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Wow! There has been some incredible sleuthing going on concerning the faux-oil well(?) and Desmond's photograph.

I'm so proud of ya'll :worship: I can't stand it.

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I happened upon this snapshot earlier today on eBay.

Seller's description:.. "STREET SCENE MALTED MILK MAYFAIR THEATRE LOS ANGELES"

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/UDKl7O.jpg

But I'm not so sure this is Los Angeles. :shrug:




update:

I just found this photograph on the losangelestheatres blog.

Note the Malted Milk sign.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/Pe3fbw.jpg

"Majestic / Mayfair Theatre, 214 Santa Monica, CA."

So maybe the seller is correct about the location. ..Do you think this is the theater in question?

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This snapshot of a GIANT ROCK caught my eye as well.

"Vintage Photograph - Feb. 1968 - Giant Rock - Landers, California"

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Ttwq7B.jpg
eBay

I'm completely intrigued by it.



It turns out Landers is quite some distance from Los Angeles. (it's just north of Joshua Tree)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/DcRsy7.jpg


Here's a closer look at Landers.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/gDkg5C.jpg

I looked all over for the GIANT ROCK but I don't see it... I can't imagine something that LARGE just up and disappeared.

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Last, but not least, here's a mystery vantage point.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/M1A2Yw.jpg
eBay

Does anyone recognize this view? - or where the photographer was standing when he (or she) took the snapshot?


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A few minutes later.


I just realized the seller has this second photograph listed on eBay with a similiar view.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/eQPHZd.jpg
eBay

:whip:
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This is Diamond Bar
 

I came across this huge booklet at work a few months ago. Our council has parcels of land in Brea and received this before the development of the city of Diamond Bar. It was found in the back of a 4 tier file cabinet, which explains the edges. Thought you guys might be interested.

https://i.postimg.cc/YqpVJQLT/thumbnail-IMG-0919.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/d3WBMkzK/thumbnail-IMG-0920.jpg

Look how green and open it was

https://i.postimg.cc/jjz4xkGc/thumbnail-IMG-0921.jpg

A nice few of the roads of greater LA

https://i.postimg.cc/7h729CwV/thumbnail-IMG-0922.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/ZKx9qzRC/thumbnail-IMG-0923.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/D0dzm17t/thumbnail-IMG-0924.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/9FmmJRmQ/thumbnail-IMG-0925.jpg

And last, one of the fold out sections.

https://i.postimg.cc/mg0GftsM/thumbnail-IMG-0926.jpg

A close up.

https://i.postimg.cc/PrJGCmfY/thumbnail-IMG-0927.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/2jQ6tsk5/image-asset.jpg
Visit Joshua Tree

Move along. Nothing to see here

Huell did a segment on Giant Rock. Certainly his most laid-back piece.

The Big Rock - location
 

Try Google Maps at:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1KrYp3Cg4yfcTuF78

One of the number of useless facts I have learned over the years is that the origin of the name of the city of Diamond Bar comes from the cattle brand of the ranch that once occupied the land. The brand was diamond over a bar.

I had wondered where the name came from for years, thanks!:worship:

Those people look a bit too wamly dressed for Los Angeles? Doubt this is Santa Monica, the builings seem too tall.

...the sign in the middle says [VE]RNAL HOURS AHEAD - nope, Mackerm corrects me: JOURNAL HOURS AHEAD. This is an ad for the Oregon Journal, which was Portland's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. They were "hours ahead" of the competition, one presumes.

The lower picture doesn't look like it's in the same neighborhood as the upper one. It can be dated to 1929, as the theater is showing The Sacred Flame, starring Pauline Frederick, Conrad Nagel, "and a Big Cast" per the marquee. The pre-code plot, says Wiki, involves a mother euthanizing her wheelchair-bound son, so he won't find out his wife has been cheating on him with his own brother. Whew.

This was taken from the rooftop of 167 South Normandie Avenue at Normandie and 2nd (looking southeast).

https://i.postimg.cc/52WDCgTJ/s-l1600.jpg
eBay

The photo of the Mayfair Theater is in Portland, Oregon. The other sign says Journal Hours.

MikeyTikey beat me to it--kudos, MT--but here's some more on the pics taken from the roof of what started out being known as the Del-Har Manor apartments, built in 1928.
(The Del-Har, built by a Delta B. West--not sure where the "Har" came from--replaced a 1914 house that was moved to 1483 W 35th St, where it survived until 2021.)



ER's image above, as MT says, was taken toward the southeast. Among the little that seems to be left is the fourplex at 200-206 S Normandie, seen center-slightly-right.


https://i.postimg.cc/52s61BC3/167nla-1labels-bmp.jpg



ER's second view, below, is also from the top of the Del-Har, now looking northeast. The low-slung house and two small apartments to its north still stand....



https://i.postimg.cc/T1CmLZsy/167nla-2-bmp.jpg


Gotta love the "LA" inside a bear on the vintage shots....

The Giant Rock broke in 2000.
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...11267364_n.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/MojaveDeser...083497/?type=3
It has a fascinating 20th century history
https://www.desertsun.com/story/dese...rock/76675798/

That Diamond Bar brochure is a great artifact. I hope it finds its way to a permanent collection. Thurl Ravenscroft (of Tony the Tiger and Grinch fame) recorded a promotional record called "The Legend of Diamond Bar" back when it was being developed. Then about 20 years ago Renegade Animation in Glendale created this short film to accompany it.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f05c1051_z.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...84e96bf2_b.jpg

https://vimeo.com/178673441

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Excellent deductions on the two photographs with the borders, Mikey Tikey and GaylordWilshire.


The seller now has a third 'border' photograph listed on eBay.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/E2J4gJ.jpg

Is this from the same location as the other two? :shrug:



Here are the first two again for comparison..

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/M1A2Yw.jpg



https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/eQPHZd.jpg


Link to the third photograph.
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:previous:


ER: This was taken from the same rooftop, just more north-northeasterly than the second of your shots. The building at left is 147 S Normandie, built in 1926 as the Los Palmas Apartments.

Interesting to note that the Los Palmas as well as the Del-Har Manor (from the top of which these images were taken) replaced single-family residences in much the way many old bungalows (on the east side in particular) are being replaced with full-lot multi-unit housing today. Housing pressures in Los Angeles were at least as intense during the '20s as they are today.

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Thanks, GW....I just realized that you can faintly see Griffith Observatory in the most recent photograph.


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Thanks for all the follow-ups on the 'Giant Rock' out in. . .googles. . .Ann Landers. ..As soon as Mackerm posted the UFO photograph I realized that I had heard of it before. :doh:

"Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, that covers 5,800 square feet of ground and is seven stories high. Giant Rock is purported to be the largest free standing boulder in the world."

"A single large room, which was subsequently filled in, was dug beneath the rock and resided in by a prospector named Frank Critzer during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Critzer perished in a self-detonated dynamite explosion in this room on July 24, 1942, while being investigated by local police.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/NxP1wz.jpg
newspapers.com



In the 1950s it was a gathering point for UFO believers. It is located on land which was at that time leased by George Van Tassel, a friend of Critzer's, a flying-saucer contactee
and organizer of UFO conventions. Van Tassel also built the nearby Integratron."

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/UMRZWl.jpg
palmspringslife

The Integratron is still there!


Here's George in his room beneath the rock sometime between 1953 and 1957.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/bWw2WB.jpg

Cozy.



Learn more

[/url="https://www.integratron.com/timeline/"]HERE[/url]. It's very interesting!
oop, shit

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