noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

as most of you know, we've seen "The Hangover" several times on NLA.

Key #4

ebay



"The Hangover" on Vine Street. (1961)

posted by Martin_Pal at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=21277




and a 'noirish' view. (1957)

sopas_ej at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3061

I have a business card somewhere, but I can't locate it at the moment.
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

detail /

-so I take it that's the Taffy's entrance on the left. -hmmmm...there might be another entrance on the right end of the bldg.

OR.....is the store entrance solely on the right (see below).... and what we're seeing on the left is an entryway leading to & from a parking lot in the back?

(vintage aerial please )



Either way, it's a fine looking design.

Here's a wider close-up from the original image. I think the entrance to Furnitureland is to the left of Taffy's. I see there's a little character under the main Glendale Federal Savings sign with a smaller sign saying "Home of the Thrift Twins". The Thrift Twins must refer to the "Friendly" and "Safe" characters on the advert I posted at the bottom of post #30981.


Getty Research Institute

Historic Aerials has an image from 1952 (below). Hopefully I've labeled the stores correctly: "GFS" is Glendale Federal Savings, and "Loans" represents the loans store and the Asia Rug Company. Access to the parking lot behind was between the Loans store and the Bank of America.


Historic Aerials

The latest Historic Aerials image is 2012, and it's not very clear. Here's the 2004 image which is pretty much the same. The general layout doesn't seem to have changed.


Historic Aerials

[ethereal_reality]

thanks Hoss.

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

It would be great to see that lush western part of Bunker Hill without these transparent words. May I ask one of the noirishers who knows to erase that ?

A few months ago a photo-hosting site deleted the photos when the 'watermarks' were removed.
...not sure if the eBay seller contacted the photo-hosting site & requested their removal.

[ethereal_reality]

I just came across this eye-catching matchbook for Larry Potter's 'Orchid Room'.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/GIRLIE-ORCHI...item51d7c7072e



http://www.ebay.com/itm/GIRLIE-ORCHI...item51d7c7072e


Much to my surprise, 1931 W. 6th Street places the 'Orchid Room' inside the Hotel Barbizon.



2015 / gsv





Just look at the sad condition the Hotel Barbizon was in back in 2007. We're lucky it's still standing.


gsv

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just came across this eye-catching matchbook for Larry Potter's 'Orchid Room'.

[



Just look at the sad condition the Hotel Barbizon was in back in 2007. We're lucky it's still standing.


gsv

Looking OK in March, 2015.


gsv

[tovangar2]

The Barbizon was looking so terrible in 2007 because KFA was rehabbing it. Their page on the work is here. It was finished in 2008.

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[ethereal_reality]

so that's why the windows were missing. I should have known. thx t2.
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Attractive couples enjoying a night out in S. Central L.A.





It's frustrating that we'll probably never know where on Central Avenue this was taken (or who the people are)
If only the name of the nightclub had been written on the back.
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[tovangar2]

"Couples partying at a jazz club known as "The Last Word" in the 1940s (my guess). It's address was 4206 S. Central Ave., close to the historic Dunbar Hotel. The building no longer stands."
-pinterest

"The neighborhood was also the home of other famous jazz clubs, including Club Alabam (next door), the Last Word (across the street), and the Downbeat (nearby)."

-Hotel Dunbar's wiki page


Martin Turnbull

"A table at The Last Word nightclub...Edward on the left":

lapl

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks so much tovanger2!




below: Here's 4206 S. Central today....the former site of "The Last Word" jazz club.


gsv

Could the two Ionic columns be remnants from the old jazz club?
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[Tourmaline]

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I just came across this eye-catching matchbook for Larry Potter's 'Orchid Room'.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/GIRLIE-ORCHI...item51d7c7072e



http://www.ebay.com/itm/GIRLIE-ORCHI...item51d7c7072e


Much to my surprise, 1931 W. 6th Street places the 'Orchid Room' inside the Hotel Barbizon.



2015 / gsv





Just look at the sad condition the Hotel Barbizon was in back in 2007. We're lucky it's still standing.


gsv

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

originally posted by GaylordWilshire








asking $199.99 for this at http://www.bonanza.com/items/like/10...g-postard-rare
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As most of you know the Hotel Barbara still stands / known today as the Hotel Barbizon. (complete with rooftop sign)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=13933

Gee, maybe there's some Jack Dempsey memorabilia hidden away in the basement.
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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Could the two Ionic columns be remnants from the old jazz club?
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Check out that eagle on the right-hand column


Interior and exterior shots of the Club Alabam (next door to the Dunbar) may be found here

"The Club Alabam was the epitome of Central Avenue. It was right off Forty-second Street across from Ivy Anderson's Chicken Shack. There were a lot of other clubs, but the Club Alabam was really one of the old-time show-time places, a huge room with beautiful drapes and silks and sparklers and colored lights turning and flashing. The bandstand was plush and gorgeous with curtains that glistened. The waitresses were dressed in scanty costumes, and they were all smiling and wiggling and walking around, and everwhere you looked you saw teeth, people laughing, and everybody was decked out. It was a sea of opulence, big hats and white fluffy fur. And the cars out front were real long Cadillacs with little mudguards, little flappy little things, shiny things." -- Art Pepper from his autobiography, "Straight Life."
-nightlife


la mag


More info on Club Apex/Alabam here


"A table at Club Alabam" circa 1941:

lapl


And just for fun, Drag Contest at Club Alabam, hosted by Bill Hefflin, ca. 1945:

lapl

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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These may be the same stairs, but there's a very different atmosphere at the Hotel Barbizon these days:

KFA

The column capitals seem to have gotten lost in the dropped ceiling.


Better than the bulldozer.

.

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

There are all kinds of interesting things to see in this Key entertainment brochure (1950s).
Key #2

ebay
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That's really weird, after reading what some have said about not seeing pictures. I just went to James Lileks' always amusing website, wanting to link to his picture of Richlor's--particularly well worth looking at for the neon alone. But in this series of old coffeeshop postcards, he usually provides in inset Street View so we can see what the address looks like now, or at any rate the last time the Google car went through. And all of those insets are now just a message saying Street View isn't available over a black rectangle.

[tovangar2]

I remember Richlor's when it was Ed Debevic's. I loved the entrance under the porte cochere. Glamorous architecture :-) What was left of it :-(

GWTW now.


hiddenla

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

When the movie was out a couple years ago I remember reading a local article that said Richlor's was the favorite west coast haunt of J. Edgar Hoover!

LOL


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Can't forget "The Downbeat" as long as we're at it:


lapl

"Robinez Reid and girlfriends with sailors they met at "The Downbeat", a nightclub on Central Avenue, Los Angeles. Identities of the women from left to right: Robinez Reid; Emily Labean; Loretta Reid; Wanda Williams. The sailors are unidentified, but they were stationed in Los Angeles at the time, circa 1944":

lapl

[HossC]

I've been meaning to post these images of the Club Alabam for about a month, so now seems as good a time as any. The captions are the decriptions which appear with the pictures at LAPL.

"An advertisement for New Club Alabam, a nightclub at 42nd and Central Avenue in Los Angeles. It reads, 'Finest Harlem Cafe in America!' and promotes two shows nightly with host Curtis Mosby. 1941"


LAPL

"Interior of Club Alabam, seating area and balcony. ca. 1945"


LAPL

"Audience watching a performance at Club Alabam, located at S. Central Avenue and 42nd Street in Los Angeles. Identified are: actress Lillian Randolph (right of center), dancer Prince Spencer, Clarence Moore, Tillie Culison, Clehue McGee. ca. 1945"


LAPL

"Lional Hampton, at far left, rides in a Cadillac convertible in front of Club Alabam on Central Avenue, a busy thoroughfare of businesses, nightclubs, and homes in Los Angeles. ca. 1953"


LAPL

I originally searched out these photos after rewatching the 2004 Ray Charles biopic, 'Ray'. Here's the movie's recreation of the Club Alabam.


Universal Pictures, Bristol Bay Productions, Anvil Films

The Wikipedia page about the Dunbar Hotel is here.

The Dunbar Hotel and Club Alabam both get mentioned in an article called 'Central Avenue History', which can be found here.

[oldstuff]

Johnson Foundry and Machine Works at 1009 South Main. Circa '24


The Johnson Foundry and Machine Works, along with Llewellen foundry and the Steams Gas Engine works, all located on Main street, were damaged by an explosion in 1910 that was thought to have been the result of dynamite. An article in the Los Angeles Herald from Christmas Day 1910 details the damage.

An earlier article, from 1907, in the same newspaper mentions that Johnson, along with LLewellen and other businesses were pledging to open later than usual in order to allow their employees to vote for the "Owens River Project". This was a bond issue to raise funds for the aqueduct project.

[ethereal_reality]

re: The Richlor's ad in the Key brochure.





I just found this on eBay, it's the same postcard in Those Who Squirm's link (I adjusted the colors a tad)


http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEVERLY-HILL...item48837f6dbd


early matchbook / I love the "Dick Tracy" car.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-Matchb...item2eaefbc796
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And now, for my FAVORITE image.

The beautiful curvaceous bar at Richlor's! ("Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez" is a watermark)


http://shanghaililandthescarletfez.b...1_archive.html

What I wouldn't give to see that interior space in color!

I wonder what that is on top of the stand-alone bar/counter in the center of the photo.....a fancy napkin holder?

...and we've all seen a linoleum floor like that.



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[ethereal_reality]

just for fun.



eBay

[ethereal_reality]

San Pedro viewscape.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/San-Pedro-Ca...3D311443811773

I have never heard of Miraleste before.


writing on the reverse (I can't read what comes after "San Pedro California")


is it German?
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