I'd always thought that the Zoot Suit Riots were the result of racial tensions between white servicemen stationed in LA during the war and local gangs of black and Mexican youths who were at the forefront of zoot suit culture. And that's true to a degree.

But it may have been a little more complicated.

According to the website Appletree Days:

"In 1942, in an attempt to institute a 26% cut-back in the use of fabrics, the War Production Board drew up regulations for the wartime manufacture of what Esquire magazine called the “streamlined suits of Uncle Sam”. So, in effect, the regulations effectively forbade the manufacture of zoot-suits and most legitimate tailoring companies ceased to manufacture or advertise any suits that fell outside the War Production Board’s guide lines.

However, subculture will always find a way to sustain, and the demand for zoot suits did not decline. A network of bootleg tailors based in Los Angeles and New York continued to manufacture the garments. Importantly, the gang rivalry or polarization between servicemen and pachucos was always immediately visible: the uniforms of patriotism, and in sharp comparison, the zoot suit became a very public way of flouting the regulations of rationing."

Ethereal you legend!

No, it was never a park back then.
Bear with me, this may be a little long!

Just to get bearings, this is all about the property bounded by Angel's Flight on the north, 4th St. on the south, Olive St. on the west and Hill St. on the east. The western half of this area (bounding Olive) is the part with grass and trees. The eastern half is a steeper hill which flattens out at the bottom as it reaches Hill St., with a Metro entrance on the corner at 4th & Hill, and the ruins of old walls backing up against the hillside as you go north along Hill St.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...2520PM.bmp.jpg
Google Maps

Along the 4th Street side, the upper part of Angel's Knoll that's now covered with grass & trees was the location of a garage at the corner of 4th & Olive. North along Olive next to the garage was an apartment building once called the Wales, and beyond that there were houses. At 4th & Hill stood the Black Building (1913), and in between it and the garage along 4th was the (smaller & older) Hotel Antlers.

Here's 4th & Hill in the early 1900s, before the construction of the Black Building - you can see the Hotel Antlers further up 4th St.:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-c...00/Antlers.jpg
A Visit to Old Los Angeles

Here is the same corner in the late 1940s, with the Black Building on it:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-X...lding-1948.jpg
From a Perry Mason fan site

If we go west on 4th St. to Olive and then turn around, on the left we can see the Hotel Clark Garage (1919) on the corner of 4th & Olive, followed by the Antlers and then the Black Building (1920s view):

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-o...2520AM.bmp.jpg
USC Digital Library

Still at the corner of 4th & Olive, here's the view looking more north-ish along Olive in 1953 (when the Cole Brothers Circus was in town):

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...7f44ab31_o.jpg
Onbunkerhill.org/Flickr

You can see an apartment building past the renamed Center Garage. A search of this thread resulted in a post from January by rick m that describes it as the Bailey Building, formerly the Wales Apartments, at 344 S. Olive.

Here is a great shot of the whole area of Angel's Knoll, circa 1913. We've gone a little further west on 4th St., so the intersection of 4th & Olive is in the right foreground with 4th St. stretching east into the distance:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...2520PM.bmp.jpg
USC Digital Library

The future site of the Hotel Clark Garage/Center Garage is the empty lot on the corner, and the rather large house to the left of the lot. Next to the lot facing 4th is Hotel Antlers, not a very wide building but very deep, and then beyond that the brand new Black Building (ironically, looking very white). Traveling north on Olive from the corner, next to the big house is the Wales Apartments. Further up Olive on that side are individual houses (apparently still there in the 1953 photo). On the Hill St. side of the Angel's Knoll block, aside from the Black building, the rest of the area contains several low-rise commercial buildings and at least one small hotel - the Pembroke. I don't know if these were replaced before the Bunker Hill redevelopment. If not, then the back walls of these buildings are the ruins that remain today along the base of Angel's Knoll.

On the 1921 Baist Real Estate map, narrow Clay St. is shown halfway between Hill & Olive in this block, starting at 4th St. directly between the Antlers and the back of the Black building, but none of the pictures I found are from a proper angle to see it. The Baist map shows several buildings facing Clay, mostly houses so they're not really visible in the 1913 photo of the block, because of the bigger buildings around them.

:previous: Thanks for answering my question ProphetM, excellent post!
__



1918
http://imageshack.us/a/img836/551/mgf6.jpg
ebay

cute, huh. :)
__

The name of Los Angeles in a poem....
 

!

We have had discussions about the correct pronunciation of Los Angeles earlier in the thread, so I thought this little ditty from 1918
was rather clever. Perhaps I shouldn't have labeled it as cute.
__

As far as I know, there was never an airport at, or anywhere near, 674 S. Vermont Avenue
(just south of Wilshire Blvd. between the Ambassador Hotel and Bullock's Wilshire)

but there was Bud Averill's Airport
http://imageshack.us/a/img401/9575/f5gz.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img29/376/c9zd.jpg
1930s matchbook/ebay



I wish this was larger, it's the only photograph of the place I could find.
http://imageshack.us/a/img827/776/w2zk.jpg
http://www.thereminvox.com/article/view/60/1/18.html

http://imageshack.us/a/img443/6530/tjjs.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img43/8242/3fyg.jpg
ebay



Same location...different name. I am not sure if his Paradise Cafe was before or after his Bud Averill's Airport.
http://imageshack.us/a/img13/7936/yk5d.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img707/8266/m2wl.jpg
cd

So Mr. Averill played the Theremin as well! I am hoping someone can dig up some old photographs of Bud Averill's Airport.
(the place seems a bit surreal, with the Theremin music and no actual airport)
__

Airport near Vermont Avenue?

We do know that in 1946, Eddie Meyer sold used airplanes a few blocks north, on Vermont and Third. How the aircraft were transported to that location begs the question were there vacant strips of land used as makeshift runways - to accommodate the likes of Averill, Meyer and their respective/prospective business clientele. I've heard stories about such landings in what is now West Hollywood in the early '30s - but those are stories. Besides, it is hardly unusual to have a theme restaurant-bar in LA. :shuffle:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics40/00069734.jpghttp://jpg3.lapl.org/pics40/00069734.jpg

http://theautry.org/images/gallery/a...650&height=531

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=8697



In May '33, Bud and his band, and singing waiters were belting out the ballads at the Boos Brother's Hill Street Location.



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ill&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ill&DMROTATE=0


http://www.popsike.eu/pix/20080309/130204497096.jpghttp://www.popsike.eu/pix/20080309/130204497096.jpg

The following isn't terribly clever, but it might date from 1918, because my grandmother taught it to me as a way to remember the order of north-south streets in downtown Los Angeles (works best if traveling east to west):

LOS ANGELES is the MAIN SPRING of BROADWAY. You go up HILL to get to OLIVE. Wouldn't it be GRAND to HOPE to grow a FLOWER on FIGUEROA.

I still have to recite the damn thing to myself to get my bearings downtown . . . .

If the colors ever really were that vibrant, they've faded some over the years:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3554848c.jpg
Photo by me from a block away, June 2013

Are those things on the corners of the tower (two in the middle; one on each side) supposed to be owls? If we've been over that I forgot.

-bless your grandmother FW. :) This is quite clever.
__

I hadn't noticed this 1917 before. I wonder why it wasn't carried on to the other side?
http://imageshack.us/a/img46/6141/oswg.jpg
2013 by Flyingwedge

I have to agree with FW, the engaged columns do resemble stylized owls. (I doubt this was intentional)
__

I think it's fair to say the lovely picture has been enhanced.

Examples of other enhanced LA landmarks appear here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrybu...page2/?view=ju

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ice_nyn...7603000892611/

This is the Leslie House, designed by Dennis & Farwell. It's actually Los Angeles HCM #129. Of course, there's an informative article about it at Big Orange Landmarks.

On a more personal note, I remember as a kid (in the 80's/90's) that you could see this house from the Harbor Freeway as you drove by, until they built a big concrete box of an apartment building across the street called "The Flat" which obscured the view. Flash forward to 2012, a friend of mine so happens to move into The Flat. Paid him a visit one day, and was delighted when I ended up parking right in front of what, for me, had become a forgotten treasure. Back when it was still visible from the 110, I seem to remember it being painted (or stained?) brown, as this black & white photo would seem to indicate:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/...a1799cf505.jpgBig Orange Landmarks

Sure looks to me like the Palms Depot that now sits at Heritage Square - Amazing! I really like this photo a lot because it shows much of the original context of the building before it was moved. Looks like a lot of the original woodwork had been removed and the chimney was gone too at the time this pic was taken, but the basic form of the structure is there. Here's a present day shot:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...road_Depot.jpgWikipedia

A Barnstormer's Paradise
 

Originally posted by Tourmaline

http://theautry.org/images/gallery/a...650&height=531

http://skyscraperpage.com/forum/show...postcount=8697

Below is another view of the lot at the corner of Third and Vermont. The year listed with this photo is 1946, and appears to have been taken at the same time as the above photo.

http://imageshack.com/scaled/large/27/o2ol.jpg
http://theautry.org/collections/avia...n-california-1

Good eye Tetsu!
http://imageshack.us/a/img819/6760/uy4d.jpg

below: Here's the Palms Depot in a scene from The Return of Dracula 1958.
In several shots you get a glimpse of the surrounding area. The depot itself is mostly shrouded in darkness.

http://imageshack.us/a/img545/7499/rs2k.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img843/9876/uwt6.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0jl48hjaQ0

click on the link above/I wasn't able to embed the video.
__

...also, thanks for the information on the Leslie house Tetsu.
__

"Why not an airport themed nightclub!"


http://imageshack.us/a/img401/9575/f5gz.jpg

Perhaps Bud Averill passed the used airplane lot at 3rd and Vermont on his way to his Paradise Cafe, and had a eureka moment.
(I admit, I'm playing with the dates :))

http://imageshack.us/a/img19/1945/0mje.jpg
Google Earth/I know my aerial is a bit remedial.


As I stated before, Bud Averill's Airport nightclub was a close neighbor to Bullocks Wilshire (that's it in the distance).
http://imageshack.us/a/img853/6996/udx8.jpg

Bud may have been a time traveler! Notice his logo with the hourglass about "flying time." The symbolism is simple enough, but whether does it work for a place that wants me to spend as much time there as possible?



Since I first noticed the 7/12 Eddie Meyer posts I have wondered about his proximity to an airstrip - even a makeshift one. Typically, you would shop for a boat at a boatyard and a plane at or near an airport - likely places to demonstrate the product. It's hard to visualize Eddie's typical residential neighbors, and how they might have reacted to the thought of aircraft nearby. Generally, airports are not great for real estate value unless the airport is solely for residents private use. Post WW2 surplus sales may have been a novelty.



Curious if Eddie is one and the same as Eddie "Bud" Meyer who built, designed and raced cars and boats, with a "Hollywood" connection.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1073/...d69c9dd6_m.jpghttp://farm2.static.flickr.com/1073/...d69c9dd6_m.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...dMeyer1211.jpghttp://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...dMeyer1211.jpg

http://www.kustomrama.com/images/c/c...ngineering.jpghttp://www.kustomrama.com/images/c/c...ngineering.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...ATuAHYvakk6slJhttps://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...ATuAHYvakk6slJ







Somewhere there may be a rotogravure image of an autogyro landing on the Ambassador Hotel's lawn. (Or maybe it was a seaplane taking off from their Lido Beach? :drowning:)
http://haferaviation.files.wordpress...12_n.jpg?w=300http://haferaviation.files.wordpress...12_n.jpg?w=300

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps83d05a87.jpg (phptobucket)

Mayor Fletcher Bowron at a Nisei festival in Little Tokyo, 1940, Los Angeles, California.