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unihikid Nov 30, 2015 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 7252076)
Seeing as there's only one picture in this Julius Shulman photoset, I'm including a second below. The first is "Job 1760: Continental Escrow (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1954". As the sign says, the building was at 4661 Sunset Boulevard.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Getty Research Institute

Looking at Historic Aerials, I can see the building on the 1954 image, but it seems to be gone by 1964. Today, that corner is the location of the Vermont/Sunset Metro Station.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
GSV

Now a mystery. This branch of S H Kress & Co was obviously at 3951, but what street? This is Julius Shulman's "Job 414: Kress (Los Angeles, Calif.),1949".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original

I've had no luck finding LB Dry Goods either. I wish we could see more of the sign on the left.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original

Both from Getty Research Institute

LB could stand for Long Beach..just a shot in the dark.

HossC Nov 30, 2015 10:40 PM

:previous:

That's certainly a possibility, unihikid. I'll try searching Long Beach.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 7253043)
:previous:

"Fifield Manor" was an interim name of the Arcady, now the Wilshire Royale, at 2619 Wilshire (http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html); the top of its north side appears in the photo. The Shell station was at 2500 W Sixth Street at the SW corner of Coronado. At right is a glimpse of the top of the Rampart Apartments, which we've seen before here, at the SW corner of Rampart & Sixth.

Thanks for the quick location identification, GW. I think the 1952 aerial below is the closest match for the Shulman photo. I've arrowed the service station.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original
Historic Aerials

Here's a wider current view.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original
GSV

And here's a reminder of the original for comparison.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Getty Research Institute

CityBoyDoug Nov 30, 2015 11:11 PM

:previous:

BifRayRock Nov 30, 2015 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm (Post 7252233)
Would that this were the only reason that the exact addresses of places were omitted. Sometimes there's no address because the compilers of city directories didn't want to bother with the suburbs. I have yet to see any entry for Palms in the older directories that doesn't merely say Palms and leave it at that. This has been the brick wall thwarting my efforts to locate the old Villa Palm Hotel from a century ago.






If not in directories or contemporaneous newspapers, the existence of the Palm Villa might appear on some of the obscure maps of those times. Unfortunately, the low resolution of the supposed 1891 map of the area (below) makes any details difficult to determine. Notice Palms at the bottom center. :shrug: Carry on!

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...7.png~originalLANatHistoryMuseum









BifRayRock Nov 30, 2015 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger (Post 6857408)






A few more of the general vicinity when the former Four Star was wearing its United Artist badging. (All from Nat. History Museum)



Looking east on Wilshire

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...s.jpg~original




Looking west of Wilshire

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...k.jpg~original




http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...l.jpg~original





This undated image of two girls hanging or dismounting a banner from a Wilshire street light must have a back story.
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...w.png~original





BifRayRock Nov 30, 2015 11:34 PM




Did Hollywood have a dress code?



A montage featuring two young women cavorting in and around a Hollywood Market. Unless this was a fraternity/sorority prank, the pictures of leisure or beach wear seems odd or designed to shock, even for Hollywood Blvd in the late '30s. But maybe not. :shrug: (All from NatHistMus)



http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...r.png~original


http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...e.png~original



http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...c.png~original




http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...v.png~original






BifRayRock Nov 30, 2015 11:48 PM





Zobeleine Beer Signage, Chinatown
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...l.png~original





BifRayRock Nov 30, 2015 11:54 PM







Anyone remember a 60-ton whale at Ninth and Broadway?

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...h.png~original NaturalHistMus







Earl Boebert Nov 30, 2015 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 7253191)
[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="3"][FONT="Tahoma"]


Did Hollywood have a dress code?



A montage featuring two young women cavorting in and around a Hollywood Market. Unless this was a fraternity/sorority prank, the pictures of leisure or beach wear seems odd or designed to shock, even for Hollywood Blvd in the late '30s. But maybe not. :shrug: (All from NatHistMus)

Bringing up the backgrounds shows plenty of stares, so I don't think this was an everyday sight:

http://www.bitsmasherpress.com/LANoir/Stares1.jpg

http://www.bitsmasherpress.com/LANoir/Stares2.jpg

Cheers,

Earl

BifRayRock Dec 1, 2015 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug (Post 7252116)
Here's the old Brown Derby interior. You know the one...."Eat In The Hat"....that's shaped like a hat.
It was owned by Bob Cobb, inventor of the Cobb Salad.

I don't think we've seen this one before.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psypmc6zth.jpg
CDfile

:previous:







Speaking of interiors . . .

Here are some unidentified and undated interiors of bars/eateries presumably from the LA area. The caricatures in the first photo are reminiscent of Brown Derby artwork, but the caricatures seem a bit too primitive. The second image looks like it could be in a large nightclub or hotel. :shrug: (From NatHistMus)



http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...d.png~original


http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...w.png~original



BifRayRock Dec 1, 2015 12:16 AM







Said to be a Santa Monica Saloon, circa 1900. With ample alabaster-like spitoons and cleanup rags, this could be heaven . . . for someone. :rolleyes:

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...9.png~original







BifRayRock Dec 1, 2015 12:43 AM





This similar daylight image of the Strip is said to be from 1951.
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...v.png~original NatHistMuseum







BifRayRock Dec 1, 2015 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoCal1954 (Post 6085590)
New Chinatown Los Angeles 1938 [Arborist, Anna Mae Wong]
http://i50.tinypic.com/2im553t.jpg
Tumblr.com







Shot reminded me of the potted palms that once dotted Apablaza Street in the original Chinatown.
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...y.png~original

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...psjxawnjb7.png






BifRayRock Dec 1, 2015 1:03 AM






6926 Hollywood Blvd., "The Dog House" delivery vehicle. Undated

Would have been across from Graumans.

http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/o...2.png~original








tovangar2 Dec 1, 2015 5:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 7253191)

That was the standard dress code in Hermosa Beach in the 50s where I grew up, but not anywhere back from the coast. To go to DTLA (which I loved) I was required to wear white gloves (which I hated).

I think your photos must have been for a newspaper or magazine feature.

.

Noircitydame Dec 1, 2015 6:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm (Post 7249943)
I agree this is more typical with regard to how the maps were labeled. But the Sunset labelling was used in some of the city directories, like this one from 1942, listing Plaza Methodist at 125 E Sunset. FWIW, if you go to HistoricAerials.com and look up the area, Marchessault does looklike an eastward continuation of Sunset and I wouldn't be surprised if that's how many people perceived it.


(Los Angeles City Directory 1942, classified section, Churches--Methodist, p2710, LAPL Visual Collection)

(For some reason I cannot get this Flickr image to display inline. The link should take you to it.)


I noticed the Methodist Church/Plaza Community Center starts being addressed as 125 E. Sunset in newspaper references in 1941. That goes along with the city directories, which still have it as Marchessault for 1938 and 1939, but 1942 as you noted it's Sunset.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...0directory.jpg 1938

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...0directory.jpg 1942.

It does look like more of a straight shot in the 1940s aerial
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...ial_ca1940.jpg
water& power

I don't remember seeing this view before, taken across the street from the Plaza Methodist, looking east:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...azamarccsh.jpg
Herman J. Schultheis Collection. http://jpg1.lapl.org/00101/00101661.jpg

Those Who Squirm! Dec 1, 2015 6:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noircitydame (Post 7253548)
It does look like more of a straight shot in the 1940s aerial
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...ial_ca1940.jpg
water& power

I think that's the best aerial yet I've seen of the Brunswig complex.

tovangar2 Dec 1, 2015 7:55 AM

Los Reyes runs through it...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 7251589)
Solomon's Dance Hall, S Grand and 9th, scene of church services, weddings, riots and, of course, dancing, probably deserves a post of its own

And here it is.

Fred H Solomon, born in San Francisco about 1877, had a grim, hardscrabble childhood as a newsie. Instead of it making him bitter, he decided to have fun. He wanted everyone else to have fun too.

Fetching up in Los Angeles in ca 1909, he turned the old Grand Avenue Auditorium (a skating rink built in 1906), at 924 S Grand, into "Solomon's Penny Dance Deluxe".
B'nai B'rith temple will fall in the 20s when the congregation moved on to Wilshire Boulevard Temple (the site is a parking lot these days).
Trinity Church will be replaced by Trinity Auditorium in 1914:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...2%252520PM.jpg
bigmapsblog birdseye 1909

"The Largest Manufacturer and Distributor of Pleasure on Earth" (so why does Fred look so glum?):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...4%252520AM.jpg
oviatt dl

This souvenir, copper-covered-lead "penny" is actually almost 3" in diameter IRL:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...7%252520PM.jpg
ebay

After sailors and soldiers rioted at the club in early 1918, Fred tried to make military men sign in before entering, but they threatened to riot again, so the cops came. Everyone backed down and fun won:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...4%252520AM.jpg
cdnc 8 Feb 1918

Overall however, the hall was a big success. Fred redecorated and had a second Grand Opening in late 1918:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...7%252520AM.jpg
cdnc 2 Dec 1918

:previous: "terpsichorean" adj., in case you didn't know (I didn't), means
"pertaining to dancing,", literally "of Terpsichore," from the Latinized form of Greek
Terpsikhore, muse of dancing and dramatic chorus.
Hence the theatrical slang word "terp" = "stage dancer or chorus girl"

Fred did his best to spread the good times around. He had free dance nights and contests. There were all manner of events, a weekly "Amateur Nite", church services Sunday mornings, the minister trying to capture the celebrants from the night before as congregants (dunno if that worked) and the annual Police Relief Association Ball.

When one of Fred's instructors (Solomon's also offered dance lessons), Elmay Day, decided to marry her beau, Sergeant Milburne Taylor, Fred offered the dance hall as a venue and provided the minister and the cake. It was the hall's first wedding, but not its last:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L...4%252520PM.jpg
cdnc 10 July 1919

Were public dance hall weddings a thing back then?
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-N...4%252520PM.jpg
cdnc 17 Nov 1921

Even babies were invited to Solomon's:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...6%252520AM.jpg
lapl

Fred looks delighted with the infant on the floor:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...0%252520AM.jpg
lapl

:previous: These are the only two pix I could find of Solomon's. I'm hoping someone else has some more.

Back in 1909 Fred bought a lovely hillside meadow in Topanga Canyon. He lived there on his 24-acre Solomon Ranch. It had a house (formerly a hunting lodge), an events hall, stables and various outbuildings. He kept horses and swam in the spring-fed pool. One of the outbuildings contained a still to provide Prohibition-era whiskey.

Not forgetting his hard boyhood, Fred held a special Newsie's Holiday Dinner at the ranch every year, starting in 1915, for LA newsboys.

Besides the Newsie's Dinner, the ranch was the also the venue for Fred's annual Orphan's Picnic, started in 1923:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...3%252520PM.jpg
pinterest

Uncle Fred having fun with the orphans at a Solomon Ranch picnic:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9...6%252520PM.jpg
oviatt dl

Fred's mother and sister helped with these events. Wu, Fred's majordomo at the ranch, ensured perfection.

Much as Fred liked having kids over, it was his weekly adult parties that he really enjoyed. People said the parties were "notorious", but that's probably just a stupid euphemism.

Fred and male friends in the "boat" he had built atop his house, the "FHS Penny":
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...6%252520PM.jpg
oviatt dl

Fred hosts some female friends from an (actual) boat on the pool, helped along by a partially-submerged band:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...6%252520PM.jpg
oviatt dl

The current owner of the ranch is slowly restoring it. The events hall looks good:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...7%252520AM.jpg
the topanga messenger

Meanwhile...back at the dance hall (now named Solomon's Dance Pavilion Deluxe), Curtis Mosby’s Dixieland Blue Blowers took up an extended residency starting in 1924 (Mosby later opened oh-so-famous-and-successful Club Alabam). Les Hite and many other artists played too (Solomon's audiences were white-only though).

"So Hot That They Use Asbestos Chairs":
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...8%252520PM.jpg
the78rpmrecordspins

About 1930 Solomon's was renamed Vogue Ballroom and big bands played through the early 40s

924 S Grand became a bowling alley later before being demolished in 1966.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco now takes up most of the block.

Those Who Squirm! Dec 1, 2015 8:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 7252468)
:previous:

The "E Moreno" on the La Esperanza sign was Ezequiel Moreno. I've had a quick look through the City Directories, and found the following:

I think the first appearance of La Esperanza Bakery is 1929, when they were based at 1430 N Main Street. By 1930, the business is listed at 367 and 1430 N Main Street. The "La Esperanza" name disappears from the CDs during the mid-1930s, but I found listings for bakeries belonging to Albert Moreno (1932) and Ezequiel Moreno (1934 and 1936) at 367 N Main Street. The 1938, 1939 and 1942 CDs all show La Esperanza at 507 N Main Street. The next CD, 1956, has three addresses: 507 N Main Street, 1803 E 103rd Street and 139 S Broadway. Throughout the 1960s, La Esperanza is listed at 507 N Main Street and 2131 N Broadway.

That appears to be where the story ends. The 1973 CD doesn't have a listing for La Esperanza or 507 N Main Street, and 2131 N Broadway is listed as a pharmacy.

I just came across a full-text PDF document containing an application by the L.A. Conservancy to have the Plaza district added to the National Register of Historic Places. The original part is dated 1972, but there seem to be several addenda added over the following years into the 1980s. There's at least some discussion for just about every building on the site, contributing to a count of 35 pages.

I haven't read it through yet, but I can't help wonder if this is when the last businesses were evicted, including La Esperanza? Does anyone have access to phone books or directories from 1970 to about 1974?

It wouldn't surprise me if this was the source document for the informational pamphlets the Park passed out to visitors in the 1970s and 80s.

Noircitydame Dec 1, 2015 3:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm (Post 7253580)
I think that's the best aerial yet I've seen of the Brunswig complex.

I realized it's possible to date it more accurately- the 1877 Baker Block is still there (east of the federal building, at the SE cor of Arcadia) in it, so it would have to have been taken before May 1942, when the Baker Block was demolished, having been threatened with it for years. It appears to be a parking lot in this post-May 1942 view:

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...near_Plaza.jpg
water&power site


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