noirish Los Angeles

[tovangar2]

I missed this one:

Ask Chris: Razing the Bar
May 12, 2014 Chris Nichols 0 Comments

Q: Whatever happened to that amazing carved bar from Yee Mee Loo in Chinatown?

A: The massive wood, silk, and gilt confection was installed inside the Spring Street landmark in 1939. The building was torn down five decades later to make room for the world’s ugliest minimall. In 1999, Alvin Simon moved the salvaged bar to his Glendale restaurant, Cinnabar. After Simon died in 2010, the relic was put in storage—minus the frontispiece, which was cut to fit into a pickup. The family is open to parting with the bar and asked me to vet offers. See my e-mail address below, or look for me at the Good Luck Bar* in Los Feliz, the only place that still makes the famous Yee Mee Loo “blue drink.”
- Los Angeles Magazine


*Good Luck Bar, 1514 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027:


google


Just in case anyone wants to drown their sorrows tonight:


google

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

OCR

Even though the Goddess of Mercy (Kwan Yin) barred us from her temple tonight, I'm heartened to realize that MichaelRyerson could not lose.







ETA, Regarding the below, my new Taiwanese roommate says "Yee Mee Loo" (which would be pronounced "E Way Loo") means (not literally) something like "a taste of home when one is far away", which explains the matchbook wording (sort of). "Pa" would like to go home (or feel like he's home), but must make do with something that tastes like home ("I'm going for a drink" is the shorthand answer to his son's question), because "It feels like home eating here" . So, the meaning is more profound than if it just meant "blue drink" (which it doesn't).

I fear my clunky retelling of my roommate's explanation does not convey the full emotive experience which "Yee Mee Loo" apparently conjures up.

(My roommate has only been in the US for a month and Western, very-approximate pronunciations of Chinese sounds, spelt out in a different alphabet, are causing much hilarity and confusion.)

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Several people on the tiki blog have said "Yee Mee Loo" literally means "Blue Drink".


tikiroom

I don't know Chinese...but I doubt it.

Any translators here?

__

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Just ASKING and curious. City Boy Doug and Earl (and possibly Ethereal), why exactly are you so skeptical that this photograph was taken in 1895? I would've guessed around 1900, perhaps a bit earlier, but of course that's my opinion.
For a refresher, I looked up Mission Revival architecture at wikipedia and it says that the style was most popular between 1890 and 1915 and an example from 1894 is the Burlingame Train Station south of San Francisco. Comparing the Burlingame Station and the L.A. Examiner kiosk - the general look and style seems pretty similar to me - especially the windows. Just sayin.'


Burlingame, Ca. Train Depot, 1894
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...7-27-36_PM.JPG

And by the way Ethereal, your sleuthing deserves a bravo. Also, the person in the kiosk doesn't look like a woman to me. Looks like a young, slim guy in some kind of turtleneck pullover or sweater. Again, just sayin.'

The man's suit is way too early for 1917. High collars were not worn that late. Just my humble opinion

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Two 1963 aerials currently on ebay.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Los-Angeles....c100005.m1851

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That photo with the old Statler Hotel brings back memories. We rented the Presidential Suite on the top floor in 1977. We also rented a Cadillac...I was the driver.
That was when my friend and I were trying to get into the international gem business. We hosted some Russian men from Moscow. They gave us a suitcase full of gemstones to be business partners with us. Long story short...nothing came of our endeavors because they wanted too much control...and we had to provide all of the funds.

After a week they flew back to Russia...[then it was USSR]. When I left the hotel I discovered they had taken all of the liquor we had stocked in the little bar in the room. We got to keep the gemstones.

[Earl Boebert]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

That photo with the old Statler Hotel brings back memories. We rented the Presidential Suite on the top floor in 1977. We also rented a Cadillac...I was the driver.
That was when my friend and I were trying to get into the international gem business. We hosted some Russian men from Moscow. They gave us a suitcase full of gemstones to be business partners with us. Long story short...nothing came of our endeavors because they wanted too much control...and we had to provide all of the funds.

After a week they flew back to Russia...[then it was USSR]. When I left the hotel I discovered they had taken all of the liquor we had stocked in the little bar in the room. We got to keep the gemstones.

That was the year before Stanley Mark Rifkin took the Security Pacific bank for $10 Million, which he used to buy uncut diamonds from the USSR. According to the trial transcript, the way he took delivery of the diamonds was that the Russkies put them in a briefcase, checked them on a Swissair flight, and gave him the ticket and claim check. Talk about trust. Those were the days, my friends, those were the days.

Cheers,

Earl

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

That was the year before Stanley Mark Rifkin took the Security Pacific bank for $10 Million, which he used to buy uncut diamonds from the USSR. According to the trial transcript, the way he took delivery of the diamonds was that the Russkies put them in a briefcase, checked them on a Swissair flight, and gave him the ticket and claim check. Talk about trust. Those were days, my friends, those were the days.

Cheers,

Earl

Oh yes, I now recall that caper. Rifkin's photo below...he's now 70 years old and doing Internet consulting.


http://coolinterestingstuff.com/wp-c...01/image35.jpg

My story was even stranger. I told the Russian gem dealers I was formerly in the Navy. Later they told our interpreter they thought I was a CIA spy....the Russian were always paranoid. But I had fun driving them around LA. We stopped at Olvera Street for iced soft drinks [they hated the ice], Hollywood Blvd. and cruised around Beverly Hills...they were eager to see ''movie star'' mansions.

Ask yourself...did I look like CIA spy in those days? I wish I was that thin now.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4520/...39d987_o_d.jpg

This is how the complicated yet simple heist was engineered:
https://www.social-engineer.org/wiki...urtherInfo.htm

[Earl Boebert]

In 1978 I was one of the few computer security specialists in Honeywell (or anywhere else, for that matter). Rifkin was a contract employee of an outfit called Incoterm, which Honeywell had just bought. Press jumps on this as a "computer crime" so I was in it up to my ears for a while, along with a very nice lady from the Carl Byoir PR firm whose job (which she did very well) was to insure that Honeywell's name was not associated with the caper. To this day you'll read that Rifkin was an independent contractor, which technically he was.

Anyhow, there was no computer angle to it at all. Rifkin used his job working on a backup system for Security Pacific to get access to their wire room, where they had the password of the day pinned to a bulletin board (some things never change). He then went to the bank lobby and used a pay phone there to call the wire room and transfer 10 mil and change to a Swiss bank. Right out of a Donald E Westlake novel. To bring this back on topic somebody should find a picture of the Security Pacific lobby pay phones :-)

And yes, you look suspicious as hell in that picture :-) :-)

Cheers,

Earl

[tovangar2]

I'm reminded that there will be an LA Conservancy Tour of K-Town buildings on Wilshire this Saturday, including the Morgan Adams, much discussed here (relatively) recently.

The site for the project manager/architect's remodel includes an historic timeline of the Morgan Adams complex:


"1927: Parking structure built

1929: 3330 Wilshire Blvd built for Willard H George furrier and later the Penny Owsley Music Co

1960: After a fire burned down the eastern portion of the original Morgan Adams building, Penny Owsley built a mid-century concrete building in its place at 3324 Wilshire Blvd.

Late 1960s: Sherman Clay Pianos takes over original Morgan Adams building

Present day: The three-building complex was abandoned except for the original garage which was used as public parking. The buildings had since undergone many alterations and needed a thoughtful renovation to return these significant structures to be once again the most modern and beautiful retail and office building of Wilshire Blvd. JLA has turned it into a mixed-use building that includes twenty-two studio units comprising 3 buildings."

(I had forgotten that the eastern end of the Morgan Adams was lost to fire, not the wrecking ball.)


jlou, architect

[ethereal_reality]

re: Yee Mee Loo

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Regarding the below, my new Taiwanese roommate says "Yee Mee Loo" (which would be pronounced "E Way Loo")
means (not literally) something like "a taste of home when one is far away", which explains the matchbook wording (sort of).
"Pa" would like to go home (or feel like he's home), but must make do with something that tastes like home
("I'm going for a drink" is the shorthand answer to his son's question), because "It feels like home eating here".
So, the meaning is more profound than if it just meant "blue drink" (which it doesn't).

Thanks for asking your roomie t2.


Here's a person that remembers the blue drink as "Tidybowl"

"I went there in 87. Classic dive bar with no windows and burning incense.
You could get high just from the atmosphere.
They had a clock that ran backwards.
The Tidybowl was famous because nobody had a blue drink back then.
I would not dare to eat the food there." -unga_ bunga



In case you're a millennial...here's the Tidybowl reference

• Video Link



Oh, and here's the clock with the reversed numbers. (to be honest I was expecting something a bit more exotic)


Ron Resnick

-that's probably why I didn't notice it earlier.











Now t2?

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles Herald, April 28, 1909

Afterward the sailors march to Agriculture Park to see the 'Wild West Show'.




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Preparations from the week before:






The march, "an economy of time"








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search purposes:

2,500 sailors dine at Chutes Park. [c.1908]

"Bronco Pictures" from Agricultural Park can be found HERE

Photographs of Chutes Park can be found HERE

An additional photograph posted by FW can be found HERE

[ethereal_reality]

Something a little more recent.


Howard Gribble on flickr

Stamped on back:

PICTORIAL CAMERA SHOP
JUNE 20, 1944
5511 S. VERMONT AVE., L.A.

_

[ethereal_reality]

maureenmegowan





turned for easier reading



That's a lot of names. Get to work oldstuff!

__

[Martin Pal]

Edward Kelty (Kilty?) signed twice; at the top and one from the bottom.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Edward Kelty (Kilty?) signed twice; at the top and one from the bottom.

So they take the pic and get it developed and somebody says, 'Let's write all the names on the back, you know, fer posterity!' And Ed happens to be holding the picture and he puts his name right there at the top and somebody else chides him saying, 'Ed, ya dope, not just anywheres, but put the names in order so people can see what each guy looked like when we were young and purdy.' So now they dutifully scribe their names in order across the top row and then the second row and, finally the bottom row ending with the sergeant's name. And Ed had to sign twice. (except that we're about five names short). As to that other bit of business, I'm a Dodgers fan through and through but I have to say, except for that horse's patooty of a first baseman, the Astros are an exceptionally nice bunch of kids. They'll wear it well. And we made em play seven games to get it. Next year!

[Martin Pal]

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson

Next year!

Probably not for Andre.

[ethereal_reality]

There's a glimpse of Brew 102 and one of the gas-o-meters in the background of this photograph of the Rainbow Girls. [c.1957]



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/94484/rec/1

They're off to Sacramento.
__


The Rainbow Girls have come up a couple of times on NLA.

Rainbow Girls roster/ 1920s or 30s(?)

and Elwanita's B.F.C.L. beauty compact

[ethereal_reality]

I saw this the other day on ebay & thought it might be of some interest here on NLA.

It isn't photographed very well, but if you look close enough there are some interesting details.










a couple close-up images were also included:

How Pershing Square looked in 1977.



As most of you know that's the Biltmore Hotel along the bottom edge. -note the helipad on top.







and the distinctive Bonaventure Hotel




You can find the photographic map HERE
_

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Now t2?

No. Not until we've beaten that deceased pony to such a pulp that it'll pass through a fine sieve :-)




We haven't tracked down the bar yet:

Originally Posted by tovangar2

"After Simon died in 2010, the relic was put in storage—minus the frontispiece, which was cut to fit into a pickup"

Do you think Ty-D-Bol is colored with Brilliant Blue FCF, the same as the Blue Curaçao in a Yee Mee Loo?

"As a blue color, Brilliant Blue FCF is often found in ice cream, canned processed peas, packet soups, bottled food colorings, icings, ice pops, blue raspberry flavored products, dairy products, sweets and drinks, especially the liqueur Blue Curaçao. It is also used in soaps, shampoos, mouthwash and other hygiene and cosmetics applications." - wiki

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Thanks for asking your roomie t2.

Sure. I think the last translation you asked for was the Russian inscription on a postcard, which was provided by a resident Russian at that time. The revolving parade of international academics here is useful in all sorts of ways :-)

[tovangar2]

And hey, good news from Los Angeles Magazine on the Formosa Cafe. The interior decor is to be restored after 2015's unfortunate remodel which greyed it out. The Formosa will reopen next year.

Originally Posted by tovangar2

@alisonmartino

• Video Link

youtube via LA mag

[CityBoyDoug]

I have driven by this place hundreds of times. I always wondered what it was like inside. My favorite dish is always Shrimp in Lobster Sauce. Thanks T2..I assume you're entered
its portals. I always like the smell of a Chinese restaurant.


https://images1.laweekly.com/imager/...10094084.0.jpg