noirish Los Angeles - Page 1548

ethereal_reality · #**30941** Posted **Sep 10, 2015, 8:57 PM**

Two ducks, Rose Bowl Parade, Pasadena 1968.

ebay

Do any of you Pasadenans recognize the building in the background?

I would like to know if that 'modernized' metal façade has been removed.
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tovangar2 · #**30942** Posted **Sep 10, 2015, 9:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The Wing Lung Bank at 201 E. Valley Boulevard, Alhambra CA.

gsv

After a quick google search or two, I found out it features the largest glass tile mural in North America.

The mural, inside and out, comprises approximately 1 million pieces of glass set in an abstract interpretation of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains.

The mural was design by Neil Seth Levine.
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Thx e_r, that's a fascinating project:

"'The initial challenge,' [Keith] DeWald [founder of Becoming Tile, the fabricator] explained, 'was working with the artist to explore how different color gradients converted to dithered tile colors, and helping him choose the color ranges that worked well with the tile available, including new colors the tile supplier was able to find and import on request.'

A special software program was written to convert the design using sophisticated color dithering and color balance in order to create the exact instructions for each sheet's fabrication. It also calculated the number of each tile color required for placing the tile orders.

Twelve people, in three shifts, fabricated the 4,208 sheets of mural tile, correctly labeled them, organized them according to installation order, and shipped them to the construction site. The fabrication of the mural took nine weeks.

Tile sheet installation began in late December 2005 and was completed in late February 2006, in time for the bank's opening ceremony in March."
(sendpress2)

A closer view:

becoming tile

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ethereal_reality · #**30943** Posted **Sep 10, 2015, 10:24 PM**

thx for the additional information t2. I'd like to see it in person.
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I just came across this matchbook on eBay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RUDIS-ITALIA...item4640efb00f

ebay

After numerous google searches, I found a photograph of the place!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/443041682064425979/

It has a certain 'noirish' appeal, wouldn't you say.
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sopas ej · #**30944** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 2:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC

We've visited today's Bank of America location before - I'll post the links below the Julius Shulman photos...

Next to Kaiser Printing is the Bell & Howell building at 716 N La Brea Avenue, complete with one of their advertising boards.

^^^
Too bad that truck parked on the right is there; we might have been able to see Pink's!

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

ethereal, I was trying to think of where that building in Pasadena might be, but I don't think I recognize it. It's possible that it was knocked down a while ago. So much has been built in the area near the Pasadena Playhouse in the last decade or so...

ProphetM · #**30945** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 5:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Two ducks, Rose Bowl Parade, Pasadena 1968.

ebay

Do any of you Pasadenans recognize the building in the background?

I want to know if that awful metal façade has been removed.
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It has, and the building is looking quite nice.

911 E. Colorado Blvd., via Google Street View:

A bit of googling determines this to be the Lieberg Building, currently home to the Pasadena Star-News. Wendell W. Warren was the architect.

Here it is under construction on 2/4/1927.

http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/ref/co...0coll2/id/2598

I am guessing that the blade sign in the 1968 photo says "LIEBERGS".

The finials don't look the same today as they do in the 1927 photo; modern replacements, I imagine.

Edit: LA times article about Liebergs:
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-01-...hopping-center

It was a small department store chain with locations in Pasadena, Temple City (opened 1940) and Alhambra. According to the article the Pasadena location closed in 1973 (although it also says they had expanded to that site in 1965, which by the 1927 photo is clearly incorrect). The final location in Alhambra was soon to close as of this 1991 article. The Liebergs also ran a Hallmark store very nearby in Alhambra. Liebergs Hallmark closed around 2011.

HossC · #**30946** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 2:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This "Bank Café" seems about 7 or 8 decades before it's time.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unused-Linen...item567ad3db58

"Changed from a bank to a café and back to a bank again in 24 hours." It's like today's "pop up" restaurants.

but where's the street address? I want to know where in San Pedro.

I found the following information in a book called 'San Pedro' by Joe McKinzie. It says that the Bank Cafe was in the old Bank of San Pedro building. Flyingwedge and pwrof3 posted pictures of the main Bank of San Pedro building at 7th and Mesa in post #27540, but this was the branch office at 6th and Beacon.

The book includes a black and white copy of e_r's postcard (above), and dates it as 1930s. I've just noticed that the manager's name quoted on the reverse of the book copy is different, but I don't know if this was earlier or later.

Both from books.google.com

The building was definitely still a bank in the 1930 San Pedro CD.

LAPL

Ed Workman · #**30947** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 3:06 PM**

In the 79s there was a bank failure in San Francisco- someplace near Broadway but just north.
It reopened as a cafe
To quote Raymond Chandler 'signs come kind of high'
Fed rules apparently forbade using the bank name, so they stuck an ovious, large but lower case r over the n and added the slogan
"Put your mouth where your money was"

oldstuff · #**30948** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 3:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

This "Bank Café" seems about 7 or 8 decades before it's time.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unused-Linen...item567ad3db58

"Changed from a bank to a café and back to a bank again in 24 hours." It's like today's "pop up" restaurants.

reverse

but where's the street address? I want to know where in San Pedro.
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A listing of restaurants in San Pedro by decade on the San Pedro Bay Historical Society website shows the Bank Café located at 547 S. Beacon. This would have put it next to the current court annex which is still standing but the bank café/bank is not. It was at 6th and Beacon. It had a very cool clock tower and was home to the Bank of San Pedro. They took the clock tower off after the Long Beach Earthquake in 1933

Here is a confusing part: There is a re-purposed building called "bank lofts" which is in a building that says "Bank of San Pedro" in the stone on the front. The Bank Lofts building is not the same one as the one with the clock tower. The clock tower building was there in 1905. There is another picture of it in 1933 (with the tower, before the earthquake)

There is a picture of the bank building at: http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/describe.htm

And there are other, better ones of the clock tower building at the site of Water and Power.

There is no date on the actual postcard of the Bank Café, but Postcardy has the date as the late 1930s, based on the furniture. That site does say that it was in the Bank of San Pedro. There must have been two buildings. The old clocktower and the one with the arched windows which the lofts are located in now.

Lon Johnson, the manager of the Bank Café appears in a San Pedro directory as the manager of the "Panic Café" in San Pedro in 1937. In the 1920 directory he appears as being a cashier at the Bank of San Pedro. This would probably indicate that the café was located in the old clocktower building.

Update: E-Bay has a matchbook cover for the Bank Café which gives the location as 6th and Beacon.

sopas ej · #**30949** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 3:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProphetM

It has, and the building is looking quite nice.

911 E. Colorado Blvd., via Google Street View:

Good job! I totally forgot about that building; maybe because of the ugly monstrosity that's next to it? Also, in the 1968 photo, somehow the building looks narrower to me.

Yeah, it's just east of Lake.

ethereal_reality · #**30950** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 4:34 PM**

Thanks for locating the old Lieberg's Building ProphetM! I'm so glad that awful metal façade is gone.

And thanks for finding the 'Bank Cafe' Hoss. As always, I appreciate your research.
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I just noticed oldstuff's post regarding the 'Bank Cafe'. Thanks for your research as well.
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Do you guys get tired of me thanking people all time?

ethereal_reality · #**30951** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 5:45 PM**

Has anyone heard of Pasha's?

eBay

below: I don't know if that's suppose to be a tornado, or smoke from a genie's lamp?

eBay

va-va-voom!

eBay

Pasha's today. -looking a bit forlorn.

gsv

It looks a tad bit better from the side.

gsv

HossC · #**30952** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 5:55 PM**

Following on from e_r's Bank Cafe in San Pedro, and by complete coincidence, today's Julius Shulman post concerns a branch of Bank of America in San Pedro. Here's the bank at S Pacific Avenue and 10th Street. It's "Job 1046: Bank of America (Los Angeles, Calif.),1951". Where some branches show no external images of the USS Portsmouth, this one has five - one either side of the name on each side, and one above the door.

Opposite the Bank of America was the California Bank, and two doors down from that was the Golden Cafe and their "Famous Broiled Steaks".

Looking south, we get better look at McCorkell's Department Store. The sign under the word "TOYS" is for McCorkell's Shade & Linoleum Co at 931 S Pacific Avenue.

I thought I'd include this close-up because it shows the Strand Theatre at 1035 S Pacific Avenue. You can read more about it at cinematreasures.org.

All from Getty Research Institute

This is quite a novelty - the bank building is not only still standing, it's also still a Bank of America.

GSV

The lighting makes it difficult to see, but all five ships are still there too.

GSV

This building, opposite the bank on the east side of Pacific Avenue, can't really be seen in the Shulman pictures, but looks like it would've been there at the time. The glass bricks give this establishment a noirish quality.

GSV

Diagonally opposite the bank is this building which can just be seen on the right of the second Shulman photo. The corners have lost a little height over the years, but it looks pretty complete otherwise.

GSV

Going back to my close-up of the third Shulman image, the California Bank, Golden Cafe and Strand Theatre have all gone, replaced by a modern Chase Bank building and parking lot. Off in the distance, however, I spotted a tower or pylon, and took the Googlemobile to investigate. I'm not sure what it was in 1951 (the 1946 San Pedro CD lists a Van de Kamps Holland Dutch Bakery there), but 1231 S Pacific Avenue is now the San Pedro Ballet School, complete with intact pylon.

GSV

tovangar2 · #**30953** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 6:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC

...today's Julius Shulman post concerns a branch of Bank of America in San Pedro. Here's the bank at S Pacific Avenue and 10th Street. It's "Job 1046: Bank of America (Los Angeles, Calif.),1951". Where some branches show no external images of the USS Portsmouth, this one has five - one either side of the name on each side, and one above the door.

Not just the ship logo x 5, but also "Bank of America" in the distinctive Old English typeface over the door:

gsv

This one is my favorite so far (I do wish they'd pick out the lettering in gold though, as it seems to be in the historic photo).

The USS Portsmouth says,"Ouch":

gsv

P.S.

Here's a close up of the "Indian Room" blade sign:

gsv

The fellow at the top of sign looks like he's wearing a turban. Is he supposed to be from India?

That glass brick is in rough shape!

gsv

ethereal_reality · #**30954** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 6:40 PM**

Excellent post Hoss. So many interesting buildings still standing in that small area.

The 'noirish' Indian Room is especially intriguing. (I see t2 beat me to it

)

Anyway, here's the blade sign looking much darker a few years back.

gsv detail

.....and the neon still works!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomas...ream/lightbox/

I'm not sure what kind of Indian that's suppose to be. (he looks more like a Viking.....a Viking at Mardi Gras. lol

Gloriously noirish looking. (the blocks look like someone took a machine gun to them!)

gsv

Hoss, the glass-blocks you mentioned are continued inside behind the bar.

http://www.bikernet.com/pages/May_21_2009_Part_2.aspx

I have no idea why there's a clown on a unicycle in the Indian Room.

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tovangar2 · #**30955** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 6:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The 'noirish' Indian Room is especially intriguing.
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I still can't figure this guy out, but I guess the Wild West decor inside the Indian Room answered my question
(I liked e_r's guess of "a Viking (at Mardi Gras)":

flickr

I was seeing this (I maybe was confusing it with Pasha's):

pinterest

The Indian Room being disparaged as both "cool" and "hip":

laeastside - are the paisa bars disappearing?

ethereal_reality · #**30956** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 7:12 PM**

Just down the street from Pasha's is one of the smallest Fire Stations that I've ever seen. It looks like there's only room for one fire engine.

gsv

The google-mobile caught the firemen backing in their rig.

gsv

slowly......slowly......slowly.....

gsv

Made it. Good job guys!

gsv
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the building next door used to have an interesting blade-sign

AlvaroLegido · #**30957** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 7:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Do you guys get tired of me thanking people all time?

Not at all. I like reading them.

tovangar2 · #**30958** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 7:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Has anyone heard of Pasha's?

eBay

Pasha's today. -looking a bit forlorn.

gsv

"Nicolas" (in the old Pasha's space) advertises itself as a "Topless Gentlemen's Club" (http://www.nicolastopless.com/). What goes around, comes around.

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ethereal_reality · #**30959** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 7:38 PM**

The Louisiana, 5665 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles California.

eBay

eBay

Nov. 10, 1942

eBay

5665 Wilshire Blvd. today.

gsv

I can't remember if this is an old building that's been modernized.
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ethereal_reality · #**30960** Posted **Sep 11, 2015, 8:05 PM**

The Tin Can on La Brea [c. 1938]

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...Number=5092513

"The Tin Can on La Brea served beer and mixed drinks. The address under the dimensional sign appears to read 1201, but this could be north or south La Brea." -lapl

detail

I believe this is the building. It is 1201 North La Brea.

gsv

I'm out of town until Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone!!

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