noirish Los Angeles

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

'mystery' photo.

Is this really Los Angeles?


FUCKYEAHVINTAGE

"A woman standing by malt shop. Los Angeles, 1967 © William G. Gedney"

To me, it feels like a different city. (I'm not quite sure why )

Good eye! It’s Brooklyn.

[HossC]

While looking for e_r's malt shop (which Scott Charles has now identified as Brooklyn), I found this one at 3676 S Western Avenue.

Ad for the Westside Malt Shop published in the 1947 Westside Yearbook and Business Directory. Includes photo of storefront.


LAPL

Here are some of the entries from the CDs for 3676 S Western Avenue:

1956 French Creole Pastries
1960/61 J & W TV & Hi-Fi
1962 Pink Front
1969 Pams Playhouse

The building permits aren't much help. There's a 1947 Certificate of Occupancy for a restaurant (I'm guessing the malt shop), and one from 1964 mentioning a conversion to a sewing machine sales store.

Amazingly, I think that the little malt shop building is still there.


GSV

[JimCraig]

Originally Posted by odinthor

The touch of vanity that runs in my family is having a good day today... My mother enjoyed turning heads. And so do I.

Remember when people used to get dressed up to go out? What ever happened to that???

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Good eye! It’s Brooklyn.

Scott,

You showed up and immediately were downplaying your detective skills but you're off to a very impressive start!

[odinthor]

Originally Posted by JimCraig

Remember when people used to get dressed up to go out? What ever happened to that???

It's down to Penguins . . . and me. I wore a bow tie to work last Tuesday!

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

If you don't mind, I'd like to briefly return to Jack Dempsey's house at 2415 S. Western Ave.


PARADISE LEASED

Was it ever established on the thread which of his LA homes Jack Dempsey lived in longer? The one on S Western or the one then-addressed as 5254 Los Feliz Blvd in Laughlin Park? (the later still exists in splendid repair and has been much discussed on the thread). I think Dempsey owned the Laughlin Park place from the beginning of his marriage to Estelle Taylor (1925) until 1948, but probably moved out at the end of the marriage (1933). The earliest I can find for Dempsey owning the S Western house is about 1922. Just curious.

Originally Posted by tovangar2

ebay



gsv

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

Scott,

You showed up and immediately were downplaying your detective skills but you're off to a very impressive start!

Oh! Thank you! But I’m still nowhere near as skillful as the rest of you folks!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Good eye! It’s Brooklyn.

Ah! Thank you Scott Charles. (after rereading my post it sounded like I knew all along it wasn't L.A.....but I didn't)

here's how I found the pic. [for those who didn't click the link]

fuckyeahvintage.......................

I only use mystery photographs that are a mystery to myself in my mystery posts. (phew..that's a lot of 'mystery' for one sentence!
__






That said, I've decided to do a...

'Challange' Post

Even though I read the caption (i.e. location)...I still can't figure it out. (there's a second photograph I'll post a bit later, but it's just as confusing) -to me anyway



Good luck Challangers!!!
__

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Ah! Thank you Scott Charles. (after rereading my post it sounded like knew it wasn't L.A. all along....but I didn't)

I think your intuition about the photo was pretty strong, though - that’s half the reason I decided to track down the photo - it doesn’t look like LA to me, either.

Isn’t is strange how you can tell that a photo is not of LA, even when you can’t explain why? I wonder what it is that both of us are seeing {or not seeing} that gives it away as a non-LA photo…

Now as to your “challenge photo”, I have no idea at all - but after witnessing some of the mind-boggling detective work in this thread I wouldn’t be surprised if someone nails it within the hour!

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Was it ever established on the thread which of his LA homes Jack Dempsey lived in longer? The one on S Western or the one then-addressed as 5254 Los Feliz Blvd in Laughlin Park? (the later still exists in splendid repair and has been much discussed on the thread). I think Dempsey owned the Laughlin Park place from the beginning of his marriage to Estelle Taylor (1925) until 1948, but probably moved out at the end of the marriage (1933). The earliest I can find for Dempsey owning the S Western house is about 1922. Just curious.

Good question t2.

"Dempsey remained in the house on Western for the duration of his brief Hollywood career,
opening the house frequently for entertainments and charitable functions attended by the elite of the film colony
before finally moving to Hollywood itself in 1925 with his purchase of the estate
of legendary automobile designer Harley J. Earl on Los Feliz Boulevard." from Paradise Leased

originally posted by tovangar2

ebay



We know the Depsey-Taylor mansion in Los Feliz was auctioned in May 1932 . So the Dempseys' were in the Los Feliz house abour 7 years t2.


jrgrahambooks

"with no more movie offers coming in and his marriage to Estelle breaking up (they divorced in 1931)
he didn’t have much reason to stay in town and began pulling up stakes for New York,
where he opened his successful restaurant in 1935."


_

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

In the east-facing section of the Rendall photo below, 18 is New High Street, 8 is St. Athanasius Church on the SW corner
of New High and Temple Streets, 16 is the southern part of the Temple Block, and 20 is the Temple Clocktower Courthouse.
Number 12 is the Allen Block, on the SW corner of Spring and Temple, with that same angled drainpipe on its west wall:


CHS-7179 @ USCDL

I came across an article that describes some of the history behind this famous 1869 panoramic photo. In the
portion copied above, #14 is photographer Stephen Rendall; he's visible in the photo reproduction below to the
right of the Episcopal Church:






This is from a little farther down in the same article; the photographers were Stephen Rendall and William Godfrey.
I don't recall seeing Godfrey credited with the 1869 panorama before. Maybe Godfrey actually took the photo, which
allowed Rendall to be in it:




November 26, 1944, Los Angeles Times @ ProQuest via LAPL


This portion of the May 1869 Rendall/Godfrey panorama looks south. A few of the numbered landmarks are . . .
18 = New High Street
34 = Spring Street
35 = J. D. Hick's residence
36 = Brick Jail (1853)
39 = Franklin Alley (Changed to Franklin Street in April 1872, then apparently later renamed Jail Street before
being changed back to Franklin and then finally to Court Street)
40 = Third Street
41 = School No. 1 (1855) at NW corner of 2nd and Spring
43 = Dan Scheck's residence
44 = A. G. Mappa's residence (under construction at right center edge)



CHS-7179 @ USCDL


This photo is not part of the Rendall/Godfrey panorama, but it appears to have been taken just a short time after
from almost the same spot. I can see only two differences between this photo and the panorama: a) below, the
Mappa home (#44) has a little more roof; and, b) those two white objects to the right of #18 have either been
removed or are out of view and hidden by the bottom of the hill:



P-010-0406B at Seaver Center


The photo below looks in the same basic direction as the other two, is credited to Godfrey, and also dated 1869, but I
think this photo is older than that. There are several differences between this photo and the previous two. Such as . . .
1) Homes #35 (upper left corner) and 43 (south side of Franklin opposite the end of New High) are missing.
2) The trees in front of the home to the left of #43, on the south side of Franklin, across from the jail yard, are smaller.
3) The New High Street side of the jail yard fence is not painted. Also, the fence seems farther from New High than in the
other two photos. Does the rear jail yard fence align with the tall white fence south across Franklin in this photo as it
does in the others? I'm not sure. If the jail yard fence wasn't moved, I guess New High was graded, widened, or realigned.



gpf.0926 at Seaver Center

The trees in front of School No. 1, visible in the two 1869 photos, don't seem to be in the last photo. However, they were
deciduous black locust trees, so whatever year the last photo was taken, it must have been in the winter.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by ethereal reality

'mystery' location

Roscoe Arbuckle, Alice Lake and Buster Keaton, candid photo [ca.1918]

valentinovamp

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

Since the roof in the Buster photo seems to come to an end in the middle of the photo (as opposed to turning into an L shaped corner),
that would seem to mean that the photo could only have been taken at the far right side of the Metro Studio building.

Wow, just Wow Scott Charles!!! I believe you found the spot.



I just found a couple more items:

The japanese garden is mentioned in this article.

November 15, 1919

Motion Picture News



Flash forward a couple decades...


The Story of Hollywood / Gregory Paul Williams

This view, from I believe to be the mid 1930s, doesn't show the Japanese garden but it gives you an idea of the decrepit state of the studio.

this accompanied the photograph

The Story of Hollywood / Gregory Paul Williams


-there's a bit of a discrepancy:
The Japanese garden is described as being in the backlot, yet the aerial photograph that Scott Charles' posted
shows the Japanese garden just inside the studio entrance.
__

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by Scott Charles

I think your intuition about the photo was pretty strong, though - that’s half the reason I decided to track down the photo - it doesn’t look like LA to me, either.

Isn’t is strange how you can tell that a photo is not of LA, even when you can’t explain why? I wonder what it is that both of us are seeing {or not seeing} that gives it away as a non-LA photo…

Now as to your “challenge photo”, I have no idea at all - but after witnessing some of the mind-boggling detective work in this thread I wouldn’t be surprised if someone nails it within the hour!

I'll fully admit I wouldn't have known the photo was not of LA. Looking at it after you found the actual location, the only possible clue I see is the license plate on the back of the car. It doesn't appear to be a California plate from that time period. It's not clear enough for me to make out but even an out of state or temporary plate doesn't prove it's not L.A.
That's all I got.

[Los Angeles Past]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Scott, I remember the wonderful photograph of your Mom in front of the Barker Hotel,
but I don't recall the 'Southern Manor' photograph. Is this the first time you posted it?

By the way, I searched for the Southern Manor without success.

sidenote:
I wonder what happened to the bird?__

Yep, first time. :-) Thanks for checking! I didn't think there was enough info in the picture to ID the location, but it was worth a try.

Here's another of Mom with that Olympic/LA bear border. No doubt about the location of this one, though. ^_^



-Scott

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Bristolian

I'll fully admit I wouldn't have known the photo was not of LA. Looking at it after you found the actual location, the only possible clue I see is the license plate on the back of the car. It doesn't appear to be a California plate from that time period. It's not clear enough for me to make out but even an out of state or temporary plate doesn't prove it's not L.A.
That's all I got.

Admittedly, the buildings across the street look like they could be in LA. But other things seem incongruous. The way the people are dressed seems non-LA in terms of style. The sidewalks seem darker than the sidewalks in LA, though that could just be the exposure of the photo. The appearance of the street car power lines doesn’t look like the ones in LA to me, they seem too tidy for LA ones.

Also, there’s that structure that appears to be in the middle of the street. It’s too close to our side of the street to be across the street. It looks like it’s one of those wait-for-the-bus-here pedestrian waiting stations, but it doesn’t look like any I’ve seen in LA (which used chain link fence, if I remember correctly).



But really, it’s more of a feeling I got, rather than any conclusive evidence. Can’t say I had any real proof!

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by HossC

The picture above, a 1943 image posted by gsjansen, shows Ye Bull Pen Inn in Calle de los Negros. The one below shows an earlier location at 633 S Hope Street. It's dated at 1920s by the seller, which ties in with the first and only listing at that address I could find in the City Directories in the 1921 edition (where it's actually listed at 631 S Hope). By 1923, 633 S Hope is home to a restaurant called C F de Long.


eBay

Ye Bull Pen Inn reappears at 535 S Grand Avenue in the 1929 CD. Up until a couple of years earlier, that had been the location of the Key West Hotel (aka Apartments/Rooms). They were listed at 533 S Grand, which is the same location as the one given in BifRayRock's picture below. Ye Bull Pen Inn only shows up at that address in 1929, so that gives a pretty good guess for the date of this picture.

LAPL http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=12931




It could be that the image is compressed, but another "1927" "Ye Bull Pen" seems strangely close to the business so as to interfere with it. Or, could this have been a staging area for the ads. There seems to be other statuary in close proximity.

Los Feliz Blvd. and Gardena Ave. looking south toward the Southern Pacific Crossing..


1927 - Los Feliz Blvd. from Gardena Ave.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...9coll59/id/772

[Godzilla]

A few blocks away where Seneca Ave. crosses Los Feliz.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...9coll59/id/766








Steam Roller part of paving project? RR observation post?









Bartell's Service Station

[Godzilla]

The familiar "elevated" RR bridge crossing Los Feliz was evidently added in 1957.



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...oll44/id/48156

















http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll44/id/90280

[Godzilla]

Post at Los Feliz and Riverside demarcates a Griffith Park border ?
1926



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/26289















http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...ll170/id/26289

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge

Detail of the famous 1869 panoramic photo.

This portion of the May 1869 Rendall/Godfrey panorama looks south. A few of the numbered landmarks are . . .
18 = New High Street
34 = Spring Street
35 = J. D. Hick's residence
36 = Brick Jail (1853)
39 = Franklin Alley (Changed to Franklin Street in April 1872, then apparently later renamed Jail Street before
being changed back to Franklin and then finally to Court Street)
40 = Third Street
41 = School No. 1 (1855) at NW corner of 2nd and Spring
43 = Dan Scheck's residence
44 = A. G. Mappa's residence (under construction at right center edge)


USCDL

Excellent post on the 1869 panorama of Los Angeles Flyingwedge. I appreciate how you added an annotated key to the photograph above.


Here's a view of the Plaza with the same date as your pano FW, 1869.

(this photograph is no doubt a repeat for nla)


old file / water and power

....but this time I have a question.

Anyone have an idea what this is?



I'm guessing a drinking fountain for people of varying heights and a dog .
or....water troughs for different sizes of horses. (I'm kidding, sort of)


and I hadn't noticed the picket fence around the entrance to the Plaza Church before.


detail

I guess I just haven't looked close enough at the oldest photographs of the church. (or on second thought, perhaps the fence was only there for a short time)

__