noirish Los Angeles

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Does anyone know what the back of Musso & Frank's looks like today? (I hope they at least straightened that sign)



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I took a look around on the Googlemobile. If you go up Cherokee you can look down toward the back and there's a green awning over that back entrance. A several story building has also been built from Cherokee down past Musso & Frank at the rear. I'm assuming it's an apartment building, though I don't know.

Apparently that area used to be a parking lot. Redfin says: The one-acre project site, located just north of Hollywood Boulevard, spans between Las Palmas and Cherokee Avenues. A six-story edifice that will feature 224 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments, in addition to approximately 1,000 square feet of street-level retail space.

That project is finished.

M&F back entrance 2010:

RefinedPalate

2020:

LimitedRuns

If you look on GSV (HERE) the current photo of the front shows that they've moved both the Musso & Frank sign and the "Oldest Rest. in Hollywood" sign. And are they expanding to the right? That did not used to be part of the restaurant.

Like many places, Musso & Frank has been closed. They tried outdoor dining that did not work and take-out which "was not feasible." They used PPP funds to pay health insurance for their employees and customer benefactors have helped out and eventually a GoFundMe page was set up.

Current word from a couple weeks ago: Musso & Frank Grill isn’t ready to return just yet. They say in a lengthy Instagram post that “we are now starting the extensive process of putting the gears in motion for a reopening in the near future,” adding that it will “take several weeks” at least.

Instagram post dated March 15th:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMcpGqfslqx/

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash

Well, speaking of Crossroads of the World, I just read that they're going to tear it down to build a high-rise.
That just ruined my day.

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Unless I know what you read, I don't think that's true. There is a huge development project around there, but TCoTW isn't being torn down. L.A. Conservancy's website says:
Saved
Crossroads of the World /
Hollywood Reporter Building
Link: https://www.laconservancy.org/locati...ossroads-world

Excellent informative and often infuriating...Article from theLAnd:

At a Crossroads
How a pay-to-play corruption scandal at City Council intersects with Crossroads Hollywood, a glass skyscraper set to demolish a series of historic structures and displace their longtime tenants.

https://thelandmag.com/crossroads-hollywood/

From the article:
One of the buildings that will be preserved is the circa-1931 complex from which this new development takes its name: the Crossroads of the World [...]. This beloved plaza will become the token centerpiece for the multiple glass skyscrapers that will surround it on all sides. But many of the nearby buildings will not survive. Between 2017 and 2018, The Cultural Heritage Commission recommended five of the buildings in the footprint of Crossroads Hollywood for Historic-Cultural Monument status: the Hollywood Reporter building, the Talbot-Woods craftsman-style duplex, one pristinely-maintained 1910 bungalow, the Selma-Las Palmas courtyard apartments, and the 1920's Bullinger Building.

[The Hollywood Reporter building received the Historic-Cultural Monument status. The other 4 did not.]

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
mystery location #2 (for April 6th)



When I first saw this snapshot I thought 'business man and assistant'. . .but know I'm thinking man and wife.



eBay

Boy, that is a lot of litter.


Here's a closer look at the buildings in the distance. (note the GIANT ANT on the roof of the May Co.)


detail





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e_r, I believe we're looking at the May Co which anchored the Lakewood Mall (with which I was most familiar indeed in the late 1950s through the 1980s). Pep Boys, the sign of which edges into the pic, opened a location across the street in 1959:


LA Times, 5/24/1959.

The May Co building, though altered, is still there. The ant is not.

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by riichkay

...a $200,000 home in Doheny Estates...

...the single-story, 5,000-square-foot stucco house in the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard, ...

Photograph dated October 6, 1970.

That's all I saw.

Probably need a few more zeroes today.

[BDiH]

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash

It's on Las Palmas between Hollywood and Selma. I've walked past it hundreds of times. Buster Keaton filmed a scene in front of the church at the intersection of Selma and Las Palmas. (Not the same building, the original church burned down as I recall, and it was rebuilt).
The back of Musso and Frank's was a private club called The Writer's room, or something like that. I seem to remember that it had something to do with Johnny Depp. Again, I'm going purely from memory, so I could be mistaken.
The back of the building had some painted caricatures and graffiti. From what I've seen on Google Maps they've built an apartment building in the parking lot behind there in the years since I was there.

That same church was also in "Gun Crazy" with Peggy Cummins and John Dall.

This site has more photos of the exterior, rear of Musso and Frank:

http://www.mussoandfrankgrill.com/

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by BDiH

That same church was also in "Gun Crazy" with Peggy Cummins and John Dall.

It's very briefly visible through a taxi windshield about one hour into the movie.



Here's John Bengston's blog post about Keaton's use of this church in "Cops" with several photos.

[Sakhal Nakhash]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Unless I know what you read, I don't think that's true. There is a huge development project around there, but TCoTW isn't being torn down. L.A. Conservancy's website says:
Saved
Crossroads of the World /
Hollywood Reporter Building
Link: https://www.laconservancy.org/locati...ossroads-world

Excellent informative and often infuriating...Article from theLAnd:

At a Crossroads
How a pay-to-play corruption scandal at City Council intersects with Crossroads Hollywood, a glass skyscraper set to demolish a series of historic structures and displace their longtime tenants.

https://thelandmag.com/crossroads-hollywood/

From the article:
One of the buildings that will be preserved is the circa-1931 complex from which this new development takes its name: the Crossroads of the World [...]. This beloved plaza will become the token centerpiece for the multiple glass skyscrapers that will surround it on all sides. But many of the nearby buildings will not survive. Between 2017 and 2018, The Cultural Heritage Commission recommended five of the buildings in the footprint of Crossroads Hollywood for Historic-Cultural Monument status: the Hollywood Reporter building, the Talbot-Woods craftsman-style duplex, one pristinely-maintained 1910 bungalow, the Selma-Las Palmas courtyard apartments, and the 1920's Bullinger Building.

[The Hollywood Reporter building received the Historic-Cultural Monument status. The other 4 did not.]

Oh! Phew! What a massive relief.
It was the wording in the Wikipedia article that got me:
"The owner is planning on redeveloping the site...

In January 2019, the Los Angeles City Council approved the project to revamp the Crossroads of the World in a move to revitalize the district.[2] Three high-rise buildings are planned to bring 950 apartments and condos, a 308-room hotel, and 190,000 square feet (18,000 m2) of commercial space. Preservationists called the redevelopment project a "Manhattanization of Hollywood".[3] Eighty-two Hollywood Regency garden apartments are to be demolished in the project.[4][5] These rent stabilized apartments are occupied by a decades-old, tight-knit community of largely low-income, predominantly Latino residents. Over 100 apartments in the project will be set aside for very low-income families."

I took the wording to mean the actual spot where C.o.t.W. is located.
I'm glad to hear about the old H.C.R. building.

Thank you again for putting my mind at ease.

[Sakhal Nakhash]

Oh, just one more thing.
I realized a few moments after I posted my previous comment that I had mixed up The Hollywood Reporter building and the Hollywood Citizen News building.
How embarrassing.

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by odinthor

e_r, I believe we're looking at the May Co which anchored the Lakewood Mall (with which I was most familiar indeed in the late 1950s through the 1980s). Pep Boys, the sign of which edges into the pic, opened a location across the street in 1959:


LA Times, 5/24/1959.

The May Co building, though altered, is still there. The ant is not.

When I saw May Co and Pep Boys I thought of the South Bay Galleria, formerly South Bay Center which had a May Co which is still standing but the whole complex is slated for demolition or a massive makeover. There was also a Pep Boys location on Artesia Blvd. which was nearby but not as close as what is seen in the photo.

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash

I took the wording to mean the actual spot where C.o.t.W. is located.

Still and all, Sakhal...sadly these massive construction projects are dwarfing the iconic locations that people are trying to save. When one looks at the renderings for this project and others, like the project next to Angel's Flight and the hotel project to incorporate and hover over Barnery's Beanery even, they all make the original locations look out of place or like a theme restaurant. You can hardly even see Angel's Flight next to that project. It looks like some fire escape. It's almost like they still really are being erased and put out of context. The context around these locations is as important as the buildings themselves. Otherwise, it's only more like recreating the Brown Derby at Disney World in Florida. It's not the same.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Since Crossroads of the World was brought up yesterday I thought I would revisit it.


For some reason I always forget about the back section facing Selma Ave. (as you can see it's just east of the recently discussed Baptist Church)
It is surprisingly quite some distance from the better known group of buildings
at Sunset Blvd. (where the iconic rotating globe is located)


GSV - Sunset at bottom - Selma at top


If I'm not mistaken the original plans for the area between the two groupings was going to be a 'Crossroads of the World' theater. (?)






UPDATE!


I just found this map that includes the proposed buildings that never came to fruition and, yes, one of them was going to be a theater.

I also see that the segment on Selma Ave. was called the Continental Villa.

The unrealized buildings are in a lighter shade.

findinglostangeles

As you can see the development was going to extend west, over to Las Palmas Ave. (top of map)


I imagine the empty gap, as a result of the unbuilt buildings, contributed to development's struggles in popularity. Shoppers were supposed to lose themselves in a fantasy world
but to get to the buildings in the back (the Continental Villa) you had to cross an expanse of. . .umm. . .parking lot(?) . . .empty space(?) I'm not sure which.


AND the parcel of land that eventually became Crossroads of the World was the site of a very noirish double murder! (more on that later) or if anyone else wants to tackle the subject feel free to do so.
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[ethereal_reality]

I forgot to include this 1950 Sanborn Map.



I see there are a few stray buildings on the right. (with the S's on them for stores) *looks closer* I guess it's one building.


Let me see if I can make it bigger.





Wallah!


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[CityBoyDoug]

Film of San Fernando Road... 1949.

https://youtu.be/x3X5DwDGvmo

Loaded with old buildings, vintage cars and trucks. People were still driving pre WW II cars.

4 minutes

[mrfredmertz]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Proud you should be...great show! Thanks! A favorite of most of the noirishers here no doubt including me.

Thanks. The idea to revive Perry Mason occurred to me in 1999. I tracked down the rights and spent DECADES trying to sew this together. My partner joined the cause in 2011 and we ended up bringing in Robert Downey Jr who set it up at Warner Bros. as a big-budget movie THE VERY NEXT DAY. We developed it for another five years and then it moved over to Warner's sister company, HBO. So my - and Perry's overnight success only took 21 years.

[Handsome Stranger]

Current construction at 51st and Broadway has uncovered a long hidden sign for the Globe Department Store that once stood at this intersection. Has this building been discussed here previously?





(Photos found on Reddit.)

Also...I very much enjoyed the reboot of Perry Mason, mrfredmertz. Congrats!

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by Sakhal Nakhash

It's on Las Palmas between Hollywood and Selma. I've walked past it hundreds of times. Buster Keaton filmed a scene in front of the church at the intersection of Selma and Las Palmas. (Not the same building, the original church burned down as I recall, and it was rebuilt).
The back of Musso and Frank's was a private club called The Writer's room, or something like that. I seem to remember that it had something to do with Johnny Depp. Again, I'm going purely from memory, so I could be mistaken.
The back of the building had some painted caricatures and graffiti. From what I've seen on Google Maps they've built an apartment building in the parking lot behind there in the years since I was there.

I can confirm the back of Musso & Franks was the entrance to a bar called The Writers Room because supposedly Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald and others drank there. It went out of business in about 2015 and was replaced by a lesbian bar whose name now escapes me.

[ethereal_reality]

.
That Globe ghost sign is a very cool discovery, Handsome Stranger.

I wondered why the left side was blank so I slightly adjusted the contrast.



As you can see there is a very large red arrow. So where, exactly, was the ghost sign found? There wouldn't an arrow if it was at the exact location.
Is it across the street?. . .is it down the block?)






I find it hard to believe there was a store that covered an entire city block at S. Broadway and 51st.

& I take it the ultra-modern building was never built, right?






Here's an item from ebay that includes a 2nd location in Inglewood.




They pretty such had everything from nuts to bolts.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Including bridge tables!



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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I find it hard to believe there was a store that covered an entire city block at S. Broadway and 51st.

& I take it the ultra-modern building was never built, right?

The Newspaper article appears to be from the 26 July, 1936 edition of the LAT. This 1938 aerial shows contiguous buildings between 51st and 52nd Streets.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

From a couple of years ago:

Originally Posted by HossC

...here's another advert from the 1936 CD.


LAPL

Globe Department Stores Inc was still at 5100 S Broadway in 1956. By the early '60s, they'd either moved or downsized to 5136 S Broadway, and then spent 1963-69 at 5201 S Vermont Avenue. Does anyone have any photos (I haven't had a chance to look yet) - there's only a drawing in the link above.

And rcarlton posted this is 2012, which possibly shows the store covering a whole block.

Originally Posted by rcarlton

Could this be the Globe Department Store?

LAPL

GE

Sure has changed. Tower still stands.

[Snix]

The Globe Department Store became the Paradise Baptist Church in 1960.


1967
Harry Adams/California State University Northridge. University Library. Special Collections & Archives. Tom & Ethel Bradley Center

2020
GSV

[Snix]

Redwine Building

Historic-Cultural Monument application, December 2015

The 1931 Redwine Building is located at 1618 N. Las Palmas Avenue in the heart of Hollywood, south of Hollywood Boulevard. The two-story rectangular shaped building was designed by architect Richard D. King for Los Angeles attorney Hiram G. Redwine in the Art Deco style. The building replaced Redwine’s family residence on the site and was subsequently used as his
office, a meeting place, and as leased offices by companies such as Shell Oil...

https://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt...BuildingUC.pdf

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Redwine Bldg. Los Angeles - 1975 - mystery location.



eBay

Any ideas where this might be?




The rear entrance to Musso & Franks in March 1975.



That's probably the chef's car. He's ready for a quick take off.


Does anyone know what the back of Musso & Frank's looks like today? (I hope they at least straightened that sign)




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