noirish Los Angeles

[Matthew]

Welton Becket's Capitol Records Building is in the wrong place.

[ethereal_reality]

You're absolutely correct. It is a composite by the postcard company.

Originally Posted by Matthew

Roxy Apartments
357 South Alvarado St.
I thought this building was interesting and worth sharing.


Source: GSV

It has a great old sign on the south side of the building.


gsv





Corey Miller at http://www.flickr.com/photos/toomuch...57624741661471
__

[Krell58]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

It's green! My eyes...my eyes!

gsv
__

And with a TV antenna collapse.

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

No, not kidding, ER. She broke her hip and had to walk with crutches for the last 20 years of her life. I used to live in Hollywood in 1970-76 and I would see my aunt Ethel occasionally driving down Santa Monica Blvd. with a friend of hers. [I always hoped she wouldn't recognize me.] They liked to frequent various restaurants around Los Angeles. They were all retired friends of hers. Later she got by with using just one crutch. Hip surgery in those days was iffy at best.

She probably had a Jewett Nail put in, we took out and upgraded a lot of those from the mid 80's to the mid 90's.

[ethereal_reality]

I was only aware of Mack Sennett's studio in Echo Park when I came across these fascinating photographs from 1927.
It turns out, there was also a Mack Sennett Studio in the San Fernando Valley.

The future site of Mack Sennett's studio at 4024 N. Radford Avenue in the San Fernando Valley.

http://museumsanfernandovalley.blogs...1_archive.html

above: This view is looking east toward Mount Hollywood and the Cahuenga Pass into Hollywood.
This photograph was taken from Radford Avenue, just east of Laurel Canyon on Ventura Boulevard.




Construction at the Mack Sennett Studio on Radford Avenue in 1927.


__

The land was owned by Harry Merrick of the 'Central Motion Picture District' land syndicate (formerly of the Chicago Assn. of Commerce). Financed by the Guarantee Building Loan & Assn., the syndicate acquired over 500 acres of former Lankershim Ranch land stretching from Tujunga Avenue and Pacoima Avenue (now Laurel Canyon Boulevard), Ventura Boulevard to Chandler Way in 1926, envisioning it's own little city (eventually 'Studio City').

Sennett later explained that "a group of enterprising real estate operators offered me a gift of 20 acres near the trickle known as the Los Angeles River." Merritt's company would construct the studio from plans drawn by architect Harold Cass.


http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city




http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city

Newspapers announced on June 11, 1927 that the Sennett Studio of over 12 buildings would feature California Renaissance design. Workers began picking fruit from 275 acres of plum, peach, and apricot orchards (an area obviously larger than Mack Sennett's allocated 20 acres) that would soon be destroyed by Merritt's 'Central Motion Picture District'. Later, 60 acres of walnuts, five acres of pecans, and 25 acres of grapevines would be harvested before they too were decimated.



The birth of Studio City.

http://studiocity.patch.com/groups/a...ed-studio-city

above: Notice that Merrick's ' Central Motion Picture District' is referenced on the billboard.



below: The Mack Sennett Studio today (now known as the CBS Studio Center)


google earth



The old Mack Sennett/CBS Studio Center in relation to Hollywood.


google earth
__

[belmont bob]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

4200 hundred block of Wilshire Boulevard, December 1955.


slide/ebay

Flocked trees must have been very popular in 1955.
__

Oh jump'n Santa’s, was my dad ever into the latest fad…we had white flocked trees more than once…maybe there wasn't any blue ones around our area or I'm sure he would have gotten that too, and he even got an aluminum tree one year…omg…I can still remember how awful that was…yes it was mid fifties alright…

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by westcork

Maybe your Aunt was greeted by this young hostess that day...


LAPL

lol...no doubt Westcork. She and her friends liked to visit restaurants that were not near her home and not expensive.

We once went to this place in the 1950s. There were long communal tables and everyone was served 'family' style. There were big bowls of bread, salad and soup on each communal table. It was truly unusual if you were used to your own private table. I thought it was noisy and stark.
The location in this photo is Commercial Street in the area that used to be called 'French Town'

LAPL

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by belmont bob

Oh jump'n Santa’s, was my dad ever into the latest fad…we had white flocked trees more than once…maybe there wasn't any blue ones around our area or I'm sure he would have gotten that too, and he even got an aluminum tree one year…omg…I can still remember how awful that was…yes it was mid fifties alright…

Back in the 1950s, I would not be surprised if more than a few of those blue flocked trees were designated as Chanukah bushes

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I was only aware of Mack Sennett's studio in Echo Park when I came across these fascinating photographs from 1927.
It turns out, there was also a Mack Sennett Studio in the San Fernando Valley.


__

Thx for this one e_r, I knew the history, but had never seen those pix. My ex worked there on Hawaii Five-0 a million years ago. I know that lot well. It used to have some great standing sets.

From 1935 to 1959 it was Republic Pictures, an amalgamation of six Poverty Row companies (Monogram Pictures, Mascot Pictures, Liberty Pictures, Majestic Pictures, Chesterfield Pictures and Invincible Pictures), although Monogram later broke away to re-establish itself as an independent.

John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rex Allen and Roy Rogers all became famous at Republic.


http://www.republicpictures75th.com/release2.html

A river runs through it:

http://www.retroweb.com/tv_studios_and_ranches.html

[ethereal_reality]

That's the first time I've seen a layout of the CBS Studio Center lot. -thx for posting T2.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by belmont bob

Oh jump'n Santa’s, was my dad ever into the latest fad…we had white flocked trees more than once…maybe there wasn't any blue ones around our area or I'm sure he would have gotten that too, and he even got an aluminum tree one year…omg…I can still remember how awful that was…yes it was mid fifties alright…

http://athome.kimvallee.com/2008/12/...ristmas-trees/


LOL BB, did you have the rotating color wheel to go with it? Some of our neighbors had those. Just bizarre...

[Fab Fifties Fan]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

http://athome.kimvallee.com/2008/12/...ristmas-trees/


LOL BB, did you have the rotating color wheel to go with it? Some of our neighbors had those. Just bizarre...

I have been called bizarre before, so no worries there. Some of us Fab Fifties Fans put our aluminum Xmas tree up every year and the color wheel is an absolute must!!!




~Jon Paul

[Oviatt Building Fan]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

1939
USC Digital

Originally Posted by tovangar2

According to David Gebhard and Robert Winter in Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles in Southern California, … Marcus P Miller [is] the architect, … as opposed to Anderson & Norstrom. I don't know which is correct.
.

Which is correct? Here’s the answer, courtesy of a pal at Building and Safety who got hold of the 1935-’36 building permits.



The corner building (below) at 5401-5405 Wilshire Blvd. was designed by Norstrom & Anderson, and was constructed between January and April, 1936. Owned by the Sontag Drug Co., which had purchased the undeveloped land from the Neuhoff family (canned fruit distributors).








The building below, which is to Sontag’s immediate left (at 5405-5409 Wilshire Blvd.) was designed by Marcus P. Miller, and was constructed between April and June, 1936. This building, which was owned by the Santa Inez Co., held several small stores. As you can see, those stores' entrances are now completely walled-off.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Fab Fifties Fan

I have been called bizarre before, so no worries there. Some of us Fab Fifties Fans put our aluminum Xmas tree up every year and the color wheel is an absolute must!!!




~Jon Paul

Yikes! No offence intended. Please don't get an aluminum kitty too. I like the one you've got :-)

-and-

e_r posting the Hody's clown made me remember to search for a pic of Bargain Circus, which we were talking about a few pages back. Here's a night shot:

miramax - Playing by Heart

La Brea & Willoughby, now a 99 cent store


Thank you Oviatt! Mystery solved.

[Oviatt Building Fan]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Thank you Oviatt! Mystery solved.

[Oviatt Building Fan]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

e_r posting the Hody's clown made me remember to search for a pic of Bargain Circus, which we were talking about a few pages back. Here's a night shot:

miramax - Playing by Heart

My mother and I used to go there when I was a kid. Right outside the front entrance was a life-sized mechanical clown mannequin which moved around and laughed. After years of being exposed to the sun, the "clown" had seen better days: it was cracked, grimy and tattered ... truly frightening.

[JScott]

.

[Moxie]

*whispers back* Photoshop.

[mdiederi]

Did a search and didn't find this one posted yet. Gerald Desmond Bridge 1967. (Construction has begun on the replacement bridge.)


http://www.newgdbridge.com/gallery/press_photos.asp

[belmont bob]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

http://athome.kimvallee.com/2008/12/...ristmas-trees/


LOL BB, did you have the rotating color wheel to go with it? Some of our neighbors had those. Just bizarre...

YES!!! we did, how did you know...did you come to my house c. 1956? our house sat way up off the street and we had a big picture window that you could see for miles from. with the tree proudly displayed for all to see....

[tovangar2]

THAT was yours? I didn't have to go there, one could see it from Hermosa Beach! Aluminum trees! I still have trouble getting my head around that, but thx to F3, I'm trying to develop an appreciation

I did visit one of the purple ALCOA aluminum houses once on a trip to the Midwest. I thought it was pretty swell.