noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Looks like 4701 South Santa Fe Street...

GSV

[GatoVerde]

An old favorite. On ebay today:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matchbook-Co.../311548499499?

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

It's difficult to find photographs of Pandora's Box or anything else in this area of Sunset Boulevard during the so called 'Summer of Love'.
[In the youtube clip] there's also a glimpse of the revolving Bullwinkle!

Originally Posted by HossC

Then I found 1960's - Sunset Blvd, a video filmed from a car driving east on Sunset. It includes the Marquis Restaurant, the revolving Rocky and Bullwinkle (mentioned by e_r in the link above) and Belinda's. The car then stops just past Pandora's Box and the last part of the video is repeated.

Speaking of Pandora's Box and the Rocky & Bullwinkle statue, here's something on each one.

E_R had posted three photos of Pandora's Box and the Sunset Strip riots in post #23596.
I thought I'd add new information that they were taken by Kent and Penny Kanouse on November 26, 1966,
and here are two others:



Notice the statues on the left. I'm not aware of what those were. The wall looks like the wall near the Chateau Marmont or Marmont Lane, which was across the street.



This photo of Kent, which says it was taken the same day at Penny's house, probably indicates two things:
1.) The man on the right in the top photo above is probably Kent, and...
2.) Penny was his girlfriend and he later married her.


___

As for the revolving Rocky and Bullwinkle Statue--this has been mentioned a couple times,
but I searched "Bullwinkle" (and Rocky & Bullwinkle variations) and "Jay Ward" etc. and
nothing else came up, so here's some info:

Way back on page #83, E_R posted this photo of the Sahara Hotel billboard with the revolving cowgirl statue above it.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Below: A great photo of the Sunset Strip in the 1950s.


found on ebay

Above: I believe the showgirl atop the billboard rotated.
I have no idea what she has in her hand....it looks like a football......or a whoopie cushion.

By the way, she's holding a cowboy hat. Below is a photo with an angle showing that a nbit clearer.

Allison Martino


Probably staying at the Chateau Marmont where you could see it out your window, this statue inspired Gore Vidal to write Myra Breckinridge.
In the film version there's a scene shot from the hotel, showing this statue revolving.

UCLA Online Digital Library

Here's a 1966 publicity photo of Liberace hoisted up there pretending to light one of his famous candleabras, replacing the cowboy hat.
(He probably had a gig there at the time.)

In 1961, when NBC was about to premiere The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show on NBC, Jay Ward and his co-horts, whose offices were across the street from this billboard, decided upon an elaborate publicity stunt to coincide with the premiere.

The Rocky & Bullwinkle statue was built to spoof the revolving cowgirl spinning atop the Sahara billboard.

Los Angeles Time

According to the Times, the September, 1961, publicity stunt "drew 5,000 milling, screaming, caterwauling celebrants outside the offices of Jay Ward Productions. Ward had obtained permits to have all but one lane of traffic on Sunset Blvd. blocked off and mischievously posted a sign that said, "Don't complain or we'll block this lane, too."

Here's an official badge from the unveiling party:



There was a band playing and the unveiling drew celebrities such as Jayne Mansfield.

In 1970, Bullwinkle got a new peek-a-boo swimsuit.

Vintage Los Angeles

Here are Moose and Squirrel from October of 1985.

Richard Pastor/VIntage Los Angeles

In 1990, Bullwinkle and Rocky got another makeover, perhaps for a reunion at Wassamatta U.

Vintage Los Angeles

The cowgirl atop the Sahara Hotel billboard lasted for ten years. Rocky and Bullwinkle had lasted fifty years, but had been deteriorating. A night photo
taken before the statue vacated Sunset Blvd.

Vintage Los Angeles



In July of 2013, unbeknownst to the public, the statue disappeared from the Sunset Strip.
Here's a ten second Instagram video--captured on camera by Tristan James Butler:
https://www.instagram.com/p/cEqFBwvtuB/

Moose and squirrel being loaded onto a flatbed:
LAist

Though rumors about it abounded for over a year, it turns out the Ward family had hired a friend, Ricardo Scozzari,
to restore the statue with funding from DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox as part of an exhibit at The Paley Center
for Media in Beverly Hills, “The Jay Ward Legacy Exhibit.”.



He took it to Warner Bros. and restored it to it's original look.
It's new unveiling at the Paley Center for Media:



With the exhibit ending, the Jay C. Ward Family looked for a new home for the sculpture. They approached the City of West Hollywood about their respective interests
in receiving the work and Staff immediately saw this as a wonderful opportunity to bring back a formerly faded icon to the City and site it along Sunset Boulevard as
an engaging historic and cultural monument.

The sculpture is now a part of the City’s Urban Art collection and is temporarily on exhibition in West Hollywood City Hall. This is the best
photo I could find of it in the lobby.

WeHOville/Dan Morin

I've walked by this many times the past couple months, but always when City Hall is closed, so I haven't been able to go inside and look at it!

The city website says:
Rocky and Bullwinkle will move to its permanent location at 8775 Sunset Boulevard, the City owned surface parking lot, in the fall of 2015.

It hasn't arrived there as of yet, though, and doesn't seem like a particularly apropos spot for it, either. In one of the articles I was reading
the man who restored it said if it is going to be installed outdoors again, it will need a lot of maintenance to keep it in good condition.

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent post on Moose & Squirrel Martin Pal.

#1. I didn't know it was a parody of the revolving 'Sahara' cowgirl across the street.

#2. I didn't know the 'cowgirl' inspired Gore Vidal to write Myra Breckenridge.


http://therawgallery.com/gallery/raq...-breckenridge/

Now it's so obvious.

*I've never seen the movie. I just remember this iconic pose.

__

[ethereal_reality]

'Major' accident, 1952.

I can't believe no one was killed.

speeding train crashed into freight truck that crashes into gasoline truck that crash into two cars. ouch!


eBay

-note the r.r. control tower at upper left. Can anyone figure out where this happened?

__

[ethereal_reality]

A rare look inside the Majestic Ballroom, Long Beach Pike [1939]


www.millikanalumni.com

note the Christmas tree in the center, so probably sometime in December of '39.

"Originally built as a large stable, in 1906 it was converted into a skating rink and a short time later into the Majestic Ballroom."





1940s.


http://www.millikanalumni.com/Pike/L...l#anchor243004

Door prize to anyone who can dig up a photograph when the ballroom was a stable.

__

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Excellent post on Moose & Squirrel Martin Pal.

__

Agreed. Thanks Martin!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...abookcover.jpg

[HenryHuntington]

Can anyone figure out where this happened?

This is the intersection of Long Beach and Slauson Aves. Per the 1956 City Directory, Industrial Pattern Shop was at 1655 E. Slauson, so the photo looks NNW. Slauson Tower at the left edge of the photo controlled the intersection of the PE Southern District Main Line with the ATSF Harbor Subdivision and also the diverging PE Whittier Line slightly to the south.

The PE right-of-way is now the Metro Blue Line and a UP freight line. The ATSF line no longer connects to the harbor, having been supplanted by the Alameda Corridor freight line.

BTW, maximum speed for the class of "speeding" PE car involved was 42 mph.

[HenryHuntington]

Excellent post on Moose & Squirrel Martin Pal.

Hear, hear!

"Moose and Squirrel, Moose and Squirrel, is always Moose and Squirrel, Natasha!" - Boris Badenov

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by JScott

At the bottom of this statement is a list of all the Utter-McKinley locations, as of 1953.

Manhattan Beach being my hometown, I had to check the present day status of Mrs. Looney's address. Considering that well over half of the original homes there have been torn down and replaced with larger ones it was a bit of a surprise to see that it seems to have survived and only received modern upgrades.


GSV

[Noircitydame]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We've seen Sebastian's Cotton Club a few times on NLA, but not this particular snapshot.



"Mimi, Mother, Myself and Lilo. 1937(?) Hollywood Calif. (actually it was in Culver City)


eBay


A great night-time view of the Cotton Club can be seen here: it's pretty cool looking~
http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=9544

Several historic aerials showing Sebastian's here: and much more!
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=9551

I'm still confused by the address situation on Washington Blvd in Culver City and the differences between what modern sources say and what they were listed as in the past. LAPL has 6500 as the Cotton Club's address but period ads have it as 8781.

This the first Green Mill Gardens on Washington Boulevard opened in June 1921. Its exact location or address isn't listed- the building was landmark enough apparently. It burned down after a little more than a year, on November 4, 1922. Manager Morrie Rauch announced that it would reopen within days in a temporary structure.

May 1922 lat

December 24, 1922 Rauch revealed plans for the new Green Mill to be built at Washington & National. It was initially going to be a Moorish design.
12-24-23 lat

But by May 1923 they’d decided to stick with the Old English motif like the first one. It was huge, seating 1500.

5-13-23 lat

7-15-1923 lat

They were a little behind schedule- the New Green Mill opened Nov 22, 1923 at what later clubs at this spot would call 8781 Washington Blvd.

3-2-1924 lat

docmacro.com

Dancer/model/actress Olive Ann Alcorn, “the most perfectly formed girl in the world” appeared at the New Green Mill in March 1924. She had to sue Morrie Rauch to get her paycheck.


Frank Sebastian moves the Cotton Club here from down the street (6235 Washington Blvd) and opens the NEW Cotton Club here, Feb 22, 1927.

Feb 1927 lat

Frank's here until June 1938 then Frank moves into 335 N. La Brea (the future Pirates Den) with his Club Cubanola.

lat 1938


The Cotton Club was remodeled into a dinner-theater along the lines of Earl Carroll’s (under construction in Hollywood). It got a Deco façade, a revolving stage, a dance floor that could raise to table height, seating for 1600 and parking for 1000 cars.


Cab Calloway brings his Cotton Club Review to Casa Manana July 1942. The King Cole Trio and Count Basie were here in July 1945.lat

In late 1945 Casa Manana became Meadowbrook, still booking the swing bands,

nov 1945 lat

then it was Mardi Gras Ballroom for a little while before becoming Zucca’s Opera House in 1948 and more of a theater again. Betty Rowland is one of the first acts booked.


Betty R.; previously on nla



As Zucca’s, it burned down in February 1950.

2-21-1950 lat. Shows the Art Deco addition of 1938

2-21-1950. Looks like it still had some of the English Tudor touches in 1950.

[Martin Pal]

I'm glad y'all liked Rocky & Bullwinkle!

Bullwinkle: I'd like to apply for a job as an usher?
Boris: What experience have you had?
Bullwinkle: I've been in the dark for most of my life.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I didn't know the 'cowgirl' inspired Gore Vidal to write Myra Breckenridge
*I've never seen the movie. I just remember this iconic pose.
__

If you ever do see the film, I recommend reading the novel first. I had seen
the film on VHS once in the 80's and didn't know what to make of it. A friend
of mine had the book a few years ago and said I should read it, so I did. Then
I watched the movie again and it made perfect sense! Heh!

I also read the sequel, MYRON, in which Gore Vidal plays with the notion of
obscenity in literature as interpreted by the Supreme Court at the time, so he
equates the names of the then current Supreme Court justices to sex acts and
the like. (Rehnquist means Penis, for example.) Makes for fascinating reading!

[HossC]

Thanks for finding the Brunswig building from yesterday's post, GW.


--------------


If I'd found it in time, I'd have included this picture in my recent post about the Cooper Building. You can see Noircitydame's follow-up here. On that occasion, Julius Shulman only photographed the rear of the building. This time he captured the front. This location didn't show up when I posted Mr Shulman's Bank of America pictures, probably because it's labeled "Job 286: Stiles Oliver Clements, Cooper Building, L.A. Soap Company (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1948". In my previous post about the Cooper Building, I said that I liked the lettering around the building. I now see that it isn't original. On the right is Eddie Chain's store fixtures shop at 229 E 9th street.



Here's a close-up of the left side showing the Marion R Gray Building at 824 S Los Angeles Street.



Getty Research Institute

GW posted about the Marion R Gray Building way back in post #6108. Here's a larger version of the 1958 picture from that post.
NB. The original image has lots of cracks and marks in the sky which I've cleaned up.


USC Digital Library

I also found this earlier picture from 1932.


USC Digital Library

It looks like the building dates back to 1926, according to this permit. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned before that this is a Morgan, Walls and Clements design. Did the sprinkler system really add $25,000 to the price?


Online Building Records

GW has already posted a recent picture, but for completeness, here's another one. I see that some of that fancy ironwork survives on the left. I wonder if the rest is hidden behind the signs.


GSV

[JScott]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

Manhattan Beach being my hometown, I had to check the present day status of Mrs. Looney's address. Considering that well over half of the original homes there have been torn down and replaced with larger ones it was a bit of a surprise to see that it seems to have survived and only received modern upgrades.


GSV

I was surprised, too! That used to be my Aunt Lorraine's house. Spent many a boring day being babysat there when I was a tyke.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

[T]aken by Kent and Penny Kanouse on November 26, 1966:



Notice the statues on the left. I'm not aware of what those were. The wall looks like the wall near the Chateau Marmont or Marmont Lane, which was across the street.

I discovered where and what this statue is.

The area in question is the Southwest corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights.
It is where the famous "Garden of Allah" was located. In the photo below it is where
you see the red-roofed buildings and swimming pool amongst the trees. The Chateau
Marmont is the prominent building on the left.



...and if you look closely you can see the spinning cowgirl atop the Sahara Hotel sign.

When The Garden of Allah was demolished, the property was purchased by Lytton Savings and Loan. They had plans to turn the corner
of Sunset and Crescent Heights into a business center, anchored by a bank and a tower. They built the bank, but the tower never happened.

This is a 1973 photo of the bank when it was Great Western Savings.

Bruce Torrence

It is now a Chase bank. The rest of the area behind the bank was developed into a strip mall.
It consists mostly of fast food restaurants like McDonald's, El Pollo Loco, Subway, a pizza shop,
ice cream, a sushi place and the like. It currently looks like this:



I once read that there used to be a model of The Garden of Allah hotel on display outside
the bank beneath a glass bubble, which eventually moved inside the bank. Indeed, I even
ventured into the bank once and asked about it to the blank stares of everyone in the place.
It seems it had...disappeared, until Martin Turnbull discovered it again and posted about it.
His post is HERE, but the pictures have disappeared. (Can you repost them, again Martin?)

In the past few years, developers have been interested in this property. I mean, it has an open parking lot! (They need to do something about that!) Almost
every googie-style coffee shop in West Hollywood with a parking lot has been demolished, so now it's this area's turn.

A company called Townscape Partners came up with a massive development project for this site, which can be read about HERE. Many preservationists are
unhappy about it because it would entail demolishing the bank building that they consider historic.

Personally, except for it's zig-zag roof which you can see in the above b&w photo, I've never been particularly drawn to this building and wouldn't miss it, terribly, if it
was torn down. In the color photo you can see that from most angles, it just looks like a concrete box. This brings us back to the first photo in this post. There are
two things worth saving.

When the Lytton cmpany built the bank they also commissioned two pieces of artwork. The first one is on the property outside the bank. It's a sculpture by David Green called "The Family."

Vintage Los Angeles

This is what can be seen behind the policeman in the photo taken on the night of
November 26, 1966, during one of the Sunset Strip protests.

Another piece of art commissioned by the Lytton company is inside the bank.

Vintage Los Angeles

This is a colorful 1960 glass mosaic titled “Spatial Kaleidoscope” by French artist Roger Darricarrerre.
Wonderful.

Last year it was reported that Townscape Partners agreed to preserve and incorporate these two pieces
of artwork into the new project. (Did they get it in writing?)

Is that the only artwork around there? A concerned neighborhood resident remembers: "In 1962, a 75 foot-long photo
mural on the history of motion pictures was also installed in the bank complex, in what was then called the Lytton Center
of the Visual Arts. It would be interesting to know if the mural is there but covered up somewhere."

In any case, however, residents and others have reacted poorly to Townscape Partners initial plans for this
project, so Townscape brought in Frank Gehry for one of "several design alternatives" for this project. I know
at least CBD will agree with me that this is atrocious:



FRANK GEHRY PLEASE RETIRE.

The original bank building is looking much better to me now.


_______

I thought I'd come back to this post and add this link to it:
http://rosettaapp.getty.edu:1801/del...ps_pid=IE56644

It is 41 pictures (both b&w and color) of a Julius Shulman photoset that show the bank, artwork, the dome with the Garden of Allah model underneath it (we believe), as well as other interiors and exteriors.

Also, here's Martin Turnbull's post with some of the Allah model photos reposted:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=33738

HossC did a post showcasing these Lytton Bank photos on May 4, 2016, and provided the link above:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=34861

[ethereal_reality]

Somewhere in the vicinity of 2nd & Figueroa [1971]


http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla....latimes%3A888

What's in the background...are they supports for the freeway? (but the date is 1971)

That car is very cool. what is it?
__

[ethereal_reality]

Yep, there she is! Thanks for this photograph M P.


originally posted by Martin Pal via DaveLandWeb.com
_____________






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hkcq1gR14





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hkcq1gR14




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hkcq1gR14




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hkcq1gR14

I was surprised to see 'Chateau Marmont' painted on the side of the building. -was it just for the movie?



The above screengrabs were from a 8 minute video tribute to Myra Breckenridge.
You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hkcq1gR14
____




p.s. I didn't realize Farrah Fawcett was in Myra Breckenridge.

Here she is with Raquel Welch.

http://video.agaclip.com/w=aSTTetc-DdY


Raquel Welch with Roger Herren's butt.

http://www.nicksflickpicks.com/myrabrec.html
__

[ethereal_reality]

Two ads from the Herald Examiner, December 6, 1921.


I don't believe we've visited these two places on NLA. The Sunset Inn and the Rainbow Tavern.


old file

I thought Noircitydame might have some further information up her sleeve.

I wonder what the Fotoplayer's Frolic was all about? (silent film stars singing & dancing perhaps....it would have been so great to see that!)

__

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Somewhere in the vicinity of 2nd & Figueroa [1971]


http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla....latimes%3A888

What's in the background...are they supports for the freeway? (but the date is 1971)

That car is very cool. what is it?
__

Triumph.. Not know for beauty but sporty.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I discovered where and what this statue is.



In any case, however, residents and others have reacted poorly to Townscape Partners initial plans for this
project, so Townscape brought in Frank Gehry for one of "several design alternatives" for this project. I know
at least CBD will agree with me that this is atrocious:



FRANK GEHRY PLEASE RETIRE.

I certainly do agree with Martin.

The Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA was and is a total disaster.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall was prone to heat up some neighboring condos, like the Promenade Towers, by 15 degrees or so. Or nearly blind drivers at nearby traffic lights. Or, hey -- just see how hot you can get that sidewalk (the answer is a ridiculous 140 degrees due to the glare from the building's exterior metallic siding.). Unluckily for humanity, Frank Gehry gave the building an uncontrollable death ray. But luckily for us, it was more on the terror level of a kid with a magnifying glass.

The problem has since been sorta fixed, when workers sandblasted the outside of the trouble glare areas in order to reduce the blinding sunlight and resultant furnace-like heat..

The average Gehry building is people unfriendly in the extreme. He does have talent to some degree...yes. The problem is that his talent does not benefit the human beings who come anywhere near his debacles.