:previous:

Most likely taken from the roof of the Town House

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068483.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068483.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_z...74927%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View

A moody morning shot of one of the Town House's second-floor Juliet balconies...

The intersection at roughly the center of the photo is Wilshire & Warner. The church to the right (Westwood Methodist) is still there, as is the "monstrously ugly" high-rise (might have been "modernized" to make it even more monstrously ugly). The interesting aspect of the photo is that it shows the pre-Canyon Wilshire Blvd.

BTW, I grew up in Austin and Ft. Worth, but have lived in LA for going on 17 years.

This is a sensational site!
 

It's almost addictive. Hell, it IS addictive. Good job, guys.

PS. I don't know how "noirish" it is, but one of my favorites in L.A. is the former I. Magnin store on Wilshire at New Hampshire. It dates from the mid-late 30s. It is now a Korean mall, but many of the details are intact, including some on the former main floor. You can get a sense of how grand it must have been when it was I. Magnin.

Interesting pictures
 

and from one of my favorite films of the forties, but even more interesting, since the first picture is doctored. From the house that was used, and the physical address of the house, you cannot see Malibu Pier, as it is tucked behind two points of land. Also the shape of the coast in the first picture is not what you would see from this address. I wonder how they did it (pre-photo shop) and why. I guess the image of Malibu Pier gave them an atmosphere that the simple coastline would not, still for the time kind of an interesting special effect for little more than atmospherics. In the second shot, the coastline appears to be the genuine article and you'll notice no pier (and distinctly different bluffs and palisades).

I. Magnin, by way of illustration:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059118.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059118.jpg

Per LAPL: "...the interior of the first floor of I. Magnin & Co. department store at the corner of Wilshire Blvd
and New Hampshire Ave.... 'walls are of Rose de Brignolles marble'.... 'Here are exclusive Magnin accessories,
with individual salons for gifts, negligees, lingerie and corsets, shoes, luggage and leather goods.'... The
store received an award in 1939 from the Lighting Fixtures Industries of Southern California for best lighting
installation. Designed by Myron Hunt."


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059142.jpgLAPL http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics49/00059142.jpg


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics23/00061256.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics23/00061256.jpg
Per LAPL: "A two-story Mission Revival residence at 685 South Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, in the early
1900s. It later became the I. Magnin store parking lot."

I'm very sure they used a matte; it's an old movie trick. Matte shots were even used during the Silent era, I believe. Sometimes I'll watch an old movie where they use an outside shot of a real building downtown or somewhere else that I know exists, but then surrounding buildings are different (because it's supposed to be set in New York or Chicago or something); then I know that it's a matte shot. This is also how early filmmakers created fictional settings by combining backlot sets with mattes.

Thanks for posting those pictures, GW. (I need to learn how to post pictures on this site.) The exterior of the building is pretty much the same and the bas-reliefs at various points are alone worth a look-see. The chandelier (or a replica) is still there. I believe it is a Orrefors crystal custom-design for Magnin's. The rose de brignolle marble walls are still visible, too, as are the elevator doors, but the space has been chopped up for small selling spaces. I have read that the upper floors are completely unrecognizable. There are two excellent books about the I. Magnin chain, each full of wonderful photos of the L. A. store. They are, I. Magnin & Co.: A California Legacy, Devin Frick and A Store to Remember, James T. Mullane. Until Federated began to ruin the brand in the '80s, I. Magnin, along with Bergdorf Goodman and pre-expansion Neiman-Marcus genuinely set themselves apart as retailers. Not at all like today when you can't tell Sears from Saks.


P.S. I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire were among the first retailers anywhere to recognize the importance of the automobile. Their "main" entrances both consisted of porte-cocheres on the parking lot, not the sidewalk, side of the stores.

I'm sure a matte process was the only thing they had
 

for this effect but it's kind of unusual to use it in this sort of a setting and then to forget they needed the pier in subsequent shots from similar angles. Matte shots are usually good for a 'castle' on the hill above a village. Still love these pictures.

http://hiddenlosangeles.com/wp-conte...blvdlight1.gif hiddenlosangeles.com

:previous:

Ah, Gaylord. Great moving gif. I love those Acme semaphore signals. And the one from "Sunset Boulevard," the intersection of Sunset and and Bel Air Road/Beverly Glen Blvd., no less. ;)

Which is why it pains me to see this:

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/653...gueroaacci.jpg
USC Archive

Some guy (or woman) took out an Acme semaphore! In 1952, at the corner of 23rd and Figueroa, according to the caption.

I like to go in here after a long day, descend three stories, and partake of the boiling mineral waters and frigid plunge in the Korean-run baths. Plus a nap on one of the beds in front of the giant weird-Korean-show-blaring TVs. Still, it's the three-hour equivalent of 36 hours at a fancy spa: trust me.

Then, back upstairs. Absolved of sin and devoid of poisons, wandering about after (with a polite nod to the security guard) in splendid isolation, taking in the wonders of the largely intact Moderne interior, soothes the soul all the more.

I. Magnin
 

The photographs of the interiors when it was I. Magnin are spectacular (all in black and white; I wonder what the colors were like). I'll have to see about going to the upper floors of there are remnants.

520 North Rossmore, 1936:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8405/...ssmore1936.jpg
USC Archive

520 North Rossmore, Monday, Feb. 21, 2011:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9945/p1160222.jpg
Photo by me

This building has a plaque in front of it, calling the building The Mauretania--"Original moderne-art deco. Built in 1934 by Milton J. Black, architect for Jack Haley - the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Los Angeles residence of President John F. Kennedy. Home to many of L.A.'s illustrious stars and families. Owned at one time by the Ahmanson Family. Part of the preservation of Rossmore Avenue and the Larchmont area."

Apart from the landscaping and the addition of that (unnecessary) fountain and the letter "M"'s, the building looks just like in the old photo, basically. I'm not sure if that's its original color, though. I wish the guy wasn't there playing with his dog, but I wasn't gonna tell him to get out of the shot.

I can't imagine anyone on this thread isn't familiar with Mackenzie's The Exiles. The film has comparatively recently become famous as one of the Great Lost Documents about Old LA, specifically highlighting maginalized peoples downtown in the late 50s. Its release on DVD might have passed some folk by, in part because, well, it wasn't cheap. It wasn't cheap I'm guessing because (while it would be worth it at twice the price) it included about 9,000 amazing extras. One of which being Mackenzie's 1956 short he did while at USC called, what else, Bunker Hill 1956.

Point being, I'm going to swipe a bunch of screen captures from that DVD extra and put them up here, in slavish worship to its greatness. Now, if you good folk at Milestone, who own the copyright, take issue, I understand. Please send a note and I will remove this post. On the other hand, what I am telling the untold, unwashed masses reading this: your eyes have been blessed with a tiny smidgen of BH56 which is worth one of your fingers in trade. The rest of http://www.exilesfilm.com/ you can judge for yourself.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/...258f8aff_o.jpg

The criminally underphotographed Down Third From the Other Direction --

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/...f9f4eed4_b.jpg

There's a nice turn of camera across 144 South Grand, as fetishized over here http://onbunkerhill.org/georgemann#comment-347
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/...e9cbf2c6_o.jpg

Here's 510 +1/2 W 3rd
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/...a1426d7f_o.jpg

...which again, in the canon on BH, is an underphotographed structure. That was a taste, anyway. Go here for more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3930393...th/5432990786/

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/...1ac051f3_o.jpg

:previous: No film I've ever seen more poignantly illustrates 'the vanished city' than Bunker Hill 1956. Watching it mesmerizes me, and breaks my heart, too. Truly a must-see for anyone interested in L.A. history.

-Scott

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_z...80258%20AM.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tHIN...eature=related


A remnant in plain sight? "Mysterious stairs" behind McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak (ok, 444 S. Flower) in this youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tHIN...eature=related


Are these stairs a remnant of old Bunker Hill? It looks it on film, but I can't really tell if the concrete is definitely older than the newer construction. Anyone have any ideas of where they may have once led? (Btw--there are no clues on the big 1931 map of downtown....)

Residential remnant of old Figueroa
 

Well, I do kind of like seeing the Acme mechanism revealed... and if the Plymouth hadn't taken out the signal, street changes due to the Harbor coming through would have soon enough. The car lot is gone, of course; in its place is a charter school--the brick building in the Google Street View below. Notice the corner of the house to the far left in the vintage shot--it's still there--the Colonial house below--and is now part of the charter school. A new street called Figueroa Way is in front, but the house retains its orientation to Figueroa Street, just slightly east.


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_z...14442%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View

This is an excellent before/after photo sopas_ej. I hope you do more of them!

p.s. I like the kid and his dog. :)

Just like we've been doing on this thread...

____________________


Larry Harnisch over at latimesblog found this small blurb from 1908 about homes sales
in the Westlake district. So he googled the address 690 Burlington Ave.


http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/488...gtonave190.jpg
latimes



Surprise! It's still there. :)

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/7...burlington.jpg
google street view



______________________




He did the same with this ad.

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/9...etrack1908.jpg
latimes





The same building today over a hundred years later.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6...etrackhuge.jpg
google street view