noirish Los Angeles - Page 876

ethereal_reality · #**17501** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 7:42 PM**

ebay

3560 Opal Street. I wonder if that's the car Air Raid Warden Ryan used on his rounds?

GSV
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GaylordWilshire · #**17502** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 10:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

A reminder that Chaplin's backlot was much more than than its current footprint. The grounds included the large home occupied by brother Sydney and, not surprisingly, included tennis courts and stables. At some point exterior sets were converted into sound stages.

Sydney Chaplin's homestead on Sunset Blvd. was a stones throw from the studios.

http://www.image-archeology.com/Home...fornia_340.jpg

LAPL

Looks like the house wasn't built by Chaplin but was rather part of the property he bought--formerly the estate of an R.S. McLellan.

The 1921 Baist map--the house's address was 7062 Sunset Blvd.

Some more Chaplin studio history...

LAT Oct 16. 1917/The Billboard Nov 3, 1917

Tourmaline · #**17503** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 10:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

ebay

3560 Opal Street. I wonder if that's the car Air Raid Warden Ryan used on his rounds?

GSV
__

I presume the air raid instructions date to WW2, but I suppose it was equally relevant for a cold war transition. I know its been mentioned here before, but air raid sirens were blasted at least once a month as part of Civil Defense readiness. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=8551 http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=3881

Hard for me to tell but the car pictured looks to be a pre '63 Volvo 544. Similar style 444 and a replacement 122 model. Basic model was sold through '68 in North America.

http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/...ale_Rear_1.jpg

Quote:

There were a few occasions when the operators at MADISON 5211 were right behind the "front lines" in the defense of Southern California. Like all police and sheriff's departments, L.A.P.D. had local responsibility for organizing Air Raid Wardens to patrol the city in the event of enemy attack. There were nearly 12,000 of these volunteers in the Los Angeles area alone, whose primary responsibilities were to enforce "blackouts" when air raid sirens sounded, and to report any enemy activity they may spot. http://harrymarnell.net/civildef.htm

http://harrymarnell.net/images/warden2.gif

http://harrymarnell.net/images/cdcodes1.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XX9h1ml6SL...rttodaybig.jpg

Tourmaline · #**17504** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 10:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

LAPL

Looks like the house wasn't built by Chaplin but was rather part of the property he bought--formerly the estate of an R.S. McLellan.

The 1921 Baist map--the house's address was 7062 Sunset Blvd.

Some more Chaplin studio history...

LAT Oct 16. 1917/The Billboard Nov 3, 1917

[QUOTE]"At the end of the Mutual contract," Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, "I was anxious to get started with First National, but we had no studio. I decided to buy land in Hollywood and build one. The site was the corner of Sunset and La Brea and had a very fine ten-room house and five acres of lemon, orange and peach trees. We built a perfect unit, complete with developing plant, cutting room and offices." The site was formerly owned by R.S. McClellan .http://echopark.patch.com/groups/bus...ywood-e7630558[/QUOTE]

I have been curious about the origin of the fruit trees and who was responsible for their planting. Not clear whether R.S. McClellan's five acres of fruit trees constituted a business or a hobby, and what he may have done with the fruit. The McCellan name has more than one spelling. Don't see an "R.S.M" in the '09 or '15 directories, but one version of the name appears in connection with the LA Law Library, circa '22. http://books.google.com/books?id=yVE...lellan&f=false Guessing fruit was harvested and some of it marketed prior to Chaplin's purchase of the property. Hard to envision the "Hollywood" area full of agricultural workers. Also difficult to envision a huge nursery and (later) a public hiring hall at 2nd/3rd and La Brea.

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=10736

*Wonder if anyone won the Studio naming contest.

ethereal_reality · #**17505** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 11:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

Hard for me to tell but the car pictured looks to be a pre '63 Volvo 544. Similar style 444 and a replacement 122 model.

http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/...ale_Rear_1.jpg

I was thinking the civil defense pamphlet was from the cold war which is why I mentioned the car.
You're correct in saying the pamphlet is from WWII, nowhere does it mention a nuclear attack.
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GaylordWilshire · #**17506** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 11:58 PM**

Speaking of Sydney Chaplin...looks like the Mrs. should have let well enough alone.

LAT March 7, 1924

GaylordWilshire · #**17507** Posted **Nov 7, 2013, 11:59 PM**

Hrag Vartanian

The use of the swastika as a design motif has been discussed here before--there was even at one time mention of an apartment house called the Swastika--but I wasn't aware of Glendale's streetlamps--

Story in these links:

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/lampposts.aspx

http://hragvartanian.com/2008/02/09/...ost-swastikas/

As far as retro streetlamps go, Glendale's are excellent IMHO:

Per the Glendale Historical Society's page: "As part of the Central Avenue Rehabilitation Project, the city of Glendale has replaced the 1970s-era streetlamps on North Central with ones that are evocative of the vintage streetlamps of early Glendale."

ethereal_reality · #**17508** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 12:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

Remember the running neon rats on the facade of the Western Exterminator building off the Hollywood Freeway at Glendale Boulevard?

I am sorry to say I don't remember the neon rats Jack.
__

Less fun than scurrying rats, but still pretty cool is the 'traveling' neon smoke at the House of Spirits, 1314 Echo Park Ave.

Mark Peacock at http://www.flickr.com/photos/7623944@N03/4182335604/

a dryer night/a bluer night

Vicky Moon found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

-notice the open shutter on the house. It's so great this sign has survived!

David Gallagher at http://www.flickr.com/photos/anythreewords/3201934339/

I would go out of my way to buy my booze here.

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Retired_in_Texas · #**17509** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 12:55 AM**

3560 Opal Street. I wonder if that's the car Air Raid Warden Ryan used on his rounds?

GSV
__[/QUOTE]

Not even remotely likely that was Warden Ryan's car during WWII. The car in the photo is a Volvo PV444 which was manufactured between late 1944 and 1966. Its styling was somewhat borrowed from the 1942 Ford design, which continued after WWII through 1948. The PV444 was only about 2/3rds the physical size of a Ford.

GaylordWilshire · #**17510** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 12:57 AM**

VLA

ethereal_reality · #**17511** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 1:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retired_in_Texas

Not even remotely likely that was Warden Ryan's car during WWII. The car in the photo is a Volvo PV444 which was manufactured between late 1944 and 1966. Its styling was somewhat borrowed from the 1942 Ford design, which continued after WWII through 1948. The PV444 was only about 2/3rds the physical size of a Ford.

I initially thought the civil defense pamphlet was from the cold war Retired.
I mentioned the car somewhat in jest, but I failed to included a winking smiley face...like this

.

We actually covered it here.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17507
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ethereal_reality · #**17512** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 2:51 AM**

Traveling east on Scout Way via the google-mobile, I noticed this structure atop a slight hill in the distance.
Initially I thought it was a private home.

GSV

It's located on N. Lake where it dead-ends at the 101 (Hollywood Freeway).

GSV

In fact two dead end streets are involved, Scout Way and N. Lake.

google_earth

Traveling east on the Hollywood (101) Freeway, the apartment building is briefly visible shortly before the Alvarado Street exit.

GSV

The apartments include this archaic garage located behind the building on Zalvidea Street (what a name!).

__

I found it hard to believe that we hadn't seen this place before on noirish L.A. so I contacted GW for confirmation.

He had some helpful information (see below).

Gaylord_Wilshire

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Retired_in_Texas · #**17513** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 3:13 AM**

Ran across a post card image of a Hollywood Motel that seems to be all over the internet. At times called the Harrington Best Western and then the Hollywood-Harrington. Not sure which is most recent but suspect it is the latter. Address is 5224 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Most interesting architectural mish-mash. Couldn't locate any into on it and Google doesn't seem to understand the difference between W. Sunset and just Sunset. Sometime in the 1950s a pool replaced the lawn area separating the drives and buildings.

Ebay

Hollywood Graham · #**17514** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 3:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Hrag Vartanian

The use of the swastika as a design motif has been discussed here before--there was even at one time mention of an apartment house called the Swastika--but I wasn't aware of Glendale's streetlamps--

Story in these links:

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/lampposts.aspx

http://hragvartanian.com/2008/02/09/...ost-swastikas/

As far as retro streetlamps go, Glendale's are excellent IMHO:

Per the Glendale Historical Society's page: "As part of the Central Avenue Rehabilitation Project, the city of Glendale has replaced the 1970s-era streetlamps on North Central with ones that are evocative of the vintage streetlamps of early Glendale."

Having lived in Glendale and La Crescenta from 1968 to 1999 I remember well the Swastika lights. They periodically came to the news front when some newcomer happened upon them They were there from the early 30's at least and were backwards denoting the Indian good luck sign. Several groups tried to have them removed but failed. P.C. is sometimes a pest.

rick m · #**17515** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 5:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Traveling east on Scout Way via the google-mobile, I noticed this structure atop a slight hill in the distance.
Initially I thought it was a private home.

GSV

It's located on N. Lake where it dead-ends at the 101 (Hollywood Freeway).

GSV

In fact two dead end streets are involved, Scout Way and N. Lake.

google_earth

Traveling east on the Hollywood (101) Freeway, the apartment building is briefly visible shortly before the Alvarado Street exit.

GSV

The apartments include this archaic garage located behind the building on Zalvidea Street (what a name!).

__

I found it hard to believe that we hadn't seen this place before on noirish L.A. so I contacted GW for confirmation.

He had some helpful information (see below).

Gaylord_Wilshire

__

Too funny - I posted my own image of this apt waay back in 2011 - Didn't get any reaction at my effort- Was in response to locating wooden apts from the earliest 1900s --

Flyingwedge · #**17516** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 6:39 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tourmaline

"At the end of the Mutual contract," Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, "I was anxious to get started with First National, but we had no studio. I decided to buy land in Hollywood and build one. The site was the corner of Sunset and La Brea and had a very fine ten-room house and five acres of lemon, orange and peach trees. We built a perfect unit, complete with developing plant, cutting room and offices." The site was formerly owned by R.S. McClellan .http://echopark.patch.com/groups/bus...ywood-e7630558

I have been curious about the origin of the fruit trees and who was responsible for their planting. Not clear whether R.S. McClellan's five acres of fruit trees constituted a business or a hobby, and what he may have done with the fruit.

It looks like Mr. McClellan was all in, rather than being just a horticultural hobbyist. As GW showed us, 7062 Sunset is between Sycamore and La Brea:

1916 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com

This is a portion of a south-facing photo dated 1918 (there's more to the east and west in the original). The cluster of larger buildings at left center is Hollywood High @ Sunset and Highland. To the west is ill-aligned Orange Drive. Next is Sycamore Avenue as it crosses Hollywood Blvd. and ends at Hawthorn; Sycamore south of Sunset hasn't been built yet. South of Sunset, La Brea heads off toward the oil wells, with La Brea's diagonal stretch north of Sunset at right:

Huntington Digital Library -- http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...id/4231/rec/38

A closer view of the McClellan/Chaplin property at the SE corner of La Brea and Sunset:

HossC · #**17517** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 1:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Traveling east on Scout Way via the google-mobile, I noticed this structure atop a slight hill in the distance.
Initially I thought it was a private home.

GSV

I found it hard to believe that we hadn't seen this place before on noirish L.A. so I contacted GW for confirmation.

He had some helpful information (see below).

Gaylord_Wilshire

I love the way this thread can lead me off at tangents, and also join previous topics together. I can't add a lot about the wooden apartment building, although here's the area on the 1910 Baist map that confirms GW's original road names. Oro and Plata streets appear to be in the middle of the C. M. Hutchinson Tract.

www.historicmapworks.com

Spinning around on Google's aerial view gives a better picture of the apartments and the garage block behind. I was also interested in the bungalow court next door.

Google Maps

Close up, the bungalow court buildings look quite new, but I think the same structure is visible just below the red box (outlining the wooden apartment building) on this 1948 aerial. Just to the right of the box you'll see the bridge over Alvarado Street being constructed ahead of the 101 splitting the neighborhood.

Historic Aerials

My search for a period picture of the apartments has so far proved fruitless, but I did find this picture of the nearby intersection of Alvarado and Temple from 1923, just four years after the wooden apartments were built. It gives us some sort of idea of how the area looked back then.

USC Digital Library

Looking in the opposite direction (I think), here's the same intersection in 1932.

USC Digital Library

Zoom in and you'll find loads of gems like the great street lamps, semaphore traffic signals, old street name signs, Piccadilly Cloth Shirts for $1.95, "2 shows for the price of one" at the Paramount Theatre, and gas for 9 cents, but it was the object under the "RICHFIELD ETHYL" banner that really put a smile on my face. Here's a closer view showing one of the Richfield racing car sculptures that we've discussed previously.

Detail of previous photo.

More on the Richfield racing car sculptures:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7700

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=7727

Tourmaline · #**17518** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 3:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

It looks like Mr. McClellan was all in, rather than being just a horticultural hobbyist. As GW showed us, 7062 Sunset is between Sycamore and La Brea:

1916 LA City Directory @ Fold3.com

A closer view of the McClellan/Chaplin property at the SE corner of La Brea and Sunset:

Interesting. A second visit to the 1915 directory suggests Robt. S tried ranching too. Residence at 1217 Fielding Avenue. http://rescarta.lapl.org:8080/ResCar...an&submit=Find

BifRayRock · #**17519** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 4:31 PM**

Broadway.
Los Angeles Theater.
Chaplin.
City Lights.
Nice choice for a Premier.

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...JFQK9UXPPN.jpg

Dim the lights. . . . Cue the orchestra . . . . . .

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...SKY8H2ISH6.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...XN5M4RTGN7.jpg

"Dress for the occasion!"

Interesting sound delivery above ticket booth

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...PJXCDKMBCK.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...8U9V53FNTF.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...H5DPVM1CBR.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...G6BVNHG1JV.jpg

Be careful with that milk shake.

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...G2B4V3VUVI.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...1LMEEIVR5E.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...DKFNFHM12F.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...5AKIMX22RT.jpg

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...XJ4I3ADRD4.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...os_Angeles.JPG

ethereal_reality · #**17520** Posted **Nov 8, 2013, 4:34 PM**

-great photos of the Los Angeles Theater BRR.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick m

Too funny - I posted my own image of this apt waay back in 2011 - Didn't get any reaction at my effort- Was in response to locating wooden apts from the earliest 1900s --

I'm sorry for not remembering your earlier post rick_m. I honestly thought I had made a new discovery. I didn't.

__

HossC, excellent job locating that richfield sculpture at the corner of Temple and Alvarado. It makes me wonder how many existed throughout the city at the time? I wonder if one will ever show up in someone's backyard someday?