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GaylordWilshire Oct 29, 2017 11:35 PM

:previous:


To quote Clive Owen...is that the swish of ermine or the rattling of sabres?

ethereal_reality Oct 30, 2017 2:09 AM

Yee Mee Loo redux
 
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/A91dtc.jpg
tigertail / tikiroom

The bar being removed from 'Yee Mee Loo' chop suey joint, 690 N. Spring St. Los Angeles.

"Yee Mee Loo went out of business and some friends of mine, Mark Bautzer and Brett Witke bought the interior of the bar.
They asked me if we could store it in my studio. So we got a bunch of volunteers together and a flatbed truck
spent a Saturday taking it apart. Nothing had been removed or cleaned. Actually, I don't think it had been cleaned
in a VERY long time. We dismantled the backbar, light fixtures, the bar, barstools. We even tried to remove the paneling
(which was so caked with smoke and oil that it looked like Peking Duck and smelled like an ashtray!) but it broke apart.
We were amazed to learn that the Juke box was a rental! They had been renting it for thirty years! so we didn't get that.
We dragged everything out into the street, loaded it up.
-
tigertail



I find this next paragraph especially interesting.

"We took the opportunity to go down into the basement, which was dark and dirty and filled with wooden packing crates with Chinese markings.
Then we found the door to the SUB BASEMENT, and this was VERY weird. A small, windowless room with a linoleum floor and old fluorescent lights.
Solid color vinyl seating.The room had three doors, each one exited to a DIFFERENT address. Plus, there were cigarette burns on every surface,
the seats, the floor, the side tables. It really felt like a shooting gallery or old opium den where the clients nodded out with lit cigarettes hanging from their fingers.
"
tigertail



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/nBx0wf.jpg
tikiroom

__

ethereal_reality Oct 30, 2017 2:45 AM

...and while we're in Chinatown.

A double 'mystery'. (location and movie title)


"Old Chinatown [c.1920] Italian comedian Monty Banks is ready to drop a bag on the head of a villian
in an unknown comedy for Universal. The location was at the rear of Old Chinatown in the alleyways
that had not changed since the 19th Century."


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/QpPjSQ.jpg
location filming in los angeles

I wonder if the building in the background is an old 'crib' (it sure looks like one to me)

I did a little googling and Mr. Bank didn't make a movie in 1920 but there are three that could have been released in 1920.

Camping Out (1919)
Love (1919)
Too Much Johnson (1919)
__________________

'Too Much Johnson' sounds interesting ;)

GaylordWilshire Oct 30, 2017 3:03 PM

:previous:


Well, "Too Much Johnson" is certainly an intriguing title (can there be too much?)...anyway, I couldn't find the Chinatown locations...got sidetracked in another film by that name--by Orson Wells, no less, made in 1938 with Joseph Cotten...in a very convincing silent-screen style. I thought at first the 1938 "Johnson" might have LA locations, but it seems to be all NYC. Ok...back to Monty Banks...maybe.

The poster of the youtube clip that this view appears in says it's a Monty Banks film, while commenter says no. Anyway, here's 119 or so N. Larchmont in something called "The Dummy Postman", and now... I noticed the MALIBU POTTERIES sign...


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cJ...o=w871-h647-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8V...0=w877-h618-no

tovangar2 Oct 31, 2017 2:30 AM

Yee Mee Loo
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7969455)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/A91dtc.jpg
tigertail / tikiroom

The bar being removed from 'Yee Mee Loo' chop suey joint, 690 N. Spring St. Los Angeles.

There's a very different bar described in this account:

"The absolute king of all small bars is also the bar where I was served my first drink. Although it no longer exists it was located in the Chinatown section of downtown Los Angeles. It was attached to a restaurant called Yee Mee Loo.

The bar was probably 25 feet long and no wider than a large automobile. It was long, narrow and dark as night any time of day. There were no windows and the ornately carved bar with Chinese motif was itself a work of art. It was the bar where time stood still. You might have noticed but it also had a clock with the numbers reversed that ran backwards so you never really knew what time it was."
-a vanishing world - the world's smallest bars

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatoVerde (Post 6398225)

Dunno if there were two bars or a remodel

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7969455)


ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 2:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 7969771)
Well, "Too Much Johnson" is certainly an intriguing title (can there be too much?)...anyway, I couldn't find the Chinatown locations...got sidetracked in another film by that name--by Orson Wells, no less, made in 1938 with Joseph Cotten...in a very convincing silent-screen style. I thought at first the 1938 "Johnson" might have LA locations, but it seems to be all NYC. Ok...back to Monty Banks...maybe.

The poster of the youtube clip that this view appears in says it's a Monty Banks film, while commenter says no. Anyway, here's 119 or so N. Larchmont in something called "The Dummy Postman", and now... I noticed the MALIBU POTTERIES sign...

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/P8C4zl.jpg

:previous: Good find GW!

Isn't it great how the internet can lead a person down so many interesting rabbit holes.
_____________________________________




I watched "The Dummy Postman" and one of the next films up on youtube was Monty Banks' (billed Monte Banks here) 'Jealous Husband'.

Here's an attractive building that briefly appears in the film.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/NTmgFI.jpg
youtube

Does anyone recognize it?
__________________






Back to that original Chinatown photograph.

Yesterday, I mistakenly used the incomplete wikipedia list of Monty Banks films in which no 1920 films appeared (on the list).

IMDB has a much more extensive list. Below are Monty Banks films from 1920 (the year of the 'mystery' photograph)

1920 Don't Park Here (Short) A Rival
1920 The Kidnapper's Revenge (Short)
1920 Nearly Married (Short)
Count Up / Mac Aroni
1920 His Naughty Night (Short)
1920 A Flivver Wedding (Short)
1920 A Rare Bird (Short)
1920 Duck Inn (Short)
1920 A Hero 'n Everything (Short)
1920 The Garage (Short)

Sorry for leading you astray. (but look at all those new possibilities! :))

here's the 1920 photo again.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/QpPjSQ.jpg
location filming in los angeles

_

ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 3:42 AM

[QUOTE=tovangar2;7970760]There's a very different bar described in this account:

"The absolute king of all small bars is also the bar where I was served my first drink. Although it no longer exists it was located in the Chinatown section of downtown Los Angeles. It was attached to a restaurant called Yee Mee Loo.

The bar was probably 25 feet long and no wider than a large automobile. It was long, narrow and dark as night any time of day. There were no windows and the ornately carved bar with Chinese motif was itself a work of art. It was the bar where time stood still. You might have noticed but it also had a clock with the numbers reversed that ran backwards so you never really knew what time it was."
-a vanishing world - the world's smallest bars
Quote:

Originally Posted by GatoVerde (Post 6398225)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2
Dunno if there were two bars or a remodel

It's definitely confusing t2.

Here's the other side of the matchbook you re-posted. (Cocktails in the Kwan Yin Temple)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/DRkD7R.jpg
tikiroom

"The correct spelling is Yee Mee Loo and the “lounge” area was known as “Kwan Yin Temple”.
The cocktail bar area was a dark dive-ish place we would frequent down in Chinatown back in the 80’s.
To my friends and I it was home of the mysterious “blue drink” I recall thinking they tasted really great.
They had an old antique Chinese style thing for the back bar (I assume this was the Temple in Kwan Yin?).
Everything behind the bar looked like it had started leaning in an earthquake and stopped,
we’d sit there transfixed looking at this portal to the orient, all the lamps, booze bottles and the setting before us."

tikiroom





-the first comment on the tiki blog mentions that one of the bar was in the basement. (could this be the bar in the polaroid from yesterday?)

I would like information on Yee Mei Loos in downtown LA, Chinatown to be exact.
It was a downstairs basement polynesian bar/chinese restaurant. They had the most intoxicating drinks,
I did alot of underage drinking there and was talking about it with my friend the other day.
The last time I was there was in the mid 80's. If anyone has been there please share details as mine are pretty fuzzy.

tikiroom

Here's some good news.
The Kwan Yin Temple's ornate bar was saved and ended up in Glendale. (but I'm not sure of the present location. several sources say it has moved)





Last but not least, here's a look at Yee Mee Loo in the 1940s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/20Bqpt.jpg
LAPL

This is surely a repeat on NLA, but I wasn't able to locate it on the thread.

__

Flyingwedge Oct 31, 2017 3:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970764)

The "Motorcycle Races . . . Speedway" poster above and to the right of the bad guy appears to have a date of Sunday, April 24 . . . which was in 1921.

ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 4:11 AM

:previous: Good sleuthing FW!

Here are the Monty Banks films from 1921.

1921 Cleaned and Dry (Short)
The Dry Cleaner Delivery Wagon Driver
1921 Fresh Air (Short)
1921 Squirrel Food (Short)
The Jailbird
1921 Peaceful Alley (Short)
A Man of Leisure
1921 His First Honeymoon (Short)
Mr. Newlywed
1921 In and Out (Short)
Mr. Newlywed
1921 Bride and Gloom (Short)
The Boyfriend
1921 His Dizzy Day (Short)
1921 A Bedroom Scandal (Short)
A Husband
1921 Where Is My Wife? (Short)
The Jealous Husband
_________________


And if the film was released in 1922:

1922 Love Taps (Short)
The Boxer
1922 Pure But Simple (Short)
Monty
1922 The Artist (Short)
The Artist
1922 Bullet Proof (Short)
Doughboy
1922 Rent Day (Short)
1922 Sailing Along (Short)
1922 Derby Day (Short)
1922 F.O.B. Africa (Short)
Monty Banks, the Stranger
1922 A Hero at Zero (Short)
The Ardent Suitor
1922 Please Remit (Short)
1922 Be Careful (Short)
The Boy

IMDB

(do any of these film titles conjure up images of Chinatown?

ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 5:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert (Post 7967243)

The "odd little car" is a Fiat Topolino.

Thanks Earl.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/q4ebRE.jpg
team-bhp forum


I just found out there was an 'Uncle Topolino' character in Cars 2?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...924/9RMjJS.jpg
pixar.wkia

Pretty cute huh!
__

tovangar2 Oct 31, 2017 5:47 AM

Yee Mee Loo - Kwan Yin Temple
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970821)
Here's some good news.
The Kwan Yin Temple's ornate bar was saved and ended up in Glendale. (but I'm not sure of the present location. several sources say it has moved)

That was in LAT. The ground floor of the Bekin's Storage building at Brand and Acacia was empty as of last March. I could see no evidence of Cinnabar in the historic GSV images.


Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970821)
Last but not least, here's a look at Yee Mee Loo in the 1940s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/20Bqpt.jpg
LAPL

This is surely a repeat on NLA, but I wasn't able to locate it on the thread.

__

The 40s image differs from the newer one you posted in that the bar entrance signage is different.

The image was posted before, in 2014, but it's gone now. Our back pages have gotten terribly confusing, but we've left trails of breadcrumbs everywhere, that, unfortunately, in many cases, lead nowhere:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eS...E=w344-h502-no
pinterest




And finally, because beating dead horses is a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8p...U=w485-h513-no
-defunkd

:previous:...an 80s era sweatshirt with horribly redrawn advertising elements. How is dad ever gonna get under that bridge to get his drink?



This one at least makes sense:
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970821)




ETA:

"I've heard it was bought by a Chinese restaurant out in Montrose, CA." - cellophane66




Oh, OK, after reading some more, I guess the elaborate bit was the bar back, not the actually bar.





.

ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 5:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7966922)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/VmctuN.jpg
old personal file / ebay?

This appears to be a kiosk or ticket booth of some sort.

CBD and Earl, you'll be happy to know I finally located the source of this photograph.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/R6glWs.jpg
LBPL

Title: Los Angeles Examiner office
Date: 1895
Description:
Shown here is the first Los Angeles Examiner newspaper office in Long Beach,
featuring mission style architecture, red tile roof, and arched, segmented windows.
A woman is seated inside, ready to serve customers at the window. At right, a man
wearing a suit and bowler hat stands in front of the small building.
ORIG. IMAGE: 4" x 5" faded sepia matte print mounted on board.

Provenance:
Gift of Mr. W. S. Clark January, 1917.
___________________________
Quote:

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug
I don't trust that 1895 date for the photo but some kind of ''business'' is being conducted therein.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earl Boebart
I agree on the "iffy" dating; neither the clothes nor the light bulbs look like 1895 to me
-- more like the 1910's or so. But I could be wrong.

Notice that two dates are given in the description; 1895 and 1917.

The way the provenance is worded, 'January 1917' sounds like the date Mrs. Clark donated the photograph to the Long Beach Public Library.
But I think the January 17 date might be the actual date of the photograph.

ethereal_reality Oct 31, 2017 6:28 AM

t2, I don't think we're beating a dead horse yet. Soon perhaps...;)
Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 7970889)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8p...U=w485-h513-no
-defunkd

How is dad ever gonna get under that bridge to get his drink?

Someone over on the TIKI blog mentioned how the captions are reversed: right to left...instead of left to right.

"The matchbook art with right to left captioned cartoon.
There was always some debate whether this was intentional or a Chinese translation problem?"

Tikiroom

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...923/DRkD7R.jpg

> > > :shrug: < < <







I think you all will like this noirish-looking photograph of Yee Mee Loo. [no date given]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/924/yX5MbO.jpg
tikiroom

the aluminum door and the font/style of the address numbers make me want to say 1960s. (or even the 70s)
__

OK, I'm done. Time for bed.

tovangar2 Oct 31, 2017 6:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970837)

Monty sure was busy! (SO busy in fact..we're never going figure out which short was filmed in Chinatown.



Ask John Bengston. I asked him about the other film.


..........................................



Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970905)
the font/style of the address numbers make me want to say 1960s. (or even the 70s)


Mmmmmm...Helvetica

CityBoyDoug Oct 31, 2017 7:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7970892)
CBD and Earl, you'll be happy to know I finally located the source of this photograph.



Title: Los Angeles Examiner office
Date: 1895
Description:
Shown here is the first Los Angeles Examiner newspaper office in Long Beach,
featuring mission style architecture, red tile roof, and arched, segmented windows.
A woman is seated inside, ready to serve customers at the window. At right, a man
wearing a suit and bowler hat stands in front of the small building.
ORIG. IMAGE: 4" x 5" faded sepia matte print mounted on board.

Provenance:
Gift of Mr. W. S. Clark January, 1917.
___________________________


Notice that two dates are given in the description; 1895 and 1917.

The way the provenance is worded, 'January 1917' sounds like the date Mrs. Clark donated the photograph to the Long Beach Public Library.
But I think the January 17 date might be the actual date of the photograph.

Well, most amazing. Now we have some closure but I still wonder where was it located. It kind of looks like a Pike building?

BillinGlendaleCA Oct 31, 2017 7:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 7970889)
That was in LAT. The ground floor of the Bekin's Storage building at Brand and Acacia was empty as of last March. I could see no evidence of Cinnabar in the historic GSV images.

ETA:

"I've heard it was bought by a Chinese restaurant out in Montrose, CA." - cellophane66

Oh, OK, after reading some more, I guess the elaborate bit was the bar back, not the actually bar.

Most of Montrose is in the City of Glendale.

ETA: It looks like there are 2 Chinese restaurants in Montrose; one has been there a while and I've been to that one(New Moon), the other is new(Tenmimi). Maybe I should fire up the ol' Prius and take my camera up there.

Martin Pal Oct 31, 2017 5:56 PM

The Dodgers are returning home for World Series Game 6 today, on Halloween! The bats should be out in full force tonight!
One week ago it was 104° and dry. Today, right now, it is 65° and raining!

I was reading an article about things you don't know about Dodger Stadium. Some I did, but here's a couple I did not:

--There's a hidden Japanese Garden behind parking lot #6!

The story says that when Dodger Stadium opened, famous Japanese sportswriter Sotaro Suzuki was so amazed by the new stadium he commissioned a Japanese garden built -- complete with wooden bridge, rock garden, and a stone lantern -- in the hills beyond the right field pavilion. The garden, which dates back to 1965, is now gated off and has fallen into disrepair over the last decade but the stone lantern remains. Rumor has it you can even see its light shining during night games.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/14/97/97/1...167b50f00d.jpgThrillist

Yuli Gurriel should be reuired to make a visit to it. It was rededicated in 2003. This needs to be restored!

http://www.urbangardensweb.com/wp-co...ese_garden.pngUrban Gardens Web

More photos at the link.

--Also, in 2009 the USPS gave Dodger Stadium it's own Zip Code. 90090. The first such sports stadium in the country
to have one. The official USPS designation for the Zip Code is Dodgertown, USA.

--Instagram says that Dodger Stadium is the second most photographed place appearing on their site.
(What's the 1st, I wonder?)

--The Stadium has a time capsule installed the year the stadium was opened, in 1962. It's located in the Top Deck.

--The stadium design was inspired by Disneyland's Tomorrowland. It originally was designed to have monorails take
people from the furthest area of the parking lot grounds to the stadium. Yowsa!

--Speaking of raining today, the stadium has had only 17 rainouts since 1962! And the only consecutive rainouts
happened for three days, April 19-21, 1988. The last season we won a World Series! The longest streak in MLB
for no rainouts is Dodger Stadium, not having had a rainout since since April 17, 2000 to date!

--BUT! Dodger Stadium did have one flood! And it happened with the Angels when they used the stadium concurrently
with the Dodgers.

I'm assuming the date was September 17, 1965, as an L.A. Times article the next day reported:

Who says there are no lakes in Los Angeles? Dodger Stadium turned into one inside a half hour Saturday as an electrical storm and heavy cloudburst flooded the area. The scheduled Angel-Baltimore Oriole game was not only washed out, it was drowned. Hopefully, the contest has been reset for today as part of a doubleheader starting at 2:30. But Dick Foster, Angel director of stadium operations, had his doubts. “We’ll be pumping water all night,” he said after surveying the damage.

Starting 17 minutes before game time at 1:58, the downpour was the heaviest to hit the stadium since it opened in 1962. The playing field turned into a lake inside a few minutes, both dugouts filled with water, pads on the benches floated out to the infield and Angel batboy Roger Hailey actually had to swim through the dugout to removed equipment.



https://latimesphoto.files.wordpress...ainout1940.jpgFramework/Los Angeles Times

Angel batboy Roger Hailey.


In the end of the Angel dugout leading to the clubhouse, water was four feet deep and moved up nearly 50 get inside the stadium.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5199/6...8af64c5e_b.jpgPhotoscream/Flickr

The $5.50 dugout box seats behind home plate were completely submerged and the infield tarp looked like a raft in the middle of a small sea.

[$5.50 for the dugout box seats!] NOTE: The photo source has the wrong date on it (1962) and other places using the photo have reiterated it.

Water poured over the rims of the upper levels in sheets, flooding into the press box and forcing phones and wire machines to be disconnected. “It looked like Niagara Falls,” chirped Angels broadcaster Buddy Blatner. “Walter O’Malley (Dodgers owner) has done it again. The drains aren’t working properly,” shouted an Angel official.

Those are the only two photos I could find of this event.

GO BLUE!

John Maddox Roberts Nov 1, 2017 12:47 AM

Yee Mee Loo with its basement and sub-basement/opium den, sounds like Uncle Ace Kwan's joint in James Ellroy's " Perfidia."

ethereal_reality Nov 1, 2017 1:32 AM

here's a small excerpt.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...923/3uqDn8.jpg

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/7UuClV.jpg

thx JMR.

John Maddox Roberts Nov 1, 2017 2:39 AM

I knew I could count on you, ER!


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