:previous: Thanks tovanger2!

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When I was 5 years old I thought people would drive up those ''roads''. My Uncle set me straight on that...:D :previous:

I can see where a five year old would think that was a road. :) -kids are cute.
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"1950s Kodachrome Slide, Pasadena Calif."

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...910/OrgnNF.jpg
eBay

This is looking east from Los Robles Ave. toward the intersection of E. Colorado Blvd. & Oakland Avenue. What shiny cars!


E. Colorado Boulevard today.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...903/BlK4Ee.jpg
gsv

And now back in wartime Hollywood.


Sailor buddies posing at Hollywood & Vine, 1940s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...911/04umEv.jpg
old file / eBay

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:previous:

This was back in the day before the high quality gloss coat car paints of today. Generally speaking, you don't have to ''wax'' your car in 2015.

The big thing in those days was making sure your dull 1950s car was ''waxed'' and looking spiffy.

Harris Newmark remembers the Lanfranco brothers:

"The Lanfranco brothers—Juan T. and Mateo—came from Genoa, Italy, by way of Lima, Peru and New York, whence they crossed the Plains with James Lick the carpenter later so celebrated, and they were both here in business in 1853; Juan, a small capitalist or petit rentier, living where the Lanfranco Building now stands, opposite the Federal Building, while Mateo kept a grocery store on Main Street, not far from Commercial. In 1854, Juan added to his independence by marrying Señorita Petra Pilar, one of fourteen children of Don José Loreto Sepúlveda, owner of the Palos Verdes rancho; the celebration of the nuptials, in dancing and feasting, lasting five days. It was at that ranch that a great stampede of cattle occurred, due to fright when the pioneer sulky, imported by Juan Lanfranco from San Francisco, and then a strange object, was driven into their midst. About 1861, the first Lanfranco Building was erected. Mateo died on October 4th, 1873, while Juan passed away on May 20th, 1875. His wife died in 1877. A daughter married Walter Maxwell; a second daughter became the wife of Walter S. Moore, for years Chief of the Fire Department; and still another daughter married Arthur Brentano, one of the well-known Paris and New York booksellers."

:previous: Thanks t2...much appreciated. It's great to see a date (1861) of the building I posted earlier this afternoon.
How did you like that 'horse' on top of the building? I thought it was pretty cool.
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:previous: I've been trying to find the street address of Hollywood's 'Famous Door'.*
(perhaps this was discussed, but I searched the thread & didn't find any specific information in terms of location)
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The only info. I found in the directories at lapl was this:

1938 City Directory
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...905/Ao0DJj.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/collections-reso...al-collections

:previous: George McCullen's (whoever that is.....maybe a manager?) home address at 6146 Eleanor, which is just a few hundred feet off of Vine Street.


6146 Eleanor Ave.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...908/pKOpRe.jpg
gsv

So perhaps the 'Famous Door' was somewhere in this general vicinity.
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*I just noticed there are numbers on the Famous Door awning, but they're difficult to read.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...908/JfHAqY.jpg
detail

Is it 813, 815.....615?
I was hoping this little building would show up in some vintage aerials.
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According to this it was on North Vine. I can't make out the number here, but could it be in the 800s, which would put it somewhere near Melrose Avenue?

Lloyd Lane 1924 / Iris Circle 1950
 

More mysteries. Lloyd Lane and Iris circle don't appear on the 1921 Baist map. Both Lloyd Lane and the owners' home (before the 101 got it) were very near to the relocated house. The owners' house was built n 1916.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...3%252520PM.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...2%252520PM.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...1%252520PM.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E...9%252520PM.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8...7%252520PM.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i...1%252520PM.jpg
ladbs / 6801 Iris

The subject properties were/are between Highland and Cahuenga:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5...4%252520PM.jpg
whitleyheights.com

No sign of Lloyd Lane or Iris Circle in 1921:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...5%252520PM.jpg
historicmapworks, 1921, plate 40

2015. Lloyd Lane is gone again:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4...3%252520PM.jpg
google maps

The above doesn't explain what the "D" stands for either.


................................................................


I've always loved that horse :-)

When I was a boy in Pasadena in the '50s all the neighborhood kids would climb up the Chamberlain Street firebreak on the 4th of July. Up there you're looking right down into the Rose Bowl and after dark we'd catch the fireworks show. I went back there a few years ago and now it's fenced off, but you could walk right up onto the firebreak in the '50s.

:previous: That's a great memory J_M_R.
I was born on the Fourth of July, so I especially enjoyed your comment. :)
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I have no clues on the D.D. front but may have worked out why its not showing up in the directories as well as why, though clearly a c. 1924 house, I found no reference to that address in newspapers: It appears to have been moved to the present site in 1950 from a street that was all or partly wiped out in the freeway construction, Lloyd Lane.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...01-10-6-50.jpg building permit records, dated 10-6-1950

It was at 2053 Lloyd Lane. Built for producer Lewis Lewyn in 1924. He married actress Marion Mack the same year.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...53%20lloyd.jpg
building permit record, 3-28-24

Lloyd Ln. was named in honor of Harold Lloyd, in 1924.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...lloyd%20ln.jpg LAT 4-7-24

In 1950 the house had to be moved, because it was in the path of the freeway. Mack & Lewyn had moved long since, like most of the other 20's stars they once called neighbors. http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...loyd%20lan.jpg LAT 5-14-1950


So that's when a couple William and Hazel Farrell got it and moved it to 6801. There's a permit for moving a garage also.

It's a nice house. I love the tile on the stairs.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...908/sE80Ak.png
detail

:previous:

Hoss, do you think this could be the business that belongs to that sign? (long shot guess)

1926 Directory
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/mF7OO4.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/collections-reso...al-collections

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Whitley Heights
 

The 1924 development had a sign, on a smaller scale than "Hollywoodland":

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...8%252520PM.jpg
hollywoodhillshomes

1907. Whitley Heights before it was Whitley Heights:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...4%252520PM.jpg
hollywoodphotographs (altered)

Another thing I found interesting in googling Whitley Heights is I found out where Laughlin Park got its exceedingly ugly gates (the way they open is the ugliest thing about them).

After a ten-year city approval process, Whitley Heights installed seven gates in the early 90s (costing about $350K altogether and were promptly and successfully sued by neighboring residents. LAFD was none to happy with the gates either.

Anyway Laughlin Park bought some of the rejected gates. They're a real eyesore. There used to be lovely, discreet, little painted-wood signs that said, "Private Drive" at the Laughlin Park entrances, which I found sort of classy.

Dozens of neighborhoods have applied to the city to privatize public streets, usually citing high crime and heavy traffic as the excuse. However, the agitating neighborhoods are, of course, the low-crime, low-traffic ones. An instant effect on real estate prices seems to be the real reason. Folks want to be able to say their home is in a "gated community" when it comes time to sell.

Thx NCD for the added info

Famous Door
 

I love this place, the billboard roof is so wonderfully shameless.


The Story of Hollywood, An Illustrated History by Gregory Paul Williams says the Famous Door was on Vine at Willoughby and gives 1936 as its start date. If the address is 813 or 815 Vine, that puts the club closer to Waring (which isn't far).


I'm confused by MartinTurnbull's web page on the Famous Door (CBD's source), as it shows two different buildings.



A not-entirely-successful hommage:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9...0%252520PM.jpg
allmusic

Thanks to Beaudry's recent post, it didn't take me too long to figure out where these pictures were taken, although I think the only word that can be confirmed on Tanner sign is "SIGHTSEEING". The photos are dated May 5, 1952. The London buses were taking part in a 12,000 mile tour of the United States and Canada as part of a "Come to Britain" campaign.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
USC Digital Library

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
USC Digital Library

This detail from another picture in the set shows the British bus drivers making tea for their guests. Note the "Brewing Up Kit" bearing the phrase "Let's have a Cup-a-Char!".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
Detail of picture at USC Digital Library

The last picture in the set is very similar to the one above, so I've omitted it.

For all the public transport enthusiasts out there, the three buses returned to Britain at the end of the tour. After being exhibited for a while, they entered regular service in 1953. From globallink-travel.com:

A plaque carried inside the buses read:-

This bus was driven by London Transport crews through the United States of America from New York to San Francisco and back, and through the Eastern Provinces of Canada - a journey of 12,000 miles - as part of the 'Come to Britain' campaign of the British Travel and Holidays Association, March - August 1952.

The bus on the left of the pictures above, with the license plate LYR 826, was acquired by a bus museum when it retired from service in 1977. In 2012, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the North American tour, the bus was restored to its 1952 appearance. The picture below, along with a load of additional information, can be found at londonbusmuseum.com.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original
Peter Zabek/www.londonbusmuseum.com

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pse89a1769.jpg


Re the Famous Door

It was at 875 N Vine

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...2520AM.bmp.jpg

Also listed in the '38 CD at 875


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...2520AM.bmp.jpg https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...2520AM.bmp.jpg

1948/1964: It doesn't appear obvious in the photo at top, but it seems the building sat at an angle at the SW corner of Vine and Willoughby. Apparently demolished 1967


The picture of Dorothy Lamour may have been taken at a Famous Door here in NY-- there were several locations of it on W 52nd St. There was a tradition of musicians signing a door-- not necessarily the entrance, but an old door set up for the purpose, apparently. Some sources say the LA club also followed this tradition, though.

:previous: Thanks for the clarification GaylordWilshire.

-also thx for posting the vintage aerials.

Thanks to tovangar2 and Noircitydame for your follow-ups on 6801 Iris Circle. I didn't know the house had been moved. Now we just need to find what those initials on the gates stood for :).


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Many of the Julius Shulman photos I'm currently looking through date from the 70s and early-80s, so I was slightly surprised to see that this color image is from 1955. The cars on the left are the only giveaway. It's "Job 1975: Blanchard Lumber Company (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1955".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Getty Research Institute

The building stood at 5360 Lankershim Boulevard. A previous incarnation of the store was posted by e_r back in February, with a follow-up by Wig-Wag:

I found a second 1955 picture of the Blanchard Lumber Co at LAPL. The picture below, dated May 6, 1955, comes with this helpful description:

"Await Grand Opening -- Officials of the Blanchard Lumber Company, 5360 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, look over final plans of the grand opening of their new, ultra modern office and salesroom. Destroyed by fire just one year ago, the new structure, built by Kersey Kinsey Company, utilizes many strikings examples of utility of construction. From left, officials are R.W. Blanchard Jr., R.W. Blanchard Sr., president and founder of the firm in 1911; W.J. Blanchard, in charge of the Burbank yard, and Lemoine Blanchard."

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
LAPL

The fire mentioned in the description above was reported in the May 7, 1954 edition of The San Bernardino County Sun.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...ardLumber3.jpg
www.newspapers.com

The early-50s weren't good for the Blanchard Lumber Company. Their Burbank yard also suffered a fire a year earlier. That one appears to have been the work of 12-year-old boy, as reported in the June 21, 1953 edition of The San Bernardino County Sun.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...ardLumber4.jpg
www.newspapers.com

USC has a series of 12 photos from April 11, 1953 showing buildings on fire and the aftermath at the Blanchard Lumber yard at 150-154 East Angeleno Avenue. Here's one of those images.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original
USC Digital Library

:previous: Very interesting post Hoss!



I happened across this amazing photograph yesterday on eBay.

"1919 Pasadena California Parade rppc Real Photo Postcard"

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...903/Nb8ybI.jpg
eBay

Does anyone recognize this street?




reverse (mentions 48 star flag)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...907/AVp02w.jpg
eBay

:previous: Fell free to decipher the writing on the back. ;)


Here is the link to the photo on eBay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1919-PASADEN...UAAMXQLoZR3Le2

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