noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Excellent sleuthing Noir Noir and HossC...and ScottyB for unearthing the video.


In the first half of the video I couldn't help but notice how vivacious the middle girl was.
She was talking almost nonstop...jabbering...waving..kicking her leg.....and telling the driver to speed up!

In the second half, when they do speed up and take that wild turn, I can't tell which one she is.
At first I thought she is the one on the ice block that broke apart. Later, at 4:11, the mic catches the driver possibly calling her 'Ruby'
(telling her it was a 'good shot'). A CLUE! I thought.

BUT, and it's a big BUT...the girl in question [the vivacious one] might be the following girl that doesn't have a mishap.
That is...until she tries the turn again and ends up looking...

..like this.


Anyhoo, I had hoped the 'vivacious' girl was the one that was 'possibly' called Ruby...but now I think she's the girl shown above.
_

update--
Unless.....this is 'Ruby'
Since her block of ice broke apart...perhaps she is using one of the other girl's ice block to make a second attempt at the turn.

*insert horse beating gif here*

*checks self into mental hospital*

_

Half naked girls on blocks of ice, speeding down the street.
What could go wrong? Gotta love the Jazz Age.

[ScottyB]

Thanks Noir Noir and Hoss for picking up the trail ....of ice.
And nice screengrab e_r- I, um, didn't notice that unseemly moment when I first watched it.

[Harry's Place]

Summer of 1937, candidates for Miss California on the plane that will take the winner to Miss America in Atlantic City



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

Same summer, Jean Parker at Santa Monica Beach

[GaylordWilshire]

The girls are atop a Boeing 247, an example of which is seen below at Union Air Terminal (one of the Bob Hope Airport's many names since was it opened in 1930)...


The LAPL dates this view "ca 1937"...that year, United began to replace 247s, dated after just four years, with DC-3s on coast-to-coast runs.





A view from the Air & Space Museum's collection is of an earlier model 247 at BUR...the collection dates this view "ca 1933"; the 247 entered service in 1933 so maybe this is its first appearance in Los Angeles...





We've seen images of BUR here before, but I don't remember seeing this one...

[HossC]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

A view from the Air & Space Museum's collection is of an earlier model 247 at BUR...the collection dates this view "ca 1933"; the 247 entered service in 1933 so maybe this is its first appearance in Los Angeles...

According to "The Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner" by F Robert Van der Linden, the aircraft in the picture was the first Boeing 247 to make a commercial transcontinental flight on Sunday June 12, 1933 (Newark to San Francisco in 21 hours).

The sign on the side says both United Air Lines and Boeing Air Transport Inc, so I'm guessing that the image dates from before Boeing was forced to split United Air Lines off as a separate company in 1934. The plane's service record is below.


books.google.com

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Harry's Place

Summer of 1937, candidates for Miss California on the plane that will take the winner to Miss America in Atlantic City


___________________________________________________________________

Santa Monica History Museum

Caption: A crowd of onlookers watch a trophy awards ceremony at the 1937 Miss California Beauty Pageant held at Ocean Front Walk in Venice.


Miss California of 1937 was Phyllis Randall.

Miss California

The LIFE Magazine issue of September 27, 1937, pages 69-71, has a story titled:
"The Strange Case of Miss America at Atlantic City"
Winner Runs Out as Judges Overlook Miss California

LINK HERE.
(I don't have the means to copy any of the pages today.)

The first two paragraphs read: Atlantic City beauty contest judges on Sept. 11 chose as "Miss America" a 17 year old New Jersey girl named Bette Cooper. She turned out to be a recalcitrant miss who refused all prizes and promptly went back home in a pet because of a mix-up about a fur coat which she thought had been promised.

The judges foolishly overlooked the prettiest girl in the contest, who would have played a winner's part to perfection--Frances Paxton who, under the name Phyllis Randall, appeared as "Miss California." In addition to looks, Miss Randall possesses that quality of exhibitionism without which no "Miss America" can be successful.

The subsequent three page photo essay in 15 captioned photos is all about Frances, I mean Phyllis, who was one of the final five contestants. In #6 we learn this: Previous to the Atlantic City contest, whose entrants must be unmarried, Phyllis had her marriage annulled.
________

Scandalous!

I wonder if Frances, I mean Phyllis, ever got remarried?

I wonder of Bette Cooper ever got a fur coat?

[Cyndihdz]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I thought that I had posted a mystery cabinet card [a while back] that showed a swan(?) statue atop a base in a park-like setting.
If I remember correctly, the only clue was "Walnut Street" Does that ring a bell for anyone? (the mystery was never solved)




I ask..because one of the clues on the cabinet card [shown below] is Walnut St. [1890s]



EBAY

Horton's..Walnut St.


Howland & Chadwick....211 South Main Street...opposite cathedral....Los Angeles, California



I was excited to see the handwriting so I hurriedly flipped the photo over....



only to find out it's a recipe for Vanilla Fudge !











Before I call it a night I'll leave you with a closer look at the Horton house.



I thought there would be a Horton, or two. but no.



_

Good rainy afternoon! There is a Walnut ST. in Huntington Park. This city is a old city, so maybe?

[CaliNative]

[QUOTE=GaylordWilshire;8434292]


The girls are atop a Boeing 247, an example of which is seen below at Union Air Terminal (one of the Bob Hope Airport's many names since was it opened in 1930)...


The LAPL dates this view "ca 1937"...that year, United began to replace 247s, dated after just four years, with DC-3s on coast-to-coast runs.



A view from the Air & Space Museum's collection is of an earlier model 247 at BUR...the collection dates this view "ca 1933"; the 247 entered service in 1933 so maybe this is its first appearance in Los Angeles...



The slightly earlier Ford Tri-motor looked even odder, with an engine on its nose. This is kind of an intermediate between the Trimotor and later Douglas DC 3, which basically set the standard for the late 1930s. Some still flying. Santa Monica based Douglas dropped the ball. They owned commercial aviation with the DC3 and DC4, and got lazy and let Boeing take over. Douglas came late to jets. The Boeing 707 was a modified military tanker, so the got a jump over Douglas. Douglas jets never caught up. If Douglas adapted, commercial aviation might still be in L.A. instead of Seattle. Burbank based Lockheed also had commercial planes like the Constellation, which for a while was the fastest commercial prop plane from the war years to the early/mid 1950s. A big what if? What if Lockheed & Douglas had of merged? L.A. area would be numero uno in commercial almost for sure. The L1011 & DC10 never caught on as much as the Boeing jets, and now both Lockheed and Douglas are gone from SoCal (although Lockheed Martin still has Skunkworks in Palmdale).

[Harry's Place]

Here she is with Miss CA trophy


the girls parading near the beach


"Baywatch" 1937 style ) rescuers on Redondo Beach


waterski (???) in 1937

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Cyndihdz

Good rainy afternoon! There is a Walnut ST. in Huntington Park. This city is a old city, so maybe?

Yep, Walnut St. is just a block south of Florence Ave. (running parallel)

And the area resembles what we see in the old Horton's Place cabinet card. (i.e. FLAT)

Huntington Park area in 1903

huntington park / google books

What's the name of the street...other than Randolph? I can't make it out.


I searched for information on any Hortons residing in Huntington Park around the turn of the century and came up empty.

I think the mystery cabinet card is going to stay a mystery.

as well as the author of the Vanilla Fudge recipe.

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Lomara--If around 1920, it would have been a Model T. The Model A (second series) didn't appear until the '28 models came out in late 1927.... Do you have any pictures of the trip?

Thanks for the clarification regarding Model A years. I wasn't sure and didn't have time to check when I posted.

I do not have any photos from the trip. My cousin has Grandma's notebooks. She may have some photos.

I do have one photo of my Grandpa in his car around the time they were married. I can only assume this is the car they used for the trip.


Grandpa 1918 by Kimberly, on Flickr

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' location

Portraits of Wampas Stars by Melbourne Spurr. [c.1924]


Ebay


In 1923 Melbourne Spurr's photography studio was located at ...


for search purposes: 6040 Hollywood Boulevard



But then I noticed street numbers on the front gate.



3986.....where might this be?



Here's some additional information on Melbourne Spurr.

"Melbourne Spurr arrived in Hollywood around 1917 and worked for the noted photographer Fred Hartsook, taking portraits of the early stars. Spurr photographed Mary Pickford while working at the Hartsook studio and so impressed her that she personally helped launch his career as a Hollywood portrait photographer. By the mid 1920s he was one of the premier celebrity portraitists in the world.

By this time, though, the major movie studios were mandating that their stars could only be photographed by their own photographers. Spurr chose to keep his own studio, and was eventually shut out in favor of men like George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Eugene Robert Richee and others who worked for the big motion picture studios. Spurr shined in Hollywood for one glorious decade - the "Roaring 20s" - but then moved on to photographing other notables like US presidents, artists, authors and dancers."

from RIT Archive


_

[HossC]

From immortalephemera.com: "[The] 1934 Mascot feature length movie Young and Beautiful starring William Haines is built around these Wampas Baby Stars of 1934. Judith Arlen is lead actress and Katherine Williams features big as well."


www.imdb.com

So e_r's picture may just be a promotional display for the movie, and not at a property connected to Melbourne Spurr or Mascot Pictures.

Here's the full movie (I haven't had time to watch it yet):

• Video Link

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' location

But then I noticed street numbers on the front gate.



3986.....where might this be?

rescarta.lapl.org

[HossC]

I keep missing the obvious, but at least Noir_Noir's around to pick up the pieces.

Here's a detail of a picture we've seen before which shows part of the house on the corner of Wilton Place in 1923.


USC Digital Library

A frontal retail extension was added at some point. This detail view is from 1960, and shows the North American Life & Casualty Co at 3986 Wilshire. You can read more about the house's history on GW's Wilshire Houses blog, which lists a demo permit date of December 1963. The site is a parking lot by 1964 (looking at Historic Aerials).


USC Digital Library

[GaylordWilshire]

Thanks for the mention, Hoss--I realize that I need to update my story of 3986 Wilshire, with the entire corner undergoing redevelopment. And then I couldn't help but notice the '54 or so Chevrolet of the Fremont Place Patrol gassing up at the station....


Here's a little mayhem at that station six years before:


LAT Dec 21, 1954

[ethereal_reality]

I finally found a photograph of Melbourne Spurr. (he's the dude in the center )


facebook



You can see many of his celebrity portraits HERE. They're really amazing.

Here's a particularly fine example.



"Beautiful and talented Barbara Britton was not discovered until 1941, around the time this portrait was made.
The 1920s was truly Spurr's most prolific decade for celebrity portraiture, but he did maintain a popular
(and very pricey) studio up through the 1950s." from FACEBOOK

_

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by Harry's Place

"Baywatch" 1937 style ) rescuers on Redondo Beach

I'm fascinated by this photo primarily because of the water tower in the background. I wonder if it was part of the Pike, the small amusement park whose roller coaster is just barely visible? I'm also surprised that the Redondo Beach Pike endured as late as 1937.

[Flyingwedge]

The Sten-Frenke House is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #647.


Here are some older b/w photos of the home, while this has some newer, color shots.


The building permits for the house (shown below) and its garage are dated August 25, 1933:



LADBS


This permit for a bomb shelter at 126 Mabery Road is dated December 16, 1941:



LADBS


Although this photo is only titled "Art moderne style beach house, Pacific Palisades or Malibu, 1934," it shows
the Sten-Frenke House and its garage on the south side of Santa Monica Canyon:



Islandora/UCLA/Adelbert Bartlett Papers


In this close-up from the previous image, at upper right the small building and concrete supports below it are remnants
of the Santa Monica Incline Railway. Atop the bluff and behind the short section of picket fence is the "Totem Pole in
Palisades Park made by the Chilkat Thlinger Indians of Sitka Alaska which was donated by J. Walter Todd to the City of
Santa Monica in 1926" (quote from Santa Monica Public Library photo description):






Here is a contemporary aerial view of 126 Mabery Road, marked by the pinpoint near the bottom center. I believe the
building on the west side of the original house is the result of a November 28, 2012, permit for a "new accessory living
quarters." A yellow dot marks the site of the still-standing Totem Pole in Palisades Park:



Google


This is an undated view of the Totem Pole from the Santa Monica Public Library:



Digital object 4831 img0100 @ SMPL


The Totem Pole in April 2018:



GSV

[Noir_Noir]

Some more of Melbourne Spurr and two of his wives.

In 1924 he married the woman with reputedly the most beautiful back in Hollywood, Kathryn Harris.

Melbourne turned his back on Kathryn the next year and they were divorced in 1926.



newspapers.com - SF Examiner 18 Jun 1926



Another short lived marriage to the German born actress Lena Melana followed.

imdb.com - Lena Melana


Here's Lena circa 1927, photographed by Melbourne, outside their home at 148 South La Peer Drive in Beverly Hills.



i.pinimg.com


148 South La Peer Drive these days.


GSV