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  #2981  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 4:19 AM
Los Angeles Past Los Angeles Past is offline
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Madam Of The Opera

This isn't quite on the same level as the Academy Awards, but my own mother actually did play a role in one of the great events in the history of Los Angeles musical theatre...

You can read the whole story here.

Last edited by Los Angeles Past; Dec 25, 2017 at 9:11 AM. Reason: Repaired broken link to blog post
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  #2982  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 4:55 AM
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Very awesome pictures and awesome story! Your mother was a beautiful woman.
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"I guess the only time people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

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  #2983  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 5:14 AM
Los Angeles Past Los Angeles Past is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post

Very awesome pictures and awesome story! Your mother was a beautiful woman.

She was a great lady, for sure. A truly class act. She was a total "L.A. Woman," too. I must admit a large share of my fascination with Los Angeles history is an homage to my mother's legacy. She absolutely lived and breathed this town. She and a million others like her. Hats off to all of them!

-Scott

Last edited by Los Angeles Past; Feb 27, 2011 at 5:35 AM.
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  #2984  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 6:46 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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No.

Give me the Roosevelt, or the Biltmore, or the Pantages, or Grauman's, or the Shrine... not this.

Google Street View


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ho...hotel-1905.jpg


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics30/00064827.jpg



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ho...hotel-1905.jpg
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  #2985  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 7:17 PM
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Scott- I loved your post about your Mom and her time at the Civic Light Opera.

I especially liked the photo of her in the audience. She has a very beautiful smile!

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 27, 2011 at 11:18 PM.
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  #2986  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2011, 10:00 PM
Mark L Mark L is offline
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Churchill Jr Lofts

Wondering if anyone would have historic photos of a building currently called Churchill Jr.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14347805
I believe it was built in the 20's. It stands at the southwest corner of McArthur Park facing the park (2412 W 7th Street Los Angeles, CA 90057). Just west of Langer's….. mmmm.
It is currently a clinic downstairs with loft apartments upstairs. I have friends living there that were curious of any photo history.

I have seen one photo of it from the east down 7th, taken from a distance.

Thanks for any help.

As always, great stuff here. Perusing all of your photos and info on this thread is my sunday ritual.

Mark
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  #2987  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 1:59 AM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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Well, here is a side view of 2412 W. 7th in the aftermath of a historic event...

LAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics28/00063844.jpg
The remnants of the adjacent Park View Center mini-mall (2400 W. 7th, at Park View St.) after burning
during the 1992 riots. Looks like the Clinica Popular at 2412 dates to at least that time.


Google Street View

Google Street View
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  #2988  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 5:44 AM
Mark L Mark L is offline
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Wow. Thanks for that photo GW. Glad the main building remains.
That was a scary, sad time here.
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  #2989  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 6:34 AM
KevinW KevinW is offline
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LA 4D Model

Scott, loved the story about your mom. I've seen so many pictures of that beautiful building and to think your mom worked in it before and after its redesign from Spanish Renaissance/Moorish Revival to the Moderne style it had until torn down in 1985. At least laws have now been changed to prevent tearing a place down until you have full funding for the building to replace it. And that's mainly from the loss of the Philharmonic Auditorium.

Everyone else- I've brought this up before and will continue to do so until someone with money or connections gets on board. It is my intention to build a 3 dimensional computer map of Los Angeles with the added feature of having a time slider. Basically, what I want to do is take every picture on this forum and build the building in the pictures in a 3D program on an accurate topographical map of L.A. and time stamp them. What I want to end up with is a 3D world like we're going to see in L.A. Noire but you can go anywhere and slide to any time.

For instance, here is a view of the Biltmore with the LA Public Library Visible behind it:



On my 3D map, from here, you pull the time slider back to 1885 and you get this. It's the exact same view but 60 years earlier:



Where the Biltmore now stands, St. Paul's Episcopal church used to stand. Where the Public Library now is up on 5th street used to stand the Normal School.

Push the slider back up to 1939 and the Church and Normal school disappear and the Biltmore and Pershing Square with it's beautiful fountain and trees show up:



Then push it even further to 1960 and the trees are gone (to Disneyland), replaced by an entirely open area:



(Not to mention the fact that the harbor freeway now runs behind the hill behind the Biltmore)

push it back to 1904 and the trees and church and normal school are back. Not to mention the area that will eventually be torn down to build the freeway:



Slide it back to the 70's and there's the freeway, not to mention a few high rises like Wilshire One, the Union Bank tower, and the huge building behind Pacific Mutual Life:



To think in a few years an even bigger building will rise across from the library.

Anyway, that's what I want to do. Make a 3D model of every building ever built in L.A. and put it on this map. And I don't want to stop there. I want to put in the vegetation, the traffic, the weather and the people. This is a decades long project but it's the best way I can think of preserving what's been lost in this city. Anyone have any leads or ideas?

I'd love whatever input you can give.

Kevin
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  #2990  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 2:17 PM
Sebisebster Sebisebster is offline
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Hi KevinW!
It's very interesting to create a 3d map of the city, like a time machine to check out how it looks like everything in the past, to preserve it and to show what has been lost. Like someone said later before, in a single human life an entire city has disappear to create a new one (for better or for worse) I hope you'll be success.
On the building behind the Pacific Mutual, the one we've seen under construction, it is the 611 Place aka known as The Crocker Bank Tower, on 611 West 6th Street. It is not my favourite tower, but I have to admid that it was a pioneer: it was the tallest building built in L.A. before 1970 (completed in 1969)

Under construction:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And now some of your favourites views (on the 'Bunkerhillization' times, with the Harbor freeway as a 'special guest')



Uploaded with ImageShack.us




Uploaded with ImageShack.us




Uploaded with ImageShack.us




Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Now one of the most 'devastating' pictures from the early 70's:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
(I can't barely recognize the streets, specially Olive, Grand Ave, or Hope, it looks like a 'war zone')

Finally, the building today (now to be converted into condos -if Im not wrong-):



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


I hope these pics will inspire you on your 3D aventure plans.
More info on the building here:

http://www.urbanity.es/foro/urbanism...cristal-4.html
(In spanish language. Use google traductor if you can't read in spanish. Hugs)

Last edited by Sebisebster; Feb 28, 2011 at 2:58 PM.
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  #2991  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 2:24 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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All roads lead to Beth

Mark L: A few other small notes on 2412 W. 7th... the building is listed in vintage city directories as the Kosloff Building, and at one time it housed J. G. Davenport & Associates, the L.A. representatives of Boy's Life magazine. An office of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is also listed in city directories there, as are some other publisher's reps, insurance offices, and other firms. All 2412 listings were in the DUnkirk telephone exchange... now, we're getting into real Asperger territory here, but I couldn't help but notice that the "382" in the neon number over the door today (213-382-7229) corresponds to "DUnkirk".... The name Kosloff is likely that of the owner and/or builder--there were a few other small (though not as architecturally interesting) apartment buildings in the area bearing the name Kosloff. The name Kosloff seems, not surprisingly, to be of Russian derivation. I can find no connection with 2412 and two other well-known Kosloffs in L.A. (though one or the other could conceivably be the investor/developer of it): Theodore, a ballet promoter/coach (http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr...t/ca-kosloff5), and Maurice.... In my Googling I've also read of a producer by the name of Maurice Kosloff (also apparently connected to the ballet--http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...control-p.html. He may or may not be--but likely is--the same Maurice Kosloff who was the proprietor of the "Maurice Kasloff School of Dancing-Singing-Radio & Acting", once on the top floor of the Art Deco building still at the SW corner of Wilshire and Robertson:

LAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics01/00020217.jpg

Detail:
Los Angeles Art Deco

and today:
Google Street View

OK... now for the (anti-climatic, I'm afraid) Dahlia connection: As the writer does in the second Times link
above, some people speculate on some of the BD boards (most of which are decidedly loopy) that "Maurice
the Voice Teacher", sometimes mentioned in connection with the Florentine Gardens, was Maurice Kosloff....
No? Oh well, Mark L (if you're still reading), I know this probably has little to do with 2412 W. 7th, but I do
like to try to make a noir connection here if I can.. and the building above is pretty, isn't it?

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Feb 28, 2011 at 2:44 PM.
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  #2992  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 5:43 PM
Wenders Wenders is offline
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Frolic Room

Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
The 26th annual Academy Awards Ceremony at the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Blvd. (1954)



ucla digital archive


above: To the extreme right you can see a portion of the neon sign for the Frolic Room.







below: The exquisite neon above the entrance to the Frolic Room.


Bill Hornstein




After all these years the Frolic Room is still in business.


T. Hoffarth

First, thank you for everybody for this wonderful & fascinating thread. I've never been able explain to myself why I find Los Angeles history to be the most interesting area of history of all. And I'm not even particulary into movies or celebrity culture.

Anyway, I lived almost two decades in Hollywood in different addresses.The Frolic had been always in walking distance, and at least for apprx 12 yrs or so, I was a regular customer in there. During that time I met practically all my girlfriends in Frolic, and made friends with others customers. When I first started to frequent the place, Hollywood was still quite shabby, shady, and that particular block of Hollywood Blvd had a constant element of danger in air. I liked all that, very much indeed.

At that time (early 90's) the clientle was mostly regulars, many of them 55+ yo, some younger, and a mix of visitors from other parts of CA or L.A, even occasional out-of -state tourists sometimes. There was always interesting characters, and it really did feel like a neighborhood bar where, as cliche -like the saying sounds, "everybody knew your name." It still has the same bartenders.

Then Hollywood became a trendy place to party, now most of the clients are there to have a drink before going somewhere else. The regulars are mainly younger people who live in the neighborhood. I don't go there anymore, reason being that I just don't want to drink and sit in the bar these days. If I did, I would still frequent Frolic.

And by the way, I've witnessed a murder in there, several near -murders saw and participated in countless fights, got middle of gang -related gunfire when leaving the bar one night that forced me to duck down to avoid bullets and eventually run back to bar, where a shot-in-the arm, bleeding, underage gang member was hiding. Before he got kicked out for being in a bar as an underaged, he bled so much blood onto floor and sidewalk in front of the bar that doorguy had to throw buckets of water on it to wash it away. That sight probably made some tourists outside to change their minds about having drinks in "that bar." I learned later on that the gunfire resulted four people's death, shot in their car.
There's so many stories.

During all these years I've been interested in Frolic's history, yet I've never seen an interior photograph older than circa mid 70's. Does anyone have one to show? I'm already aware of Bukowski connection, Rock Hudson frequenting the bar in 70's when it was briefly a gay bar, L.A Confidential stint etc.

Originally, I've been told, there was an access to bar only via Pantages. The entrance from street was added later on. I wonder if this explains why in library's street directories/phonebooks display Frolic only from 1956 and up, I can't find it from 1942 directory. (I've searched only the online directories, only certain years are available, the link is found few pages back.) I also searched by address, and found that an ice cream parlor occupied the space earlier, I don't remember anymore what years was it, probably 1942, perhaps. They either shifted addresses, maybe the access was still only thru Pantages and Frolic wasn't listed independently in directories, or it hasn't been a bar constantly since 1930's.

I'm obsessed with this bar.

Last edited by Wenders; Feb 28, 2011 at 8:46 PM. Reason: addition
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  #2993  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 7:28 PM
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GaylordWilshire GaylordWilshire is offline
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Here's a black-and-white photo that somehow conveys great color: Broadway, looking south from Seventh Street during Fiesta Week, November 1931.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...0085/CHS-37036
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  #2994  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 8:26 PM
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721 East 6th Street

Gotta love the La Jolla:

Google Street View

Google Street View

And, if the building and its sign aren't wonderful enough, it has online reviews that put the Hotel Bel-Air and its ilk to shame:

"Best Hotel stay imaginable. The hotel staff treats you like your in a five star resort. They doded on us from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. The valet parking staff were also amazing and ever so nice."

Oh, how I love being "doded" on.


"Really nice hotel, decent location. The staff is courteous, helpful and unpretentious. The decor is nice and the rooms cleanly with parking facilities."

Generally I find online hotel reviews to be dubious, to say the least. But I'm inclined the believe "unpretentious" here. And if I sound a little too snotty--I'm actually seriously intrigued by this place (if not enough to trust my rented Hyundai to its valet parking attendants or my hair to its pillows....

Last edited by GaylordWilshire; Feb 28, 2011 at 8:36 PM.
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  #2995  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 9:04 PM
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Before the Wilshire Grand, the Statler-Hilton, the Statler, before Hoffman Studebaker... I've discovered that there was Harold Arnold. Mr. Arnold built the Arnold Building at Figueroa and 7th, selling Hudson and the Hudson's cheaper companion, the Essex, as well as, at some point, Lincoln. Paul Hoffman later took the building over to sell Studes....

The Arnold Building, ca. 1922
LAPL http://http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067437.jpg


As Hoffman Studebaker, now much be-signed, a picture we've seen before


According to the LAPL, whose photo captions I try not to let test my patience, the Arnold/Hoffman building "served
as the framework for the Statler Hotel in 1951." Surely they don't mean literally.... I'm sure we've seen this lot in prior
pics here cleared of all traces of the car dealership....
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  #2996  
Old Posted Feb 28, 2011, 11:53 PM
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Jeez, I leave you guys alone for two minutes...some of the best posts ever show up on this thread. I have many a comment about them but from the gate I feel like I should add something more substantial. That would be...matchbooks.

Always felt there was something inherently noirish about old matchbook covers. They're used, dirty throwaways but still darkly attractive and with lots of backstory. Even their original purpose was for something noirish (if you've got a matchbook from some cocktail lounge, I doubt you're using its contents to light campsite fires with the Boy Scouts). So without further ado:



2401 S Hoover is now a parking lot. 2111 W Pico is a strip of low commercial built in '94. Whenever I see crap built in the mid-90s I always wonder if the original building fell victim to the structure fires of April-May '92.



Now the site of a giant Baja Sharkeez. Don't ask.



2851 Crenshaw. Now the site of a 1985 mini-mall. World's ugliest Nix Check Cashing, and that's an accomplishment.



Club 14 at 1414 -- clever! I wonder if their signage was as grand as that. I'm guessing sure, it was. This 1938 structure still stands, its use somewhat...changed. Its signage sure has gone downhill:





222 at 222 -- sensing a theme. This was in the Hotel Lankershim at Bway and 7th. http://historylosangeles.blogspot.co...-building.html http://www.you-are-here.com/broadway..._district.html



Now the site of the 41-story, 1985 SOM Ernst & Young Plaza.



Not sure if they mean the 1700 Whittier in Montebello or La Habra; they're both pretty close to Whittier. Either way, one's a gas station, the other a Rite Aid.



http://www.godickson.com/gca1.htm http://laist.com/2008/06/14/laistory_grand.php



Another survivor --



http://wildammo.com/wp-content/uploa..._o-675x362.jpg

Dig the original café neon.



And that theater is http://cinematreasures.org/theater/2297/



3100 W Pico, a 1994 Shell station. 699 Vermont, now the site of Claud Beelman's 59-61 Pacific Indemnity http://www.you-are-here.com/modern/indemnity.html



Part of this http://www.flickr.com/photos/jassy-50/2514835652/ complex. Built in 1939; sold to developers in 1959.



This is kind of a trompe l'oeil theme environment like the Paris Inn. Now the home of Club El Gaucho in the ol' Hotel Bristol. http://www.flickr.com/photos/92136363@N00/3547937322/ though now it's been all fancified http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniecoffee/4659025160/



Now the site of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlak..._Metro_station)



Now a big ol' mall.

And last but not least:



Which of course we all recognize as


jpg1.lapl.org/pics34/00036904.jpg

cinematreasures.org/theater/1988/
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  #2997  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 2:40 AM
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ethereal_reality ethereal_reality is offline
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I agree with you about the matchbooks Beaudry.

They are extremely 'noirish'. More times than not they were used to pass a clandestine phone number to a possible paramour.
The graphics are intriguingly beautiful. I have some fine examples that I will try to post later.

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Welcome to the thread Wenders.
It's very interesting to hear from someone who has spent some time in the 'Frolic Room'.
Do you have any photographs from your time in the area?

____________________

I love that 'Hotel La Jolla' sign shaped like a palm tree.
The hotel 'reviews' sound like they were written by the owners to drum up business.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Mar 1, 2011 at 3:22 AM.
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  #2998  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 3:20 AM
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R.I.P. Jane Russell


Howard Hughes Productions
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  #2999  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 4:32 AM
malumot malumot is offline
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Geez - you sound like a regular Lawrence Tierney!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Tierney

and a GREAT story about the Noir legend towards the end of his life.

http://www.eddiemuller.com/tierney.html




Quote:
Originally Posted by Wenders View Post

And by the way, I've witnessed a murder in there, several near -murders saw and participated in countless fights, got middle of gang -related gunfire when leaving the bar one night that forced me to duck down to avoid bullets and eventually run back to bar, where a shot-in-the arm, bleeding, underage gang member was hiding. Before he got kicked out for being in a bar as an underaged, he bled so much blood onto floor and sidewalk in front of the bar that doorguy had to throw buckets of water on it to wash it away.
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  #3000  
Old Posted Mar 1, 2011, 4:36 AM
Los Angeles Past Los Angeles Past is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality View Post
Scott- I loved your post about your Mom and her time at the Civic Light Opera.

I especially liked the photo of her in the audience. She has a very beautiful smile!

Yes, she did! She had a lovely soprano singing voice, too, which Ed Lester and John Charles were well aware of. In fact, at first, Mom was offered a position with the light opera company itself, but her father wouldn't allow her to become a stage performer, so she had to settle for the office job, instead.

I've always been fascinated with that audience pic. There were actually two versions of it in the family album. The one in my post was cropped. Here is the full, uncropped version, scanned at 600dpi. [Link.] I wonder how many more show biz luminaries there were in the audience that night! Someone with a better eye than me might be able to spot some there...

-Scott

Addendum: WOW, post #3,000 in this thread! Thanks for starting all this L.A. history awesomeness, ethereal!

Last edited by Los Angeles Past; Dec 25, 2017 at 9:13 AM. Reason: Repaired broken image link
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