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This isn't as exciting as Live Nude Girls but it's a mystery location nonetheless. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/sMNBpN.jpg eBay The restaurant next door on the right is. . .um . . .Gaiety(?) . |
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mystery Thrifty (original slide) https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Ul5xjC.jpg eBay I wonder why the elderly man is posing and waving at this particular corner. . |
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(Interesting that of the myriad of photos on NLA of Sunset & Vine that we've never come across the Gaiety before.) https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uDyTjv-3u.../wallich_s.jpgMartino's Time Machine By 1966 at least, the Gaiety was gone, NBC as well, as seen in this previously posted photo on NLA: https://cdn2.lamag.com/wp-content/up...or-768x578.jpg _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I got the following from a website that had posted some oral histories of musicians and the like about Hollywood in the 1960's. This one from Don Randi, a songwriter and member of the group The Wrecking Crew, talks about a lot of the eateries frequented back then. No details, but Gaiety is mentioned and a lot of others name dropped. HOW MANY HAVE WE NOT HEARD OF? https://cavehollywood.com/two-part-documentary-series-on EPIX/May2002 “We loved Musso & Frank’s Grill on Hollywood Boulevard and Johnny’s Steak House. That was my savior. I didn’t have a fuckin dime and I could go and have a three dollar meal in there with a Bone-In Ribeye, you know. We went to Aldo’s, great hamburgers. Sonny and Cher dug that place. Canter’s Delicatessen, once in a while, a coffee shop called Huff’s [Does he mean Hoff's?], Taco Rama, and Pink’s Hot Dogs on La Brea Ave. Another stop was The Dog House on Hollywood Blvd. where you sat on stools on the street and can’t forget The Brown Derby. “Chris Darrow reminded me of The Burrito King on Sunset Boulevard at Alvarado. The Flying Saucer had the best French Dip sandwiches in town near Wilshire. There was Young China, two doors down from radio station KFWB for fantastic Chinese on Hollywood Blvd. with the best Won Ton soup. The Italian restaurant Miceli’s was on Las Palmas. “Dennis Wilson loved Ah Fong’s restaurant, delicious Chinese-American food. Gene Norman owned the Marquis restaurant on Sunset Strip, along with his Crescendo and Interlude clubs. I liked the Villa Capri. Mickey Cohen was there on a regular basis. I saw him at Sherry’s as well. There was Hal’s Nest, and The Speak, where all drinks were 39 cents. Phil Spector and I went to The Cock’n Bull. The trout was incredible. “The record company promo men all went to an Italian spot named Martoni’s. Label owners like Verve Records’ Norman Granz enjoyed the Pacific Dining Car. Barney Kessel and his wife B.J. Baker requested their New York steaks cooked medium at Diamond Jim’s in Hollywood. “Neil Young, Jack Nitzsche and I would go out to places like the Gaiety Delicatessen. Once in a while Harry Nilsson would come to our table. He was still working at the Crocker Citizen bank as a teller or had a job there. At the time he might have made a record. We all went to the Hollywood Ranch Market. Are you kidding? The tater tots and the chicken gizzards! Even in the late fifties they had a donut machine there! (laughs). I saw Lucille Ball one late night in a full fur mink coat. She gave me the biggest smile. Jack, Neil, Denny Bruce and I also liked to eat at the House of Pancakes on La Cienega. They just closed Hamburger Hamlet! What the fuck is going on? [Text Quotes Copyright 2020 Harvey Kubernik] |
Another one of those "Twin Castle" burger joints is still standing at 4874 Santa Monica Blvd. and is currently an outpost of Raffallo's Pizza. This one was built in 1966.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a335cff2_b.jpg GSV Quote:
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Underneath the "Dot Records" facade would have been this glorious bit of Late Moderne.
https://i2.wp.com/www.martinturnbull...ine-Street.jpg Martin Turnbull https://martinturnbull.com/2014/12/1...ca-late-1940s/ Quote:
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Maybe because the building is quite non-descript. The address was 1523 Cahuenga Blvd. (A couple websites say 1538, but the matchbook covers I looked up say 1523.) It opened in 1960 and closed due to the 1994 earthquake, it is said. So it was around 34 years, quite a long run as restaurants go. This is the only photo I've found of it. https://www.laradio.com/martonis.jpeg LARadio Here's what the restaurant sign would've looked like:http://www.bugsweeps.alibaba.sk/info...i_logo_300.jpg...and a postcard of the interior: http://www.bugsweeps.alibaba.sk/info...stcard_470.jpg On "Yahoo! Answers" someone asked the question, "Does anyone remember Martoni's in Hollywood?" The replies are provocative. Here are two of them: Vince DeMattia writes: I was a new reporter for Daily Variety. I started in early fall of 1965. Not too long after being there, Joe Price who was the Music/Recording reporter for Daily Variety, told me he wanted to take me somewhere for a special experience. He picked me at my apartment and we went back to Daily Variety to park the car and walked across the street to Martoni's... a place I had not yet visited even though it was that close to the Variety office. We walked in and made an immediate right turn to go up stairs to the "Up-A-Stairs Lounge (that's actually what the sign above the entrance to the stairway read. When we got up stairs, there was about 12-15 people. Among them Joe Smith from Warner records, Frank Sinatra and Bill Cosby. As you might imagine, I was stunned. It turns out that Bill Cosby recorded for Frank Sinatra's then new record company, Reprise and Frank was there to present Bill Cosby with Three Gold Albums. That was my first introduction to Martoni's and the level of famous persons one might run into there. One time I went in and sat at the bar and gabbed with Mama Cass Elliot and another time sat at one of the "2-tops " at the end of the wall you walked around to get to the back section. Sammy Davis, Jr and a lady sat next to me in the other 2-top. Yeah... it was quite a place! Gene Grossman writes: I was the first entertainer hired to work there, and played piano right next to the kitchen door. As for the restaurant's ownership, you be the judge: in the kitchen there was a State document posted stating that the liquor license was in the name of the "Ring-a-Ding-Ding" corporation, and in the office hung a life-sized portrait of Frank Sinatra. Sam Giancana was seen there. On a Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page, Barbra Kaye writes: Was sitting at the bar the night Sonny and Cher were asked to leave because their dress was so outlandish... I believe they wrote a hit song about the incident! In another search I found someone wrote: Supposedly Sonny Bono wrote "Laugh at Me" after being kicked out of Martoni’s for his wild attire. And Ryan writes: Went there a few times (early 90's). Met CHEAP TRICK (they bought me drinks...lol)! And Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot there. Ended up at his house with a couple other friends. Crazy. With all this notoriety and celebrity status, and in Hollywood frequently enough, how is this place something unfamiliar to me? :shrug: On this site: L.A. Radio People, Don Elliott wrote a section (scroll about halfway down the page, the picture of the restaurant in my post is in the section) titled "Martoni's Was the Place to Be in the 60s and 70s" and he has a sort of Top Ten list: Recalling back-in-the-dj-day Hollywood. Best shows in town. (ALL AT MARTONI’S). A few of them are: --Frank Sinatra “Up-a Stairs" --Lenny’s “back room show" --Anything Sal said behind the bar --Pretending to talk trash into hidden FBI microphones in the lamps. Now that last part about the hidden microphones is interesting because there's a website -- Advanced Electronic Security Company, where they have a section titled: Technical Surveillance Counter Measures, Bug Sweeping, Detection of Telephone Taps, Wiretaps, Covert Hidden Video Cameras Detection, Detecting Hidden Room Bugs, Electronic Harassment Information & Detection and a link to "Advanced Electronic Security Historical Photos" where Martoni's is featured: "Every private eye has a restaurant that is their hangout at night. For me it was Martoni, which was on Cahuenga in the heart of Hollywood, CA." |
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Alas, no. As-built plans for the P.E. Building from the Arcives at the Southern California Railway Museum don't show this arrangement. Although, as one of my archivist colleagues pointed out, it would've made fire drills a lot more fun! :) |
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. . .once more. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/Ul5xjC.jpg EBAY :previous: Quote:
The same view, today. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/jrvEON.jpg And here's the Flomar /visible in the vintage ebay snapshot as well as the current street view. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/DFhQX5.jpg LOOPNET Built in 1925....30 apartment units and 4 commercial spaces. . |
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Here are two, count'em two, mystery locations for Monday night. ....(both currently on eBay) #1 https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/kYZBsF.jpg eBay Seward Film Vaults. . .Hollywood #2 https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/uN3xs9.jpg eBay National Screen Service. . .Hollywood . |
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https://i.postimg.cc/Wz4B0j3C/Seward.jpg gsv |
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https://i.postimg.cc/tRmf8K7R/Nation...en-Service.jpg gsv Edit Add: The building housed the Electrical Research Products Co. (later ERPI, which is to say Electrical Research Products Incorporated) in 1933, "motion picture sound recording and reproducing equipment" (quoth that year's Manufacturing Directory of Los Angeles County and District). |
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I happened to see this photo taken in the 1980's showing the streamlined detail over the entrance of the Wilshire May Company that I thought might be of interest:
https://www.laconservancy.org/sites/...ry/mayco-7.jpglaconservancy Plus an interior shot: https://www.laconservancy.org/sites/...ry/mayco-9.jpglaconservancy About a week ago, AMPAS posted this photo of their museum with the recently installed "Academy Museum" letters put up. https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram...a0&oe=60328B99AMPAS The scheduled date of AMPAS's museum opening has been pushed back a couple times because of the pandemic situation. It was recently rescheduled again for September 30th of this year. |
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mystery location. (this one is going to be a difficult to solve). .*reaches for whip*. .;) A young man, "Buss", poses for a photograph in 1929 Los Angeles. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/1YnjP1.jpg eBay The reverse. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/V5Ug7i.jpg Let's take a closer look. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/4Zlc42.jpg And as you can see there are signs along the embankment on the opposite side of the street. (as well as a 'No Parking' to the right of his left shoulder) Is this an entrance to a bridge or, perhaps a ramp of some sort? :superwhip Go at it sleuths! . |
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mystery ice? This transparency was on eBay a few days ago. (it must have sold because I can't find it again) https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/x1hgxZ.jpg https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/HzVlOc.jpg ..Are those icicles? (I know they're not but they sure look like icicles) This is a rare view of the wooden scaffolding installed during the dismantling of the building next door to protect the car from falling debris. (sorry about the long awkward sentence) . |
For those interested:
L.A. County Library Virtual Program | Thursday, January 28, 5 pm Take a Tour Through Late Victorian Era Los Angeles Join us on this photographic tour of LA, as seen through images from the collection of the Homestead Museum, led by its director, Paul Spitzzeri. For adults. Free. Register here. |
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Has anyone tried an LA County Library Webex event with a player from the 21st Century? :???: |
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I guess we think that things were clean and nice so many years ago. But the scourge of man made pollution rears up in these old photos to prove us wrong. |
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