noirish Los Angeles - Page 2698

odinthor · #**53941** Posted **Mar 9, 2020, 9:46 PM**

744 South Hill St., Los Angeles.

A bit about the businesses at the location, plus a bit more about George Muhr who intersected with it once . . .

Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1912

Los Angeles Herald, March 8, 1915; I thought I'd include the snappy gentlemen from an adjoining ad

Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1915

Los Angeles Herald, December 13, 1915

Los Angeles Herald, July 30, 1918: Marriages

Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1921

Los Angeles Herald, June 3, 1921

Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1925

odinthor collection

Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1925

Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1926

Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1927

Los Angeles Times, February 15, 1952

ethereal_reality · #**53942** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 10:24 PM**

I've had this photograph so long I thought I had posted it (I haven't / I checked) ...The word 'Magnus' has only appeared once on NLA, Here. (S. Magnus, ticket broker)

What held me back was my uncertainty about the location. It's labeled Los Angeles but I'm not 100% sure that that is correct.

It's a great photograph nonetheless.

theoldmotor

I thought I might be able to prove the location by looking up the politician's name that appears on one of the flyers on the utility pole.

"HEMPSTEAD"

but so far nothing.

.

ethereal_reality · #**53943** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 10:32 PM**

What's that you say?...You want a better look at the girls.

detail

Quelle surprise. I thought they were wearing short skirts but I see they're wearing pants. (and a tunic)

& while I'm at it - here is the kindly gentleman wearing a suit and tie inside the gas station.

detail

He looks more like a banker than a gas station attendant. ....Hmmm. . .or maybe he's a customer.

(if he is a customer. . .and if he's not sitting down. . .then he's a banker with dwarfism.

.

Hookster · #**53944** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 4:20 AM**

Here is a bit more with the same pic!

They also indicate that it is LA but, no clue to specific location...

http://theoldmotor.com/?tag=magnus-root-beer

Perhaps the banker is an early primitive version of a gas station ATM 😂 lol

Edit!… whoops I see you already have the link! ... never mind!

Lorendoc · #**53945** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 6:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hookster

Here is a bit more with the same pic!

They also indicate that it is LA but, no clue to specific location...

http://theoldmotor.com/?tag=magnus-root-beer

Perhaps the banker is an early primitive version of a gas station ATM �� lol

Edit!… whoops I see you already have the link! ... never mind!

The 1931 CD lists a National Kanteen Operating Co as a restaurant at 766 Vine. Sounds like a job for the UCSB aerials.

GaylordWilshire · #**53946** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 12:12 PM**

In California Crazy, Jim Heimann refers to the Magnus Root Beer drive-in in Merced...I'm not near my copy to see if there's a picture, but if anyone has the book he, she or they might check into it. And a picture caption in this link refers to a Magnus Root Beer drive-in, also in Merced (see 4th pic down):
http://www.yosemitevalleyrr.com/modeling/virtual-tour

But if it's LA, the old wooden house makes me think close to downtown, and it looks like there's a 3-digit address on the building next to the car. As for a date range, Texaco took over Calpet stations in California in May 1928...

LAT May 27, 1926

HossC · #**53947** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 2:36 PM**

I don't have Jim Heimann's book, but I believe this might be a scan from it. It appears to be the same Magnus Root Beer building that's in e_r's picture.

oliviercablat.com

GaylordWilshire · #**53948** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 3:23 PM**

Hmmm...the most recent Merced directory I could find--1938--lists a Texaco station at "361 21st St".... This is a residential area, with apartments at the address today, but there are still some very old houses, including some earylish Victorians, in the neighborhood.... Maybe.

odinthor · #**53949** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 6:40 PM**

Concerning the Magnus Root Beer/Kanteen question: I've consulted with Jack Burgess, a gent who is an enthusiast vis-a-vis the Yosemite Valley Railroad, which went from Merced to Yosemite, who has researched it for 50 years, who has indeed built a splendid model layout of its route, and so has a great deal of familiarity with the area. You will note the fourth photo down at

http://www.yosemitevalleyrr.com/modeling/virtual-tour

representing the Magnus Root Beer structure in Merced.

Mr. Burgess tells me that our photo is not of the Merced structure, which "did not have an associated gas station."

And so our search goes on!

Noir_Noir · #**53950** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 7:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

The 1931 CD lists a National Kanteen Operating Co as a restaurant at 766 Vine. Sounds like a job for the UCSB aerials.

This is the SE corner of Vine and Waring in 1938. I think the Kanteen occupied the arrowed building.

Doesn't appear to fit the bill shape-wise for the one in e_r's picture.

mil.library.ucsb.edu/

The National Kanteen Operating Co. restaurant at 766 Vine Street was built in 1929 using an Oakland based architect and contractor.

ladbsdoc.lacity.org/

Which leads to the only other references I could find to suggest a "Kanteen chain". All in Oakland around the same time period 1929-32.

cdnc.ucr.edu

Maybe the Kanteens were more an Oakland area thing and that's where the picture might be from.

Hookster · #**53951** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 8:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by odinthor

Concerning the Magnus Root Beer/Kanteen question: I've consulted with Jack Burgess, a gent who is an enthusiast vis-a-vis the Yosemite Valley Railroad, which went from Merced to Yosemite, who has researched it for 50 years, who has indeed built a splendid model layout of its route, and so has a great deal of familiarity with the area. You will note the fourth photo down at

http://www.yosemitevalleyrr.com/modeling/virtual-tour

representing the Magnus Root Beer structure in Merced.

Mr. Burgess tells me that our photo is not of the Merced structure, which "did not have an associated gas station."

And so our search goes on!

Gorgeous layout!!!!

GaylordWilshire · #**53952** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 9:23 PM**

The National Kanteen Co built a number of drive-ins during 1929 in a number of NorCal towns. This article says that TWO new Kanteens opened in Hollywood the month before this article appeared in the Oakland Tribune on January 19, 1930:

ethereal_reality · #**53953** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 5:10 AM**

.

I appreciate everyone's efforts in finding the location of the Magnus Kanteen and Texaco Station. Thank you!

. . .from GW's newspaper article:

"Two new Kanteens were opened last month in Hollywood. The Kanteen company have opened offices in Los Angeles
and their program calls for the erection of 20 stations in and about Los Angeles."

So not just two in Hollywood. . .but 20 in and about the Los Angeles area....I wonder how many of them were actually built.

Here's a Magnus Root Beer booth set up at 1923 Orange Show in San Bernardino.

cityofsanbernardino

.

Godzilla · #**53954** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 5:13 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

What's that you say?...You want a better look at the girls.

detail

Quelle surprise. I thought they were wearing short skirts but I see they're wearing pants. (and a tunic)

The "Kanteen" sign may be advertising that business at a different/remote location rather than at or near the Magnus Root Beer business. There have been several examples of this on NLA. The first example that springs to mind is the Cafe La Boheme sign at Fairfax and Wilshire for the business located on Sunset Blvd.

"8610" Sunset Blvd??

USC Digital

https://forum.skyscraperpage.com/sho...ostcount=12929

ethereal_reality · #**53955** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 5:53 AM**

.
I don't believe we have seen this Kodachrome image on nla.

If I'm not mistaken, the photographer's subject is the young man standing stiffed armed at the corner.

Roger Wilkerson tumblr

6th and Hill - Los Angeles - 1958..........................................................

Western Federal Savings appears to be in the midst of placing a mid-century facade onto the building........................................................

Leave the building alone!

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

.

ethereal_reality · #**53956** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 6:58 AM**

.
odinthor, here are several more interiors views of the downtown Melody Lane, 744 S. Hill Street.... odinthor's original post

The restaurant is much larger than I imagined! I think it's because of the impressive ceiling height. ... (in this image we're looking toward Hill Street)

V. GELAKOSKA BOOK

"An interior scene of the main dining room at Melody Lane on Hill Street shows eight waistresses serving the busy crowd.
There are many patrons waiting to be seated in the lobby near the soda fountain, with no less than five waitresses behind the fountain counter.
The photograph was taken around1943 at the height of the restaurant's popularity." .....V. Gelakoska

This next photograph is amazing!

V. GELAKOSKA BOOK

"A 1943 photograph of the entrance to Melody Lane showing the large soda fountain and gift counter.
In the distance, looking toward the dining room, the Wurlitzer pipe organ can be seen on its balcony,
the American flag prominently displayed."....V. Gelakoska

Lastly. . .

V. GELAKOSKA BOOK

"This interior scene of the first Melody Lane on Hill Street shows the high-backed booths that provided diners more privacy
and the mirrored columns that added a soft reflective glow from the ornate chandeliers above.
The Wurlitzer pipe organ can be seen on its balcony, which is adorned with the American flag."....V. Gelakoska

Buy the book, Here

The photographs are from the Bison Archives

ethereal_reality · #**53957** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 7:09 PM**

.

Here's an amazing photograph that was just listed on eBay

Sellers description:..."1905 RPPC REAL PHOTO POSTCARD LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA FRANKLIN ST & MAIN ST."

I didn't know that there was a Franklin Street in downtown Los Angeles.

....................................................................................................................................................... Is the other street mentioned (on the postcard) Central Ave?

eBay

Along the ground there appears to be an ethereal-like ground fog.

The seller thinks it's a flood.

Type: Real Photo (RPPC)

Region: US -LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA

Postage Condition: Posted 1905

Features: FLOOD STREET VIEW

REVERSE

eBay

Yes, there's a Los Angeles postmark but there's also an additional postmark that's more difficult to read.

A closer look.

There is a monument / granite works with the name Wm. Horner on the left. On the right, farther down the street, there is a group of men standing in front of, what might be, a bar or small hotel.

It's absolutely surreal what's going on on the ground!

I'll be so disappointed if this isn't Los Angeles.
.

Earl Boebert · #**53958** Posted **Mar 12, 2020, 8:46 PM**

I think the second postmark is [something] T [something] VILLE. Just a guess.

Cheers,

Earl

odinthor · #**53959** Posted **Mar 13, 2020, 4:01 AM**

Titusville, PA.

Google Book Search

And here's the area in question of today's Titusville.

Google Maps

Downtown L.A. did have a Franklin Street, formerly Jail Street, which ran from Spring to Broadway, and at which poor ol' New High Street found its southern terminus. Hamburger's "great white store" location was at the corner of Spring and Franklin.

Flyingwedge · #**53960** Posted **Mar 13, 2020, 6:02 AM**

Great detective work, Earl and Odinthor! I think the photographer was standing about where the
arrow is on this May 1904 Sanborn Map of Titusville, PA. The three-story building in e_r's photo
must be the Mansion House, at lower right on the map:

ProQuest via LA Public Library