From the George Mann Archives: La Cienega Restaurant Row
 

Restaurant Row proves plenty noirish as a time travel trip in the footsteps of 3-D photographer George Mann sends us down a research rabbit hole revealing the very dark tale of Peter Fairchild, society portrait painter, restaurateur, and hustler of three doomed generations of oil heirs.

Also featuring assorted brawlers, gangsters and guys what can't hold their liquor.

These two images of Jimmy with his brand new Spyder were found on unprocessed film still in his Leica camera which had survived the crash. The shots were taken by Rolf Wutherich a friend who was riding along with Jimmy on that last day. Notice the Ford wagon with the Spyder's trailer attached, part of the little caravan going up north. Wutherich was an employee of Competition Motors and was acting as his mechanic. He survived the accident and later, when the film was discovered by Dean's family, confirmed having used the Leica at a gas stop. However, I'm not sure these depict Casa de Petrol. The background doesn't seem to be consistent with the larger images of the station. I was able to find a less seriously cropped pic which showed the real estate business in the background to be Rochelle(?) La More Real Estate. Perhaps someone with a 1954-55 business directory can discover the location for this photograph.

No, I wasn't commenting on the Casa Burger photo, only on the two pics of Jimmy (funny how familiar we can get with a celebrity who is dead and has grown into iconic status in our lifetimes.) with the car. Rochelle La More Real Estate would have to have been situated where Casa de Cascade was built. Which is possible. But I'm still not comfortable with the street in the background of those two pics which would have had to be Ventura Boulevard. In these pics it doesn't appear sufficiently wide to be Ventura. Interestingly and tragically, in the photo of the crash scene, you can see a man lying on the ground raised up slightly waiting to be loaded on the gurney. This would have had to be Rolf Wutherich as Dean suffered a broken neck and the driver of the other car, Donald Turnipseed (really) walked away with very minor injuries.

I think maybe the shot of Dean with his Porsche (and what I've read was his own recently purchased white '55 Country Squire) was indeed taken at the Casa de Petrol, or a predecessor station on its site. According to classified ads in 1955 issues of The Valley News, La More Real Estate was at 14325 Ventura Blvd. (The site that shows the ads, http://newspaperarchive.com, wants at least $10 to allow a screenshot, so you'll have to take my word for it or check out one of the issues containing the small ads, such as that of March 3, 1955.) 14325 Ventura is currently the address of A Touch of Romance flower shop, which is in the Casa de Petrol building or on its site. The real estate office must have been in the space between the casas Petrol and Cascade and removed sometime between Dean's fill-up and the Casa de Petrol shots we've seen here that have '59 model cars in them and appear to have no building between filling station and car wash. Btw the first name appears to me to be "Rosalie" rather than "Rochelle."

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1016/lamore.jpgCruiser Blvd

The real estate building sign is a bit clearer here; it is hard to tell exactly where it lay in relation to the Casa de Petrol and Casa de Cascade. Can't find any definitive dates on when exactly they were built.

Thanks G-W, yes, Rosalie looks closer to me too. The resolution I was working with was poor, poor, poor. I was almost guessing. Trick of the light, I guess, where the apparent width of the street is concerned, the addresses you unearthed pretty much establishes this was Casa de Petro.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h152aVMQ0R...Apr08%2305.JPGPalm Springs Automobilist

I can't leave this one alone... here's a jumbo version of an east-facing shot of the gas and wash Casas. It does look like the Cascade may have been built after 1955 and on the La More
building site. And I'll "ventura" to say that the pump islands seen in the Dean shots are the very ones that remain today. Note the pale rectangle between the outer island and the boulevard
in both the vintage shot and the October 2011 Google view below. Notice that in both shots, the pale patch comes fully to the west end of the outer island but stops short of the east end.
Not to put too fine a point on things.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogleSV

I have a subscription to NewspaperArchive.com (for work/research purposes) and thought I'd do a little looking for you, GW. It was being touchy tonight, but I did pull two ads for Rosalie LaMore Real Estate from 1955...

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u..._24_55_p76.jpg Van Nuys Valley News, March 24, 1955, p. 76
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/u..._28_55_p73.jpg Van Nuys Valley News, April 28, 1955, p. 73

:previous:

Was there a dispute about which street the Casa de Petrol faced?

1938
 

My mother went to see John Ford's, "The Hurricane" with Jon Hall in 1938. She said when she walked out of the theater the storm outside was worse than the one on the movie screen.

_______________

No, I don't believe so. The only dispute (and dispute is too strong a word here) was about this being Casa de Petrol at all, given (to my eyes) the street in the background didn't appear (again to my eyes) to be Ventura. I'm very familiar with the area generally although not this gas station. In the old days, we lived in Reseda and shortly after high school I had a chum who worked almost directly across the street at another, competing station, usually on the overnight shift. We (my friends and I) would often stop in and see him while he whiled away the hours, maybe bringing him a burger or maybe just regaling him with exploits he couldn't be part of. He and I later went into the Marine Corps together. But the memory is a funny thing and for all my certainty it is obvious this is Casa de Petrol and that is Ventura Boulevard.

Also see post #1964.



Fascinating.

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/2...tonfactory.jpgLAPL


The LAPL described this factory as being in Owensmouth/Canoga Park; some sources say Van Nuys. The Johnston
company built it in 1913, selling it a year later to the California Organ Co., which two years after that sold it to
the Robert Morton Organ Co. It was on Sherman Way. Anyone know if it might possibly still stand?

No help on the building, although it seems to suggest it was actually situated in Van Nuys rather than Owensmouth/Canoga Park, but a fun read nonetheless,

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jun/01/local/me-organ1

This paper also specifies Van Nuys (about halfway down the page)...

http://www.dailynews.com/centennial/ci_16423843

ETA: It occurred to me that I read a post at the San Fernando Valley Relics FB page recently that discussed Sherman Way at the same time period of your photo, GW. To quote from Keith Mullins on May 4th (on a thread started on May 3rd): "Sherman Way started in the former town of Owensmouth (now Canoga Park) and proceeded east to what is now called Van Nuys blvd, then turned southward to what is now Chandler, then turned east again and ended at San Fernando rd. There was a train rail that ran down the center of it. I used to have a map of SFV, dated 1909, that I found in an attic of an old house near Sherman Way & Reseda. I donated it to the museum at Andres Pico Adobe about 20 years ago. Alot of the major streets had different names. Roscoe was called Sixth St." I also looked in NewspaperArchive.com and found several ads for the Johnston Organ & Piano Manufacturing Co. that note it being on "South Sherman Way" (no address number, however). You might want to post the photo on their FB page, since it is very active and members seem to love solving puzzles about locations in the SFV. Here's the link to the page: http://www.facebook.com/valleyrelics?filter=3

:previous:

Excellent idea, Moxie--that is one popular facebook page, btw. I posted an inquiry. I found one reference to the plant being at "6001 Sherman Way," another in a 1922 city directory to it being at "1 Sherman Way." These seem to be parts of an old numbering system. Let's hope that San Fernanado Valley Relics solves the mystery. Meantime, another view of the building turned up--this time in Robert Morton guise. Still no precise address, but this time the LAPL puts it in Van Nuys, as most sources have it.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL