noirish Los Angeles

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by mrfredmertz

The phrase "Sober and Dependable" often appeared in the 20s, 30s and 40s on ads in casting publications. Sadly, it referred to African Americans performers (ie, they won't embarrass you with their behavior.) I hate that phrase. And all the other ones that come to mind when I hear it. BTW, eBay had a bunch of "Dependable Negro" badges for sale a while ago. Towns in the south would issue these to black men and women who worked for the city, so they could flash them to avoid the perpetual stop and frisks. O(On second thought, the phrase may have been "Trustworth....")

Slightly off topic, but seeing your nic brings to mind the story of the significant reservations Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had concerning William Frawley's occasional sobriety and the demands of filming a weekly show. Prior to bringing Frawley into the cast of I Love Lucy, Desi had a heart to heart talk with him. Even after that it was a leaner as to whether or not they'd take the chance. Ultimately, of course, they did and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. Frawley, bless his heart, dropped dead on the sidewalk outside the Hollywood Knickerbocker.

[CivilJuan909]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for figuring out the view in my 1921 postcard of the Ambassador Hotel HossC. I really appreciate it.

USC


Here's a few photographs showing the western entrance (I've marked it in the above aerial).


flickr/sunset-sunshine




flickr/sunset_sunshine







http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/...assador-hotel/

I love the clock. I wonder if anyone saved it?




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Hello.. New to the forum

Any who. I worked for the engineering company that did this Project (Ambassador Hotel to New School) and from what I gathered when I was at the construction meeting there, They saved everything in that entrance. We did the Civil work for the site.

BTW I really enjoy this post of the forum I love seeing all the old vs new pictures.

[ethereal_reality]

That's great news CivilJuan909!
I'd love to know where they have it hidden away.
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Lorendoc, I hope you can locate that list of venues that were classified as "Out of Bounds" to servicemen. It's so very interesting.
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[twnorcal]

I'm new to joining and posting after enjoying this site for 3 years. Great photos with a neat coincidence - my family stayed at the Islander Motel in Eagle Rock for New Year's 1973 and took the bus to the Rose Parade. I've stayed there more recently for old time's sake, when visiting So Cal, but the last time, they wouldn't check me in until after 2 PM, so I stayed at the Rose Bowl Motel instead.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

More locations of e_r's photographs:




#4 I'm still looking for this one ...

e_r linked another post with photo #1 (326 S. Spring St.) and that link
has this paragraph, which mentions Maxwell's, shown in the above photo, but
no address for the location.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Other locations mentioned in the blog article:

"Some of Main St.'s establishments continued to operate as theaters like the Optic Theatre (533 S. Main). Main St. and the surrounding area was also home to several clubs and bars popular with gays like the Biltmore, the Brass Rail, the Cellar (521 S. Main), the Crown Jewel (754 S. Olive), Harold's 555 Club (555 S. Main), Jolie's, Maxwell's, the Numbers, the 326 (326 S. Spring), the Waldorf, and the Burbank (548 S. Main), which featured Jazz, and burlesque, etc. There were also numerous small eateries, one of which was Cooper's Do-nuts, a 24 hour coffee and donut spot popular with a clientele comprised in part of multiracial trans and hustlers. The network of hangouts came to be known as 'The Run'."

Maybe Lorendoc's Out of Bounds list will shed some more light on the address.

[twnorcal]

The school buses are one of my favorite things - early '50's model Crown Coaches, built on 12th St. (formerly McPherson), in the shadow of the 2 gas storage containers (which show up in many factory photos). Crown was founded in 1904 and had this location from the early '20's to the mid '80's, when they moved to Chino. They closed in 1991, but most of their archives have survived. The "twinkie buses" were well-known all over CA, but there are few left on the road in service now. Many of Crown's factory photos from about 1940 to the late '60's were taken at Wyvernwood Gardens, and some show the Sears Building in the background.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by HossC

I just checked the later CDs, and realized that the IOOF Hall became the Union Rescue Mission. I'm not sure when the Union Rescue Mission moved in, but USC have images of it dating back to 1939 (there's a reasonably good, zoomable 1940 image here). Here's the remodeled building on December 12, 1959. I think the statue on the cathedral has already gone.


LAPL

Looking west from the Union Rescue Mission, ca.1960

View of looking west across Main Street taken from the second floor of the Union Rescue Mission at 226 So. Main Street. View is toward the west, with the Douglas Building at left. Beyond is Bunker Hill.

LAPL

[Martin Pal]

e_r posted: I love the clock. I wonder if anyone saved it?

I was going to mention it when first posted, but this clock design looks like a lady's wristwatch.
That must've been the intention of the design, or am I just stating the obvious to everyone?

[MichaelRyerson]

I've had this in my photo-stream for a while

Looking southwest across 2nd and Hope Streets, 1928

'Looking southwesterly through intersection of Hope and 2nd Streets showing relative height of wall, 1928' The Stanley at 2nd and Flower is on the right (background) nearer building is on Cinnabar. New Hotel Elmar is beyond and below the balustrade to the left.

USC digital archive/Automobile Club of Southern California collection, 1892-1963

It's a nice image which compliments others of the intersection but it has this particular virtue...

Hope Street newel post, 1928

This is the newel post on the balustrade at Hope and 2nd Street. Hope Street runs across to the left and passes above the 3rd Street tunnel, the Hope Street incline runs down to 3rd Street at the portal just beyond this post and balustrade. I'm interested in what these markings mean and, being 1928, they can't be spray paint so how were they put on the concrete?

USC digital archive/Automobile Club of Southern California collection, 1892-1963

[CivilJuan909]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

That's great news CivilJuan909!
I'd love to know where they have it hidden away.
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Lorendoc, I hope you can locate that list of venues that were classified as "Out of Bounds" to servicemen. It's so very interesting.
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From the look of this google earth pic, its on the North West side. Which (Im assuming) is the original place.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Beaudry

I can add one, this is the Stimson Block, more about this angle here, and here's a shot of it before its '63 demolition --

calstatelib

Thanks for identifying the Stimson Building, Beaudry, I should've got that one. Here's a nice color picture from August 1955 which I don't think we've seen before.


Huntington Digital Library

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

#4

This one certainly got me thinking, especially as the couple of references to Maxwell's Cafe I found in the CDs were outside the search area. Luckily, the fact that there's a hotel across the end of the street narrowed down the possibilities. The hotel in question turned out to be the St George Hotel at 115 E 3rd Street, seen from the other side in one of e_r's other pictures. This circa 1950 shot is looking east down W 3rd Street from the top of Angel's Flight. The F P Fay building is on the corner of Hill, while the St George Hotel is in the background on the far side of Main Street where 3rd Street has a slight kink.


LAPL

A similar image with a bit of color. The unreadable white blade sign on left appears to be on a building at 3rd and Spring, so comparing it to the original picture, Maxwell's Cafe must have been between Spring and Broadway. The building nearest the camera on that block is the Bradbury Building, and we're not looking at that in the original picture. So, Maxwell's Cafe must've been in the Currier Building, which was demolished in early 1968 after being damaged in a fire. The 1956 CD lists the Max M Newman cocktail lounge at 214 W 3rd Street, which would be the right address.


Detail of picture in Huntington Digital Library

This early but undated image is the only decent one I could find of the Currier Building. The entrance in the center is the one immediately to the left of Maxwell's cafe. When this picture was taken, the Ramona Hotel was still standing on the corner of 3rd and Spring (far left of shot).


LAPL

Now we have the location, I searched NLA again and found a mention of a gay bar called Maxwell's in the Currier Building in post #4914 by rick m. The extract below is from 'Bohemian Los Angeles: And the Making of Modern Politics' by Daniel Hurewitz.


books.google.com

[ethereal_reality]

"So, Maxwell's Cafe must've been in the Currier Building." -Excellent HossC! You didn't give up..and you found the answer. kudos-
I was wondering, is the square in the sidewalk in front of Maxwell's a freight elevator down to the basement? I believe it is, but i could be wrong.
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posted earlier by CivilJaun909

google_earth

I had no idea they kept the original west entrance. Thanks for setting me straight CivilJuan909.



shortly before demolition began

http://ambassadorhotel.blogspot.com/...1_archive.html



standing alone

I'nNotAStalker



Here's the entrance with the new school in the background.





looking pristine once again

laconservancy
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and....Welcome to the thread twnocal!

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[HossC]

After re-editing the Maxwell's text several times to add extra info and pictures, I decided to make this a separate post. In the Maxwell's post I mentioned the Ramona Hotel on the corner of 3rd and Spring, so I thought I should dig out a picture. I couldn't find an exact build date, but it seems to have been around 1890 (the first listing in the City Directories is 1894). The Currier Building can be seen the background of the undated picture below. Dr Freeman's free "Museum of Anatomy" sounds fun .


LAPL

According to emporis.com, the 13-story Washington Building which now stands on the site was completed in 1912, so the Ramona Hotel obviously didn't last long. On the right, the gap where the Currier Building once stood can be seen before the brick wall of the Bradbury Building.


www.loopnet.com

[ethereal_reality]

streetcar #3004, 1958


ebay

So is that Whittier Blvd. behind the streetcar? The little trolley-stop looks interesting..mostly open-air.

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[ethereal_reality]

American Legion Convention, Los Angeles 1938.


ebay

Not sure what's going on here -some kind of float I guess.

[ethereal_reality]

-put a radio in your car.

Los Angeles 1939
ebay

Hmmm....so when did car manufacturers begin to put radios in their cars? It's something I never pondered before.
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[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

American Legion Convention, Los Angeles 1938.


ebay

Not sure what's going on here -some kind of float I guess.

What's going on, or what will be going on, is a great deal of alcohol fueled revelry. That's the "40 and 8" come to town, son, a group named after the WWI French boxcars on wheels behind the road "locomotive" and to it's side. (From the legend "40/8" on the side of the cars, which meant 40 men or 8 horses. They were the hellraising arm of the American Legion, now morphed into a staid charity. Given the year there's a good bet my uncle, ex-artillery and a member, was out there drinking and whoring with the best of them, although maybe not with quite the fervor of their heyday in the 1920s.

Cheers,

Earl

[FredH]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A snapshot from July of 1963.

ebay

I wonder if that's an actual parking spot or did that elderly woman just pull in to make a quick phone call?

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Not only do I doubt that this is a legal parking space (look at the curb), but this person seems to have pulled in there
just to see how much they weighed.

[Lorendoc]

Not the first time I've been scooped by HossC

After spending 30 minutes digging through my non-existent filing system, I got my hands on that out of bounds list.

It dates from 1944 and includes:

"Maxwell Cafe, 214 West 3rd (LAPD Vice Officers say this is a pervert spot)"