I'm amused by the "Gruen Watch Time" sign on a strip club....


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_d...82940%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
1304. Western


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_d...85353%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
A little context--the SE corner of Pico and Western


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068432.jpgLAPL
The Commercial National Bank under construction, August 29, 1925


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_d...91450%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
I love the classical details of the old bank, and that while Strip City is now given over to
respectable furniture manufacturing, the bank is a liquor store....

:previous:
Wow Gaylord, I'm amazed that you found where Strip City was! Impressive!

wow! i am impressed GW! urban angelese archeologist extraordinaire!

an undated aerial of the intersection of pico and western. it probably is around 1923 or so. the location of strip city is to the right of the real estate office right of center

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics26/00032984.jpg
Source: LAPL

another los angeles noir film that i am ashamed to have left off my list

http://bp0.blogger.com/_s_30zQFJp4g/...+man+shill.jpg

not much for story line, but great los angeles location images, not to mention a full four and a half minutes of 3rd and hill/angels flight/hillcrest inn extravaganza!

The Turning Point (discussed here on pp 69 & 70) is certainly great LA noir -- but it's set in the midwest. Which complicates matters when discussing it as "LA noir!"

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1295/...296cd7b1_b.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/d3rtVbgn/florentinegruen-bmp.jpg
LAPL
Seems that Gruen figured nightclubs were a good place to advertise... perhaps an admirer
gave Beth Short a Gruen after a little dancing here...


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8qEDwfHWKL0/S3...00/LA50s20.jpgLAPL
or after a little music here.... Not that the Bowl was a nightclub exactly....

Are these the gas works surrounded by Ducommun, Center and Commercial Streets? Using Google Earth, that address seems to be empty (possible environmetal issues?) and surrounded by the original brick wall (seen in Our Gang's "Pups is Pups" 1930).

Does anybody know where the gas tanks seen briefly in 'Best Years of Our Lives', possibly the ones in the above shot, were located? I believe the scene in the movie is when Dana Andrews meets Theresa Wright at a lunch counter across from the tanks.

Great posts everyone! All your lists of 'noirs' are amazing. I haven't even heard of "The Indestructible Man'.
Since you guys have covered most of the L.A. connected 'noirs', I thought I would think outside the box.

What came to mind was Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'. The setting of the movie is Los Angeles 2019, population 109 million.

The production designer Lawrence Paull immediately saw the script as 'film noir'. "I started to think of those late 1940s, early 1950s movies which always took place in a dark, brooding city and then extended that look 40 years past our time." Briefly in this thread we discussed several locations used in the film / Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, the Bradbury Building and Union Station. Blade Runner was released in 1982, the year I moved to Los Angeles.


Here is a link to a brief scene from 'Blade Runner' (remember, this is before CGI).
The short video ends with a brief shot of the interior of Union Station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XcGSJ6Of9g

Be sure to watch it full screen and with the sound turned up. Enjoy!

It's funny that you mention 'Pups is Pups'. One of my favorite images is this shot from 'Pups is Pups'.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7...ispups1930.jpg
Our Gang

I'm not sure where reality ends and the backdrop begins in this photo. Is this the brick wall you speak of MikeD?

Ah, 2019. We're...not quite there yet. Oh, wait, yes we are.

P.S. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...2064657999893# be sure to check out 39:40 - 44:19...

Auto Row survivor
 

1540 S. Figueroa, 1925 and 2011:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_d...91158%20PM.jpgLAPL

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_d...91445%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View


ethereal: Love the "PAN AM" sign in the year 2019....

Pups is Pups!

http://i38.tinypic.com/xo4g7n.jpghttp://onbunkerhill.org/TheDirtPatch...ill#comment-17

I love gas holders, AKA gasometers. Here http://users.bergen.org/dondew/GLA/WGPModule.html is a site that describes these curious structures, once ubiquitous in American cities.

In the TTP pic we're looking south on Ducummon across Vignes; I've never seen Best Years of Our Lives so I can't say. There were big tanks the other side of Aliso at Howard, and above Keller. Also scattered throughout the city (7th & Alameda, Hollywood, etc.)

But the ones behind Union Station are my faves. I never got to see them in person, that I can recall; I think they disappeared in the mid-70s.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/...67ff5fac_o.giflapl

They are discussed in some detail here http://viewfromaloft.typepad.com/vie...for_the_m.html and here http://blogdowntown.com/2006/11/2417...on-gas-holders
-- in short, the Big Three down by the river date to 1906, 1912, 1906 was felled and replaced in 1922, and 1925. Here's some more stuff about our gas holders in general:

The first LA Gas & Electric plant was opposite the Pico House and ran between 1867 and '69.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5308/...1f03f98c_b.jpg

June 27, 1906:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/...9342cf51_b.jpg

March 3, 1912:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/...842cefa6_b.jpg

American Gas Journal, April 16, 1921.
P. 349 (googlebooks):

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5230/...3734865a_o.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5301/...ee54518c_o.jpg

Jan 18, 1923:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/...3ae7e358_b.jpg

Feb 11, 1923:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5305/...0222b0b3_o.jpg

May 13, 1925:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5187/...b48331a6_o.jpg

Sept 14, 1930:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5025/...911e4321_o.jpg

Anyone out there with memories or images of the gas holders, please drop 'em by here. Oh, and here's something I penned for a local mag a short while back (I know this is an image-driven forum, but I thought it germane to the gassy topic).

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/...19d07872_b.jpg

...seems likely I'll buy and build one of these.

That is a great screen grab!

I'm not sure. The section of wall I was thinking of isn't quite as tall. Wheezer's puppies run back and forth along the wall as different bells are being rung.

Here's a link to the brick wall today. The gas tanks were on the other side.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...97.29,,0,10.39


Wow! Thanks Beaudry for all that info on the gas tanks! Back here on Long Island we used to be able to tell how bad traffic was on the Long Island Expressway when the radio would announce that traffic was backed up to the Elmhurst gas tanks. Sometime when I had a job in the other direction from NYC, the gas tanks were dismantled unbeknowst to me. I probably passed the area a few times in my travels before I realized they were gone.

http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps...96372_main.jpgdearoldhollywood.com
The Best Years of Our Lives: Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright in downtown "Boone City"--hard to tell which L.A. gasometer this might have been. I didn't realize that there so many over the years. Not knowing much about municipal gas supplies, I have a question: Where is all the gas stored now? Or is it that pipelines have taken over the local manufacturing of gas?

MikeD: I used to love hearing references to the Elmhurst tanks in the traffic reports on 1010WINS etc--I think they were taken down in the early '90s.

Beaudry: Great history of L.A. gasometers--

a great 1935 view from city hall looking at chinatown, with handwritten overlay of where union station will be located.

here is a screen cap to use as a roadmap that i captured using the nifty snip it tool in windows 7

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5029/...c359f5b2_b.jpg

get ready for some serious right, left, up and down scrolling.....(sorry) the detail of so many different elements, on so many different levels, is amazing

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6...05d87c6970b-pi
Source: LA Times Blog

[QUOTE=GaylordWilshire;5243951]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_d...22254%20PM.jpgLAPL
Seems that Gruen figured nightclubs were a good place to advertise... perhaps an admirer
gave Beth Short a Gruen after a little dancing here...


I have a picture of my parents inside the Florentine Gardens...sometime in the 40's...I don't know how to upload it so perhaps I could send it to Sosa and he could post it. RBPJr

rbpjr, it would be great to see the photo of your parents at the Florentine Gardens.
I don't know why, but it's fairly difficult to find good photographs of the Florentine Gardens.

Until recently I had no idea there were any of these 'monster' gas holders anywhere near Hollywood. I actually thought this photo was mislabeled until I read your post Beaudry.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/8...westfromsa.jpg
usc digital archive

I believe this is looking west along Santa Monica Blvd. from the area of Mansfield or Highland Ave.

gasometer bites the dust in war of the worlds - 1954

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5184/...47b67d39_o.jpg

Gassing on
 

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...8CBFDQBGRK.jpgWilliam Reagh/California State Library

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075422.jpgWilliam Reagh/LAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009386.jpgLAPL

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics48/00043551.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics34/00066588.jpgLAPL


I couldn't find any of these shots by doing a seach of past posts-- but we may have seen some of these before....