I think the official name for the bridge is the Sixth Street Viaduct.

Or rather, was the name. The bridge was demolished back in January of 2016, due to what the engineers referred to as “concrete cancer”:

Of course, the bridge with the bad concrete had to be the prettiest of the downtown bridges!

Here are some photos I took of the bridge while it was being demolished:

https://i.imgur.com/Vz2p5wF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/thfpXit.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QjeJK7Y.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nRd4fcX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1p6ki6bl.jpg FULL-SIZED

My grandmother lived in Echo Park from the 1930's till the 70's and we'd drive this stretch of freeway on our way see her. I distinctly remember a building like the one you highlight on the left with the words "Japanese Retirement Home" on the top-it was hard by the 5/101. I'm thinking this may be it in a later incarnation. This is the area where many Japanese Americans settled before the WW II internment and it could have been a relic from that time. I've googled and searched but can't fins confirmation, and there's nothing on Hollenbeck Palms' website that refers to that building. Any other old-timers remember the building I'm referring to?

The only thing more sure to capture my interest than Palm Trees is . . . Catalina . . . (which I might add itself has a lot of Palm Trees) . . .

My parental family vacationed in Avalon quite frequently, and would stay in a bungalow located in a place at the back of Avalon called Las Casitas, built after the aerial photo was taken. The X marks where--in a detail/enlargement from one of the photos in Godzilla's post--our bungalow was, immediately adjacent to the baseball field.

https://s26.postimg.org/a5eb5c549/Avalon_Air.jpg
Originally from Martin Pal's post, via Godzilla's recent post

And . . . it's your intrepid roving reporter odinthor on the scene for NLA:

https://s26.postimg.org/yn6esv509/Las_Cas1.jpg
odinthor collection; model: odinthor

Here is "our" bungalow. If you were looking out the window at the right edge, (1) You'd be looking straight onto the ballfield; (2) We'd be asking you what the heck you were doing in our bungalow.

https://s26.postimg.org/94e2fy0wp/Las_Cas2.jpg
odinthor collection

It's late May, 1961.

Thanks! I wish they depicted a happier event, though. :(

I wish my mom were still around - she passed away about five years ago - because I could ask her. She was interned at Manzanar during the war, worked for a Japanese newspaper (Rafu Shimpo), and was really active in the Japanese community. I’m sure she would have known.

EDIT: I just found this, Mstimc:

When they tore down the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged (it was apparently beyond repair), they replaced the old buildings with a new set of retirement home buildings, which they re-named “The Hollenbeck Palms” - so they’re talking about the exact same location.

I know that a retirement home and a “home for children” (I guess that’s a euphemistic name for “orphanage”?) aren’t exactly the same thing, but perhaps they shared a location?

I should have known you'd only be lodged at an AAA Approved resort.....most fitting. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I've been camping at Catalina 3 times.....Cherry Valley, White's Landing and the golf course near the baseball field.

Speaking of palms....my favorite are the Medjool dates.

Long Beach Earthquake view
 

Here is something from the LAPL's photo collection that caught my eye. I wondered if we could locate the building and see what's there today.

https://i.imgur.com/OXguBXx.jpg
LAPL via calisphere.org

The caption gives a good hint:

The arrow points out an auto in which two persons were killed when tons of bricks and a section of a fire escape came hurtling down upon it from a four-story building on East Broadway near Olive Street in Long Beach on March 10, 1933. Other cars were damaged to a lesser degree by the rain of debris. There were many scenes like this in Long Beach, where there was a toll of 59 dead and many buildings destroyed by the temblor and fires.

Looking closely, a couple of business names are slightly visible: "ABC Cleaners and Dyers" and "Wharton's Beauty."

I looked at the 1932 Long Beach City Directory and found:

https://i.imgur.com/rXgLXhS.jpg
ancestry.com

...which puts a Mrs. I.M. Wharton's Beauty Shop at 919 E. Broadway.

Here is a Googlemobile view of that address:

https://i.imgur.com/YC6f7Qy.jpg
GSV

Could it be this is the same building? The LA County Assessor's map suggests it may be:

https://i.imgur.com/8gdEG5p.jpg
LACA

The current building has a build date of 1923/1975.

The building has had significant renovation, but the fire escapes look the same in both the 1933 and 2017 views. In the 1933 picture it looks like the fire escape that did in the car on the street must have fallen from a higher story than is visible in the 1933 view.

You came to the same conclusion as me regarding the location, Scott Charles, and I've also failed to find a vintage picture of the Hollenbeck Home from the south. I did, however, come across two aerial photos from the same flight taken during the construction of the Sixth Street Bridge/Viaduct, so I stitched them together. Note that north is to the right.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
mil.library.ucsb.edu
Flight ID: C-1930, Frames: 87 & 88, Date: December 17, 1931

Sadly, the nearest UCSB aerial to the date of e_r's original 1946 photo is 1941, so it doesn't show anything of the construction of the Santa Ana Freeway.

It was! Being at the back of town, and being a kid, with the wild areas just steps away, my day would begin with an hour of "exploring" . . . so I got to know it pretty intimately. Las Casitas at length stopped being for tourists, and, as I understand, became housing for city employees etc., so my subsequent visits, as an "adult" (ha ha--me "adult"--snicker), have been spent sampling the other establishments in town.

AAA--Auto Club--is a little hilarious as applied to something in Avalon. Cars are rare.

For our L.A. connection: Didja know that the White of White's Landing refers to Michael White, the early Mexican-era immigrant (arrived in Calif. 1828, according to, um, [checks reference] me) Anglo Angeleno? He would herd sheep on Catalina, and White's Landing is where he'd land them.

All palms are good . . . ones that give us something to eat are better than good . . .

Very interesting, HossC!

I’ve rotated this next photo so that north is at the top of the photo:

https://i.imgur.com/HHrPKEn.jpg

It would appear that the structures highlighted in green are the only remaining original structures.

While the building at the top of the photo (it’s roughly shaped like a question mark) looks similar, it was the main building of the Home for the Aged, and as such, it was absolutely torn down. The structure that replaced it was simply constructed in the same general shape.

Your photo did show me where the original building once was (I had it wrong in my previous posts):

https://i.imgur.com/OPP1ErI.jpg

Excellent deductions EVERYONE!!

Here's the companion photograph to the 'challange' pic.

This time we're looking south from the 6th Street Bridge/Viaduct. [c.1946]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/2lWmFE.jpg
direct link -thanks Flyingwedge.

What confused me about this photograph was (what looks like) downtown in the far distance. (I'm sure you all know what it is ;))

thoughts & questions:

The construction crew appears to be going out of their way to avoid that one story building on the right.

Any ideas what's up on the hill at left?

_

:previous: Could the building in the distance to the south be the old Sears building at Olympic and Boyle?

That's what I think it is too FW. (at first glance it resembles City Hall with the old Hall of Records next to it)

Noir Noir, 'The Eagle' [1925] was a costume drama about Imperial Russia. I don't believe the film had any boxing scenes.



I just located the black and white photograph that was used for the 'Gentleman Gene' postcard. [above]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/gWrgKR.jpg
gettyimages oops. If you look closely, there are slight differences between the two photos. (mostly Dempsey's head)


Thanks for the information on "Gentleman" Gene Delmont. I had no idea who the gentleman was.

__

Thanks for the info, Scott! I didn't learn until I was in my 20's that this part of L.A. had a high Japanese-American population before the War. One of my mother's closest friends was sent to an out-of-state camp and they never saw each other again. To say the internment was an injustice is a gross understatement.

originally posted by Scott Charles
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/kt3ugh.jpg
DETAIL

Scott, the building with the dome is a memorial to the Hollenbeck's son. Here are Elizabeth and John with their son shortly before John Jr. died. [ca.1856]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/1EvRfj.jpg
boyleheightshistory

"In 1908, when her son would have been 54, Elizabeth Hollenbeck dedicated a non-denominational chapel
in the neo-classical style, decorated with cherubs, stained glass and fluted columns,
to the memory of her child. This miniature gem is the last surviving historic structure on the grounds."

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/Rcxh8d.jpg
ogs.com

Quite touching.



The dome from within.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/zWBtFn.jpg


And a glimpse of the interior.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/51Vi4e.jpg
ogs.com

A true hidden gem.

Looking at these recent posts, I'm thinking, it's such a coincidence---I was at Hollenbeck Park just this past Saturday (2.24.2018).

I took some photos, knowing that the park dates to at least the 1890s. Plus, I know the park was used in an episode of "Moonlighting," titled "The Lady in the Iron Mask" from season 2. And of course the park has been used in other films, from silent movies to talkies.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...f3&oe=5B052E9B
Photo by me

Hollenbeck Park in 1901.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...56&oe=5B0521C7
LAPL

Hollenbeck Park in 1898.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...2a&oe=5B0C7564
USC Archive

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...48&oe=5B45887F
Photo by me

Hollenbeck Park in 1924.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...fb&oe=5B43995E
USC Archive

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...46&oe=5B105FF0
Photo by me

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...e5&oe=5B44132D
Photo by me

Hollenbeck Park, possibly very early 1900s.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...41&oe=5B144EA3
USC Archive

Hollenbeck Park, probably mid-1910s.
https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...4b&oe=5AFFEE95
LAPL

In the 1950s, the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) was constructed along the west side of the park, with the freeway columns placed in the lake.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...e9&oe=5B08C601
Photo by me

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...22&oe=5B0EE4E4
Photo by me

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...73&oe=5B02845C
Photo by me

As mentioned previously, the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged is now called the Hollenbeck Palms Retirement Home: https://www.hollenbeckpalms.com/

A Laurel and Hardy film from 1929, filmed at Hollenbeck Park:
• Video Link

John and Elizabeth Hollenbeck
 

Thank you for those Hollenbeck Chapel pics, e_r! (and to sopas ej for your Hollenbeck Park pics!) It's very sad about
their son, but I'm sure Mrs. Hollenbeck would be pleased to know that the chapel still stands. Since the boy's birthplace
is listed only as "Central America," I wonder if he was born while his parents were in transit from the Atlantic to the
Pacific or vice versa?


Evergreen Cemetery, East Los Angeles, June 20, 2015:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...v.jpg~original

I don't remember why I didn't take a photo of the other two sides of the marker, but the next photo looks
at the marker from the foot of the plot.

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...y.jpg~original

FW photos

The action wasn't been shot for the film it seems. Valentino got keenly interested in boxing and when filming liked to get in some sparring practice on set or close by in the studio. The accounts of his dalliance with boxing are somewhat hazy and conflicting. One of the sessions with Delmont may have been filmed for a short topical newsreel feature. The following year 1926, he challenged a Chicago Tribune writer to a match-up over an insulting editorial. The challenge was not accepted. He did take part in a two round publicity bout on the roof of the Ambassador Hotel in New York with a sportswriter Fred “Buck” O’Neill -

"O’Neil only got one punch before Valentino quickly took him down. But, always the gentlemen, he immediately helped him up and apologized. The public ate it up"

I think Valentino was well ahead on points in the style fight before the first bell sounded. :D

https://i.imgur.com/2RLjjEw.jpg
http://normanstudios.org/blog/2017/0...-fighting-mad/

Glad to provide the info! And no, it certainly wasn’t the brightest moment in American history. :(

Perhaps strangely, nobody in my family felt any real bitterness against the American government over being interned. They were patriotic Americans - my mother was actually standing on a corner in Little Tokyo selling US War Bonds when she first heard about the internment order. While my family certainly didn’t like being thrown into a prison camp, they pretty much accepted it as part of life, and never complained about it. After the war, both of my mother’s brothers signed up to serve in the war in Korea.

More in flavor with this thread, my family was shipped to Manzanar from the old (and gorgeous) La Grande Station:

https://i.imgur.com/4GX184b.jpgLA Times

Although normal passenger service moved to Union Station in 1939, La Grande station was called into service once more during World War II, as Japanese Americans bound for internment camps departed from the historic depot.

April, 1942 - Japanese American citizens boarding trains to internment camps. Note the familiar gasometers in the background:
https://i.imgur.com/xp5wmQz.jpglapl

This next image clearly shows the First Street Bridge:
https://i.imgur.com/hAgZgZm.jpgLA Times

Charlie Parker and the Civic Hotel
 

While on the topic of Japanese internment and Little Tokyo…

After the Japanese were removed from Little Tokyo, the area more or less became a ghost town. African Americans moved into the area, which was then dubbed Bronzeville, and the Miyako Hotel (SW corner of San Pedro and First Street) became the Civic Hotel.

A famous tenant of the Civic Hotel during the Bronzeville era was bebop jazz legend Charlie “Bird" Parker.
https://i.imgur.com/w4UQ7SF.jpgLINK

Most fans of Bird probably already know the following unfortunate story, but like me until recently, they might not know where it happened:

A real genius, but all the drugs and alcohol he indulged in never did him any favors. Here’s where the unfortunate incident occurred:

Looking south/east from the corner of First Street and San Pedro:
https://i.imgur.com/XFYMNrj.jpgWater and Power

Weller Street, far left; San Pedro Street, foreground; Civic Hotel in rear:
https://i.imgur.com/ptg0pLsl.jpgLINK

Only the green buildings survive to this day, everything else in the photo has been torn down:
https://i.imgur.com/H8YQmTt.jpgUSC

As ER mentioned way back on page 445, after the war the hotel was re-named the Miyako Hotel. In 1921, it was apparently called the Argonaut:

https://i.imgur.com/hcmwmTr.jpgLINK

The new Miyako Hotel is located about a half-block away on First Street, seen here on Google Street View.