Take a look at this sheet music I came across the other day.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...921/9rplvr.jpg
http://songsinthekeyofla.com/post/48...aight-from-the



Something about the photograph has been bugging me.

I can't figure out what this structure is (circled below).

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/wLTI7c.jpg
detail





In an odd sort-a way, it reminds me of the Monsanto House at Disneyland.

June 12, 1957
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/qRTw6N.jpg
http://www.wired.com/2009/06/dayintech_0612/

:previous:

It's the side of the Grand Central Hotel, seen here as it's being demolished in 1957.

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

Here's a view of the front taken on the same day.

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

Bert Rovere's Paris Inn Cafe, 210 East Market St, Los Angeles
 

Someone recently emailed me though my website asking if I'd like to see this item he had from Bert Rovere's Paris Inn Cafe. I told him I'd love to see it and he sent these scans. It appears to be some sort of advertising mailer/flyer - I don't remember seeing anything quite like it. Does anyone lurking in these here Noirish-tinged pages remember seeing this sort of thing?

(I have much larger scans of these if anyone's interested.)

http://www.martinturnbull.com/wp-con...4/DSC00687.jpg

http://www.martinturnbull.com/wp-con...4/DSC00686.jpg

http://www.martinturnbull.com/wp-con...4/DSC00685.jpg

http://www.martinturnbull.com/wp-con...4/DSC00689.jpg

http://www.martinturnbull.com/wp-con...4/DSC00688.jpg

HH, I've had the photo below for quite sometime and always wondered why the description includes "a little Dummey" R.R."

But perhaps in this case it means something entirely different, since the locomotive isn't camouflaged as you described.

I think the author or whoever annotated the photo broadened the meaning of the term just a bit to include all small locomotives operating on city streets. That having been said, the photo's still quite interesting!

:previous: I think you're probably right HH.



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/Vgst9l.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...921/Bc44dt.jpg

:previous: Thanks Hoss! I was waaaay off the mark. lol

At least we can date the sheet music now, 1957.:)
_

'mystery' location.

"Fund-raising car wash, students from Los Angeles High School." [1958]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/pRfepR.jpg
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/21392166951163401/

notice at upper left corner there are some letters on top of the building in the distance.
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I just found this interesting snapshot on eBay.

"Pasadena, after the Rose Parade, 1941."

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/923/QkbStJ.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/fp-0674-Cali...IAAOSw~OVWvPGZ

:previous:note the horizontal Uptown sign in the distance. (did Pasadena have an Uptown Theater?)

I'm glad no one littered. ;)


reverse
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/5AxMu8.jpg

Hi Martin, would your friend be interested in selling this memorabilia? I've spent the last 7 years or so collecting items from not only my Great Uncle's restaurants ( Lucca, Paris Inn, and the Hurricane in San Francisco), but also Joe Musso's place,
"Musso's". Joe was married to my grandma, Emma Rovere, Bert's sister.

I think the text in the upper left corner is part of the sign on the Carnation Building at 5045 Wilshire Boulevard. Due to the west side of the building having the picturesque large white wall with palm trees, I've struggled to find images of the east side. The one below is from 1976.
NB. I've darkened the original image.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
Nick Faitos on Flickr

The 1956 and 1960 CDs list Shelly's Shell service station, owned by Sheldon Goldstein, at 4929 Wilshire Boulevard. Incidentally, most versions of the car wash image that I found crop the left side.

Here's another fancy downtown travel office photographed by Julius Shulman in the late-40s. It's "Job 25: Raymond Loewy, Matson Lines (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1947".
NB. There are 15 images in this set - I've selected five which give a good idea of how the place looked.

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

The company specialized in travel across the Pacific.

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

The interior featured several masks and statues.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original

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

All from Getty Research Institute

The Matson Lines office was located at 533 W 6th Street. This GSV image was harder to get than it should've been because every time I moved the Googlemobile onto W 6th, it jumped to Hope and Wilshire!

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...6.jpg~original
GSV

Founded in 1882, Matson Inc is still in business, although their trans-Pacific liners were retired by the end of the 1970s due to the increase in air travel. Nowadays the business mainly deals with cargo shipments around the Pacific, especially to and from Hawaii. You can read more about Matson's ocean liners at lastoceanliners.com. Here's an advert from 1950 (notice that the fashions are by I Magnin & Co).

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7.jpg~original
eBay

:previous: Great to see the downtown offices of the Matson Line Hoss.

I believe this is the pier where the Matson Lines ships docked.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...921/Cj9n9K.jpg

But I'm not 100% sure, because the website where i found the photograph is defunct.
https://portlaarchives.wordpress.com/

It shows up for a second, then poof. Gone.

:previous: OK, I was right.

Here's the same pier in 1968. This slide is labeled "Matson Line Pier".

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/922/OVU0ve.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Sli...-/401102082037

-no doubt the two slides were taken from a Matson Line ship. -pretty cool huh

(The phone-booth is more modern in this pic, so I'd guess the previous slide is from an earlier date, perhaps the mid-1950s)

"Matson Line Pier in Los Angeles, 1968."
__

It's me again. :)

I believe this is a slide of the ship that's docking in the previous pic. They're from the same eBay seller and both are dated 1968.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/5XyV6O.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Sli...-/401102082035

"Original Slide, Matson Lines Ocean Liner SS Lurline (ex SS Monterey) in 1968."
__

Yes, thanks for posting it! You'd think that someone at the event there would've taken more than this one photo.

I have never understood why people who gather in large groups, whether it be for something like the Rose Parade, or in stadiums for sports games or even movie theaters, just seem to be fine with dropping all of their litter or worse wherever they happen to feel like. I've never done that and I don't recall my parents ever teaching me to behave that way. It just seems common sense that if you wouldn't do it at home that you wouldn't do it anyplace else. Call me :koko:.

Day Trippers

Here's a fine looking group dressed to the nines, arriving in Santa Monica on the Pasadena & Pacific RR, 1896.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/923/ZGoT0E.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SANTA-MONICA...IAAOSwJQdW~c27

I am in awe of the way they're dressed up.

reverse
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...921/jO0buk.jpg
__

'mystery' photograph.


The only information with this photo is "932. S. Hope St., Los Angeles, 1922"

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/WQg97A.jpg
http://lit250v.library.ucla.edu/isla...t/laviews%3A92

Does anyone know what building this is/was?

here's the area today.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/eeABQg.jpg
google_earth
_____________________________




Hoss, thanks for narrowing down the location of the 1958 'car-wash' photo.
I believe you're correct, the tall bldg. is the Carnation building. I tried to find that nice looking apartment behind the fund-raisers on the right, but came up empty.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...923/pRfepR.jpg

I'm guessing it's because everybody knew that after a parade (usually involving lots of horses) it would be followed immediately by a large sweep-up crew.

I happened across this poster from 1964 and the address caught my eye.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/921/13RJm5.jpg
http://www.johnnythompsonmusic.com/m...adhunters.html


It turns out, the address is smack dab in the middle of industrial Vernon.




Here's the old Union Hall building and an aerial.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/RKx64U.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...921/ILzJ5d.jpg
gsv / google_earth

Can you imagine the swarm of cars looking for this place back in 1964.



From the side you get a glimpse of the building's high roof. -a pretty good place for a concert I guess.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/F57xo5.jpg
gsv
__


'Cannibal and the Headhunters' were straight out of Ramona Gardens in East L.A.

Here they are posing with Marvin Gaye.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...922/gmNQ6C.jpg
http://www.johnnythompsonmusic.com/m...adhunters.html


They had a hit called "Land of a Thousand Dances."

I didn't think I had heard of it until I played it on youtube and recognized it immediately.

If you want to hear it, go here.:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiZ6KhlkKrY

__

In the early to 1960s to about 1968 there was a big East LA music scene, later called the The Eastside Sound, with public dances every weekend and sometimes during the week, and bands also appearing at high schools, junior high schools and church halls. The sound was R&B and Soul based, with British Invasion and Doo-Wop thrown in.

The bands and followers were mostly Mexican-American. It was our scene and our sound - I used to go to the dances even though I lived in South Central.

Bands included Thee Midniters, The Premiers, Ronnie and the Pomona Casuals, The Slauson Brothers, Cannibal and the Headhunters, The Blendells, The Jaguars, The Romancers, The Salas Brothers and many others.

Venues include the Montebello Ballroom, Big Union - pictured above, Little Union, St. Alphonsus - the ones I recall, but there are others.

It was a wonderful, vibrant scene, with great music, kids dressed up and going out and dancing.

Cannibal and the Headhunters and The Premiers made it nationally - having charted hits, touring and on television. Thee Midniters were extremely popular, appearing several times every week in various venues and making real money. I remember girls getting their arms and other body parts autographed by Little Wille G, their lead singer.

The scene died out, I think, due to the Vietnam War taking many young men into military service, the rise of Chicano Power, the school walkouts and political consciousness, cultural shifting toward hippies, and teenagers growing up.

Link to Mark Guerrero's page - he was there in bands: http://markguerrero.com/main.php

Here's a link to some show flyers:http://www.markguerrero.com/flyer_12.php

ER, the origins of the term Dummy Line are a bit murky. One apparently derived from the silencing equipment on the steam engines so as not to alarm horses, hence the covering of the locomotive to disguise its reciprocating motion, and the addition of a muffling stack. Most of these locomotives were built before the invention of the superheater, and as a result were a bit quieter than larger, more modern locomotives that came later. Another is timber companies built spur lines along ridges across the south and logged the slopes on either side. These lines were also called dummy lines (because they weren't considered a "real" rail line connecting one community to another.

Regarding the delivery of new locomotives. Narrow gauge locomotives were shipped on flatcars, as were small standard gauge engines. Engines and tender were usually separated and loaded on two separate cars along with any additional parts. Large NG locos were shipped on flatcars broken down into their major components. Large standard gauge locomotives were shipped "dead in train" (no fire in the boiler) with their main rods removed and running at reduced speed. A "Messenger" usually accompanied the loco to lubricate sensitive parts en-route. Perhaps the most famous movement of this type was the Baldwin Locomotive Works 1922 "Prosperity Special" consisting of 24 Locomotives in a single train. See:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussio...php?11,2908024

Note the wooden box protecting the air horn in this photo:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussio...39#msg-3995339

And one more: http://www.trainorders.com/discussio...38#msg-3724938

Cheers,
Jack