problem might be quoting posts including all of the images becoming a bit redundant. Like I just did with the Bimini Slough post.
Posting images for it's own sake with no connection to anything, little or no information or insight attached, is a bit of a drag sometimes.

For what it's worth, this is still my favorite place to visit on the web. I love looking at these photos and I particularly appreciate your particular brand of passion and interest, ethereal. You find the coolest stuff. Always interesting.
Great insight.
I also appreciate the amount of time and effort people put into solving puzzles and historical mysteries like Monkey Island and creating well researched themes. I love the "then and now" stuff particularly.
Thank you everybody and especially you ethereal for making this happen.
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  #8060  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2012, 9:39 PM
fhammon fhammon is offline
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Originally Posted by 3940dxer View Post

As I mentioned recently (and maybe this was lost in the general business also) I've been maintaining an archive of the whole thread, just in case. I have saved everything up to page 380 or so, and update it every few weeks to stay caught up.
How are you doing this? What method?
This thread is truly amazing and important. A great resource for doing historical research. I think the Library of Congress should archive it. At least the Los Angeles Historical Society should.
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