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Beaudry Dec 14, 2010 9:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past (Post 5090872)
Beaudry might get a kick out of this. About a year ago, he helped me locate the SRO hotel where my mother and her sister shared a room when they first moved out on their own in 1936. There were photos of the place in our family album, but I never knew exactly where it was. Beaudry looked it up in an old directory and found out that the Barker Hotel was located at... well, you can see for yourself on this linen postcard I found recently:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...hotelpc_lg.jpg

Enlargements of these family album photos can be viewed in my blog post about the Barker.

-Scott

I like how on your blog you mention it was listed as the "Baker" -- that's part of the challenge, and fun, of eBay, is trying to second guess how people are going to list things. Los Angles is pretty common; and of course, if you want blank letterhead, you're looking for "stationary" ...congrats on your find!

Beaudry Dec 14, 2010 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsjansen (Post 5091230)
In safety last, harold llloyd scales the von's department store facade to drum up business, (and to save his job to boot).

it's quite a challenging endeavor, but what makes it more nerve racking.....the dayum building keeps moving on him whilst he's scaling about like a human fly!

Here are a series of screen captures to demonstrate how this seemingly solid, well built immovable edifice gets around town more than a dishwater blond with a charge account at every downtown watering hole.......

so the next time i need a taxi, i'll just hail a building!

Seems like you need to be doing a play-for-play V-log, gsj!

You might want to mention that perhaps HL is engaging in some sort of time travel, because in time travel one must move not only through time but through space...hence the leaping buildings. Ok, so I haven't really thought that one through. Hmm.

Beaudry Dec 14, 2010 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 5091971)
Wow, some really great posts! Great Harold Lloyd post, gsjansen. And malumot, great post on the Crown Motel. I love the maps you posted, too.

This is probably a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone might have any info on a place called the Wulpole Hotel, on or near Main and 5th in downtown Los Angeles? I ask because... well, it's kind of a long story, but on a birth certificate dated from 1946, for the address listed for the birth parents, all it says is "Wulpole Hotel, Main and 5th, Los Angeles." There's no exact street address given. I've looked up Wulpole Hotel online and can't find any info on it.

I second all the great posts-toast!

As for the Wulpole -- nothing in the Yellow Pages, '40 or '47, under Apts or Hotel, for anything with a W ending in "pole"...nor is there anything in the '42 City directory. Was it typed or handwritten? I'm wondering now whether it may be an odd-looking M? (I tried Maypole, no luck there either.) I ask because I have famously poor handwriting and I could pen "platypus" and it would come out looking like "Wulpole."

Los Angeles Past Dec 14, 2010 1:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5091961)
You're right, Scott--I agree that this really has become an incredible resource, random, entertaining, and comprehensive all at the same time. There really is more here than in most books on the city, and from so many angles. As I look around online for L.A.-related information, I'm amazed by the number of times I've seen reference to the forum. I really have no idea what archiving a website would mean, or how it could be done. Anybody? We must save our own L.A. artifact! To lose it would be like losing Bunker Hill all over again! Well, allright, that might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration. But not much!

It could be archived by taking screen captures of each page, and then assembling those into a PDF file. It's over a hundred pages, but one person with a fast net connection could do it in only a few hours.

One problem in creating an archive now, though, is that a significant amount of content from earlier in the thread is already gone, mostly due to broken image hotlinks. In some posts, only the text and/or picture captions remain.

It might be worthwhile if some of us could go back and review our old posts and make sure everything that needs to be seen is actually still see-able.

After we get that content back, though, then it really wouldn't be too difficult to archive the thread as described previously.

-Scott

GaylordWilshire Dec 14, 2010 3:25 PM

Blue Book retreats, east and west
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Beaudry (Post 5092377)
...I thought Midwick was an interesting name for a motel, and so learned some [I thought] interesting things about the Midwick Country Club while I was at it...go here http://www.cityofalhambra.org/commun...ing/index.html and scroll down to Midwick Tract... also http://www.cityofalhambra.org/community/midwick.html and http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...ub-alhambra-ca )

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...idwickClub.jpg http://www.cityofalhambra.org
The Midwick Country Club


The Midwick was very popular with the West Adams/Hancock Park Blue Book set in the '20s, along with the more rustic Crags near Calabasas. Downtown businessmen including William May Garland bought 2,000 acres including part of Malibu Creek in 1900, built a clubhouse and private houses nearby, as well as a dam across the creek to form a lake to attract quarry for clubmembers. The lake later became Century Lake, as in 20th Century-Fox--yes, "Hollywood trash" took over before long, and all that remains of The Crags now, aside from the actual rocky crags it was named after, are some stone steps. Some of the property is now Malibu Creek State Park. (Exactly who owned what land when in this area is covered in some confusing detail here http://www.babcockancestry.com/books...hehinman.shtml and here http://www.malibucreekstatepark.org/CLIMBING.html.

http://www.babcockancestry.com/books...ountryclub.jpg http://www.babcockancestry.com

http://www.malibucreekstatepark.org/...op_800x574.jpg http://www.malibucreekstatepark.org

Beaudry Dec 14, 2010 6:36 PM

Motel images generally fall into three camps: the early motor courts with, say, a collection of pitched-roof cottages and its sign across an arch; the low-slung utilitarian U or L perhaps fashioned into some sort of vernacular (Southwest? Bavarian?); and of course the fabled Googie motels of the postwar period.

But I was flipping through my Hollywood cards and came up with three, all within spitting distance of the other, that were more...Modernistic. Not exactly of the monolithic Streamline variety of the Town or the Tick Tock I posted earlier.

The 1952 Hollywood La Brea says "I am Late Moderne, and I am green!"

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/...305c9dc6_o.jpg

The 1949 Sunset Manor may be older and more reserved, but still goes for green.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/...cfe048be_b.jpg

The 1950 Palm Motel soundly abjures both fins and green paint. (Flagcrete and, could that be Roman brick? Could our architect have been influenced by Clements' Mullen & Bluett?)

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5127/...cbd99298_o.jpg

Nowadays, Hollywood LaBrea (7110 H'wood Blvd) has been tarted up like a schoolgirl's lunchbox. And it has lost its awesome porte-cochère.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5124/...c0b5cba9_z.jpg

But that it retains it original windows, and that glass brick, is a miracle in itself.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/...59d32cda_b.jpg

The Sunset 8 (née Sunset Manor) (Eight what? The Sunset 8 is the number of blacklisted writers living there? They couldn't afford 13 ghosts?) is still looking manorial, with what may be its original paint job --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5090/...0a3cf4a3_b.jpg

-- most of it, anyway. Won't even talk about the windows.

And of the noble Palm...

...hey, wait, what th --

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5083/...978ccf23_z.jpg

WHAT??!!

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5044/...f57d5243_b.jpg

Oh, come on. I mean cultural terrorism is funny and all, but that's just rude. I'm reminded of the Vincent Vega quip about how it's worth them doing it just to catch them doing it.

ethereal_reality Dec 14, 2010 6:59 PM

Man, those before and after motel postcard/photos are amazing.
I find it surprising that all three are still in business.

And "tarted up like a schoolgirl's lunchbox" is one of the funniest things I've ever read. :)

GaylordWilshire Dec 14, 2010 7:19 PM

The Hollywood LaBrea and the Sunset Manor etc put me in mind of our old friend the Stuart K. Oliver house, Bunker Hill's contribution to "Late Moderne"...

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics23/00046384.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics23/00046384.jpg

JeffDiego Dec 14, 2010 9:53 PM

More wonderful motel postcard scans, (Thanks!) but I know I'm far from the only one here who almost doesn't want to see the "after" shots of these places having been modernized. Amazing (and utterly depressing) what spray-on stucco, ugly cement add-ons, tacky-looking Tijuana-style signs and cheap window frames with requisite iron bars or plastic veneer can do to desecrate these once-charming (in their own way) places.
That Stuart K. Oliver (he looks pretty dashing) house on Bunker Hill is an interesting oddity. Looks as though he might've incorporated the original stone wall and steps of one of the old houses. Any info. about it on this thread?

malumot Dec 14, 2010 11:48 PM

Dang.....you beat me to it.

That line was just short of "milk snorting out your nose" funny.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5092789)
Man, those before and after motel postcard/photos are amazing.
I find it surprising that all three are still in business.

And "tarted up like a schoolgirl's lunchbox" is one of the funniest things I've ever read. :)


ethereal_reality Dec 14, 2010 11:55 PM

The Jet Inn Motor Hotel at 4542 W. Slauson Ave.


http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/8...nnpcw2huge.jpg
postcard/ebay






Now renamed the Jet Inn Motel.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4784/jetinn2002a.jpg
synthetrix.blogspot.com






Below: What in the world would you call this strange ornamentation.......chinoiserie modern?

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5527/jetinn2002b.jpg
synthetrix>blogspot.com






http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1655/jetinn2002c.jpg
synthetrix.blogspot.com







Below: It has seen better days that's for sure. :(

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9045/jetinndecay2002.jpg
synthetrix.blogspot.com

GaylordWilshire Dec 15, 2010 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5093219)
The Jet Inn Motor Hotel at 4542 W. Slauson Ave.

http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/8...nnpcw2huge.jpg
postcard/ebay


Amazing to think that the Jet evolved out of places like this not all that long in the past:

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...YL7USJ8U5H.jpg
California State Library http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...YL7USJ8U5H.jpg

When I was a kid, I thought "motor hotel" was the last word in luxury on the road.


Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffDiego (Post 5093027)
That Stuart K. Oliver (he looks pretty dashing) house on Bunker Hill is an interesting oddity. Looks as though he might've incorporated the original stone wall and steps of one of the old houses. Any info. about it on this thread?

Jeff-- Just do a search "Oliver" above and you'll find the whole story here on the forum, with some great (even dramatic) pictures.

GaylordWilshire Dec 15, 2010 12:35 AM

P.s.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5093219)
Now renamed the Jet Inn Motel.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/4784/jetinn2002a.jpg
synthetrix.blogspot.com

In downgrading from motor hotel to motel, the Jet Inn seems to have acquired a new sign... which looks suspiciously as though it might have once graced a hostelry that had "crown" in its name....

gsjansen Dec 15, 2010 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5093237)

Jeff-- Just do a search "Oliver" above and you'll find the whole story here on the forum, with some great (even dramatic) pictures.


hey jeff!, save ya the search..............jes go here why don'cha.......http://www.onbunkerhill.org/georgemann#comment-350

it's the least i could do for a pal....................by the way....gotta light..................?

MikeD Dec 15, 2010 1:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5092506)
The Midwick was very popular with the West Adams/Hancock Park Blue Book set in the '20s, along with the more rustic Crags near Calabasas. Downtown businessmen including William May Garland bought 2,000 acres including part of Malibu Creek in 1900, built a clubhouse and private houses nearby, as well as a dam across the creek to form a lake to attract quarry for clubmembers. The lake later became Century Lake, as in 20th Century-Fox--yes, "Hollywood trash" took over before long, and all that remains of The Crags now, aside from the actual rocky crags it was named after, are some stone steps. Some of the property is now Malibu Creek State Park. (Exactly who owned what land when in this area is covered in some confusing detail here

So are these "crags" the rock formations you see during the opening credits of the TV show "Mash"? The helicopter pad and some rusted vehicles are still up at Malibu Creek State Park.

Love those old motel pictures. Even in their altered state, it's kinda neat that some of them still survive.

sopas ej Dec 15, 2010 1:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5093219)
The Jet Inn Motor Hotel at 4542 W. Slauson Ave.


http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/8...nnpcw2huge.jpg
postcard/ebay

Great images, though to paraphrase an "I Love Lucy" episode, that lobby looks like a bad dream you'd have from eating too much Chinese food.

Beaudry, thanks for the effort on looking up the Wulpole. It was typed onto the birth certificate; I just find it very odd that they didn't put in a street address. I wonder why that would be.

sopas ej Dec 15, 2010 2:10 AM

This from the LA Times:

On Location: New book presents a photographic history of filming in Los Angeles
December 14, 2010 | 2:57 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6...d95a970b-500wi

For nearly four decades Hollywood historian Marc Wanamaker has indulged his passion: collecting photographs from location film shoots in Los Angeles dating back to the early 1900s.

Now, he hopes his new book featuring more than 200 vintage images, including Harold Lloyd dangling off the side of a building above 8th and Spring streets in the 1930 film “Feet First,” will remind the film industry of the city’s rich heritage at a time when much of production is migrating elsewhere.

Wanamaker, a film history consultant and former curator of the Hollywood Heritage Museum, has collected about 250,000 still photographs that document the countless hotels, ranches, parks and beaches across Los Angeles that supplied the backdrop for some of Hollywood’s greatest films.

He has published his choicest photographs in the newly released “Location Filming in Los Angeles,” highlighting the diversity of locations that drew filmmakers to Los Angeles as early as 1907, when director Francis Boggs was assigned by a Chicago studio to film some beach scenes for “Monte Cristo."

There are also pictures of Laurel and Hardy clinging to a beam atop the downtown Western Costume Building on South Broadway in the 1929 movie “Downtown” (and another shot revealing scaffolding just beneath them that shows how the perilous-looking effect was created), Mary Pickford boating on Venice Canal in D.W. Griffith’s 1910 film “Never Again,” Marlon Brando readying for a battle scene in Bronson Canyon in MGM’s “Julius Caesar” (1953), and Judy Garland taking an order at the Top Deck Drive-In at Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards in “A Star is Born” (1954).

Read the rest by clicking on this.

GaylordWilshire Dec 15, 2010 2:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5093219)
Below: What in the world would you call this strange ornamentation.......chinoiserie modern?

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5527/jetinn2002b.jpg
synthetrix>blogspot.com

I am mesermized by the Jet--can't get enough of that "bad dream after eating too much Chinese food," as sopas remembers, referring to the very funny Lucy episode in which she vows to tell the truth about everything on a bet. (I think it was Carolyn Appleby's new furniture that was the Chinese nightmare.) Anyway, rather than "chinoiserie modern," ethereal, the Jet's exterior looks to me like a good example of Dingbat, that great L.A. style I first read about in Banham. I think it was his colleague at UCLA, an architect named Francis Ventre (sp?), who coined the term for stucco boxes (usually small apartment buildings) with odd bits of applied onamentation (the "dingbats"). I like the squares concealing the Jet's a/c units, but they can't have helped their efficiency!

ethereal_reality Dec 15, 2010 3:55 AM

^^^I think you are absolutely correct GaylordWilshire.
I had forgotten all about "Dingbat". The term seems to have taken a backseat to "Googie".

There was an apartment called "The Golden Mermaid" across from where I lived on Hancock Ave.
It had the coolest mermaid adorning the facade. I recently took a trip down Hancock using google street view.
Much to my dismay, the mermaid is gone. It was probably thrown on a trash heap.

I would have paid a hundred dollars for this piece of "dingbat" ornament.
I can still see it when I close my eyes.

malumot Dec 15, 2010 1:09 PM

And to think it just might rival what's already been posted here......:)

This quote:

“It’s really disconcerting with all these films and TV shows leaving Hollywood," said Wanamaker, who has served as a history consultant on such films as “Chaplin” and “The Aviator” and most recently the TV series “NCIS: Los Angeles.” “This book is kind of a reminder that location filming really helped build Los Angeles.”

Most porn is still shot here, however.

".......According to the HBO series Porn Valley, nearly 90% of all legally distributed pornographic films made in the United States are either filmed in or produced by studios based in the San Fernando Valley."

Just sayin'. LOL


Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 5093365)
This from the LA Times:


On Location: New book presents a photographic history of filming in Los Angeles
December 14, 2010 | 2:57 pm


For nearly four decades Hollywood historian Marc Wanamaker has indulged his passion: collecting photographs from location film shoots in Los Angeles dating back to the early 1900s.


Read the rest by clicking on this.



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