Los Angeles County Gun Club? Los Angeles California Gun Club?

:previous: Very close!

https://i.postimg.cc/L57DVHDr/Gun-Club-LAT-1894-7-2.jpg
LA Times, 7/2/1894

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Hey, look what just turned up on eBay


A transparency of the back side of the recently discussed Drum City!


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/YV0zq6.jpg
eBay





As a refresher here's the Drum City slide I posted a few days ago.

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

6122 Santa Monica Blvd.



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Once more. . . .

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Yrr2gP.jpg
EBAY

Thanks for the information, Calinative.





Here's a closer look at the California Federal & Saving Building.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/g9HwmR.jpg
miraclemilela

That's quite a helipad on top! (I thought it was white-out at first)

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. . .currently on eBay


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/fvpi9S.jpg
Queen of Outer Space


I would give anything like to know the backstory to this odd photograph.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/Dqlwxz.jpg
eBay

I think his piano bench lights up. . . as well as his organ....*blush*




I've seen this photograph before. I hope I haven't posted it in the past.

The ghost of that Drum City sign haunted the side wall until disappearing into thin air in 2017.

https://i.imgur.com/ktuLSp3.jpg
GSV

A sales girl I once knew told me her mom played the cute ingenue in this epic--- and ZsaZsa scorned her-- she was either Lisa Davis OR Laurie Mitchell

Zsa Zsa was probably well north of 40 when she made this stinker, so she may have been challenged by the youthful starlet. This film could actually be worse than any of Ed Wood's entries from that era. At least Ed Wood may have been making parodies. I don't totally buy the idea that Wood was totally serious, as depicted in the Tim Burton biopic. I mean Vampira and an aged Bela Lugosi. A laugh riot. I think Wood was secretly making comedies. Maybe the "Queen of Outer Space" was a comedy as well. I'm sure the theaters were hives of laughter. The clunky costumes, corny dialogue and low budget special effects were enough to induce mirth in all but the kiddies.

^^^
Did a Google maps street view, and see that the old Cal. Fed building has a "VERIFI" logo at the top. Verifi must be the name of a company I haven't heard of.

Why was the "Miracle Mile" called that? Maybe a developer came up with the name. I guess bubbling tarpits with giant mammoth, mastadon, ground sloth, dire wolf and saber toothed cat fossils is somewhat miraculous in a busy city. Barely more than 10,000 years ago Los Angeles teamed with giant and fierce creatures that would rival the Serengeti. Only 200 years ago grizzly bears, wolves and cougars roamed the outskirts and sometimes ate people.

Good piece on one of our most popular architects, Paul R. Williams

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...-black-pioneer

PRESERVATION ALERT re Normandie Ave between Seventh & Eighth. We've visited this block on NLA a few times over the years....

A 90-second video, narrated by one of our own, the redoubtable Beaudry:

https://vimeo.com/500171761/0b91312c...gYTuv0tA2dqLxg

From the video:
https://i.postimg.cc/RZt63R5F/marsakvideo-bmp.jpg

From the LAPL:
https://i.postimg.cc/SKqv3gmY/langhamlapl-bmp.jpg

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screenshot from the video. . .


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/gFOA2L.jpg

F.Y.I.. . . . . . . The Langham rooftop pool was the first rooftop pool in Los Angeles and it's still in use!





1930s?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/EhRzKu.jpg
thegaylordapartments.blogspot

"Shot from the first rooftop pool in Los Angeles, at the Langham apartments, this photo from the 1930's shows the Gaylord Apartments standing steadfast in the background to the right."....gaylordapartmentsblog

I looked through all the past posts that mention the Langham and this photograph wasn't included in any of them.... (although I swear I posted it before)



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https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...923/VftnPz.jpg
detail

Thanks guys.

This is from the Los Angeles Herald, 1896.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/uMRRS0.jpg
To read the rest of the article go here


I take it "scatter gun" means shot gun.


re: odinthor's news clipping.... So the corner of Eighth and Hoover must have been an empty lot (at the very least) in 1894. ...(I'm currently looking for a map)
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Thanks for that link! Although I can't locate the reference, I think it was mentioned on this forum once that Williams' archive had been lost in a fire. So, this link from the article above, to another article from last June, was intriguing:

Architect Paul Williams’ Archive, Thought Lost to Fire, is Safe. The Getty and USC Will Acquire It
June 30, 2020
https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...t-in-a-fire-it

Thanks for the plug! Here is a link to the petition on Change.org with all the information about what's happening on the block.

In a nutshell, it's a little time-capsule of 1920s-30s apartment houses (and LA's most filmed area because of it) and of course some developer wants to build a big ol' giant new-wave-lookin' thing smack dab in the center of it.

Westlake Webinar
 

Tomorrow at noon PST there will be a 90 minute webinar on "Silent Echos in Westlake - Early LA Film Locations" presented by John Bengtson which will be interesting to most here I suspect...

https://www.bigmarker.com/esotouric/...ations-webinar

At $10, a bargain!

Thanks to Hoss for identifying the '55 Studebaker Speedster in the 1966 Ruscha image.....I'd never heard of the car....did a little research, it came out of the studio of legendary designer Raymond Loewy....Studebaker wanted a competitor for the Corvette and T-Bird, hence the sleek lines....another Ruscha, this from 1974....



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

5914-16 Melrose Ave. (1 block west of Vine/Rossmore).....it took the sleuths at LAPD vice 16 years to discover what was going on in this place....  

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...084-story.html

Aside from the usage this was an unassuming and inoffensive building....eventually replaced by this hideous thing....


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

Check out the progression of this

https://i.postimg.cc/CKNTDnH3/3219-S...Austin-003.jpg


...to this

https://i.postimg.cc/PrWPc2tY/3219fi...FB-bmp-003.jpg

over 122 years:

https://bit.ly/3stRvQo
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Ugh.

I wonder if the blank expanses of wall originally sported decorative elements, such as some sort of grille or such . . . ?

:previous:


Parts of the old "House Of Love" may still be in there somewhere. :love:

It was modified with a second floor addition in 2004.

https://i.imgur.com/TN04kmT.jpg
ladbsdoc.lacity.org

That video was fabulous! a real treat. thanks, Beaudry!:)

Any railroad foamers know if the Kirker-Bender fire escape was ever installed in the Huntington/PERy building at 6th & Main?


https://i.postimg.cc/mk9jKgNL/kirker...rticle-bmp.jpg
LAT Feb 21, 1904

https://i.postimg.cc/7LQN62KP/kirkerbenderpc-bmp.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/SK5WqpKJ/kirker3compl-bmp.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/j50rGLy2/kirkermontevallo-bmp.jpg
An installation at the University of Montevallo in Alabama (I grew up in the South and have never heard of it or anyone ever going there).

:previous:

I haven't found mention of one being installed at the PE Bldg./Huntington Bldg.; but by 1916 there was one at L.A.'s Santa Fe Hospital:

https://i.postimg.cc/gk3tkLrB/Kirker-Bender.jpg
Hospital Management, v. I, p. 1, 1916.

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Happy 99th Birthday, Betty White!

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/2aMFgi.jpg
townandcountrymag

Judging by the microphone I'd say this is from Betty White's radio days. The location isn't mentioned but it sure looks like Los Angeles.


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RCA ribbon microphone
 

This is an RCA 44 ribbon microphone. It appeared in the early 1930s and began to disappear by the mid 1950s. Today audio engineers are crazy about it but they aren't built since the 1950s. They are very expensive second-hand.

E_R, I believe that photo of Betty White is from some kind of promotional event she was doing for NBC when she was going to host their broadcast of Pasadena's Rose Parade.
So the building is probably the Rose Parade's Tournament House.
____

In doing a little googling it looks like it was for the 75th Rose Parade and that was January, 1964.

There's a series of 24 color and b&w photos of this event on Getty Images that are really great.
It's stated they were created on October 3, 1963.

Take a look at them: HERE!

Here's one:

https://media.glamour.com/photos/570...ite-9-main.jpg

And yes: Happy Birthday Betty!

This appears to be taken at the Wrigley Mansion . 391 S Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91184

:previous:

Yes, I was reading this LA Curbed article I came across while searching:

How Pasadena's Wrigley Mansion Became Tournament House
https://la.curbed.com/2014/12/30/100...nament-house-1
_________________

For those of you in Los Angeles this week...or California in general:

California To Be Hit By 100-MPH Winds In Coming Days
https://www.accuweather.com/en/sever...ng-days/883443

.........................:eek: :help: :eek:

Gusts up to 100, but in sparsely-populated areas.
The increased fire danger, though, isn't a party.... :(

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


7505 Melrose Ave., 1974....this is the building that for decades housed the Johnny Rockets retro-diner....in '74 it was a burger joint called Twin Castle.



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



In the "elbow" of this little center was a topless/bottomless bar that I knew as the Kit Kat Club....

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

In about 1977 I was working at 3rd and La Cienega, occasionally a buddy at the office and myself would drive over to this place for lunch....not much larger than a walk-in closet, a dark, dank, divey room, reeking of last night's cigarettes and desperation....to my eyes, the dancers (not really dancing as we know it, just a sort of disinterested shuffle) all appeared to be hard-core junkies....a reprehensible establishment, with no redeeming social value whatsoever....in other words, the place was perfect.   



By the mid-70's Eddie Nash, he of the Wonderland Ave./John Holmes carnage, controlled over 35 liquor licenses in Hollywood and environs, among these was a place called the Kit Kat Club...but that club was at 6550 Santa Monica Blvd., a couple of blocks west of Cahuenga (the building is gone now, the property is part of a Honda dealership)....

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



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



A 1970 permit for 6550 Santa Monica Blvd. listing the owner as Eddie Nash, using his birth name....  

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



A 1975 signage permit for the place on Melrose....

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


So there were two Kit Kat Clubs in business by '75....I think the likelihood is that Nash also owned the Melrose location.   


The laundromat and bar units are now combined into one restaurant space, and the parking has been removed....Johnny Rockets vacated in late 2015... 

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

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This isn't as exciting as Live Nude Girls but it's a mystery location nonetheless.

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

The restaurant next door on the right is. . .um . . .Gaiety(?)


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mystery Thrifty (original slide)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Ul5xjC.jpg
eBay

I wonder why the elderly man is posing and waving at this particular corner.

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E_R, Dot Records was next door to Wallich's Music City (left)...and, the Gaiety, which I've not heard of before, was previously the Vine Street Coffee Dan's location.
(Interesting that of the myriad of photos on NLA of Sunset & Vine that we've never come across the Gaiety before.)

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uDyTjv-3u.../wallich_s.jpgMartino's Time Machine


By 1966 at least, the Gaiety was gone, NBC as well, as seen in this previously posted photo on NLA:

https://cdn2.lamag.com/wp-content/up...or-768x578.jpg
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

I got the following from a website that had posted some oral histories of musicians and the like about Hollywood in the 1960's. This one from Don Randi, a songwriter and member of the group The Wrecking Crew, talks about a lot of the eateries frequented back then. No details, but Gaiety is mentioned and a lot of others name dropped. HOW MANY HAVE WE NOT HEARD OF?

https://cavehollywood.com/two-part-documentary-series-on EPIX/May2002

“We loved Musso & Frank’s Grill on Hollywood Boulevard and Johnny’s Steak House. That was my savior. I didn’t have a fuckin dime and I could go and have a three dollar meal in there with a Bone-In Ribeye, you know. We went to Aldo’s, great hamburgers. Sonny and Cher dug that place. Canter’s Delicatessen, once in a while, a coffee shop called Huff’s [Does he mean Hoff's?], Taco Rama, and Pink’s Hot Dogs on La Brea Ave. Another stop was The Dog House on Hollywood Blvd. where you sat on stools on the street and can’t forget The Brown Derby.

“Chris Darrow reminded me of The Burrito King on Sunset Boulevard at Alvarado. The Flying Saucer had the best French Dip sandwiches in town near Wilshire. There was Young China, two doors down from radio station KFWB for fantastic Chinese on Hollywood Blvd. with the best Won Ton soup. The Italian restaurant Miceli’s was on Las Palmas.

“Dennis Wilson loved Ah Fong’s restaurant, delicious Chinese-American food. Gene Norman owned the Marquis restaurant on Sunset Strip, along with his Crescendo and Interlude clubs. I liked the Villa Capri. Mickey Cohen was there on a regular basis. I saw him at Sherry’s as well. There was Hal’s Nest, and The Speak, where all drinks were 39 cents. Phil Spector and I went to The Cock’n Bull. The trout was incredible.

“The record company promo men all went to an Italian spot named Martoni’s. Label owners like Verve Records’ Norman Granz enjoyed the Pacific Dining Car. Barney Kessel and his wife B.J. Baker requested their New York steaks cooked medium at Diamond Jim’s in Hollywood.

“Neil Young, Jack Nitzsche and I would go out to places like the Gaiety Delicatessen. Once in a while Harry Nilsson would come to our table. He was still working at the Crocker Citizen bank as a teller or had a job there. At the time he might have made a record. We all went to the Hollywood Ranch Market. Are you kidding? The tater tots and the chicken gizzards! Even in the late fifties they had a donut machine there! (laughs). I saw Lucille Ball one late night in a full fur mink coat. She gave me the biggest smile. Jack, Neil, Denny Bruce and I also liked to eat at the House of Pancakes on La Cienega. They just closed Hamburger Hamlet! What the fuck is going on? [Text Quotes Copyright 2020 Harvey Kubernik]

Another one of those "Twin Castle" burger joints is still standing at 4874 Santa Monica Blvd. and is currently an outpost of Raffallo's Pizza. This one was built in 1966.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a335cff2_b.jpg
GSV

Underneath the "Dot Records" facade would have been this glorious bit of Late Moderne.
https://i2.wp.com/www.martinturnbull...ine-Street.jpg
Martin Turnbull
https://martinturnbull.com/2014/12/1...ca-late-1940s/

This is the corner of N Western Avenue looking east on Santa Monica Boulevard. The branch of Sheri's Restaurant on the left was at 5465 Santa Monica Boulevard, and behind that are the Flomar Apartments at 5425 Santa Monica Boulevard. The latter is still standing.

After reading about Martoni's online a bit today, I wonder why I haven't heard of this place before.

Maybe because the building is quite non-descript. The address was 1523 Cahuenga Blvd. (A couple websites say 1538, but the matchbook covers I looked up say 1523.) It opened in 1960 and closed due to the 1994 earthquake, it is said. So it was around 34 years, quite a long run as restaurants go. This is the only photo I've found of it.

https://www.laradio.com/martonis.jpeg
LARadio

Here's what the restaurant sign would've looked like:http://www.bugsweeps.alibaba.sk/info...i_logo_300.jpg...and a postcard of the interior: http://www.bugsweeps.alibaba.sk/info...stcard_470.jpg

On "Yahoo! Answers" someone asked the question, "Does anyone remember Martoni's in Hollywood?" The replies are provocative. Here are two of them:

Vince DeMattia writes: I was a new reporter for Daily Variety. I started in early fall of 1965. Not too long after being there, Joe Price who was the Music/Recording reporter for Daily Variety, told me he wanted to take me somewhere for a special experience. He picked me at my apartment and we went back to Daily Variety to park the car and walked across the street to Martoni's... a place I had not yet visited even though it was that close to the Variety office. We walked in and made an immediate right turn to go up stairs to the "Up-A-Stairs Lounge (that's actually what the sign above the entrance to the stairway read. When we got up stairs, there was about 12-15 people. Among them Joe Smith from Warner records, Frank Sinatra and Bill Cosby. As you might imagine, I was stunned. It turns out that Bill Cosby recorded for Frank Sinatra's then new record company, Reprise and Frank was there to present Bill Cosby with Three Gold Albums. That was my first introduction to Martoni's and the level of famous persons one might run into there. One time I went in and sat at the bar and gabbed with Mama Cass Elliot and another time sat at one of the "2-tops " at the end of the wall you walked around to get to the back section. Sammy Davis, Jr and a lady sat next to me in the other 2-top. Yeah... it was quite a place!

Gene Grossman writes: I was the first entertainer hired to work there, and played piano right next to the kitchen door. As for the restaurant's ownership, you be the judge: in the kitchen there was a State document posted stating that the liquor license was in the name of the "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" corporation, and in the office hung a life-sized portrait of Frank Sinatra.

Sam Giancana was seen there.

On a Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page, Barbra Kaye writes: Was sitting at the bar the night Sonny and Cher were asked to leave because their dress was so outlandish... I believe they wrote a hit song about the incident! In another search I found someone wrote: Supposedly Sonny Bono wrote "Laugh at Me" after being kicked out of Martoni’s for his wild attire.

And Ryan writes: Went there a few times (early 90's). Met CHEAP TRICK (they bought me drinks...lol)! And Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot there. Ended up at his house with a couple other friends. Crazy.

With all this notoriety and celebrity status, and in Hollywood frequently enough, how is this place something unfamiliar to me? :shrug:

On this site: L.A. Radio People, Don Elliott wrote a section (scroll about halfway down the page, the picture of the restaurant in my post is in the section) titled "Martoni's Was the Place to Be in the 60s and 70s" and he has a sort of Top Ten list: Recalling back-in-the-dj-day Hollywood. Best shows in town. (ALL AT MARTONI’S).

A few of them are:

--Frank Sinatra “Up-a Stairs"
--Lenny’s “back room show"
--Anything Sal said behind the bar
--Pretending to talk trash into hidden FBI microphones in the lamps.

Now that last part about the hidden microphones is interesting because there's a website -- Advanced Electronic Security Company, where they have a section titled: Technical Surveillance Counter Measures, Bug Sweeping, Detection of Telephone Taps, Wiretaps, Covert Hidden Video Cameras Detection, Detecting Hidden Room Bugs, Electronic Harassment Information & Detection and a link to "Advanced Electronic Security Historical Photos" where Martoni's is featured: "Every private eye has a restaurant that is their hangout at night. For me it was Martoni, which was on Cahuenga in the heart of Hollywood, CA."

I took this photo of Wallich's in 1965. I made the mistake of posting it online years ago, losing control of ownership. However, I still have the negative (and many more) but I have no intention of making the same mistake again.

______________________

Alas, no. As-built plans for the P.E. Building from the Arcives at the Southern California Railway Museum don't show this arrangement. Although, as one of my archivist colleagues pointed out, it would've made fire drills a lot more fun! :)

. . .
. . .once more.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Ul5xjC.jpg
EBAY

:previous:
Thanks for figuring out the mystery street corner, Hoss. . . .I appreciate.

The same view, today.

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






And here's the Flomar /visible in the vintage ebay snapshot as well as the current street view.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/DFhQX5.jpg
LOOPNET

Built in 1925....30 apartment units and 4 commercial spaces.



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Here are two, count'em two, mystery locations for Monday night. ....(both currently on eBay)


#1

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

Seward Film Vaults. . .Hollywood








#2

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/uN3xs9.jpg
eBay

National Screen Service. . .Hollywood



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e_r, 'tis 1010 Seward St. (Seward is in Hollywood, parallel to and halfway between Vine and Highland).

https://i.postimg.cc/Wz4B0j3C/Seward.jpg
gsv

. . . and 7026 Santa Monica Blvd.

https://i.postimg.cc/tRmf8K7R/Nation...en-Service.jpg
gsv

Edit Add:

The building housed the Electrical Research Products Co. (later ERPI, which is to say Electrical Research Products Incorporated) in 1933, "motion picture sound recording and reproducing equipment" (quoth that year's Manufacturing Directory of Los Angeles County and District).

Cool photo of LA. Thanks for posting ER. Its chock full of the mood and flavor of LA.

I happened to see this photo taken in the 1980's showing the streamlined detail over the entrance of the Wilshire May Company that I thought might be of interest:

https://www.laconservancy.org/sites/...ry/mayco-7.jpglaconservancy


Plus an interior shot:

https://www.laconservancy.org/sites/...ry/mayco-9.jpglaconservancy

About a week ago, AMPAS posted this photo of their museum with the recently installed "Academy Museum" letters put up.

https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram...a0&oe=60328B99AMPAS

The scheduled date of AMPAS's museum opening has been pushed back a couple times because of the pandemic situation. It was recently rescheduled again for September 30th of this year.

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mystery location. (this one is going to be a difficult to solve). .*reaches for whip*. .;)


A young man, "Buss", poses for a photograph in 1929 Los Angeles.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/1YnjP1.jpg
eBay



The reverse.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/V5Ug7i.jpg








Let's take a closer look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/4Zlc42.jpg

And as you can see there are signs along the embankment on the opposite side of the street. (as well as a 'No Parking' to the right of his left shoulder)

Is this an entrance to a bridge or, perhaps a ramp of some sort?



:superwhip
Go at it sleuths!
.

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mystery ice?


This transparency was on eBay a few days ago. (it must have sold because I can't find it again)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/x1hgxZ.jpg




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

..Are those icicles? (I know they're not but they sure look like icicles)

This is a rare view of the wooden scaffolding installed during the dismantling of the building next door to protect the car from falling debris.
(sorry about the long awkward sentence)

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For those interested:

L.A. County Library Virtual Program | Thursday, January 28, 5 pm
Take a Tour Through Late Victorian Era Los Angeles
Join us on this photographic tour of LA, as seen through images from the collection of the
Homestead Museum, led by its director, Paul Spitzzeri. For adults. Free. Register here.

The library wants to use either Adobe Flash and Windows Media Player, both of which are defunct.
Has anyone tried an LA County Library Webex event with a player from the 21st Century? :???:

A MOST handsome young man! But what a lot of trash at his feet.

I guess we think that things were clean and nice so many years ago. But the scourge of man made pollution rears up in these old photos to prove us wrong.