noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

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Hold on folks. ....I just realized there are more rooftop snapshots.


This one, obviously taken at a different angle, shows the old Hall of Records building in the distance.


eBay

The Halls of Records looks so far away (for this being Bunker Hill)


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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is a rare snapshot of a woman posing on the roof of the Mission Apartments in Los Angeles. (if I'm not mistaken, Bunker Hill)


eBay

Do any of you Bunker Hill enthusiasts recognize these buildings?

. . .because I'm stumped.

The Mission Apartments were on the corner of 2nd and Olive. The roof decoration on the right of the building seems to match the shape behind the lady in the picture above. The famous A drive through 1940's Los Angeles! video starts with the car parked outside as we look down over the entrance to the 2nd Street tunnel.


LAPL

The buildings behind the lady are the Melrose Annex and the back of the Richelieu.


Huntington Digital Library

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by kznyc2k

ANYWAY, I started to colorize this shot of the 6th Street Bridge from the 1930s probably back in like 2014 in Photoshop

I was in the area two days ago and shot these photos. Looks like progress is being made on the new bridge.

(forgive the warp-y look of the photos, I used my phone's panorama mode)

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

The Mission Apartments were on the corner of 2nd and Olive. The roof decoration on the right of the building seems to match the shape behind the lady in the ebay picture .
The famous A drive through 1940's Los Angeles! video starts with the car parked outside as we look down over the entrance to the 2nd Street tunnel.


LAPL

As a reminder - we get a glimpse of the Mission Apts. at the beginning of this video.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................THIS BUILDING

Link.


Thanks for figuring out the buildings across the street in the eBay snapshot Hoss. I appreciate it.



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[ethereal_reality]

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Original 35mm Slide - Los Angeles Central Library - Los Angeles, CA 1960.

There is a interesting assortment of signs in this image.


currently on eBay...6/20/2020


FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

The blade sign of the Mayflower Hotel.

The famous 'JESUS SAVES' sign.

The vertical Ritchfield sign on its derrick-like tower.

And in the far distance (to the south) the large HOTEL FIGUEROA sign.
____________________________________________


I'm still trying to figure out where the photographer was standing when he took the picture. (I'm discombobulated)
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[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I'm still trying to figure out where the photographer was standing when he took the picture. (I'm discombobulated)

I'd guess that the photographer was at the back of the Biltmore Hotel. Drawing a line back from the site of the Hotel Figueroa, they were probably in the extant older part next to the tower.

Here's the rough line of sight.


Google Maps

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

_________________________________________________________________

Hats off to Scott Charles!

Do you know that guy in the photo SC?

[Hollywood Graham]

Looks like it is Steel from China.

[Martin Pal]

There's one of those photo folders from a nightclub on eBay right now for a place I don't recall hearing about before:

eBay

Hollywood Casino at 6000 Sunset Blvd. The address is at Gordon St. and the location is adjacent to Sunset Gower Studios. It's a two story building with two modern several story buildings on either side of it.

A nice aerial look at it; note the modern building on the left:
https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...tudios-map.pdf

The building opened as a Cashis King market in 1933.

LAPL


Exterior view of the art deco style open-air Cashis King market located at 6000 Sunset Boulevard (foreground) just east of Gower in Hollywood. Based on the interior signs that are visible, the market carries a variety of produce, dairy products, fruits (both dried and fresh). Near the right side of the image market employees are setting up a produce display. The bus bench on the corner (left) is advertising the Hollywood Carpenter Shop, located at 4640 Prospect Avenue.

From 1942 to 1944 the place had three names, first as Hollywood Casino as the eBay photo folder shows or Madame Zucca's Hollywood Casino as this one is monikered:



The place was said to feature "wild burlesque shows and not-so-legal gambling."

It was renamed Cotton Club in 1943 and The French Casino in 1944 "in attempts to get around new liquor and gaming laws.'

Subsequently the building became these enterprises:

1950: West Coast Productions (radio broadcasting)
1953: Radio Center Theatre
1957: Western Recorders



1960: West Studio
1999: Studio sold and renamed Cello Studios



2005: Cello studios closes down and is sold
2006: Studios begin renovations
2009: Reopens as EastWest Studios




For 60 years the biggest stars in all genres of music have recorded here, as well as music for TV series and movies. It's also had some movie scenes filmed here from "You Light Up My Life" to "La La Land" to last year's "Yesterday."

EastWest has a history section on their website (which is where I got most of this information) and it details the building's history and all the famous people and music that was recorded there. There's also a documentary link to Vimeo of their time there.

https://www.eastweststudios.com/history/

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

A nice aerial look at it; note the modern building on the left:
https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...tudios-map.pdf
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A SIDEBAR to the above post: The building across Gordon Street from EastWest Studios is Emerson College at 5960 Sunset Blvd. The building opened in 2014 and has become a favorite of a lot of people.

HollywoodPartnership

HollywoodPartnership

More photos:
https://www.morphosis.com/architecture/127/

[Lwize]

Looks like Morphosis drew from the Frank Ghery school of design!

Here's a little video:

• Video Link

[ethereal_reality]

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Here's a family posing in front of their home a block or so west of Echo Park Lake. c.1910s(?)


eBay

"Mr. & Mrs. Coleman,

Dorothy, Jeannette, Claire,

Hudson, Lauarance* [sic.] & Pa.

1712 Bellevue Ave.






Let's take a closer look. (because we can )


eBay

I'm intrigued by the gate on the left that appears to be across the road.....I believe the family's house might still be standing but I can't be certain.

& it's possible the house facing the camera (we can only see the roof & three 2nd story windows) might still be standing as well.




*I'm still befuddled by their spelling of La(u)wra(e)nce..... My grandfather's name was Lawrence & it was spelled L a w r e n c e. of course, lol
In the olden times the name was, more often than not, spelled as Laurence.
-BUT there seems to be an extra letter in the way it's spelled in the Coleman's photo album.
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[HossC]

1712 Bellevue could be the same house. The property websites give a build date of 1920, but the only BP I can find for new construction is a 1920 application for a "private garage".


GSV

The gates at the left are the barriers at Belmont Avenue. Bellevue Avenue is only a footpath between Belmont Avenue and Glendale Boulevard, now finishing in steps at the latter.


GSV

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Hats off to Scott Charles!

Do you know that guy in the photo SC?

Do you mean the guy with the cowboy hat in his hand, Martin Pal?

He was actually a mannequin!

[Martin Pal]

Oops! LOL!!! I thought you knew him or he was waving at you, being friendly!

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Oops! LOL!!! I thought you knew him or he was waving at you, being friendly!

Don't be anti-mannequin!

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is a rare snapshot of a woman posing on the roof of the Mission Apartments in Los Angeles. (if I'm not mistaken, Bunker Hill)


eBay

THANK YOU for your post. I can't tell you how much I gasped or how quickly I bought this (and the others) snapshot. I mighta missed 'em had you not posted it here!

[Lwize]

Just an noirish head's up - a new gritty HBO mini-series retelling of Perry Mason begins tonight.

It will contain real (and evidently CGI) locations around Noirish LA circa 1931-1932.

Hope it's good enough to watch...

[ProphetM]

Did anyone else catch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC this past Wednesday? Now in its 7th and final season, it currently involves a time-travel storyline. They've been using title cards for each epsiode that are style-appropriate to the time, and in the latest episode they went even further - going full noir for most of the episode, where they are conducting their mission in 1955.

The majority of the episode was in black & white, with a narrator monologue by Agent Coulson, and a clever in-universe explanation at the end as to why. There are scenes on a train (most likely the Fillmore & Western), and a whole bunch of shots at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. A bar that was a speakeasy in episodes set in 1931 has been updated to a tiki bar for 1955. The episode is even named "Out of the Past" in homage to the 1947 noir film.

You can view this episode now on ABC's web site or via the ABC app on streaming devices like Roku, if you have a cable TV or satellite subscription, by verifying with those credentials. Or you can wait until Wednesday or Thursday of this week when the episode should be unlocked for free viewing without credentials. Personally I had an issue with the streaming which seems to be a bug with their streaming feed - it turned on audio narration for the blind by default and there wasn't a way to turn it off in settings. I had to fast forward to the end of the episode and let it get close to finishing, then rewind again to the beginning to get rid of it. Annoying but at least I was still able to watch.

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by ProphetM

Did anyone else catch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC this past Wednesday? Now in its 7th and final season, it currently involves a time-travel storyline. They've been using title cards for each epsiode that are style-appropriate to the time, and in the latest episode they went even further - going full noir for most of the episode, where they are conducting their mission in 1955.

The majority of the episode was in black & white, with a narrator monologue by Agent Coulson, and a clever in-universe explanation at the end as to why. There are scenes on a train (most likely the Fillmore & Western), and a whole bunch of shots at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. A bar that was a speakeasy in episodes set in 1931 has been updated to a tiki bar for 1955. The episode is even named "Out of the Past" in homage to the 1947 noir film.

I just flipped through the episode (I don't watch this particular series, though).
They apparently went full noir, especially with the PI voice over, characters in shadow, soft focus, off kilter camera angles and musical cues.
Though they wanted to pay homage to Noir 1947, if I were setting this episode in 1955 Los Angeles, it would have been Hitchcock style in saturated VistaVision Technicolor, and not dark noir.
The tiki bar demanded color!