noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Ginger's house has a lot more company now it appears!

AMPAS has some home movie footage of her lounging around her pool up there on the hill. (Color footage.) Occasionally they have a "Hollywood Home Movies" night and show all kinds of rare footage like this. If I recall correctly, the footage was from the 1940's.

[Those Who Squirm!]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

ER, Bruce, posted the lovely card about the Chateau Marmont. This inspired me to find an interior shot of the building. This is the only thing I could find with a quick search. This is obviously a kitchen inside the building. I'll try to find some more. Here we see a very nice stove and a clock on the wall. Rice Krispies.....anyone?



H. Newman

We once went for drinks in the Marmont's patio bar, but I didn't dare take any pictures. Given its reputation as a celebrity hangout such an attempt might have seemed intrusive, even if all I wanted was a general view and some architectural details.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm

We once went for drinks in the Marmont's patio bar, but I didn't dare take any pictures. Given its reputation as a celebrity hangout such an attempt might have seemed intrusive, even if all I wanted was a general view and some architectural details.

I guess if you get hungry at the Marmont they have food available. Here's the bar menu.

Near the bottom we see Black Seafood... Please 'hold' the ''squid ink''. Thank you.



Hotel Marmont

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by HossC

GW, any news on why the Monte Sano was demolished? It was still there in 1980 (below), but Google Earth shows that it had gone by 1989. The lot appears to have been empty ever since.


Historic Aerials

Hoss-- I poked around, thinking that maybe it was demo'ed for seismic reason...which it may have been, if it wasn't just torn down for new development. Apparently there was a plan for a 222-unit apartment complex on the site in the mid-'80s, but neighbors and the LA school district got it killed; there was, it seems, severe overcrowding in northeast L.A. schools at the time. So maybe the city should have turned Monte Sano into a school?


LAT March 6, 1986

[Wig-Wag]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

ER, Bruce, posted the lovely card about the Chateau Marmont. This inspired me to find an interior shot of the building. This is the only thing I could find with a quick search. This is obviously a kitchen inside the building. I'll try to find some more. Here we see a very nice stove and a clock on the wall. Rice Krispies.....anyone?



H. Newman

Uh, CityBoyDoug, would ya perchance have a back story on this photo?

Cheers,
Jack

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

I guess if you get hungry at the Marmont they have food available. Here's the bar menu.

Near the bottom we see Black Seafood... Please 'hold' the ''squid ink''. Thank you.



Hotel Marmont

My business partner and I used to stay at the Chateau Marmont back in the mid to late 1970s for a week or ten days at a time when we came down from SF for the LA Gift Show, usually twice a year. It was actually very quiet and discrete. Back then there was no bar, no food service, and no glitzy scene in the lobby. The rooms and suites (all with kitchens) were spacious and generally pretty shabby in a kind of wonderful way. The place was never completely full, and, compared to the luxury hotels on the westside, it was a comparative bargain considering all the space and atmosphere provided. The parking sucked. It always took forever to get your car out of the garage, but it was also possible to park overnight on the street behind the hotel. That is probably verboten nowadays. I was always bad at celebrity spotting, but my partner could identify anybody remotely famous with one glance. I still remember my partner excitedly pointing out that the sad and worried looking man sitting at poolside one summer day was none other than Roman Polanski. This was just after his indictment and immediately prior to his departure for France to escape prosecution for his dalliance with the 13 year old model/actress. I guess he was typical of the celebrity guest of that era. The hotel was also popular with visiting network journalists and various rock and roll types who did not want the kind of action found down the street at the Hyatt. Belushi bit the dust there sometime towards the end of this period. The Marmont is too rich for my blood nowadays. I imagine I would vastly prefer the hip seediness of the place back in the 1970s.

[brparts]

i remember this from when we lived in Hollywood back in the mid 40's. monkey would take the coins from our hands

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

excellent commentary Mstimc.
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ebay
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[Blaster]

Originally Posted by FredH

1961 - The Foss/Heindel House at 315 South Bunker Hill Avenue.



http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/c...id/6286/rec/18

This location appears in Joseph Losey's 1950 remake of Fritz Lang's "M." It's the apartment house where David Wayne's child killer lives.

"M" is a treat for fans of Norish LA. It also makes great use of the Bradbury Building, Angels Flight and the 3rd Street Tunnel.

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by austlar1

My business partner and I used to stay at the Chateau Marmont back in the mid to late 1970s for a week or ten days at a time when we came down from SF for the LA Gift Show, usually twice a year. It was actually very quiet and discrete. Back then there was no bar, no food service, and no glitzy scene in the lobby. The rooms and suites (all with kitchens) were spacious and generally pretty shabby in a kind of wonderful way. The place was never completely full, and, compared to the luxury hotels on the westside, it was a comparative bargain considering all the space and atmosphere provided. The parking sucked. It always took forever to get your car out of the garage, but it was also possible to park overnight on the street behind the hotel. That is probably verboten nowadays. I was always bad at celebrity spotting, but my partner could identify anybody remotely famous with one glance. I still remember my partner excitedly pointing out that the sad and worried looking man sitting at poolside one summer day was none other than Roman Polanski. This was just after his indictment and immediately prior to his departure for France to escape prosecution for his dalliance with the 13 year old model/actress. I guess he was typical of the celebrity guest of that era. The hotel was also popular with visiting network journalists and various rock and roll types who did not want the kind of action found down the street at the Hyatt. Belushi bit the dust there sometime towards the end of this period. The Marmont is too rich for my blood nowadays. I imagine I would vastly prefer the hip seediness of the place back in the 1970s.

austlar1, What you have written is pretty accurate. I worked there as a security guard or “Hotel Dick’ from midnight to 6:00 in the morning as an off duty job a couple nights a week in the early 80’s. It was very quiet at those hours, my duty was anti burglary purposes for the most part. Belushi was still alive and living in one of the units next to the hotel. The Penthouse was occupied by a still famous star. Movie people and music people were plentiful. They had a good size kitchen but mainly just for sandwiches. The rooms did have kitchens as you stated. I had a very good view of the Sunset Strip from outside of the Penthouse. The prostitutes on the blvd. were always active opposite the hotel.

[FredH]

Mickey Rooney has died at age 93. What a career! What a life!


Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, MGM

The damn guy was married to Ava Gardner. Wow! My hat's off to him for that alone.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Hollywood Graham

austlar1, What you have written is pretty accurate. I worked there as a security guard or “Hotel Dick’ from midnight to 6:00 in the morning as an off duty job a couple nights a week in the early 80’s. It was very quiet at those hours, my duty was anti burglary purposes for the most part. Belushi was still alive and living in one of the units next to the hotel. The Penthouse was occupied by a still famous star. Movie people and music people were plentiful. They had a good size kitchen but mainly just for sandwiches. The rooms did have kitchens as you stated. I had a very good view of the Sunset Strip from outside of the Penthouse. The prostitutes on the blvd. were always active opposite the hotel.

Wow! I bet that was a very interesting part time job! Yeah, Polanski was circa 1977 and Belushi OD'd in 1982. I started staying at the Marmont around 1975 and by 1982 I lived in LA and had no need of a hotel. I guess I never knew that there was a kitchen serving sandwiches. We always made good use of the kitchens in the rooms. West Hollywood was not yet a hotel scene, except for sleazy motels. I think there was only the Chateau Marmont, the Hyatt (where things went on all night, night after night according to song and legend), and the Sunset Marquis. The Sunset Towers was an abandoned shell during that period. The Mondrian did not open as a hotel until the mid 1980's. The Chateau allowed dogs. I once got evicted from the Sunset Marquis for sneaking my dog into the room. Who was the famous movie star in the Chateau penthouse during the time you worked there? Didn't Sophia Loren once occupy the penthouse for an extended period?

[GaylordWilshire]

Great graphics:


1921





1898


All from city directories at the LAPL

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

Uh, CityBoyDoug, would ya perchance have a back story on this photo?

Cheers,
Jack

All I know for sure is that the photographer crashed his Cadillac into the wall of the parking area and was fatally injured.

[Hollywood Graham]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Wow! I bet that was a very interesting part time job! Yeah, Polanski was circa 1977 and Belushi OD'd in 1982. I started staying at the Marmont around 1975 and by 1982 I lived in LA and had no need of a hotel. I guess I never knew that there was a kitchen serving sandwiches. We always made good use of the kitchens in the rooms. West Hollywood was not yet a hotel scene, except for sleazy motels. I think there was only the Chateau Marmont, the Hyatt (where things went on all night, night after night according to song and legend), and the Sunset Marquis. The Sunset Towers was an abandoned shell during that period. The Mondrian did not open as a hotel until the mid 1980's. The Chateau allowed dogs. I once got evicted from the Sunset Marquis for sneaking my dog into the room. Who was the famous movie star in the Chateau penthouse during the time you worked there? Didn't Sophia Loren once occupy the penthouse for an extended period?

Robert Deniro had the Penthouse. One morning i was standing in the arched entryway and next to me in the plants lands a BerzOMatic torch then comes a bag of Cocaine. It came from the second story window where a member of a very popular, at the time, rock group was staying. I won’t say what group but it was (The P*****). I took the bag down on the strip and handed it over to a Copper I knew who drove by. Never heard a word more about it. Because of the amount I think he thought it was a joke and tossed it.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by FredH

Mickey Rooney

I always liked that he was around because he was a still visible tie to Hollywood all the way back to the silents!

I may have seen him in person more than once, but I do remember him in the stage show, with Ann Miller, of Sugar Babies, at the Pantages. Oh, yeah, I saw him there about ten years ago as the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, too!


http://psiqueland.files.wordpress.co...ntages043x.jpg

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by brparts

i remember this from when we lived in Hollywood back in the mid 40's. monkey would take the coins from our hands

Welcome to the thread, brparts. You don't happen to remember anyone talking about Monkey Island on Cahuenga Blvd., do you? Or seeing it yourself? It was still there in the late 40's, but had closed around 1940. Thanks!

P.S.: If you have any stories or reminiscences about living in Hollywood in the 1940's, I'm sure we'd all be interested if you wanted to share them.

[ethereal_reality]

Monte Sano Hospital
originally posted by GW

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

HossThere was, it seems, severe overcrowding in northeast L.A. schools at the time. So maybe the city should have turned Monte Sano into a school?

I think that would have been a great idea GW (if it was structurally sound),
...but short sighted bureaucrats seldom think in these terms. Look what they did with the Ambassador Hotel.
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below: Monte Sano Hospital even had it's own railway stop.

Here it is pictured in 1955. Note the tiny Monte Sano sign on the utility pole.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphot...=276734&nseq=0

It was the last trolley stop before crossing Riverside Drive and the Los Angeles River. The station closed in 1955, the Riverside Viaduct
at Monte Sano was dismantled in 1959 (the same year the nearby Fletcher Viaduct was dismantled).

In the above 1955 photograph notice the balustrade at far left.
The balustrade (and stairs) were left to deteriorate for over 30 years!

1987

Paul Ayers 1987. http://redcarproperty.blogspot.com/s...l/Monte%20Sano




1987

Paul Ayers 1987. http://redcarproperty.blogspot.com/s...l/Monte%20Sano

The stairs pictured, descended down to Riverside Drive from the trolley stop. It appears the railway was located midway between Riverside Drive
and Monte Sano Hospital. I wonder if there were additional stairs leading up to the hospital?

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[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Graybeard

1605 Gilcrest Dr

google_earth

Thanks for locating Ginger's house Graybeard. -much appreciated.




below: Here's another photograph I just came across, this time showing one of Ms. Roger's guest houses.

I think I see this tall mast in Martin Pal's postcard, but I'm not sure.


ebay

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[ethereal_reality]

I don't recall seeing the Sun Set Inn on NLA.




The seller didn't include the address (which was prob. on the back of the card)
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[ethereal_reality]

There was a gOOgie's similar to the one on Sunset Blvd. in the San Carlos Hotel downtown.

NW corner of 5th & Olive.

no date/ebay

Notice how the g00gie's exhaust duct slithers up the front of the hotel.
-at least it's painted the same color as the building-

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