I was thinking "Mr. Hand" from "Fast Times".

^^^
Classic--I must have had a brain f*RT to forget that one. He did help the stoner surfer (Spicoli?) played by Sean Penn to avoid an F & thus graduate. Classic scene where the surfer has a pizza delivered to the classroom. Mr. Hand takes it and eats a slice and shares the rest with with the class. Angry Spicoli calls him a "d*CK" and somehow avoids expulsion.

CaliNative, re: Mencken's '26 L.A. trip, I found this...from the H. L. Mencken Collection - Enoch Pratt Free Library....


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

Portrait photograph taken November 19, 1926 of H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken with friends in the courtyard of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Standing from left to right are American film producer Walter Wanger (1894-1968); H. L. M.; and American writer John Hemphill (1891-1957)--the three appear to be examining the brain of writer Joseph Hergesheimer (seated center); and vice-president and editor of Photoplay magazine James R. (James Reddy) Quirk (1884-1932) (far right). Seated from left to right are American actor, playwright, producer, and director John Emerson (1874-1956), the husband of Anita Loos (in crib); American writer, critic and actress Helen Klumph (b. 1896); American writer Joseph Hergesheimer (1880-1954), who appears to be watching over a wedding cake; American film and stage actress Aileen Pringle (1895-1989), who was later rumored to be romantically involved with H. L. Mencken; and American film and stage actress May Allison (1890-1989), the wife of James Quirk. Lying in a baby's crib is actress, novelist, and screenwriter Anita Loos (1888-1981), John Emerson's wife, who claimed H. L. Mencken was the inspiration for her story Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Excellent! Thanks. NY had the Algonquin Round Table--LA the Ambassador Round Table. I wonder if HL was photographed with Sister Aimee? He did attend a service at Angeles Temple and said he was stirred by Sister Aimee. She was quite attractive. It must have been shortly after her "kidnapping" that summer, when some say she may have been on a romantic tryst in N. Cal. Was that ever proven? Wasn't there a trial about faking a crime? I vaguely recall an old TV movie about the scandal. I believe Faye Dunaway (!) was cast as Aimee. Chinatown indeed. Any good pics about Aimee and the scandal? Sister Aimee came through it OK (she must have been acquitted). I always wanted to attend a service at Angeles Temple and pretend I was a latter day Mencken but it wouldn't have been the same as seeing Aimee in action.She was quite a lady and did a lot of good.

M-M Foods Market
 

Couldn't find a previous posting of this impressively huge market on the SE corner of Huntington and Fremont, according to Water and Power, but I am baffled by the location of the street markings (looks almost like a one-way street). How would that be Huntington Dr.? Unfortunately the destination sign on the right is just too dark to make out. :(

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e0c8abf7_h.jpg

SE corner today.....same building maybe?


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2b878440_h.jpg

Can't make sense of it :shrug:


Impressive display with proud shopkeepers

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f52627b3_h.jpg



A rather Noirish (for South Pasadena anyway) look down the street.



https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0fd7fdd2_h.jpg

More hi-res views here (HDL)

ETA:
1937 aerial (UCSB)



maybe the SW corner?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cf137875_h.jpg

:previous:

I think your aerial is just a little early. Here's one from 1944 which appears to show a building matching M-M Foods in the original photo. The building currently on that corner seems to have the same footprint as the one below, so it could be the original remodeled.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...sPasadena1.jpg
mil.library.ucsb.edu

Love, love, love these photos. Thanks for posting them! Being that I live in South Pasadena, I love old photos of the area.

And, Huntington Drive used to consist of two, two-way roadways, one on either side of the Pacific Electric right-of-way, hence the road markings.

Hello,

I'm looking for a photograph of the northeast corner of N Bunker Hill and Sunset Boulevard (now Cezar Chavez Blvd). Here is a link to a painting by Fritz Kocher which I believe shows the the homes along the 600 block of N Bunker Hill.https://www.chairish.com/product/678...l-oil-painting

:previous:

Nice painting!

Fritz Kocher "Sunset Blvd. and Bunker Hill L.A. 1959"

https://chairish-prod.freetls.fastly...640&height=640

Yes, it's gone in this 1965 LAPL image, HERE:

https://tessa.lapl.org/utils/ajaxhel...XT=&DMROTATE=0

My Favorite Martian ran from 1963 - 1966.



He did win a Tony for that, too, as well as appeared in the film. And he won an Emmy for his role in Picket Fences. He was also "Luther Billis" in the South Pacific film. Love Ray Walston in almost anything!



Did you remember there was a very short-lived TV series of this (7 episodes) where he reprised this role?

He was in two Best Picture winners that are also two of my favorite films: The Apartment (1960) as Joe Dobisch and The Sting (1973) as J.J. Singleton.

:(




In the pic below you see the rear of 6314 Sunset Blvd. (KGFJ-AM)...Hmmm. . .if it's a radio station shouldn't there be a tall antenna somewhere in the back?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/34QjPS.jpg
LAPL

This is also an excellent view of the air-rifle dude's opulent house.....Why, oh why, wasn't it saved!?! *pulls hair out*




.

Thanks for the photo of H.L. Mencken in L.A., riichkay.

This guy was very prescient, nearly 100 years to the day:

https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2013/08/mencken-1.jpg

C'mon, folks: We come here to get away from politics.

Mencken's quote
 

I'm not here for politics, but I will point out that Mencken actually predicted, " . . . the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." No mention of narcissism.

The shopping bag has a thin-ish font style with mild serifs like a Garamond, while the modern sign is thicker with blocky serifs like a Clarendon. Definitely not the same.

True.
And I'm not a fan of 45.
This is not the place for politics.

delete

Thanks HossC, and sopas ej! (South Pasadena is part of my home territory too. :))

Well, there is Elmer Gantry with Jean Simmons playing a Sister Aimee analogue. And I found this obscure movie from 2006...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384798/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

I had an elderly cousin who lived in West LA since the 1920's. When she died, she left me a lot of family heirlooms, including her father's Foursquare Gospel prayer book, complete with Aimee's autograph!

.

Two slides of the Century City outdoor mall, 1968.


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

I'm fixated on the sculpture that is enclosed in a glass case......It's very cool.



A closer look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/Su95dk.jpg
detail

I can't decide what it is, exactly; I see a woman facing foreward with her hands behind her head (her elbows are out in front). .but I also see a vase of. . .umm. . . prairie grass(?)

The substance that it's made out of is also interesting. It looks like it might have been carved out of ivory. (let's hope not)




Here's the 2nd view. .also from 1968.

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

I'm interested in the vaguely. . .umm. .'polynesian' looking place (restaurant?) in the foreground on the left.



If you closely you can see the name is 'something' House.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/3vtYji.jpg
detail

I've looked for more information but I haven't found anything relevent.

Hmm. . I guess it could also be a furniture showroom.


.

It was a restaurant, and was replaced 20 some-odd years later with a food court and replaced again with stores and replaced again...

The mall (in the pre-pandemic world) was a popular high-end Asian tourist shopping destination and for the local wealthy clientele. It has undergone multiple expensive "re-imaginings".

I've lived within two miles of the mall for my entire life. One of my earliest memories is being there in a stroller circa 1967.

Venice Beach
 

I've been cleaning out my late parents' garage, and in the process I'm finding a lot of their old photographs, slides, and negatives.

99.9% of their photographs are of people (i.e., no buildings) but I did stumble across these photos of Venice Beach:

https://i.imgur.com/YGpIZ1b.jpg

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

The sign under the arch says BRIDGO. The blade sign on the side of the building says HOTEL, but I am unable to read the name of the hotel.

I can't figure out which buildings these are today. Do these building still exist?

(Judging by the other negatives found in the same group, these pictures were almost certainly taken between 1958 and 1960)

We've seen these before.

:previous:

Here's the opposite view from 1955 with the Bridgo building roughly in the center. The hotel was the St Mark on the corner of Windward Avenue.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...arkVenice1.jpg
LAPL

Here's a reminder of a KCET article from a previous post. It details how the Bridgo building became The Gas House, a center for Venice's beatnik community, around 1958/59. It was torn down in 1962. The hotel survived a few years longer, but was gone by 1972.

Wow, thanks for the fantastic links, Lorendoc! :)

Yes, the information dug up on the old mansion at 1453 Vine Street by Lorendoc, Flyingwedge, and Noir_Noir is beyond impressive. As soon as Ethereal first put up the image & posed some questions I became fascinated...an eccentric, circa-1900 Hollywood mansion still standing in the 1960's, and in such an odd location. Hard to believe there are not photos of the full-size house, additions and all, out there. Here's hoping someone finds one or more.

Wow, fantastic, HossC - thanks!

I judged the year of my photos to be 1958-1960 based on two factors with the rest of the negatives in the same envelope:

One, my older brother (born 1960) is in none of the photos. Once he was born he was in pretty much all of my parents' photos.
Two, my mom's cat Yuki (which she got in 1958) is in the photos. And she's just a kitten.

The kitten aspect would seem to date my photos to 1958. Maybe they were shot in '58, and the building became The Gas House in '59...

Century City Shopping Center...
...was apparently called Century Square Shopping Center at the start.

Here's a map of the shopping center:

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ee&oe=5F4F9259



As Lwize posted, the building in question in E_R's post was a restaurant, the Century House.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a7&oe=5F4ECBB5



Here's looking at the restaurant, and the Broadway Dept. Store, from Santa Monica Blvd.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...2a&oe=5F4EE092



In the 1967 film "Caprice", Doris Day runs up the side steps to the shopping center...

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...d2&oe=5F505441



...and sits down at an outside table in front of the Century House.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...4a&oe=5F526049

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...09&oe=5F5027F9



In "The Guide for the Married Man," directed by Gene Kelly, released within two weeks of "Caprice" in 1967, Walter Matthau and Robert Morse also have a conversation in front of this restaurant:

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...6e&oe=5F508CEB



In 1972, some apes invaded the shopping center:

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...b1&oe=5F4FB100



There was also a Clifton's Cafeteria in there.

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...59&oe=5F5032BB
All photos, except one and I don't recall which one, are from Vintage Los Angeles

^^^^^

I dined at the CC Clifton's in the 1970's.

The Mayfair Market became the high-end Gelson's shortly thereafter (owned by Arden-Mayfair), and my brother and sister worked there bagging groceries.

The Gateway West office low-rise was demolished a few years ago for the latest mall expansion under Westfield.

The mall was formerly 20th Century-Fox's back lot - so Planet of the Apes filming was well within the TMZ. ;)

The_Fortune

The_Day_of_the_Locust_(film)

thecrimson 1975/7/22 squandering-a-fortune/

courtyard apartments were the same location

:shrug:

Century Square Shopping Center
 

"Century City Shopping Center...
...was apparently called Century Square Shopping Center at the start."

was there a supermarket on the lower level?

Prudential Shopping Center in Boston had many similar architectural details.

Rendering_of_Prudential_Center_(18887707812)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:R...887707812).jpg

Going through my late father's stuff recently, I found this letter:

https://i.imgur.com/zAo7yKf.jpg

My dad always told me he was friends with Frank Sinatra back in his days as a reporter, so I admit I was thrilled to find this! I wish I found a photo of them together, but I'll take what I can get!

Though the letter is not dated, Sinatra mentions “High Hopes”, which is a song he released on June 5th, 1959. And June 9th was a Tuesday in 1959, so I think it's reasonable to assume this letter is from 1959.

At first glance I thought the letter mentioned the Garden of Allah, but on closer inspection it's actually the Garden of Eden. Anyone familiar with this place?

I looked up the address for “Puccini” (224 South Beverly Drive) on Google Maps. It's now “Ruth's Chris Steak House”, which seems to have gone out of business.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ru...!4d-118.398768

PS: My mom (also a reporter) liked to tell the story of how she first met Sinatra.

She was down at the Police Station, following up on a story in the mid-1940s, when in march two police officers with a “skinny kid” in handcuffs. Of course, it was Frank Sinatra. He'd gotten arrested for getting in a fistfight.

Despite this violent infraction, my mom said that Sinatra was the picture of charm, was very friendly, and spoke with her at length. Being that this was right after WWII, and my mother was Japanese, not every person was so friendly to her.

A few phone calls were made, and Sinatra was released without being charged. Of course, my mom never reported this story; back then, reporters routinely covered up celebrity high jinks.

While most of the film was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the courtyard apartments were built on the site of Stalag 13 from Hogan's Heroes in Culver City on the old 40 Acre backlot. See http://www.retroweb.com/40acres_final_years.html.

Jerry

I don't know if it's connected, but Frank Sinatra sang "High Hopes" in the 1959 Frank Capra movie "A Hole in the Head" sitting in front of the Garden of Eden Hotel:

• Video Link

From Wikipedia: "The actual hotel used for the exterior shots was the Cardozo Hotel, located on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive."

The only Garden of Eden I found in the 1960 CD was a rest home on W Olympic.

Yes - Mayfair Market, which later became (and still is) Gelson's Market.

I know that song! I didn't recognize it by its title, though! Thanks for the link, HossC!

I wonder where the actual “Garden of Eden” was? I can't imagine Ol' Blue Eyes having a get-together at a rest home! :haha:

It can't be a typo, the name is right there on the letterhead...

Here's a glimpse of the Jetsonish interior of the Century Square Mayfair, Century City.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/SSG2ic.jpg
malloffameblogspot




And a rather dismal pic of the exterior.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/ja0UKZ.jpg
malloffameblogspot

note that he lamp-posts are decorated for Christmas. (my dad made large candles like that out of coffee cans and vinyl). . .he made two of them; one for each end of our front porch.



.

.

Aha! . .so my mystery 'polynesian' building was the Century House Restaurant. I'd never heard of it before.


It was, unsurprisingly, included in the original plans. [1963]

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

"A circa-1963 rendering of the prospective CENTURY SQUARE mall. The shopping center itself would be implemented precisely as shown.
However, two office towers in the right center area of the image would not be built.".........mall hall of fame







I also didn't know the Century City Mall was original named Century Square Shopping Center.


Note the rather uninspired sign in the pic below.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/lnFYV3.jpg
martinotimemachine







And here's a wonderful color view taken by renowned photographer, Julius Shulman. (early 1970s)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Orctr8.jpg
reddit

I'm not entirely sure what we're looking at here.

I thought the building with all the skylights might be 'The Marketplace'. .

but according to the diagram (shown below) 'The Marketplace' (the former site of the Century House) isn't anywhere near Bullock's.

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




Thanks for your amazing follow-up post on Century Square, Martin Pal.

.

:previous:

:tup:


Let's see, the skylight building isn't The Marketplace which most patrons just called the food court when it was there. If you look at the very top left of the Shulman photo,
that is the 1901 Avenue of the Stars building, labeled on the 1988 map above, so the "skylight" building must be the square in between the Broadway (not in Shulman photo)
and the Bullocks.

In the Shulman photo it's hard to decipher what's in between the skylight building and Bullocks, there's an abundance of shadows there, and the skylights almost look like they
connect to the Bullocks building or overlap the building they're on. The map has the skylight building in a white walkway area between the two buildings and that's what I believe
it to be despite the way the photo may look.

I used to frequent the place from 1987 and the next 15 plus years afterwards. It was always a friendly and welcoming place to hang out, eat, shop, see movies, people watch.
There was a lot of greenery in the shopping center that made a nice atmosphere and little of the extra advertising along the walkways. Their two remodels during the last fifteen
years have made it a chore to visit, if you ask me. One, there's simply too much there for a casual shopper and they've gotten rid of the greenery. The food court, which used to be
great was transferred to a top floor area where the sun beats down on you with no shade for relief, all stone and granite and music blaring at you. The food is all specialty high-end
stuff. I don't like the atmosphere there now, generally, as compared to what it once was. The last time I was over there was early December last year and I, and two others, had
brunch in one of the restaurants in Eataly (on the corner, see the above map-1801 Ave. of the Stars) where one of the twin buildings was located on Ave. of the Stars. It was quite
nice, but the shopping center has gotten way out of hand, if you ask me. For example, I think the three floors of Eataly itself encompass as much area as the original Century Square
did in it's entirety. The shopping center's spread has made the place a lot less amiable.

Scott, I noticed that a lot of restaurants, when you look up on GSV are saying CLOSED because of the current situation with restaurants, but they're not necessarily out of business yet.



What a find Scott Charles! I'm assuming that's an actual signature?
__________

About "The Garden of Eden."

Since the High Hopes song (which won the Best Song Oscar for 1959, by the way) was just released around this time, by Capitol Records, and the movie was to come out about three weeks later, and the fact that Sinatra mentions "Capitol Records" in this letter, I'm thinking this was a promotion party that Capitol Records arranged for the song or the movie or both, and The Garden of Eden isn't an actual place in Los Angeles, but just what they called the promotional party as it was the name of the Hotel they were trying to save in the film. It was a promotional thing. The location probably kept a secret, hence transportation provided from the Puccini location in Beverly Hills. It might've been something arranged at the Capitol Records building

Just a guess.

Also, and I have no idea, but maybe the stationery that was written on was also used in the movie as a prop? :shrug: I haven't seen the movie since VHS was in vogue.

.

A drive-through polio vaccine clinic held six decades ago in Glendale, California.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/2MJkwe.jpg
LIFE via THE WASHINGTON POST


This could be us in the near future.


Does anyone recall the Cutter Incident. It's a very interesting story and cautionary tale.
.

Here's a mad suggestion for the secret party location.

If you search the RSVP phone number (HO 2 - 0580) on the invitation letter, it's only listed once, in 1960 for 583½ N. Windsor Blvd.

In the same building at 583 lives a woman named Eden Ryl.

https://i.imgur.com/tnKivhk.jpg
rescarta.lapl.org


So the guests can mingle out in Eden's garden - The Garden Of Eden.


:D ....... :runaway:

:previous:

583 N. Windsor (kind of near Melrose and Van Ness; a block away from Paramount):

https://i.postimg.cc/28JCfXgy/583-North-Windsor.jpg
gsv

I'm assuming it is authentic, based on two factors:

One, both of my parents were Hollywood beat reporters, and while they both were acquainted with a number of stars, they only referred to a few of them as “my friend”. My dad always used this appellation for Sinatra. And whenever Gilda would come on TV my dad would always say “there's my old friend, Glenn Ford”. He only used the title “friend” for a handful of actors.

Two, as both my parents were Hollywood reporters, I truly doubt my dad would have saved anything as banal as a form letter. In addition to that, the signature is clearly done in fountain pen; it's not a stamp, or anything like that.

Here's my mom (the Japanese lady) at one of these events with Groucho:

https://i.imgur.com/BdR8J0D.jpg

Very interesting hypothesis, Martin Pal, and I believe you are probably correct! I think I'll rent the movie on Amazon to see if I can pick up any more clues.

WOW! :stunned:

The coincidence with the phone number is too great! Seriously though, how odd!

After getting released from Manzanar during WWII, my mother returned to Los Angeles. She started working at the Los Angeles Tribune, a black-owned newspaper. The following photos are from a beach outing with the staff of the newspaper, and are from approximately the mid-1940s.

Top row: Unknown, my mother (Mary Kitano), civil rights activist and editor of the Tribune, Almena Lomax, and author (and my mom's best friend) Hisaye Yamamoto.
Bottom row: unknown, unknown

https://i.imgur.com/dzXjHe9.jpg

While the above photo can be found online, here are two more from my personal collection that I've never seen published before:

https://i.imgur.com/XXUF3fg.jpg

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

I was going to ask the experts here if they could help me locate this beach... but then I noticed the following sign in the background of the above photo... and I think I found the location all by myself!

https://i.imgur.com/SwXhzu0.jpg

This building appears to be Carl's At The Beach in Pacific Palisades, across the street from the former location of the Long Wharf.

https://i.imgur.com/LEyf4ws.jpgLINK

Here's the matching view of one of my photos:

https://i.imgur.com/fuNdHfp.jpg
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0324...4!8i8192?hl=en

And this retaining wall still exists:

https://i.imgur.com/U7yrpVp.jpg
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0324...4!8i8192?hl=en

I've had these photos for years, and have always wondered where they were shot. Thanks to the tips I've learned here I was able to determine the location... and for that, I thank all of you!!!

:worship: :worship: :worship:

Future? People can do what they want but you won't see me in any of these vaccinations lines. No thank you!

.
I remember when I lived in L.A. back in the 1980s the area along Santa Monica Blvd. from Century City, west, to the San Diego Freeway (405) was. .umm. . .a special kind of ugly.


This is how I remember it.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Mgj1X6.jpg
old file/1970s?

The highlines, utility poles and the neverending line of billboards. :yuck:

The cars at lower left - - - > appear to be stuck in traffic but they're actual parked along the road!

And a bit further in the distance there is a small group of cars parked perpendicularly in what appears to be a mini-lot.

Can anyone make sense of this strange parking configuration?



.

:previous:

Here's an aerial from 1971, but the layout looks pretty similar. The intersection with the bridge is S Beverly Glen Boulevard. The perpendicular parked cars are about a block west of the intersection, followed by the parallel parked ones. Four billboards can be seen to the north of the tracks, with another two visible to the east on the full image.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...onicaBlvd3.jpg
mil.library.ucsb.edu

Roughly the same view today.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...onicaBlvd4.jpg
Google Maps

The billboard blight disappeared x years ago when the railroad ROW was removed and SMB reclaimed the land from Century City to the 405.

I live a few blocks from the removed blight.