noirish Los Angeles

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

I always thought those poles in middle of the street were on Ocean Blvd. Here is Ocean Blvd. [below] in 1920.....looking east. Doesn't American Ave./Long Beach Blvd.. go north and south?

You make an interesting observation. Yet there is evidence seemingly pro and con regarding American Ave having utility poles running down its center line - at least where it intersected with Ocean Blvd. Long Beach Blvd. (formerly American Ave) is certainly wide enough to have supported (at one time) utilities running down its center. (Remember, Acres of Books is on Long Beach Blvd in that area, so perhaps there is a random image or two taken years gone past. Do we have addresses for Hotel Metropole or Hotel Olsten - pictured in the original BRR post? Also, it is probably not determinative of location, but note on the original image at the drug store named "American Pharmacy.")

The Source lists only "American Ave," although it may have intended to include "Ocean" from American. Or, it may be that both wide streets once sported utility poles in their respective medians - but we have seen few such images of the American Ave?


Note the image from LAPL described as "View of downtown Long Beach where Ocean Boulevard meets American Avenue."
1920s
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics45/00072450.jpg


Note the Mission Theater in the above image. Here is what LA Movie Palaces has to say about the Mission's address being located on American Way/Ave Long Beach Blvd.:

Opened: 1922 as the Empire Theatre -- it's in the 1922 city directory with the address as 32 American. American Way later got renamed Long Beach Blvd. In the 1923, 24 and 26 directories it's the Mission Theatre, at 36 American (38 American in 1923).

The theatre was originally a legit operation featuring both resident and touring stock companies. It later went to vaudeville and then added films.

By 1928 it had become Major Theatre. In the 1929 Long Beach section of the Los Angeles phone book it's listed as the Major. In the 1933 and 1935 Long Beach city directories it's the Long Beach Theatre at 34 American Way.

It was later operated by Fox West Coast and advertised as the Fox Long Beach.https://sites.google.com/site/losang...fox-long-beach

Acres of Books, Long Beach Blvd.
https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/...um/5103479.jpg



Long Beach - Then and Now. http://longbeachseen.com/?cat=16


Ocean - then and now.
http://longbeachseen.com/wp-content/...OCEAN-OLD1.jpg




While on the subject of Long Beach, this image of an earthquake damaged sidewalk clock was encountered.
1933
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics45/00057396.jpg

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location.

Chanteclair Restaurant Hollywood California, 1940's


eBay

The building is quite impressive, but it doesn't look familiar to me.

...

Has anyone heard of Leo Curtner?

The Chanteclair Restaurant was on Sunset Boulevard, although finding an address has proved difficult. The references I've found so far seem to be dated between 1947 and 1950, and often refer to it with terms like "the famous Chanteclair Restaurant". Here's a selection of clippings, starting with one about the owner, Monte Proser (nothing about Leo Curtner):

Desert Sun, Number 32, 21 November 1947


California Digital Newspaper Collection

This is from Ida Lupino: A Biography by William Donati. The Louis referred to in the text is Louis Bromfield.


books.google.com

Finally, an incident from Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia by Michael Karol.


books.google.com

I'd nearly given up when I remembered some screengrabs I posted of 1940s restaurants in post #17699. Sadly, the video now appears to be private, so I can't go back for a larger image. Take a look at the Sphinx Club in the top-right - it appears to be the same building. There was a Sphinx Club at 8477 Sunset Boulevard, which Tourmaline posted pictures of (when it was the Clover Club) in post #70545, but that's a different building. Then I found an article at jhgraham.com which says that the Sphinx Club briefly operated at 9236 Sunset Boulevard, which may be the one in the photo below. That address is very close to Dead Man's Curve which FredH posted about above. Today, there's a shiny office building there.


YouTube

[Martin Pal]

HossC, I, too, have been trying to find an address for this location and, like you: "The references I've found so far seem to be dated between 1947 and 1950."

The lay of the land in the photograph doesn't seem to me it would be at the
9236 Sunset Boulevard address. Doheny is 9000 and the roads dip and curve
heading west after that--just doesn't seem right to me. If those are numbers
on the awning in the photo, too, it doesn't seem to indicate it would be the
8477 address, either, though that definitely is the same building as the
Sphinx club you posted.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location.

Chanteclair Restaurant Hollywood California, 1940's

ebay

It's so exclusive you have to "know" the address to find it!


The only reference I've come up with online is an April 26, 1947, Billboard magazine with a short blurb announcing: "Harold Stern ork held over indefinitely at Hollywood's Chanteclair Restaurant."

I'm guessing ork means orchestra?

There's also this photo that doesn't help much.

Caption: Deanna & Felix at the Chanteclair Restaurant in Hollywood.



That's Deanna Durbin and her second husband, Felix Jackson.

There's also a 1947 Getty Images photo of Joan Fontaine and her husband William Dozier at the Chanteclair here:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/ne...re-id535084146

She was married to William Dozier? The "Batman" producer? (Yes, she was, from 1946-1951.)

There's a few other celebrity photographs of people at the Chanteclair you can find. Here's a noirish connection:

The blogspot Noirsville has a page about the 1949 film TRAPPED:



From Noirsville: "Meg Dixon (Barbara Payton) is Stewart's (Lloyd Bridges) blonde gal pal with benefits. She's been biding her Tris down time trolling for tips by flashing her pins and breasts as a skimpily attired Chesterfield cigarette girl in the Chanteclair, an LA nightclub. Agent John Downey (Hoyt) is undercover as a dapper dan, putting the moves on her and tipping ten spots for decks of cigarettes.

Whether it was filmed at the actual nightclub or not, it doesn't say, but here's a couple screen grabs from Trapped:





Another interesting note from the page: "The finale at the Los Angeles Trolley Car barn is a classic."

IMDB says: "During the chase scene, the car driven by Agent Downey and Jack Sylvester passes the Alto-Nido Apartments (1851 N. Ivar Street, Hollywood, California) seen in Sunset Boulevard.

Although the location isn't identified, another exterior shot from Trapped:

[Martin Pal]

E_R, this brief L.A. Times quote would explain why your Chanteclair search kept bringing up the Tam O'Shanter:

The original restaurant--the country tavern facade fronting on Los Feliz Boulevard--was established at this location by Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp, of Lawry's Restaurants fame. The family still owns and operates the Tam O'Shanter, making it one of the oldest single-concern-owned restaurants in Los Angeles. The restaurant has gone through several changes of name over the years. Originally it was called Montgomery's Country Inn, becoming the Chanteclair about a year later. It became the Tam O'Shanter Inn in 1925. Then in 1967 the name was changed to Great Scot, but six years ago, it went back to Tam O'Shanter.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-06-...-o-shanter-inn

[HossC]

Seeing as we've had a couple of Long Beach posts in the past 24 hours, here are some pictures from Julius Shulman's "Job 12: Federal Department Store (Long Beach, Calif.), 1947". I've picked four out of the six available.



This appears to be the electrical department. Note the cashier at the rear.



This may be a reverse shot of the first picture, although the small display stand almost in the center appears to be missing from the other view.



I'll finish the Shulman photos with this one from the clothing department.



All from Getty Research Institute

I haven't located any exterior pictures of the store, but I did find an address. This advert from the 1948 Long Beach CD lists The Federal Store at 630 Pine Avenue. There's no sign of the store today, so does anyone have a picture?


www.lbpl.org

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks so much for shedding some light on the mystery pic of the 'Chanteclair' HossC and Martin_Pal!

I really appreciate it.

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[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

More American Ave/Long Beach blvd. 1939 http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...coll2/id/33838 and http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...coll2/id/33836










tom tom

Would expect some info on "Tom-Tom," but no such luck . . . so far.





Meanwhile, SanChez Studebaker at 1350 American Ave. looks like it morphed into James Motor Center by 1962. (Or is it Jamestown??)

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

1350 American Ave.

http://encore.lbpl.org/iii/cpro/app?...blob&suite=def



More on utility poles

215 American Avenue, circa 1928, we see the Pacific Southwest Building. This is at the corner of American Ave, and Broadway.
http://encore.lbpl.org/iii/cpro/app?...blob&suite=def

[Moses H. Sherman]

While watching a Tom Petty documentary on Netflix, I took a screen grab of another lost recording studio on Sunset Blvd that I don't believe we have seen on NLA, MGM Records. I've always been curious about the building since it's address was so prominently displayed on my old singles and LPs:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965382/



The building today:
GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Moses H. Sherman

While watching a Tom Petty documentary on Netflix, I took a screen grab of another lost recording studio on Sunset Blvd
that I don't believe we have seen on NLA, MGM Records.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965382/

Thanks for posting this screen-grab Moses. I don't remember seeing this location before.



MGM Records had offices further west on Sunset at 9255, so I'm guessing the 7165 location was strictly a sound studio...right?
It's difficult to find detailed information and dates.

Billboard, January 7, 1967

https://books.google.com/books?id=CS...levard&f=false




Here's the 9255 location.

It's known as the Sunset-Doheny Building [1962 by architects Dan Saxon Palmer + William Krisel]


https://www.you-are-here.com/sunset/sunset_doheny.html

I've never noticed the 'diamond'-design on the corners of this building before. -very nice touch.

_

[ethereal_reality]

I so wanted to figure out the location of the extremely-noirish looking 'Alibi Club'. (did you notice....there's also a conveniently located MOTEL next door)

Originally posted by BifRayRock

detail


And where exactly is this 'Hardware' store?....it almost looks like it's above the club.


micro-detail


In the 1956 city directory I found....

An Alibi 'Room' at 6808 Pacific Blvd in Huntington Park

A 'Little' Alibi at 5942 1/2 North Figueroa.

And 'The Alibi' at 5353 Crenshaw.


And in the 1961 Van Nuys directory...I found 'The Alibi' at 16026 Sherman Way.

...but no 'Alibi CLUB'


& none of these locations appear to match the 'Alibi Club' that appears in BRR's photograph.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Ed Workman

The classic oil derrick was used while drilling the well and for maintenance of the pipe later if necessary. Today a portable machine is used.
The derrick was used to pull the drill string out of the hole, one section at a time, replace the bit etc, and put the string back in , one at a time. once the hole reached the desired bottom the string was pulled out and various fittings applied at the ground level. Some of that was a complicated set of valves etc to allow shut-down of oil, protect against gas pressure blow out . The arrangement of pipes and valves was nick=named a "Christmas Tree"
The drilling floor was a very dangerous place, part of the reason the workmen were called "roughnecks". The drill string was connected piece by piece by threaded joints. The down hole part of the string was supported by a gripping turntable at floor level. The table - I forget the vernacular, was also rotated to drive the drill string and the bit at the bottom
The piece above the table was held by a chain wrapped around it to sort of control it when it was free as well as to keep it from rotating. Hence the possibilities of flapping loose chains, swinging pipe rotating machinery etc. leading to injury and death


So, to answer e_r's question;
NO pipes in the derrick except when drilling was being done

Thanks for explaining the utility of oil derricks Ed.



Now, how about a different type of well.


http://pictures.historicimages.net/P...000&id=7880673

"Drilling of helium well near Los Angeles progresses, Dr. Mercer is shown in foreground." [June 1931]


reverse of photo with hand-written info and date stamp(s)

http://pictures.historicimages.net/P...000&id=7880674

Any idea where HELIUM WELLS were drilled in the Los Angeles area?
__

[FredH]

[QUOTE=HossC;7583336]The Chanteclair Restaurant was on Sunset Boulevard, although finding an address has proved difficult. The references I've found so far seem to be dated between 1947 and 1950, and often refer to it with terms like "the famous Chanteclair Restaurant".

Finally, an incident from Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia by Michael Karol.


books.google.com



The Los Angeles Public Library is not much help here either, except for a picture of Dezi's head wound with a sappy blurb
from the Herald-Examiner.


LAPL

Photograph caption dated September 23, 1949 reads, "Bandleader Desi Arnaz suffered a 1 1/2 inch scalp
wound when a waiter dropped a tray of turkey dishes on him at a Sunset Strip night club last night.
But he was 'doing nicely today, thank you.' With such comfort as provided by his wife, luscious Lucille Ball,
he couldn't help recovering." The accident occurred at the Chanteclair Restaurant.

[FredH]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for explaining the utility of oil derricks Ed.



Now, how about a different type of well.


http://pictures.historicimages.net/P...000&id=7880673

"Drilling of helium well near Los Angeles progresses, Dr. Mercer is shown in foreground." [June 1931]


reverse of photo with hand-written info and date stamp(s)

http://pictures.historicimages.net/P...000&id=7880674

Any idea where HELIUM WELLS were drilled in the Los Angeles area?
__

ER - This is another picture from the same photo shoot:


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/27929/rec/2

According to this, Dick Whittington traveled 40 miles for the photo shoot. I guess that would be a round trip.
That really doesn't do a whole lot to pin down the location though.

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I so wanted to figure out the location of the extremely-noirish looking 'Alibi Club'. (did you notice....there's also a conveniently located MOTEL next door! )

Originally posted by BifRayRock

detail


And where exactly is this 'Hardware' store?....it almost looks like it's above the club.


micro-detail


In the 1956 city directory I found....

An Alibi 'Room' at 6808 Pacific Blvd in Huntington Park

A 'Little' Alibi at 5942 1/2 North Figueroa.

And 'The Alibi' at 5353 Crenshaw.


And in the 1961 Van Nuys directory...I found 'The Alibi' at 16026 Sherman Way.

...but no 'Alibi CLUB'


& none of these locations appear to match the 'Alibi Club' that appears in BRR's photograph.

There is also an Alibi Room still at 12236 W. Washington Blvd. If I recall correctly, it used to be known as Shady's Alibi Room - an even better name.

http://www.alibiroomla.com/

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

There is also an Alibi Room still at 12236 W. Washington Blvd. If I recall correctly, it used to be known as Shady's Alibi Room - an even better name.

http://www.alibiroomla.com/

Per the original wide image, the Alibi Club and its neighbors were apparently located on Route 66 in California. One of those neighbors "Yor-Way" appears to have been part of a supermarket chain. A list of those markets, should it exist, might offer a a clue or two. (Have not located such a list, but it might be included as part of one of "Yor-Way's" newspaper ads.)

[VictorAtomic]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

I realize now that I was confused by the various funeral parlors near the corner of Washington and Bonsallo. I knew there was Walter C. Blue from the pics of Barbara LaMarr's funeral, and then you showed us Reed Brothers next door to that. It turns out that these businesses (717 and 721 W Washington) were across the street from what is now the Iglesia Gethsemene...and which was once an operation of the Pierce Brothers--I found my old post on the other vintage celebrity funeral:

I used to work for the mortuary company that owned many of the funeral homes in LA, this location being one of them. The company sold off a lot of the locations after a company-wide corruption scandal. Awful to see it in the condition it is now after the church took it over. I was told the location was haunted.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by VictorAtomic

I was told the location was haunted.

hmmmm...so which location is haunted VictorAtomic? (GW's comment confused me a bit)

Any other juicy mortuary stories you might have up your sleeve?
__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

There is also an Alibi Room still at 12236 W. Washington Blvd. If I recall correctly, it used to be known as Shady's Alibi Room - an even better name.

Shady's....I have a mental picture of this guy and it ain't good.


Bristolian, I just found this 1940s matchbook of yet another 'Alibi'.

'The Alibi' at 115 American Avenue, Long Beach.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940s-Matc...item2106f7a2c2



I love this guy with all the smooches on him.

Boy is he's ever going to be in trouble when he gets home!
__


He better have an alibi.

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Per the original wide image, the Alibi Club and its neighbors were apparently located on Route 66 in California. One of those neighbors "Yor-Way" appears to have been part of a supermarket chain. A list of those markets, should it exist, might offer a a clue or two. (Have not located such a list, but it might be included as part of one of "Yor-Way's" newspaper ads.)

Thanks for the tip Tourmaline.

We might need help from someone who subscribes to newspaper.com


__

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by FredH

ER - This is another picture from the same photo shoot:


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/27929/rec/2

According to this, Dick Whittington traveled 40 miles for the photo shoot. I guess that would be a round trip.
That really doesn't do a whole lot to pin down the location though.

FredH, the 40 miles that's noted on the bill is a great clue!

-although there's a bit of an discrepancy

On the bill there was a 6 dollar surcharge added for traveling "Out of City", but there's also a space for "Out of City 15 miles" which was left blank.


usc

-perhaps Mr. Whittington gave them a break on the mileage (smart business move on his part)
________

Here's the complete bill for purists.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/27929/rec/2

but no address of the Helium Well.

__

[ethereal_reality]

One more thing...

Here are some close ups from the set of photographs that FredH found in the USC archives.

I didn't realize you could SEE helium.


detail




detail

What prey-tel are they looking at?
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