noirish Los Angeles

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by Lomara

I've been watching a webseries that some friends have worked on, and the house they used seems very familiar to me. Does anyone know much about the Sunny Gables estate in La Cañada Flintridge? I googled and googled and came up donut. Maybe I'm just looking at classic features of the front and thinking I've seen them in tv or film.

It's at 582 Meadow Grove St, and was built in 1929 according to this Air BNB listing.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/842961?...dKFYJBB&sug=51

I just found this LA Times article that says Racing Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux bought the home in 2001 refurbished it in 2004, and sold it in 2006.

"The buyers are Sherry Hackney Cade, a film and TV composer who lists "Modern Marvels" and "Forensic Files" among her credits, and her husband, Alan Cade, a principal of Dugan & Associates Construction Management, which oversaw the renovation of City Hall East in downtown L.A."

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul...te/re-hotprop9

[Lomara]

Originally Posted by HossC

The photo is part of the Metro Library and Archive. Their description says "Marmon southbound on Long Beach Blvd. Lynwood, at Lynwood Road. Mobilgas station with flying red horse.". I found an address of 11471 Long Beach Boulevard for Vons. I think the shadow identifies the store on the 1972 aerial below, left. The area was considerably altered by the building of the Century Freeway (below, right). Lynwood Road now deadends next to the off-ramp.

Wow, what a find. My Grandparents had a house on Lynwood road, just 1 block west of this corner. My Grandpa & possibly my Dad likely used that gas station. That section of Lynwood Road narrowly survived the building of the 105, it appears. My Dad had a house in Downey that the state bought and tore down for this freeway.

[BifRayRock]

Another car wash, circa February '57?


Try some donuts and tacos when in the neighborhood! (Before you wash the car.)



These are from a series of day and night images without specific location identification. Memory suggests these images are from Sepulveda a.k.a. Pacific Coast Highway near Rosecrans Blvd., Manhattan Beach. Per the matchbook directions, roughly two miles from LA International. http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...coll2/id/62970

Kel's Donuts? Tico's Tacos?









Claude Wither's Chevron and 3min car wash




Claude Wither's after dark









Gene Butler, Real Estate









Pen & Quill




Two miles south of LA International.
Ebay




Kel's "3001"and street marker.






Daytime Tico's and Kel's






Too many donuts can lead to wide . . . vision




Too many donuts may impact night vision too.




Jay H Woodward, realtor





Dr. Moxley's Dog and Cat Hospital.






GdZlla brought Moxley's Art Deco Vet Store at 940 Highland Ave. to our attention here: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=11541


From same group at Huntington

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Melody Cafe


[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

I enjoy the many directions the discussion takes here but it is also nice to get back to some good old fashioned Noir.
Excellent stuff!

[BifRayRock]

Undated Union Pacific Office facade. Long Beach. 144 Pine Ave.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...3coll2/id/6899













Interior
HDL

[ethereal_reality]

That's a fantastic facade. love the back-lit script lettering.
__



I found this photograph this afternoon on eBay.

"Airplane Float, Los Angeles, 1931"


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Los-Angeles-...cAAOSwLnBX5qwT




Hamilton's Diamonds (visible at lower left corner) was at 546 Broadway.


lapl




I've outlined the Hamilton's space in this current photo.



right there in the corner.
__

[HossC]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Undated Union Pacific Office facade. Long Beach. Street No. "144."
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...3coll2/id/6899

The Union Pacific Railroad Co ticket office was at 144 Pine Avenue in the 1948 Long Beach CD. The gable wall on the right identifies that address at "140 Pine".

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Another car wash, circa February '57?


Try some donuts and tacos when in the neighborhood! (Before you wash the car.)



These are from a series of day and night images without specific location identification. Memory suggests these images are from Sepulveda a.k.a. Pacific Coast Highway near Rosecrans Blvd., Manhattan Beach. Per the matchbook directions, roughly two miles from LA International. http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...coll2/id/62970

Look closely, do any of those obelisk-shaped street markers still exist? Kel's Donuts? Tico's Tacos?











Pen & Quill




Two miles south of LA International.
Ebay




Kel's "3001"and street marker.

Most, if not all of these were taken along Sepulveda Bl in Manhattan Beach. I grew up there in the late '60s and early '70s and most of the businesses shown here were gone by then. The Pen & Quill was located just south of Rosecrans Ave on the west side of Sepulveda.
The street markers were discussed here and some do still exist.
unihikid posted some photos of existing examples.

Originally Posted by unihikid

I've always wondered about these. I have my daily walks down Manhattan Ave and there is a section of it that has these all over. Sorry for the picture quality i was double parked and was running across the street to snap them.





These are all near the Hermosa/Manhattan boarder once you get into MB.
Photos by unihikid

The Pen & Quill is of particular interest to me because I was arrested there in 1978 because a bunch of us teenagers heard they had drained the swimming pool for service and we thought that meant we could skateboard in it. The owner made it clear that was not why he had drained it and called the police. Our skateboards were confiscated for a week and we had to pay about $10 each in damages. That was my one and only time on the wrong side of the law.

[BifRayRock]

The street markers were the first hint of Manhattan Beach, just couldn't locate previous posts. You too HossC, you beat me to adding the Pine Av. Thanks all around.




Understand that a few Alhambra-East LA streets are showing their age and, in particular, their paved-over street car tracks. Looking for them revealed this March '59 image without any specific location. Huntington Drive, San Marino? http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/compou...coll2/id/65258







GSV




GSV




32¢! (Probably expensive in its day.)

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Undated Union Pacific Office facade. Long Beach. Street No. "144."
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...3coll2/id/6899

______________________________


BifRayRock, the street is Pine Avenue.

I noticed "140 Pine" in the peak of the building next door.


detail





I believe the building that held the Union Pacific Ticket Office is still standing!

Here's how the facade looks today.


gsv

The dimensions are definitely the same.




and from above...


google_earth



update:

*oops...I see Hoss found the '140 Pine' address in the gable too. I guess I'm not as sleuthy as I thought , or as quick on the draw.
__

[BifRayRock]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

______________________________


*I see HossC found the address in the gable next door too. I guess I'm not as sleuthy as I thought , or as quick on the draw.
__

But thank you nonetheless. And that includes the followups.

A little further south is Seal Beach. It appears to be Main Street.




http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...3coll2/id/9182











Someone is bound to trip on that bike!





















FWIW, Gump Realty was at 135 Main. Sadly, Bucket seems to limit the image width.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...3coll2/id/9183


Main Street
GSV


Unclear whether this is "The" Gump building or merely a structure once occupied by a Mr. Gump. If the former, it may have been renumbered "145" since this pic was taken. Once source states the Gump building is from the '20s and is currently Hennessey's Grill.



Can't beat a nook that is friendly

[slufty]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Thanks E_R and HossC for the additional Lytton posts. I can't believe that lovely Plaza area and Arts Center were all abandoned and
destroyed, especially in favor of what's there presently. Also interesting, in one of the report photos, it shows Martin Luther King with
a Lytton Center employee, a curator, though it's not clear whether he was at the Center or not when it was taken.
___

The photo of MLK was with Josine Ianco-Starrels (Kline) at Lytton Center of the Visual Arts. She was curator of Lytton Center though the five or six years of it's existence. When Bart Lytton lost control of the S&L they closed the gallery.
This was one of the first corporate arts programs and they put on some very important shows including one of the first exhibits exclusively of the work of women artist.

© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10)
The Lytton Center building is still there, seen in this Shulman photo's foreground. It's now an art storage building, and is not part of the effort to save the Lytton Savings building.

We need support to save the Lytton Building, sign up to our email list for the news and actions http://eepurl.com/b_NkkX

And like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/saveLytton

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by slufty

Josine Ianco-Starrels was curator of Lytton Center though the five or six years of it's existence.

Ms. Ianco-Starrel's father was Marcel Janco, a famous Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect and art theorist.

He was the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading exponent of Constructivism in Eastern Europe.


http://www.theartstory.org/artist-janco-marcel.htm

Good luck with your effort in saving the Lytton Building slufty.

I'll sign up.
__

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

At some point-- a few years ago now-- I posted a noirish item about Wright Street, the stub of a street in the center of the looping freeway ramp. Can't find it now...but in one of those small apartment buildings lived one of the killers of Mabel Monohan...or Susan Hayward when she was first in Los Angeles??...can't remember the details.

PS Well, it was none other than Barbara Graham herself. Found the links:


http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=10694



http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=1235

We were just on that stretch of freeway the weekend before last. You can literally see straight into the apartments on the upper floors of the red building while transitioning from the WB 10 to the SB 110 if the windows are open on a warm evening. That must be an odd situation for the tenants.

[Mstimc]

Originally Posted by HossC

Here's the intersection in 1961, during the construction of the Santa Monica Freeway. Hoover is the street at the bottom. I think the service station (minus its Shell sign) and the house across Burlington Avenue match e_r's picture.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

To me, these photos of freeway R-O-W's really show how devastating freeway construction can be to a neighborhood, even more more so than photos of the finished highway. There is just something depressing about seeing these huge empty swaths cut through what were once peoples' homes and businesses.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

I enjoy the many directions the discussion takes here but it is also nice to get back to some good old fashioned Noir!

Bristolian, does a dwarf that chopped up his wife count?







http://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Photo-W...0AAOSwMtxXwrvp

"William Spinelli, 58 year old dwarf, has confessed to the ax-murder of his wife, Rose, also 58. Police say that Spinelli, after hours of questioning,
told them he killed his wife with an ax, hacked up the body, stuffed the dismembered limbs in an ice box and later burned the remains in his back yard." [12-22-38]

from this






Bill and Rose are listed in the 1938 city directory. The same year as Rose's grisly demise.


lapl

305 N. Mountain View is a few blocks southwest of Echo Park Lake. (shown below)


google_earth






Here's the Spinelli bungalow, looking every inch a former murder site.


gsv





detail

note the bird with the ratty blanket hanging from it's cage.




A view into the backyard via the lot next door.


gsv

The green building with utilities is actually attached to a building on the Spinelli property, so I believe someone owns both lots.

from above you can see how the buildings are adjoined. (kinda' spooky if you ask me)


google_earth

I'll give 10 bucks to anyone willing to sneak into the backyard some night.

___

[Bristolian]

ER, Not only does it count, it gets the win!

Bonus points for the stitches on Spinelli's forehead.

Back to the images of Sepulveda Blvd in Manhattan Beach posted by BifRayRock:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock

Jay H Woodward, realtor

This shot is looking north on Sepulveda from just south of 2nd street. A current view shows that the real estate building has survived and the gas station across the street still exists as a repair shop.

GSV

[BifRayRock]

KTLA, Channel 5






Undated. (5800 Sunset Blvd?)
HDL







Spade Cooley and Jack La Lane









Stan Chambers
https://tribktla.files.wordpress.com...n-old-days.jpg




Spade Cooley http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...ostcount=16763




http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ojhO_7coVA...how%2Blogo.jpg




https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Lanne_1961.JPG

[BifRayRock]

McDonalds Azusa style.

Date Unk
HDL







Azusa: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=19876


http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6007/6...4458754c_z.jpg


Yes, Downey Not Azusa.
http://tours42plus.com/Assets/Upload...cb748c1b4.jpeg





Azusa Square 16 shops date unk.
HDL



Azusa Square 16 Shops
HDL

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Bristolian, does a dwarf that chopped up his wife count?







http://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Photo-W...0AAOSwMtxXwrvp

"William Spinelli, 58 year old dwarf, has confessed to the ax-murder of his wife, Rose, also 58. Police say that Spinelli, after hours of questioning,
told them he killed his wife with an ax, hacked up the body, stuffed the dismembered limbs in an ice box and later burned the remains in his back yard." [12-22-38]

from this






Bill and Rose are listed in the 1938 city directory. The same year as Rose's grisly demise.


I'll give 10 bucks to anyone willing to sneak into the backyard some night.

___

Son Arguing with His Father - 1938 ax murder



getty

Father, Son Accuse Each Other as Ax Murder Hunt Continues. Los Angeles, California: As police continued in their search for missing Mrs. Rose Spinelli believed to have been the victim in a bizarre axe murder, the women's husband and son, both jailed in connection with her disappearance hurled epithets and recriminations at each other. Shown above, William Spinelli Jr., 19 at left, points an accusing finger at his father as he cried, 'Tell me where her body is so we can give her a decent burial.' William Spinelli Sr., right, cringed and countered 'You probably killed her yourself. Maybe you know where she's at.' The elder Spinelli went on a hunger strike saying, 'I no want to eat. The police, they are persecuting me.'