I lived there from '87-'89. The building is totally original, elevators, baths,kitches even some original furniture. The whole nieghborhood is a time capsule of 1920s Los Angeles.

Not just another day at Muller Brothers, 1951
 

http://cdn3.retronaut.co/wp-content/...12/02/2514.jpghttp://cdn3.retronaut.co/wp-content/...12/02/2613.jpghttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-h...2520AM.bmp.jpghttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A.../muller20s.jpg
Before the Cinerama Dome, there was Muller Brothers... the occasion was their 3,000,000th car wash. The shot from about 20 years before the others reminds me of the
progression from "auto laundry" to "auto wash" to "car wash." Even without the starlets doing publicity stunts, it must have been quite a facility. Too many big photos to
put them all here, but they're definitely worth a look. See this 2020 J. H. Graham blog post.

A little history of the Mullers from Hollywood Heritage: "The Muller family is one of Hollywood’s pioneers. Jacob Muller came to Hollywood in 1893, establishing the first meat market in Hollywood, across from the present Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard. He sold the market in 1907 and established the first ice company in Hollywood, selling that business in 1913. The family’s original house was built Sunset Boulevard at Ivar. This site later became the location of the RCA Building, built by the Muller Family in 1963 (currently the Los Angeles Film School Building).... Across Sunset Boulevard on 4 acres, where the Cinerama Dome Theater and a new retail center is under construction, was Muller Brothers Service Station. Opened in 1920 by Jacob’s sons, Walter and Frank, this became the largest service station in the world (including a large automobile supply center), employing 120 people by 1937. Celebrities, from Rudolph Valentino to Clark Gable, came by regularly to get gas or just work on their cars. In 1963 the site was sold for the Cinerama Dome Theater, and, at that time, an eventual hotel."


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics46/00072859.jpg
Post-meat, pre-auto... "NOW JUST A COUPLE OF AIR & WATER BOYS"...?

It was demolished in 2005.

magazine lower left, EXCITING LOVE, ran Winter 1941 – Winter 1958
 

"Circa 1940."

A little later than that---magazine lower left, EXCITING LOVE, ran Winter 1941 – Winter 1958, 10c until 1946-47.

COVER SHOWN online @
http://www.philsp.com/data/image043.html#EXCITINGLOVE
AND
http://www.philsp.com/data/images/e/...1spr_v1_n2.jpg

SOME issues EL contents indexed @
http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/b63.htm#A1042
but not issue shown---also tried ANDERSON, RUTH "Born to Love" issue shown, no dice.

Bucolic Beverly Hills, 1951
 

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...41897144_n.jpgBHHP
Melody Lane, the Beverly-Wilshire, a Derby and a Chrysler...

"...they will remain low-income housing though...."
 

http://a.blogdowntown.com/i/282ced03...jpg?1330971796Blogdowntown

News: http://blogdowntown.com/2012/03/6626...edwards-throne

That "...they will remain low-income housing...." is interesting... so they will refurbish these places expecting no more revenue? Oh, well, at least someone sees potential in them.

I often think of the word "bucolic" as meaning rural or "out in the sticks"...I never thought of that part of town as bucolic...even in those days.

:previous:

Is that what bucolic means? How about "Practically bucolic, as compared to today: Beverly Hills, 1951"?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...829/55ford.jpgVintage Los Angeles
Not your usual wallpaper billboard--

Sadly the Baltimore's ghost sign is no more. (OK...maybe not technically a ghost sign, as the building is still a hotel, but......)

http://www.fadingad.com/blog/califor..._baltimore.jpg



replaced by this mural.

Let's see......older Asian woman, peering over her glasses......

So Mr Artiste.......what, uhhhhh, EXACTLY is this supposed to represent? What does it connote? I am not a hipster-doofus, and therefore do not immediately grasp the subtleties....

Is she watching the neighborhood? Ever-vigilant to aberrant behavior? If so, I wish her the best.....she has her work cut out for her. I'm sure the amount of criminal activity that has taken place over the years on that stretch of 5th between Main and Los Angeles could fill a ream of police blotters.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m61dWFCLgd...l_+%282%29.JPG

http://brixandtrix.blogspot.com/2012/02/haltimore.html

P.S. -----

The Yelp review of The Baltimore is hilarious. (You'll have to look up Fifi towel on your own, as I did. Same with carpet farmers.)

This place is a GREAT place to hole up for a week and smoke crack like the world is going to end tomorrow! Half of Los Angeles' sex offenders and violent criminals can be found living here -- really great if you need advice on how to construct your very own Fifi towel, how to kill someone with a pair of car keys, or if you're into IVing cheap, sludgy heroin and need tips on how muscle it in even the most abscessed limb.

Entomologists shall delight at the garden of roaches, bedbugs, lice, chiggers and other assorted invertebrates that blanket the walls of this manor. Shag carpets in the hallway are surprisingly clean... but that could be because of all the random carpet farmers you'll see scrounging around down there, at the foot of their doors, picking away to keep them clean. Who needs a vaccuum? Neighbors are friendly, if exuberant -- especially the ladies! -- kicking in your door at 2am, offering companionship at rock bottom prices.

Wow! And the concierge service.... I have never had my keys and ID shoved at me so fast underneath a bulletproof glass window before. What efficiency!

AND the best part is, it's dirt cheap!!! So you can save some money when you walk a few blocks over to your fancy-pants dinner at Cicada. I love Downtown Los Angeles!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...2520PM.bmp.jpg John Humble/Hemmings Classic Car
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-p...2520AM.bmp.jpgGoogle
Bixel between Wilshire & 6th, 1980 and 2009.

Someone post a picture, I'm going through withdrawal here!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...88030011_n.jpg Corbis

:previous: What a wonderful billboard G_W!

As many of you know...the Moulin Rouge was located in the old Earl Carroll Theater at 6230 Sunset Blvd.

The 'storybook style' Spadena House, also known as the Witch's House, located at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita in Beverly Hills.


http://a.imageshack.us/img836/6480/f...itchhouseh.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sp...itch_House.jpg






http://a.imageshack.us/img31/151/fai...napanormia.jpg
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/712469




below: Detail of the 'spider-web' door.

http://a.imageshack.us/img823/1363/f...ousebevhil.png
http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_ch...08/12/658.aspx





below: The 'Witch's House' is much larger than one might expect.
Here is an aerial showing the 'storybook' house on it's corner lot (the label is on the wrong house).

http://a.imageshack.us/img443/5170/f...leaeriaxzh.jpg
google street view


The Spadena/Witch's House was originally located on Washington Blvd. in Culver City.
(further details below)

____

The Spadena House was designed in 1921 by art director Harry Oliver.
This whimsical structure originally housed the administrative offices and dressing rooms for Willat Studios (yet another long lost studio).

http://a.imageshack.us/img820/4341/f...willat1921.jpg




below: The Spadena House at it's original location in Culver City.

http://a.imageshack.us/img72/5348/fa...udiosculve.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/D...wdate=&hidate=

above: For the life of me, I cannot figure out that buttress 'thingy' attached to the roof (it resembles a hydraulic pump).
This element is missing in contemporary photographs.





below: The odd 'buttress' can be seen in this old postcard as well.

http://a.imageshack.us/img42/9236/fa...illatstudi.jpg
postcard






below: sans buttress. (here's another 'where's waldo' moment....find the shark in this photo) :)

http://a.imageshack.us/img141/4746/f...illsflatsn.jpg
unkown
____

A view of the property in the 1980s.


http://a.imageshack.us/img403/5642/fairy1960snaomi.jpg
not sure where I found this.





below: The Spadena House as it appears today (extremely lush and inviting...except perhaps..for Hansel & Gretel)

http://a.imageshack.us/img141/4589/f...denagoogle.jpg
google street view

Another glimpse of old Bunker Hill. The layout of the street seem very odd in this photograph.
(the large house on the right appears to be situated on an early version of a cul-de-sac)

Can anyone pinpoint this view?


http://a.imageshack.us/img829/4130/b...eorgefigur.jpg
University of Michigan


above: The caption is quite sad. "A mighty redevelopment project takes them all".

___

Great billboard. The Moulin Rouge was home to Queen for a Day with Jack Bailey, as well as the Emmy Awards. A beautiful nightclub that should still be around.

I think that's supposed to be the witch's broom, parked on the roof after a flight. At least, that's what I remember reading. How did they get this house on a truck to move it from Culver City? Never knew it had the rear wing--presumably added after the move...? Naturally, I had to take a Google drive--below are a few shots from the side street.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-O...2520AM.bmp.jpgGoogle

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-E...132%2520AM.jpgGoogle