noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Here is Joe Harper at the right. He gave an unusual party at his parent's home one night whilst they were away in Bakersfield.

He was the oldest son of former Los Angeles Mayor, Arthur Harper.


LATimes

Mayor Arthur Harper

LATimes

Here's a description of this party that attracted the local LA Purity Squad Police.




Here is a current 2010 Times blog report about the 1920 party. One wonders if the ''punch'' was spiked with Prohibition whiskey.


“Twenty Los Angeles men, some said to be prominent in social and business circles, were arrested last night by police at a stag party in the home of former Mayor Harper and were booked at the police station on the charge of social vagrancy.

“Seven of the men, including the host, Joseph Harper, 24 years old, are alleged by the officers making the raid to have been gowned in feminine apparel.”

After a few paragraphs, the paper says: “According to Police Sergeant Gifford and the officers of the ‘purity squad’ who conducted the raid, a degenerate orgy was in progress when they entered the house.”

The men were taken to jail as they were dressed, meaning that some of them spent the night in women’s clothing. Early the next morning, The Times says, the dresses were taken into evidence, so some of the men were given bathrobes and others draped themselves with jail blankets. Of the 16 arrested, four were released to the Navy (they were in uniform, The Times said) and eight were held in custody because they tested positive “for infectious disease.” And yes, their names or pseudonyms, addresses and occupations were published.

When asked about his son Joe, the former mayor said: “The only party he has given lately that I know of was given by him on Halloween night. His mother was present that night and among the guests during the evening, so I know nothing wrong took place.”

One of the sailors said: “I came in for my liberty and met a fellow at a downtown street corner. He asked me if I’d like to attend a nice party with dancing and girls and refreshments and said for me to bring some of my friends along.”

The Times said: “The sailors declare they did not know for a long time that the ‘girls’ were men and when they did learn of the fact, some thought it was just a good-natured masquerade ‘stunt.’ ”

March 30, 1920, Vice Raid A later story says: “All the men are charged with lewd and dissolute conduct. Seven were dressed as women and the police say their acts were such that the charges against them can be upheld in court.”

Police said that officers learned about the party several weeks ago. “Arrangements were made to have some of the officers in the house,” The Times said.

“The raiding officers in plain clothes gained entrance to the house and mixed with the strange guests. Several other officers climbed into the house by way of a rear window and concealed themselves beneath beds. After watching the ‘party’ for over two hours, whistles were blown and the raiding uniformed police rushed into the residence.”

Two months later the case was dismissed.

[HossC]

After reading CityBoyDoug's articles about the "purity squad", I came across this one from Feb 17, 1932. The last paragraph made me smile .


news.google.com

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by HossC

After reading CityBoyDoug's articles about the "purity squad", I came across this one from Feb 17, 1932. The last paragraph made me smile .


news.google.com

As a matter of fact, I believe it was this so-called Purity Campaign that spelled the end of Eltinge's career, because it more or less put the stopper on the type of act he did when he performed. In private life he was routinely masculine to all appearances, and he detested the overtly effeminate men who sometimes approached him. He despised wristwatches and the men who wore them; like many in those times he still held that only pocket watches were suitably manly. But it didn't matter how presentable his private persona was; he could no longer ply the trade that had made him famous.

(Based on a fairly recent book I read a few years ago, Underground L.A.. Author, date, and publisher forgotten.)

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

As a matter of fact, I believe it was this so-called Purity Campaign that spelled the end of Eltinge's career, because it more or less put the stopper on the type of act he did when he performed. In private life he was routinely masculine to all appearances, and he detested the overtly effeminate men who sometimes approached him. He despised wristwatches and the men who wore them; like many in those times he still held that only pocket watches were suitably manly. But it didn't matter how presentable his private persona was; he could no longer ply the trade that had made him famous.

(Based on a fairly recent book I read a few years ago, Underground L.A.. Author, date, and publisher forgotten.)

TWS mentions Julian Eltinge. He was a very successful actor in Hollywood who played both male and female parts. He died at age 58.

We have interesting comments from Hoss, also.


Wiki

http://www.amazon.com/The-Undergroun...dp_ob_title_bk

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Very cool discovery FlyingWedge. What do you think the thing on top represented? A stylized water-heater?
__

1931:

previously posted by me

I just found this 1935 photo of the Ward building. The thing on top -- the pylon? -- could have been designed that way before it was known who the
tenant would be. But I suppose it might be a stylized flame. Metlox put a lot of neon on that building; over the door, in the windows, the lettering at the
base of the pylon and the vertical WARD lettering, plus it looks like there's some neon at the very top, too:

USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/76613/rec/5

1935 closer:




Sept 9, 1921 Southwest Builder and Contractor @ http://books.google.com/books?id=MZQ...ngeles&f=false

[HossC]

Some competition for the Ward Heater Company: this is the Ruud Heater Company at 911 S Grand in 1930. The building no longer stands.


USC Digital Library

[whizbang]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Hi Mr. W.:
This is a really cool model. I like the little lights...adds a lot of zest. You are very talented. Have you done other models?

Thank you, CityBoyDoug. I've been doing this about four years now and I've completed 6 different houses. I want to build the Hansel House in Carmel next.

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Plomb Tool Co. catalog 1948

another impressive design

ebay





back cover






ebay
__

More on the subject: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=14576

http://img2.etsystatic.com/000/0/511....313276038.jpg

[ethereal_reality]

I didn't know Plomb Tools became Proto Tools.
__



originally posted by MichaelRyerson

Originally Posted by HossC

The Sons of the Revolution building surrounded by its neighbors.

August 18, 1933

I came across this interesting newspaper article earlier this morning.

August 1938

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...008/08/page/2/

I thought it would be a fun quest to try and find a photograph (perhaps an aerial) that shows the house behind
the S.A.R. Headquarters on Hope Street.

I also wonder what "haunted house on Bunker Hill" Mrs. Tafe speaks of.

__

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles

ebay

detail


I believe this is a Cord. Does anyone recognize the buildings?
__

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

After reading CityBoyDoug's articles about the "purity squad", I came across this one from Feb 17, 1932. The last paragraph made me smile .


news.google.com

Enjoyed the two articles mentioning THE PURITY SQUAD!

By the way, the last paragraph of this Feb 17, 1932, article talks about a raid made in 1936. (Minority Report?)

[ethereal_reality]

At first, I thought this was a photograph of Central Market.


ebay

but the seller places it at 3rd Street and Central Avenue.



United States Post Office
Arcade Annex



3rd & Central puts it just north of the Arcade Depot.

www.bigmapblog.com


After a quick google search or two I found the Arcade Annex Post Office was only open from 1930 to 1940.



I also came across these letters postmarked from the Arcade annex.


http://www.postalhistory.com/results...E&searchtype=2


http://www.postalhistory.com/results...E&searchtype=2


I'm including this one because of the dog.

http://www.postalhistory.com/results...E&searchtype=2

__

[ethereal_reality]

Easter's tomorrow.



Alice White http://cavigliascabinetofcuriosities...1_archive.html






Dorothy Gulliver http://moirasthread.blogspot.com/201...ster-2010.html
__

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

United States Post Office
Arcade Annex

I'm assuming that the large building at the center of this aerial is the Arcade Annex. It appears on Historic Aerials' images from 1948 (the earliest for this area) to 1980. The image below is from 1980 as it was the clearest. Google Earth shows the current structures were there by 1994. Other than that, I didn't find much information. The Arcade Annex isn't on the 1921 Baist map, and the first mention I found in the City Directories is 1932. A couple of the City Directories list its opening hours as "never closed".


Historic Aerials

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Although not built like that, the Brown Derby actually did move up to this corner of Hollywood and Vine in 1987, although I cannot find a photo of it there.

I DID FIND A PHOTO OF IT.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

...home to CoCo Tree / Melody Lane / Hody's / Howard Johnsons...did I miss any?
__

Let’s review… A hundred years on one corner of Hollywood & Vine, give or take a decade or two! A look at the buildings on the Northwest Corner of Hollywood & Vine.
(…and also a look at billboards through the years!)

(1887)

This is an 1887 map, produced by the town’s founders, the Wilcoxes. Hollywood and Vine is the small circle in pencil.



You’ll notice the streets were originally named Prospect and Weyse Avenues.

(1907)
(one source lists the photo c. 1903, another 1907) – Weyse Ave. (Vine Street) headed north into the hills from Prospect Ave. (Hollywood Boulevard). The home of
George Hoover is on the far left and the Bartlett residence is at the right. The empty field in right foreground is now the Pantages Theatre.
LA Public Library Image Archive

To give an idea of these homes, here’s a postcard view of the home of Jacob Stern, across the street on the Southwest corner (where the Broadway Dept. store is located).

Hollywood Photographs

Weyse was the first street to be renamed (Vine Street) and when Hollywood consolidated with Los Angeles in 1910 Prospect Ave. became Hollywood Blvd. and Hollywood & Vine was now on the map.

(1920)
Here’s a great 1920 aerial of the intersection. You can see that Jacob Stern’s home entailed a lot more land than George Hoover’s home across the street!
Hollywood Photographs

The building on the Southeast corner is a church that was built in 1903 and remained until 1923. In the following
aerial dated 1921 you can see it in the intersection of Hollywood & Vine (to the right of the street banner).

KCET

(1931)
By this 1931 aerial (facing northeast) we have the Equitable, Taft and Broadway buildings erected (lower right) in the intersection.
Hollywood Photographs

But Carl Laemmle’s vision of a 900 seat theatre and office tower on the Northwest corner was thwarted by the depression.
Instead, he opened the CoCo Tree Café and used the top of the building to advertise his Universal Pictures.

tlc

(1932)
USC Digital


(1936)
Here’s a 1936 shot of some filming in front of the restaurant. (Equitable Building in background.)


It seems that Lon Chaney’s ghost was reportedly seen sitting on a public bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, in front of the Coco Tree!

Story HERE.
(Story says corner was northeast, but someone corrects that in the comments.)

[Martin Pal]

Melody Lane (1940 – 1955)

The restaurant became Melody Lane in 1940.
tlc

It was soon remodeled; this photo is from 1947:
tlc

-1949-
LAPL


(1955-1969) Hody’s

-1956-
Detail of a 1956 real estate map of Hollywood by Nirenstein's National Realty Map Company. Courtesy of the Map Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.


-1957-
tlc


(1970-1985) Howard Johnson’s

-1976-
Hollywood Photographs

-1978-
William Reagh/LAPL


(1987 – c. 1988) The Brown Derby

Here’s two photos of the relocated (more like re-imagined) Brown Derby, which opened in October of 1987.



Hollywood Photographs

A year later, paraphrasing a 1988 Nov. 1st L.A. Times article: It reports that an estimated 100,000 people were on Hollywood Blvd. for the annual Halloween festivities when fighting (some reported rioting) broke out shortly before 11 p.m. Two policeman were injured.

Most of the property damage was confined to two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard between Vine Street and Cahuenga Boulevard, where shattered glass, upturned police barricades and broken flowerpots remained strewn on the sidewalk. Several stores were broken into with upwards of $130,000 worth of merchandise stolen. At the Brown Derby restaurant, looters smashed the front window, reaching in to steal bottles of wine.

Around this time, West Hollywood was becoming known for it’s annual Halloween “carnival” and this incident on Hollywood Blvd. effectively ended the annual Hollywood Blvd. Halloween gatherings whereby the city of L.A. subtly hinted the following year streets would be closed and heavily monitored and crowds should head over to West Hollywood. W.H.’s current Halloween Carnival draws upwards of 500,000 people!


(1990 – c. 1992) Premieres of Hollywood

PacificSouthland

PacificSouthland

A wikipedia entry says “Premieres of Hollywood was destroyed during the L.A. riots in 1992.”

[Martin Pal]

(1995 - c. 1999) Jack's Sugar Shack

RockCity


LAPL
JACK’S SUGAR SHACK moved here from it’s Pico Blvd. location.

The above photo I found in two sources with different information. One describes it as Jack’s Sugar Shack. From the source below that describes the place, it sounds credible. The other source lists it as a 1987 William Reagh photo. If so, that would be when it was being readied as The Brown Derby. Also credible.

A Tikiroom poster wrote: “Jack's was entered via the door at the far right.” (Entrance on Vine, not at the corner.) “The building was painted white or off-white at that time, and the sign for Jack's, in a bamboo frame, and a palm tree were painted on the building next to the door.” (As in a photo above.) [It had] “the most beautiful bamboo bar I've ever seen. Thachery, bamboo, the whole nine. My favorite thing about this place was in the back there was a wall with a giant mural of Thurston Howell and Lovey.”

Someone also writes: “It was painted green after Jack's closed up.”



Could the above photo be DEEP?


(2000 – 2005) Deep

I can find no photo of the exterior, but there’s lots of tidbits about the nightclub and the owner, Ivan Kane. He apparently had a string of clubs that burned brightly, but briefly in Hollywood, including Kane (1997-2002), Deep (2000-2005), Ivan Kane’s Forty-Deuce (2002-2007, also in Las Vegas 2004-2009, and also a Forty-Deuce reality series on Bravo in 2005), Ivan Kane’s Café Was (2007-2011), and currently Ivan Kane’s Royal Jelly Burlesque opened in Atlantic City in 2012.
Info from: http://royaljellyburlesque.com/projects.php

About Deep: Kane's homage to early idol, Cabaret director/choreographer Bob Fosse. This nightclub, infamous for pushing the envelope in terms of sexuality, voyeurism and decadence, was featured in Steven Soderbergh's film “Ocean's 11”. (Another source says Soderbergh was part owner.) Dancers performed stylized ménage a trios over the dance floor in a plexiglass box and in Amsterdam-style rooms over the bar behind two-way mirrors.


(2006 – 2008) Basque



Nichols/Lotta Living

-2008-
On fire. (Notice the "Bob Hope Square" sign designation on the pole.)


News about the fire:

A recording studio? According to the Daily Breeze:
Federal Agents were called in to help with the probe of the fire. In addition to Basque, the building devastated by the fire was home to three other businesses, DanDee Shoe Repair, Bloodshot Tattoo and the San Miguel Spa. A scene from ``Ocean's Eleven'' was filmed in the club when it was known as Deep a few years ago, Davies said. It was also once a Brown Derby, a Howard Johnson's restaurant and a recording studio. The blaze was the second in the area last week. On the afternoon of April 26, a blaze apparently sparked by faulty wiring gutted Off Vine restaurant at 6263 W. Leland Way.

From another article HERE:

Los Angeles Fire Department arson experts have not determined the cause of the blaze. But some in Hollywood suggest that mysterious fires frequently precede demolition of historic buildings near the Hollywood and Vine intersection.

Officials say they have no evidence that any of the blazes were tied to redevelopment. But historian and preservationist Gregory Paul Williams said he has counted 10 nearby buildings that were torn down after being damaged by fire. One, the renowned Brown Derby restaurant on Vine Street, was set on fire 16 times, he said.

“This is the unsolved arson capital of the world,” said longtime Hollywood activist John Walsh.

Gregory Paul Williams


(current)

Three current views of the Northwest corner of Hollywood & Vine looks like this, with the Redbury Hotel up the street taking focus.
(In fact, they use Hollywood & Vine as their address in most cases.)

gogobot

The Redbury's website says rooms come stocked with records and turntables.

David Zanzinger



Yes, it is now a parking lot.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I DID FIND A PHOTO OF IT.
Let’s review… A hundred years on one corner of Hollywood & Vine, give or take a decade or two! A look at the buildings on the Northwest Corner of Hollywood & Vine.
(…and also a look at billboards through the years!)
(1887)
This is an 1887 map, produced by the town’s founders, the Wilcoxes. Hollywood and Vine is the small circle in pencil.
You’ll notice the streets were originally named Prospect and Weyse Avenues.
(1907)
(one source lists the photo c. 1903, another 1907) – Weyse Ave. (Vine Street) headed north into the hills from Prospect Ave. (Hollywood Boulevard). The home of
George Hoover is on the far left and the Bartlett residence is at the right. The empty field in right foreground is now the Pantages Theatre.


Weyse was the first street to be renamed (Vine Street) and when Hollywood consolidated with Los Angeles in 1910 Prospect Ave. became Hollywood Blvd. and Hollywood & Vine was now on the map.

(1920)
Here’s a great 1920 aerial of the intersection. You can see that Jacob Stern’s home entailed a lot more land than George Hoover’s home across the street!
The building on the Southeast corner is a church that was built in 1903 and remained until 1923. In the following
aerial dated 1921 you can see it in the intersection of Hollywood & Vine (to the right of the street banner).



(1931)
By this 1931 aerial (facing northeast) we have the Equitable, Taft and Broadway buildings erected (lower right) in the intersection.
Hollywood Photographs

But Carl Laemmle’s vision of a 900 seat theatre and office tower on the Northwest corner was thwarted by the depression.
Instead, he opened the CoCo Tree Café and used the top of the building to advertise his Universal Pictures.


(1932)



(1936)
Here’s a 1936 shot of some filming in front of the restaurant. (Equitable Building in background.)
It seems that Lon Chaney’s ghost was reportedly seen sitting on a public bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, in front of the Coco Tree!

Martin Pal, wow, your history of H & V is most admirable and impressive.

Hollywood and Vine....1927


Bing


Hollywood photos

[HossC]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Hollywood and Vine....1927


Bing

I found a zoomable version of the picture at USC. The insets are from the 1927 and 1929 City Directories. I think the sign for the business on the right says "Shoe Hospital", but I couldn't find it in the CDs. This corner is now the site of the Equitable Building.


USC Digital Library/LAPL

[Martin Pal]

Speaking of Hollywood & Vine, meet Sally...


Sally of Hollywood and Vine
Trick Gadget c. 1940.

Collection of Victor Minx

This is listed as a vintage sleaze item. A novelty gag.
I read the directions—what, exactly is this supposed to do or show or portray?