Infamous Hollywood madam, Brenda Allen (possible ties to Elizabeth Short).


http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9...llenmadamb.jpg
usc digital archive

Elk's beauty contest in Long Beach, 1935.


http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/670...utycontest.jpg
ucla archive

Cummings Block, northwest corner of 1st Street & Boyle Ave.


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/995...sblocknwco.jpg
ucla archive






Below: Martz Flats at 7th & Flower Streets, 1965.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/eTw76i.jpg
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/7...atsat7thfl.jpg
ucla archive






Below: St. Angelo Hotel, 237 N. Grand Ave.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/318...ohotel237n.jpg
ucla archive

i'll look for some color smog photos, but in the meantime, this should do nicely

1st and hill looking east 1947

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2
UCLA Digital Collections/L.A. Times photo Archive

cough....cough....:slob:

Welcome, Tykxboy! I haven't dropped-in for a few days, so I didn't realize you had already contributed. Told ya you'd be hooked!

A post-script on the Doheny Mansion: A while back I posted about Greystone Mansion, which was built by Edward Doheny. But there is also a building in West Adams that is popularly known as "Doheny Mansion", which is now owned by Mount St. Mary's College.

Below: Doheny Mansion, 8 Chester Place (1899, Eisen/Hunt)

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061655.jpg
[LAPL]

Although the mansion was not originally commissioned by the Dohenys, they bought it from the original owner within about a year of its construction.

Big Orange Landmarks has written about this property with more authority than I ever could, but I just wanted to point it out.

Below: Doheny Mansion today. According to BOL, the Dohenys made some major changes to the original structure.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/...55f83a95d5.jpg
[Big Orange Landmarks]

Ohhhhh yeah. I can tell you a little bit about the Golden Gopher, back when my liver was young and and I drank a lot of two-dollar double whiskies with beer backs in smoky bars with old men. Ah, the romance of youth. Some kids go to Paris. Anyway.

The Golden Gopher was mostly a Mexican joint, work clothes and cowboy hats, played Norteño music sometimes but mostly it was real quiet and guys just stared into their glasses. Bartender reading the racing form on his stool. Here's a pic I took of the GG back in the day:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/...e1c4ee62_o.gif

When it got bought we were all very worried that the neon would disappear...but we got lucky with this one. The inside, now, 110% different. Still dark, but upscale, the people are pretty and the drinks pricy.

Speaking of the Hotel Bristol: rent Fight Club -- which you should do anyway -- Helena Bonham Carter's character Marla lives in the Bristol, there's some good shots in the lobby, going in and out, the hallways, the neon "Italian Kitchen" sign across the street.

Oh yeah, and the word around town is that the Bristol is going to get a "D-Town Burger" which also opened in the Hotel Hayward on 6th about a year ago. Now, here's the problem with that, or at least my issue with it.

D-town does a retro-50s thing, super brightly illuminated, black and white tile and faux Elvis and Marilyn kitsch Johnny Rockets thing. Which is all fine and good, in its place, I suppose. But not in the 1906 Woodward/Bristol, with bay windows. How many buildings in Los Angeles have bay windows?! And then you put a big bright faux-fifties diner in it? I don't know. It's just too...

...shiny.

:previous:
Oh yes, I do recall a little sign saying that a D-town Burger was going in. And that Club El Gaucho is still in business, apparently. I wasn't enthused with the ground floor alteration with the large paned clear windows.

Beaudry, I love the picture you posted of the Golden Gopher. Did you ever go into the Italian Kitchen? I'm curious to know what the food might've been like, and when it closed. That whole block looks like it was forgotten by time. It also reminds me somewhat of the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

My father does Karaoke at Club El Gaucho. It caters to the Latino crowd. I doubt if it stays in business another two years. The owner owns three other clubs that are all pretty much the same...

great pictures, wonderful history
 

I've been watching this thread for several months, and I absolutely adore it! Wonderful historical pictures and history from you guys. Thanks again.

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/fl...gs/g58-008.jpg
CSL

I don't think I've ever seen this picture before--
a house at the southwest corner of Hill and 3rd.
Note the the Crocker house above, atop Bunker Hill.

I found some better early shots:

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/laci/1998-0537.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/ma...artin-6275.jpgCSL

Btw, an excellent book is Bohemian Los Angeles by Daniel Hurewitz.

^^^That's quite an impressive residence!

I'll have to try and find 'Bohemian Los Angeles'.

I'm currently reading a book on Los Angeles' corruption in the 1920s,
'A Bright and Guilty Place' by Richard Rayner.

http://www.brightandguiltyplace.com/

Six photographs from a panorama taken in 1913.


http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8...ive7th1913.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9...ve7th1913a.jpg

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3...ve7th1913b.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/763...ve7th1913c.jpg

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1...ve7th1913d.jpg

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/242...ve7th1913e.jpg


All the photographs are from the USC Digital Archive.

The Elaine Apartment Hotel at 1245 Vine Street in 1954.


http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/171...partmentho.jpg
usc digital archive


Frank Sinatra, Man Ray, and Orson Welles have all called the Elaine home at one time or another.

The 'Jester Room' looks like a great cocktail lounge.

An abandoned well in the hills of Elysian Park, 1956.


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4...elysianpar.jpg
ucla

A 1937 photograph of Flower Street from 7th.


http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6...r7thst1937.jpg
usc digital archive

Gates of Berkeley Square
 

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067265.jpgLAPL

The gates of Berkeley Square were designed by Alfred Rosenheim, who also gave us the Hellman Building, Hamburger's Department Store, and Clune's Broadway Theater downtown as well as the Doheny conservatory and natatorium in Chester Place and the Britt house and the Second Church of Christ Scientist, both still on Adams.


FOR A COMPLETE HISTORY AND HOUSE-BY-HOUSE SURVEY OF BERKELEY SQUARE, see berkeleysquarelosangeles.blogspot.com

Here is an interesting shot of the church under construction, and one of it finished:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075483.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075490.jpgLAPL

Below: Another view of the Hotel Bristol vacinity back in the day.


http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9...fsspring5t.jpg
usc digital archive

Cast-off props from Republic Studios along the Los Angeles River in 1956.


http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2...propsfromr.jpg
ucla

Great photos of Mr. Eltinge's house, Gaylord. "Bohemian Los Angeles" is another book I've had for a while but I still haven't read it all the way through, I've just skimmed through it in parts; it is of course a very interesting book.

I like those photos of downtown LA, ethereal. I was just there today. Yesterday, in my search for old photos of the Engstrum Hotel, I stumbled upon other photos that made me stare at them all night last night... I'm now fascinated by the area around the Los Angeles Central Library. Apparently that area used to be a lot more hilly than it is now.

I know that LA's Central Library was built on the site that once was the southern branch of the California State Normal School (which evolved into what became UCLA). But I didn't really have it in my mind how that school building was situated on that site and how much it had been altered after its demolition and the subsequent building of the Central Library.

Here's a 1910 photo, looking west on 5th Street from Hill Street; 5th Street dead ends at the Normal School.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7...ingwestton.jpg
USC Archive

Now this is where it got interesting for me. Here's an undated photo; but this is looking west from where 5th Street USED to dead end at Grand Avenue, but here you can see that it was cut through the hill to extend the street. On the left is where the Central Library will be built; on the right is the Engstrum Hotel, with a narrow street in front of it that slopes down and intersects with Grand Ave.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8...lookingwes.jpg
USC Archive

Here's an aerial shot of the nearly completed Central Library, I assume this was taken while the finishing touches were still being put on the Library. You can see the Engstrum Hotel across the 5th Street from it, on the edge of the rise of Bunker Hill. The Edison Building/One Bunker Hill Building to the right of the Engstrum wasn't even built yet, nor was the Sunkist Building, which would rise to its left. Where 5th Street meets the hill looks unfinished, and you can see the narrow street that slopes down to meet Grand Avenue.
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4711/00079535.jpg
LAPL

Here you see the Edison Building (later called One Bunker Hill) being built on the corner of Grand and 5th. It looks like they're repaving the narrow sloping street, and they're also putting in a retaining wall.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/4241/00044274.jpg
LAPL

Here's a photo from 1945. You can see the completed retaining wall and the Engstrum Hotel, sandwiched by the now completed Edison Building and the Sunkist Building, which was built in 1935.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8623/1945x.jpg
USC Archive

Here's the Edison Building circa 1930s.
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/833...circa1930s.jpg
publicartinla.com

Flash forward to today, May 2010. The Engstrum Hotel and the Sunkist Building have long been torn down. The Edison Building is now known as One Bunker Hill. The Central Library, having suffered damage in 2 arson fires in 1986, closed, was restored, expanded and reopened in 1993 (resulting in the loss of the east lawn, which was across 5th Street from the Edison Building).

One Bunker Hill, May 2010. The little sloping street in front of this building is now gone. In its place is a 2-story commercial structure which is part of the One Bunker Hill property.
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2/p1120816.jpg
Photo by me

The Sunkist Building, retaining wall and sloping street are of course gone, and in their place are the Citigroup Building, the Bunker Hill Steps and the US Bank Tower. The arches along the wall next to the Bunker Hill Steps curiously remind me of the arches in the retaining wall, if you look at the Sunkist Building photo.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4994/p1120819.jpg
Photo by me

Here's another shot of the Sunkist Building from the 1940s:
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/9084/sunkist.jpg
USC Archive

This is what's there today:
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/9817/p1120822.jpg
Photo by me

Here's a view looking east along 5th Street between the Central Library and the Bunker Hill Steps:
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5366/p1120827o.jpg
Photo by me

Here's a similar view from the early 1920s:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9...ysiteearly.jpg
LAPL

What a difference nearly 90 years make, not only in buildings but in topography and street layout!

Noir Under Construction I
 

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00084/00084904.jpgLAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00084/00084840.jpgLAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00084/00084847.jpgLAPL


Great pictures, sopas--it's interesting to see that the obsession with
leveling the topography of downtown began way before the Bunker Hill
projects of the '50s-'60s. Here is the great Goodhue library under
construction in the very active '20s.

here is the downtown section of E.O.C. Ord's first map of the city of Los Angeles, drawn in 1849, which clearly shows the difficult topography to the west.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-6320?v=hr
USC Digital Archive

Noir Under Construction II
 

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics32/00050778.jpgLAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics27/00033041.jpgLAPL

Union Station on the rise

Sopas-ej, your in-depth post #1221 was very enlightening.
Thanks for taking the time and doing such a wonderful job.

I understand the area much better now.

Noir Under Construction III
 

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018498.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018485.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014379.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018029.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics15/00017049.jpg

All LAPL

^^^Great photographs.....especially that last photo GaylordWilshire.

Noir Under Construction IV
 

Glad you like them, ethereal. Notice what's behind and below the city-hall beam-walker: the Hall of Justice, here under construction just a few years before.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018214.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics17/00018229.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics24/00031872.jpg
All LAPL

High Tower Drive in 1931.
Garages below, apartments above....via elevator.



http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6...evator1931.jpg
usc digital archive




Below: A contemporary photograph of High tower Drive.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7...erdrivescr.jpg
scrubbles




http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/519...eryouarehe.jpg
you_are_here.com

The interior courtyard of Pico House.
(I didn't realize Pico House had a courtyard until recently.....duh)




http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/8499/la0512pico2.jpg
ucla archive




http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1...seinterior.jpg
ucla archive

Can anyone explain this 1954 photograph of a rather impressive waterfall?


http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/364...tainonfort.jpg
usc digital archive


I believe it has something to do with Fort Moore Hill.

That looks to me like part of the Pioneer Memorial at Ft. Moore Hill, while under construction in the '50s--the panels of sculpture yet to cover the area with the square holes. The waterfall has been dry for a long time, but still seems to be there. Google has it at 420 N. Broadway:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...,,2,-9.55&pw=2

Btw, ethereal, it never occurred to me that the Pico House had a courtyeard either. Thanks for uncovering it.

Cool pics of High Tower Drive, ethereal. Total Raymond Chandler territory. :)

And I've never seen that Fort Moore Hill Memorial waterfall actually working. I've walked by and driven by that thing many times. It'd be nice if they could clean it up and turn the waterfall on again.

It never occurred to me that the Pico House would have a courtyard either, but in a way, it makes sense that it would have one instead of interior hallways, owing that to Spanish colonial buildings.

Some time ago I read that hallways are actually a relatively recent thing (meaning within the last couple hundred years or so), particularly for common houses. I've been in a small, one-story, old Victorian house that had no hallways; to get to the back rooms, you actually have to go through other rooms. This is why canopy beds existed, it gave the person or persons (or people, hehe) in bed privacy by closing the curtains.

This is a great image! And the whole knickers and cap thing really puts it over the top, doesn't it. It's totally stereotypical of the era. :)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/phot..._0312_crop.jpgLATimes
On March 9, 1953, this sweet-looking 63-year-old Burbank matron, Mabel
Monohan, was murdered in her house, still much as it was at the time:

http://wesclark.com/burbank/mabel_monohan_house.jpg
Wes Clark/Burbankia

The perpetrator:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030064.jpgLAPL
Barbara Graham, in on an earlier narcotics charge, but looking
sad--well, she had had a hard life--and deceptively sweet.

Graham glammed up during the murder trial (perhaps you see
what inspired the later movie casting, the glam along with
definance and flair for the dramatic in her eyes):
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics02/00010940.jpgLAPL

Convicted along with two male companions, it was off to
San Quentin, once again looking less defiant:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...baragraham.jpgLAPL


And it led to an Oscar for Susan Hayward in 1958
for I Want to Live:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...haywardual.jpgLAPL

:previous:

Great film; as I recall, they used a lot of dramatic license in "I Want to Live." They made it seem like Barbara Graham was innocent.

I also like that photo of the Mercury station wagon. I really like the license plate, that old "California Exempt" plate with the "E" in a shield. It's also the older, larger California plate, before the dimensions of North American plates were standardized to 12" by 6" in 1956. Prior to that, license plate sizes varied by the different states.

I'm having deja-vu with Mabel Monohan's home.
It seems like I've been in that house.
Do you have the name of the street? (I see '1718' on the curb)

It is stuff like this that makes LA the "best" (most interesting, coolest, etc.) city in the country. That is awesome it still exists...

Only in LA.

I apologize in advance if this ruins anyone's day. :(

A 1958 brochure actually bragging about the parking lots on Bunker Hill.



http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/708...arkingbull.jpg
ucla ephemera collection

Here's the brochure dated June 1958.


http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3...erjune1958.jpg
ucla ephemera collection

Oops...not quite big enough to read. Here it is larger.



http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3...er1legend1.jpg


What is 'Swiatek Interests'?










http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1551/11converter.jpg






http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/911/11converter1.jpg
ucla ephemera collection


The really fascinating part is the reverse side.

The reverse is an amazing pictorial presentation of the south Bunker Hill properties.



http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/150...1pictorial.jpg
ucla ephemera collection


I'm working on making it larger/
by converting it from Adobe to Windows (at least I think that's what I'm doing)


lol..I'm not exactly a computer genius.

This is somewhat better.

(I should have replaced the post above...sorry for the redundancies)


http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/9...converter3.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/253/11converter3r.jpg
ucla ephemera collection

Your Bunker Hill material is fantastic, ethereal. As for poor Mabel--her house is at 1718 W. Parkside Ave. in Burbank. While reading about the Graham case, I saw that it sold for something like $750K about two years ago. Btw, Mabel--or is it Mable?--is buried in Rosedale, right in the heart of noir territory:

http://lisaburks.typepad.com/photos/...ones/mable.jpg
Lisa Burks

Here it is in segments...so you can at least see the photographs.



http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/475...ter3legend.jpg


http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3...converter4.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1...onverter4a.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9...onverter4b.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/3253/11converter4c.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4...onverter4d.jpg

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9...onverter4e.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4...onverter4f.jpg

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/1...onverter4h.jpg

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/4...onverter4i.jpg

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1262/11converter4j.jpg

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/3...onverter4k.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7326/11converter4l.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7326/11converter4l.jpg

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/1...onverter4n.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7...onverter4o.jpg

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9169/11converter4p.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4...onverter4q.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7343/11converter4r.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1...onverter4s.jpg

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/4...onverter4t.jpg
ucla ephemera collection

Bunker Hill Miniature Noir WPA style
 

these are images of bunker hill from the 1940 WPA los angeles study model

all images are USC Digital Archive

Heart of former Bunker HIll residential life: 3rd St. between Olive and Grand, viewed from Northwest looking Southeast

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/...HM_08_40cm.JPG


Bunker Hill, looking West down 3rd Street

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/...M_PAN_71cm.JPG


West side of Bunker Hill, viewed from Northwest, camera above 2nd St looking South by Southeast

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/...HM_04_40cm.JPG

and of course, before you build it, ya gotta draw it..............

Block Number 637, bounded by Olive, 2nd, Clay, and 3rd Sts

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/.../637_050cm.jpg


Block Number 633, bounded by Grand, 3rd, Olive, and 4th.Sts

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/.../633_050cm.jpg


Block Number 632, bounded by Grand, 2nd, Olive, and 3rd.Sts

http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/.../632_050cm.jpg

Judging from the quote of Mayor Poulson and the "50%" graphic on the front, this looks like a nice propaganda pamphlet against whatever plans the city/mayor has for their destruction/etc.

Very interesting!

Wow, this is all very interesting Bunker Hill stuff! Very fascinating.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TpNRWC9y6m...0/HOJ_e269.jpg
Perry Mason Online

The Mercury wagon that carried Barbara Graham to the electric chair, as well as the one passing the Hall of Justice
above in a Perry Mason episode, no doubt came off the Lincoln-Mercury assembly line right in L.A.--well, technically it was in
Maywood, in the Central Manufacturing District, part of which is shown here:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...R-VIE-005?v=hrUSC

I've never been able to find a picture of the L.A. L-M factory, but there were several Ford Division plants around Los Angeles County.
Model T's were assembled downtown at 12th and Olive until 1914, when operations were moved to a new factory at
7th and Santa Fe:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...CHS-40640?v=hrUSC

It still stands:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5...7thsantafe.jpg

Model Ts and As were built there until 1930, when the Long Beach factory opened:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0-10-ISLA?v=hrUSC

It served until 1959, when Pico Rivera came online, lasting about 20 years. Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, several GM
nameplates, Chryslers products, Studebakers, Nashes, and Willyses were all once built in L.A.--but now, nothing.

:previous:
That's amazing that the old Ford factory building at 7th and Santa Fe still exists. I know that other LA area car factories have been demolished. I believe the site of the GM plant in Van Nuys is now a movie multiplex complex; I've driven through Pico Rivera and have seen a few large shopping centers built, I assume one of them was on the site of the old Ford factory.