noirish Los Angeles

[sopas ej]

Somehow, I knew this intersection...

That is looking west on 7th, from Kingsley: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0597...2!8i6656?hl=en

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

AlvaroLegido: More on Veloz & Yolanda's studio is in the story of 3500 Wilshire Boulevard. You can read more about them on NLA itself by searching for "Yolanda" or "Veloz"
(BTW, has the search feature here gotten better than I remember it being?) The house has connections to the LA Soap Company, which we've explored here over the years.


Here's the house and the boulevard before the Tishmans arrived from New York:

^^^
trivia--There is a scene in "Pride of the Yankees" (1942) starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig where Veloz and Yolanda are the floor act in a nightclub and do some kind of Spanish dance or tango when Gehrig (Cooper) is taking his future wife Eleanor out to dinner.

Babe Ruth appears as himself in this film, and that is why I watch it. Babe Ruth, best ball player ever. Great pitcher, even greater hitter, a man with huge appetites who devoured life in great hunks. Babe deserved a better biopic than the one they gave him, with William Bendix as a dumb oaf--nothing like the real Ruth. The 1990s TV movie with John Goodman as Babe is almost as bad. His life is so interesting. Over 10 years in a Catholic reform school. Mentored in life and baseball by Brother Mathias, who was quite a baseball slugger himself. Great pitcher with Boston. And they noticed his slugging, and put him in the outfield. Traded to the Yankees for money so the owner could produce the play "No No Nanette", which became a huge hit. Off the field hanky panky, almost as many women as Wilt Chamberlain. Ate stacks of hot dogs and drank gallons of beer...still hit home runs. Merry prankster. Hero to kids. Would spend hours signing autographs and doing good deeds when Gehrig brushed them off. Never allowed to manage. Sad decline. Heroic battle with cancer. A hit movie there. I may write to various producers and directors hoping for a biopic fit for Ruth. Ruth by Spielberg. Interesting. But who could play Ruth? Who has that face? Maybe John Bulushi could have done it, but he's been gone 40 years, and maybe he could not play tragedy. Any ideas? It may have to be a complete unknown with acting skills who looks like Ruth and has Ruth's energy and charisma and would be believable as a great baseball player. All great actors start as unknowns

Babe coaches an all ladies baseball team, while his wife Julia watches him like a hawk. Partly filmed at Wrigley Field in L.A. (1932), where they filmed the TV show " Home Run Derby" in the '50s. The second scene occurs at another baseball field in West L.A, with the Hollywood Hills in the backround. Can someone identify it? There appears to be a tall spire if a movie theater in the background (Fox theater?). Is this Gilmore Field???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC7i4D_GSGY

[Bristolian]

The second scene is not Gilmore Field which, like Wrigley Field was a minor league park and seated over 12,000. Also, Gilmore was built in 1938. This looks like more of a park setting but I have no idea where. Like you say, the fields and buildings in the background should help with the location.
Also interesting about Babe Ruth are the rumors that he may have been part African- American. It seems like it will never be proven nor ruled out. If it was the case, he would have had very good reason not to disclose it because it would have denied him the opportunity to play in the segregated Major Leagues of his time.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Somehow, I knew this intersection...

That is looking west on 7th, from Kingsley: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0597...2!8i6656?hl=en

I see that the houses on the far side of the parking garage are gone.


detail

...Is this a Cougar?


Think of the homes and buildings that were wiped out for this one garage. (& it's barely a garage. .it's more like a two level parking lot)


Google-Earth


And it looks like the ground level isn't being used...





F.Y.I....The upper level's entrance is on Kingsley,..Here


.

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

What, pray tell, is this? (the name is obviously Spanish but what about the characters)


detail

Half Phoenician / Half Zodiac Signs? ..(I'm kidding, obviously)

おみやげ “omiyage” are customary gifts from guests to hosts when visiting someone. “Relojería” is a watch shop. I wonder if it is L.A.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

おみやげ “omiyage” are customary gifts from guests to hosts when visiting someone. “Relojería” is a watch shop. I wonder if it is L.A.

Me too. I want to say that I never saw a Walgreens in SoCal until at least the late 1990s, but I could be wrong. I'm thinking this might be somewhere in northern California...

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Me too. I want to say that I never saw a Walgreens in SoCal until at least the late 1990s, but I could be wrong. I'm thinking this might be somewhere in northern California...

There are cable car tracks in the lower left corner of the photo. The Walgreens is (still) at 135 Powell Street in San Francisco.

[ethereal_reality]

.
When I saw the "St. Gym" in the 1970s Walgreens slide I thought it might be the old Main St. Gym in downtown Los Angeles.


detail



This one.


latimesblog

But no, the building doesn't match, . . .and from what I hear, nor does the city.



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[ethereal_reality]

.
Hollywood Holidays (1946)



I happened upon this colorful 6 min. video at lataco. I don't recall if we have seen it on nla.




I especially liked the scene shown above. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I'm a horndog.

I believe they might be walking in Long Beach. They jump off a red car at 1:42.




• Video Link





update:

I just realized the video (above) is Part 2.



Here is Part 1 if anyone has some time on their hands...(no pun intended)

• Video Link

And yes, I'm pretty sure we have seen - at least - parts of this film on nla . . .But HEY! go for it! The holidays are coming up!


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[ethereal_reality]

.
A mystery location.



JOE Los Angeles 1980

On flickr, they're trying to figure out where this photograph was taken in the late 1970s (or early 80s)
Even the photographer (Joe) doesn't remember where he was when he took it. I thought we might lend them a hand.


.

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's an aerial from December 1931. The houses on Wilshire are clearly visible, as are the Piccadilly Apartments on Irolo and many other extant apartment buildings south of 7th. Looking at Historic Aerials, it looks like the jog at the northern end of Irolo (which joins it to Normandie) was allowed for when the Tishman building was built, and completed by 1954. That wiped out Veloz and Yolanda's dance school, so they weren't neighbors with the Tishman building for long. According to GW's blog, the house next door at 3508 (which was home to Embassy Realty Associates Inc in its later days) only lasted a year or so longer.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

I can be a bit slow sometimes so am I the last person to realize that part of the RFK Schools now on the site were built on nearly the same footprint and with some familiar shapes of the front section of the Ambassador?

Google maps

[GatoVerde]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
A mystery location.



JOE Los Angeles 1980

On flickr, they're trying to figure out where this photograph was taken in the late 1970s (or early 80s)
Even the photographer (Joe) doesn't remember where he was when he took it. I thought we might lend them a hand.


.

It's looking south on Lucille Ave onto the old silent studios on Hoover ST in East Hollywood.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

The second scene is not Gilmore Field which, like Wrigley Field was a minor league park and seated over 12,000. Also, Gilmore was built in 1938. This looks like more of a park setting but I have no idea where. Like you say, the fields and buildings in the background should help with the location.
Also interesting about Babe Ruth are the rumors that he may have been part African- American. It seems like it will never be proven nor ruled out. If it was the case, he would have had very good reason not to disclose it because it would have denied him the opportunity to play in the segregated Major Leagues of his time.

All the biographies I have read of Ruth (I've read many) said that Ruth's parents on both sides had German ancestry. Ruth himself said he thought he had some Irish ancestry also, but that was never verified. Ruth tanned deeply in summer and had some features that racist players on other teams used to heckle him with racial slurs. When Ruth played, these were very racist times, and even mixed race people tragically were not allowed to play in the big leagues until Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947. If he actually had some African American ancestry the opposing teams would have prevented Ruth from playing.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by GatoVerde

It's looking south on Lucille Ave onto the old silent studios on Hoover ST in East Hollywood.

Well done, GatoVerde!


gsv

[ethereal_reality]

I see that the dry cleaners is out of business................... ..................Thanks, GatoVerde and odinthor.





I don't believe we have seen this photograph although I noticed there reprints for sale.


World's Largest Mail Box, South Los Angeles 1917


eBay sold


If we haven't seen it - or discussed it - then it's a whopper of a mystery!... (I'm pretty sure I would have remembered it)



.

[Martin Pal]

I haven't heard about this before, either. It looks like this photo began appearing online a couple years ago when Jim Heimann's 3rd book about L.A. architecture was published, California Crazy.

The only other thing I could find about it was on Martin Turnbull's site, where he has this newspaper ad, from the Los Angeles Evening Herald, August 24, 1916.

Martin Turnbull

[ethereal_reality]

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A mystery location with a big big clue.


"1979 Los Angeles Street Scene 54th Street Original 35mm Slide"


eBay - no longer listed.

I see that the cross street is 54th. . .what's the other street?







I really like Ray's Pool Room. ..(I can smell the smoke, booze and chalk)


detail

Is that an octagonal window?..(that took some carpentry skill)

I just noticed that Ray's has soft drinks and candy so maybe it didn't have a liquor license. (now I just smell smoke and chalk. .and Cherry Cokes)
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[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

There are cable car tracks in the lower left corner of the photo. The Walgreens is (still) at 135 Powell Street in San Francisco.

Thank you.

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
A mystery location with a big big clue.


"1979 Los Angeles Street Scene 54th Street Original 35mm Slide"


eBay - no longer listed.

I see that the cross street is 54th. . .what's the other street?

Although this really does look like Los Angeles to me, the street sign indicates the 1100 block. 1100 W 54th St. is residential and in the middle of a block so no current 1100 54th St. sign.
The liquor store sign says Chest... Chesterfield Square Park is not too far from 1100 W.

1100 E 54th St. is at Central Avenue which is a possibility but no surviving buildings that I can see.

I'm also thinking that does not look like the Los Angeles street signs I am familiar with. Isn't it the wrong color?

[sopas ej]

Hmm... those don't look like City of LA street signs; something about them reminded me of the older Inglewood street signs, but I don't think 54th Street goes through Inglewood...

And then I started thinking maybe that's an older Oakland street sign, but I think their street signs have always been green, at least since I can remember...

Hmmm... something about the Botts dots on the roadway tells me this isn't the City of LA...

I guess the clue would be Lue's Restaurant and BBQ, and Riley's Pool Room...