noirish Los Angeles

[Snix]

Love these. The "Live Better Electrically" jingle has been on a loop in my head since I first heard it many decades ago. It's a classic of Cartoon Modern.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhnzI5GWINI

SO MUCH GOOD STUFF on the campaign here:




https://dahp.wa.gov/live-better-elec...-home-campaign

Originally Posted by Mackerm

I'm so excited. Today I found one of these babies in the wild!

Mackerm's own photo.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Good news, noirishers...I have a mystery location.

SIP - N - BITE,... Los Angeles County.


eBay

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

This picture is also included in that ebay auction.



It shows more clearly the SIP-N-BITE next door to a Abe's Liquor Store.

That particular Abe's is still selling liquor at 122 Sumner Avenue in Avalon, Catalina Island.

Noir_Noir nailed the location of the ebay pictures, but FYI, according to the CDs there was also a Sip N Bite Restaurant at 315 W Florence Avenue circa 1960-63.

[ethereal_reality]

.
A Mystery location.

About 4 or 5 days ago I happened upon some amazing photographs from an old photo album on eBay.

Here's the first photograph.



Holy Cow! ..(that's what I saw when I first saw the photograph)

Does anyone recognize the building(s)?



.

[odinthor]

e_r, isn't that the Highland Villa at about dead center?


detail of image in odinthor collection

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
A Mystery location.

About 4 or 5 days ago I happened upon some amazing photographs from an old photo album on eBay.

Here's the first photograph.



Holy Cow! ..(that's what I saw when I first saw the photograph)

Does anyone recognize the building(s)?



.

Lovely to look at! Building under construction in front is one of early hotels on Broadway -- peeking at us from said front structure's top right corner would be the Highland Hotel on First at Hill-- Further up one can see the spire of the Bradbury mansion.....

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by odinthor

isn't that the Highland Villa at about dead center?


detail of image in odinthor collection

Yes!



From UC113302 @ USCDL

Since the Highland Villa was on the NW corner of 1st and Hill, that puts the building in the eBay photo (seen here in the lower left corner)
on the NE corner of 2nd and Hill. This photo looks NW from the City Hall on Broadway.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by odinthor

e_r, isn't that the Highland Villa at about dead center?


detail of image in odinthor collection

THANKS, odinthor! . . Rick M and Flyingwedge. I appreciate your help!

I'm going to post another photograph from the album later this afternoon. .so stay tuned.

.

[ethereal_reality]

.
As promised, photograph #2.

I have never seen a train quite like this one. ..The passenger car is somewhat familiar but the 'engine' part in front isn't. It looks like something out of Looney Tunes.



My eye keeps gravitating to the tall aerial with the two thingies on top. Is it fastened to the top of the railcar or the house behind it?



.

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
A Mystery location.

About 4 or 5 days ago I happened upon some amazing photographs from an old photo album on eBay.

Here's the first photograph.



Holy Cow! ..(that's what I saw when I first saw the photograph)

Does anyone recognize the building(s)?



.

Wow! I need to own that!!! I can't find the listing on eBay though. Would you be so kind as to send me a PM with it? (I tried sending you a pm but it said " ethereal_reality has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space") Thanks!

[ethereal_reality]

,
Beaudry, I'm unable to find the photographs again on eBay. (that's why I didn't include the link in my post) They might have been listed under 'paper' or 'historical memorabilia' as opposed to, say, photographs.

I'll keep looking for them and will let you know if I find them again.

.

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
As promised, photograph #2.

I have never seen a train quite like this one. ..The passenger car is somewhat familiar but the 'engine' part in front isn't. It looks like something out of Looney Tunes.



My eye keeps gravitating to the tall aerial with the two thingies on top. Is it fastened to the top of the railcar or the house behind it?



.

_______________________

We're looking at the pride of Col. Charles H. Howland's Los Angeles Electric Railway c.January 1887. The four-wheeled vehicle to the left is the "dummy" that contained the electric propulsion system which allowed it to move and to tow the passenger car behind it.

As for the "Looney Tunes" arrangement, the dummy took power from a four-wheeled "troller" that ran atop a pair of overhead wires. This technology was engineered and promoted by "Professor" Leo Daft*, and it found brief, limited success before being supplanted by the arrangement of a trolley pole with springs that place upward pressure on a single wire.

The LAER ran from the Plaza to Pico & Harvard, site of a land development by Howland and his partners and likely where your photo was taken. A branch continued southward on Maple Ave. to 32nd St. Neither the land development nor the passenger traffic met with much success, and operations apparently ceased by the end of March 1889.

* I don't know if the colloquial use of the term preceded or followed his invention.

Historical notes are from Robert C. Post's indispensable Street Railways and the Growth of Los Angeles (Golden West Books, 1989).

[ethereal_reality]

An amazingly detailed explanation & description. Your RR knowledge is indispensable, Henry Huntington. ..Thanks so much!


Here's the 3rd photograph from the eBay group. (and another mystery location!) ..As you can see there are rail tracks that abruptly END in the middle of the street without any barriers whatsoever.



There aren't too many clues in this one.



But I am curious about a couple of things on top of the houses.



The rooftop structure on the right looks like a Widow's Walk to me - so maybe this is along the coast(?)..(a shot in the dark)

Does anyone want to wager a guess as to this location?


.

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

An amazingly detailed explanation & description. Your RR knowledge is indispensable, Henry Huntington. ..Thanks so much!


Here's the 3rd photograph from the eBay group. (and another mystery location!) ..As you can see there are rail tracks that abruptly END in the middle of the street without any barriers whatsoever.



There aren't too many clues in this one.



But I am curious about a couple of things on top of the houses.



The rooftop structure on the right looks like a Widow's Walk to me - so maybe this is along the coast(?)..(a shot in the dark)

Does anyone want to wager a guess as to this location?


.

Could this larger home be Colonel Eddy's on Temple?? It was about three lots northwest of the corner--and the tram tracks were still being laid -

[HenryHuntington]

I'll hold off on the bet for now, e-r. Here are some points to ponder...

There are two sets of closely-paired overhead wires (the inner pair very faint) that curve toward the left of the frame. This is almost certainly a Daft installation, which would place us somewhere on the LAER route. Also, I'm not convinced that there's only one track and that it ends at the intersection. I can (barely) make out a second track that would line up with the further-right pair of overhead wires. Given the angle of the photo and the crown of the intersecting street, I can't be sure that the rails end abruptly where they appear to at first glance.

My working hypothesis is that we're at one of the right-angle curves on the system (sic). If the map in Post's book is accurate, then we might be at 7th & Wall Sts., 7th & Maple Sts. or Pico & Maple Sts. (before the Maple St. extension was constructed).

And while I'm tossing about fevered speculations (it's currently 91 degrees in my not-air-conditioned home office), I think those "things" above the houses are chemical stains on the original image. But I'm not betting on that, either.

All that having been said, thanks both for the kind words and for bringing these pretty rare photos to NLA! One of the recurring themes in Post's narrative re: the Daft/LAER initiative was "Nothing like it west of Denver!" Daft was most successful (for a few years) in Baltimore and tried out in a few more Eastern cities, but there's not a lot of photographic evidence of his work hereabouts.

[Flyingwedge]

Hey e_r, do you remember this? The cars look like those in your mystery location #2 above. Note also the two sets of tracks in
the street and the curving set of overhead wires, which HH saw in your photo #3. This image may look NE at Pico and Main.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

eBay
__

I think your photo #3 shows the same intersection, but facing west on Pico from Main. The one house on the right and the three on
the left bear at least a passing resemblance to those shown on the 1888 Sanborn Map.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's the 3rd photograph from the eBay group.



.

Here's that map. The third house on the left has a cupola on the roof and a water tank in back, which could be the two things above
the houses that you questioned.



ProQuest via LAPL


The September 17, 1888, Los Angeles Times describes the electric line running south on Los Angeles Street, then west on Pico --
which jogged at Main. So I think that's why we see the curve in the overhead wires.



Newspapers.com

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

I think your photo #3 shows the same intersection, but facing west on Pico from Main. The one house on the right and the three on
the left bear at least a passing resemblance to those shown on the 1888 Sanborn Map.



Here's that map. The third house on the left has a cupola on the roof and a water tank in back, which could be the two things above
the houses that you questioned.



ProQuest via LAPL


The September 17, 1888, Los Angeles Times describes the electric line running south on Los Angeles Street, then west on Pico --
which jogged at Main. So I think that's why we see the curve in the overhead wires.



Newspapers.com

I think you're right. The three houses on the left actually match very, very well with the shapes on the Sanborn, including the angled bay shape on the side of the first house and the rectangular bay on the corner of the third house.

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

I think you're right. The three houses on the left actually match very, very well with the shapes on the Sanborn, including the angled bay shape on the side of the first house and the rectangular bay on the corner of the third house.

And the empty space behind the first house on the right...

[ethereal_reality]

.
You've done it again, Flyingwedge.






Here is the 4th photograph that appeared with the earlier 3 on eBay.

As you can see it shows a man walking past a small house with a windmill.







Here is how all four photographs looked on the page.



I hope you all don't mind that I posted them piecemeal. .. I thought each one deserved its own time in the spotlight.


.

[riichkay]

These screen captures are from "The Bargain of The Century", a Hal Roach comedy short released in 1933, starring Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts....

.....the film begins with the girls motoring along in a small coupe, passing the police station they upend an officer....a motorcycle cop jumps on his bike and gives pursuit, the chase starts here....




....in a few moments the coupe exits a narrow alleyway....




....we have a massive location clue here in the adjacent pedestrian tunnel, right away the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Gardner St. came to mind....we have covered this corner several times, mainly in reference to the old railroad spur that crossed the intersection diagonally.....I recalled the pedestrian tunnels in period photos, and I believe they were still evident in the 1965 Ed Ruscha images....here's the location today (the alleyway was vacated at some point)....





....back to the picture, the coupe (identified as an American Austin in the YouTube comments) turns toward the tunnel....





....and descends....





.....the officer exits the alley and is mystified as to the disappearance of the car.....here we see the railroad crossing sign...









....the Gardner Dye Works was at 7424 Sunset Bl....





....the building survives....





....as the officer crosses Sunset the coupe emerges from the tunnel....





....and the chase resumes....





....here the vehicles pass a grocery store, impossible to tell if this is still on Gardner...





The chase ends a few frames later in front of a store.....the film is here..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=214o...eSprocketVault

[MartinTurnbull]

I'm trying to narrow down the location of this billboard from the green-roofed building in the bottom left corner of this photo. I feel like I should know it but I haven't come up with much. Does anyone recognize it?



and if we zoom in...



Thanks, y'all.