:previous:


Somewhat before the strapping blond went to work in the lubrication bay etc...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8...2520AM.bmp.jpguncanny.net


In the trivia department, the cranky old bag who's driving the Volvo--apparently chosen for its resemblance to a Ford or other car of the '40s--is Irene Tedrow, who played the similarly dyspeptic Mrs. Elkins on TV's "Dennis the Menace" around the same time. Interesting to see the incredibly uptight and mighty white view of family life circa 1960--much like Dennis the Menace etc. Also... there were two 1960 Fords of the same color used for this film--the Galaxie four-door hardtop in the gas station scene and others was not the one pictured wrecked...which was a Fairlane four-door sedan. (Aren't you glad you asked?)

Sorry, that one's not quite ready yet

Anatomy of an Accident
 

OK GW, as long as were are getting into trivia here, is it my imagination or do both the truck driver and the father turn into each other?

Also, that's a Fairlane "Series 30" sedan. I had one for several years.. 6-cylinder, 3-speed. Great car!

Cheers,
Jack

:previous:

The truck clearly crumples the front end of the Ford, then, somehow, is seen "T-boning" it.... Ah, Hollywood.

So, Wig-Wag, did your fuel and temp gauges have the "bullseye" or horizontal-scale design?


Maybe the car came from Crenshaw...before the family moved to 215 Something Street in Pasadena(?)....
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...RDcrenshaw.jpgroadarch.com

One prior post on Crensahw Motors: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1421

originally posted by Gaylordwilshire
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...661/knrFF3.jpg
uncanny.net

:previous: This is great GW...I wondered what was at the opposite end of the L-shaped service station (it isn't clear in the film).
I should have figured it was restaurant. It's a perfect fit.


What is this mysterious shape on top of Stan's café?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/2rBOjO.jpg
detail

-my warped imagination sees a bronze Pig. ;)
__

I came across this snapshot earlier this afternoon on eBay.

Does anyone recognize this 'mystery' location?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/gaakIm.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Old-...item2c99efddc5

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...537/GaWUjp.jpg

The seller on eBay isn't quite sure. Los Angeles....East Los Angeles....

Maybe Glendale? or Pasadena? The barren hill the two are standing on is intriguing as well.
__

And I've been trying to figure out this location as well.

The photograph shows the aftermath of heavy rains in Los Angeles, 1927.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...912/J7OniU.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1927-Vintage...item19fe893b39

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...538/972g9l.jpg

It mentions the "lower part of los Angeles."
__

This is the cover of the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album, from 1969.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...llsandnash.jpg

I found out today that it was taken at 812 Palm Ave., the site of which I knew as the Video West parking lot.
Video West, which opened in 1983, was through the alleyway you see here on the left that leads to Larrabee
Street, to the west. I worked there for a few years. Hancock Ave. is the next street before Palm Ave., to the east.

(Did you ever go to Video West when you lived there, E_R?)

http://www.popspotsnyc.com/crosby_st...ave_google.jpg

(In the last month or two this parking lot has become a West Hollywood City parking lot, repaved, surrounded by a small
green fence and electronic toll machines installed.)

How the album cover came about came about, info from HERE:

Atlantic Records asked the team of Henry Diltz, photographer, and Gary Burden, art director, to create the cover.
On the day before the shoot Gary and Graham Nash drove through Hollywood and West Hollywood looking for a suitable
location: the group wanted a site that was "downhome and comfortable" like their music. They settled on a little
abandoned house with a couch outside. It was on a small street called Palm Avenue near a well-known Orange
Julius refreshment stand on the larger thoroughfare of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

At the time of the shoot, the band did not have a name yet, so they didn't consider their seating positions, which were,
from left to right: Nash, Stills, and Crosby. A few days after the shoot, they officially decided on a group name of Crosby,
Stills & Nash, but when they went back to reshoot the photo in that order, to avoid record buyer's confusion -- the
building had been demolished and was just a pile of timber.

http://www.popspotsnyc.com/crosby_st...ls_Diltz_6.jpg

http://www.popspotsnyc.com/crosby_st...ls_Diltz_8.jpg

A photoshop putting the house into the parking lot and the album cover on the house.

http://www.popspotsnyc.com/crosby_st...im_image_3.jpg

The site indicates that this place was originally housing that was built for the railway workers, employed at the
large Pacific Electric terminus across Santa Monica Blvd. (On Palm Avenue only two or three of these small
houses still exist. Apartment buildings are now the norm. One of these small houses on Palm Ave. collapsed
during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It looked like a giant hand just pushed it down.)

There are more interesting photos (and photoshops) of this album cover shoot and such on this website HERE.
(Be advised that some of the detail information is not correct, though, like where exactly the Orange Julius
stand and the PDC are located in separate photographs, and the date of one of the aerials, for example.)

:previous: That's a great story Martin_Pal. I had no idea that small parking lot was where that house once stood.


and Yes, I used to go to Video West quite often.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/JLFOsa.jpg
gsv

Still there after all these years.:)
_

Some buildings by J. M. Close
 

We've seen a few of his buildings before.

er showed us 1205 N. Mariposa (1925): http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=27027

Mr. Swink showed us the Ahmed Apartments at 5616 Lexington (1926): http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=12396

We've also seen the Karnak Apartments at 5617 La Mirada (1925) and 747 N. Wilcox: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19810

Here's the Sahara Apts (1924) at 1020 S. Kingsley Drive:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...s.jpg~original
GSV

Across the street at 1017 S. Kingsley is the Rose Apartments (1925):
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...4.jpg~original
GSV

The Amen-Ra at 542 N. Alexandria was built in 1925:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...s.jpg~original
September 15, 1925 LA Times

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...x.jpg~original
October 25, 1925 LA Times

542 N. Alexandria has lost some of its ornamentation:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original
GSV

In 1927 he built an apartment building at 821 Sunset and named it after his daughter:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...r.jpg~original
March 27, 1927 LA Times

The Dorothy Mae burned down in an arson fire on September 4, 1982, and 24 people died: http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/M...dent-index.htm

In 1927 he also built the Oasis at 1020 S. New Hampshire . . . .
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...k.jpg~original
GSV

. . . the Osiris at 430 S. Union . . .
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...g.jpg~original

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original
GSV

. . . the Bel-Air at 129 N. Oxford . . .
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...a.jpg~original
GSV

. . . the Palencia at 1034 S. Catalina . . .
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...n.jpg~original
GSV

. . . and the Palmieri at 259 S. Harvard:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...i.jpg~original
GSV

J. M. Close completed 1475 W. Adams in 1928; I couldn't find any more information about him after that:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...6.jpg~original
GSV

Finally, here's a J. M. Close mystery location from 1924:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...x.jpg~original

The address on the door in the rear is 536-3/4; that's about our only clue as to the location:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...q.jpg~original
USCDL -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co.../67965/rec/236

:previous:

I probably met you back then E_R, who knew?

Video West was the first strictly video rental place in West Hollywood when it opened in 1983,
even before Wherehouse or Tower or any of the others. And how, I don't know, but, yes,
it is STILL there! In fact, it's the only one left that I know of! There used to be dozens around.
___

Speaking of the PDC,
Pacific Design Center:

I suppose these buildings haven't been mentioned on NLA because they don't really conjure up images of
the past or noir, although many 1970's photos have shown up on NLA and that's when the first of the PDC
buildings appeared in 1975. Argentinean architect Cesar Pelli is the designer and called it Center Blue. A
Los Angeles times critic mentioned that it looked like a whale and the name stuck. The building is commonly
referred to as the Blue Whale.

http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quark...bbag_pdc01.jpg

Center Green opened in 1988. Although nicknames were bandied about for this building like "the cucumber,"
which probably didn't stick because it's not at all shaped like one, and "Emerald City," most people ordinarily
just refer to it as "the green building."

http://img1.sunset.timeinc.net/sites...n-center-x.jpg

There are a couple escalator towers that have circles of light which can be manipulated to shine different colors
or multiple colors or they can fade in and out or any number of other patterns.

http://www.heliphoto.net/i/pacific_d...nter_ext_f.jpg

A long planned third phase, Center Red, was announced in April 2006, and was completed in 2011.
It looks like the prow of a ship sailing into port. Some have tried naming this one the ruby slipper, but
I hear "the red building" most often.

http://mms.businesswire.com/media/20...ng_cropped.jpgBusiness Wire

There is a smallish building, comparatively, on the grounds, occupied by MOCA and it has a yellowish sandy
finish to it, but is not glass, as the others are.


I read one time the design was supposed to reflect what the natural crystal shapes of various minerals are like,
but I don't recall that mentioned any other time.

I'd lke to see the buildings lit up at night on a regular basis, or at least on weekends. but they are rarely illuminated at all. The fountains outside are lit up frequently, though.


The buildings are probably too obvious to be used much in films or tv shows as after one time in a famous film they'd
be pretty recognizable. I know that the film LIPSTICK, a thriller, released in 1976 and shot before the Blue Whale
was open was filmed there. The green building was Sandra Bullocks apartment building in DEMOLITION MAN. I 've
noticed that many automobile commercials have used them as a backdrop.

http://f.tqn.com/y/golosangeles/1/S/...Center041x.jpgGo Los Angeles

:previous: Do you remember the little house that stood in front of the 'Blue Whale' on Melrose back in the 1980s?
The owner refused to sell.

It looked so strange....this tiny house and this enormous building on the same lot. I'll have to try and find a photograph of it.

What an amazing collection of J.M. Close apartment buildings FlyingWedge! He certainly doesn't fit into any mold.
I think Los Angeles was the perfect place for his unique designs, and I find him very interesting.....but I have to admit, I think a few of his designs are quite bad.


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...912/bl64xA.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...901/I3ICb5.jpg
1200 block of Mariposa / gsv

I thought these were the same building!
__

And here's one more Egypt-mania apartment building Flyingwedge, that I noticed last week:

1816 S Westmoreland Blvd:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--...32543%2BPM.jpg
gsv

I remember it.

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-06-...-design-center

Another Question
 

Southbound on Fair Oaks is a three-car PE train signed as "Special". It doesn't look like a lot of traffic of either the rail or auto persuasions for New Year's Day, but I'm having a hard time coming up with an alternative explanation for PE running three 1200-class cars here.

Thoughts?

Date night with Guy
 

Here's Gail Russell and Guy Madison...again. They're on a studio arranged date at Ciro's for dinner. The studio wanted lots of photos of Guy actually going on a date with a female.

The last time we saw Guy he was with some anonymous high school girl at the Tracadero.

This is 1946...Hollywood. Mirror, mirror on the wall...who's the prettier of the two?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psvbqejmft.jpg
Madisonfile jpg.

Hosfield Building / Victor Clothing Company /240-246 S Broadway
 

In my post on the Cozy/Astro Theater, the listed Victor Clothing Company/Hosfield Building, at 242 S Broadway, can be seen in the background of the last image, which got me curious about its history.

I'm always intrigued by the buildings that aren't demolished, and the randomness of that. (The Bank of Italy Building and the Amesoy come to mind. They lasted much longer than all their contemporary neighbors.)

Built 1914-1918, during WWI, originally slotted in between two much grander structures (City Hall and the Rindge Block), The Hosfield was designed by architects Robert Train and Robert Edmund Williams (they also did the Judson Studios). The building now is all-but-free-standing. As JScott relates, the Hosfield was leased by the city as an annex for City Hall, which had outgrown its space (there was already a purpose-built annex north of old City Hall). Before that happened, various oil companies had offices there.

1921 Baist Map. The Douglas Building and the Hosfield (plus the bones of the Rindge Block's ground floor - the top two floors were removed in 1967) are still holding down the block:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-u...05809%2BAM.jpg
historicmapworks

Top-hat-wearing, opera-singing-on-the-sidewalk Leo "Sunshine" Fanarow opened The Victor Clothing Company on the Fourth of July 1920 two doors north of the City Hall annex in the Crocker Building (the Rainbow Room in the basement was a favorite Fanarow party venue), on the other side of the original 1906 Pig & Whistle . Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor and Carmen Miranda were said to be Victor customers. A great three-story blade sign picked out "Victor Clothing" in lights. Here in 1926:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...02155%2BPM.jpg
uscdl (detail)

A closer view of the the Victor Clothing Company's first location, n.d.:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-r...63712%2BPM.jpg
lapl

It wasn't until 1964, 44 years later, when the LA Times bought the whole north end of the block for parking, that the Victor Clothing Company moved into the Hosfield. They stayed 37 years, until the company closed in 2001. The building was then rehabbed for low-cost housing, opening as Victor Clothing Apartments in 2005. It's managed by Neighborhood Effort.

1964. Victor Clothing Company has completed its move from the Crocker Building to the Hosfield:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...0%252520AM.jpg
eBay. previously posted by e_r (detail)

The north wall. The mural "El Nuevo Fuego" by East Los Streetscapers (1985) is in the foreground:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...12505%2BAM.jpg
gsv

Carlos Ortiz commissioned Kent Twitchell to paint "Bride and Groom" to celebrate his second-floor shop, Monarch Bridal (Ortiz was the model for the groom). Here circa 1974.
The Douglas on the left. The Washington Building (311 N Spring) is peeking over the rooftops. The Bradbury is at right:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2...62130%2BPM.jpg
lapl

"Bride and Groom" latex and acrylic (1972-1976) Kent Twitchell:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-z...13716%2BPM.jpg
grconnect

The Los Angeles Times opted to turn part of their surface parking lot into a structure, somewhat limiting the view of "Bride and Groom":
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...62642%2BPM.jpg
lapl Dean Musgrove 1988

The west-facing facade:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-X...52825%2BPM.jpg
ohp

At twilight:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...83529%2BPM.jpg
flickr

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3...42152%2BPM.jpg
gsv

Facade detail:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...54201%2BPM.jpg
gsv

Cornice:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H...44029%2BPM.jpg
gsv

The southern exposure: 1994. Frank Romero's mural, "Nino y Caballo" (1984) is on the left. Eloy Torrez painted the Anthony Quinn mural, "Pope of Broadway", in 1984. He's been hired recently to restore it:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...61801%2BPM.jpg
wikimapia Anthony Friedkin

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...62914%2BPM.jpg
lapl

Eloy Torrez' Quinn with remnants of the Delmonte:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T...25340%2BAM.jpg
huffpost

The single-story remnant of the 1898 Rindge Block is at left, the 1898 Douglas Building on the right:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...10122%2BAM.jpg
gvs

The parking lot above was once the site of Jerry Illich's 1895 restaurant (below) replaced by the Delmonte by 1914, the year the Hosfield started to go up.
That's the Metropolitan Baths/Winchester Hotel on the left and the drive (now a gated walk) between Illich's and the Douglas on the right:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...925%2520PM.jpg
private collection previously posted by GW, pg 675 in a much larger size

Detail of the Hosfield's southern lightwell:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-e...53406%2BPM.jpg
ohp

The back (the 1898 Douglas on the left). Architects Train and Williams took full advantage of the eastern exposure a remnant of Frank Court offered:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-r...12840%2BAM.jpg
gsv

More info on the Victor murals is here

When Fort Street was residential. This circa 1881-1886 shot, looking north from W 3rd, shows the spire of the First Presbyterian church on the SE corner of Fort and 2nd. The Hosfield will eventually be built among the trees just out of shot to the right:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...00307%2BPM.jpg
lapl via kcet

An even earlier photo, ca 1872-1880, shows the block pre-City Hall when the First Jewish Synagogue (1872) was the only non-residence on this block. Note St Vibiana's (1867) at 2nd and Main. The back of Harris Newmark's Kysor-designed house is at center:
Our brand-new 1888 second City Hall with the First Jewish Synagogue at left. In 26 years the Hosfield will be pressed tightly against City Hall's blank southern wall:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p...94742%2BPM.jpg
uscdl

1894. Fort Street, now Broadway, is residential no longer. The Bradbury has only been up a year. There's no sign of the Douglas yet (or the Rindge), but the Stimsom, also 1893, is in at the NE corner of Spring and 3rd. The First Congregational Church is in the foreground at 3rd and Hill; St Vibiana's, at 2nd and Main, is beyond City Hall. A bay-windowed, two-story commercial building has gone up south of City Hall to fill in the block. It won't last long:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-d...02147%2BPM.jpg
water and power / larger version previously posted by JScott, pg 674

A closer view of City Hall's new neighbor at Nos. 240-246, predecessor of the Hosfield. It will have a 20-year run. During three years of that time it was the 300-seat Royal Theater in 1908 and 1909. It continued as the Cecil Theater (also listed as the Royal) in 1910 and 1911, managed by Arthur Hyman:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...41005%2BPM.jpg
losangelespast

A drawing of the Hosfield's place-holder, n.d., looking kind of dinky between City Hall and the 1898 Rindge Block:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...54057%2BPM.jpg
lapl

The Hosfield's predecessor had a surprise in the back:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-O...02202%2BAM.jpg
1894 Sanborn (detail) via JScott

(For a deep history of the Natatorium see Flyingwedge's updated post here)

Another great photo of this block, at this time, is here

1913. The year before the Hosfield went in there was a big fire on the block. It looks like the Byrne's burning (LAFD's Engine Company No. 23 must have been successful putting the fire out because the Byrne, AKA the Pan-American Building, doesn't look any the worse for wear these days). The 1898 Rindge Block is in place at right:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W...94219%2BPM.jpg
uscdl (detail)

1924. The Hosfield (at first called the Morse Building), six years after it was completed, looking very dignified between City Hall (now with a truncated tower) and the Rindge Block on a thronged Broadway:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...91048%2BAM.jpg
uscdl (detail)

1925. A closer view of City Hall's shortened tower (it was lowered after being damaged in the 1918 earthquake). I like it better. The original was too bean-stalky for me.
Note the decorative trim atop the Hosfield's cornice (right) and its very nice entry marquee (too bad both weren't replaced,
but the Hosfield got a rehab, not a restoration):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m...65156%2BPM.jpg
lapl

1928. Workmen get busy revealing the Hosfield's north wall.
(no particular hurry lads, Kent Twitchell won't be born for another 14 years):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--...65838%2BPM.jpg
lapl

A remnant even a norisher might have to turn down:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8...70017%2BPM.jpg
lapl

And we're back to where we started. Who would have thought that this modest, unassuming little building would turn into such a jazzy landmark?:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i...15032%2BAM.jpg
zillow (interior pix at link)

A beauty until the very end.
 

Years ago, VH1 did a show about the photographer, where they toured the Morrison Hotel downtown from The Doors album of the same name. Ray Manzarek said it was the kind of place where someone would go to start a religion, or plan a murder. Jim Morrison wanted to go down to Main St. to photograph some bums for the album, and they ended up shooting in the Hard Rock Cafe that's also shown in the album photos. I think they also covered a Judy Collins photo shoot that was done in Laurel Canyon.

Honey, I Shrunk the Chapman
 

Hold on there, boys and girls. Let's go back for a moment to the construction shot. The view of The Chapman, pre-construction shows a much different building than the during-construction view. I am a few days behind, so forgive me if this has been covered already.

The Chapman, as we knew and loved her:
http://imageshack.com/a/img911/6333/2QBHVM.jpg

So what the heck is this building? Roughly the same shape, but much shorter and narrower in all dimensions from The Chapman. Definitely not a cut-down Chapman. Any ideas?
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/961/S9zXk1.jpg