noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

The penthouse was Liberace's home. I think it is still decorated with some of his belongings. I was up there a few times helping a friend with an art opening which was held there.

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

Did it have a pool?

5-11-1958. fuzzy newspaper photo of the pool and patio feature of the "double penthouse" at 7461 Beverly Blvd. Sweet. lat

Thanks for the follow-ups on 7461 Beverly Boulevard. I checked NLA for previous mentions, but never dreamed that a "five-Story office building" would have had such an interesting resident. To answer Noircitydame's question, it did have a pool, and it's still there.


Bing Maps

The building appeared briefly in the 2013 Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra". You can find a load more information about 7461 Beverly Boulevard, as well as comparison shots from the movie, at iamnotastalker.com.

[HossC]

Thanks for all the information on Carl's, Noircitydame. I'd forgotten about Carl's at the Beach. It's been mentioned a couple of times, but the only pictures I found are in e_r's post #8534.

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

Olympic Blvd. drive-in with sit-down restaurant, added after November 1939

couldn't find any photos of this one.

I found some pictures of the intersection in 1932 and 1933, and they just show an empty lot. The restaurant appears on the views at Historic Aerials between 1948 and 1964, but it's gone by 1972. Carl's can be seen to the right of Sears in this 1949 photo, which is the best I've found so far. There's another drive-in on the opposite corner. The Carl's site now houses a Starbucks.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

[HossC]

Sadly, there's only one image in this Julius Shulman set. It shows the Stiles Oliver Clements designed Vons store at the Broadway-Crenshaw Center, near the intersection of Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) and Crenshaw Boulevard. On the right is the Security First National Bank, and beyond that, the future site of a Sav-On drugstore. It's "Job 250: Stiles Oliver Clements, Vons (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1948".


Getty Research Institute

The Vons store is dwarfed by the much larger May Co building which it sits behind in this 1954 aerial view. The Baldwin Hills are visible in the background. At the intersection to the right of Vons (Marlton Avenue) is the Barker Brothers store which I posted about in post #31806.


USC Digital Library

I found this reverse shot at pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com. The article also contains more photos and information on the center. In the forground is an unidentified drive-in which can also be see in the view above. Also labeled on this image are the entrance and exit of the service tunnel. They're quite far apart, which makes me wonder how extensive the service tunnel is/was.


pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com

Vons, the drive-in and all the stores north of the May Co building were demolished in the '80s as the center expanded. Today, you'll find original 1940s buildings on either side of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, with Macy's now occupying the old May Co store. The corner of the Vons building would have been on the left, about halfway under the section of the mall which now bridges the street.


GSV

[Noircitydame]

Nice to see that Carl's drive-in and the rooftop pool.

Originally Posted by HossC

Sadly, there's only one image in this Julius Shulman set. It shows the Stiles Oliver Clements designed Vons store at the Broadway-Crenshaw Center, near the intersection of Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) and Crenshaw Boulevard. On the right is the Security First National Bank, and beyond that, the future site of a Sav-On drugstore. It's "Job 250: Stiles Oliver Clements, Vons (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1948".

The Vons store is dwarfed by the much larger May Co building which it sits behind in this 1954 aerial view. The Baldwin Hills are visible in the background. At the intersection to the right of Vons (Marlton Avenue) is the Barker Brothers store which I posted about in post #31806.


USC Digital Library

Also labeled on this image are the entrance and exit of the service tunnel. They're quite far apart, which makes me wonder how extensive the service tunnel is/was.

Vons, the drive-in and all the stores north of the May Co building were demolished in the '80s as the center expanded. Today, you'll find original 1940s buildings on either side of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, with Macy's now occupying the old May Co store. The corner of the Vons building would have been on the left, about halfway under the section of the mall which now bridges the street.

1-29-1948 ad for the grand opening of Von's at Santa Barbara and Crenshaw:
lat

That Broadway-Crenshaw building is really a streamlined stunner.

It had its ground breaking back on October 29, 1945. The grand opening was over two years later, November 21, 1947

About the service tunnel, the article about the opening says while people were waiting in the parking lot for the doors to open, trucks were still bringing in and unloading merchandice unseen via the tunnel, and that it began at Stocker Ave. and came out at Santa Barbara Ave.

The 1945 plan. lat

11-20-1947 ad for The Broadway Crenshaw. lat

The May Co. unveiled plans for its Crewshaw store back in June 1945. The finished product, when it finally opened in October 1947, looked a lot different.

The 1945 plan
6-7-45 lat

Ad for the 10-10-1947 opening spread over 2 pages:

lat

[bighen]

[QUOTE=Noircitydame;7311185]Nice to see that Carl's drive-in and the rooftop pool.

If you are referring to the building that looks like a drive in, it was a Mobil station with the Pegasus emblem on roof back in the the 50s to the early 70s at the Marlton and Santa Rosilia Avenue on the SW corner of the Crenshaw shopping center.

[Noircitydame]

I was looking for the Sunset Fields public golf course in HossC’s pictures of the Crenshaw-Santa Barbara shopping area but it was already gone. It closed at the end of May 1947 just a few months short of its 20th birthday (It opened Labor Day, September 2, 1927). It had already lost 9 holes when The Broadway-Crenshaw leased space in October 1944 for the store that opened in 1947.


1930s ad for the course, then 18-hole. It later grew to 36. Address was 4201 Crenshaw Blvd. at that time.

ebay

Overview of the field in its heyday
old file

1941 ad for Sunset Fields "Crenshaw & Stocker" (at the mouth of the future Broadway-Crenshaw service tunnel) lat

Its clubhouse was the old Sanchez Adobe of the Rancho La Cienega o Paso de la Tijera. Saint Bernadette's Parish bought the Adobe and two other related historic buildings in August 1947

the clubhouse c. 1938 LAPL Herman J. Schultheis Collection

[Noircitydame]

[QUOTE=bighen;7311302]

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

Nice to see that Carl's drive-in and the rooftop pool.

If you are referring to the building that looks like a drive in, it was a Mobil station with the Pegasus emblem on roof back in the the 50s to the early 70s at the Marlton and Santa Rosilia Avenue on the SW corner of the Crenshaw shopping center.

Thanks. I meant the Carl's Drive -In on Olympic Blvd- but the corner you mention was a mystery (to me). A gas station... no wonder I found not a thing about any restaurant there.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

I was looking for the Sunset Fields public golf course in HossC’s pictures of the Crenshaw-Santa Barbara shopping area but it was already gone. It closed at the end of May 1947 just a few months short of its 20th birthday (It opened Labor Day, September 2, 1927). It had already lost 9 holes when The Broadway-Crenshaw leased space in October 1944 for the store that opened in 1947.

1930s ad for the course, then 18-hole. It later grew to 36. Address was 4201 Crenshaw Blvd. at that time.

ebay

Overview of the field in its heyday
old file

Hey thanks for that great old ad NCD! Here are a few more photos of the area.

This looks east in 1929. The canyon at the bottom center is where Stocker Street is now. The Sunset Fields
Clubhouse/Sanchez Adobe is just about in the middle of the photo. Above the clubhouse, at the east end of
the golf course, Angeles Mesa Drive (renamed Crenshaw Blvd. in June 1930) runs left to right across the
photo. The north end of the golf course borders what is now the line of Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Back
then, a ditch/creek ran along that line, marked here by a line of dark vegetation, part of which is also
visible east of Angeles Mesa Drive. Immediately across from the creek and the golf course, in a line running
west from Angeles Mesa, are the buildings of Roger's Airport, which opened in that location on April 3, 1927:

DW-1929-910-25-155 @ USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...ll170/id/70634

This photo looking north on Angeles Mesa Drive at the bridges over that ditch/creek was taken June 26, 1929.
North of Roger's Airport, some of the buildings of the other Angeles Mesa Drive airports can be seen:

F2320 @ LA City Archive -- http://lacityhistory.pastperfect-onl...25529;type=102
[The LA City Archive says this is Crenshaw at Vernon, but Vernon is a few blocks south of this location.]

Here's a 1930 view (which I've lightened a bit) that looks mostly west. Crenshaw/Angeles Mesa runs
across the lower right corner of the photo; Stocker ends at Crenshaw near the bottom, opposite the end
of the golf course. Just north of that, along the north side of the golf course, we see the ditch/creek, which
has vanished east of Crenshaw due to the development of Leimert Park:

00033973 @ LAPL -- http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033973.jpg

More on the Sanchez Adobe: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=13984

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by HossC

Sadly, there's only one image in this Julius Shulman set. It shows the Stiles Oliver Clements designed Vons store at the Broadway-Crenshaw Center, near the intersection of Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) and Crenshaw Boulevard. On the right is the Security First National Bank, and beyond that, the future site of a Sav-On drugstore. It's "Job 250: Stiles Oliver Clements, Vons (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1948".


Getty Research Institute

I found this reverse shot at pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com. The article also contains more photos and information on the center. In the forground is an unidentified drive-in which can also be see in the view above. Also labeled on this image are the entrance and exit of the service tunnel. They're quite far apart, which makes me wonder how extensive the service tunnel is/was.


pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for these, Hoss.

I was in this area a lot when I was a little kid, and it is the location of some of my earliest memories. Like
bighen I also remember the flying Pegasus neon sign on the Mobil station at the bottom of the second photo.

But what really made an impression on dumb little me were those round roof vents on the Von's market. I
must have gone on and on about them, because my grandmother made up a bedtime story about Santa Claus
landing his sleigh on the Von's roof and knocking off one of those round vents and making Mr. Vons mad.

I can't remember how the story ended, but I don't think it involved a special on reindeer meat at Von's.

[tovangar2]

Great story :-)

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Von's, Los Angeles, Loomis Dean, 1949

Curb Service Von's

Von's supermarket is designed for auto shoppers, purchases are made the usual way, checked at counter, and loaded directly into car upon presentation of claim ticket. Los Angeles 1949

jalopyjournal

Thx Hoss. I didn't know the Von's was a Clements effort.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Noircitydame

Ad for the 10-10-1947 opening spread over 2 pages:

lat

Revisiting Oscar-winner Margaret Elliot's short tenure at May's Crenshaw:



From The Star (More in post 1410)

[HossC]

Staying in Leimert Park, I found this photo at USC a few days ago.

"School at West 39th Street and 4th Avenue, Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA, 1927."


USC Digital Library

Even though W 39th Street and 4th Avenue no longer meet, I decided to have a look around the area in the Googlemobile. It didn't take long to find the Tom Bradley Environmental Science and Humanities Charter Magnet School at 3875 Dublin Avenue. A lot of the details have changed over the years, but the building retains its original shape, and some of the windows are still recognizable.


GSV

[HossC]

Thanks for all the follow-ups and personal memories about Vons and the Broadway-Crenshaw Center. I see the 1947 ad described the tunnel as "half a mile in length, where trucks bring in cargoes of riches from the far corners of the earth."


------------------


Here's the Mar-Fay/Marfay building at 5657 Wilshire Boulevard. The information with these Julius Shulman photos just says they were taken in 1949, but there's obviously some time between the two images. I'm guessing that the one with the Foreman & Clark signage is the later one as the first floor remodel looks more modern, but I could be wrong. This is "Job 593: Wurdeman & Becket, Mar-Fay Building (Los Angeles, Calif.),1949". I've omitted the second picture in the set as it's virtually the same as the third.





Both from Getty Research Institute

The building was mentioned by tovangar2 in post #30962. If you've followed the link to urban diachrony in that post, the current appearance won't surprise you. The urban diachrony post includes a 1955 Julius Shulman picture which doesn't seem to be available at
the Getty Research Institute. The new look does nothing for me.


GSV

At least the building next door, now a branch of IHOP, has fared better. It's lost some detailing along its roofline, but is otherwise recognizable.


GSV

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Revisiting Oscar-winner Margaret Elliot's short tenure at May's Crenshaw:

"$39.95. Isn't it lovely?"

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

"Come on Oscar, let's you and me get drunk."

___


And some other delicious quotes from Margaret Elliot

"Don't touch me with your 10% hands."

"Well...I gave Johnny $25,000 when I divorced him so he could marry you."

"I don't have any shoes for little boys."

"On the right, ladies and gentlemen, is the home of rising young star Mitzi Gaynor. How young can you be?"

"How do you know what a kid likes?"

"It isn't like you to pay a social visit, Jed Garfield, what are you doing here?"

"I'VE been 'running around in circles', too! But not MARGARET ELLIOT circles!"

"If you're a star you don't stop being a star."

"Take a good look ladies; so there's no doubt. It is Margaret Elliot and it is a disgrace. Margaret Elliot waiting on a couple of old bags like you. Go ahead, call the manager. Call the President. Call the fire department. I won't be here. I AM Margaret Elliot, and I intend to STAY 'Margaret Elliot'!"

[GaylordWilshire]

Great roundup of quotes from a little-known campfest, M-P









The lanky payoff....





The prop department installed a little platform on which the Oscar rode on the dash of Margaret's Mercury...



Apparently The Star is better known than I thought--below is a poster from this NOT TO BE MISSED site dedicated to it... Bette Davis sings!
http://thestar1952.blogspot.com"]http://thestar1952.blogspot.com/"]http://thestar1952.blogspot.com








http://fineartamerica.com/

[ethereal_reality]

I slammed a door like that once. It felt real good.

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks for the follow-ups on 7461 Beverly Boulevard. I checked NLA for previous mentions, but never dreamed that a "five-Story office building" would have had such an interesting resident. To answer Noircitydame's question, it did have a pool, and it's still there.


Bing Maps

The building appeared briefly in the 2013 Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra". You can find a load more information about 7461 Beverly Boulevard, as well as comparison shots from the movie, at iamnotastalker.com.

Here's a view of the pool in 1987.


http://laist.com/2013/05/26/photos_t...i.php#photo-14



And a peek inside the penthouse, also 1987.


http://laist.com/2013/05/26/photos_t...i.php#photo-13



7461 Beverly Boulevard in 1987.


http://laist.com/2013/05/26/photos_t...i.php#photo-12




Today, the building has awnings over the street level businesses. Across Vista Street is an interesting neighbor.


gsv



Here's the neighbor from Vista St.

gsv



In the alley there are several old angled garage spaces, probably too small for today's larger cars.


gsv



gsv

I'm going to try and dig up more information on this building.

__

[GaylordWilshire]

That you crossing Wilshire, ER?


19 blocks east...


Maurice E. Ideses/Vintage LosAngeles

Have we seen this great shot before?

[ethereal_reality]

I don't believe we've seen this diagram of Clara Phillip's escape from jail.

[ca.1922]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1922-Press-P...QAAOSwoydWnZNT

So which jail is being shown here....was there a separate women's jail in 1922?
The information below only says "the jail in Los Angeles".


here's the info.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1922-Press-P...QAAOSwoydWnZNT

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

...and here's Clara, former chorus girl and film extra, shortly after her arrest for murder. (I first posted this mug-shot back in Sept. of 2012)

ebay

On Dec. 5, 1922, she escaped from Los Angeles County Jail.
She was eventually found in Honduras....extradited....and sent to San Quentin for 13 years.
__

I've often wondered where on Montecito Drive the murder took place.
Despite being in close proximity to downtown L.A., the drive still has it's lonely spots and noirish views.

You can see the "the lonely spots and noirish views" here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=25232
as well as a 1922 photograph of the murder spot, and a rather gruesome photograph of the murder victim covered in blood.
__

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the Mar-Fay/Marfay building at 5657 Wilshire Boulevard. The information with these Julius Shulman photos just says they were taken in 1949, but there's obviously some time between the two images. I'm guessing that the one with the Foreman & Clark signage is the later one as the first floor remodel looks more modern, but I could be wrong. This is "Job 593: Wurdeman & Becket, Mar-Fay Building (Los Angeles, Calif.),1949". I've omitted the second picture in the set as it's virtually the same as the third.





Both from Getty Research Institute

The building was mentioned by tovangar2 in post #30962.

Swell to see the Shulman images.

Drawing from 3-17-1949 while the building was still under construction at the announcement of Foreman & Clark taking a lease. They opened at 5657 Sept 28, 1949.

lat


gsjansen posted the picture of Slapsie Maxie's below back in post #3770 along with many other related images:



5657 can be seen under construction. Spike Jones appeared at Slapsie Maxie's Nov 8-Nov 13, 1948.



10-30-1948 Slapsie Maxie ad promoting the upcoming appearance of Spike Jones. lat

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I don't believe we've seen this diagram of Clara Phillip's escape from jail.

[ca.1922]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1922-Press-P...QAAOSwoydWnZNT

So which jail is being shown here....was there a separate women's jail in 1922?
The information below only says "the jail in Los Angeles".

It was the old County jail by the courthouse. The LAPL has this great shot, also showing her cell and escape route:
lapl