Now that's what I call a great opening paragraph for a hardboiled LA noir novel.

Originally posted by HossC (I cropped it a bit, I hope you don't mind)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/NMoO7N.jpg
detail

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...921/pi0qXI.jpg
detail

:previous: Thanks for this Hoss. That looks like a perfect spot for a miniature golf course.
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update:

I believe I might have found the elusive miniature golf course in the 1939 Los Angeles City Directory (shown below)

"Gittelson Bros."

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/OKRCmA.jpg
lapl

It looks like they had two locations and an office on Hollywood Boulevard.

The golf course in the vintage pic would be the one at 476 S. Beaudry.

Do you think this could be the right location?

__

We're back to a single image from Julius Shulman today. It's "Job 285: Stiles Oliver Clements, Bekins (Long Beach, Calif.), 1948".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original

Getty Research Institute

I thought this would be easy to find - well-known company, number above the door etc, but the title is misleading. I eventually tracked it down at what-is-now 2201 N Long Beach Avenue in Compton. The first floor windows have been filled along the side, but many of the other details are intact.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
GSV

Here's a view from the other side. It's a shame that the building has to carry all of those cellphone masts. I suppose I should be glad that it's still standing and in use - the buildings on the other side of N Long Beach Avenue look quite run down.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
GSV

ETA. For search purposes: City Shopping Center Banquet Hall.

+1

Or for a more noirish take, we find ourselves in violent agreement! :)

Time once again to climb out on the ledge: my guess is that we're looking eastward on Melrose Ave. from approximately Hobart Blvd. as LARy/LATL 1404 crests the long upgrade from Kingsley Dr. Unfortunately, if I'm right, the building that e_r fancies has been replaced by an anodyne apartment building. Then again, I don't like the idea that an intersection that merited a traffic signal in the 1940s rates only a stop sign today. My best shot for now, though.

For unihikid: IIRC, one of my friends assisted that Angelino Heights streetcar group back in the day, so I think they were legit. They probably just ran into too many obstacles toward realizing their dream and eventually gave up. More's the pity! :(

There's now definitive evidence that the LATL car was westbound on W. 5th St. So either it was on detour or mis-signed. Before we leave the subject and FWIW, the date of the photo can be banded between late 1946 (when LATL got serious about repainting its cars) and Sunday, August 3, 1947. Beginning on the latter date, trackage on W. 5th St. was abandoned in favor of trolley coaches, and the City Transportation Department implemented its one-way streets plan for DTLA.

Not sure if the latter has been covered on NLA, and I'm about to leave for the rest of the day so I can't look now, but let me just add that the resulting gridlock on Monday, 8/4/47 was nothing short of monumental.

In the building's windows we see them selling the furniture of people who did not pay their storage fees......:);):(:D

I was going to post a "now" shot for comparison, but I don't think there's anything left from the old photo - not at its original location anyway. I was, however, reminded of a discussion we had last year about this intersection. Tourmaline kicked off the subject with some 1940 pictures which are quoted in oldstuff's follow-up. You were right e_r, that is the front of a fire truck. It was standing outside Engine Company No 6 at 1279 W Temple Street. The pictures below show it being moved when the freeway was built. They're part of a longer post by Tourmaline.

I posted some current pictures of the fire station in post #28697.

:previous: Excellent! So that was a fire truck on the edge of the photo.


Earlier this afternoon I should have posted this longer list of the Gittelsons in the L.A. area.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/xlQFgm.png
lapl

It shows that the two brothers named their golf entities "Gittelson Bros. Inc." and "Stadium Golf Club".

& it appears George also has an insurance business with a Mr. Beck.


Their home addresses are also listed.(underlined in red)

George Gittelson lived at 6616 W. 6th Street (shown below)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/XjkOSe.jpg
gsv


While Henry, no doubt the playboy in the family, lived at the Biltmore Hotel downtown.


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Thanks HH sad that it didn't happen,but glad that it did so some good...this is the station that the Binary is stored at! Now lets find the Garden of Alla Mini Golf Course

This might help. ;)

1932 Los Angeles City Directory*
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...921/29BwNb.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/qNcUdx.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/3kebnK.jpg
lapl

:previous: Yowsa!
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(I haven't had time to go through the list yet)

Here's two more 'mystery' locations for your Friday.


Slide #1

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/Jg84dn.jpg
ebay





Slide #2

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...921/StCOYz.jpg
ebay


_

Santa Monica 'mystery' vantage point. [1960s]

I thought it might be fun to try and figure out where the photographer was located when he took this slide.


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...921/4xfBUk.jpg
ebay



I wonder if the Penney's....Kress.....Barker Bros....and Bob Burns buildings are still there? (close-up below)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/80w2mJ.jpg
detail

It would be interesting to know what's on the front of that sign at lower right. (I like it's shape)............................................:previous:




This building (red arrow ) is very interesting but I have no idea what it is. (it appears to have been whitewashed)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/rOTRXP.jpg
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I believe the impressive building in the distance with the flag on stop is Santa Monica city hall.

(I just noticed there's a Penney's sign on that long brown building too. (probably for the parking lot which appears to encompass, at least on two sides, Bob Burns)
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I'm off once again to my Mom's house in Illinois (she's doing fine by the way...at 82)

Will be back this weekend to check on your sleuthing abilities. ;)
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That Bob Burns Restaurant was at Wilshire and 2nd and lasted into the 90's.

The shot might possibly have been taken from the Miramar Hotel?

:previous:

Like Blaster, my guess would be that the photographer was on/in what-is-now the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. Here's a Google Earth view from there.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Google Maps

The Penney's building is still there, although it's missing a few windows. This image is actually from 2011 because I wanted a view from across the street without trucks in the way, but it still looks roughly the same.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
GSV

The sign on the corner may have been this one for the Miramar, seen here in a 1954 Julius Shulman photo (far right). Just to remind everyone, Coffee Dan's was also at 2nd and Wilshire.

G E Paddleford's miniature golf course at 1444 N Crescent Heights Boulevard would have been a block east of the Garden of Allah. I've arrowed the rough area on the 1948 aerial below, although I think the golf course had probably gone by then.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...atureGolf1.jpg
Historic Aerials

:previous::previous:

Thanks to E_R and HossC for confirming there was a miniature golf course at Sunset and Crescent Heights Blvds.

That explains why that corner was developed so strangely over the years. The golf course remnants look to be visible in the aerial, as it's not yet a parking lot, which it was for a time. (Or at least no cars are in it.)

The building to the right of this pizza-slice shaped golf course area in question, is where Schwab's Drugstore is located. Googie's Coffee Shop would appear a year later in 1949 to the left (in the aerial) of Schwab's.

That list of miniature golf courses brings up the question of whether of not there are ANY left in Los Angeles. I've been here for, well, awhile, and I don't think I've ever traveled by one!

:previous:

There don't seem to be any miniature golf courses in the central areas that housed them 80 years ago, by I found Golf n' Stuff in Norwalk. Here's a current aerial view.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
Google Earth

And here's how it looked in 1994.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Google Earth

Did you notice the swirly structure at the back of the parking lot in the center? It was a water slide which featured in the 'The Karate Kid' (1984), as seen below. The water slide also featured in a 1981 (Season 5) episode of 'CHiPs' called The Killer Indy. I'm not sure when or why it disappeared, but it's not on the 2003 aerial image.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
wellywoodtohollywood.com

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...05cd376cf4.jpghttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...05cd376cf4.jpg





FWIW, on August 27, 1930, a building permit was issued to Geo. Paddleford for a two-room Golf Course Office at 1444 N. Crescent Heights Blvd. Estimated cost, $600. Curiously, the permit is stamped "Revocable."

Schwab's, at 8024 Sunset includes permits for new construction from 1931. A permit from the same year was issued for an elevator. (Would there have been an operator? Any pictures?) Some of the answers may lie in the many pages of permits for this location. Given the date, it would not be surprising to see a photo of Schwab's with the Mini Golf Course nearby.

Googies, located at 8100 Sunset apparently received its Certificate of Occupany, in March '56. A cursory search of this address reveals the earliest permit was issued in '49, but there may have been earlier permits.




With respect, the Mini Golf Course's existence probably had little to do with the unusual development of the Crescent Heights/Sunset intersection, as much as the original plans, property holders' wishes, preexisting right-of-ways and easements. Mini Golf, was probably more adaptable to odd shaped lots than most businesses. It was also easy dismantle and forget, and probably a "natural fit" for short term leases. Some of Mini-Golf's popularity may have been due to minimal outlay for starting such a business. This probably even covers elaborate courses, such as Mary Pickford's on Wilshire. http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=20496 The '29 depression probably had much to do with the Mini-golf fad - fade.



Here today . . .
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3144/2...1cf757fb_z.jpg
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=20496
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3069/2...704e96ff_z.jpg
http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=20496

1932 look to far right




Gone tomorrow?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tGMYJl-pDG...vewilshire.jpg

Above from http://www.skyscraperpage.com/forum/...ostcount=20496


The 1877-map of the Cahuenga suburb (below) may offer a glimpse into some of the original thinking regarding street and lot layout. To be sure, the plan was never adopted, but it "might" have precipitated some of the current layout.:shrug: Some of it might have also been influenced by utilities infrastructure near the southern mouth of Laurel Canyon. (There are probably many versions of the truth. :P) Since the "crescent" name existed in 1877, wonder if it referred to the area's topography - or it could have merely been a nod towards a landholder's/developer's whim? :shrug:


1877-Cahuenga Suburb
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Yr43cRt_-...f_Cahuenga.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics42/00070949.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Yr43cRt_-...f_Cahuenga.jpg





1930
http://waterandpower.org/A%20Histori...rip_ca1930.jpghttp://waterandpower.org/A%20Histori...rip_ca1930.jpg




Another Mini-golf course in the directory was Fairfax Greens (7957 Beverly Blvd.), adjacent to the Fairfax Theater. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=20188

Fairfax Greens, like similar amusements lasted only a few short years. New construction permit was issued in July '30. It appears that by 1933, the location was permitted for construction of what eventually became Merlo's.

1931










Gratuitious map


~1928. Just wish copy was bigger.
http://images.fineartamerica.com/ima...y-archives.jpg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/ima...y-archives.jpg


https://img0.etsystatic.com/061/0/63...08784_9636.jpg

https://img1.etsystatic.com/065/0/63...13401_97bx.jpghttps://www.etsy.com/listing/2364722...-of?ref=market

We're back in Pasadena for today's Julius Shulman post. Sadly, there's only one image in "Job 490: Raymond Loewy, Union Oil Gas Station (Pasadena, Calif.), 1949".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original

Getty Research Institute

I thought it was going to be my turn to post a mystery location until I zoomed in and recognized the old Bullock's department store in the background. The gas station was on the corner of San Pasqual Street and S Lake Avenue. The aerial below shows it in 1952. It survived until at least 1980. The 1994 image is quite fuzzy, but the gas station had definitely gone by 2002. I've arrowed the gas station - Bullock's is the large building on the left.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
Historic Aerials

Here's a reminder of what Bullock's Pasadena looked like. There was quite a bit of discussion about the store on this thread in mid-September 2011. The posts include personal memories and interior photos.

As an aside, the gas station was nearly opposite the I Magnin store which I posted Julius Shulman photos of in post #36331. I know I'm a couple of days early, but here's the October 2014 incarnation of the building as Halloween City.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
GSV