noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Thanks for the extra information, Handsome Stranger. I look forward to seeing your pictures.


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


Apologies to everyone who's still having trouble seeing my images. I sent Photobucket another email yesterday, but haven't had a reply yet.

KevinW posted a picture of the May Co parking lot in post #9112, and I'm sure we've seen it in other posts too. These are Julius Shulman's photos from 1953. It's "Job 1637: May Company, Parking Building (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1953".



Here's a close-up of the stairs in the foreground. The set includes three similar shots of this location - I've omitted the other two.



I think that this is the lowest tier near W 6th Street.



The car in the center bears a British-style license plate which says "JAGUAR". I assume it was there for some sort of promotional event. The car looks like a 1953 Jaguar Mark VII.



Finally, here's a view with the May Co store in the background. On the left is the newly completed Wilshire Medical Building. I posted construction pictures of that four days ago in post #34075. Ogden Drive no longer exists between W 6th Street and Wilshire Boulevard. In the place of the northern end of the parking building, you'll now find the "Levitated Mass" sculpture.



All from Getty Research Institute

[srk1941]

What wonderful pictures of the late 40s addition, though this was designed not by Myron Hunt, but by Paul R. Williams, with Tommy Tomson, landscape architect. The Getty just pulled Hunt since he was the original architect, I assume....

Originally Posted by HossC

I found this Julius Shulman picture of the Ambassador Hotel's swimming pool just over a week ago, but kept it to one side because it was on its own. This is "Job 2798: Burke, Dowling, Adams, Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1959". In the background, just left of center, are the Windsor Apartments at 7th and Catalina. See tovangar2's post #27688 for more info and pictures of them.


Getty Research Institute

I decided to post the picture above when I found this earlier Julius Shulman set of the Ambassador's cottages. This is "Job 621: Myron Hunt, Ambassador Hotel, Cottages (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1949".











All from Getty Research Institute

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by HossC

[snip]

The car in the center bears a British-style license plate which says "JAGUAR". I assume it was there for some sort of promotional event. The car looks like a 1953 Jaguar Mark VII.

I'm thinking tourists from some state that did not mandate front plates. Those faux UK "JAGUAR" and "MG" front plates were popular in the 50's.

Cheers,

Earl

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's an earlier postcard of Truman's Drive Inn, which also places it on the corner of Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards.

Thanks, HossC, the postcard you posted is the one I remembered!

I found another one, but unless it's another angle of that building, it sure has a very different vibe.

William Bird/Flickr

The source says it's the same Westwood and Wilshire location, but he calls it Truman's Fairless Restaurant. In a search I did see a matchbook cover
with tiki designs that said Truman's Restaurant and underneath in smaller letters it said Truman Fairless. Perhaps the owner's name? It also
advertised The Aztec Room. GRanite 3-5737.

I found the following photograph on a Spanish or Portuguese language website called "Blog dos Carros Antigos" which I would imagine means Blog about Antique Cars?
The thread is called: Los Angeles em cores, década de 50. (Something like Los Angeles in color in the 1950's?)

Carros Antigos

This link has several photos like this of Los Angeles, mostly at night, many of Hollywood Blvd., lots of neon (Drake Hotel, Goodrich Gym, Iris Theatre etc.) freeways with lots of traffic, etc.

https://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/...-decada-de-50/

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Thanks, HossC, the postcard you posted is the one I remembered!

I found another one, but unless it's another angle of that building, it sure has a very different vibe.

The source says it's the same Westwood and Wilshire location, but he calls it Truman's Fairless Restaurant. In a search I did see a matchbook cover
with tiki designs that said Truman's Restaurant and underneath in smaller letters it said Truman Fairless. Perhaps the owner's name? It also
advertised The Aztec Room. GRanite 3-5737.

Thanks for that original photo and the pc of Trumans and the great plumbing neon. I have 1244 Westwood Blvd. for Clayton Plumbing in 1953.

I don't rememember seeing any pictures before of the original Truman's.

That building opened in July 1931 as the Hi-Ho Cafe. Around 1936 it became Mrs. Gray's Inn. Mrs. Gray was there for around 10 years.

lat 1936

Truman Fairless was the owner's name. I have in my notes that the building was remodeled in 1958. It looks like the "googie-ish" wing was added on to the front of the original structure, with the tile roof. Address was 1222 Westwood Blvd.

lat 1956

[BDiH]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's an earlier postcard of Truman's Drive Inn, which also places it on the corner of Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards.


eBay

Truman's was a great place to dine back in the day. It was on the north/west corner of Westwood and Wilshire, across the street from Ships. The Village had a lot of great eateries once, including the V.D. (Village Deli), the Hamburger Hamlet, Mario's and the Chatham. All gone now.

[Martin Pal]

^^^^^^

Sounds like you visited the place! What were the interiors like?
___

NCD, I first thought a restaurant called Mrs. Gray's Inn didn't sound too appetizing, but then not if I thought of it as Mrs. Grazin'.

[Greg H]

This just showed up on my Facebook page and I figured some of the rooftop sign fans around here would enjoy it.
https://vimeo.com/158929583

[HossC]

Thanks for the insight on the 1950s fashion for faux British license plates, Earl Boebert. I wasn't aware of it.


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


We're back at Wilshire and La Brea for today's Julius Shulman post. Columbia Savings was diagonally opposite Tilford's Restaurant. This is "Job 3917: Irving D. Shapiro, Columbia Savings (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1965".



Most of the photos in this set are black & white, and they don't all take up the whole frame, hence the squarer-than-usual images below.







I love this interior picture. All that height and light must've been pretty impressive.



I've saved the second color image for last. I assume that this design was stained glass.



All from Getty Research Institute

If you can bear to watch, here is some footage of the former bank (latterly a church) being demolished in 2010. It's still visible on historic GSV images.

• Video Link

And here's what replaced the 1965 Columbia Savings building (and the Deco Murphy's Oldsmobile dealership on La Brea).


GSV

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks for the insight on the 1950s fashion for faux British license plates, Earl Boebert. I wasn't aware of it.


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



GSV

Another example of a fairly new and lovely building [1965] being replaced by an ugly monstrosity cornball piece of nothing [photo above]. Dreadful. What are those 4 outhouses on the roof?

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by HossC

Thanks for the insight on the 1950s fashion for faux British license plates, Earl Boebert. I wasn't aware of it.

[snip]

Just another chicken bone from the garbage can of my memory :-)

Faux Brits were fairly prevalent during the 50s and early 60s in California for some reason. Drove MGs and Jags, wore Harris Tweed, said "Jag-U-are," and sported unearned RAF neckties. In the sports car world they were derisively known as "teabaggers," because (especially back then) no true Brit would be caught dead using one.

One notorious teabagger raced an MG TC whilst (couldn't resist, sorry) wearing a Harris Tweed jacket. Sometime around 1959 the SCCA mandated fireproof clothing while racing. So he had his tweed jacket fireproofed.

Cheers,

Earl

[BarSnake]

I was happy to see that the beautiful stained glass was salvaged from the Columbia Savings building.
~~~
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/bu...s/id-f_396388/

[ethereal_reality]

That's great news BarSnake! It doesn't say who bought it.


https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/bu...s/id-f_396388/

Hopefully it stays in Los Angeles.

__

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by martin pal

^^^^^^

sounds like you visited the place! What were the interiors like?
___

ncd, i first thought a restaurant called mrs. Gray's inn didn't sound too appetizing, but then not if i thought of it as mrs. Grazin'.

[ethereal_reality]

I'm glad hosedagain re-posted these old screen-grabs.

If I remember correctly, no one was able to figure out where the Wax Seal Co. building was located.



Shall we give it another try?

here's the video (again)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JO5izL_3Jo
__

[ethereal_reality]

Hoss, thanks for digging up the 1956 photograph of the former County Morgue building.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=34101



detail of Hoss's fantastic photograph.

That's the morgue over there, the beige & brown mid-century building...................................................




Speaking of the Los Angeles County Morgue, did anyone catch this rather 'noirish' headline from last week?


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...311-story.html

also.....http://www.newsnet5.com/news/nationa...k-up-in-morgue

Last year the county morgue performed 8,500 autopsies. A reader noted that that works out to 23 autopsies a day!
-No wonder there's a backlog.
________________________________________________________________________________________






Man in Los Angeles County Morgue, 1945.


http://www.parisphoto.com/losangeles...-lapd-archives

Hmmmmm...so where was the morgue in 1945?
__

[ethereal_reality]

I just happened across this while looking for something else.

Marilyn Monroe's body being released from the Los Angeles County Morgue on the afternoon of August 6, 1962.


http://hauntedhistorians.com/2013/08...arilyn-monroe/

I am unsure how long the N. Grand building was the county morgue, but I'm pretty sure this is the N. Grand building (somewhere in the back obviously)


__

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm glad hosedagain re-posted these old screen-grabs.

If I remember correctly, no one was able to figure out where the Wax Seal Co. building was located.



Shall we give it another try?

here's the video (again)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JO5izL_3Jo
__

Sorry I don't have an exact street address for you, ER, but the building is on the east side of Cahuenga Blvd. just north of Barham Blvd. The sequence of clips in the video were taken from the Barham Blvd. overcrossing of the Hollywood Freeway and look northward toward Universal City. The abandoned PE right-of-way is visible in the center divider, so Caltrans hadn't yet paved it to provide an additional traffic lane in each direction (ca. 1958, IIRC).

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm glad hosedagain re-posted these old screen-grabs.

If I remember correctly, no one was able to figure out where the Wax Seal Co. building was located.

Shall we give it another try?


__

I came up with 1213 N. Highland as their original location, in 1948.
In 1949 they moved HQ up the street to 1239 N. Highland, until 1951
After that they were at 1435 N. Highland, until 1958 at least.

1948 lat 1957 lat

[Noircitydame]

Happy St. Patrick's Day to "NoIrish LA"!

Carole Landis 1944. via tumblr