Book me a room at the United States Hotel for the weekend of October 14-16, 1910. :tup:

I'd be in town principally for the dedication of the new Federal Building at Temple Square on Saturday, but there'd be plenty of other things to see and do while I'm there.

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/CHS-31328_lap.jpg

Assuming I could get my hands on a camera during my visit, I'd take a ton of good pictures of various buildings for posterity, most notably the Baker Block, of which there appear to be no detailed photos still extant.

I'd also take better photos of the then-very-recently-bombed L.A. Times Building.

I'd like to take a 360-degree panorama from the top of the 1888 Court House. (1910 would be the last year you could do that, what with the Hall of Records rising at that time.)

I'd also try to get an Edison cylinder recording of the bell chimes of the Court House for posterity (and L.A. City Hall's bells, if there actually were bells in that tower – does anyone know?).

And you bet I'd walk the diagonal alignment of Spring Street about a million times. I'd ride Court Flight over and over, too, until they kicked me off of it. (Nevermind Angels Flight – been there, done that, 50 years later.) ;)

I'd eat breakfast at the Hollenbeck Hotel, dinner at the Hotel Nadeau, and lunch at this little hole-in-the-wall indicated in this old postcard. Gotta be good! Someone actually wrote home about it!

https://otters.net/img/lanoir/broadw...st1909_sky.jpg

And, I'd take a decent picture of each and every block of Downtown that we haven't already seen pictures of here. :)

I'd do a bunch of other things, too, including an afternoon's jaunt down to the Longstreet Palms (of course), but this is all I can think of off the top of my head.

Oh, one more thing. Before I left, I'd buy a quarter-section of land in the western outskirts and bring the deed back home with me to the present day. ;)

-Scott

Think of the back taxes on that property by now.

1143 Corvallis Street, found
 

"We lived on Corvallis Street, where all the houses looked alike. Ours was number 1143...."

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_z...20613%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_z...leexterior.jpgWarner Bros.
1143 N. Jackson St., Glendale, 2011 and 1945

Mildred's palm has really grown tall...
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_z...20829%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_z...arnerstest.jpgWarner Bros.
I assume that this is a set, and not the actual Glendale house



A little 1945 Mildred Pierce trivia:

Bruce Bennett, who played Bert Pierce in the 1945 version, was originally named Herman
Brix. He won a silver medal for the shot put in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Which
explains his role (as Brix) in 1935's The New Adventures of Tarzan:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_z...t%20tarzan.jpgGetty Images
Makes you wonder why they didn't name him "Brix Bennett". (Henry Willson wouldn't
have missed that chance.)

During his marriage to Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. got Brix a screen test. Brix
was 6'3", died in 2007 at nearly 101 years old, and had two children by the names of...
Christina and Christopher. Ring any bells?


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_z...15726%20PM.jpgHBO
How will it stack up?

Jiminy Christmas! I've always wanted to know where that house was. Now that I know, I'm gonna drive there! I'm in Glendale fairly regularly; there's a great Peruvian restaurant I like there.




Great trivia!

:previous: Is that the same Guy Pearce who played Lt. Exley in L.A. Confidential?

:previous:

That's him, Scott


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_67etByOrM9...nfidential.jpgemofights.blogspot.com
Lieutenant Exley

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_z...41806%20PM.jpgcrimespree.blogspot.com
Monty Beragon

Okay, that sounds like a weekend alright. Can I come with you? (I'm pretty helpful with tasks like procuring Edwardian suits and high starched collars -- wouldn't want to be conspicuous, after all.) Speaking of suits, what's this in my -- wait, I own the majority interest of Windsor Square and Fremont Place? Huh...

Sure! Anyways I'd need someone to show me around who really knows the old place. ;) Maybe we could make a side trip to '35 on the way back? :D

Where's Joan?
 

A mini-review of the first two installments of HBO's Mildred Pierce: Well, after two hours, I still want to like it more than I actually do. Southern California is conspicuously missing, other than a little--very little--tropical vegetation and some CGI of stiff palms and the Hollywood Hills (the Broadway-Hollywood sign is included). The light is all East Coast. And apparently the only cars available in Los Angeles in 1931 were Model A Fords. But, as I say, I'm trying to like it.... More next week.

I don't have HBO anymore, I canceled it years ago because I wasn't watching it anymore. So I'll have to catch the Kate Winslet "Mildred" when/if it comes to DVD.

I guess you can say it's kind of like payback or karma; downtown LA has stood in for NYC in numerous films and TV shows (and continues to do so), so, New York must stand in for 1930s southern California.

PRC, AIP, Desilu
 

Mike: Wish I knew where the AIP studio was. What a hive of activity it was about 1956-1965...Monsters, aliens, dragstrip girls, hoodlums, beach parties, rock n' roll, flying saucers and Edgar Allan Poe...and let's give special tribute to two queens of the lot, Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes!
I too recall that Desilu bought the RKO lots in Hollywood and Culver City. Quite amazing. I found that Desilu and "I Love Lucy" started production at what is now the Hollywood Center Studios on Las Palmas off Santa Monica. They then moved to what is now Ren-Mar rental studio on Cahuenga. It was in 1957, after the show had been on for about 5 years, that they bought RKO and filmed there (just as RKO closed up shop as a movie studio).

:previous:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_z...ly-garland.jpgoldhollywood.com
A somewhat noirish Beverly


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_z...0footwoman.jpgoldhollywood.com
Allison, at 50 feet, attacking

I have to admit - he makes a pretty credible Monty.

I wish I could see this series. Haven't had cable since 2000, though. :shrug:

-Scott

Bruce Bennett!!!!
 

Shown here from behind, jawboning with Dobbs, Curtin and the Old Man upon arriving in camp.....

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cgcE9ns0I4...2BIntruder.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IIDlYsedmXo/0.jpg

That's a classic (and historic) Canary Island palm. Someone should take a nice current picture of that house with the palm in all its glory. (hinthint sopas_ej) ;)

Am I alone in my palm fetish here? (That's a rhetorical question – I know I'm not alone.) ;) I love the pictures in this thread where you can see the juvenile palm and then the exact same tree 70 years later! I'm also fascinated how palms frequently seem to LONG outlive the structures around them. It's like people will go to great lengths to preserve a tree and yet care nothing about the building it once decorated. I'm not complaining, obviously – the palms are a precious legacy in their own right – but it is interesting to me how these trees have frequently gotten a fairer chance at survival than the buildings (or the people) around them.

-Scott

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/v...rivespc_lg.jpg


This view is so early, I'm not quite sure what location we're looking at here. Anyone know? And what year approximately?

-Scott

Scott mentioned how he loved seeing young palms and then the same tree 70 years later.

I have to agree....I think it's pretty cool to see the growth of foliage over the years.
I like the photo below for that very same reason.


below: The GayLida Apartments at 401 Shirley Place in 1955.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/228...s401shirle.jpg
usc digital archive


Below: A contemporary view. Are you still in there somewhere Gaylida Apts?

http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/7236/aaagaylida3.jpg
google street view




below: Yep, it's the Gaylida Apartments alright! Here's a view of the side entrance. (compare to the top photo)

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5822/aaagaylida2.jpg
google street view


http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/7201/aaagaylida1.jpg
google street view

Hollywood 1900's view
 

The postcard looks like 1905-1910 hollywood and is a similar perspective to this 1927 pic taken from near the same location (not exact), looking east south east across what is to become hollywood. Some good indication of how the orchards grew on the hill below the water tank here!
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...HS-8012-p?v=hr

This 1905 picture of the eastern end of hollywood reveals the shape of the hills seen on the left hand edge of the postcard (below the distant horizen and above the green part)
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets.../CHS-5899?v=hr

Somehow I missed this.

In 2009, some 65 years after the fact, a French film historian happened upon a bizarre discovery -
that reclusive Raymond Chandler, uncredited and previously unnoticed, has a cameo in Double Indemnity.

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2...ntil2009ra.jpg
paramount/latimesblog.com


Here is a link to the story of the discovery.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/...ndemnity-cameo



below: Mr. Chandler glances up at Fred MacMurray.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8...mondchandl.jpg
paramount


Am I the only person that didn't hear about this?

Speaking of Desilu- Culver City, check out this website! http://www.jimnolt.com/fortyacres1.htm

The Desilu Culver city backlot used for The Andy Griffith Show was previously used for Metropolis in The Adventures of Superman. Too bad it was razed.