noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by Wig-Wag

It is a bit hard to confirm but it appears that the poster in the window shows another piece of Dean Jeffries's work, the "Landmaster from the move Damnation Alley.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26n3RsXNyKE

Cheers,
Jack

You're right, Jack. If I'd only moved the Google stick man to the left, I could have taken the shot through the open gate. Thanks for the video link - the Landmaster's quite an amazing vehicle, and Dean seemed like a really nice guy.


GSV

I thought I should also include a recent picture (2011) when the building still had Dean Jeffries' name on it.


GSV

It looks like the garages on the left were a fairly recent addition. The 2007 image just shows a covered area.


GSV

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by HossC

A color view.

Thanks for the color view. That link says, depending on the two articles, that those vehicles (two Monkeemobiles were built) were done in either three weeks or four weeks. Impressive.

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

Hello, all. First, let me introduce myself. I'm John Maddox Roberts, a professional novelist for the last 30-odd years. I discovered this site about a month ago and have been working my way through its pages and am up to p. 148. Only a little more than a thousand to go!
My own relationship with L.A. began on June 25, 1954, when I flew in from Texas on a DC7 with my mom and brother. My mother's sister lived in Pasadena and we were out for a summer visit. I can always remember the date because it was my 7th birthday. I don't remember much about the airport (not yet called LAX) but I remember vividly the giant donut atop Randy's Donuts, which we drove past on our way to the Pasadena Freeway, so I guess you can say that my memories of California began with LA's unique architecture.
I spent most of my summers there until 1961, when my aunt moved to Santa Barbara, but I've been back many times over the years, most recently for the Left Coast Crime Convention in 2010, which was held at the Omni, atop what used to be Bunker Hill, and got to ride on Angel's Flight at its reopening.
This site is a wonderful resource and I'm enjoying it immensely. I only wish I had pictures to contribute. Thank you all for giving me so many hours of enjoyment.
And the new James Ellroy book debuts in 10 days! 40s L.A. Noir reigns! My cup runneth over.

Welcome to Noirish Los Angeles, John Maddox Roberts !
If I were a novelist, I would follow the thread very close. As almost every contributor here shows an artistic sensitivity, it is a fountain of creative ideas which may make good starts for many kinds of writings.

[shadyguy]

Thanks FredH, that intersection has some great ariel photos during the 4th Street cut and the Hildreth must have been taken out early on, but the little back road made me wonder if there were houses on it also.
I know 4th going East ends at Flower and most of the are on the east side of Flower are parking lots.

[loyalton]

Old business:

Originally Posted by Oviatt Building Fan

One detail that really caught my eye: the sign for "MACHIN Shirtmakers". From the early 1900s to the 1950s (when its cachet began to fade), "Machin" was the custom shirtmaker of choice for Los Angeles's elites: bankers, movie stars, oil men, etc. Its only real competitor was a shirtmaker named J.T. Beach, who was favored by Clark Gable.

Not a very nice location for such a business, eh?

Not to worry! They'd probably send out a tailor with fabric samples to wherever Mr. Big Macher was. Machin would likely deliver, hopefully via gas mask-equipped motorcycle courier.

Machin is in the 1900-01 directory at 118½ S. Spring. They might not have been able to say "Same location for over 50 years" since they were at 5603 Monte Vista in 1909 (which Monte Vista?). The best I could find for the times was a street view cut off at 120 S. Spring (dangit). In any case, that block seemed to be full of clothiers.

These are some great pictures from slides.

[loyalton]

Here's 3 photos I came across at the Library of Congress site. These were shot by Russell Lee in 1942 for the Office of War Information. Most of his photos involve the Japanese-American relocation from LA under Executive Order 9066. These seem to be the only other LA-related pictures of his online, but then again, they're so vaguely captioned that there could be more.

On the SE corner of Sunset and Vine is a Harry Carpenter drive-in (6290 Sunset):
Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/owi...5/PP/resource/

This is only captioned "a neon sign", Regarding the specific location, you might ask: How do it know? Over to the left, is "J.G. REYNOLDS/DRUGLESS METHODS". James G. Reynolds is in the 1942 directory at Sunset at the appropriate address. "Drugless methods" meant "chiropractic".

Here's a partial 1956 aerial of the area:
LA Public Library

Vine is the diagonal vertical central street, with the drive-in about a third of the way down from the top edge. By 1956, Carpenter's is Stan's Drive-In #5. It looks like the tower sign has been re-done.

Better is HossC's overhead view. That post has much more on Carpenter's, including shots of older versions of this stand:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...7s#post6357272


Back to the night in 1942, we move along and find the Hollywood Palladium (6215 Sunset):
Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8d28162/

We have other views of the Palladium here on noirish Los Angeles including a night shot from this time at a different angle. IIRC that one has the figures washed out; this one has PALLADIUM washed out. The facade was restored to this original version in 2008.

I wonder what happened to the little palm out front. Did management realize that it would eventually obscure the marquee and have it ripped out?

Then we move on to 6210 Sunset:
Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/owi2001024129/PP/

This is THAT Mark C. Bloome of tire fame (if you're that old to know -- they were bought out by Goodyear in the 1980s). He started out with gas stations, with the first being a Richfield at Compton and Slauson. Here, they're selling MacMillan gas, and tires are already a major part of the business.

[HossC]

The recent question by shadyguy about the dead-end stub of 4th Street at Hope prompted me to look for pictures. I think most of the pictures below are new to NLA, but I didn't check every one!

There were many times when I found a great shot of the Hildreth Mansion/Hopecrest and just wished the photographer had turned 45 degrees to left for the view over Flower Street. Then I tried to find photos looking up at the stub, but the only one I found was in a previous post by MichaelRyerson, and that's a wet, blurry view from Figueroa. There seem to be loads of pictures after construction began on the 4th Street Cut, but the earlier ones just miss the instersection of 4th and Hope. The stub is just visible on the 1948 and 1952 images at Historic Aerials, but only if you know what you're looking for. In the end I had to settle for this scale model. According to the caption, the model is located at the California Museum of Science & Industry. The 4th Street stub is on the right side, slightly over halfway down.



Here's one of those pictures where I wish the photographer had moved a bit. LAPL date it at circa 1930.


LAPL

Skipping forward to 1946, Mabel Haufe, one of the home's new owners, stands at the base of the stairs. The "For Sale" sign has yet to be removed.


LAPL

Here's a 1951 portrait of John & Mabel Haufe, owners of "Hopecrest".


LAPL

After purchasing the Hildreth Mansion, the Haufes renamed it Hopecrest and spent several years restoring it to its former glory. What a shame it wasn't saved. This 1949 picture shows work-in-progress.


LAPL

The picture below, posted by kznyc2k, shows how the house looked after restoration.

Originally Posted by kznyc2k

Hildreth Mansion, 1950, Huntington Digital Library

LAPL has the same picture (sadly not zoomable), and also the one below which was probably taken at the same time.


LAPL

The LAPL collection also has several interior shots of Hopecrest, all in color! I could only find one of them in previous posts. The first is titled "John and Mabel enjoying their home." The 1950 picture shows John and Mabel Haufe in their front parlor.


LAPL

Does anyone recognize this "unidentified woman" posing on the grand staircase?


LAPL

This is the interior picture we've seen before, although I've tweaked the colors. It was previously posted by Beaudry in post #10347. The picture shows Mabel Haufe walking down the grand staircase. It looks like John Haufe was a little more camera-shy, or maybe the photographer.


LAPL

The last interior shot looks west towards the staircase landing.


LAPL

I'll finish with a current shot of the corner of 4th and Hope. You'll now find the Bank of America tower just past where Hopecrest and the Stuart K. Oliver house once stood. The ramp on the left leads to Figueroa, so you still can't get directly from Hope to Flower at 4th!


GSV

[shadyguy]

HossC,
Those are some fantastic pictures and on the model, it shows a rather large 2 story house on the stub right in the middle of the hill.
It seems any actual photos of the area from air shows nothing but trees.
What year was this model made ?

[ethereal_reality]

Touring bus owned by Bearl Sprott, Los Angeles circa 1924.


ebay
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[CityBoyDoug]

Without a doubt Howard Hughes, the billionaire aviationator and movie producer, was one of LA's more noir figures. To add to his mystery, Hughes had a very big secret.

Hughes feverishly seduced some of the world’s juiciest women, but in his epic biography, Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel
...Darwin Porter, he is also dragged kicking and screaming out of the closet. As his pimp, Johnny Meyer, once said: “Bossman Hughes was an equal opportunity seducer. The gender of his victim didn’t matter. He had just one requirement: Beauty-female or male.”

One of Hughes' favorites was boyish actor Jack Buetel, the co-star of his epic movie, The Outlaw. Although Jack was married, Hughes had to seduce him...and he did, at least for a few months. Hughes even demanded that Buetel eat certain foods so that his love juices were properly ambrosial. I recall that celery was one of the required foods.

Howard Hughes

Hughes Tool Co.

Jack Buetel

Howard Hughes Productions


Howard Hughes Productions

Somehow Jane Russell is MIA from this post. Oh well, I'll catch up with her later...

[ProphetM]

Originally Posted by kznyc2k

Hildreth Mansion, 1950, Huntington Digital Library

Oh hey, there's the Stuart K. Oliver house under construction next door.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by shadyguy

HossC,
Those are some fantastic pictures and on the model, it shows a rather large 2 story house on the stub right in the middle of the hill.
It seems any actual photos of the area from air shows nothing but trees.
What year was this model made ?

The model dates from 1940, and has previously appeared on NLA as far back as page 50. Check out post #981 and post #999 by gsjansen - the second contains a slightly smaller version of the image I posted yesterday. A follow-up post by sopas ej says that the model was still on display at the LA County Natural History Museum back in 2000.

The first of gsjansen's posts includes a color image centered on Third and Hill Streets. There's a larger version of that view, and a couple more color images, on a USC page titled Bunker Hill, 1940 Model of the City of Los Angeles - gsjansen posted these larger images in post #1246. This is the last of the color images, and gives a different angle on the west side of Bunker Hill. For reference, the intersection at the lower left corner is 2nd and Fremont. The 4th Street stub is about a third of the way along at the top.
NB. The original image had an red/orange tint. I have applied color-correction to the image below.


www.usc.edu

Here's a much better view of the "2 story house" mentioned by shadyguy. The building in question is actually the Castle Towers (apartments) at 750 W 4th Street, and although MichaelRyerson has mentioned them in a few posts, I don't think we've seen a good picture before. This image below is part of a 1916 panoramic view I found on USC. To the right is the Briggs Apartments building (later known as the Barbara Worth Apartments). To the left, some of the stairs linking the 4th Street stub to Flower Street are visible.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

The Castle Towers started off as the residence of Almira Hershey at 4th and Grand. From waterandpower.org:

Almira Hershey was a relative of Milton S. Hershey, founder of the Pennsylvania chocolate empire, and the daughter of Benjamin Hershey who amassed a fortune in the lumber and banking industries. Mira inherited a substantial sum when her father died and she relocated from Muscatine, Iowa to Los Angeles in the 1890s.

Hershey purchased real estate on Bunker Hill and commenced construction on a number of residences, including her own home at the NE corner of Fourth and Grand Avenue in 1896. The elegant structure sat across the street from the Rose Residence.

In 1906, Mira had this home moved to 750 W. Fourth Street and commissioned architects C.F. Skilling and Otto H. Neher to split it in half to turn it into an apartment building. After the apartment building opened in 1907, it was named the Castle Towers, reminiscent of the structure's "castle-like features." Built to a cost of around $50,000 and designed by architects Curlett & Eisen.

Before it was moved, the Hershey residence looked like this (waterandpower.org date it as circa 1896).


LAPL

There's more info on the Hershey Residence/Castle Towers at onbunkerhill.org.


ETA - Here's a detail view from a December 1954 aerial shot that I posted back in post #22044. Hopecrest had already gone by October 1954 (see here for a color view from Grand). We can also see that the Castle Towers building is missing. The Stuart K. Oliver house and the Barbara Worth Apartments remain on either side, and there's still what looks like a gas station below on Flower.


Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

This HDL image was taken from across the Harbor Freeway on January 16th, 1955.


Huntington Digital Library

[ethereal_reality]

I found this last night on ebay.

L.A.R.Y. Power House and signboards on Los Angeles St. at Alameda St. Aug 10.37 (as most of you know, the power house still stands)


ebay

detail / interesting billboards


__

..another view of the power house,
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img8...powerhouse.jpg

and here.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img2...aysub1lary.jpg

and the turbines inside.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img4...ayturbines.jpg

__

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles 1949

Girl with Curlers, by Ida Wyman
at http://www.mmoca.org/exhibitions-col...aphs-ida-wyman

__

[ethereal_reality]

Boys Playing, Los Angeles 1950

http://www.catherinecouturier.com/as...geles_1950.jpg

It would be especially interesting to figure out the location of this Ida Wyman photograph.

__

[Beaudry]

Originally Posted by HossC

The recent question by shadyguy about the dead-end stub of 4th Street at Hope prompted me to look for pictures. I think most of the pictures below are new to NLA, but I didn't check every one!

There were many times when I found a great shot of the Hildreth Mansion/Hopecrest and just wished the photographer had turned 45 degrees to left for the view over Flower Street. Then I tried to find photos looking up at the stub, but the only one I found was in a previous post by MichaelRyerson, and that's a wet, blurry view from Figueroa. There seem to be loads of pictures after construction began on the 4th Street Cut, but the earlier ones just miss the instersection of 4th and Hope. The stub is just visible on the 1948 and 1952 images at Historic Aerials, but only if you know what you're looking for. In the end I had to settle for this scale model. According to the caption, the model is located at the California Museum of Science & Industry. The 4th Street stub is on the right side, slightly over halfway down.

The model is incredibly important and endlessly enjoyable! Anyone who's a fan of Noirish should go down to the Natural History Museum and give it a visit. I wrote a goofy piece about it some six years ago and between then and now it has been cleaned, restored, and installed in the show "Becoming LA" which is worth a look to say the least.

On the subject of the 4th St, here are some shots I have of that area on the model.







Here's a shot of the Hershey house after it became the CT -- from this article about the structure

[HossC]

Great pictures, Beaudry.


-------------


While looking for more pictures of the Crandall Aylsworth sign, I came across this Library of Congress panorama. When I (unsuccessfully) tried to find a larger version, I found that rcarlton had already posted it nearly two years ago.

Originally Posted by rcarlton

Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 23rd, 1909, looking northwest from Second and Spring Sts.

I've cropped and enlarged the right end as it shows the intersection of First and Spring. In the foreground is the Nadeau and the Wilson Block, and the
fairly new seven-story Equitable Savings Bank is across the street on the right. What caught my eye is that the circular Crandall Aylsworth sign still
appears to be in place, even though I can't read the text. I wish I could zoom this image like you can on USC, but it looks like the lettering is more
solid than the earlier pictures. Then again, the suspended sign at the bottom, which I'm guessing says "FITZGERALD ...", is also made of skinny letters.


Detail of picture above.

I also found the circular sign in this circa 1910 aerial view taken from a balloon. Again, the letters are unreadable, but they look more substantial.


USC Digital Library

[JScott]

Originally Posted by HossC

While looking for more pictures of the Crandall Aylsworth sign, I came across this Library of Congress panorama. When I (unsuccessfully) tried to find a larger version, I found that rcarlton had already posted it nearly two years ago.

I've cropped and enlarged the right end as it shows the intersection of First and Spring. In the foreground is the Nadeau and the Wilson Block, and the
fairly new seven-story Equitable Savings Bank is across the street on the right. What caught my eye is that the circular Crandall Aylsworth sign still
appears to be in place, even though I can't read the text. I wish I could zoom this image like you can on USC, but it looks like the lettering is more
solid than the earlier pictures. Then again, the suspended sign at the bottom, which I'm guessing says "FITZGERALD ...", is also made of skinny letters.


Detail of picture above.

I also found the circular sign in this circa 1910 aerial view taken from a balloon. Again, the letters are unreadable, but they look more substantial.


USC Digital Library

Excellent, HossC! It just so happens I just found similar evidence that the sign survived at least until 1910. The store is apparently NOT called "Crandall Aylsworth" anymore, though, as you can see by the "...LTON," with a "15¢" and what looks like an "RE" below that on the straight horizontal sections. Different lettering entirely by then.


Public domain, source unknown.

Additionally, at least on the upper, curved section, the letters are clearly solid and are backed by what appears to be a thin mesh of some sort.

And although the photo is undated, I have a postcard postmarked 1910 depicting what is obviously the same image. (The photo can't be earlier than 1910 due to the presence of the brand new Post Office and Federal Building in the distance, which of course was completed in that year.)



My personal collection.


I'm now more of the opinion that when it was the sign for the Crandall Aylsworth Co., the letters were always "see-through." It seems to me to stretch credulity that the sign was erected in an incomplete state. I'm also now coming to doubt that the sign was ever electrified/illuminated. Even in its "...LTON" incarnation, the letters don't look like lights, though being solid by then, they would definitely be easier to see/read than the Crandall Aylsworth letters ever were.

[MichaelRyerson]

I don't even know if the skyscraper platform allows for this but just as an idea, what would y'all think about compressing the thread? Bear with me here. I've just been going through looking for and at several old posts and threads and have been once again struck by the great stretches of missing images. Now admittedly there is some value in the captions and comments which have survived but by and large, it is impossible to follow even the simplest exchange without the image around which the comments coalesce. So why don't we (e-r) simply set about deleting those posts which have turned out to have had hot-linked images? I know we take great pride in the remarkable length of the thread but frankly the page count is grossly misleading with these flawed entries being included. What say you? Is there some counter-balancing value I'm missing?

[Lwize]

I like it long.