noirish Los Angeles

[CityBoyDoug]

Hollywood and Vine. 1950's. Boy selling newspapers to drivers. That's something you very seldom see in 2015.


ebay

Downtown - neon

ebay

[ethereal_reality]

Excellent Kodachrome slide CBD. Look at the wide shoulders and large calves on the lady with the yellow head-scarf.

Here's another to go along with it.


eBay

I don't think one more person could fit on that sidewalk.

_

[HossC]

This Bank of America was on E Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood. On the far left is Pittsburgh Paints/Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. Their sign looks like it was very colorful - it's a shame we only have this black and white view. This is Julius Shulman's "Job 990: Bank of America (Inglewood, Calif.),1951".



This branch had two ships and the old English typeface.



To the right of the bank was Von's, while down the street was Sears.



Here's the view looking west.



All from Getty Research Institute

This one's another survivor that's still a Bank of America.


GSV

At some point the bank was extended into the site of the old Von's store. I think they did a good job matching the original style, but the bank has lost its ships along the way.


GSV

This building is just visible in the second Shulman photo. The 1951 signs indicate that it was an appliance store, but I can't find it in the City Directories. The property websites give a build date of 1947.


GSV

Here's a better view of the Sears store from March 1976. From the description: "The Sears building was torn down in the early 1990's. Von's Supermarket now occupies that location."


Calisphere/Inglewood Public Library

[ethereal_reality]

Yesterday while I was searching for the name of the café across from the old Paramount Gate (it was Oblath's), and clues to the other two businesses (KTLA & Geller's, thanks to Hoss)....

I came across this intriguing bit of ephemera.


http://lainigiles.com/wp-content/upl...620_132708.jpg

I don't remember this place at all, even though it was located close to so many landmarks, NBC Radio City...The Palladium...Earl Carroll Theater...CBS Columbia Center.
Surely it has shown up in old aerials and even street level photographs.
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below: The old Paramount Italian Kitchen building is still there (unless this is a newer building). And it's still an Italian restaurant!


6270 Sunset Blvd. today

gsv




Here's a matchbook I just found.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paramount-It...-/370870438749
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Hmmmm....but this matchbook places the address on N. Vine Street.


eBay

So it either moved to Vine from Sunset , or vice versa.

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Not to be confused with the Italian Kitchen that was located in the Pantages building.


http://www.martinturnbull.com/hollyw...places-p-to-z/
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Now I want a plate of spaghetti

[tovangar2]

One more of the Montezuma Saloon from 1905 (per source):

seaver center NHM

(Chinese New Year starts on the first new moon after the Winter Solstice, which is what I think is going on here)

Could the above been taken the same year as e_r's photo (below)?

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A rare photograph showing the Montezuma Saloon. (1890s? 1900s?)

old file of mine/prob. from eBay
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I wish I could tell if the painted signage said "Maier & Zobelein" or just "Zobelein", because Geo. Zobelien didn't go out on his own until 1907.


............................................................


Happy Autumn Equinox everyone.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's a matchbook I just found.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paramount-It...-/370870438749

Hmmmm....but this matchbook places the address on N. Vine Street.


eBay

So it either moved to Vine from Sunset , or vice versa.

I found a document at cityplanning.lacity.org (it's a large PDF file) that places the Paramount Italian Kitchen at 6270 Sunset in 1951. Neither of the Paramount Italian Kitchens mentioned by e_r show up in the City Directories, but the 1942 CD has one at 6517 Hollywood Boulevard (a few blocks west of the Italian Kitchen at the Pantages), and another at 2015 W 7th Street. The one at 2015 W 7th Street also shows up in the 1956 and 1960 CDs.
NB. I've enlarged this image for clarity.


postcards.bidstart.com

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

A rare photograph showing the Montezuma Saloon. (1890s? 1900s?)



old file of mine/prob. from eBay



I located the saloon in the 1900-1901 city directory.


lapl



That address places the Montezuma Saloon along this stretch of N. Los Angeles Street.


gsv

Could it have been in that shorter building to the right of the 1890 Garnier Building?
_______

A year ago , HossC spotted a Montezuma Inn at the intersection of Figueroa, Flower and Temple.

Here: (sixth photo down)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=23533
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That shorter building alongside the Garnier is today the Chinese-American Museum and is numbered on Sanchez Street (Alley) at 420. In 1900, it was still on the tax roles as an Opium Den paying about $24 per year in City Taxes. I believe the Montezuma was indeed in the old firehouse and this address is likely the side door.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

That shorter building alongside the Garnier is today the Chinese-American Museum and is numbered on Sanchez Street (Alley) at 420.

The Chinese-American Museum has a great walking tour of Chinatown landmarks and sites with a script, map and video

The back (Sanchez St) entrance:

el pueblo

Apparently the question most asked by museum visitors is to query why the museum is where it is, rather than in Chinatown. (Ouch.)

Not forgetting the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California ,
411/415 Bernard St, near the northwest end of the Cornfield.

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The year started off looking good for the Chapman Park Hotel...from the Times, Jan 9, 1967:

From the Getty Collection, Julius Shulman all 1970

Equitable Building





Wilshire Hyatt House


3550 Wilshire


Interesting to note that at 3550 Wilshire there was apparently a Rands Round Up restaurant http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=13392 and, prior to that a residence, per GW. 3550 was soon joined by an twin tower at 3580.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps1ae75e64.jpg

[BifRayRock]

Noir may be good, but occasionally a little color is good too. (If we have seen these before, I will gladly delete.)


1967 Twilight scenes of DTLA by Shulman, courtesy of Getty Trust





1967 A nice view of the illuminated Richfield Tower
]

[ethereal_reality]

The nearly century old Aoyama Tree (Ficus macrophylla) in Little Tokyo.


http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/...ee/aoyama.html

The tree stands in a City of Los Angeles-owned parking lot. The area immediately surrounding the tree is paved over, covering the extensive root-system.

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Here's the backstory:

Reverend Shutai Aoyama came to the United Sates in 1909, taking jobs alongside other Japanese immigrants on farms and railroads and shipyards. During this time, he became increasingly aware of the immigrant workers' need for support and spiritual guidance. In 1912, he started the Koyasan Daishi Mission in a storefront on Commercial Street in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo; later, he moved the temple to a wood-frame building at 133 N. Central Avenue in 1920. Reverend Aoyama planted the Moreton Bay Fig tree (Ficus macrophylla) at the entrance of the new temple. (see below)



http://wikimapia.org/10293157/The-Aoyama-Ficus





below: Boy Scout Troop 379 seated in front of the Koyasan Daishi Temple in 1935. (note how much the tree has grown)


http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/...ee/aoyama.html


The wood-frame building that housed the temple was eventual razed (date uncertain) by the City of Los Angeles to build a parking lot for the police department.
Fortunately, throughout all these changes, the tree has survived.


below: The Aoyama Tree in 2008 (you can still recognize the 'split' trunk that is visible in the 1935 Boy Scout photo above)


http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/...ee/aoyama.html




below: The Aoyama Tree today. (it looks pretty healthy, despite being surrounded by all that pavement)


http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/nik...293/?view=list



google-earth aerial

gsv/aerial

In March 2008, the 60 by 70 tree, now officially named the Aoyama Tree, after the man who planted it all those years ago-Reverend Aoyama,
was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #920.
__

Thanks to:
http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/...ee/aoyama.html

http://wikimapia.org/10293157/The-Aoyama-Ficus

[ethereal_reality]

Ashtray from Peacock Alley, 3188 W. Eight Street, Los Angeles.


eBay




Here is the Peacock Alley location today (red arrow, far right....corner of 8th Street & Fedora)







close-up / looking rather slimy (and noirish)

gsv



Around the corner on Fedora Street there's this vintage cocktail sign. (as well as a large window clumsily walled off with painted bamboo and what-not) -truly awful.


gsv


below: I'm trying to imagine the name Peacock Alley blinking over that cocktail sign. (I think it would have fit)


detail / gsv

FYI:

We've visited this apartment building before.....it's Haddon Hall, surprisingly designed by the theater architect S. Charles Lee.
(see GaylordWilshire's post below)

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5234
includes interior photographs.

See a vintage Cadillac with 'Dagmar" fenders parked in front of Haddon Hall here: (also by GaylordWilshire)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5228

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[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

You're quite correct oldstuff, the Horace Appel [Jr] I knew was very definitely old school. I might have a photo of him somewhere....I'll look. In the office suite I wrote about, Horace had a small office, in the same suite, next to my father's.

My father told me not to go in Horace's office when he was pouring shots of whiskey. Horace used to give me quarter coins but that made my father start ranting and raving. I was about 11 years old then.

I finally found my photo of Horace Appel Jr., criminal defence attorney....circa 1950.

Oldstuff wrote:
The late Horace Appel was definitely an "old school" attorney. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 1921.

The father of Horace Appel, also Horace H. Appel, was also an attorney who had offices in 1900 in the Bullard Block which was located where City Hall now stands. There are a couple of pictures online if someone could post them. (I can't post) It was located at the corner of Spring and Court.

Under John Anson Bullard Block, there is actually a picture of the elder Mr. Appel when he was practicing law and working in the Bullard Block

He kept his whiskey bottle in the lower right side drawer. How do I know? I saw him fetch it a few times.

CD file

His office is on the top floor, fourth & fifth window from the left.. Chester Williams building.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

We've visited this apartment building before.....it's Haddon Hall, surprisingly designed by the theater architect S. Charles Lee.
__

Haddon Hall in Derbyshire is a huge Tudor/Elizabethan pile which turns up in films quite a bit. Not so here.

S Charles Lee, depending on the client, could stash his flamboyance in his back pocket and get into restrained baronialism. Haddon Hall on 8th St was just such a situation.

The proposal (6 retail units and 45 apartment units including 7 efficiency units, 22 studios and 16 one-bedroom units):

Originally Posted by Graybeard

The front desk:


A most excellent writing room off the lobby:


Compared to the grandeur of the public spaces the units are a bit utilitarian, more stripped-down pied-à-terre than anything else:


"A dining room", says the original caption:


The entry courtyard then:


...and, on the other side of the screen, now:

gsv

All historic photos from The S Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962 at the Islandora Depository/UCLA



A few recent pix from www.haddonhallapartments.com:

"You will love living at historic Haddon Hall Apartments! Built in 1926, you'll be amazed by the Gothic Revival architectural details incorporated by architect S. Charles Lee, who is recognized as one of the most prolific and distinguished motion picture theater designers on the West Coast. Our grand lobby features wood carved ceilings, painted frescoes, stained glass and gargoyles."

The brutally retooled lobby:


(The historic image of the lobby was previously posted by GW here)

Everything upstairs got painted white:


The updated entry courtyard:


One of the stained-glass, leaded windows got saved:



.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The nearly century old Aoyama Tree (Ficus macrophylla) in Little Tokyo.


http://wikimapia.org/10293157/The-Aoyama-Ficus

Thank you e_r. I've noticed that tree, it adds so much to the plaza area (a vacated bit of Central Ave) in front of the Japanese American National Museum and the MOCA building, but I didn't know its story:


gsv.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Thank you e_r. I've noticed that tree, but I didn't know its story:

Truth be told t2, I was inspired by your earlier post on another famous tree, El Aliso.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10490
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[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This photograph accompanied an article about Frank Gehry's 'redesign' of the Los Angeles River. (the news just broke)http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...ry.html#page=1


http://www.latimes.com/

Yikes, from LA Curbed today: "Frank Gehry Tells People Who Are Worried About His LA River Plan to 'Grow Up'".

Gehry says, "For this thing to work out, all these people who are complaining, we are going to need them to be worker bees, not complaining bees".

More info & quotes, in a much longer article, from today's NYT

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Yikes, from LA Curbed today: "Frank Gehry Tells People Who Are Worried About His LA River Plan to 'Grow Up'".

Gehry says, "For this thing to work out, all these people who are complaining, we are going to need them to be worker bees, not complaining bees".

More info & quotes, in a much longer article, from today's NYT

Frank Gehry uses typical Alinsky tactics of ridicule and intimidation. Gehry's architecture is anti-human in the extreme.

[unihikid]

I know this troop very well, a former troop member went to High School with me..(we didn't tell anyone we were boy scouts let alone eagle scouts). The troop also produced trekie George Takei. Anyways the troop is still very active, is one of the oldest troop in the Greater Los Angeles Area Council, and still meets in the same area.




below: Boy Scout Troop 379 seated in front of the Koyasan Daishi Temple in 1935. (note how much the tree has grown)


http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/...ee/aoyama.html

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps1ae75e64.jpg

There's the W.C.T.U.--see post 3169