:previous:


https://i.postimg.cc/Zn5CccrK/lupeandclara-bmp.jpg


Was it Lupe or Clara who said that Gary was "hung like a horse and can go all night"?

Being the old guy that I am, I wouldn't assume "myself" was the photographer, though, judging from the camera angle, I think there's a good chance the photog was a Munchkin. :haha:

I love all these photos!


Edited to add: I just noticed what looks like a camera possibly hanging from her neck so maybe she was a/the photographer. Is this her, maybe?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ae44d6ef_c.jpg

That indeed was Clara Bow.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/1cd734c7...654192661a.gif

They're exiting the Brown Derby; this is looking north on Vine toward Hollywood Blvd. The blade sign is still there, at the Taft Bldg.

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:previous:

I didn't think we'd figure that one out. Thanks Beaudry.


And thanks Riichkay for locating the house that Lupe Velez lived in in 1941.

I believe CBS Columbia Square (6121 Sunset Boulevard) is in the distance behind Evelyn Keyes (#2) so she might be standing on . .um. .Gower(?), perhaps. :shrug:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/0Mi6z7.jpg


I'm glad you liked them. Don't be a stranger. :)
.

.
Here's another mystery location that might be a stinker to solve..

This snapshot shows cars parked in on front of a large building with an arched entrance in Los Angeles.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/0oUmwz.jpg
eBay

I'm mostly curious about the steak joint but I think the best clue might be the storefront closest to the camera.

Here's a better look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/AyHAhK.jpg
Detail

The circles reminds me of the Civil Defense logo but it could be a number of other gov. organizations as well.



Help me out here noirishers. :whip:
.

OK, e_r, here's my best take. The signage at the other end of the building reads "Ward Refrigerators" and "Viking...". A directory search (1947 Central L.A. Yellow Pages via Library of Congress) establishes that Viking Sales Corporation was a distributor of Ward Refrigerators and had their place of business at 1481 West Washington Blvd. in that year.

The remaining trace of supporting evidence is that the barely-visible building down the street in the photo bears a resemblance to the neighborhood market currently at 1451-57 West Washington. And thus endeth my case.

As for the rest, 1481 doesn't appear in the 1956 Street Directory, and what's there now is a storage lot that would merit a junkyard dog. I wasn't able to locate a street directory before 1956 that might've helped us determine the identities of the other businesses in the photo, assuming that we have the right location. The sign for the cafe appears to read "Steaks Snacks". I was able to make out the window lettering for the remaining ground-floor tenant as "______ Music Producers (or Publishers?), Inc. Local 207 (or 217?), but I never came up with an organization that fit the nomenclature; the first word is too fuzzy for my primitive image management skills, I'm afraid. And without it...

One last touch is that there was indeed a Ward Refrigerator and Manufacturing Company at 6501 South Alameda just to provide a nice red herring. And no, their building didn't resemble our quarry.

Stinker, indeed. But I can't say I didn't have fun with this! Comments and critique are welcome as always.

:previous:

Thanks for the tip on the 1947 Yellow Pages. That looks like a union logo in the window, and I think I can read "Local" at the bottom. So I looked up Unions, which redirected me to Labor Organizations, and browsed for ones on Washington.


https://i.postimg.cc/Vsncfyjh/Screen...428-230845.png
LOC

Seems to be the Building Service Employees International Union at 1491 W. Washington. The logo looks right.


https://i.postimg.cc/cJ7XV7Kk/s-l1200-1.webp
eBay

Mackerm, great work! I completely misread most of the lettering on the windows at 1491 and so would've gone to my grave wondering what a music-oriented union would've been doing there instead of Hollywood. Thanks!

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EXCELLENT sleuthing HenryHuntington and Mackerm. :worship:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/C6gf8c.jpg

.

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Here's a OOAK (one of a kind) snapshot of downtown Eagle Rock. (1920?)


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/P0xV1G.jpg
Currently on eBay

I don't recall seeing the bandstand(?) and flagpole in the middle of the street*.

*The small town I grew up in also had a bandstand in the middle of the Main Street. (now IL RT. 49)
.

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I just realized the same eBay seller also has this snapsnap listed on eBay.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/0WRqqg.jpg
Currently on eBay

If you look closely I think someone might be up there.

I didn't know Eagle Rock had their very own 'Hollywood' sign. (except it says Eagle Rock :))...So where was this located?


We might have covered this before but I don't remember.
.

:previous:
https://i.postimg.cc/3wcQMMrT/4-0818...l-1024x496.jpg
Eaglerockhistory

The business center at Eagle Rock and Colorado Boulevards had continued to grow in 1927 with the construction of the three story Ritchy Hardware building on Caspar, and the post World War I addition of a trolley waiting area and flag pole in the center of the intersection, dubbed the "Merrie Go Round”. The concrete structure became a great obstacle to increased auto traffic and was removed in the mid-thirties perhaps embodying a shift of priorities from rail to automotive transit. (ERVHS)


https://i.postimg.cc/5ycc0wFK/0582-5...l-1024x837.jpg
Eaglerockhistory (Near the bottom of the page)

This detail from a panoramic view shot in February 1923 shows the Eagle Rock sign in the upper left. This item quoted from the Eagle Rock Sentinel in 1922 tells all we know about the sign. “About the last of October, the name of Eagle Rock can be seen as a pillar of fire by night near the summit-of Eagle Mountain, officially named by the Booster Club.” said an article of The Sentinel under date of September 28, 1922. “The short range of heights directly north of the city is a ridge of the Verdugo Hills. It’s now officially Eagle Mountain. The contract to construct Eagle Rock’s new advertising sign has been let by the Chamber of Commerce to the electric sign factory of Los Angeles. Funds to the amount of $800 was raised by public subscription to defray expenses of this illumination.” It was no longer there in the panorama shot in 1924. (unknown-ERVHS)


The intersection at the lower-right is Ellenwood Dr. and Colorado Blvd.

https://i.postimg.cc/T1nzWpVd/1923-CA-ER-SIGN-EB.jpg
Eaglerockhistory

This closeup of the sign appeared on ebay

.
:previous: I love the older gentleman standing in the 0...I wonder how difficult it was for him to reach the sign.
.Does anyone know if there was a road nearby? (I mean, the sign builders had to get the LETTERS up there somehow) . .and I don't think they used a helicopter. ;)

It took me awhile to find the sign in the larger photograph.
If anyone else had the same problem here it is circled and cropped.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/Dfh59m.jpg
cropped

Thanks again for your help, Mackerm. it's much appreciated. :)


.

.
While we're in the area and discussing hilltop signs. (and since I already had these photos uploaded on imageshack :))

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/cU3Twf.jpg

Last month when I happened upon this old photo-album on eBay I was surprised that I didn't remember (or never knew about) the rather tasteful Art Deco-esque 'Tower of Legands at Forest Lawn, Glendale.


Here's a closer look at the Tower of Legends taken in 1929.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/UkVHo7.jpg
eBay (I've enlarged the photo / I just noticed the car)

It turns out, the reason I don't remember it is because it was TORN DOWN in 1948 to make way for the less-than-tasteful Hall of The Crucifixion-Resurrection built in 1951
to house the two Gi-normous paintings on the life of Christ.

I just found this:.."The Tower of Legends was built in 1924 to disguise a water tower and was torn down on April 2, 1948."..SDSU


Wait there's more!

The album also included a couple of amazing snapshots taken from behind the Forest Lawn sign. (or one of the signs, anyway) I don't know how many signs Forest Lawn had back in 1929.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/cpkyez.jpg




https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/ivqQ7F.jpg


These photgraphs have never been seen before except by the family who owned them.

.

https://i.postimg.cc/GpZMKNPc/photos-105409-large.jpg
LAPL

This was the only photo showing the big Forest Lawn Memorial Park signs I could quickly find on Calisphere. They pretty much flattened that whole hilltop.

https://i.postimg.cc/ZRyCwbJK/content-1-2.jpg
Google Books The American City Magazine

UPDATE: I guess ER knew what he was talking about when he suggested the possibility of multiple Forest Lawn signs. This 1926 aerial shows two.

Then again, the Tower of Legends has been discussed here as early as 2012. Or is it Tower of Legions?

An even better shot of the two signs.

This sign is all on one line.

• Video Link

.
THE PALMYRA, January 1911, Los Angeles, Cal



Here's an interesting snapshot recently listed on eBay.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/N5dxrA.jpg
eBay


A somewhat closer look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/igLx9C.jpg

Does anyone know where the Palmyra was located? :shrug:


.

L.A. City Directory 1911 edition lists "Palmyra The (fur rms)" at 831 S. Flower St., e_r.

I think I found a survivor in the Eagle Rock picture! 2199 Colorado Blvd
https://maps.app.goo.gl/wJVyW7kKTdBXAAvD7

Thanks for that photo, e_r, and thanks for putting an address to that name, HH.

Here are photos and info on that building from a previous post.

:previous:

Thanks so much HenryHuntington and Flyingwedge.



I happened upon this rare cabinet card last night on eBay.

Has anyone heard of the ROMA HOTEL?..We're talking the 1880s!

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/1wLPzZ.jpg

And the reverse:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/SKLSCm.jpg



Let's take a closer look at this astonishing photograph.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/9PAmsX.jpg
eBay now I can't find it again / perhaps it sold(?)

Ga-Zowie!







I found three listings -and two different addresses- in the LA directories.

I located this one first.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/qgjWeD.jpg
LAPL


Luckily this next entry had a more specific address.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/kiGVwT.jpg
LAPL


The hotel appears to have moved to a different location by 1887.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/PkERon.jpg
LAPL


I don't think it's possible (even for you wonderful sleuths) to figure out if the photograph is of the Alameda Street location or the N. Los Angeles Street location.

Never-the-less, :superwhip . . .try to figure it out, minions!

You know I love you.
.

:previous:

https://i.postimg.cc/GmDgzYg7/Roma-LAT-1887-12-10.jpg
LA Times, 12/10/1887

e_r, the street in front of the hotel in the picture is flat. The grade of the street in front of the hotel, according to the above, is "quite steep." The steep one is the one on Alameda (see above); thus, the pic would appear to be the Roma on North Los Angeles Street.

Not to mention, though I shall, that Los Angeles St. had a horsecar line, while Alameda St. carried the SP standard-gauge steam railroad southward to San Pedro. Odinthor has closed yet another case!

The Kodak model 1 roll film camera was introduced in 1888. It came preloaded with film that took 100 round images. So my guess is that it was the Los Angeles Street address.

___________

Add re: Roma Hotel proprietor Giuseppe Roattino, here he is in the 1892 voter rolls....

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds


Note his residence on Kuhrts St. (it's now part of N. Main St.), the street was named for Jacob Kuhrts, city council president and chief of the volunteer fire dept.....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Kuhrts

When the city's address renumbering took place, the Roma Hotel on Alameda acquired the following address: 1009 N. Alameda. That's where Philippe's is.

The Roma Hotel's site on North Los Angeles St., 108-110, nearly kept the same address in the new address numbering: 114 North Los Angeles; but the business there after the Roma was gone was one Benjamin Hayman, Carriages & Wagons.

:cheers:

I think the photo shows the Roma Hotel on Alameda, not the one on North Los Angeles.

In the photo, from right to left, we have what looks like a three-story brick building, a scattering of small, one-story buildings, and then
the Roma. We also see these on the map below. Additionally, notice where the curb is directly behind the guy in the carriage? If you
follow the line of that curb down toward the Roma, it appears that the Roma's balcony sticks out into the street, like it does here at
the lower left:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...a_N_of_Ord.jpg

1894 Sanborn Map @ Library of Congress
[Note: Alameda is at the bottom, Upper Main (now North Spring) is at the top, and Ord runs along the left edge.]


Here are Alameda, Upper Main, and Ord (at the time called Walters) in 1888, with the Old Roma Hotel at 611 N. Alameda, again with the
balcony sticking out into the street but with no three-story building, brick or otherwise, to its north:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...ock_-_1024.jpg

1888 Sanborn Map @ ProQuest via LA Public Library


For whatever reason, the 1888 Sanborn shows 108-110 N. Los Angeles Street as "Italian" Furnished Rooms, not as the Roma Hotel:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...foX3T9PUky.jpg

1888 Sanborn Map @ ProQuest via LA Public Library


Here's where Giuseppe said arrivederci to the Roma:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...t_for_sale.jpg

July 21, 1887, Los Angeles Herald @ Newspapers.com

.
re: The Roma Hotel.

Thanks odinthor, HenryHuntington, WS1911, riichkay and Flyingwedge for your excellent sleuthing! :worship:
I'll put my whip away. (for the time being) ;)

So . .um . . . should we VOTE? Alameda Street or N. Los Angeles Street.

update:

I just heard from odinthor and he agrees with Flyingwedge that the location is probably Alameda Street.


re: Eagle Rock.
Thanks Grandpa Dan and welcome to noirish Los Angeles. :)


.

:previous:

That billboard! Heh! It does get your attention.

.
I've been trying to get on NLA all day but it kept saying "server busy". This has been happening alot lately. I hope Skyscraperpage fixes the problem behore we all get discouraged. :(


Guess what noirishers: I have a mystery location that needs to be solved.

Here's how it's listed on eBay.

Van Fleet & Durkee 427 Shell gas station S California Los Angeles ? visible pump....< - - - - Note the question mark behind Los Angeles.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/4aMh41.jpg
eBay

We have seen other Van Fleet & Durkee sevice stations on NLA but I don't believe we have seen this particular one. ..I initially thought that was a plowed field in the distance but it's the roof of a building.





I think a sign down the street might says Billiards.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/zmTadg.jpg
detail




You can go HERE if you would like to see the Van Fleet and Durkee service station #137 at West 7th Street and South Park View Street, Los Angeles.
.

I'm blanking out. How were gas stations listed in directories and yellow pages from the 1910s-1920s? Phone books from the 1940s have a category of "gasoline service stations" :help:

.
Thanks for trying, Mackerm, but I can't answer your question, sorry.



Another mystery location (sort of)

I happened upon this interesting photograph on eBay a couple of weeks ago.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/KfrVx3.jpg

B.ut does anyone know where in East Pasadena. :shrug:

I thought it would be fairly easy to find the address of the post office but so far I haven't had any luck.
.

I see "Giddings" on one sign. The house on the left is pretty darn close to the 2-story house shown here:

https://i.postimg.cc/zXzGK3FG/9ca392...dbb7e35e8f.jpg
Calisphere Giddings First Home.
:wiseman:

Sorry, only a small preview is available, but the description says 1318 East Colorado Street.

(Hmmm, on second thought 🤔 the roof doesn't seem to go down far enough. Oh well. Can't take it down, so enjoy!)

The "Van Fleet and Durkee" branding of the stations lasted from 1929 to 1931. The chain then went under the "Shell Service Inc." banner.


https://i.imgur.com/OPctlwZ.jpeg
archive.org - los-angeles-times_1931-03-10


If the the company stayed with their numbering system after the rebrand, the station pictured was likely in the general San Francisco area.

A 1933 San Francisco/Daly City directory lists the area's Shell Service Inc. stations with their designated number.

The stations are all in the 400 - 450 range. There is no listing for a 427 Shell station that year. Maybe closed or jumped ship?


I can't find a listing that fits but I think the pictured station may have been somewhere close to the intersection of Mission Street and Hillside Blvd. in Daly City.

You can make out "Mission" at the bottom of the real estate sign to the right of the picture.

https://i.imgur.com/EZxFikM.jpeg


The top of the sign maybe referring to the Vista Marina mentioned here.

https://i.imgur.com/I7yKtY2.jpeg
archive.org - Daly City Record 1932-11-04


There is a Vista Avenue close to the intersection these days.

Back in the early 1930's there was a billiards hall just north of the intersection at 6375 Mission Street.

The area I think it might be nowadays.

https://i.imgur.com/YgtUdYC.jpeg
GSV


Apologises for all the :shrug: in the post.