noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

First I looked to see if I could find a photo of the Officer's Club. When built, it was called the Allen Center.

I lived on this Base for 9 months. I was part of the Admiral's staff for the Pacific Mine Force.

Barracks were built on the blank land in the middle of the photo. That was my home. Bob Hope's son had a room above mine and he like to bounce golf balls on the floor. I finally went up there and politely asked him to stop the noise....he did, thank you. He usually denied who he was but everyone knew the truth. He had one friend and mostly kept to himself. This was 1968.
By the time I arrived at this Base many of the buildings we see in this photo were long gone and had been replaced by new construction. At the far left there are two sand parking lots for sailors who were at sea on ships or stationed at the Base as I was.
The last time I was on this Base was when Royal Yacht Britannia docked there. Nancy Reagan wanted to ride the yacht up to San Francisco. She was denied this glory because of bad weather on the route. Even the Queen took to the air for the trip north.

Thanks Martin for your research, great load of photos and videos.!

[Snix]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

The Pacific Jazz blogspot says this:

Frequent visitors to this blog will have noticed a variety of addresses for Pacific Jazz / World Pacific on the backs of the EP covers and catalogues. The first location was at 6124 Santa Monica Boulevard above the retail space for Roy Harte’s and Remo Belli’s DRUM CITY. The space was an apartment that Roy and Dick converted to offices. Dotty Woodward was in the front “living room” area that looked out on to Santa Monica Boulevard. Charlie Emge occupied one of the bedrooms where the west coast office of Down Beat was located after Charlie relocated to 6124 from his former address at 6110 Santa Monica Boulevard. Other rooms held the offices for Linear Publications and Nocturne Records. The building has changed little since DRUM CITY and Pacific Jazz were located there. The exterior entrance to the apartment upstairs seen at the far right in the photo below framed by tile work can still be seen in the contemporary photo from the mid 1990's.

PacificJazz

Mid-90's view:

PacificJazz

Note the bees!

Roy Harte recorded a terrific Exotica record called Perfect Percussion at Drum City on Santa Monica Blvd. in 1961. I imagine all of these neat instruments were in stock at the store. He was still working there around 2000 and autographed my album.

Discogs.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMvnGXLdv1s

[ethereal_reality]

Very cool. ...Thanks Snix.



Here they're using one of their drums for a different purpose.




Cleaning up the front of the store.

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[ethereal_reality]

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mystery location.



Here is the eBay seller's description of the photograph.

"Los Angeles...Gun Club?...1900?...Claude F. Hale, Photographer.



eBay / old file





. . . . 2323 Grand Avenue. . . .Los Angeles Cal.







Let's take a closer look at this group of men. ... Look closely and you'll see at least two clues.


detail

As you can see, a man in the front row has a Star of David with arrow going through it. The number 3 is within the star.

A man in the second row (on left) has letters that appear to be backward on his sweater.


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


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[ethereal_reality]

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Here's a more recent mystery location.



eBay









A closer look.



Note the tall building in the distance that appears to be under construction.


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[Engineeral]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.


Let's take a closer look at this group of men. ... Look closely and you'll see at least two clues.


detail

As you can see, a man in the front row has a Star of David with arrow going through it. The number 3 is within the star.

A man in the second row (on left) has letters that appear to be backward on his sweater.


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


.

A six-pointed star is not *always* a Star of David.
And if you flip the picture left-for-right then the "3" becomes an "E" and the reversed letters appear normal.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

Here's a more recent mystery location.



eBay







A closer look.



Note the tall building in the distance that appears to be under construction.


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There used to be a Sears on Pico and Rimpau, a long time ago. It was in the vicinity of what's now the Midtown Crossing Shopping Center. I'm thinking this could be it?

[HenryHuntington]

Sopas ej, FWIW I concur. I believe the photo was taken looking NW from the West Blvd. bridge over Venice Blvd.

[CaliNative]

A closer look.



Note the tall building in the distance that appears to be under construction.


.
^^^
The skyscraper under construction several miles away is the 28 story California Federal Savings & Loan headquarters building (since renamed since Cal. Fed. S&L is no more) in the "Miracle Mile" district of Wilshire near the tar pits & Hancock Park. This building was under construction about 1964-65, so that dates the photo.The blue building to the right is Lee Tower, and the tan building to the right of that held the local offices of Mutual of Omaha, a company made famous by Marlin Perkins on "Wild Kingdom" in the 1960s. Besides his wildlife TV show, Perkins was also director of the St. Louis Zoo. The Carnation company (now part of Nestle) was also headquartered in this area of Wilshire in the 1960s.

[HossC]

Here's a couple of images of Sears that I posted in 2014. The full post showing the Pico & Rimpau loop is here.

Originally Posted by HossC

A couple of days ago I posted a 1940 aerial picture of Lafayette Square. The aerial below shows the area slightly west. This one has "48" in the lower right corner and the Lafayette Square one has "49", so I assume they are part of a set which was taken at the same time. On the far left is the Red Car viaduct over Pico at San Vicente. FredH wrote about the viaduct in post #5381.


USC Digital Library

Just below center, the large white structure is Sears. The picture below is from 1939.


USC Digital Library

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

Here's a more recent mystery location.



eBay

I worked at this Sears in 1965 for about 9 months. My job was in the Display Department. I quit just after Christmas. [I didn't want to do the Christmas take-down]. On Jan 3, 1966 I joined the Navy. This old photo really brings back a lot of memories for me. There were about 7 people in the Display Department and the Supervisor was a really decent fellow... for a change. It was a pleasure to work there....never any pressure. Henry was the women's fashion display expert...he lived in Hollywood and was a character. He enjoyed dressing the female mannequins. Haven't thought about him in 50 years.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Engineeral

A six-pointed star is not *always* a Star of David.
And if you flip the picture left-for-right then the "3" becomes an "E" and the reversed letters appear normal.

You're correct, Engineeral. It had occurred to me that the photograph was flipped, that is, until I saw the 3. (which isn't a 3 at all)

Here is the photograph flipped.
















If only we could read this gentleman's tag.





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[Blaster]

Los Angeles County Gun Club? Los Angeles California Gun Club?

[odinthor]

Very close!


LA Times, 7/2/1894

[ethereal_reality]

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Hey, look what just turned up on eBay


A transparency of the back side of the recently discussed Drum City!



eBay





As a refresher here's the Drum City slide I posted a few days ago.



6122 Santa Monica Blvd.



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[ethereal_reality]

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Once more. . . .


EBAY

Originally Posted by CaliNative

.

The skyscraper under construction several miles away is the 28 story California Federal Savings & Loan headquarters building (since renamed since Cal. Fed. S&L is no more) in the "Miracle Mile" district of Wilshire near the tar pits & Hancock Park. This building was under construction about 1964-65, so that dates the photo.The blue building to the right is Lee Tower, and the tan building to the right of that held the local offices of Mutual of Omaha, a company made famous by Marlin Perkins on "Wild Kingdom" in the 1960s. Besides his wildlife TV show, Perkins was also director of the St. Louis Zoo. The Carnation company (now part of Nestle) was also headquartered in this area of Wilshire in the 1960s.

Thanks for the information, Calinative.





Here's a closer look at the California Federal & Saving Building.


miraclemilela

That's quite a helipad on top! (I thought it was white-out at first)

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[ethereal_reality]

.
. . .currently on eBay



Queen of Outer Space


I would give anything like to know the backstory to this odd photograph.


eBay

I think his piano bench lights up. . . as well as his organ....*blush*




I've seen this photograph before. I hope I haven't posted it in the past.

[Noir_Noir]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A transparency of the back side of the recently discussed Drum City!



eBay

The ghost of that Drum City sign haunted the side wall until disappearing into thin air in 2017.


GSV

[rick m]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
. . .currently on eBay



Queen of Outer Space


I would give anything like to know the backstory to this odd photograph.


eBay

I think his piano bench lights up. . . as well as his organ....*blush*




I've seen this photograph before. I hope I haven't posted it in the past.

A sales girl I once knew told me her mom played the cute ingenue in this epic--- and ZsaZsa scorned her-- she was either Lisa Davis OR Laurie Mitchell

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by rick m

A sales girl I once knew told me her mom played the cute ingenue in this epic--- and ZsaZsa scorned her-- she was either Lisa Davis OR Laurie Mitchell

Zsa Zsa was probably well north of 40 when she made this stinker, so she may have been challenged by the youthful starlet. This film could actually be worse than any of Ed Wood's entries from that era. At least Ed Wood may have been making parodies. I don't totally buy the idea that Wood was totally serious, as depicted in the Tim Burton biopic. I mean Vampira and an aged Bela Lugosi. A laugh riot. I think Wood was secretly making comedies. Maybe the "Queen of Outer Space" was a comedy as well. I'm sure the theaters were hives of laughter. The clunky costumes, corny dialogue and low budget special effects were enough to induce mirth in all but the kiddies.