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  #821  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2010, 6:54 AM
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I just may take you up on that. I see you used to live near that newsstand and Numbers Bar. The construction site is actually now done; it's a mixed-use development with residences and ground-floor retail. It's actually a nice development, in my opinion.

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

1952, 9098 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Garage fire. Looking this up on Google maps, this is diagonally across the street from the Troubadour. This site is now a parking lot.

USC archive

1952, fire victim, fire at 8702 1/2 Rosewood Avenue.

USC archive

1958, bomb goes off in apartment at 1034 1/2 Hilldale Avenue. Dorothy Adamson, 28, was dining at a nearby cafe when the bomb exploded.

USC archive
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  #822  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2010, 12:35 AM
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^^^Those are VERY intriguing photographs sopas_ej.

I'd love to know the details about Dorothy's close call with of all things a BOMB!?!!
Her look is absolutely fascinating to me. There's a typewriter, I wonder if she was a writer?
She reminds me of a good friend of mine.

That would be great if you check out Hancock Street the next time you're in the area.
If I remember correctly the 'Golden Mermaid' Apartments actually had a mermaid on the facade.
And the firehouse was great looking as well. It was still in use when I lived there.
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  #823  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2010, 12:52 AM
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OK, the whole Hancock Street subject started because I was trying to convey why I was intrigued by Sunset Boulevard (it was nearby).




Ciro's nightclub was located at 8433 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.



ucla detail


Formerly the Club Seville, which featured a glass dance floor over a pool filled with fish,
it opened in 1940 and closed in 1959. During this time it was one of the most famous nightclubs in the world.





Below: James Dean and friend at Ciro's in August 1955.


upi/pla





snap ebay







warner bros. cartoon




Below: Here is a1941 view of Ciro's a year after it's opening.



usc







Below: Here is a view of the club in 1947.


usc digital archive




Below: Here is a contemporary view of Ciro's reincarnated as The Comedy Store (quite famous as well).





Dave McGowan/Davesblog







Lindsay Shah




Lindsay Shah





wikipedia

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 11, 2010 at 11:13 PM.
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  #824  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2010, 10:43 PM
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The Villa Nova Italian Restaurant at 9015 Sunset Blvd.
This is where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio had their first date in 1953.




usc digital archive

The Villa Nova today as the Rainbow Bar & Grill.



CENtral_1179 flickr




lindsay shah


Above: Next I'll posted a before/after photo of the black building to the right of the Rainbow Bar & Grill.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 11, 2010 at 11:39 PM.
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  #825  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2010, 11:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Mark L View Post
Wow. Thank you all for the several enjoyable hours I've spent going through this thread.

At the Central Library the other day I found my Great Grandfather's 1918 WW1 draft registration. At the time he lived at 212 S. Grand Ave. As far as I can tell, that was roughly where the Colburn School is today (several feet higher, obviously).
There are plenty of pictures of the Melrose one block north, but I can find none of that general n/e corner area at 2nd and Grand.
Any chance someone has one from that period? I would love to see a picture of where dear old Daniel Webster McMillan and his wife May lived.

Thanks again for this great collection of photos and info you all have contributed to.

Mark
Hey Mark, you still there? Sorry it took me so long to reply to your question but I've been away from this thread for a long time. Well, maybe you'll come back and check it once and a while...

212 South Grand was the Frontenac, an upscale hotel & apartments--the tall, white, long building in the background, on the east side of Grand, in the image that ethereal_reality posted.

It was a magnificent place in the teens. It had been opened in October of '05 and and'd been erected by O. E. Engstrum, who put up only the finest establishments. It was 60x145' on a 110x165' lot. Engstrum left 35' to the south to give plenty of light and sun to the Frontenac, and from its roof garden, four stories above the crest of Bunker Hill, it commanded the finest views over the city. It cost 50k to build, which was a fortune then (and while that's only 1.2 million adjusted to our dollars, that's not adjusted to what it takes to build quality work!)...

Its 190 apartments, all two to four rooms with bath, were furnished with $35,000 worth of furniture. In 1909 it sold for $200,000. Now, if you wanna talk Bunker Hill downturn, in a 1939 WPA census, the property was valued at $60,000.

The pensioners were "relocated" (sounds like they were put into camps) and it was demolished in 1962. In an article from January of that year (which states that, by 1970, the Bunker Hill project would be completed, covered in thirty and forty story towers for urban work and living), "Under the agency's demolition program, the latest building to go is the old Frontenac Hotel Apartment, a four-story boxlike structure at 212 S Grand Ave. Its tenants were cleared out not long ago and wrecking crews moved in. Now daylight shows through the upper floors where workmen are tearing at is insides."

Here's an image from aught-nine, and one from the mid-late '50s.






I think there are so few pictures of it because it was across the street from the Dome, and everyone loved to shoot that, turning their back on the poor Frontenac. Its exact location, should you ever want to visit, was 120' south of Second St. Roughly between the entrance of Coulbourn and MOCA.

Now, here's a shot from the glory days of Bunker Hill "gone to seed," 1953:



The Frontenac can be seen in basically every ubiquitous shot of BH taken from the top of City Hall (uh, except for those after 1962, of course). In this shot, that intersection at the bottom left is Olive and Second, and Second runs up to Grand. And there sits the unmistakable Dome. Across from the Dome, and a little ways over to the left there, that big guy is the Frontenac.

Anyway, that's where Daniel and May were, on top of the world!
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  #826  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 1:38 AM
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Beaudry: I found your post to be very interesting, even though it was Mark L's grandfather who started all this!

Ethereal: Regarding your interest in Sunset Blvd -- a very long time ago, I was a very casual acquaintance with a person who would eventually write the book on Sunset Blvd! Or at least, write a book on Sunset Blvd...



It's still available at Amazon. Maybe you already own it!

Last year she started a blog about Los Angeles locales, but unfortunately she seems to have abandoned it. The site is still up, though.
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  #827  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 3:51 AM
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^^^Her book sounds interesting...I'll have to check it out Johnny_Socko.




Below: A great photo of the Sunset Strip in the 1950s.



found on ebay


Above: I believe the showgirl atop the billboard rotated.
I have no idea what she has in her hand....it looks like a football......or a whoopie cushion.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 12, 2010 at 4:42 AM.
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  #828  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 6:33 AM
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Wow, that is a fine slide. I'm guessing it's a cowboy(girl) hat. Though it looks more like a book or a pamphlet of some sort. She's going to deliver a lecture against sin. One of those WCTU broads, and giving you a knee in the groin at the same time!
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  #829  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 7:08 AM
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I'm looking at that lineup at the Sahara: Martha Raye, Louis Prima and Keely Smith... wow!

That is a great pic. That billboard is adjacent to where Miyagi's is now, and of course for years, the Marlboro man billboard used to be adjacent to that.
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  #830  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 9:04 PM
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WOW - Pacific Electric 1914 Training Film

Sorry to deviate from the "noir" theme yet again, but I thought everyone might be interested in this: The "Hidden Los Angeles" Facebook group posted a link to a Pacific Electric motorman training film from 1914. Sadly, the archivists were only able to preserve about 8 minutes of what was probably a 20-30 minute film, but I still think it's really cool. There's even a pretty impressive stunt near the end!

Link: http://hiddenlosangeles.com/?p=6761

Anyone else familiar with Hidden Los Angeles? I only came across it today, and it deals mostly with little-known dining, retail and sightseeing spots; L.A. history (called "Flashbacks") seems to be only one small part of the site. Am I way behind the curve on this?

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  #831  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 10:26 PM
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^^^That link to the Pacific Electric training film is great.
I especially like that they show the old Fletcher Viaduct.
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  #832  
Old Posted Feb 12, 2010, 10:39 PM
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Here's another great billboard photo from 1974. I believe it's the same billboard as the Sahara billboard in post #827.




unknown/someone emailed me this great photo


"Chinatown" is one of my favorite movies, so I let out an audible 'gasp' when I first saw this photo.

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 12, 2010 at 11:26 PM.
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  #833  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2010, 3:43 AM
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The "Hollywood" Sign

Of course it originally said "HOLLYWOODLAND."

lapl.org

Today (2.14.10) I took a picture of the Hollywood sign because it was altered, to promote the preservation of the land around it. Apparently, long ago, Howard Hughes originally owned the land near the sign and wanted to build some kind of mansion or something on it, but it never happened. The fact that he owned it was forgotten, until a Chicago-based developer bought it some years ago in the hopes of building 5 luxury homes near the Hollywood sign. This brought attention to the area, I guess many, including the City of LA, thought it was publicly owned land. So, money is being raised so that the City of LA can buy the land and it'll be preserved once and for all.

Photo by me

Security has been tight around the Hollywood sign for a while now. But for decades, it used to be that sometimes the Hollywood sign would be altered as a prank, or to promote movies, or whatever.

1983

lapl.org

1983

lapl.org

1988, "Buckle Up America!" week

lapl.org

1983, Naval Academy prank

lapl.org
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  #834  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2010, 10:32 PM
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^^^Some fun stuff there sopas_ej.
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  #835  
Old Posted Feb 15, 2010, 11:30 PM
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Speaking of the Hollywood sign, here is the rarely seen Millennium Celebrations where the Hollywood sign was lit. I clearly remember this because it was raining and NO ONE showed up.

Video Link

Video Link
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  #836  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 5:42 AM
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Originally Posted by Beaudry View Post
Hey Mark, you still there? Sorry it took me so long to reply to your question but I've been away from this thread for a long time. Well, maybe you'll come back and check it once and a while...

212 South Grand was the Frontenac, an upscale hotel & apartments--the tall, white, long building in the background, on the east side of Grand, in the image that ethereal_reality posted.

It was a magnificent place in the teens. It had been opened in October of '05 and and'd been erected by O. E. Engstrum, who put up only the finest establishments. It was 60x145' on a 110x165' lot. Engstrum left 35' to the south to give plenty of light and sun to the Frontenac, and from its roof garden, four stories above the crest of Bunker Hill, it commanded the finest views over the city. It cost 50k to build, which was a fortune then (and while that's only 1.2 million adjusted to our dollars, that's not adjusted to what it takes to build quality work!)...

Its 190 apartments, all two to four rooms with bath, were furnished with $35,000 worth of furniture. In 1909 it sold for $200,000. Now, if you wanna talk Bunker Hill downturn, in a 1939 WPA census, the property was valued at $60,000.

The pensioners were "relocated" (sounds like they were put into camps) and it was demolished in 1962. In an article from January of that year (which states that, by 1970, the Bunker Hill project would be completed, covered in thirty and forty story towers for urban work and living), "Under the agency's demolition program, the latest building to go is the old Frontenac Hotel Apartment, a four-story boxlike structure at 212 S Grand Ave. Its tenants were cleared out not long ago and wrecking crews moved in. Now daylight shows through the upper floors where workmen are tearing at is insides."

Here's an image from aught-nine, and one from the mid-late '50s.






I think there are so few pictures of it because it was across the street from the Dome, and everyone loved to shoot that, turning their back on the poor Frontenac. Its exact location, should you ever want to visit, was 120' south of Second St. Roughly between the entrance of Coulbourn and MOCA.

Now, here's a shot from the glory days of Bunker Hill "gone to seed," 1953:



The Frontenac can be seen in basically every ubiquitous shot of BH taken from the top of City Hall (uh, except for those after 1962, of course). In this shot, that intersection at the bottom left is Olive and Second, and Second runs up to Grand. And there sits the unmistakable Dome. Across from the Dome, and a little ways over to the left there, that big guy is the Frontenac.

Anyway, that's where Daniel and May were, on top of the world!


WOW! Beaudry, Thank You!

This means a lot to me. (Nice to know they rented "upscale".) I was there a week ago just walking around. As a musician, it is right across from my mecca, Disney Hall. What a cool connection. Thanks again.

(If someone can tell me how to post a pic, I'll post his 1918 draft registration showing the address)

Mark

Last edited by Mark L; Feb 16, 2010 at 5:44 AM. Reason: error
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  #837  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 9:44 PM
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Schwab's Pharmacy at Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights.




usc digital archive



I believe that's Lana Turner in the doorway.

http://laist.com/2009/03/21/laistory_schwabs.php
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  #838  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 9:56 PM
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Here's another photo of the elevated path from Pasadena to Los Angeles.
The building on the right looks interesting with it's exotic turrets. I'm guessing the sign reads Pasadena Grand Opera?





usc digital archive

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 16, 2010 at 10:20 PM.
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  #839  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 10:11 PM
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Another great firehouse photo. This one at Aliso & San Pedro.
The building to the right with the advertisements is pretty cool too.


usc digital archive






Below: Aerial of Aliso at Los Angeles, San Pedro & Alameda Streets. 1936
The firehouse should be there somewhere, but I can't find it.




usc digital archive

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 16, 2010 at 10:44 PM.
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  #840  
Old Posted Feb 16, 2010, 10:27 PM
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The only information on this photo was downtown Los Angeles 1919.

I like the foreground, with the connected billboards and cabin-like structures (motor court possibly).



cal state

Last edited by ethereal_reality; Feb 17, 2010 at 9:08 PM.
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