:previous:

e_r, here's where the Stillwell Hotel was (and is) . . .

https://i.postimg.cc/43ktqqjF/Stillwell1.jpg
LA Times 10/27/1912, via ProQuest, via CSULB Library

As for Mr. Stillwell:

https://i.postimg.cc/153LVYCT/4-2-44.jpg
LA Times 4/2/1944, via ProQuest, via CSULB Library

Man Overboard
After attorney Rex DeGeorge was rescued from his sinking $3.7 million yacht, he was charged, and ultimately found guilty of, insurance fraud. In fact, while DeGeorge’s charges relate to the one yacht, it was the fourth heavily insured yacht he’d lost and part of a string of insurance claims involving stolen art, car wrecks, lost luggage, and brain seizures, earning him a place in the Hall of Shame by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
Years: 1970-99
Location: Kept an office in Beverly Hills
LA mag.

These 2 look familiar, so may be re-posts, but I could not find in a search...


https://i1381.photobucket.com/albums...psnbnqxome.jpg

"Leg, Olympic Blvd."....1949



https://i1381.photobucket.com/albums...psx8zbxwoe.jpg


That big leg looks like the lamp base in "A Christmas Story". Mom broke it, dad tried to glue it together.

I guess Mickey Cohen tried to go legit. Micky Cohen palled around with Bugsy, at least in the film of that name.

I took a date there back in the mid ’80s.

Of all the restaurants I've ever eaten at in my entire life, maybe three of them were downright terrible.

Chin Chin was one of them.

Utterly flavorless food with about a metric ton of added salt to give it some kind of “flavor”. Maybe I went on a bad night, but it was awful. So bad I can remember it over 30 years later.

Later that night, I spoke to my Japanese mom. I told her about my terrible dining experience and she asked me what the name of the restaurant was.

“Chin Chin”, I said.

She practically fell on the floor laughing. When she finally caught her breath I asked her what was so funny.

It turns out that “Chin Chin” is Japanese slang for penis.

A few oldies re The Leg:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2664

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2669



And re Mickey:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6181

Most, if not all, of Cohen's businesses were fronts for his bookmaking operation, as was the paint store where his office was located. Even the Dincara Stock Farm in Burbank was a front, in this case for a casino. The La Brea Club had a crap game upstairs.

While Ben Siegel and Mickey Cohen were friends, there was no question who was the boss. The NY mob backed Siegel, and Cohen was the muscle that eliminated any competitors or threats to Siegel's Trans Continental Wire Service.

"On the other hand, there were a lot of jobs where it was necessary to use violence. For instance, when Benny was first getting set up in Los Angeles, he would command that somebody's head be busted, or more. And you did it because you're expected to without asking any questions...

Naturally I missed Benny. We were real close and he taught me many things. But to be honest with you, his getting knocked in was not a bad break for me. Pretty soon I was running everything out here. The people in the East called on me for all propositions - some of which I wish they had not found me home for."
Mickey Cohen: In My Own Words, Prentice-Hall, publisher

I probably am hallucinating, but there is something odd about this photo of some men playing handball on a roof with a Lyons Van & Storage building and gasometers in the middle distance.

I looked at the CDs for Lyons Van and found:

3600 S Grand
3416 S La Cienega
2808 W Pico
6372 Sta Monica
1950 S Vermont
5555 S Western
9016 Wilshire
1080 N Cahuenga

None of these is near the downtown gasometers. The slum housing fits downtown, though.

Looking more closely:

https://i.imgur.com/sAMal9Z.jpg

where would you put the bottom and the top of the vertical pole on the left? And what is going on with the top of the wall and the bottom of the gasometers? It looks edited. If the photo were more in focus, maybe we could read the signs above and to the right of the Schlitz beer ad...any guesses? The bottom of one on the right looks like it says

M__cos Bar___c__
_____ and __________
"One hour free parking"

^^^^

I think it says "Marcos Barbecue"

Cheers,

Earl

mystery pic.

"Tom Jones Company, San Fernando Bldg. Los Angeles"

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/rBTruZ.jpg
Ebay

The seller describes this photograph as...

"A vintage photo dated 1912 for the Tom Jones Circus company with the strongman in the middle holding three of the members of his troop."

Search as I might...I was unable to find any information..anywhere...on the "Tom Jones Circus Company."

It makes me wonder if the ebay seller made up the story about a Tom Jones Circus Company. :shrug:
____________________________________________________________







Could the four men in the photograph simply be attorneys?

"Halde, Tom Jones & Bednar Attorneys. [1956]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...921/Ydqlp0.jpg
RM 520, Subway Terminal Building at 417 S. Hill.

but this is 44 years after the 1912 photograph so there's that.
_________________________________

I found one of the background buildings at the edge of this undated view of Union Station. It appears to say "Marcus Barbecue". The large building behind it was once (1942) National Van Lines at 447 Commercial Street. Before that it was the Safeway Van & Storage Co Ltd. I think this is the Lyon Van & Storage Co building, quite possibly dating the original photo to mid-40s.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...sBarbecue1.jpg
USC Digital Library

Tom Jones Circus, my foot!
 

Yes, I would say the ebay seller totally made up that story! Here is that same photo at Jo Sports, Inc., which identifies those in
the photo as boxers James J. Jeffries, Johnny Coulon, Abe Attell, and Ad Wolgast.

James J. Jeffries is the "strongman." Johnny Coulon is on Jeffries' shoulders.

The other two guys might very well be Abe Attell and the unfortunate Ad Wolgast, but other photos of them don't compare as
well as those of Jeffries and Coulon.

Thanks so much Flyingwedge!

So the 'Tom Jones Company' was the photographer.

I see that J Sports wants $425.00 dollars for the photo. The Ebay photograph is a real bargain.




Thanks for the information and the illustration odinthor.

Entrance to the Stillwell Hotel [1915]
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...921/KdhWWl.jpg
detail (adjusted), from pano






As a reminder, here is Stillwell's Auto Hotel. (mentioned in odinthor's article)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/pjWnui.jpg
flickr

:previous:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...924/529KVO.jpg



And the None Such was (supposedly) the first cafeteria in Los Angeles. (Charles Stillwell, owner)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/CqdY3Q.jpg
Los Angeles Herald, MAY 8, 1909

:previous: originally posted by odinthor
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...921/U4U5BH.jpg

Refresh my memory folks...have we ever seen a photograph of the None-Such Cafeteria on NLA?
I checked & didn't find any. (of course I might have overlooked it)


_

Good pick up, Hoss_C.

I found a large-scale UCSB aerial from 1941 of the area:

https://i.imgur.com/Jss2kn3.jpg
UCSB aerials

...with the Marco's BBQ and 447 Commercial St building marked in red and purple. I'll go out on a limb and say that the handball players were on the roofs of the buildings in the white circle. (Scroll all the way to the right to see the directions of the gasometers.)

I looked through hundreds of LAT classifieds from 1939 through 1950, but none had Lyon Van and Storage at 447 E. Commercial street.

Alas, e_r, so far, I can't find an image of the None-Such Cafeteria (I have a sidelong "maybe" of the approximate site . . . which isn't very elucidative); but, in seeking, I found some interesting items:

First reference I can find in the Los Angeles Times to a public cafeteria in the city (as opposed to something in a school or other institution) comes 5/16/05:

https://i.postimg.cc/ry1HRFnm/Cafeteria5-16-05.jpg
Los Angeles Times via ProQuest via CSULB Library

Interest in cafeterias seems to have mushroomed about 1907; and, by 1911:

https://i.postimg.cc/PrKFKVkn/Cafeterias.jpg
Los Angeles Times via ProQuest via CSULB Library

Meantime, as to the (former) site of the None-Such Cafeteria, 629 S. Main:

https://i.postimg.cc/HkxvN0pc/629smain.jpg
Los Angeles Times via ProQuest via CSULB Library

Officers Freeman, Deatherage, and Remmerde. Sounds like short story names!

Two mystery slides.



Unidentified house, Los Angeles [Nov. 1979]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...921/v4LOHv.jpg
EBAY (no longer listed)

The name, Mason Dooley, is written on the frame of the slide.






Construction site. [early 1980s]

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/rbfh78.jpg
EBAY (no longer listed)

A Los Angeles Landmark since 1982........................I'm really stumped by this one folks. :shrug:

__

:previous:

This article from 1982 may have the answer to the second mystery.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...LACentrum1.jpg
California Digital Newspaper Collection

Here's the Centrum Building at 3575 Cahuenga Boulevard as it is today.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...LACentrum2.jpg
GSV

Thanks Hoss and Lorendoc.

re: Centrum
It seems a bit odd to use the slogan "A Landmark Since 1982" in 1982. (and before it was built)

Judging by the GSV view they should have gone with "An Eyesore Since 1982".



re: Old House
Ah, so Mason Dooley worked for the City Planning Office. Good to know.

mystery steeple or old oil well?

Despite discussing Chutes Park numerous over the years, I am pretty sure we haven't seen this photograph of the chutes under construction.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/921/1Ywa2L.jpg
old file


The photograph that is most like this one [HERE] doesn't include the triangular wooden object in the left foreground. At first I thought it was the steeple of an old church, but now I am not so sure.



A closer look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/Pb7D0j.jpg
detail

In certain places [lower half], it appears that you can see through it. :shrug: And a bent piece of metal [I-Beam] is leaning against the left side.

Whatever it is, it appears to be in pretty bad shape.
_________

p.s. I remember discussing a church in proximity to the park...but that was the nearby Fiesta Park. wrong park.




Previous posts.


Photographs of Chutes Park can be found HERE

An additional photograph posted by FW can be found HERE

"Bronco Pictures" from Agricultural Park can be found HERE

2,500 sailors dine at Chutes Park. [c.1908] HERE

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/IwHe8d.jpg
californiahistoricalsociety

"WHITE BOY COCKTAIL" What in blazes is that supposed to mean :shrug:

It reminds me of the places, in Los Angeles, that used to be called "The White Spot". Remember those?

__