Can you spot the Batmobile?
 

posted earlier this evening by 3940dxer
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/LEuYeb.jpg

David, not only have you and Joe Sidore captured the same exact view, you've also captured the indescribable noirish feel of the 1951 photograph.
A certain feeling of loneliness and mystery.



I hope you don't mind (I'm going to be a bit juvenile here), but I just have to see what it looks like in black and white.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...538/voUpGF.jpg
by Joe Sidore via David

Thanks for all your hard work 3940dxer...and a special thanks to your photographer Joe Sidore.

__

3940dxer - amazing set of photos, truly outstanding.

How about these:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...221%2520PM.jpg

In the center, silhouetted against the side of Little Joe's is the distinctively Chinese-styled roof of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, at 925 N. Broadway - red roof still very visible in your modern pics.

In the lower left corner of the image are 3 or 4 tiers of the 5-tiered pagoda entrance of The Golden Pagoda, which is now Hop Louie.

Color me confused
 

I'm afraid I don't understand your meaning. In noirish Los Angeles, nothing remains the same. :???:

Amazing stuff as usual guys, thanks. Can anyone recommend some noirish jazz or music? One of my pleasures in life is reading through this amazing thread and listening to cool/noirish jazz, unfortunately however it's hard to find good stuff lately, I sometimes fear I may have found all the noirish tracks out there. Therefore, can anyone recommend any noirish jazz or music? Since I'm not one to just receive and contribute nothing, here is one of my favorite tracks, enjoy.

http://youtu.be/PoPL7BExSQU

And another...the title is so appropriate
http://youtu.be/r-Dz6KvyNZo

:previous:

My old noirish standby is the theme from Farewell My Lovely (1975)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpIf...pIftdXefsE#t=0

By the way, the whole movie is here. Worth a look if you haven't seen it.

Is this the Capitol Milling building?

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse082c413.jpg

Nice work on part 2 of the view from Lilac Terrace, 3940dxer.

Here are a few more buildings from the New Year's Eve 1951 picture. On the left is the Sentous Block, Hotel Atlantic and Hotel Pacific on N Spring. They were all demolished a long time ago, and the site is now part of the El Pueblo parking lot. For color pictures of these buildings, check out post #15394 by Flyingwedge. Moving right, the trees are in the Plaza with Pico House on the side. The lighter building above Pico House took me a while to find because it's further back than I originally thought. The City Directories list the Los Angeles Warehouse Co at either 310 or 316 Commercial Street (see below). With the rearrangement of the street layout, that site is now on E Temple Street, and has been home to the Edward Roybal Federal Building since 1991. Under the Sentous block on the left are a few buildings on New High Street - more on these below.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...zaPico1951.jpg
Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

The LA Warehouse Co is the light-colored building above the Federal Courthouse on the right. This picture, taken before the freeways, also shows the Baker Block on Main (mentioned numerous times before, e.g. post #4541 by Los Angeles Past), the Plaza and a couple of the Brunswig buildings.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...lisoAerial.jpg
Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

Here's an advert for the Los Angeles Warehouse Co from the 1926 CD.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...seCo1926CD.jpg
LAPL

This is another detail shot for the same pre-freeway picture seen above. The Terminal Annex is in the top left corner. Roughly in the center are the Sentous Block, Hotel Atlantic and Hotel Pacific. The white building with the pointed roof (which I've arrowed) is 618 New High Street. Its light color and pointed roof makes it stand out in the original 1951 view.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...HighStreet.jpg
Detail of picture in USC Digital Library

At last, we have a survivor. Propertyshark.com says that 618 New High Street was built in 1908 and last altered in 1978. I also thought that the building on the right, 612 New High Street, might be a survivor since the upper floor has a similar window layout in the earlier pictures, but various property sites say it was built in 1980. The dark building at the far left on New High Street in the picture above is another survivor. Built in 1890 (propertyshark.com again), 648 New High Street is now the New Battambang Restaurant, although it's not visible in the 1951 view.

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

:previous:

JScott posted this photo last October:

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...pscd2e3585.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/4037/rec/19


It gives you a good view of the Los Angeles Warehouse building

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps163af300.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si...id/4037/rec/19


Taix French Restaurant and Pioneer Truck Company are also nearby.

There's this compilation which seems to have a pretty good noirish feel to it:
http://tinyurl.com/lqhftpl

and there's also this on Spotify (but you have to sign up for Spotify):
https://play.spotify.com/album/0rKJAl8ZqRiEygDDHkQtWO

a bit of music based upon the classic theme of perhaps the greatest movie ever made depicting Los Angeles of the early 1900s, Chinatown, would fit many of the images throughout this thread....

• Video Link


^ I think of that sound score when looking at the old b/w photos of dt taken from the north, showing a rather singular city hall & nearby large gas storage silos, called gasometers, now long gone.....when the center of old LA was sort of bluesy, still a wild west, sad but also full of promise, with both realized & lost dreams too.

1950s, early 1960s LA....when its major industry of moviemaking was still quaint, homespun, more localized...before runaway film production had kicked in....can be seen in this vid. dtla from around 1962 is shown at 2:30. The 110 fwy & other fwys in central LA are featured, with a view of the old atlantic richfield bldg & the now demolished statler hilton hotel off to the side....which decades later would become the wilshire grand hotel, only to be torn down, & now the site of what is being billed as the tallest skyscraper in LA. One can also see the union oil bldg & the still rather new signal oil bldg, now the 1010 wilshire bldg, since converted into an extended stay luxury apt bldg.

• Video Link


another connection to older LA was that such movies were filmed in cinemascope & played at the Cinerama dome in hollwyood.

Let's start the day with a little cup of noir.
 

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5560/...567a66a0_o.jpgBurglary arrest, 1951

April 16, 1951. James Frantz -- suspect.

USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961



https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5579/...405390aa_o.jpgBurglary arrest, 1951 (2)

April 16, 1951. James Frantz -- suspect (not shown); Officer L.S. Strand and Officer F.A. Wraner display some of the recovered loot.

USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3902/...88c8c34a_o.jpgBunco arrest, 1957

7 October 1957. Clinton J. Sovereign, 68, 'investment counselor,' booked on suspicion of grand theft-bunco. Police say he took $16,000 from two women in return for phony oil stock". Okay, I admit it, I love the word 'Bunco' and I'm pretty much going to grab any photo to which its been attached but here we get the bonus of a guy named Clinton J. Sovereign! Clinton J. Sovereign? Jesus, it just doesn't get any better than this, sounds like the Russell Hicks character right out of The Bank Dick. I'm almost not sorry for these two women for giving their money to this guy.

USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5563/...55f60f04_o.jpgKindig arrest, false statements, 1952

29 September 1952. Mrs. Eleanor Kindig arrested for giving false information to Federal Bureau of Investigation. (You mustn't lie to the FBI. That's a rule)

USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961


https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5556/...8ac377ec_o.jpgArrest dope peddler, 1952

9 May 1952. Walter Paul Collins -- 30 years (suspect); LAPD Narcotics Officers S.D. Broadhurst and L.M. Lucarelli.

USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961



https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3853/...75829af2_o.jpgNarcotics Arrest, 1951

7 November 1951. LAPD Narcotics Officer William A. Caskey left, and Guido Penosi and Louis Salerno (Narcotic Peddlers). And a pretty nice Western-Electric 302 over here in the lower left-hand corner.


USC digital archive/Los Angeles Examiner Collection, 1920-1961

Regarding Clinton Jerome Sovereign,

He was born in Illinois in 1888. As late as 1941 he was living in Rockford, Ill and working for a Jilbert and Company in that city. They were investment bankers. In May of 1945, he was sent to San Quentin for Grand Theft, three counts. The handwritten prison records appear to show a sentence of 5 + 5 + 5 Years. This would be five years for each count of grand theft. Given the date of the photo, he must have gotten out early and was right back cheating people again. Part of the records note that he was sent to the hospital on 5-9-1946 with a PP (does this mean parole?)

He lived until 1971 when he died in Los Angeles.

It is noted that his father was also an investment banker in Rockford, Ill. Clinton worked for him early on. His father died prior to 1936, so hopefully he did not see his son head down path to a life of crime.

That's quite a cast of noirish looking character Michael_Ryerson.



booklette 1890s
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/742/UcVrOZ.jpgebay




This is an interesting building. (and it doesn't look familiar to me)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/gTKROD.jpgebay



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/913/Jf9QLb.jpgebay




http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/Qr8eHI.jpgebay

-races at the airport?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/96BSmE.jpg
iauction

__

I did spot that the LA Warehouse Co was across the street from the Taix French restaurant, but forgot to mention it in my post - thanks for reminding me, FredH, and also for finding a much better picture of the building than the one I found.

In the background of that picture, an attractive building in the shadow of one of the smaller gasometers caught my eye.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...aStSchool1.jpg
USC Digital Library

Looking at the Baist maps, I found it was a public school. Being on Amelia Street, it was the Amelia Street School.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...aStSchool2.jpg
www.historicmapworks.com

A quick Google didn't turn up much information, so here are the listings I found in the City Directories for the Amelia Street School. I don't know the streets in the first entry, but after that they all point to roughly the same location. It looks like Amelia Street became N Garey around 1939, even though the north and south sections never meet.

1886-87, "bet Lazart and Weill", principal: Miss Libbie Snyder.
1894, "Amelia near Jackson", principal: Sylvanus A Waldron.
1898, "bet Turner and Jackson", principal: William W Tritt.
1900-01, "Amelia nr Jackson", principal: Mrs Estelle B Smith.
1909 & 1911, "Amelia ne cor Jackson", no principal listed.
1915, "410 Amelia", principal: Mary A Henderson.
1917 & 1918, "410 Amelia", no principal listed.
1921 & 1923, "410 Amelia", no principal listed, now a "Day and Evening" school.
1926, 1927, 1929 & 1932, "410 Amelia", no principal listed.
1936 & 1938, "611 Jackson", principal: Mrs Mabel S Colerick.
1939, as above, although address is also listed as "410 N Garey".
1942, "407 Vignes", no principal listed.

I thought the school was missing from the 1936 CD, but the entry was spelled "Amelia Streeet [sic] School"!

In one of the posts above, MichaelRyerson liked the name Clinton J. Sovereign. I smiled when I saw that one of the Amelia Street School's teachers in 1898 was called Mrs Alice B Sturdy - I wonder if she was.

I don't know when the school closed, but there are no listings after 1942. The site is now occupied by a couple of nondescript buildings with blank walls. A sign on the gate (inset) says that it still belongs to the Los Angeles Unified School District and is now used for their Beyond the Bell after-school program.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...aStSchool3.jpg
Google Earth

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Block was at 220½ S Main. The first appearance I found in the CDs is 1898. The Covenant Mutual Life Association (upstairs window on the right) is also listed at the same address in 1898. Julius Wolter's diamonds, watches and jewelry is listed in the 1894 CD, but at 122 S Main. Here's the IOOF Hall on the 1910 Baist map, in between the Dresden and Santa Vibiana's Cathedral.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...l1910Baist.jpg
www.historicmapworks.com

The building can also be seen on the right of this picture of Saint Vibiana's Cathedral (Saint Mary's Church). USC date this image as circa 1922-1935 - there's only one car, so does the clothing narrow it down?

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

It looks like the old IOOF building had been remodeled and repainted by the time this circa 1960/1970 picture was taken.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...tVibianas2.jpg
USC Digital Library

The site is now a parking lot!

:previous: Thanks for digging up the address and information on the IOOF building HossC

I wondered what this was (circled below) when I first came across the photo.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/6LfwRa.jpgebay


Now I see that it's a statue that stood on St. Vibiana's. It appears in HossC's 1930ish photo of St. Vibiana's,
but by the second photograph (1960-70) it's gone, along with it's companion at the opposite corner of the church.

I'm glad you included the baist map. I've never noticed Werdin Alley before.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...537/MCvwsk.jpg

:previous:

I just checked the later CDs, and realized that the IOOF Hall became the Union Rescue Mission. I'm not sure when the Union Rescue Mission moved in, but USC have images of it dating back to 1939 (there's a reasonably good, zoomable 1940 image here). Here's the remodeled building on December 12, 1959. I think the statue on the cathedral has already gone.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...Rescue1959.jpg
LAPL

It was still standing when this photo was taken in 1990.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...Rescue1990.jpg
LAPL