noirish Los Angeles

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Happy to oblige, e_r!

April 24, 1952, Long Beach Press Telegram: "NEED experienced fountain and counter girl. Top wages. Call between 2 and 3 p. m. Virginia Bowling Alley. 25 Chestnut."

That would be in the Pike area . . . in the Hotel Virginia area . . . Good thinking!

The scene just feels so . . . so . . . so Long Beach.

The architects of the Hotel Virginia appear to have been inspired by Castle Green in Pasadena. Which itself was inspired by British Raj buildings in India.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

hmmm...so what was on TOP of the Virginia Bowling Alley. (the roof appears to be at the same level as the higher elevation)
Was it just an expanse of concrete.....parking perhaps?

I think at least part of the area was Santa Cruz Park, established in 1922. It was on hiatus from 1962-1983 (the signage is in the second gsv in my last post). The history is here

[HossC]

Chestnut Place rang a bell with me from watching CHiPs, but more of that below. Here's a view from January 1, 1928, which shows the Hotel Virginia stil standing. I kept a wide view to show to early stages of construction on the Rainbow Pier. It looks odd without the Municipal Auditorium.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

This view from October 17, 1939 shows the hotel gone, but the driveway on Ocean Boulevard is still intact. The lower level seems to have acquired some small amusements, but there's no sign of the bowlng alley. Note that Chestnut Place doesn't extend to Ocean Boulevard, and I think that the tree from e_r's picture is to the left of the Sovereign.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

The 1953 and 1963 views at Historic Aerials are fuzzy, but appear to show a building where the bowling alley was. The roadway to Ocean appears by 1972.

Many of the later episodes of CHiPs had scenes filmed around Long Beach. The season 4 episode 'Sick Leave' starts with a chase which goes down Chestnut Place. You can see the ramp in the background of the screengrabs below, but no sign of the bowling alley.




MGM TV/Rosner TV

The 1980 aerial view shows how undeveloped this area still was at the time of filming. At the bottom, you can just see part of an elevated section of road which has since been removed.


Historic Aerials

This current aerial shows how things have changed. The Sovereign and Blackstone appear to be the only constants.


Google Maps

[CityBoyDoug]

LA Doo Wopers
...
http://history-of-rock.com

One of the great novelty acts of the 1960s. Recording for ARVEE at 7803 Sunset Blvd.Hollywood , CA. I believe there's a new building at that address.

• Video Link
Link

The Olympics were one of the great L.A.-based acts who managed to score regional hits on the West Coast by balancing upbeat and often humorous novelty R&B tunes with those about popular dances of the day (some of the other West Coast groups who fit this description were the Jay Hawks, the Cadets/Jacks, the Marathons, and the DooTones). They are perhaps best remembered for their Coasters-derived "Western Movies," but their other L.A.-area hits include the popular dance number "Baby Hully Gully," "Big Boy Pete" (which stalled out at number 50 pop, but went to number ten R&B), and "Mine Exclusively."

Mostly, the Olympics attempted to duplicate their hit status with novelty songs along the lines of their smash hit... "Western Movies."

from:....http://history-of-rock.com/doosix.htm

[Scott Charles]

It was around 1984 or ’86, I was between 18 and 20 years old, and was hanging out with a guy I knew from high school.

Long story short, we visited this building, which we soon discovered was… a whorehouse. I had a steady girlfriend, but my former classmate was a virgin, and he paid to sleep with one of the girls. I left as soon as he disappeared through the double doors with the girl he had chosen.


Link to location on Google Maps

In all honesty, I was shocked that a brothel would be so “open to the public” as that. You literally just walked in, just like you’d walk into Pep Boys, no guard at the door, nobody checking IDs. The girls came out, you chose one, and that was that. How an illegal enterprise could operate so utterly indiscreetly (and in broad daylight - we went at around noon) certainly surprised me; maybe someone in high places had been paid off(?).

All these years later, I’m wondering about that building. I wish I knew architecture as well then as I do now so I could remember the building better, but the building seemed quite old (at least for LA), maybe from the 1920s, and perhaps even older than that. In my faded memory, the building seems almost Victorian. I believe it was painted white, and it was a bit dilapidated inside. There were hardwood floors, and if I recall correctly, there were also high ceilings. I can’t recall the exact shape of the building, but I know it was at the north or northwest end of the parking lot. There were NO signs or billboards outside of the building that gave any indication of what transpired inside, and the building itself looked more like a large home than a place of business. I am virtually certain it began as a dwelling, and not a place of business.

Does anyone know the history of this building?

[Earl Boebert]

OK, I'm sure everybody but me recognizes this place, used in an episode of one of our family's favorite shows (Face Off, sadly on its last season on SyFy) a week or so ago. So where/what is it?







Hey, at least I didn't ask about a picture of City Hall

Cheers,

Earl

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

I think at least part of the area was Santa Cruz Park, established in 1922.

I noticed that the present-day Santa Cruz Park is quite close to where the Hotel Virginia's 'Sunken Garden' was located.


EBAY






I'm including this view to show you the little man standing in the garden.


EBAY

I'm kidding...he's normal size.

It's just..I was surprised by how LARGE the hotel looks. my gosh!

*lots of flowering mystery bushes too. Care to chime in odinthor? (the white blooms remind me of little parachutes)

I still can't get over how small that man looks

We're closer to Chestnut in this view. (it's behind the photographer)


EBAY

I believe those are Irises. my 2nd guess is Gladiolas



__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks for the aerials Hoss. I especially like the one above [1939]

The rollercoaster in the lower right corner reminded me of a photograph I found on ebay a week or so ago.
And if I remember correctly, it was listed by the seller that had the Virginia Bowling Alley photograph.

Here it is.


EBAY

As you can see the sailor is lying on some sort of big pipe.

__

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the aerials Hoss. I especially like the one above [1939]

The rollercoaster in the lower right corner reminded me of a photograph I found on ebay a week or so ago.
And if I remember correctly, it was listed by the seller that had the Virginia Bowling Alley photograph.

Here it is.


EBAY

As you can see the sailor is lying on some sort of a big pipe.

__

Oh gawd. My irregular stepfather took me on this rollercoaster when I was about 7 years old. I had never heard of it or what it was. It was 1 minute 43 seconds, 50 mph and 3,700 feet of sheer hell. I hated it.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I believe those are Irises. my 2nd guess is Gladiolas



__

I'm guessing Canna Lilies, but odinthor will know for sure

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

OK, I'm sure everybody but me recognizes this place, used in an episode of one of our family's favorite shows (Face Off, sadly on its last season on SyFy) a week or so ago. So where/what is it?



Cheers,

Earl

It's the Doheny Mansion at 8 Chester Place, now owned by Mt. St. Mary's University.

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Oh gawd. My irregular stepfather took me on this rollercoaster when I was about 7 years old. I had never heard of it or what it was. It was 1 minute 43 seconds, 50 mph and 3,700 feet of sheer hell. I hated it.

You would think CBD would have caught the white sox on a \Sailor in uniform...Big No No.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

It was around 1984 or ’86, I was between 18 and 20 years old, and was hanging out with a guy I knew from high school.

Long story short, we visited this building, which we soon discovered was… a whorehouse. I had a steady girlfriend, but my former classmate was a virgin, and he paid to sleep with one of the girls. I left as soon as he disappeared through the double doors with the girl he had chosen.


Link to location on Google Maps

In all honesty, I was shocked that a brothel would be so “open to the public” as that. You literally just walked in, just like you’d walk into Pep Boys, no guard at the door, nobody checking IDs. The girls came out, you chose one, and that was that. How an illegal enterprise could operate so utterly indiscreetly (and in broad daylight - we went at around noon) certainly surprised me; maybe someone in high places had been paid off(?).


Does anyone know the history of this building?

Scott Charles, you must be referring to the place to the left of the blue dot. It's now within the West Hollywood city limits.
Does the name Circus Maximus ring a bell?:



1971 Feb 28 -- Flight tg-2755 Frame 20-20 @ UCSB


Circus Maximus was at 1227 N. La Cienega. I started working at the SE corner of Sunset and La Cienega in the summer
of 1985, and I passed by 1227 N. La Cienega every day. I remember it looked like an old house mostly hidden by bushes
and trees (directly across the street at 1216-1222 N. La Cienega are the Lotus Garden Apartments):



1950 Sanborn Map @ ProQuest via LAPL


This is the first mention of 1227 N. La Cienega that I found:



Billboard magazine, June 17, 1967 @ Google Books



Subtlety was not used in this advertisement:



July 19, 1970, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL



July 8, 1980, Los Angeles Times:



ProQuest via LAPL


Circus Maximus closed in April 1985; the following is from the article, "Vice Squads Have Mixed Success in West Hollywood":




May 19, 1985, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

I'm guessing Canna Lilies, but odinthor will know for sure

t2 Your prize from the Monocot Alliance and Booster Club is in the mail!

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

[...] I'm including this view to show you the little man standing in the garden.


EBAY

I'm kidding...he's normal size.

It's just..I was surprised by how LARGE the hotel looks. my gosh!

*lots of flowering mystery bushes too. Care to chime in odinthor? (the white blooms remind me of little parachutes)

I still can't get over how small that man looks

[...]

Thanks, e_r. I see Wisteria in the photo (below the V in Virginia), I see roses (above and below the terrace). . . but it seems to me that the suspiciously too-regularly-occurring flowers on those bushes in weirdly varying colors are the famous Photo Lab Artist Fake-Out Flowers, planted (in the artist's mind) by the hotel management: "Can't we liven up the all that greenery somehow, Edwin?" The flower-clusters look much like those of Cannas; but they don't belong to the bushes I'm seeing . . . except insofar as maybe someone cut them off real Cannas and stuck them too regularly into the bushes just for the photo session. Meantime, Dusty Miller in the bed near the man's ankles. And a nice little palm tree. The flowers in the bed immediately behind the Dusty Millers look to me a bit Snapdragon-y, for the most part. . . . The more I look at those bushes, the more I think I'm seeing Ivy growing on the hotel wall. Look at how flat the "bushes" are. Why, I think we've been hornswoggled, e_r, hornswoggled, I'm tellin' ya!

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Scott Charles, you must be referring to the place to the left of the blue dot. It's now within the West Hollywood city limits.
Does the name Circus Maximus ring a bell?:



1971 Feb 28 -- Flight tg-2755 Frame 20-20 @ UCSB


Circus Maximus was at 1227 N. La Cienega. I started working at the SE corner of Sunset and La Cienega in the summer
of 1985, and I passed by 1227 N. La Cienega every day. I remember it looked like an old house mostly hidden by bushes
and trees (directly across the street at 1216-1222 N. La Cienega are the Lotus Garden Apartments):



1950 Sanborn Map @ ProQuest via LAPL


This is the first mention of 1227 N. La Cienega that I found:



Billboard magazine, June 17, 1967 @ Google Books



Subtlety was not used in this advertisement:



July 19, 1970, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL



July 8, 1980, Los Angeles Times:



ProQuest via LAPL


Circus Maximus closed in April 1985; the following is from the article, "Vice Squads Have Mixed Success in West Hollywood":




May 19, 1985, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL

Wow, that’s certainly the place in the first photo, Flyingwedge!

As you said, it looked like an old house mostly hidden by bushes and trees - although you could see more clearly once inside of the parking lot. And the name Circus Maximus absolutely does ring a bell, though I don’t remember why - of course, it must be in reference to this place, what other reason could I have for remembering that name?

This next clipping blows my mind:


How on earth could they NOT get arrested for prostitution? It was blatant, as clear as day! That’s like raiding a Chick-fil-A franchise and saying you couldn’t find any chicken!

That said, thank-you Flyingwedge for the time you took to track down that information! It certainly is appreciated… discovering these old places from my youth makes them seem more “real”, if that makes any sense.

PS: Did you know that the place was a brothel when you worked on the corner of Sunset and La Cienega?

PPS: Did you find any older history on the building itself? As in, what it was before it became Circus Maximus?

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

You would think CBD would have caught the white sox on a \Sailor in uniform...Big No No.

Don't wonder and worry HG....I saw those sox but that was the regulation issue in WWII....they were changed to black during the Korean War era or thereabouts.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It's the Doheny Mansion at 8 Chester Place, now owned by Mt. St. Mary's University.

Thanks.

Cheers,

Earl

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

LA Doo Wopers
...
http://history-of-rock.com

One of the great novelty acts of the 1960s. Recording for ARVEE at 7803 Sunset Blvd.Hollywood , CA. I believe there's a new building at that address.

• Video Link
Link

The Olympics were one of the great L.A.-based acts who managed to score regional hits on the West Coast by balancing upbeat and often humorous novelty R&B tunes with those about popular dances of the day (some of the other West Coast groups who fit this description were the Jay Hawks, the Cadets/Jacks, the Marathons, and the DooTones). They are perhaps best remembered for their Coasters-derived "Western Movies," but their other L.A.-area hits include the popular dance number "Baby Hully Gully," "Big Boy Pete" (which stalled out at number 50 pop, but went to number ten R&B), and "Mine Exclusively."

Mostly, the Olympics attempted to duplicate their hit status with novelty songs along the lines of their smash hit... "Western Movies."

from:....http://history-of-rock.com/doosix.htm

CBD you caught my attention. My dad was a part of the Robins during the start of his career. He joined them when he was around 15 years old (supposedly he was found singing on the corner of western and adams while selling eggs, which might be a myth..)and was quickly trained by the group as a replacement lead, and a la Frankie Lymon as bringing a younger sound to the group.



(L-R Bill Richards ,Roy Richards, Grady Chapman, and Dad Bobby Sheen)

The Robins stayed on Arvee for about two years, then they kinda disbanded, some of them went to their parent group (The Coasters), the Richard's went to the family business of running Spaulding Mortuary off of LaBrea, but from time to time rejoin the surviving Robins for speacial occasions such as the Rhythm and Blues Foundation or R and R Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Back to the Olympics... I knew of two of them. One of them was named Charles, he lived close by and would always tour with dad. I want to say he passed away in the mid 90's but i really don't remember.



(L-R Unidentified Olympic, Dad, Charles wearing a Paris shirt, Donnie Brooks with the shades, J J Jackson wearing blue, Unidentified Olympic photo bomb, Bobby Nunn wearing black hat, Billy Richards Jr ,and Dee Clark)

This photo was taken prior to 1986, which was the year that Bobby Nunn passed away. L.A. was filled with great musicians who all worked together and knew each other, which I've always been fascinated with. Its crazy to think that most of the men in the photo above, could go to Arvee Records, record a tune, then walk down the street to Imperial and do the same, then go across the hall to Sar and do the same and so on and on...

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

That said, thank-you Flyingwedge for the time you took to track down that information! It certainly is appreciated… discovering these old places from my youth makes them seem more “real”, if that makes any sense.

PS: Did you know that the place was a brothel when you worked on the corner of Sunset and La Cienega?

PPS: Did you find any older history on the building itself? As in, what it was before it became Circus Maximus?

I remember there were widely held suspicions that less-than-wholesome activities occurred inside that house, but we had no
first-hand reports like yours.

I found no older references than the 1967 Billboard ad and the 1950 Sanborn. The house wasn't built in the City of Los Angeles,
so there are no LADBS construction permits for 1227 N. La Cienega.

There's another Circus Maximus ad here, as well as ads for similar establishments.