noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks HossC! That was speedy.
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Nothing says sexy like flat bibb washers. (huh?)





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[ethereal_reality]

I have no idea about this postcard. Monster House Factory....is that really the name?

ebay
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[ethereal_reality]

Home designed by Henry Wilson
ebay

-as seen in purple ink , Mr. Wilson's office was on the top floor of the 1895 Byrne Building.

http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal6.html
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[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Does anyone recognize this corner building? The street light tells us Wilshire Blvd.
ebay

This was a short-lived branch of the Ahmanson Bank, which along with the Wilshire Central Building below, was replaced by the current Ahmanson Center completed in 1970.

LAPL

LA Times Sept 16, 1963

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by HossC

The picture was taken near the intersection of Wilshire and Serrano Avenue. Fashion Trends Beauty Salon was at 3717 Wilshire (1956 CD). The picture below is dated 1930/1940.


USC Digital Library

That block is now the location of Chase Bank and Pacific City Bank.


Google Maps

The giveaway was the tower with the barrel tiled roof and the interestingly adorned windows. The pictured building and what appears to be travertine is reminiscent of the Home Savings. A mini Scottish Rite temple?

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/re...coll59/id/1213

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

A few omitted "lesser" interior images:

Thanks for posting those additional photos! "Lesser" is more in my opinion!

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012404pr.jpg

I'm always a bit startled when I see a photo of the Richfield with the arch as it appears most photos were not taken from that angle.

e_r had posted a photo with the arch way back at the beginning of this thread! (On page 5!)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

USC archive

above: This a great view showing the arch.

All 8 photos here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...0&postcount=88

Originally Posted by hossc

any excuse for another picture of the richfield building. This dick whittington shot is labeled 1929, which is around the time the building was completed. The panels above and below the windows look lighter than in later shots. I'm not sure whether it's the lighting or if they were darkened sometime afterward.

The article I linked in my post talks about how the building was constructed and the numerous materials used to construct it. Such as this paragraph or two:

The building’s two-story underground parking garage was also one of the first ever installed in an office complex. The building itself was a giant U-shape, actually two wings united by the façade on Flower Street.

The Richfield Building’s exterior dark green tile only appeared black from the sun’s reflection off the mirrored surface. Real 14-carat gold leaf was contained in the gold surfaces lining the windows and sculptures. “The gold ornamentation is of terra cotta coated with a layer of finely pulverized gold, held in suspension in a transparent glazing solution,” per the Architectural Record.

The entrance featured Belgian black marble, Cardiff green stone trimmings, Russian bronze metalworks, Benedict nickel hardware, rubber tile on the floor, and black lacquer-coated woodwork. Six high-speed, etched metal elevator doors and two freight elevators were installed beginning April 20, 1929, the first on the West Coast.

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Sadly, today's bean counters would wring their hands over the ratio of square footage to sales, and say the future lies with [Filene's] basement sales*. Boutique franchises may try, but they rarely approximate the imaginative opulence evidenced in this thread. LA never had a monopoly on impressive man-made gilded and/or streamlined surroundings. NY, Boston, Chicago, SF, Dallas and many other communities come to mind. However, rightly or wrongly, LA seems to have devalued more of its structural bounty than so many other communities. This even includes examples of "art nouveau" (555 Flower) and plaster quirks/whimsy like Wilshire’s Brown Derby. Fortunately, many treasures survive.

"Filine's" is a name I haven't heard in many years. They like many others now only in the annals of history were rooted in an era the shopping center, freeways, and the automobile laid waste to starting in the 1950s. But the same factors also killed the likes of W.T. Grant and other variety stores at the opposite end of the spectrum. Most certainly so called "Boutique" stores which are franchises will never duplicate the imaginative opulence evidenced in this thread, mainly because the franchise founders and individual franchisee owners are so far removed from the era and probably without imagination themselves, as is much of today's consuming public. We are adrift in an unimaginative cookie cutter world in virtually all aspects of our lives and few seem to be really enjoying it!

[GaylordWilshire]

Nostalgia is dangerous. While many may not be, what I see living in New York and when traveling are plenty of people working hard, playing hard, living it up and celebrating technology--perhaps in ways I can't really fully understand, but thank God for their optimism.

[Pdxrailtransit]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

The artwork is probably far more memorable than the washer. Knowing a little more about the store advertising it could be interesting. "A.C . . ." "432 So. B"

Is that the only image of the billboard?


1928
http://www.backtothepast.biz/pictures/0/IMG_4209.JPG Bay


hth

Wow, thanks for the photos of the washer. It looks to be the exact same model. This is the only photo I took unfortunately.

Pdxrailtransit

[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Nostalgia is dangerous. While many may not be, what I see living in New York and when traveling are plenty of people working hard, playing hard, living it up and celebrating technology--perhaps in ways I can't really fully understand, but thank God for their optimism.

Nostalgia unto itself is not dangerous. Attempting to turn the clock back can be folly. Technology is a wonderful thing when properly applied, but it becomes destructive when allowed to entirely consume one's life, as we see many allowing it to do today.

[ethereal_reality]

The seller places these two snapshots in Los Angeles.

ebay




ebay

I looked for Warren's U-Drive in both the 1942 and 1956 city directories
(1943 thru 1955 are missing at lapl...as most of you know). I came up empty handed.
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[ethereal_reality]

bridge construction.


1962
ebay




a year later, 1963
ebay

noirish suicide side-note:
If I remember correctly, this is the bridge a famous movie director jumped off a couple years ago.
That's quite a leap.
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[Retired_in_Texas]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The seller places these two snapshots in Los Angeles.

ebay




ebay

I looked for Warren's U-Drive in both the 1942 and 1956 city directories
(1943 thru 1955 are missing at lapl...as most of you know). I came up empty handed.
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I would suspect the sign to the left of Warren's U-Drive explains what may have happened to them. The history of Hertz shows they set a course on catering to the business traveler as far back as the 1920s. A regional business such as Warren's probably just found it impossible to compete or could have well been bought out by Hertz. The photo would appear to have been taken in the early to mid 1950s as the vehicle seen is an early '50s Chevy pickup.

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

1960's:


From article:
http://ladailymirror.com/richfield-building-los-angeles-skyline/

A quote:

The Richfield Co. merged with Atlantic Refining Co. in 1966, and decided that the building was not producing enough revenue. [...] Louis Ream informed The Times on March 9, 1967, that “We’d like to think as big as possible – the economics of a site like this dictates that we do.” He claimed, “The building is beautiful, but it is only 52% usable. We’re planning on tearing it down, with tears in our eyes.”

...and if you believe that...meet me at the Brown Derby for a Cobb Salad.

In 1962 the U.S. Government decided that the arrangement to bring Richfield out of receivership, which the government had OK'd a quarter century earlier, was an anti-trust violation. So, Richfield either had to fight the government or merge with another company. Richfield management fought for a while, but eventually decided it would be best to merge. Philadelphia's Atlantic Refining Co. made the right offer, and that's how ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) was born.

See: From the Rio Grande to the Arctic: The Story of the Richfield Oil Corporation by Charles S. Jones (University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).

Richfield's management was old; Atlantic's was young, and they took over. I don't think they cared one whit about Richfield's HQ. Atlantic also got rid of most of Richfield's supervisors/managers after the merger. My dad worked there and saw it happen. Louis Ream, quoted above by MP, was an Atlantic executive (http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-...executive-vice).


Photo by me

Genuine Richfield bowling shirt:

Photo by me

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles 1905




I was able to locate a J. M. Eustace under plumbers in the 1909 city directory.
If this is correct, the store (above) was located at 830 Ceres Avenue.

http://www.lapl.org/


So why does the window say G.J. Eustace? (in the 1905 photograph)


http://www.lapl.org/

Was C.J. Eustace J. Eustace's father??
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[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by FredH

The Richfield Building was indeed a beauty


http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/c.../id/7690/rec/6


http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/c.../id/7690/rec/6

Here's a scene from the film Zabriskie Point with the fabled Richfield building in the background.


MGM

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

In 1962 the U.S. Government decided that the arrangement to bring Richfield out of receivership, which the government had OK'd a quarter century earlier, was an anti-trust violation. So, Richfield either had to fight the government or merge with another company. Richfield management fought for a while, but eventually decided it would be best to merge. Philadelphia's Atlantic Refining Co. made the right offer, and that's how ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) was born.

See: From the Rio Grande to the Arctic: The Story of the Richfield Oil Corporation by Charles S. Jones (University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).

Richfield's management was old; Atlantic's was young, and they took over. I don't think they cared one whit about Richfield's HQ. Atlantic also got rid of most of Richfield's supervisors/managers after the merger. My dad worked there and saw it happen. Louis Ream, quoted above by MP, was an Atlantic executive (http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-...executive-vice).

[snip]

And then BP took over ARCO and did the much same thing. Many of the BP managers who were involved in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico were among the few ARCO people who weren't axed by BP.

Earl

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The seller places these two snapshots in Los Angeles.

ebay




ebay

I looked for Warren's U-Drive in both the 1942 and 1956 city directories
(1943 thru 1955 are missing at lapl...as most of you know). I came up empty handed.
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OK, there are seven Hertz locations in the 1956 LA street directory [thanks RiT for car identification]:

800 N Alameda [Union Station]
7001 Hollywood Boulevard [across from Roosevelt hotel]
9641 Sunset Boulevard [Beverly Hills Hotel]
3569 Vernon [truck rental]
718 E 3rd [truck rental - Little Tokyo]
555 W 5th [near Biltmore Hotel]
915 W 7th [Statler Hotel]

At 513 W 5th, the 1956 directory has a listing for "LA Car Rental System," which I'll wager was Warren's. The 555 address for Hertz would be to the pictures' left, as the arrow on the second one indicates.

The Sanborn map of this address:


lapl.org

shows a narrow gap to the west of 513 W 5th, which is visible in the second picture. And the pictures show a perceptible grade up to the left (west) up toward Bunker Hill.

[WCArch]

This blog will have information on developments in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities. Its brand new (there are only 4 posts) but it is really neat and has a lot of interesting and informative information. Check it out if you can. One post talks about 801 south olive street, and has a link to external information.

http://westcoastarch.blogspot.com/