noirish Los Angeles - Page 240

GaylordWilshire · #**4781** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 12:43 AM**

All SMPL

ethereal_reality · #**4782** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 1:46 AM**

The Ridgeley in 1934 surrounded by bucolic fields.

unknown / perhaps ebay

below: Luckily this beautiful apartment complex has survived!

google street views

ethereal_reality · #**4783** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 1:47 AM**

The Uptown Arms in 1928 located at 1812 West 12th Street.

lapl

below: The Uptown Arms as it appears today.

google street view

JeffDiego · #**4784** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 4:13 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebisebster

Hi guys!
I found the next following video on you tube.
It's like a trip on the time machine: every building, every hotel, every street you all have seen on this thread appears on that video just as it was back in the 40's... It cought my eye 2nd street, Grand Avenue (do not miss the Mutual Garage, and the victorian residences, where now stands the Wells Fargo Plaza Towers and the California Plaza Towers), and you'll drive through west 5th Street, and you'll see the Public Library ... as it was in the 40's... and to north Flower Street... Great found!
This a magnificent voyage to the past of Downtown Los Angeles: even the great Richfield Tower is still there! I just love it! Enjoy

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-I2k...eature=related" target="_blank">Video Link

Thanks again for that magnificent video Seb. What a look at a lost world. Someone else posted this a few weeks ago but It took FOREVER to buffer each time I tried to look at it and I finally gave up. Your version works perfectly.

SierraMadre · #**4785** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 4:28 PM**

"The Ridgeley" apartment building looks terrific today!
It's great to see such care given to the landscaping.
Wonderful stuff.
I hate to be a dunce, and I'm sure it's been posted, but could you give me the address?

ethereal_reality · #**4786** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 4:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SierraMadre

"The Ridgeley" apartment building looks terrific today!
It's great to see such care given to the landscaping.
Wonderful stuff.
I hate to be a dunce, and I'm sure it's been posted, but could you give me the address?

The Ridgeley is located at 615-619 Ridgeley Drive between Wilshire Blvd. & 6th Street.

google street view

GaylordWilshire · #**4787** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 8:04 PM**

SMPL

Always seemed a little odd that Richfield advertised its "100% Pure Pennsylvania Oil" in California, implying that "native" oil was somehow of lesser quality.... Maybe it's just me.

Los Angeles Past · #**4788** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 8:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Judging by the prices, I'd say this might have been taken about 10 years ago...

How very strange. I recognized that location immediately. That photo was taken at the intersection of Central Ave. and Hiller Rd. in my little rural home town, which is 700 miles north of Los Angeles. (The clincher is the trees in the background.)

Ten years ago sounds about right, but gas prices here are almost always 20-25 cents more per gallon than everywhere else in California, so it might be even earlier. Today, that station still does the Halloween pumpkin thing, but the 76 globe is red now since it was taken over by Conoco, and a deep red pumpkin... it just doesn't look quite right.

-Scott

SierraMadre · #**4789** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 10:19 PM**

Many cities are now requiring that the gas station signs on the poles be removed and replaced with one that are low and usually made with a slump-stone facade.
When I moved to Sierra Madre in 1973 (lived in Arcadia (1950-1973)), we had four gas stations. Now we have but two and our one that was Union Oil with the orange ball on the pole, had the ball and pole unceremoniously removed about four years ago when Union Oil would not longer support a station here because of the low volume of gas sold. So now it's a "Valero" station.
I saw, just by chance, the old white pole and the orange ball being hauled by truck down to the 210 Freeway. Pretty sad in a kind of pre-geezer sentimental sort of way.
The signs are blight to some, but after decades and decades these signs become landmarks. These landmarks act like a beacon telling you that you are home after a long day trying to make a buck.
They grow on you, these landmarks do.
The slump stone 4 foot high "Valero" sign won't replace the "76" ball anytime soon, especially in October.....

Los Angeles Past · #**4790** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 10:35 PM**

I lost my Philippe the Original's virginity last night.

Born and raised 57 years ago in L.A., and I'd never eaten there before. Isn't that sad?

GaylordWilshire · #**4791** Posted **Sep 25, 2011, 11:27 PM**

It's great any time of day, but at night... very noirish. I always like to go in the evening, taking a stroll to the station after dinner just for the sense of incipient danger and the chance to see something like a bum in three Eva Gabor wigs tumble off a bus, that sort of thing....

LAPL

SierraMadre · #**4792** Posted **Sep 26, 2011, 2:00 AM**

Yup...that's real entertainment

GaylordWilshire · #**4793** Posted **Sep 26, 2011, 11:40 AM**

Not to mention

Both Paramount Pictures

PS This sort of fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP26ZQY2WhQ&NR=1

Fab Fifties Fan · #**4794** Posted **Sep 26, 2011, 5:44 PM**

I stumbled across this photo on Calisphere and am wondering if one you Los Angeles experts know the exact location of where it was (or hopefully, is)? It was captioned "Unidentified Building Downtown LA 1930's".

The deco architectural detail is just wonderful.

Calisphere

~Jon Paul

ethereal_reality · #**4795** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 2:06 AM**

Thanks for the info 'SilentLocations'.
How could anyone destroy that spectacular entrance? The street level 'modernization' is nothing short of vandalism.

_______

malumot · #**4796** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 5:44 AM**

I agree in principle.....

maybe a quake safety issue? That entrance - magnificent though it is - appears poised to pancake anyone exiting the building in a big shaker.

Don't get me started on the loss of neon and awning and large plate glass windows, changed out in favor of standard Mini-mart sign design.

Then-and-now photos of Downtown are usually depressing. Yes, the buildings often still exist in those parts of town that were beyond the CRA's reach. But inhabited by teeming masses who neither care nor appreciate the skeletal remains of what was once a vibrant Downtown.

Speaking of CRA - they are still at it. The "largest redevelopment agency in the U.S.", they boast on their homepage.

More accurately they are "Ruining Neighborhoods since 1950. Coming to YOUR neighborhood soon!"

http://www.laweekly.com/2011-06-30/n...reates-blight/

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the info 'SilentLocations'.
How could anyone destroy that spectacular entrance? The street level 'modernization' is nothing short of vandalism.

_______

GaylordWilshire · #**4797** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 1:31 PM**

Xavier de Jaureguiberry

I can't find any updates on the 16th Place story--I'd hope that the "wall" has been ordered removed, but won't hold my breath--but I will say that suggestively describing the old downtown core as "inhabited by teeming masses who neither care nor appreciate the skeletal remains of what was once a vibrant [place]" seems outdated, frankly. Most Angelenos couldn't care less about downtown, and at least half of the population seems never even to have been there. But from what I've seen, it has become the Williamsburg of L.A. And let's not forget that if Bunker Hill had survived, it's possible that most of the old commercial buildings below it would have been replaced with mediocre glass & steel. The point has been made here before--while we all lament the destruction of Bunker Hill, the survival of the old structures of the office core is some consolation. The mid-years of fantastic street life, Broadway bustling in the 70s-80-90s just as it did in the '20s, the incredible wedding-shop display windows--is now augmented by 20-40-year-olds who appreciate urban energy. As much as I might moon over lost Bunker Hill and the noir era and sometimes wish it was still 1925--or '35 or '45--no amount of nostalgia is going to bring it back. End of editorial.

GaylordWilshire · #**4798** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 1:39 PM**

Here is a great story on Bullocks, including Pasadena--The Department Store Museum:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0bRrhyfW29...o+downtown.jpg

The comments to the post are also worthwhile....

Fab Fifties Fan · #**4799** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 7:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for the info 'SilentLocations'.
How could anyone destroy that spectacular entrance? The street level 'modernization' is nothing short of vandalism.

_______

Yes, thank you very much SilentLocations!

I couldn't agree more with you etheral_reality! I was just heartsick, if not actually surprised, when I saw the current photo.

~Jon Paul

ethereal_reality · #**4800** Posted **Sep 27, 2011, 8:32 PM**

Here's another photo of the Bankers Building showing it's highly unique 'wedding cake' entrance.

usc digital archive

The entire building is absolutely beautiful.

_____