noirish Los Angeles

[BifRayRock]

Not that many posts ago there were questions regarding the location of Carpenters Sandwiches with the Wilshire Professional Bldg in the background. The first post may have originated here=> http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=18458 The subject is far from being exhausted. All from LIFE magazine's potpourri of images. As with the prior images, they are unsorted and undated. Clearly some are from Sunset and Vine others Wilshire.




























Sure looks like Bullocks Wilshire in the background.














It's a Simon's (Nicely pin-striped roller.)




Out of town?

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by gsjansen

i have always enjoyed Mimetic architecture for greasy spoons and ice cream joints. Los Angeles certainly has had it's fair share of em.

the Mother Goose Pantry, located at 1951 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena - 1928


LAPL

All from Life Magazine's archives. No date

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We've seen the Sphinx on NLA.

yt


yt

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location #3

"Black Sunday Billboard, Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles 1977"


www.alamy.com

I like the blimp.

The blimp shows up in the darndest places!


http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...coll2/id/18889



Fore!
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/390d9e403e93a9b7_large

[HossC]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Casablanca Club around the bend.

That's actually the Casanova Club.

Originally Posted by HossC

The tiled building behind the service station was probably the same one that housed the Casanova Club in 1936. It was at 8383 Sunset Boulevard.


www.martinturnbull.com

[ethereal_reality]

Good Morning!

Today's first billboard photo isn't a mystery (the location was given in the description), but it's quite interesting non-the-less.


www.alamy.com

"Imperial Whiskey billboard at Olympic and Crenshaw in Los Angeles circa 1951"

I haven't checked to see if the building is still there. I've gotta' rush to an appointment.

[BifRayRock]

Thanks HossC. Original post has been corrected. A case of intending "Casanova" but typing something else.

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

http://www.flickr.com/photos/

We've looked at the quirky well that once adorned the center of La Cienega (slightly south of Beverly). Here are two more images that appear to depict it. Again, both from LIFE magazine archives. No descriptions or dates. It is a guess that the above is facing north. The perspective below is facing south.










In keeping with the renewed interest in billboards, ponder these: (again, no descriptions, dates or exact locations.)

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by westcork

1928-1929
A car is set up for broadcasting with microphones on the roof and above the driver's head. On the truck are the call letters of KEJK radio station of the MacMillan Petroleum Co., and the name Freeman Lang. Lang was the chief engineer of the station, which he founded in 1927 under the call sign of KRLO. He sold the station in February 1928 to Ernest J. Krause, who changed the call letters to fit his initials, KEJK. Just two months later, KEJK was sold to R.S. MacMillan Petroleum Company of Beverly Hills, which owned KEJK when this photo was taken. They would change the call letters on March 14, 1930, to KMPC to fit the company name.

LAPL

Macmillan's/KMPC's broadcast antennas along Wilshire in Beverly Hills - from LIFE's archives. (As interesting as this may be to NLA'ers, it is easy to understand why this and many other images never made it into the original publication.)
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/be482b5ccd4441a4_large

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by HossC

USC has this picture dated December 1, 1932. It shows the Hoegee Sporting Goods Store, the Weil Block, and the Hotel Yorke on the corner.


USC Digital Library

Hotel Yorke's hard-boiled room rates.


(~1936) Hotel Yorke 103 East 2nd Street.
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/00b36fde4787baf5_large

[odinthor]

Main and 2nd looking north.


gsv

Nearly unchanged, but the Hotel Yorke seems to be gone . . .

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="3"][FONT="Tahoma"]


More images of Wilshire from the unsorted LIFE magazine files and a surprise (or two).

The 1930s film "Things to Come"....eerily predicted WW II and WW III.

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

GW, loved your pictures of Zamboanga and Chuckaluck, yours of the Singapore Spa!







It's my belief that the self-service station can be found in this aerial if you look under the word “Beverly.” In the close-up photos you can see 8 rows of gas pumps in each photo. In the aerial you can see what look to be those same eight rows of pumps. It’s set off the street which would also coincide with the street-level photos and the large “serve yourself” sign seen in the pictures, along with the pay station booth. From that location looking west (the night photo) you would also see the “Herbert’s” tower in the background and the Fairfax Theatre sign off to the right.

As for expecting “far more volume/sales than the solitary station,” that location with Gilmore Field, Gilmore Stadium, the Farmer’s Market, Fairfax Theater, Gilmore Drive-In and the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, surely would have provided that more than any other location I could think of in the city at the time!

Well-behaved Spaniels and Dalmatians are welcome!

"Brea-Fax" Market, circa 1948?


From a series on the Gilmore Self-Serve on Beverly.

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c6d761543df2e706_large


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/0318390b4bfc7dc4_large


Aahhh. Spaghetti.
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bf88f6856ad63731_large



"The Pan Pacific Auditorium is over there!"
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/287e80266d32ee36_large



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c6c5001e4aff5b1e_large



30psi - all the way around.
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/8915457951dcdbaf_large



Drive me to drink'in if you don't stop driving that hot rod Lincoln.


For those who know, was the glass-bottled motor oil available in only one viscosity, e.g., SAE 20 or 30?
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/9dfa5ecfad56d044_large

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Today's first billboard photo isn't a mystery (the location was given in the description), but it's quite interesting non-the-less.


www.alamy.com

"Imperial Whiskey billboard at Olympic and Crenshaw in Los Angeles circa 1951"

I haven't checked to see if the building is still there. I've gotta' rush to an appointment.

Building and billboard still standing.


GSV

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

The 1930s film "Things to Come"....eerily predicted WW II and WW III.

But has it ever been described as "The Greatest Picture Ever Made?" That designation apparently goes to another 1936 film, Show Boat.


Pantages
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bc5e38d7b278dfab_large



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/0f4d2250436a82ed_large


After the VIPs have been seated?
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/851be7d72b344e42_large



And, some of those patrons probably lived down there:
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/99a15c55542dfa2b_large

[HossC]

We've visited the area surrounding today's Julius Shulman post many times, but I'm not sure if we've seen this store. It's "Job 2089: Burke, Kober and Nicolais, Desmond's (Pasadena, Calif.), 1955". Here's a selection.



A better look at the front, which includes the street number.



From this distance, those mannequins look quite realistic!



The other side of the same floor.



Upstairs to the Boys and Campus Shop.



All from Getty Research Institute

This appears to be the original building at 440 S Lake Avenue. It's opposite the old Bullock's Art Deco store. On the far right of the first image you can just see a little of the Union Oil Gas Station which I posted about in post #37581.


GSV

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

1959

www.alamy.com

Anyone heard of Almquist?

I found Almquist's Jewelers in the 1956 city directory.


lapl

But I haven't figured out which building it is exactly (numerous building have recently been torn down)











While I was idling in the google-mobile I noticed this interesting building. (it has twin engaged 'columns' at either end)


gsv


with two more sets of twin 'columns' above.....on both sides of the arched door-like window.








Until 2009 it had a HUGE roof-top structure for duo billboards.


gsv



It's almost ridiculous how many iron braces were involved.


detail

It looks like someone was just winging it to me.
__

Hoss, thanks for checking out the location of the Imperial Whiskey billboard on Olympic Blvd. I appreciate it.

__

[ethereal_reality]

Here's this afternoon's 'mystery' location.

"Various billboards along Santa Monica Blvd near Beverly Hills, 1977"


www.alamy.com

This is a few years before I moved to L.A..........I don't recall a r.r. bridge with those large cylindrical cement 'supports'.

__

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I found Almquist's Jewelers in the 1956 city directory.


lapl

But I haven't figured out which building it is exactly (numerous building have recently been torn down)

I found that address too, but the building that apppears at 4334 Crenshaw in GSV images up until 2012 (below) doesn't match the vintage picture. I wasn't sure if that was because the recently demolished building had replaced the 1959 building, or if it was because I had the wrong location.


GSV (2011)

To answer that question, I had a look at Historic Aerials, and it looks like the old Mesa Vernon Market buildings survived at that location until at least 1980.

Originally Posted by HossC

That's the Mesa Vernon Market. It appears that the Dick Whittington image has been mirrored. I've posted details of this photo before (during my Citizens Bank round-up) - it dates from March 29, 1930.


Detail of picture in Huntington Digital Library

Do you think that the billboard in the 1959 image is mounted on the old "MARKET" tower? I think it's a match.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

"Hills Bros. Coffee Billboard, Los Angeles 1959


www.alamy.com

[ethereal_reality]

A few weeks ago I came across this vintage ad from a medical periodical, "The Bulletin" [c.1922]



The RADIUM & Oncologic Institute, 1151 W. Sixth Street, Los Angeles"


detail / 1922 Advertisement



I thought I'd check the address and lo-and-behold both buildings are still standing (albeit remodeled)

-I wasn't sure it was the same building until I noticed the unique arched windows on the side facing Lucas Ave.



gsv

The somewhat ornate front entrance has been moved from the center of the building to the right side--->



Recently, the building has seen some upgrades.

2016

gsv




Here's a closer look at the building you see behind the old Radium Institute in the 1922 ad.




It's much more ornate than I expected. (is this the same building?)


Here's the complete ad


University of California Archive

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's this afternoon's 'mystery' location.

"Various billboards along Santa Monica Blvd near Beverly Hills, 1977"


www.alamy.com

This is a few years before I moved to L.A..........I don't recall a r.r. bridge with those large cylindrical cement 'supports'.

__

I may be wrong, but that looks very like Santa Monica Blvd and Beverly Glen (looking east), all swept away now:

google maps

Before the steel and concrete Balloon Route overpass, there was a wooden trestle w/ the same (?) steel span (looking west):

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

http://www.pacificelectric.org/wp-co...Santa-Moni.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Do you think that the billboard in the 1959 image is mounted on the old "MARKET" tower? I think it's a match.

It took me a bit to figure out what you were talking about Hoss. I thought that was a chimney behind the Hill Bros. billboard.

Now that I compared the two...I think you're correct.





That's some really good sleuthing Hoss. Thank you!


__