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  #55141  
Old Posted Aug 6, 2020, 11:15 PM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles View Post
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.
_________________________________________________________________

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.


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I wonder where the actual “Garden of Eden” was?

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

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? I haven't seen the movie since VHS was in vogue.
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  #55142  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 12:34 AM
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A drive-through polio vaccine clinic held six decades ago in Glendale, California.



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.
.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Aug 7, 2020 at 2:10 AM.
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  #55143  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 1:06 AM
Noir_Noir Noir_Noir is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles View Post
Going through my late father's stuff recently, I found this letter:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post
__________

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.

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.


rescarta.lapl.org


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


.......
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  #55144  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 5:20 AM
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583 N. Windsor (kind of near Melrose and Van Ness; a block away from Paramount):


gsv
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  #55145  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 6:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post
What a find Scott Charles! I'm assuming that's an actual signature?
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:



Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post
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? I haven't seen the movie since VHS was in vogue.
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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Noir_Noir View Post
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.


rescarta.lapl.org


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


.......
WOW!

The coincidence with the phone number is too great! Seriously though, how odd!
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  #55146  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 8:30 AM
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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



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





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!



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

LINK

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


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

And this retaining wall still exists:


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!!!

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  #55147  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 10:34 AM
CityBoyDoug CityBoyDoug is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
.

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



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.
.
Future? People can do what they want but you won't see me in any of these vaccinations lines. No thank you!
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  #55148  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 5:44 PM
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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.


old file/1970s?

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

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?



.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Aug 7, 2020 at 6:17 PM.
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  #55149  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 6:21 PM
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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.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

Roughly the same view today.


Google Maps
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  #55150  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 6:36 PM
Lwize Lwize is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
.
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.


old file/1970s?

The highlines, utility poles and the neverending line of billboards.
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.
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  #55151  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 6:55 PM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is online now
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Lwize, "x" years ago...20-30 right?

E_R, I'm glad you posted that photo. I saw it while I was looking up things about Century City the last two days and was going to post it, but I couldn't find it again and then forgot about it.
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  #55152  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 7:14 PM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Noir_Noir View Post
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.

rescarta.lapl.org
So the guests can mingle out in Eden's garden - The Garden Of Eden.
.......
_________________________________________________________________
Mad, but so was Sinatra a "few" times! Heh!

Hmmm...Evan and Eden-were they living in sin?

I wonder if we could figure out who Peter Schaefer was, if he was co-ordinating this party and where he worked or something?

Quote:
Originally Posted by odinthor View Post


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


gsv
_________________________________________________________________

In the 1950's and 60's, with cars being so huge, how difficult was it to drive them through these, what look really narrow to me, porte cochères?
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  #55153  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 7:20 PM
Martin Pal Martin Pal is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles View Post
I'm assuming it is authentic, based on two factors:
_________________________________________________________________

I think your reasoning is quite accurate!


I love the photos you've occasionally posted of your family, Scott Charles.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Charles View Post
Here's my mom (the Japanese lady) at one of these events with Groucho:


_________________________________________________________________
I picture the lady on the right saying: "Well! I didn't come here to be insulted!"

Groucho: "No? Where do you usually go?"
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  #55154  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 7:34 PM
Lwize Lwize is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post


Lwize, "x" years ago...20-30 right?
The SMB improvement project occurred during the 2010's.


EDIT: the project was completed in 2006.
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  #55155  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 7:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post

Lwize, "x" years ago...20-30 right?

E_R, I'm glad you posted that photo. I saw it while I was looking up things about Century City the last two days and was going to post it, but I couldn't find it again and then forgot about it.
This similar color view was posted by e_r back in 2017.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post

"Various billboards along Santa Monica Blvd near Beverly Hills, 1977"


www.alamy.com
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  #55156  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 7:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by odinthor View Post

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


gsv
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post

In the 1950's and 60's, with cars being so huge, how difficult was it to drive them through these, what look really narrow to me, porte cochères?
The property was apparently built in 1924, but I can't believe that the porte cochère was ever usable. Even if you somehow managed to open your car door, there's no entrance to the building on the side.
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  #55157  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 9:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal View Post
Mad, but so was Sinatra a "few" times! Heh!

Hmmm...Evan and Eden-were they living in sin?

I wonder if we could figure out who Peter Schaefer was, if he was co-ordinating this party and where he worked or something?




In the 1950's and 60's, with cars being so huge, how difficult was it to drive them through these, what look really narrow to me, porte cochères?

from https://www.vintag.es/2013/05/old-ph...dget-cars.html (arrow added)
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  #55158  
Old Posted Aug 7, 2020, 10:31 PM
pjenn pjenn is offline
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High Hopes and Garden of Eden

The letterhead probably was used in Frank Capra's "Hole in the Head". Sinatra played the manager of the "Garden of Eden" hotel. "High Hopes" was written for the film.

Here's a wikipedia article on the movie:

A Hole in the Head (1959) is a DeLuxe Color comedy film, in CinemaScope, directed by Frank Capra, featuring Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Keenan Wynn, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter, Dub Taylor, Ruby Dandridge, Eddie Hodges, and Joi Lansing, and released by United Artists.[2][3] It was based upon the play of the same name by Arnold Schulman.

The film introduced the song "High Hopes" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, a Sinatra standard used as a campaign song by John F. Kennedy during the presidential election the following year.[4] Wynn plays a wealthy former friend of Sinatra's character who expresses interest in his plan to build a Disneyland in Florida (the film predates Disney World)—until he notices that Sinatra seems too desperate as he cheers for a dog upon which he'd bet heavily. The movie ends with Tony, Eloise and Ally singing "High Hopes" on the beach. Sinatra sings "All My Tomorrows," another Cahn/Van Heusen song, under the opening titles.

The screenplay was adapted by playwright Arnold Schulman, whose father was the operator of a Miami, Florida hotel. The protagonist of A Hole in the Head is a Miami hotel operator of "The Garden of Eden." The actual hotel used for the exterior shots was the Cardozo Hotel, located on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive. Shot over 40 days from 10 November 1958 to 9 January 1959, the film did not enjoy the smoothest of productions, especially during the location filming at Miami Beach. Sinatra's relations with the press were problematic, the media seizing on every anti-Sinatra rumor they could find.[5]

Aided by William Daniels, Capra completed the film a full 80 days ahead of schedule, its final production cost of $1.89 million well under the allotted budget. The film opened on June 17, 1959. Although having some positive reviews, the film was a modest box-office success, grossing $4 million in America.[5]

Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "High Hopes".
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  #55159  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2020, 4:30 AM
CaliNative CaliNative is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
.

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



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.
.
I remember lining up for the Sabin polio vaccine when I was 10 in 1962. They gave it in a little sugar cube which you swallowed. Swallowing a sugar cube was less scary to a kid than the Salk vaccine, which was a shot in the rump or arm. However, the Sabin vaccine used viruses that we're still partly alive, so once in a while (rare) some got polio symptoms. The Salk vaccine used killed viruses (except in the Cutter lab screwup), so it was generally a bit safer. But in recent decades I believe the Sabin-type vaccine with weakened (attenuated) viruses is the more commonly used because it is cheaper to produce and administer.

Had a rough day today. Lost my cat Maya, sweetest & smartest cat ever. Maya was very brave at the end and even purred and didn't complain. I hope I am as brave at my end. If there is a heaven I can't imagine a good God leaving the dogs and cats outside. Rest in peace sweet Maya. I will miss you dearly.

Last edited by CaliNative; Aug 8, 2020 at 7:47 AM.
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  #55160  
Old Posted Aug 8, 2020, 4:48 AM
robeach11 robeach11 is offline
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Sincere condolences...
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