noirish Los Angeles

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by Prah

Hey!

Unsure if this has been posted here before but here's a cool drive-in from the 1950s known as "The Track". Anyone who can guess why?


(@InterurbanE, Twitter)

y

I wonder where this was located? And for how long was it in business?

There was one Track at 8123 Beverly Blvd. It looks so distinctive that the aerial photographs at UCSB might help.

[nadeau]

Originally Posted by Prah

Hey!

Unsure if this has been posted here before but here's a cool drive-in from the 1950s known as "The Track". Anyone who can guess why?


(@InterurbanE, Twitter)



I wonder where this was located? And for how long was it in business?

I’m guessing along Beverly in mid-city area. From aerials that stuck with me.

[GaylordWilshire]

8123 Beverly Blvd, nec Kilkea



In addition to this link, The Track has been seen in these prior NLA posts, among others:


https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...postcount=7922 (2012)

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=40668 (2017)

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=40670 (2017)

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Prah

Hey!

Unsure if this has been posted here before but here's a cool drive-in from the 1950s known as "The Track". Anyone who can guess why?


(@InterurbanE, Twitter)



I wonder where this was located? And for how long was it in business?

The interesting thing about these photos is not the ''track'' but the collection of old cars.

[Bristolian]

As a machinist and fabricator, I find the track mechanism to be extremely interesting.

[riichkay]

Screen grabs from "The Ring", a 1952 boxing picture featuring Lalo Rios as Tommy Cantanios, an East L.A. kid who displays some modest potential as a fighter, and ends up getting exploited by his Anglo managers....20 year-old Rita Moreno plays his girlfriend, Lucy Gomez....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTiaMY8WSM&t=3046s





There's an early scene at the Dresden Room, 1760 N. Vermont Ave.





I think this may have been filmed in the actual Dresden interior, as the lounge is set up just like this....as you enter the front door the bar curves around, doors to the kitchen are in the back to the left, and the piano is set up midway along the wall opposite the bar.





Tommy walks Lucy up Vermont from the Dresden....





....and puts her on the #76 bus.





He has his 1st fight at the Valley Garden Arena, 7111 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood...a 2,000 seat venue, in addition to boxing it hosted wrestling, roller derby, boat shows etc...the building survives for retail/warehouse use.





Tommy gets in some roadwork on a hillside street near downtown...









The roadwork is interrupted when his managers stop by for a chat.





6th and Los Angeles St.





This shot was framed to include P.E.'s elevated 6th and Main St. station....





...it's hard to make out here but at the 50:41 mark there's a train in motion.


The thread has mentioned The Burl Room #1 drive-in (pg. 1403), which was over by the Vista Theater at Hollywood Blvd. and Hillhurst....here we get a look at Burl's Room # 2....Tommy and crew are heading west on Pico Blvd., when they come to that short block between S. Beverly Dr. and S. Elm Dr..... 




....and they turn into Burl's....





....the Beverlywood Pharmacy building survives largely intact, it's now a kosher market.









Burl's was a riot of chrome, glass, and neon.





"Home of the ???"...


I'll interrupt the story for this aside...




The other week TCM ran "Double Indemnity", I noted a short scene where Fred MacMurray stops at a drive-in for a beer....in the thin sliver we get of the place it looks a lot like Burl's....I would assume that both Burl's locations had a similar if not identical design, and most of the "Double Indemnity" exteriors were filmed in Hollywood and Los Feliz....so I am guessing Fred had his beer at Burl's #1.



Back to "The Ring", the boys enter Burl's #2 dining room...     












Tommy gets into a mismatch vs. "Golden Boy" Art Aragon, playing himself....legendary ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr. performs the introductions....Aragon carries Tommy for a couple of rounds so the spectators can get their money's worth, then drops him like a bad habit.





Disillusioned with the fight game after the Aragon bout, Tommy returns to the family home...IMDB identifies this as the 700 block of N. Hill Place.





He decides to burn his ring attire out back of the house...









...Lucy shows up...





....Tommy runs down the hill, Lucy in pursuit...





....she catches up with him just before Olvera St...





....where the picture ends.


Lalo Rios had a few minor credits after "The Ring", then vanished from the business...he died of liver disease on 3/7/73, age 46.

Rita Moreno is still very much with us at age 88, as an homage to the original (for which she won an Oscar) Moreno will appear in the Spielberg remake of "West Side Story", due out in Dec.   

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

8123 Beverly Blvd, nec Kilkea



In addition to this link, The Track has been seen in these prior NLA posts, among others:


https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...postcount=7922 (2012)

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=40668 (2017)

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=40670 (2017)

Thanks GW and E_R for the links to the old posts.

Timely reminders from the LA Times:


10/25/1949 via newspapers.com

and:


2/17/1952 via newspapers.com

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Screen grabs from "The Ring", a 1952 boxing picture featuring Lalo Rios as Tommy Cantanios, an East L.A. kid who displays some modest potential as a fighter, and ends up getting exploited by his Anglo managers....20 year-old Rita Moreno plays his girlfriend, Lucy Gomez....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTiaMY8WSM&t=3046s

Interesting how the film was advertised at the time in the poster:

Alchetron

[ethereal_reality]

.
It's difficult to believe that we haven't seen this building on NLA but after several searches it appears that we haven't.
Cinecolor has only been mentioned three times on NLA and always in relation to some other subject. For instance: Cinecolor is in the lyrics of a Cole Porter Song.



Cinecolor, Burbank


calisphere

Exterior view of Cinecolor, Inc., a color film processing lab in Burbank. This Streamline Moderne style facility was designed by architect Robert V. Derrah,
who created the landmark Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Building in Los Angeles. The concrete-reinforced structure is 45,000 sq. ft. in size and cost $125,000 to construct in 1939.




Let's take a closer look at the entrance.


calisphere







Here's the whopper.

The building is still standing and still used as a lab!


Google_Earth / 2800 W. Olive Avenue, Burbank

"As of 2012 FotoKem was still using this building as a film-processing laboratory although much of the architectural detail has been modified."




Here's a side-by-side comparison.




The portholes that made the building uniquely Derrah's were replaced with square windows at some point in time.

You can check it out HERE





If we have seen the Cinecolor building on NLA just pretend we haven't.
.

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's the whopper.

The building is still standing & it's still in use as a lab!

Wait, what? I've lived just outside of Burbank my entire life, and I've never seen this beautiful example of streamline moderne...

Oh, wait... they completely destroyed it.

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a side-by-side comparison.

[ScottyB]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Wait, what? I've lived just outside of Burbank my entire life, and I've never seen this beautiful example of streamline moderne...

Oh, wait... they completely destroyed it.

Ha! Had the same thought, Scott....it's right down the street from me. The walls are still standing but all the fun is gone.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

As a machinist and fabricator, I find the track mechanism to be extremely interesting.

Interesting concept for sure but there is a lot of redundancy. Needs maybe more parking and less track....the whole thing is very cumbersome and clunky.

Bristolian, you could improve on this.! It could use a modern day rethink. Maybe a conveyor belt that could service many cars....who knows?

[odinthor]

In doing some research sparked by this postcard, I was led down a winding path full of points of interest. I'll share a selection of them in no fewer than three posts . . .

The Cafe Kerkow, run by Paul Kerkow, the brother of Fred "Fritz" Kerkow (whom you'll come to know better shortly), existed from about 1908-1910.



odinthor collection



LA Herald, 7/11/1908



LA Herald, 3/26/1910


It appears that the reporter or typesetter got the address wrong in the following:


LA Times, 5/18/1910

[odinthor]

Part 2 of our Kerkow Chronicles:

Let's start getting to know the Kerkow brothers, Fred and Paul:


We've discussed the New Vienna Buffet on NLA, not thinking perhaps that we'd meet Mr. (F.) Kerkow again:


LA Times, 6/27/1888


F. Kerkow's brother Paul came for a visit (and never left):


LA Herald, 7/17/1888


Fred Kerkow had a most interesting past:


LA Times, 2/11/1889


F. Kerkow had a big heart:


LA Times, 9/7/1889

[Martin Pal]

The name doesn't easily come sailing off one's tongue.
Cafe Kerkow sounds like getting food stuck in your throat and choking.
I would've gone with The Kerkow Cafe.

[odinthor]

Part 3 of our Kerkow Chronicles:


F. Kerkow traveled:


LA Herald, 12/22/1895


F. Kerkow treated his customers in a fatherly way:


LA Times, 3/30/1897


Fred Kerkow died at his L.A. residence of 1343 Wright St. on March 26, 1899.


But life goes on for Paul Kerkow . . . more or less:


LA Times, 2/19/1901


The question of the propriety of private boxes in restaurants came up, and Kerkow's opinion was solicited:


LA Times, 6/22/1901


Uh-oh!


LA Times, 1/26/1903


And in this period (1908-1910), Kerkow had the Kerkow Cafe on Broadway, discussed earlier.


In an affair which I largely spare NLA, Kerkow, in applying for a restoration of his license, was contacted by the "Good Government Organization" to contribute to the "Good Government Fund," which the LA Times, in considering this a shakedown for political favors, called the "Goo-Goo Fund." Kerkow ignored the letter, but the Press made hay of this, embarrassing the "Goo-Goos" (members of the political machine behind the "Good Government Organization") resulting in the Goo-Goo connected mayor to at length be disinclined to do anything whatsoever for Kerkow:


LA Herald, 2/26/1913


But Kerkow found employment at a site familiar to NLA:


LA Times, 12/20/1914


And then at another familiar site, the Vegetarian eatery (in another article, it's specified as the one at 3rd and Hill):


LA Times, 7/14/1919


The Kerkow brothers dabbled in other interesting matters as well; but let us bid them adieu for now.

[ethereal_reality]

.



Excellent research on the Kerkow brothers, odinthor.


I located a photograph of Paul Kerkow.



Los Angeles Herald - Jan. 14, 1906

I can't decide if that's a mole on his nose or something on the newspaper when it was scanned.

.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.



Excellent research on the Kerkow brothers, odinthor.


I located a photograph of Paul Kerkow.



Los Angeles Herald - Jan. 14, 1906

I can't decide if that's a mole on his nose or something on the newspaper when it was scanned.

.

Looks like a mole to me. Put a drop of Salicylic acid on it and it will flake off.

He looks a bit cross-eyed also. I wonder what else he had to suffer with?

[ethereal_reality]

.

Here are the often seen (on NLA) gas-o-meters from a new angle.

Seller's description: "1966 ORIGINAL SLIDE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY AREA CALIFORNIA"


eBay

I've been looking around in the area but haven't figured out where the photographer was standing. (of course, it's difficult since the gas tanks are no longer there)


.

[ethereal_reality]

.
We have seen this photograph only once before, way back in 2011, but the image is now missing.



lapl

This was one of Mickey Cohen's bookie joints in the mid 1940s. It was located at 8109 Beverly Blvd.

As a reminder: The killing of bookie Max "Maxie" Shaman occurred here in 1945.


Here's a description:


amazon books


sidenote: Kon-Kre-Kota was a special brand of paint made with asbestos. (and, perhaps, kreosote [sic]?)





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