There are some wonderful Hugo Ballin murals in the Burbank Post Office.

Yes. That's the one. My mother told a story about one of Mr. White's family members sitting outside with a .22 and shooting gophers in the vacant lot where Petco now is. Sort of like a lethal "whack a mole""

Time for dinner on Catalina Island.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/648aaa9d...6ruo1_1280.jpg
https://78.media.tumblr.com/

If it was actually next to the oak or in the immediate vicinity. it probably washed away since the oak is in the creek bed.

Hey noirishers...

I wrote this almost three years ago. NoirCityDame answered it with a couple segments from the L.A. Times, I wondered if anyone with access to the LAT info could re-create the article posts? (I don't know if that's time consuming or possible, but if so, many thanks if you can.) Unfortunately, the photo that accompanied the post was from eBay. I still think there must be photos somewhere of this event that no one has discovered yet. It was a pretty big deal, I'd say.



P.S.: So many things I seem to ever search for again bring up posts from NoirCityDame. Thumbs up to her. Thumbs down to Photobucket. Or maybe a middle finger.

After Bill ID'd the location, I went searching for landmarks and then found John Marshall HS (in the red box):

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...m.jpg~original

Wow! I'm impressed! I couldn't find JMHS in that photo...and it's my alma mater to boot!

AndyS

DOH! :duh

Aunt Bea Coutour Line, Spring Collection
 

"Gertie and Aunt Molly go to the Hollywood Bowl."

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/OOmbP7.jpg
EBAY

It appears Gertie & Molly came directly from Tom Breneman's Breakfast in Hollywood.



https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/MvuYqK.jpg
Breakfast in Hollywood

_

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/2967/aabft1947.jpghttp://imageshack.us/a/img542/2967/aabft1947.jpg




As noted :previous: the structure currently occupied by a Honda dealer was clearly a "Dodge Bros." dealership in October 1925. Dodge Bros. was acquired by Chrysler three years later, in 1928.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1536&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1536&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2048&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2048&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2560&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2560&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll65/id/24349



A (relatively) recent NLA post concerned Los Angeles' "pioneering" of environmentally friendly light colored road pavement. LA was apparently in the vanguard of rubberized asphalt too. Some sources, e.g., Wiki, claim Phoenix pioneered the elasticized pavement in "the '60s."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubberized_asphalt
However, the road at or near the Venice-Figueroa intersection was reportedly "rubberized" in 1952. (Although the Dutch apparently pushed the rubberized envelope fifteen years earlier than LA . . . or Phoenix.) A primary benefit is said to have been reduced road noise. Wonder if cars sold and serviced nearby had a certain bounciness? Or perhaps, this translated to the nearby Staples Center and the basketballs dribbled there? Could this somehow led to Fred MacMurray's advent of flubber?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...3_-_Poster.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...3_-_Poster.png

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ice&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...2&DMY=0&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll44/id/90258



http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...0&DMY=0&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...2&DMY=0&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...oll44/id/90286

1926 - looking north on Hoover from Venice Blvd, showing LA Gas Co construction. To the right is what appears to be Triangle Grocery at 1369 Venice Blvd. There is a grocery at that location today. Elena's?

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...0&DMY=0&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...2&DMY=0&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...coll59/id/1100


Hard to ignore the impressive dome/cupola.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...DMY=512&DMTEXT
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1024&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1024&DMTEXT

dangerous gas, dangerous trenches or dangerous workers?

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2048&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=2048&DMTEXT


Acme semaphore traffic signal. One bell per signal or per intersection? http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=27121

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1536&DMTEXThttp://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...MY=1536&DMTEXT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooF9il6DZ-w

I still can't get over this photograph of Scott Charles' grandmother Elva. (with Teddy)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/oSqAzL.jpg
SCOTT CHARLES FAMILY COLLECTION

And as Scott said, Teddy (the dog) was quite famous back in the day.




The publicity shot shown below is from the 1919 comedy short Hearts and Flowers.
It turns up often on the internet but the various bathing beauties are usually left unnamed.

After various googles I found a source that says your lovely grandmother Elva is second from the left. :)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/16LfzK.jpg
SILENT-OLOGY


"Mack Sennett bathing beauties ~ Left to Right: Unknown, possibly Thelma Bates, Elva Diltz, Virginia Fox,
Phyllis Haver, girl behind Phyllis is unidentified, Sybil Seely, Marion Aye next to Phyllis, & Unknown"


Oh, and here is the beach scene from Hearts and Flowers. It's a bit difficult to spot Elva (I looked for her distinctive hat)

• Video Link
__



I'm curious Scott, have you ever heard of your grandmother directing a film?
because in this movieland directory
she's listed as a director :shrug:)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/w9JBv7.jpg
MOVIELAND DIRECTORY


And maybe you knew this already, but the house Elva lived in in 1920 is still standing....and looking rather mysterious. (then again everything looks mysterious to me ;))

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/EOdTfZ.jpg
GSV

Behind the trees on the right; is a little real estate office that was tacked onto the side of the house and extends to the street.
__________

I read that your grandmother was a Sennett bathing beauty for two years (1919-1920), and that she appeared in nine films.

Is that about right?



p.s. If anyone would like to watch Hearts and Flowers in it's entirety....go HERE

I'm not divvying up these 1945 slides by piecemeal on purpose. I keep discovering more and more.

Here is a fantastic night-time view of Vine Street looking south toward Hollywood & Vine.

"Original Slide, 1945 Hollywood CA Street Scene, Plaza Hotel "Blackouts of 1943"


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/1iN8PL.jpgEBAY

embitt scan. :(

At the back about the :20 second mark looks the best match for Elva and the hat.

https://i.imgur.com/OOV5AEI.jpg

Hey, ER, thanks so much for making this post!

I've never heard of Elva being a director before. If I had to guess, I would say that entry is incorrect, due simply to the fact that female directors in Hollywood were as rare as hens teeth at the time. Mabel Normand was a female director who came out of the Sennett studios, but she was also a very big star at the time, not a bit player like my grandmother.

Elva was in a Ben Turpin film in 1921, so we can certainly expand that range to 1919-1921.

Unfortunately, most movie history resources (like IMDB) are vastly incomplete when it comes to the silent era. For example, my grandfather Charlie directed countless silent movies, but IMDB has him listed as working on exactly two movies during all of the 1920s. That's a pretty easy workload for an entire decade! And this was in a time when movies were routinely shot in under a week!

Grandpa Charlie was primarily a Sennett director, yet IMDB lists not a single Sennett credit on his resume. He also shot a number of features for Hal Roach, none of which are mentioned on his IMDB page.

As the records for my grandfather's movies are so utterly incomplete, I have no reason not to suspect that Elva's credits are also just as incomplete. As 90% of the movies made during the silent era have been forever lost, it is reasonable to assume that a similar percentage applies to the careers of my grandparents; I once consulted with silent film historian F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre, and he told me this:

WOW! Thanks so much for this, ER! I never knew that before.

Things like this utterly fascinate me; I'll be sure to drive by and check it out as soon as I can!

Hi, Noir_Noir!

Elva is actually the third from the left in the group photo. Her face is largely obscured in the video screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/ARaNv1c.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AsUqpeE.jpg

Hi there Scott. Apologies, I misread the caption on the publicity picture. So Sporty Elva. If it is her in the hat with the little bobble on top throughout, she gets in a good restart kick and does a fine lift. :)

https://i.imgur.com/qa7GzxJ.jpg

Or am I wrong again? :redface:

Mack Sennett, Hearts and Flowers, 1919
 

(No, you are correct, Noir_Noir - you've got a sharp eye!)

Since we've been discussing the 1919 Mack Sennett feature, Hearts and Flowers, I may as well continue!

One of the most famous Bathing Beauties, Phyllis Haver, is the girl in front; the green arrow points at my grandma Elva.

https://i.imgur.com/bKZhHOw.gif

Elva encircled, the only Beauty who dives, and way ahead of the pack, chasing the girl with the ball:
https://i.imgur.com/QRJjYLC.gif
Elva was quite an athlete, particularly as a swimmer and diver. Her unfulfilled dream was to compete in the Olympics - she was apparently that good.

At one point while still living in Colorado, Elva jumped into a lake and saved a drowning boy. My family always said that the story made the papers, but I'm not sure which one... does anyone know how I might find a copy of this article? Of course, she would have still been Elva Taylor at the time, which would be sometime between her birth (10-13-1901) and before she landed in Hollywood (some time before 1919).

Elva on the left, in front of Haystack Rock:
https://i.imgur.com/F0UdxPN.gif

The extant Haystack Rock on the right, the long-gone Castle Rock in the middle:
https://i.imgur.com/DXvEoML.jpgUSC

Charlie Chaplin at Haystack Rock:
https://i.imgur.com/JFP0Uun.jpgLINK
Haystack Rock on Google Street View

As the story goes, Elva actually got her start in the movies because of her diving ability. Her sister Olive (who was D.W. Griffith's secretary) asked Elva if she wanted to go see a movie being filmed. Elva said yes, so the two of them drove down to the beach.

Some kind of seafaring movie was being shot. The director wanted a girl to jump from the crow's nest of a ship and land in the water. Unfortunately, the sea was rough, making the jump dangerous - if you didn't time your jump perfectly, you would crash into the deck of the ship. Understandably, all of the female actors refused to do it, and the production was stalled. This next image shows how the scene was described to me:

https://i.imgur.com/osfo980.gif

Elva, who by all accounts was quite fearless, marched over to the director and said "Let ME do it! I can do it easy!"

Elva made the jump, the director got his shot, and the rest, as they say, is history. I'd give my right leg to actually see this movie - or to even know its name!

Later there was a scene where the crew abandons ship. There was supposed to have been a rip current, and two male stuntmen drowned. But Elva, with all of her swimming training, survived.

The final Bathing Beauties shot from Hearts and Flowers, on the south side of the Playa Del Rey Pavilion:
https://i.imgur.com/zrA7ePq.gif

Playa Del Rey Pavilion, ca.1908, USC
https://i.imgur.com/N7iOTRT.jpg

Boardwalk in front of Playa Del Rey Pavilion, Del Rey Hotel in the background, right (USC):
https://i.imgur.com/nnX2dCq.jpg

What remains of the Playa Del Rey lagoon, current day, on Google Maps.

We are proud of our beautiful post office, which is very much in use, although not currently Burbank's main post office. That designation was moved to the post office on Hollywood Way, not beautiful and not historic, but bigger and closer to the airport. The old post office on Olive is on the National Register of Historic places. If you look at the current pictures of the front, there is a rectangular plaque on the post to the right which is the National Register plaque.

The house with the dome is still there on Hoover St !! It is located at 1515 Hoover and the county assessor has it listed with an initial build date of 1901. 1515 is listed as a single residence.

There is another one with a dome, two houses down, but that one has a boxy "new" ugliness tacked on the front. The original house, part of which can be seen from the street via googlemobile, has a ground floor curved roof and window on the uphill side, which was probably a dining room in the original house, and the edges of the dome can also be seen on the lower side. This one was built after the upper one at 1515 in 1906. (keeping up with the Joneses?)

The house below that one, next to the cleaners building in the 1920's street repair picture is also still there, but covered by a square "New" front, containing more apartments no doubt. A peek of that one can also be seen from the street, down the upper side. Buried but not dead! The whole neighborhood is studded with hidden jems.

:previous:

Thanks for the followup OS. The cubist structure at 1519 Hoover Street - to the left of the 1515 Hoover Street -victorian, is or was a church.

https://i3.ypcdn.com/blob/7f61bfd928...0x260_crop.jpg


You are right about the gems. Worth noting (or re-noting) is the Alvarado Terrance Historical District. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvara...toric_District

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6317
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6353


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Terrace%29.jpg