noirish Los Angeles

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by Mstimc

I guess I'm missing something. Despite the references to "private baths", all the room look like they share a bathroom with at least one other room?

Maybe they mean that, though the bathrooms are shared, if you pay for a private bath you don't need to have someone else present in the bathtub with you when you take a bath. I'd pay extra for that (in most cases).

[Tourmaline]

1929 - The Guasti-Giulii Tire Tower, formerly at 1251 East 8th Street.


D and M Lunchroom, Where the sandwiches come in single and two ply?




http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/33166







http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/33166



Coincidental similarity to this NLA favorite Landmark?

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3...eandlabrea.jpg





Background structure, still there. https://www.google.com/maps/place/12....2435039?hl=en

MMmmm. Nice sidewalls.





https://alphabetilately.org/Oly/1932/1932-53-a.jpg





Secundo Guasti

Secundo Guasti immigrated to Los Angeles in 1878 from Asti, Italy , via Mexico . In Italy he had been a farm laborer. In Los Angeles he hired on as a cook in an Italian restaurant. There he fell in love with and married the daughter of the proprietor. He and his wife explored the desert area around Cucamonga and discovered a plentiful water table beneath the sandy soil, leading them to believe the area was suitable for growing wine grapes. In 1901, Guasti purchased some 5,000 acres in the area around South Cucamonga at 75 cents an acre. While many scoffed, Guasti in 1904 established the Italian Vineyard Company and soon built it into the largest winery in California . Guasti started several varieties of grapes and wine that he imported from Italy and France .

Guasti brought whole families from Italy to till the land, build the winery, and an Italian town that he named "Guasti." A company town, it had its own school, general store (where workers could spend company scrip), firehouse, and later, a church. Guasti built houses for the workers. There were also two or three rooming houses for the unmarried men and an inn. The winery had its own railroad station, and tracks were laid throughout the vineyards, bringing the grapes by rail in small box cars to the winery for crushing. In 1910 Secundo Guasti built a grand mansion in West Adams , at 3500 W. Adams Blvd. , designed by architects Hudson & Munsell. After his death, the Guasti family sold the house to film choreographer and director Busby Berkeley. It is now the home of the Prana Peace Theological Seminary.

A tragic event in 1903 led to an odd ending for the Guasti Winery. A locomotive derailed, swinging into the fields where it killed thirty-two men. Guasti had a cemetery built nearby. Over the years the place acquired the reputation of being haunted, by the dead workers and even by Secundo Guasti himself. Today the winery has become a tourist attraction called the Haunted Vineyard. It is located at 3099 Guasti Road just off the I-10 north of the Ontario airport.]http://www.westadamsheritage.org/read/468

Unrelated. Two snippets from a larger film of depicting dangerous aspects of police and fire department activities, circa 1926. Evidently, the footage was used to promote a ballot proposition that would create memorial funding for police and fire personnel. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...coll88/id/1452

[Tourmaline]

Wilshire Fireproof Storage (prior HossC post http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=23872)
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7SWestern1.jpg


This 1924 view, looking north on Western from 10th Street (Olympic) fits within HossC's images. Fireproof Storage silhouette. No intervening tall structures, e.g., the Wiltern Theater Tower. Church location?





http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...coll65/id/5682










http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...coll65/id/5682

Originally Posted by HossC

I meant to post this follow-up a couple of days ago, but got distracted by airfields, bus depots and babies in drawers .

You're right about the perspective, Lorendoc. Just for fun, I thought I'd do a "now" picture for comparison since there are several of the original buildings still standing. Despite being taken from roughly the same spot, the storage building and the hills in the distance both look much closer in the 1924 image.


GSV

This picture, also from 1924, was taken about a block north of the one above, roughly level with the Ridgway Drug Co identified by Lorendoc.


USC Digital Library

On the left is a See's Candy Shop at 135 N Western Avenue. The building still stands, and is now Tom N Toms Coffee (renumbered to 125 N Western Avenue). The "Hollywoodland" sign is just visible above the roof.


Detail of picture above.

On the right is Henderson Nash at 108 N Western Avenue. They were also dealers for cars made by the Chandler Motor Car and Cleveland Automobile companies (both of which were founded by Frederick C. Chandler). It wasn't until two years after this picture was taken that the two companies were merged into the Chandler-Cleveland Motors Corp. The company was sold to the Hupp Motor Car Corp at the end of 1928. I think that the Nash sign says "Temporary Quarters". The 1923 CD lists the Mecca Oriental Rug Cleaning Company at 106 N Western Avenue, but it looks like Henderson's occupies the whole building here. I love the little Hercules Gasoline station - I wonder whether those squares were black and white, or something more colorful. It appears as the Petitfils & Miller service station at 102 N Western Avenue in the 1923 CD. Check out the used cars in the lower right corner.


Detail of picture above.

I thought we'd seen this picture before, but I can't find it. It's pretty much an elevated view of the same part of N Western Avenue, but taken a year earlier. The See's Candy building is on the left. Moving north of Council Street, there are a couple of vacant lots with steps already built. On the right, the large building set back from the road opposite See's Candy is Wilshire Cadillac Service at 112 N Western Avenue.


USC Digital Library

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

"When Sunset near North Orange Grove, . . . was residential."

1931, looking north at Sunset Blvd., on North Orange Grove. Note Hollywood Roosevelt in background. Hollywood High occupies area to the right.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/41486

Slight correction, Tourmaline...this photo is at N. Orange Drive, Orange Grove and Sunset is further west near Fairfax Ave.

I wondered what the chalk marks were for and following your link discovered that we have this marvelous photo because of a motorcycle accident that took place there.

Currently at this location:

Yelp

In-N-Out Burgers, 7009 Sunset Blvd.
A source says this opened in 1994, but I could've sworn it was there a lot longer ago than that. (Now I wonder what was there previously. )

The In-N-Out chain began in 1948 in a space barely 10 feet square at Francisquito and Garvey in Baldwin Park. It was demolished when the Interstate 10 (then U.S. 60/70/99, the Ramona Freeway) San Bernardino Freeway was built from downtown Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Valley. The freeway runs over the original location.


Crossed palms...

Yelp

Notice the two "crossed palm trees" in this photo? Most In-N-Out's have a pair of crossed palm trees out front, because the founder got the idea from the film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In the film, the characters race to find treasure located under palm trees in the shape of a W, and Harry Snyder, the founder of In-N-Out, wanted to mark each restaurant as his own treasure.

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Slight correction, Tourmaline...this photo is at N. Orange Drive, Orange Grove and Sunset is further west near Fairfax Ave.

Thanks, I caught it too. Force of habit.

Hard to tell whether the Roosevelt had its rooftop signage when the photo was taken (1931). An historic aerial image suggests that the barely visible part of the High School includes some sort of athletic "courts" and what might be part of elevated bleachers.





Wonder if the parked cars belonged to the residents, the school faculty or maybe even the students.

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Slight correction, Tourmaline...this photo is at N. Orange Drive, Orange Grove and Sunset is further west near Fairfax Ave.

I wondered what the chalk marks were for and following your link discovered that we have this marvelous photo because of a motorcycle accident that took place there.

Currently at this location:

Yelp

In-N-Out Burgers, 7009 Sunset Blvd.
A source says this opened in 1994, but I could've sworn it was there a lot longer ago than that. (Now I wonder what was there previously. )

The In-N-Out chain began in 1948 in a space barely 10 feet square at Francisquito and Garvey in Baldwin Park. It was demolished when the Interstate 10 (then U.S. 60/70/99, the Ramona Freeway) San Bernardino Freeway was built from downtown Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Valley. The freeway runs over the original location.


Crossed palms...

Yelp

Notice the two "crossed palm trees" in this photo? Most In-N-Out's have a pair of crossed palm trees out front, because the founder got the idea from the film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In the film, the characters race to find treasure located under palm trees in the shape of a W, and Harry Snyder, the founder of In-N-Out, wanted to mark each restaurant as his own treasure.

Few indeed are the things I hate; but one of them is this corner.


gsv

Proceeding north on Orange to my annual sojourn at the Roosevelt, I am prone to getting trapped sitting in the middle of the intersection with Sunset because cars are stopped on northbound Orange waiting to go into the In-N-Out parking lot but blocked by oncoming southbound cars on Orange. Bah! (I now avoid it by crossing Sunset on Highland, then scooting over a block north back to Orange, on which the driveway to the Roosevelt is located, just south of Hollywood Blvd.)

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by BillinGlendaleCA

3643 San Fernando, Glendale CA
Harley-Davidson of Glendale website

This is so cool. Good find BillinGlendaleCA!

Originally Posted by TracedogsLA

Great post Ethereal. Awesome photo really. LMAO - "might be a gay motorcycle club". I love it. It indeed was. They left their records for posterity. OAC

Thanks TracedogLA. I honestly had no idea. (I surmised because the tumblr account I found the pic on was gayish)

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Thanks to TracedogsLA's tip, I see that photo is at the USC Digital Library ("Five Blue Max members on motorcycles").

I think this shows the same guys in the same spot, but the photo looks in the opposite direction ("Rear view of Blue Max members on motorcycles").

Here's the photo FW described. (for all you link-skippers)


USC
This was obviously taken to show the back of their jackets.

The buildings in the distance all appear to be intact.


GSV




Here's a 2nd pic.

"Blue Max Motorcycle Club members in German military regalia with spiked helmets (Pickelhauben) in front of a Blue Max banner and flags. Circa 1970" (Pickelhauben?)


USC Digital Archive

I've been trying to figure out what the dude in the center is wearing. It looks like a long brown kerchief, attached at the neck, that extends all the way down to the ground.
It's a bit comical at the bottom, because the kerchief appears to be wearing shoes.




__

[HossC]

While looking through USC's Blue Max M/C images, I found this Halloween-appropriate "Great Pumpkin Run" flyer. No date is given, but October 14th only fell on a Sunday in 1973 and 1979 in the '70s.


USC Digital Library

I couldn't find any previous mentions of Griff's at 5574 Melrose Avenue on NLA, so it's lucky that USC has more images. This is the only exterior shot and it's quite damaged, so I covered the corner with a button of the logo.


USC Digital Library/USC Digital Library

I just picked one of the interior images.


USC Digital Library

I was just going to post the most recent Streetview image and comment on the higher roof, lack of side entrances and the fact that the body shop next door still has a stripey sign. Then I went back to January 2017 and spotted this. Is that a real streetcar or a movie replica? Have we discussed it before? It was there back to 2015.


GSV

BTW We've visited 5574 Melrose before when Scott Charles remembered a later incarnation as Small's:

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Harking back to the discussion of nightclubs we had a few pages back, the building on the right used to be called “Small's” back in the 90s. I never played there, but I saw some of my friends perform there.



You can read a bit about Small's here.

[ethereal_reality]

Very interesting Hoss. Good sleuthing!

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The buildings in the distance all appear to be intact.


GSV

__

I don't think the white building at the right of the current street view(down the street past the 3 buildings that are in the vintage photo) was in the original photo, but it was gutted by a pretty big fire a couple of weeks ago. The building at the far right of the current street view(under the little hill) is LAPD's new Northeast division HQ.

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Maybe they mean that, though the bathrooms are shared, if you pay for a private bath you don't need to have someone else present in the bathtub with you when you take a bath. I'd pay extra for that (in most cases).

LOL! I've been married 31 years. A hot bath by myself would be worth the extra two bucks!

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by HossC

I was just going to post the most recent Streetview image and comment on the higher roof, lack of side entrances and the fact that the body shop next door still has a stripey sign. Then I went back to January 2017 and spotted this. Is that a real streetcar or a movie replica? Have we discussed it before? It was there back to 2015.


GSV

:

____________________

It looks to me like a cable car body (note the open section visible at the rear), most likely a replica mounted on a light truck chassis.

[Handsome Stranger]

It's probably one of these abominations:



I used to see them all the time in Hollywood, but haven't seen any recently.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

USC Digital Archive

I've been trying to figure out what the dude in the center is wearing. It looks like a long brown kerchief, attached at the neck, that extends all the way down to the ground.
It's a bit comical at the bottom, because the kerchief appears to be wearing shoes.

If you look carefully, the "stripe" runs vertically past the top of his head, making the foliage behind him a bit yellow. So what we are looking at is a flaw in the photographic negative and/or print. Here's a closer view with the stripe slightly enhanced:

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

If you look carefully, the "stripe" runs vertically past the top of his head, making the foliage behind him a bit yellow. So what we are looking at is a flaw in the photographic negative and/or print. Here's a closer view with the stripe slightly enhanced:

Looks like the film got fogged there.

[GaylordWilshire]

Perry Mason mystery building




Wondering if the "CPC" lettering was already there...since it doesn't seem to match "Caresse Cosmetic Products"-- 1027 what?? (That's Paul Drake getting out of his '58 T'bird.)


And just for fun, Paul in a new hat, cruising a steamroom ambushing a guy to serve him a subpoena...

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This is so cool. Good find BillinGlendaleCA!


Thanks TracedogLA. I honestly had no idea. (I surmised because the tumblr account I found the pic on was gayish)




Here's the photo FW described. (for all you link-skippers)


USC
This was obviously taken to show the back of their jackets.






Here's a 2nd pic.

"Blue Max Motorcycle Club members in German military regalia with spiked helmets (Pickelhauben) in front of a Blue Max banner and flags. Circa 1970" (Pickelhauben?)


USC Digital Archive
shoes.




__

amazon

The founding origins of the Blue Max motorcycle club was rather bizarre. Its inspiration was the 1966 movie "The Blue Max". The film recounts a story about a poor German boy from a small village who grows up to join a German military airplane squadron in WW I. He eventually earns the coveted medal: The Blue Max. How all of this morphed into a gay motorcycle club in Los Angeles, I have no idea.

You may notice that all of the esteemed members are wearing some sort of Blue Max medal on a ribbon. I guess you have to have seen the movie to understand the mythos.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

[snip]
You may notice that all of the esteemed members are wearing some sort of Blue Max medal on a ribbon. I guess you have to have seen the movie to understand the mythos.

Lots of mythos around that medal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pour_le_M%C3%A9rite

Cheers,

Earl

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Slight correction, Tourmaline...this photo is at N. Orange Drive, Orange Grove and Sunset is further west near Fairfax Ave.

I wondered what the chalk marks were for and following your link discovered that we have this marvelous photo because of a motorcycle accident that took place there.

Currently at this location:

Yelp

In-N-Out Burgers, 7009 Sunset Blvd.
A source says this opened in 1994, but I could've sworn it was there a lot longer ago than that. (Now I wonder what was there previously. )

The lot became the Sunset-Orange Motel in 1949; which was demolished in January 1994.

I was in a vintage furnishings shop about twenty years ago and they had the neon sign from the Sunset-Orange. The guy selling it remarked "What's funny is, it used to be an in-n-out motel, now it's an In-n-Out."







(pix from ebay listings)

[SHERIFFPAUL]

Whats sad about the town of Guasti is most of the old homes and landmarks have been torn down. They had an old restaurant there that did a great breakfast and the heirs fought regarding who owned it. They sold it and it was bulldozed.

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

1929 - The Guasti-Giulii Tire Tower, formerly at 1251 East 8th Street.


D and M Lunchroom, Where the sandwiches come in single and two ply?




http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/33166







http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/33166



Coincidental similarity to this NLA favorite Landmark?

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3...eandlabrea.jpg





Background structure, still there. https://www.google.com/maps/place/12....2435039?hl=en

MMmmm. Nice sidewalls.





https://alphabetilately.org/Oly/1932/1932-53-a.jpg





Secundo Guasti





Unrelated. Two snippets from a larger film of depicting dangerous aspects of police and fire department activities, circa 1926. Evidently, the footage was used to promote a ballot proposition that would create memorial funding for police and fire personnel. http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...coll88/id/1452