SkyscraperPage Forum

SkyscraperPage Forum (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/index.php)
-   Found City Photos (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23)
-   -   noirish Los Angeles (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170279)

westcork Oct 12, 2012 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag (Post 5863736)
The picture of the earthquake damaged hotel was not taken in Pasadena. It is of the Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara. Bertram Hancock, Son of millionaire George Alan Hancock lost his life there in the 1925 Santa Barbara Earthquake. See the attached website for the story and a postcard view of the hotel before the earthquake.

http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/...hotel-tragedy/

Cheers,
Jack

That was a great read. Thanks for sharing

GaylordWilshire Oct 12, 2012 2:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5863391)
Mrs. Virginia Patty murder case

Los Angeles, Cal. June 4. William Tallman, ship radio operator, who is charged with the murder of Mrs. Virginia Patty here, was reported by radio tonight from the steamer Admiral Benson to have been arrested on board the ship.


Couldn't help but be remninded of another noirish William Talman... (one less "L"...).

I hadn't realized that he has more noir cred than just Perry Mason.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-b...2520AM.bmp.jpgRotten Tomatoes
In 1953's The Hitch-Hiker directed by Ida Lupino.

Who knew Episcopal churches had boxing teams? From the IMDB: "The scion of a wealthy Detroit family, William Talman would later claim that he learned to "champion the underdog" while a member of his Episcopal church boxing team."

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520AM.bmp.jpg
Apparently the year before he appeared only in a photograph as Ida Lupino's dead husband in Beware, My Lovely.


But the best part is Talman's real-life noir episode:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-o...2520AM.bmp.jpg
Los Angeles Times March 15, 1960

A snippet from another Times article on the subject:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...2520AM.bmp.jpg
Talman is one of those people I could have gone through my whole life not having to think about as ever having been naked, but it does make for a good little noir story.


By the way, I've seen Hamilton Burger also spelled Berger. Seems "Burger" might be correct, though.... Did Erle Stanley Gardner really spell it that way? If so, was it meant to be sort of a [lame] joke?

MichaelRyerson Oct 12, 2012 3:14 PM

And one thing leads to another...
 
One thing leads to another and as so often happens, a search set in motion for one thing
leads instead in a wholly unexpected and infinitely more interesting direction.
C.C. Pierce led me to Julius Shulman who then led me to Herman Schultheis,
each with his own unique take on Los Angeles…and thence to Edward Weston,
credited with working in Los Angeles but who, alas, did very little with landscapes
or architecture. He did produce this shot of his studio at Los Feliz and Brand Boulevard in Tropico…

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/7...59375629_o.jpg
Weston Studio, Tropico, ca_ 1920, (In Focus), 140)_


And then I found this lovely little photograph of a beautiful woman in thoughtful repose…
and I had to know who she was and where she’d been sitting when Weston captured her image…

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8424/7...5c1e1095_o.png
Katz, 1920

Edward Weston photograph. J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.XM.170.11. (From Warren, p. 202).

And I came to find out that her name was Betty Katz and Weston had come to know her
through Margrethe Mather, a fellow photographer, socialist, free thinker and some-time prostitute
who had set up her studio in the carriage house of the Hildreth mansion at Fourth and Flower Streets.
Betty Katz was likewise a radical who had come to Southern California at the urging of Emma Goldman
and because of her health (she, like so many others had tuberculosis) took up residence in a little
bungalow in Palm Springs. Mather produced a small group of well-received shots of Katz whose
intelligence and forceful personality came through the lens.
They fell easily into a casual physical and emotional relationship.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7117/7...89495330_o.png
Betty Katz, Mather, 1916

Betty Katz, 1916. Margrethe Mather photograph. J. Paul Getty Museum, 85XP.249.1.
(From Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather and the Bohemians of Los Angeles by Beth Gates Warren, p. 126).


At the time Weston met Katz, she was occasionally visiting Los Angeles
(when her condition would permit) and had become an active member of the
local art scene which included several well known political thinkers and agitators.
She had the use of a friend’s apartment on Fort Moore Hill. Roy Rosen had hoboed
across the country and finally landed in the attic apartment of the old Hancock Banning
house at 416 N. Broadway. But Rosen also suffered from tuberculosis and spent months
at a time in the Barlow Sanitarium up in Elysian Park. It was in those times that Betty Katz
came to Los Angeles. She sat for Weston…

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8293/7...a319da57_o.jpg
Betty Katz Brandner, 1920

Betty Katz, 1920, Edward Weston portrait from Edward Weston in Los Angeles
by Susan Danly and Weston J. Naef, Huntington Library and Art Gallery, Plate 2, p. 13.
Original image courtesy The J. Paul Getty Museum. Collection Center for Creative Photography

Weston, a married man of convenient moral flexibility, who had bedded Mather
and several of his assistants, began an affair with Katz.
During this time he produced the ‘Attic Pictures’…

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8298/7...7a744d0e_o.jpg
Edward Weston, The Attic, 1921

Betty Katz in Roy Rosen's attic apartment in the Hancock Banning house on Fort Moore Hill.

Edward Weston, The Attic, 1921, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum.



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8443/7...8e14fa9e_o.jpg
betty katz in her attic, edward weston, 1920

Image by Edward Weston of Betty Katz in the attic of the Hancock Banning house
on Fort Moore Hill. 1920

Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum.



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8333/8...c7e51f8f_o.jpg
View looking north from the county courthouse, C.C. Pierce, ca.1895/1905

Fort Moore Hill, Los Angeles, 1905 (left) and Justicia Street, 1895 (right) - a quick stitch
of two photos taken from the same vantage point (LA County Courthouse) about 10 years apart.
(thanks, ProphetM) Because of the different dates of these two Pierce photographs the stitch
doesn't turn out quite so well but still provides a view of the area about 1900.
The Hancock Banning house is up, brand spanking new and shiny
(above and just to the right of the tunnel portal), the south facing cupola can be seen,
the little white house on Justicia with the turret can be seen clearly and the Broadway
tunnel is open for business making the left photo post-1901.

USCdigital archive/C.C. Pierce collection


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8434/7...5b98e08b_o.jpg
the hancock banning residence, C.C. Pierce, ca. 1900

Description
Photograph of the exterior of the Banning Residence at 416 N. Broadway on Fort Moore Hill
in Los Angeles, ca.1900. The large Victorian home has two stories with a covered porch
at left and a tall chimney at right. The peak of the roof is covered in tall spikes. The south
facing cupola containing Betty Katz's balcony is clearly seen. There is an assortment of
trees in front of the house, and in front of the trees is a wide unpaved street
partially overgrown with weeds. I believe this image is later than August 1, 1901.
This would have been contemporaneous with the tunnel being opened under Broadway on
Fort Moore Hill hence the weeds growing in what is now a dead-end street overlooking the tunnel entrance.

Seaver Center for Western History Research, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, neg no. 1008481



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7...c6df5bed_o.jpg
the hancock banning residence, C.C. Pierce, ca. 1900 (uncropped)

This uncropped image has the additional charm of showing C. C. Pierce's shadow and that of his camera at work.

USCdigital archive/C. C. Pierce collection


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8456/8...edf1dd95_o.jpg
City Hall construction, 1927

An interesting, if somewhat typical, shot of the Hall of Justice from the iron works of the City Hall
going up across Spring Street. But sometimes it's more interesting what's captured inadvertently
in the background. Here we have a pretty clear shot of the Hancock Banning house over on Fort Moore Hill
a few years after Weston and Rosen and Betty Katz. Now, of course, the view enjoyed by Betty Katz, and captured by
Edward Weston, is gone forever.

LAPL


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7...fabe05df_o.jpg
Justica Street in Los Angeles, looking south from Sunset Boulevard, C.C. Pierce, ca.1928

Photograph of Justica Street in Los Angeles, looking south from Sunset Boulevard, ca.1928.
The tower of City Hall is faintly visible in the background. Justica Street is not paved, and there
are large ruts in its dirt surface. Tree covered Fort Moore Hill appears at right, while on the left
are several Sonora Town buildings (these, although they don't look like it, front on Justicia and 'back up'
to properties lower down that front on New High Street). Prudent Beaudry’s house would be just behind
the white two story building on the left and downslope maybe fifty feet. There are two people standing
in the middle of the road in the distance. There is a wooden fence on the left side of the road, and
written on it are the words "[Au]to" and "Kelley Kar Co.".

USCdigital archive/Title Insurance and Trust/C. C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8056/8...a2526486_o.jpg
Sunset and North Broadway, 1929

View looking south at Sunset Boulevard and North Broadway showing
the north tunnel portal as it empties traffic into the intersection. On the left,
a dirt Justicia Street winds up and around the shoulder of Fort Moore Hill.

LAPL


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8196/8...032c4546_o.jpg
Looking northwest from City Hall tower, panorama, C.C. Pierce, 1930

I stitched together two Pierce photographs from 1930 to get this panorama
looking north from the City Hall tower as demolition gets under way on Justicia Street
in preparation for the coming street realignment. Spring Street will soon extend
through the old Los Angeles Central Jail on Temple Street north to Sunset Boulevard
and take with it all the houses on Justicia and the roadbed itself. The Hancock Banning
house is seen at left holding its ground but down slope the little white house with the turret
has lost the turret and its second story and will soon be gone altogether. Of particular interest,
over on New High Street, Prudent Beaudry's house is gone, torn down this very year after
having been purchased by the Brunswig Drug Company so that they might move an existing
building south onto the Beaudry property. In fact, it appears preparations have been made to
begin the move, the ground at the Beaudry lot looks to have some 'rolly things' similar
to the Alhambra Apartment move of five years earlier. [I came back on just long enough to
say how much I like this image. It shows so much and, of course, Pierce is really a special
resource for us all. I love this shot.]

USCdigital archive/C.C. Pierce collection


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8029/7...0366049c_o.jpg
Hancock Banning residence, side view, 1938

A side view of a two-story house with redwood siding, having been built by
Hancock Banning (1865-1925), at 416 N. Broadway. This portion of Broadway
was located on Fort Moore Hill. This photo shows a driveway on the right side of
the house. At the back, a small structure that looks like a shed. This 1938 shot
of the house shows it in hard times, the spikes gone, the chimney gone,
the malaise that has gripped Bunker Hill to the south in full swing here on
Fort Moore Hill as well.

LAPL

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8179/7...27f1e5fe_o.jpg
Snow on mountains, 16 March 1952. View from City Hall Tower looking toward Montrose area.

Fort Moore Hill is gone and with it the high school, Banning house and the cemetery.
Bozzani is holding on at Sunset and the suits got their parking lots. More's the pity.

USCdigital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961


“With her masses of ink-black hair and dark, expressive eyebrows, Betty Katz
made an indelible impression on Weston. She was then staying in Roy Rosen’s
attic crow’s nest in the Hancock Banning house on North Broadway, high above
the streets of downtown Los Angeles, and it was here that she and Weston
conducted their clandestine affair.

Although Weston kept his romance with Katz a closely guarded secret,
he could not resist commemorating their pas de deux in a series of images
destined to take their place among his most important photographs of the
period. He first photographed Katz lounging on the attic balcony of
the Hancock Banning House, veiled like some twentieth century Scheherazade
spinning Arbian Nights tales. Then he positioned her in juxtaposition to the
balcony’s Moorish-style arches and the tower and turrets of the city’s
fanciful 1891 sandstone courthouse in the distance.

In other photographs Katz poses against the spare angles of her attic room,
in various states of undress and with an assortment of props. In one she
wears only a lacy shawl as she exposes her right breast; in another she sits
on the floor, fully clothed, smoking a cigarette; and in a third she appears to
be moving a fabric-covered panel. Weston’s affair with Katz continued for several
weeks, and he sent her a series of highly passionate letters as a paean to their
electric embraces

Weston was deeply grateful for the time they spent together, and he continued to
press her for further liaisons. Within weeks of their first tryst, however, Katz was
forced to return to Palm Springs after symptoms of her tubercular condition began
to recur. Upon hearing of her imminent departure, Weston wrote a farewell letter
in which he seemed to breathe an almost audible sigh of relief that their affair was
coming to an end. He may have realized Katz was too vivid a presence, and very
possibly too demanding a consort, to fit inconspicuously into his carefully
compartmentalized life:

‘If this be the end-the last episode-farewell sweetheart of the shadowed
attic-I am sad-perhaps my eyes are moist-but I think the Gods are good
to force an ending by sending you away before even one little cloud has
passed over the intriguing glamour of our many nights…’

Artful Lives, Beth Gates Warren, pg 203-204, Getty Publications, 2011



http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8424/7...5c1e1095_o.png
Katz, 1920

Betty Katz on balcony of Hancock Banning House, Los Angeles, 1920.
Edward Weston photograph. J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.XM.170.11. (From Warren, p. 202).

Wig-Wag Oct 12, 2012 3:19 PM

R.Carlton inquired about the bumps in the street in this photo. http://macrochef.files.wordpress.com...nd-r1-e055.jpg. I answered his inquiry via private message, at which time he suggested I post my explanation.

The bumps are heavy cast iron hemispheres creating a "safety zone" for people boarding streetcars. Note that they they are set back approximately 20 feet from the intersection. The space between the bumps and the curb line of the cross street was the boarding area.

The wise streetcar rider would wait until the streetcar had stopped before venturing into the safety zone. In some areas of the city the safety zones were curb height platforms.

Cheers,
Jack

rcarlton Oct 12, 2012 4:07 PM

Thank you MichaelRyerson for the wonderful research on Edward Weston. He is one of my favorite photographers.

BifRayRock Oct 12, 2012 4:56 PM

Mystery Marquee?

Recently posted images of the "four" United Artists' sister theaters: Whittier, Pasadena, Long Beach and Mid-town/Miracle Mile Los Angeles. It is the last theater, the Four Star at 5112 Wilshire that piqued additional interest.

One photo, reposted below, contains a marquee that advertises another theater one block west at 5214 Wilshire: the Fox Ritz Theater. It is likely that this marquee caused two separate sources to confuse the two theaters and mislabel the Four Star as "the United Artists Ritz Theater." One of the sources includes an incorrect address (5600 Wilshire) that is very close to the El Rey (5515 Wilshire).

It seemed unusual for one theater to advertise its competitor. Since the Four Star was not yet operational - it could have rented marquee space to anyone willing to pay, or this may have been a common courtesy between "friendly" rivals. Looking at the 1940s aerial photo suggests that the theaters, had more of a connection than first thought.

"The Biggest Pictures, the Best Stars, the Finest Productions play at the Fox Ritz Theater."
"Three Shows Daily at Fox Ritz "
"See Pictures Sooner at Fox Ritz Theater"

_______________________

The former United Artists Four Star at 5112 Wilshire Blvd
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...PE6MPCHVD9.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...F2HHR6Y42K.jpgC.St. Lib

1932
http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0 CStLib

http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/u...XT=&DMROTATE=0C.St.Lib
_________________________

Fox RITZ Theater 1932
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015451.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015450.jpg
1956 The Movie "White Feather" released in '56
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015442.jpg


GaylordWilshire Oct 12, 2012 6:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag (Post 5864309)
R.Carlton inquired about the bumps in the street in this photo. http://macrochef.files.wordpress.com...nd-r1-e055.jpg. I answered his inquiry via private message, at which time he suggested I post my explanation.

The bumps are heavy cast iron hemispheres creating a "safety zone" for people boarding streetcars. Note that they they are set back approximately 20 feet from the intersection. The space between the bumps and the curb line of the cross street was the boarding area.

The wise streetcar rider would wait until the streetcar had stopped before venturing into the safety zone. In some areas of the city the safety zones were curb height platforms.

Cheers,
Jack

rcarlton--Dallasite friends of mine refer to those kinds of bumps as "city titties."

GaylordWilshire Oct 12, 2012 6:23 PM

The Fontenoy, Revisited
 
Speaking of theaters--besides William Castle's use of the Fontenoy, I just ran across this from the great 1947 Project:

http://1947project.blogspot.com/2005...r-beating.html

http://1947project.blogspot.com/2005...ith-kings.html


Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5038463)
After watching William Castle's 13 Ghosts at JeffDiego's suggestion, I decided to take a look at some other Castle films, figuring I'd be likely to find more L.A. location shots.

In Castle's 1963 13 Frightened Girls, set in England, among actual London locations we find a building, supposedly in the English city but actually in L.A.: the Fontenoy apartments at 1811 Whitley Avenue in Hollywood:


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...74426%20PM.jpgColumbia Pictures/Sony

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...83547%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...74514%20PM.jpgColumbia Pictures/Sony

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...80056%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...74811%20PM.jpgColumbia Pictures/Sony
A body falls from atop the Fontenoy. The sidewalk markings haven't changed.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...80434%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


Some of the veteran character actors in 13 Frightened Girls are Murray Hamilton (who went on to fame as Mr. Robinson in The Graduate); Hugh Marlowe (I never thought he could act his way out of the proverbial paper bag, but what do I know? He had a long career, playing among many other roles Lloyd Richards in All About Eve as well as starring in The Day the Earth Stood Still); and Norma Varden, an English actress in everything from National Velvet to The Sound of Music to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to I Love Lucy.


Speaking of theaters--besides William Castle's use of the Fontenoy, I just ran across this:

http://1947project.blogspot.com/2005...r-beating.html

http://1947project.blogspot.com/2005...ith-kings.html

ethereal_reality Oct 12, 2012 7:53 PM

MichaelRyerson, your post on Edward Weston was wonderful.

One of the best posts that I have ever read. :worship:

__

Sadly, all his photographs are missing. 5/20/2020

ethereal_reality Oct 12, 2012 10:29 PM

We covered Thelma Todd's unsolved death earlier in the thread (the first Todd post appeared way back on page 55).
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1094


Since then I've come across several new items.

Ms. Todd was actually receiving death threats several months before her death on December 16, 1935.

http://imageshack.us/a/img202/6295/a...aththreats.jpg
http://thesilentmovieblog.wordpress....f-thelma-todd/


below: Here is a fascinating illustration of the area surrounding Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe.

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/7688/aa...amofdeaths.jpg
http://thesilentmovieblog.wordpress....f-thelma-todd/

I always thought the garage where Ms. Todd's body was found was at the top of the stairs above the cafe.
Much to my surprise, the 'death' garage is 1,000 feet to the south of the these stairs.
__




I found this cast of characters on ebay several months ago.

http://imageshack.us/a/img841/5384/a...randjurysh.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img203/7074/a...randjuryke.jpg

__

Those Who Squirm! Oct 12, 2012 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5698388)


I found these amazing interiors of Los Angeles City Hall at the Library of Congress.

Wonderful pictures, ethereal! I would expect that nearly all of it is still just like that, only now filled with politicos and bureaucrats. Certainly the Council Chamber is still magnificent. Given how often the building has been used for establishing shots in movies, it's not too surprising, but its reputation has gone far beyond these shores.

From an article in the online version of Der Spiegel*, that appeared a couple of months ago:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Der Spiegel
Der Rathaussaal von Los Angeles gleicht einem Krönungssaal. 1928 fertiggestellt, protzt die Halle mit geschnitzten Holzbalken, Deckengemälden, Marmorsäulen, eindrucksvollen Flaggen und einem Fußboden aus Terrakotta-Kacheln.

Which means:

Quote:

The Council Chamber of Los Angeles is like a coronation hall. Built in 1928, it boasts carved wood balconies, artfully painted ceilings, marble columns, impressive flags, and a floor of terra-cotta tiles.
We are fortunate indeed to have a few civic buildings from a time of such optimism and such pride in our public spaces. In those days they put in tile and marble and carved wood because they wanted to send an impressive message about their community.

*The article in question was about the MMJ dispensary ban, in case anyone was wondering.

Those Who Squirm! Oct 12, 2012 11:48 PM

Secret Stairs of Palms
 
I recently learned about the hidden stairway that climbs from Rose Avenue to Kingsland Street in Westside Village. While the focus of my blog post isn't really on architecture, the stairs are an interesting piece of cityscape nonetheless.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-whWh_J7OKN...+plants+II.jpg

ethereal_reality Oct 13, 2012 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5863313)
Here is why some towers are no longer standing in LA.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059344.jpgLAPL
Tower atop a commercial building at 5620 Hollywood Boulevard is damaged during the Northridge earthquake, January 18 1994.

Repaired.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8185/8...b6e62b95_b.jpgGE



5620 Hollywood Boulevard was used as a location for the movie L.A. Confidential (1997).

http://imageshack.us/a/img526/3401/l...llocationt.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoffarth/
__

ethereal_reality Oct 13, 2012 1:20 AM

Here is a cancelled check written by Thelma Todd made out to the Muller Bros. Service Station.

http://imageshack.us/a/img88/8867/aa...mullerbros.jpg
http://famous-celebrity-autographs.com/todd-thelma.html

Amazingly, this check was written the day before her mysterious death! (they found her body in the A.M. hours of Dec. 16th)
__



below: The Muller Bros. Service Station.

http://imageshack.us/a/img217/3662/a...llerbrosse.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=60587



below: In this photo you can see the Muller Bros. sign behind this rooftop bowling alley. (the bowler actually looks a bit like Thelma Todd)

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/9217/a...llerbrossi.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/
__

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 1:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 5854106)
Regarding the telephone exchange building, I am no expert but this location seems to have been a dedicated telephone structure from its inception. The source for the pic below suggests the main building was constructed in the '20s.
http://www.thecentraloffice.com/cali...P/lsanca10.jpghttp://www.thecentraloffice.com/calif/LA/LAP/LAP.htm



Another recently reposted photo from the '40s indicates the main building only had three stories then, if you count the rows of windows. The exterior color was darker too. So, whatever its original purpose, the building we know as the Pacific Telephone Exchange has been a work in progress.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0F48DBEEF?v=hr

1930
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...B4DED8F5B?v=hrDigital USC

1932 Roof or a (short-lived) Richfield Station?)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...G-2057A-H?v=hr

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 2:12 AM

A very large Herald Examiner Sign - catacorner and north of Wilshire from the Fox Ritz Theater sign is visible in this re-re-posted 1940s aerial shot. If both of these signs were lit, the locals had a mini version of Times Square!

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0F48DBEEF?v=hr

__________________________


This photo, posted by ER, shows the above Herald Examiner sign in its glory. Curious about the "Sycamore Library" hiding directly under the Halsco Land Yacht sign - also the subject of an ER post.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/5...tosimonson.jpghttp://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=4396

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 6:30 AM

Recent focus on the Wilshire/La Brea area caused me to look more closely at the south side of Wilshire near its intersection with Detroit (5300 Block). Most Noir'ers might recognize it as the block with the deco camera facade, aka "the Darkroom."

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/c...s/012089pr.jpghttp://www.loc.gov

But it was other things that caught my attention. Some photographs suggest there could have been a theater on the same block, although I have not located any evidence of one in the directories and other usual resources. Upper portion of the building currently occupied by the US Post Office has an interesting theater screen-like shape. Then there is the marquee above "Busby's," although this is likely a modern contrivance.

Secondarily, above the Post Office is a freestanding white column that seems out of place. Photos depict the column was an awkward design element that advertised the business Kress.

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2008-05-detroit_usps.jpghttp://www.google.com

http://s3-media1.ak.yelpcdn.com/bpho...DG1NxWAg/l.jpg
http://pics3.city-data.com/businesse.../1/6051601.JPG
http://s3-media4.ak.yelpcdn.com/bpho...YhblbEUw/l.jpgwww.google.com

_______________________________


"Kress" column - above the post office.

2012 Column is at center of photo.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c...2525202012.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5905
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5905

Column at left
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009344.jpg http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9545

Kress!

1939 Wilshire looking toward southeast corner of Detroit. Kress, Eastern Bldg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...A6D3DDD98?v=hrUSC Digital

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...16-1-ISLA?v=hrhttp://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...&postcount=570

1932 Wilshire looking toward the southeast corner of Detroit. Notice "Eastern Bldg." and gas station at far right of frame.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...G-2057A-I?v=hrUSC Digital

1932 Wilshire and Detroit looking east. "Eastern bldg." and (far right) "Flash" gas selling for 11¢ per gallon! ($3 to fill the tank!)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-36029?v=hrUSC Digital

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 7:02 AM



No competitor shortage for largest and longest lunch counters in LA!

SH Kress on South Broadway throws its hat in the ring!
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008752.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008753.jpg

Article about Fosgate's (449 S. Broadway) quest for the record:http://ladailymirror.com/2012/08/30/...soda-fountain/

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/...kw/d3e5758.jpgC.St.Lib

http://www.cardcow.com/images/set426/card00285_fr.jpghttp://www.google.com

http://ladailymirror.files.wordpress...ng?w=624&h=469google

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 7:10 AM

Pacific Coast's largest wall sign?

http://trespassparade.org/wp-content...09/Bro8Hi1.jpgGoogle

Godzilla Oct 13, 2012 2:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5861914)
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...UID7KYCXIS.jpg

I'm surprised by the amount of wood used. Where I expected a plethora of formica I see knotty pine instead.
(notice that the back of the chairs are wood as well)__

Wooden backed seats were popular at JJ Newberrys too.;)

Los Angeles., exact location unknown. Circa 1932
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...6YHQHQDXKG.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...E6KU2D33RY.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...RE9PYC72ER.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...B9CU7MP6A9.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...RJAV47QENP.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...GVD469RQEG.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...YUSYT888XJ.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...TC3EUQRHRQ.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...YP5G8EE2KN.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...1BFDL4TJHN.jpg All from C.St.Lib

GaylordWilshire Oct 13, 2012 4:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5865111)

This photo, posted by ER, shows the above Herald Examiner sign in its glory. Curious about the "Sycamore Library" hiding directly under the Halsco Land Yacht sign - also the subject of an ER post.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/5...tosimonson.jpghttp://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=4396


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a...2520AM.bmp.jpgLAPL

The Sycamore Rental Library was a private circulating library at 685 S Sycamore operated by Irene V. Ewins. Opened some time in the mid-'30s, it was still listed as late as 1960 as the "Sycamore Library and Card Shop." From Oct 1961 to as late as July 1973 the space was occupied by Sycamore Card & Gift...by 1987 it was Sycamore Shoe Repair. Over the years Mrs. Ewins moved from 1758 W 43rd St to 151 N Plymouth to 159 S Sycamore to 438½ S Detroit. Its seems that her husband John departed the scene sometime around the onset of the Depression--don't know if by death or divorce. After the couple and their daughter Shirley Anne had moved on up to Plymouth Boulevard, Irene moved to smaller places, perhaps opening the library as a widow's (or grass-widow's) way of making a living.

ethereal_reality Oct 13, 2012 8:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5865469)


The J.J. Newberry building still stands on Hollywood Boulevard.

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/8977/aabnewberrytoday.jpg
google street view

__

Wrightguy0 Oct 13, 2012 10:51 PM

^^^ one of Hollywood's finest buildings i might add

ethereal_reality Oct 13, 2012 11:24 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/963/aabslide1960ebay.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/3427/aa...60viewebay.jpg
ebay
__

ethereal_reality Oct 13, 2012 11:53 PM

Today and yesterday. North Hill Street.

http://imageshack.us/a/img835/8579/a...lestialhil.jpg
google street view


http://imageshack.us/a/img22/9307/aa...55celestia.jpg
ebay
__

rick m Oct 13, 2012 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past (Post 5862794)
"noirish Los Angeles - The Sequel" ?

French site Homodesiribus maxed out last month - then smoothly segued into Homodesiribus 2012 -- Not fuss , No muss ... Anywho ---

rcarlton Oct 14, 2012 12:30 AM

Here are some real characters I found on LAPL:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052988.jpgLAPL
"Black Jack" Jerome Ward, one of the colorful riders of the celluloid range, is shown at his trial looking at a photo of Johnny Tyke, the man he is accused of slaying in Hollywood's "Gower Gulch," and holding his gun. Ward testified on July 18, 1940, that Tyke had pestered him continually. Movie cowboys testified that Tyke was "pizen mean" and that somebody "had to shoot him"

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052991.jpgLAPL
"Black Jack" Jerome Ward is shown being comforted on July 17, 1940, during a trial recess by his wife and Harry Sherman, producer of the "Hopalong Cassidy" western films. Sherman led a drive among screen cowboys to raise a fund to defend Ward.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052989.jpgLAPL
"Black Jack" Jerome Ward in court, shaking hands with Tex Cooper. Buddy Cox is sitting on his father, Victor Cox's, lap on March 4, 1940.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics37/00053016.jpgLAPL
"Black Jack" Jerome Ward, who was freed of charges of slaying Johnny Tyke in Hollywood's "Gower Gulch," is shown hatless at lower left being congratulated by fellow riders of the celluloid ranges. Behind Ward is his wife. Next to her stands Noah Beery, who stood by Ward in the trial.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics37/00053011.jpgLAPL
Long weeks in a cell having turned his outdoor tan into a prison pallor,"Black Jack" Jerome Ward is shown lighting a cigarette during a recess at his trial on July 18, 1940, on charges he killed Johnny Tyke in "Gower Gulch," where film cowboys wait studio calls. Both Ward and Tyke were riders of celluloid range, but Ward's pals say Tyke was so "pizen mean" he had to be shot by somebody.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052998.jpgLAPL
Three riding friends of "Black Jack" Jerome Ward in western films are shown discussing his case at court on July 15, 1940. Left to right, Phil Brady, Tex Cooper and Joe Schwartz. The screen cowboys took up a collection to provide Ward with a defense fund.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052993.jpgLAPL
"Black Jack" Jerome Ward and Buck Jones on July 18, 1940.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics37/00053014.jpgLAPL
Yukon Jake Jackson, wrestler and eyewitness to the shooting, is shown testifying on February 27, 1940. "I heard glass fly and gravel kick up and I knew it was a bullet that just went by my kisser." Asked if he knew the deceased, he looked blank and said: "Deceased? No, I don't know nobody by that name."

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics36/00052990.jpg
Tex Sherman, Victor Cox, Jim Shannon, and Leonard Hampton attend the funeral of Johnny Tyke on February 29, 1940.

Did some more digging and found this website with the story. Very interesting story, well worth reading.

Here's Yukon Jake wrestling.

More on Yukon Jake:
On February 15, 1937 near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and La Baig Avenue in
Los Angeles, wrestler Yukon Jake (E.L. Jackson) was attacked by a robber wielding a
pipe. Jake was smashed over his head, receiving a two-inch cut, but Jake was used to
that kind of behavior. He proceeded to pummel the robber, placing him in the steamroller
twist, and slammed him to the concrete, according to the Los Angeles Times (2/16/37).
As it was usually the case when attacking a pro wrestler, the attacker picked the wrong
man on that particular night and paid the price.

Godzilla Oct 14, 2012 3:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5865777)
The J.J. Newberry building still stands on Hollywood Boulevard.
http://imageshack.us/a/img69/8977/aabnewberrytoday.jpg
google street view __

Had intended to state location "hidden." 6600 address is hidden in plain sight ;)

I looked through the entire thread and had assumed this icon had been posted. Sorry if this was a rerun!

It has been decades since visiting the building. I have wondered about some of the wrought iron decorating the second story windows. Shame it is gone. Same with the peninsula store front glass. Made the building that much more interesting. It appears that there were also vents/registers/grating inches above the sidewalk in the early photos that are not present in the current version of the building.

Another ca. '32 view, complete with dog and ghosts! Topper? :fruit:
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...ASN14A573H.jpg

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1364/5...c914e002_b.jpgFlickr

Just a few miles east, similar footprint in noir Vanilla?
Alhambra's Main Street 1938
http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0

http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org/utils/ajax...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://hdl.huntington.org

Godzilla Oct 14, 2012 4:41 AM

1948 Main and First "Aldrick a RealLeader"
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...Q2A988ENRG.jpg

1951 Main and First
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...7I575YYP8Q.jpg

1964 "Ruby guilty."
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...1YNIUYMVHB.jpg

1968 boycott the Examiner?
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...GY2X5RQ68B.jpg All C.St.Lib

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...PCYMV2SR67.jpg

rcarlton Oct 14, 2012 2:03 PM

This is very strange:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030213.jpgLAPL
Gloria Graves, 19-year old girl whose idea of fun is to be "buried alive" for days in a steel coffin with only a narrow food and air shaft connecting her with the world, appeared in court and had her trial delayed. Miss Graves shows the court how she sleeps serenely in her coffin away from earth's turmoil.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030215.jpgLAPL
Diagram shows the facilities for how Gloria Graves lived in her underground casket.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030214.jpgLAPL
Gloria Graves, attractive "buried alive" girl, brought her crypt to court today and showed it to jurors and gaping spectators. She did it to prove she was harming no one, including herself, when she was buried alive for seven days, apparently in violation of a city ordinance against endurance contests. Photo shows Miss Graves in her specially constructed coffin in the courtroom. 1935.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030169.jpgLAPL
Photo of "Mr. Q", Robert M. Goodwin, a 57-year-old stage hypnotist. Arrow points him out standing beside Gloria Graves, the young woman whom he planned a "buried alive" act. Miss Graves lived in a lighted and ventilated casket underground for 14 days in November 1935, before police dug her up. 1939.

Now the story becomes noirish:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030212.jpgLAPL
Photo of Robert Goodwin's widow, Mrs. Florence Goodwin, who was estranged from him at the time of his death. Mrs. Goodwin acted as a nurse for Gloria Graves in this strange episode. Photo shows her giving Miss Graves milk before the casket was lowered into the ground.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030196.jpgLAPL
Photo of "Mr. Q", Robert M. Goodwin, 57-year-old stage hypnotist who was shot and killed by Dr. Harold T. Edwards in a row partly over his asserted insult to a young woman with whom he planned a "buried alive" act.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030195.jpgLAPL
Photo of "Mr. Q's" widow, Mrs. Florence Goodwin, said to have assisted him in some of his stage exploits. Goodwin had been married eight times, and to four of those wives his "hypnotic" spell had been so strong that they married him even though they already had legal husbands.

rcarlton Oct 14, 2012 2:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 4815167)
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021278.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021225.jpg

Famous Arizona trunk murderess Winnie Ruth Judd--always
one of my favorite cases. I'd forgotten that L.A. figured into
the story. After dispatching two friends with whom she was
fighting (supposedly over a man), she packed up their remains
and left Phoenix for Los Angeles. Sharp-eyed (and -nosed)
baggage handlers in L.A. called the police, but La Judd took
off and was at large for a week before being arrested at (not
sure why) the Alvarez & Moore Funeral Chapel on Court
Street. She was extradited to Phoenix, where she stood
trial and was found guilty. The rest of her story is very
interesting--check it out.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021213.jpg
Alvarez & Moore Funeral Chapel, Court St.


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021199.jpg
L.A. County Jail booking slip


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics40/00054705.jpg
The trunks--there are pictures on the internet of the contents, but I'll
let you find them yourselves (think Betty Short).

All photos LAPL

Interesting case. Here are a few more pieces:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021266.jpgLAPL
A bullet on a piece of gauze rests upon someone's hand. This is the bullet removed from Judd's hand. She claimed that Hedvig Samuelson shot her during a quarrel.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021280.jpgLAPL
Jury verdict in the Winnie Ruth Judd murder case. The jury finds her "guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree, a felony, as alleged in the information, and fix the punishment at death." Signed by Stewart Thompson, jury foreman. Filed with the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona on the 8th of February, 1932.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021274.jpgLAPL
Winnie Ruth Judd as she hears the verdict finding her guilty of murder in the first degree. She yawned as words were read condemning her to death.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8335/8...5dda87ab_b.jpgLAPL
A poem and drawing of two lizards (?) under a cloud of death. Evidence from the Winnie Ruth Judd case, possibly drawn by her.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021292.jpgLAPL
Winnie Ruth Judd in prison, awaiting news on whether she would hang, or be committed to a state mental hospital.

Subsequent unofficial investigations, most notably by investigative journalist Jana Bommersbach, revealed many people close to the investigation believed Judd was guilty only of killing in self-defense—what Judd had maintained all along—not of first-degree murder.

Winnie R. Judd, 93, Infamous As 1930's 'Trunk Murderess'
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: October 27, 1998

Winnie Ruth Judd, who spent three decades in an Arizona state mental hospital as the notorious ''trunk murderess'' in one of the most sensational criminal cases of the 1930's, died in Phoenix on Friday. She was 93.

With the Great Depression at full strength in the fall of 1931 and newspapers vying for stories to take their readers' minds off their miseries, the lurid details of the Judd case proved irresistible. But the case also provoked a debate over capital punishment.

Mrs. Judd, then a 26-year-old secretary at a Phoenix medical clinic and the wife of a doctor, arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles on Oct. 18, 1931, on a train from Phoenix, accompanied by two trunks and several valises. When a baggage man noticed what appeared to be blood dripping from one trunk, he asked her to open it. Mrs. Judd said she did not have the key and left in an automobile driven by her brother, Burton McKinnell. The police were called and traced the car from the license plate.

Inside the larger trunk, detectives found the body of Agnes Anne LeRoi, 32. What they found in the smaller trunk catapulted the case into headline news around the country. It contained remains of Hedvig Samuelson, 24, her body neatly cut into three pieces to make it easier to pack. A few days later, a valise left behind by Mrs. Judd was found to contain a fourth body section.

The two women had been fatally shot the previous Friday night at a Phoenix residence they had previously shared with Mrs. Judd when her husband was out of town.

Four days after the bodies were discovered, Mrs. Judd was arrested in Los Angeles. She quickly became an object of curiosity. When she was returned to Phoenix for trial, thousands lined the streets for a glimpse, and the owner of the home where the murders occurred sold 10-cent tickets for tours.

Mrs. Judd maintained that she shot the women in self-defense when they attacked her during an argument, but prosecutors said that she entered the residence while the two slept, then shot them in the head out of jealousy over attentions paid to them by her married boyfriend.

Two years later, by then dubbed the ''trunk murderess'' and the ''tiger woman'' in headlines, Mrs. Judd was convicted of murdering Miss LeRoi and was sentenced to hang. Mrs. Judd was not tried for the murder of Miss Samuelson, so the question of who dismembered her body was never formally raised. There was later speculation that a local physician other than husband had performed the expert cutting.

Pressure was brought to spare Mrs. Judd's life in view of her claims of self-defense and her lawyer's assertions that she was mentally ill. Thirty state legislators and a group of 34 ministers and priests signed petitions, and Arizona authorities received several thousand letters on her behalf. Eleanor Roosevelt was among those expressing concern.

Several days before the hanging was to take place, a jury impaneled for a sanity hearing found that Mrs. Judd was then insane, and she was institutionalized. She escaped six times from the Arizona State Hospital for the Insane in Phoenix over the next two decades, maintaining later that a nurse had given her a key to the entrance that she hid in a coin holder and used in some escapes. She was taken back into custody within a short time on each occasion and otherwise proved a model patient, cooking for other patients and helping bathe them.

On Oct. 8, 1962, Mrs. Judd escaped yet again, this time disappearing for almost seven years. She was finally found in the San Francisco area, where, calling herself Marian Lane, she had worked as a housekeeper in a mansion owned by an elderly woman. The noted defense lawyer Melvin Belli took her case and fought unsuccessfully against extradition to Arizona.

Mrs. Judd was judged to be sane by medical examiners in Arizona, was transferred to the state penitentiary in Florence and was freed shortly before Christmas 1971. She returned to California to work for the family that had previously employed her, later lived in Stockton and then went back to Phoenix a few years before her death.

Sixty-seven years after the murders, the crime lives on. An Internet ''sightseeing tour'' of Phoenix has a photo of the site where the murders occurred (it is now a vacant lot between two homes) and advises that an apartment building where Mrs. Judd once lived is the site of a medical center.

A longtime friend, Kenneth Cain of Sun City, Ariz., said yesterday that Mrs. Judd had no immediate survivors.

In a letter she wrote in 1952, Mrs. Judd, an Indiana native and the daughter of a minister, called the dismemberment ''a ghastly deed'' but again maintained that she shot the two women in self-defense. She said that she transported the bodies because she was suffering from shock, but wrote, 'I've asked God many times to forgive me.'' The New York Times

rcarlton Oct 14, 2012 2:37 PM

Still looking for speakeasies:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039147.jpgLAPL
A police raid at a bar at 8480 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, on December 29, 1932.

Today:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8052/8...e7c1627c_b.jpgGE

BifRayRock Oct 14, 2012 4:15 PM

Sunset Plaza Apartments designed by Paul Williams in 1936

"In 1980, the City of Los Angeles added the Sunset Plaza Apartments to the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments. The building was demolished in July 1987."

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v87A8e1Bcn...10eaf88a_b.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v87A8e1Bcn...10eaf88a_b.jpg

1949 Sunset Plaza Apts. Jewel burglary
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081916.jpglapl

Lwize Oct 14, 2012 9:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5866282)

Good thing her name wasn't Gloria Woodchipper.

ethereal_reality Oct 14, 2012 9:48 PM

:previous: Lol :)
__


Marlin and Bob up in the mountains.

http://imageshack.us/a/img17/4659/aaebaysnap1943.jpg
ebay

Where might this precipice be? It looks a bit different than the usual 'Hollywood from the hills' photo.
__

rick m Oct 15, 2012 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5866284)
Interesting case. Here are a few more pieces:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021266.jpgLAPL
A bullet on a piece of gauze rests upon someone's hand. This is the bullet removed from Judd's hand. She claimed that Hedvig Samuelson shot her during a quarrel.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021280.jpgLAPL
Jury verdict in the Winnie Ruth Judd murder case. The jury finds her "guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree, a felony, as alleged in the information, and fix the punishment at death." Signed by Stewart Thompson, jury foreman. Filed with the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona on the 8th of February, 1932.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021274.jpgLAPL
Winnie Ruth Judd as she hears the verdict finding her guilty of murder in the first degree. She yawned as words were read condemning her to death.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8335/8...5dda87ab_b.jpgLAPL
A poem and drawing of two lizards (?) under a cloud of death. Evidence from the Winnie Ruth Judd case, possibly drawn by her.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics03/00021292.jpgLAPL
Winnie Ruth Judd in prison, awaiting news on whether she would hang, or be committed to a state mental hospital.

Subsequent unofficial investigations, most notably by investigative journalist Jana Bommersbach, revealed many people close to the investigation believed Judd was guilty only of killing in self-defense—what Judd had maintained all along—not of first-degree murder.

Winnie R. Judd, 93, Infamous As 1930's 'Trunk Murderess'
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: October 27, 1998

Winnie Ruth Judd, who spent three decades in an Arizona state mental hospital as the notorious ''trunk murderess'' in one of the most sensational criminal cases of the 1930's, died in Phoenix on Friday. She was 93.

With the Great Depression at full strength in the fall of 1931 and newspapers vying for stories to take their readers' minds off their miseries, the lurid details of the Judd case proved irresistible. But the case also provoked a debate over capital punishment.

Mrs. Judd, then a 26-year-old secretary at a Phoenix medical clinic and the wife of a doctor, arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles on Oct. 18, 1931, on a train from Phoenix, accompanied by two trunks and several valises. When a baggage man noticed what appeared to be blood dripping from one trunk, he asked her to open it. Mrs. Judd said she did not have the key and left in an automobile driven by her brother, Burton McKinnell. The police were called and traced the car from the license plate.

Inside the larger trunk, detectives found the body of Agnes Anne LeRoi, 32. What they found in the smaller trunk catapulted the case into headline news around the country. It contained remains of Hedvig Samuelson, 24, her body neatly cut into three pieces to make it easier to pack. A few days later, a valise left behind by Mrs. Judd was found to contain a fourth body section.

The two women had been fatally shot the previous Friday night at a Phoenix residence they had previously shared with Mrs. Judd when her husband was out of town.

Four days after the bodies were discovered, Mrs. Judd was arrested in Los Angeles. She quickly became an object of curiosity. When she was returned to Phoenix for trial, thousands lined the streets for a glimpse, and the owner of the home where the murders occurred sold 10-cent tickets for tours.

Mrs. Judd maintained that she shot the women in self-defense when they attacked her during an argument, but prosecutors said that she entered the residence while the two slept, then shot them in the head out of jealousy over attentions paid to them by her married boyfriend.

Two years later, by then dubbed the ''trunk murderess'' and the ''tiger woman'' in headlines, Mrs. Judd was convicted of murdering Miss LeRoi and was sentenced to hang. Mrs. Judd was not tried for the murder of Miss Samuelson, so the question of who dismembered her body was never formally raised. There was later speculation that a local physician other than husband had performed the expert cutting.

Pressure was brought to spare Mrs. Judd's life in view of her claims of self-defense and her lawyer's assertions that she was mentally ill. Thirty state legislators and a group of 34 ministers and priests signed petitions, and Arizona authorities received several thousand letters on her behalf. Eleanor Roosevelt was among those expressing concern.

Several days before the hanging was to take place, a jury impaneled for a sanity hearing found that Mrs. Judd was then insane, and she was institutionalized. She escaped six times from the Arizona State Hospital for the Insane in Phoenix over the next two decades, maintaining later that a nurse had given her a key to the entrance that she hid in a coin holder and used in some escapes. She was taken back into custody within a short time on each occasion and otherwise proved a model patient, cooking for other patients and helping bathe them.

On Oct. 8, 1962, Mrs. Judd escaped yet again, this time disappearing for almost seven years. She was finally found in the San Francisco area, where, calling herself Marian Lane, she had worked as a housekeeper in a mansion owned by an elderly woman. The noted defense lawyer Melvin Belli took her case and fought unsuccessfully against extradition to Arizona.

Mrs. Judd was judged to be sane by medical examiners in Arizona, was transferred to the state penitentiary in Florence and was freed shortly before Christmas 1971. She returned to California to work for the family that had previously employed her, later lived in Stockton and then went back to Phoenix a few years before her death.

Sixty-seven years after the murders, the crime lives on. An Internet ''sightseeing tour'' of Phoenix has a photo of the site where the murders occurred (it is now a vacant lot between two homes) and advises that an apartment building where Mrs. Judd once lived is the site of a medical center.

A longtime friend, Kenneth Cain of Sun City, Ariz., said yesterday that Mrs. Judd had no immediate survivors.

In a letter she wrote in 1952, Mrs. Judd, an Indiana native and the daughter of a minister, called the dismemberment ''a ghastly deed'' but again maintained that she shot the two women in self-defense. She said that she transported the bodies because she was suffering from shock, but wrote, 'I've asked God many times to forgive me.'' The New York Times

Found in the heavy photo file in LAPL Central :Winnie's husband spots her on leaving a moviehouse near Pershing Square and immediately convinced her to an impromptu press announcement of her innocence at the quietest locale he could imagine- the mortuary up on Court St. Perhaps a staffer up there or one of the news reporters contacted LAPD- who arrested her before she could speak-- Only moment of newsiness up at Alvarez and Moore....

ethereal_reality Oct 15, 2012 1:52 AM

A postcard showing a zanja on West Adams Street.

http://imageshack.us/a/img43/4245/pc...reetshowin.jpg
ebay


Click on the link below to see GaylordWilshire's very interesting post on zanjas.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1843

__

rcarlton Oct 15, 2012 3:21 PM

My final word on the Winnie Ruth Judd case. This link is to a video showing her describe what happened in her own words. Now let's dig up some noirish buildings (and solve the Thelma Todd, Jean Elizabeth Spangler and Diane Sparks murders).

Here are a few more videos.
Marionettes.
School project
Where is Winnie Ruth Judd buried?
Winnie Ruth Judd Murder Cottage
Murderess "Talkie" Trailer
BAGGAGE CLAIM (Winnie Ruth Judd)

http://jsethanderson.com/wp-content/...p-794x1024.jpgBoy Meets Blog

GaylordWilshire Oct 15, 2012 5:52 PM

As for Winnie Ruth Judd's Los Angeles connections...


http://imageshack.us/a/img163/1640/burtonmckinnell.jpgChalise Crowder

Her brother, Burton Joy McKinnell, apparently unaware of his sister's deeds or of the dripping trunks left at the curb, picked her up at the station in L.A. At the time Burton was attending or had recently been graduated from U.S.C., and had lived at several West 36th Street addresses in recent years (none of which appear to survive). (In 1930 he was enumerated both in L.A.—with a fellow named Wayne Snow described as his "parder"—and in Darlington, Indiana, under his mother.)


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-W...2520PM.bmp.jpghttp://yearbooks.com

Not hard to pick Burton out of a crowd... as with the pic at top, the resemblance to his sister, who was a year older, is clear.

Now for a little bit of added noir... in the shot of the 1928 U.S.C. freshman debate squad above I noticed a familiar name... that of a man who would become the go-to guy for Hollywood figures who found themselves in scrapes. While I just assumed, given his fame and studly accomplishments—he was apparently once engaged to such Hollywood offscreen-noir favorites as Lana Turner and Barbara Payton and had sack time with everyone else from Joan to Ava to Ginger—that we must have seen him here before, I could find nothing on him with the search feature.

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/7334/0b0vxzquqxgh0h0q.jpghttp://imdb.com
Greg Bautzer and Lucille.


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-p...2520PM.bmp.jpghttp://findagrave.com
Burton McKinnell is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery

Silverlaker Oct 15, 2012 6:28 PM

The Mysterious/Glamorous Broom Room
 
Wich Stand's Broom Room.
http://www.synthetrix.com/cool/WichStand_BroomRoom.jpghttp://www.synthetrix.com/cool/wsmm/match3.jpghttp://www.synthetrix.com[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Well, after years of lurking and enjoying this site, a reference to some personal noir prompted me to sign up and post a note

As a kid in the 70's we would often walk to the Wich Stand at Slauson and Overhill with Grandma. The Broom Room cocktail lounge was an endless source of fascination for my young mind...full of the glamorous promise of adulthood. On the pretext of having to use the restroom I would go back near the entrance to the Wich Stand where on a lava rock wall a series of glass encased miniature brooms (chimney sweep, witches broom, whisk etc.) let one to large side door that opened on a mysterious and magical secret world....The Broom Room Cocktail Lounge!

I would dare to open that door and peek my head in and OH! the glamour, the sophistication, the sex appeal! My own little secret garden! A dimly lit room with lots of twinkling sparkling lights like stars. Red leather booths and a cocktail bar with shiny bottles behind. Adult music playing and glamorous adults smoking at the bar talking to the sexy bar maid. It represented all that was secret and magical to my young mind - a world known only to adults and I just loved to get a glimpse of it, if only fleeting. I'd imagine myself one day walking in there and chatting with these urbane sophisticates!

In hindsight now as an adult I know now it was probably just a dingy dive bar attached to a coffee shop and the patrons drinking therein on a Sunday morning were probably just old drunks chatting up a tired old female bartender....but part of me is still that young boy poking his head in and getting a peak at a glamorous and aspirational world of magic and sophistication. I wish it were still there - or maybe not. Maybe some things are best left to the magic of memory!

Steve Hoffman Oct 15, 2012 8:28 PM

Thank you for that. Great to read!

Earl Boebert Oct 15, 2012 9:35 PM

[QUOTE=GaylordWilshire;5867365]As for Winnie Ruth Judd's Los Angeles connections...

[snip]

Now for a little bit of added noir... in the shot of the 1928 U.S.C. freshman debate squad above I noticed a familiar name... that of a man who would become the go-to guy for Hollywood figures who found themselves in scrapes. While I just assumed, given his fame and studly accomplishments—he was apparently once engaged to such Hollywood offscreen-noir favorites as Lana Turner and Barbara Payton and had sack time with everyone else from Joan to Ava to Ginger—that we must have seen him here before, I could find nothing on him with the search feature.

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/7334/0b0vxzquqxgh0h0q.jpghttp://imdb.com
Greg Bautzer and Lucille.

More on Bautzer here:

http://ladailymirror.com/2012/05/28/...-greg-bautzer/

Cheers,

Earl

BifRayRock Oct 16, 2012 5:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5865311)
No competitor shortage for largest and longest lunch counters in LA!

SH Kress on South Broadway throws its hat in the ring!
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008752.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/pics18/00008753.jpg

621-625 So Broadway

1926
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013761.jpgLAPL

1930
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013780.jpgLAPL

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-36724?v=hrUSC Digital

1931 "Night and Day"
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...Y4PNPV16EM.jpg
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...SKY8H2ISH6.jpgC.St.Lib

1935 (Ripley's Great Big Price Tag. So much for 5 and dime?)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...T-BUI-156?v=hrUSCDigital

1937
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00097/00097557.jpgLAPL

1939
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...B-11-ISLA?v=hrUSC Digital

1952 (Bing in "Just For You" released in '52)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0480C073E?v=hrUSC Digital

Undated
("Hit Man" starring Bernie Casey released in '72)
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015050.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059195.jpgLAPL

BifRayRock Oct 16, 2012 5:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 4828534)
Last night when I was looking at this pic:

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5...igueroa195.jpg
usc digital archive

I realized that that is the same intersection (7th and Figueroa) as the one in this pic:

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7...n1949ssilb.jpg
ssliberman

I realized that the building on the right with the fire escape is what I call the "reclining men building," being that the facade of it at about the 3rd floor has huge statues of 2 reclining half-naked men. It's really called the Fine Arts Building, built in 1925. I've been in the lobby and it is BEAUTIFUL.

Here's a contemporary photo of it from photobucket/fawnskinpics:
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...neArtsBldg.jpg

Here's a 1933 photo of it from travelinlocal.com
http://www.travelinlocal.com/wp-cont...10/tl10-22.jpg

Oh, apparently it housed the Signal Oil Company, and a Pig 'n Whistle restaurant!

1933
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...T-BUI-493?v=hrUSC Digital

Pig 'N Whistle (Fine Arts Interior) late '20s - early '30s
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...VIPU7D5Q5G.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...5LXL5QILVI.jpghttp://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...FMA7FSKRNA.jpgC.St.Lib

1930s Far Right
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...61-1-ISLA?v=hrUSC Digital

1937
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...23-1-ISLA?v=hrhttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0B-2-ISLA?v=hrUSC Digital



BifRayRock Oct 16, 2012 5:53 PM

Mt. Lowe Preservation Society > http://www.mountlowe.org/our-collection/ :tup::worship:

Lowe Railway moving pictures> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew4vS...eature=related


1913
http://www.mountlowe.org/wp-content/...13-940x596.jpg

http://www.mountlowe.org/wp-content/...e-tourists.jpg

http://www.mountlowe.org/wp-content/...-echobrand.jpg

http://www.mountlowe.org/wp-content/...doublecard.jpg


ethereal_reality Oct 16, 2012 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverlaker (Post 5867397)
The Broom Room cocktail lounge was an endless source of fascination for my young mind. I would dare to open that door and peek my head in and OH! the glamour, the sophistication, the sex appeal! My own little secret garden! A dimly lit room with lots of twinkling sparkling lights like stars. Red leather booths and a cocktail bar with shiny bottles behind. Adult music playing and glamorous adults smoking at the bar talking to the sexy bar maid. It represented all that was secret and magical to my young mind - a world known only to adults and I just loved to get a glimpse of it, if only fleeting. I'd imagine myself one day walking in there and chatting with these urbane sophisticates!

What a wonderfully vivid recollection! Thanks for sharing Silverlaker.
__

ethereal_reality Oct 16, 2012 11:47 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img818/3031/s...151920ebay.jpg
ebay

http://imageshack.us/a/img440/7195/stabernacleinfo.jpg

I tried, without success, to verify that the 1917 Los Angeles Auto Show was held at Billy Sunday's Tabernacle.
Actually, I am not sure where this tabernacle was located. Does anyone recognize the church in the distance?




below: I was able to find this additional photograph (but with no address).

http://imageshack.us/a/img22/6158/aa...yphoto1917.jpg
http://www.worldcat.org/

__

ethereal_reality Oct 17, 2012 12:09 AM

http://imageshack.us/a/img546/4559/a...denofallah.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3925224...in/photostream

Oh my, think what you could have picked up for a song at this auction.

__

ethereal_reality Oct 17, 2012 12:34 AM

As of 2012, this magnificent manhole cover from 1938 still resides at the foot of the stairs to the Federal Courthouse.


http://imageshack.us/a/img29/6066/aabmanholecovers.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Manhole-Covers.../dp/0870931687

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/9913/aabmanholecovers1.jpg


http://imageshack.us/a/img401/5779/a...lemitpress.jpg
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item...ype=2&tid=5993

If I were in L.A. I would have to make a pilgrimage down to the Federal Courthouse and find of this utilitarian masterpiece.
(with a camera...hint. hint. :))

__

rcarlton Oct 17, 2012 7:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5863444)
Another noirish unsolved murder: Diane Sparks

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00082/00082390.jpgLAPL
Photograph caption reads: "Her murder still unsolved two years after death". Photograph printed: Jan. 29, 1948.

Some more on her:
Movies she appeared in:

1935 George White's 1935 Scandals (uncredited) (linked to a scene in the movie, Diane may be in the audience, Jane Wyman had an uncredited part also).

1934 The Captain Hates the Sea (uncredited) (the 3 Stooges were in this movie).

1934 Tripping Through the Tropics (short)

1934 Love Detectives (short) (Betty Grable)
Dancer (uncredited)

Birth: Sep. 14, 1914
Empire
Coos County
Oregon, USA
Death: Mar. 13, 1946
Van Nuys
Los Angeles County
California, USA

Born Edjana Bell Ingram
Guardian: Edward Bernhard MaxMeyer
Stage name: Diane Dahl

Diane was a Hollywood movie actress in the 1930s. She was murdered; the crime remains unsolved. She was 31 yrs 5 months 20 days old when she died. Her death was linked to the grizzly "Black Dahlia Murder" cases.

In the early 1930's Max Factor listed her as one of the ten most beautiful women in Hollywood. She was a dancer and supporting actress appearing in several movies.

Screen names used during her career: Diane Dahl and Diane Meyer, but there were others. At the time of her death she was married to Los Angeles Police Officer Edward George Sparks; George was born in Missouri 26 Nov 1903. When she married him she left acting.

On January 29th 1946 her husband reported her missing. Her mutilated body was discovered six weeks later on 10 March by two children playing in a Roscoe area canyon in Van Nuys, San Fernando; she had been shot in the head. Perhaps it was the mutilations that linked her death to the Black Dahlia Murder cases - she was missing one complete arm and the hand from the other arm.

The prime suspect lived next door to the Sparks' and the two families were good friends. The neighbor and Diane had been seen together the day she died. A gun, the murder weapon found near the body was engraved with the initials of the suspect, "RG". He was a husband and father of three young daughters. An all-woman jury acquitted Ramon Gonzales of the crime on 31 July 1946.

News of her death and the subsequent murder trial was carried nationally & internationally via AP and UP services, reported in the local LA Examiner, LA Times, SF Valley News and Long Beach Independent newspapers and widely circulated from New York-New England through Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and the South, to the Far West of Washington, Idaho, Nevada and other states. The stories appeared in issues of the European edition of the Stars and Stripes.

After the trial, George left the LAPD and moved to Texas.

George took his own life on 09 Feb 1953 in Fall County Texas. His body was returned to Missouri and was buried in Mt Tabor Cemetery near Hurdland Missouri.

Diane's genealogy is cloudy.
Her mother, Anna Dorothy DAHL married Edgar Charles Ingram approx 1911-1912; they lived in Empire, Coos Bay, Oregon. The marriage produced a daughter whom they named Edjana Bell. Edjana is a combination of father-mother's names.
Abt 1916 Anna Dorothy married Benjamin Teschner. The union produced daughter Marie born 1918 Oregon. The Teschner marriage lasted into 1920. By 1930, Anna had married Edward Bernhardt MaxMeyer. Edjana Bell's name was "changed" to Dorothy. Both Dorothy and sister Marie used the last name MaxMeyer, but i haven't verified whether the E.B.MaxMeyer relationship was one of adoption. The origin of and why (Edjana-Dorothy) used the name Diane is not known to me.



Family links:
Parents:
Anna Dorothy Dahl MaxMeyer (1896 - 1991)

Spouse:
George Ernest Sparks (1902 - 1953)

Burial:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Glendale
Los Angeles County
California, USA
Plot: Evertide, space 1, lot 246

http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/...1057019860.jpgFind a Grave

George Sparks
Birth: Nov. 26, 1902
Hurdland
Knox County
Missouri, USA
Death: Feb. 9, 1953
Falls County
Texas, USA

info provided by family member Terry Sparks

SIBLINGS-------------
Ada Marie Sparks FAG# 79126770
Samuel F Sparks FAG# 79127699
John Goodson Sparks FAG# 79127588
Walter Edward Sparks FAG# 79127898
Perle Sparks FAG# 79128084
George E Sparks FAG# 65563167
Hazel Elizabeth Sparks FAG# 79127158 TWIN
Grace Estella Sparks FAG# 69887191 TWIN
Raymond Roy Sparks FAG# 24514118

George's first wife was Ethel .... no additional info

His second wife was Diane Ingram MaxMeyer, former film actress known as Diane Dahl (and others.) see the memorials under "Spouses". George had no children.

George joined the Los Angeles Police Dept as a motorcycle officer and served 14 years until after the trial of Ramon Gonzales accused of murdering George's wife - Diane Sparks - July 1946. He moved to Dallas Texas and lived near his brother Samuel F Sparks.

"My father, also an LAPD after Diane's murder, was a cousin to Diane. Dad knew George and said George returned to Texas with a broken heart. He took his own life in Fall County Texas," wrote John Dahl.

His body was returned to family home in Missouri to be buried with his parents in the new Mount Tabor Cemetery, Hurdland MO.


Family links:
Parents:
John Wesley Sparks (1852 - 1929)
Sallie Elizabeth Janney Sparks (1874 - 1961)

Spouse:
Edjana Bell Ingram Sparks (1914 - 1946)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial:
Landsberry Cemetery
Knox County
Missouri, USA

Created by: JOHN DAHL
Record added: Feb 12, 2011
Find A Grave Memorial# 65563167

http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/...3893554250.jpgFind a Grave

Diane's mother was attractive also:
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/...1852516903.jpg
Anna Dorothy MaxMeyer Find a Grave

Further digging finds that her younger sister was in over 30 movies!
Marie Evelyne Heath, Born June 29, 1918, in Portland, Oregon, passed away in Sacramento on Monday, April 16, 2012, at age 93.
She was preceded in death by parents Benjamin Teschner and Anna Dorothy MaxMeyer, stepfather E. B. MaxMeyer, beloved sister Diane Sparks and brother Tom Teschner.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 70 years, Norton Heath, and sons Jim Heath and Don Heath (Ritsuko), granddaughter Erika Heath, sister Carol Scott and brother Benjamin Teschner, Jr.
Marie lived 22 years in Willits until last December. She was an accomplished artist and a strong supporter of animal welfare.
During the late 1930s she appeared in about 30 Hollywood movies, including Test Pilot and Suez.

http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/...3712340078.jpgFind a Grave


All times are GMT. The time now is 1:00 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.