SkyscraperPage Forum - noirish Los Angeles

Viewing Page 586 of 3005

SkyscraperPage Forum (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/index.php)

- Found City Photos (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23)

- - noirish Los Angeles (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170279)

Los Angeles County Poor Farm (Downey, Ca)

The Rancho Los Amigos Hospital began in the late 1880's as the Los Angeles County Poor Farm located in downey, Ca. The plans and construction of the hospital began in 1887. The hospital opened it's doors to serve the public in 1888. the name was changed to "Rancho Los Amigos" In 1932. The south side of the hospital campus is closed down, but you can visit it, its the size of a small town. There are claims on the internet that it is haunted.
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...psad979381.jpgphoto-tumblr
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps013660f7.jpgphoto-flickr
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...pscad10d87.jpgphoto-flickr
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps27f46a81.gifphoto-usc
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps000171c2.jpgphoto-flickr
inside the auditorium http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa27b803.jpgphoto-flickr
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, or Rancho, dates back to 1888 when indigent patients from the Los Angeles County Hospital were relocated to what was then known as the Los Angeles County Poor Farm Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy

Are all of those people being treated in iron lungs?? I wonder whether that was business as usual at that hospital or was the picture taken during a polio epidemic? Scary stuff.

Music Video Locations

Quote:

Originally Posted by alester young (Post 5979963)

I have recently discovered this brilliant site and have for the last month been working through the thread (I am currently on page 290). The mixity of architecture and social history is compelling -it's a form of travel that can't be bought at the travel agents.

My initial interest in L.A. urban architecture/ history was from having read Raymond Chandler's books in my late teens and early twenties. It has been facinating to see what Bunker Hill was really like. In some ways Chandler probably was a catalyst in Bunker Hill's downfall -the popularity of his books maybe concretised the area's poor image as crook town. Although the area was lost, it may have taken the pressure off Downtown and led to the survival of some of the wonderful Beaux Arts and Art Deco buildings there.

I don't know whether this has yet been covered in the thread, but L.A. locations frequently crop in music videos:

Pico/ Union -West Pico Boulevard between S Hampshire and Downey Avenue in Massive Attack's Unfinished Symphony. Filmed c. 1990 -1993? The street scene looks much more animated than on current Google Maps.

??? First Street Bridge (1:48 on) in Beastie Boys Sabotage. If not First Street Bridge it looks like one of the Los Angeles river bridges. Any ideas? In the video there are also shots of a motel (unidentified) and also a building with interesting green art deco reliefs. White building at start = city hall? The music might not be to everyone's tastes, but the video shows a fair bit of L.A.

Interestingly, I haven't been able to find any location credits on the internet.

I like the distressed old 1980s Ford Crown Victoria!!! Not quite in the same league as a classic as Lucille Ball's Caddy earlier in the thread. In time, maybe?

Hi alester young, I'm glad you like the site.

Please put up some links if you want me to look.

Massive Attack: Unfinished Symphony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI

I think you meant S New Hampshire to Dewey.

Beastie Boys: Sabotage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0leF4x9SXJs
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...914%2520PM.jpg
youtube

Looks like double-decker 7th St Bridge to me
http://blogdowntown.com/2011/09/6393...seventh-street

P.S.
For fans of the Alexandria Hotel:
Hanson: This Time Around (just turn the sound off)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_dJhtspu4
has some OK shots of the Palm Court/Tiffany glass and the mezzanine (the Mezz) ceiling.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F...721%2520PM.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-n...924%2520PM.jpg
youtube

Video Static features notable music video locations:
http://www.videostatic.com/vs/2012/1...ria-hotel.html

And, of course, the grand-daddy of 'em all:
Randy Newman: I Love LA (leave the sound on)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcADqxnQA_4
Now, 25 or 30 years on, somewhat historic:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...021%2520PM.jpg
youtube

KCET used to sign off with I Love LA every night.

Music Location Clips

I think you meant S New Hampshire to Dewey.

Beastie Boys: Sabotage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0leF4x9SXJs
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...914%2520PM.jpg
youtube

Looks like double-decker 7th St Bridge to me
http://blogdowntown.com/2011/09/6393...seventh-street

Many thanks for that, Tovangar2.

You are right, I did rather mangle those addresses. Apologies.

Re: "Sabotage" video -mystery solved. The Seventh Street Bridge was a suspect. However, not being from L.A., I find it hard to distinguish between these pre WW2 bridges and couldn't make up my mind whether it was the First Street or Seventh Street Bridge. Have subsequently come across Sopas' brilliant piece on the Los Angeles River bridges.

I have heard that there is some controversy about these bridges and that some are to be/ have been taken down and replaced. Is the Seventh Street Bridge one of these?

For modern noir, Christopher Nolan 's Memento (2001) is also well worth checking out, featuring the Travel Inn at 7254 Foothill Boulevard, Tujunga (renamed in the film as the Discount Inn) and The Hill Crest Inn near Nordoff/Sepulveda Boulevard at North Hills (Renamed the Mount Crest Inn in the film). These places are like the spiritual successors of some of the rooming hotels of Bunker Hill of old. An interesting film -L.A. locations, Australian actor for main character and Brit Director (Nolan) and Soundtrack Composer (David Julyan).

I am loving Teddy's (Joe Pantoliano)'s Chevy Caprice, altho' Leonard Shelby's "acquired" Jaguar XK8 convertible is the star of the film.

I haven't embedded photos as I am not sure of the copyright positon.

Cheers

Alester

Welcome to the thread, Alester. Always nice to add another civil voice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5980332)

The only mention I could find of a possible match was the Don Antonio Feliz Manor House here: http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=123 (fourth to last paragraph) which was supposedly demolished in 1921. (this is just a guess - where'd you get the photo?))

All images are from LAPL. Knowing more about the original collection might provide more history, but except for the skimpy source notes indicating Griffith Park, these images could easily be music video stand-ins from Amador County or Spahn Ranch. :no:

Last image by H Schultheis, probably has nothing to do with Griffith other than its nearby location and the fact that it is dated (1937). It looks well constructed and very livable. Notably, it sports an orb that could have been sourced from one of your favorite street lights - when no one was looking!

"View of the old brick building at Griffith Park."
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics01/00010256.jpg

"View of a little brick house whose entrance and windows are sealed, and showing structural damage."
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics01/00010215.jpg

1937 - "A brick building on Vermont Avenue [on Mt. Hollywood] on the way to Griffith Park." Herman J. Schultheis Collection

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00098/00098462.jpg

Spahn Ranch, Chatsworth.

1960
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics31/00050486.jpg

1968 (Edit: Photo misidentified as Spahn Ranch, and should be identified as Barker Ranch.)
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018711.jpg Lapl

1971
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081693.jpg Lapl

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5980630)

Spahn Ranch, Chatsworth.

1968
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018711.jpg Lapl

Unless I'm mistaken, your second image is the Barker Ranch out on the desert (another of the Manson hideouts) rather than the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by austlar1 (Post 5980457)

Are all of those people being treated in iron lungs?? I wonder whether that was business as usual at that hospital or was the picture taken during a polio epidemic? Scary stuff.

Sci Fi meets Noir.

From the looks of things, this hospital was the end of an iron lung assembly line. Probably enough room to secrete a Los Angeles Art Organ and all its pipes.

"Nurses in a ward at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital attend their new patients on March 12, 1949" "The end of the journey. Mrs. Nelson safely reaches Rancho Los Amigos Hospital on March 14, 1949"

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics44/00056927.jpg

"This is the specially-equipped baggage car of Southern Pacific Starlight train in which two polio patients in iron lungs were brought here from San Jose on August 31, 1954."

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics41/00055409.jpg

"From her iron lung in a Des Moines hospital, 11-year-old Darlene sends a plea to Los Angeles on March 9, 1949, for help to locate her missing father, Harry T. Belieu, 43, who is believed to be in this city. The girl was stricken with polio three months ago and her father doesn't know that she is critically ill. The March of Dimes is assisting in this effort. Here a nurse presents her with a birthday cake."

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics41/00055329.jpg

All from LAPL

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 5980644)

Unless I'm mistaken, your second image is the Barker Ranch out on the desert (another of the Manson hideouts) rather than the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth.

Thanks for the correction.

I have limited personal topographic knowledge of the area. Lapl's notes identify image as Spahn. However, to your point, other sources identify same image as Barker, strongly suggesting LAPL's image is misidentified. :shrug: FWIW, sources state Spahn was approximately 500 acres. Almost enough room to conceal Judge Crater, abandoned Griffith Park structures, the 645 Hill Street Kodak Building and the Richfield Building - without much notice. :no: :no: :no:

Barker Aerial
http://www.nathansonweb.com/blog/CM-...h-aerial-a.jpg
http://www.nathansonweb.com/blog/?p=369

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5926187)

The very noirish tale of Walburga "Dolly" Oesterreich...(1880-1961). Dolly was the wife of Fred Oesterreich a wealthy textile manufacturer. While living in Milwaukee Dolly met 17-year-old Otto Sanhuber around 1913. They quickly became lovers, but Fred was becoming suspicious. Rather than quit the affair, Dolly talked Otto into moving into her attic. This appealed to Otto since he did not have to go far to see his lover and he could write pulp fiction (which she typed up and he was able to sell). There was a few times Fred almost caught Otto but the system worked well.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028944.jpgLAPL
Photo shows the fine brick mansion Mr. and Mrs. Oesterreich moved into in 1914. The house located at 593 Newport Avenue was the 3rd and last Milwaukee home purchased by the Oesterreich's. Once again, Sanhuber slipped into an attic hiding place. This is the place Otto testified, had a nice attic with stairway, plastered walls and hardwood floors.

The Oesterreich's moved to Los Angeles in 1918. Dolly chose a house with an attic which was apparently rare in Los Angeles. She sent Otto out to Los Angeles first to await her in the attic.

On August 22, 1922, Otto overheard an argument between Fred and Dolly. Fearing for her life Otto grabbed two .25 caliber pistols and rushed downstairs. In the ensuing fight Fred was shot and killed. Dolly figured the best way out of this mess was to make it look like a botched robbery. Otto took Fred's diamond watch and locked Dolly in the closet and tossed the key aside. He then ran up to his attic. The police suspected Dolly of the killing but couldn't explain how she was locked in the closet. They never suspected Otto living in the attic. Murder charges were dismissed in 1923.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028932.jpgLAPL
Photo shows Mrs. Walburga Oesterreich at a party at her home on the afternoon of August 22, 1922. That night her husband, Fred Oesterreich, was slain.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028968.jpgLAPL
Otto's secret room.

Apparently after the killing Otto went to Canada, changing his name to Walter Klein. Dolly became involved with her attorney, Herman Shapiro. In 1930 after an argument, Shapiro went to the police and told them about Otto Sanhuber's involvement in the killing of Fred.

In the meantime Otto had moved back to Los Angeles and was arrested and tried for the crime. Problem was the statute of limitations had a run out and he was freed.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028950.jpgLAPL
Detective Lieutenant Arthur Stoll points to a blueprint of the Oesterreich house. Arrow shows the attic on both sides of the trunk room.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028941.jpgLAPL
Shown is a page from the grand jury confession of Otto Sanhuber.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028928.jpgLAPL
Otto Sanhuber is shown standing in front of a rose bush. Sanhuber considers his past as a "ghost of the garrets" and now goes by the name of Walter Klein. Pictured with him is his wife, Mrs. Matilda Klein.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028966.jpgLAPL
Photo shows Otto Sanhuber as he turns his face to the sunshine and a new life of freedom. Sanhuber was convicted of manslaughter in the slaying of Fred Oesterreich, but the statute of limitations sets his conviction on that charge aside. 1930

Dolly was arrested in 1936 and tried (hadn't the statute of limitations run out?) resulting in a hung jury. She lived the rest of her life in Los Angeles.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028959.jpgLAPL
Mrs. Walburga Oesterreich is seen sitting at the edge of a lounger chair. 1930

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028929.jpgLAPL
Mrs. Walburga Oesterreich and real estate man Ray B. Hedrick are shown taking out a wedding license. 1961. Less than two weeks later she was dead. Her estate went to Hedrick.

The story inspired both a feature film, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, and a made-for-TV movie starring Neil Patrick Harris, The Man in the Attic.

Nice that the photographer cajoled all the players to pose for the same picture. :hmmm:

"Mrs. Oesterreich sits in the middle of her attorneys. Left to right: Attorney Davis, Attorney Willner, Mrs. Oesterreich, Attorney Jerry Geisler, Chief defense counsel; Deputy District Attorney Thomas Russell and Deputy District Attorney James P. Costello. Mrs. Oesterreich is charged with murder in the death of her husband eight years ago at the house where Otto Sanhuber, her secret sweetheart, lived in the attic like a 'batman'." :cop:

1930 (Predating the first Batman comics by 9 years?)
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028163.jpg Lapl

1930 the Bat Whispers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...atwhispers.jpg Wiki

Some stories from today's LA Times:

Quote:

Downtown L.A.'s edgy arts district is neighborhood in transition
The arts district is drawing comparisons to New York's meatpacking district, where trendy shops, restaurants and offices have taken over industrial buildings.

By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2013, 7:30 a.m.

When Gideon Kotzer set out to open a discount electronics store in the mid-1990s, he deliberately chose an old warehouse in the cultural middle of nowhere — the arts district of downtown Los Angeles, which charitably could be called sketchy.

Crazy Gideon's on Traction Avenue became an island of commerce in an area that saw little other retail activity beyond illegal drug sales. The store's remoteness in an otherwise unwelcoming warren of aging brick and concrete industrial buildings was central to Kotzer's business strategy.

"He bought that space with the mind-set that if people would drive to a desolate, faraway neighborhood, they wouldn't want to leave empty-handed," his son Daniel Kotzer said.

Crazy Gideon's has closed, and its formerly shabby space in the 1917 structure is expected to open to the public again this year as an expansive brew pub serving house-made beer with meals. The upgrade is emblematic of changes going on throughout the arts district.

The neighborhood along the Los Angeles River east of downtown's Civic Center is drawing favorable comparisons to New York's meatpacking district, where trendy shops, restaurants, hotels and offices have taken over many industrial buildings that were strictly blue collar for decades.

The transformation has such momentum that some of the neighborhood's biggest supporters expect that it will be difficult to find artists in the arts district in another decade as gentrification drives up rents and pushes low-paid artists to cheaper locales.

But for now, the arts district is in a sweet spot of transition for many. Vegetable wholesalers and furniture makers share streets with top-flight restaurants and front-line technology and entertainment firms. Its walls sport elaborate murals — and foreboding razor wire.

"There are very rough patches," said architect Scott Johnson, who lives in a condominium on Industrial Street. "It's muscular. It's complicated. It's interesting."

Part of the appeal for Johnson, who lived in the meatpacking district in the late 1970s, is the roughness most suburbanites would find off-putting. He calls it "authenticity" in a time when "we're getting bombarded with fake stuff."

The spine of the arts district is Mateo Street, a truck-laden thoroughfare named after early landowner Matthew "Don Mateo" Keller. The district evolved from agricultural uses including Mateo's winery in the mid-1800s to being the city's industrial heart in the early 20th century.

One of the most ambitious private developments of that era was Union Terminal Annex, which was connected by rail to the city's seaport and was the second-largest wholesale terminal in the world. Two of the four large remaining buildings are occupied by clothing manufacturer American Apparel Inc., and the owners are improving and divvying up long-vacant remaining space for other business tenants including the makers of Splendid and Ella Moss apparel.

The advanced age of the neighborhood's buildings worked against the district in recent decades as businesses moved to more modern, efficient industrial properties elsewhere in the region. Those that remained often barricaded themselves behind tall gates and barbed wire as the area gained a reputation for crime and homelessness.

"There were drug addicts and prostitutes on the corner when we started," said restaurateur Yassmin Sarmadi, who began working on French bistro Church & State seven years ago. "Now limousines pull up on a regular basis."

Sarmadi opened her bistro in the former West Coast headquarters of National Biscuit Co., a seven-story factory built in 1925 that was renovated and converted to condos in 2006. She was attracted to the historic nature of the building, she said, and the fact that it was remote from the elite restaurant enclaves of the Westside.

"It was far more exciting for me to be in a place that wasn't already 'there,' so to speak," Sarmadi said.

She lives in the arts district and enjoys the company of artists who are neighbors, but knows that the march of prosperity will make it hard for some of them to stay. It may take 10 more years to become as affluent as once-lowly Venice, Sarmadi said, but gentrification will come.

"I think it's inevitable," she said. "It brings a tear to my eye, but it's also progress."

Guiding change is Tyler Stonebraker, who helps young businesses such as film and television production company Skunk set up shop in old warehouses and factories.

Stonebraker's real estate firm Creative Space caters to creative companies that consider nontraditional offices essential to their identities and part of their appeal to desirable workers in the millennial generation.

"It's part of their brand now," Stonebraker's partner Michael Smith said of the creative firms. "They make up the bleeding edge of early adopters. And they like to be near each other."

Among Creative Space clients is Urban Radish, which Stonebraker calls an "ultra artisanal" gourmet food market set to open in March. Urban Radish is being built inside a metal warehouse on Mateo Street — bedecked with a mural of giant chipmunks — that was last used for glass manufacturing.

Flanking its parking lot is an electric car charging station owned by the market's landlord, Linear City, the developer of Biscuit Company Lofts, where Nabisco once made cookies, and the adjacent Toy Factory Lofts condominiums.

Such developments have drawn numerous entrepreneurs who run small businesses from their units, Stonebraker said. Major corporations including Nike have followed with outposts of their own. The sports apparel retailer rents 8,000 square feet in an old brick building with an exposed bow truss ceiling in the Factory Place Arts Complex. Its offices are made from shipping containers and include an elaborate skateboard park, he said.

Gentrification of that sort has reinvigorated buildings that were otherwise obsolete for most industries, real estate broker Armen Kazaryan of Lee & Associates said. When the arts district loft conversion trend took off in the mid-2000s, landlords realized they could get more rent from tech and design companies than they could from warehouse and manufacturing businesses.

Commercial rents can top $2 per square foot per month and can surpass the prices paid for space in ritzy high-rises visible on the downtown skyline a few blocks away.

The industrial buildings were not originally intended to support many occupants, however, which has led to a chronic shortage of parking in the area, Kazaryan said. One parking space may cost as much as $100 a month to rent. Older buildings often lack air conditioning as well.

"It's one of the hottest, most desirable areas" of Los Angeles, he said, but "it's still got some way to go."

With so many prosperous newcomers making the neighborhood into an urban frontier with hip amenities, some residents are laboring to keep art in the arts district.

Daniel Lahoda, owner of Lala Gallery on Willow Street, works with artists to get them financial support from landlords to paint murals on the sides of buildings. There are now more than 100 murals in the district, he said, including the chipmunks at Urban Radish painted by Belgian graffiti artist Roa.

A mural becomes an identifier for its building and adds creative energy to the neighborhood, Lahoda said. "Otherwise, it's just a collection of run-down warehouses with cool renovated interiors."

Rising rents are putting a strain on local artists, though.

"It's already too pricey for the majority of artists," he said, and some are moving across the river to less trendy Boyle Heights. The monthly rent on his Mateo Street residential loft has risen from about $1.10 a square foot to $1.50 a square foot in the last five years.

"I hope my artist friends can grow with the district," Lahoda said, and he and his girlfriend will try to do the same.

"We will endure the increases as long as we can," he said, "because we love the neighborhood so much."

roger.vincent@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/real...247,full.story

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50fa032d/t...r-20130118/600
LATIMES.COM

Quote:

L.A. imagined: The city that isn't
Imagine the city that would exist today if the best proposals for remedying its ailments had been realized.

By Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell

January 20, 2013

In 1907, Charles Mulford Robinson, pioneering urban theorist, sketched a version of Los Angeles modeled on Baron von Haussmann's Paris. He envisioned wide avenues, broad vistas and open spaces for the increasingly cramped and unplanned metropolis, along with a central park, tree-lined and landscaped river banks and an architecturally unified downtown graced with large plazas and terraced gardens.

"You simply cannot afford to stand still," Robinson told the city officials who'd hired him, or the city's growing population would cause an unacceptable rise "in congestion, in ... discomfort and ugliness, and in paucity of municipal effectiveness."

So began the 100-year-long story of unbuilt Los Angeles, the city that has been repeatedly diagnosed with dystopia and disparaged as a laboratory of urban errors and omissions. Yet, for every ill there has been a solution proposed. Some have been brilliant, others truly abysmal.

PHOTOS: Unbuilt L.A.

It all leads one to ponder the what-if Los Angeles, to imagine the city that would exist today if the best proposals for remedying its ailments had been realized. Los Angeles would now include a ring of thousands of acres of urban and regional parks, a bold, space-age airport, a winged nature center for Griffith Park and hillside housing developments sculpted to the contours of the landscape rather than sitting on graded and terraced scars. We would be living in a very different city.

Take two examples.

The first: In 1925, the Chicago firm of Kelker, De Leuw and Co. was hired to examine the city's transit needs — downtown was already a traffic nightmare — and the engineers returned with a sweeping proposal for 41 miles of subway tunnels and 241 miles of elevated and surface light rail, radiating from the civic center to every corner of the sprawling city. Voters rejected the $133-million plan in a plebiscite. Had they approved it? Who can doubt that L.A. would long ago have had a subway to the sea and, perhaps, a thriving urban core?

The second: 77 years after Kelker and DeLeuw's ill-fated plan for mass transit, architect Steven Holl reconceived the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park. Holl drew a building with a Mobius-strip tower, a glazed main lobby with its own plaza protected by an enormous copper canopy, and a green roof that cascaded to ground level, becoming part of the public park. The Natural History Museum would have become a celebrated landmark, giving a piece of the city that is too often overlooked and neglected a powerful symbol of civic engagement.

Los Angeles has never been able to decide whether it should be a collection of suburbs or a bustling vertical metropolis like Chicago or New York. It has been crippled by regional fragmentation and a weak power structure beholden to developers and petition-wielding residents. The catalog of unbuilt L.A. reveals so much imagination yet so little nerve.

Looking at 100 years of daring dreams need not be merely an exercise in what-if. It can also teach us how the city might still soar, if it could only develop the will to so.

Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell are the co-curators of the A+D Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles show "Never Built: Los Angeles" and the authors of the forthcoming book of the same name. http://www.aplusd.org

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,3249147.story

Quote:

Huell Howser relished role of storyteller
The public TV host kept his illness private because he 'never wanted the story to be about him,' his assistant said. Chapman University will unveil a collection of Howser's show archives and artwork Feb. 8.

By Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2013, 7:18 p.m.

Public television star Huell Howser, who died this month of prostate cancer, did not talk openly about his illness because "he never wanted the story to be about him," his assistant said.

The host of the TV series "California's Gold," which focused on unique and commonplace locales around the state, died Jan. 7 at his home in Palm Springs.

"He was dedicated to doing his job even when he was sick," said Ryan Morris, his assistant of seven years.

Howser had ambitious plans last year for the show that he ended up having to cancel, Morris said. One of those stories would have been on the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, which was booked and canceled several times over the summer because of his illness.

"That was one of the most difficult moments for Huell emotionally," Morris said Thursday. "Huell always wanted to do that story."

Morris said that although Howser never spoke to him specifically about the cancer, he would sometimes have long conversations about mortality and getting older.

After he became sick and was limited to covering stories closer to home, Morris said, Howser picked up a new habit of sweeping the sidewalks of Selma Avenue around his Hollywood office with a straw broom. He used his head shot as a dustpan.

"Huell always had to stay busy," Morris said. "He had a hard time sitting down. By brooming up and down the sidewalk, it was his way of giving back."

By the end of October last year, Howser's declining health kept him from coming into the Hollywood office, and he had become increasingly concerned about his legacy, Morris said.

By the end of November, Howser announced his retirement.

He donated his massive found-art collection, which included pieces of engines and a piece of the old Hollywood sign, to Chapman University in Orange. In addition, he collected memorabilia from his shows over the years.

The school will unveil the Huell Howser's "California's Gold" collection, which includes archives of his shows, during an open house event Feb. 8, said Mary Platt, a university spokeswoman.

The subjects of his shows are expected to attend. Howser also endowed an annual scholarship named after the show.

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,1006957.story

Los Feliz Manor(?)/"Egyptian" House

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5980626)

Last image by H Schultheis, probably has nothing to do with Griffith other than its nearby location and the fact that it is dated (1937). It looks well constructed and very livable. Notably, it sports an orb that could have been sourced from one of your favorite street lights - when no one was looking!

1937 - "A brick building on Vermont Avenue [on Mt. Hollywood] on the way to Griffith Park." Herman J. Schultheis Collection

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00098/00098462.jpg

Thank you for posting the caption on the Griffith Park building. Not much to go on. I sent the photo to Jack Feldman over at the Water and Power Museum. He's out of the country for another 2 or 3 weeks but will check around when he gets back to see if he can identify it. I don't know how to contact anyone at the LAPL.

The Egyptian style house was interesting, particularly the relief over the door:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...627%2520AM.jpg
Herman J. Schultheis Collection

The West got a case of Egypt-mania after boy-king Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in late 1922. It influenced fashion, design (like the original Camel cigarette packet) and most obviously and importantly architecture as we are all well-aware. Egyptian-inspired design blended with French Deco to produce some of our best buildings here.

We even have a tiny "Egyptian" house here in the neighborhood (2050 Glendon Ave at Mississippi)
It could use a pair of palms IMHO:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-V...041%2520AM.jpg
gsv

I thought it was a goner when a light plane crashed into a particularly knarly old palm on that corner a few months back
with a spectacular explosion, but the tree and the houses survived, unlike the pilot.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...901%2520AM.jpg
gsv

All of which gives me the excuse to post a favorite detail from a favorite apartment complex.
I don't know if "Villa La Jolla" (La Jolla at Oympic) was built before or after Central Library:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...801%2520PM.jpg
gsv

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5980868)

The Egyptian style house was interesting, particularly the relief over the door:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00098/00098462.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...627%2520AM.jpg
Herman J. Schultheis Collection

The West got a case of Egypt-mania after boy-king Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in late 1922. It influenced fashion, design (like the original Camel cigarette packet) and most obviously and importantly architecture as we are all well-aware. Egyptian-inspired design blended with French Deco to produce some of our best buildings here.

I noticed the relief but was more transfixed on the fact that building was designed to appear wider at the base than its top. This was as I tried to picture the building inverted so that the white area becomes a real pediment. Is an upside down design connected with King Tut's Curse?

Mindful of your observation, it is noteworthy that the recently depicted Long Beach Theater has a decidedly Beaux-Arts festooned with obelisks. An homage to Place de Concorde, Thebes or Boris Karloff? Suppose one might argue that the orb at the top of the stairwell obelisks is Egyptian rather than French-Beaux Arts? :no:

Notice the globed street lighting near the marquee. :tomato:

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt5k4020wn/hi-res http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7q2nc8fx/hi-res

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...m/65199526.jpg http://www.bible-history.com/archaeo...xor-thebes.jpg

And of course no discussion of the above would be complete without referencing . . . The Sphinx Ranch in Altadena and Sphinx Realty.

1920 - 537 North Fairfax Avenue (Before "death before disco graffiti.)
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics45/00042112.jpg Lapl

1922 - "View of an access road (now Pepper Drive) near New York Drive on Sphinx Ranch in Altadena. A large "T", which has been marked into one of the lower peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena, is visible in the background on the right. The ranch was owned by William Allen, who had spent 23 years in Egypt thereby coming up with the name 'Sphinx.' Allen Avenue, named after William Allen, marked the western boundary of his property." Lapl
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics39/00069047.jpg

1922 - "View of Eaton Canyon on Sphinx Ranch in Altadena. The ranch is owned by William Allen, who bought the land in 1878 and built the house visible on the left. Eaton Canyon lies nestled in the foothills of these San Gabriel Mountains. Originally called 'El Precipicio' by the Spanish settlers because of its steep gorges, it was later named after Judge Benjamin Eaton, who built the first Fair Oaks Ranch House in 1865 not far from Eaton Creek."
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics39/00069039.jpg

1887 - Group portrait at Eaton Canyon.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics39/00069050.jpg

1887 - Allen Family at their Altadena Sphinx Ranch
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics25/00032291.jpg

1893 - Christmas Decorations
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044149.jpg

1898 - Sphinx Ranch Tennis afficionados.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics25/00032290.jpg

1911 -
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics39/00069040.jpg
All from Lapl

View from Los Angeles City Hall, 1951 and now.

Interactive Slider: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...4618.htmlstory

Quote:

Originally Posted by Godzilla (Post 5980044)

Kodak Building - 643 S. Hill (Long gone!)
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics18/00018811.jpg Lapl

Whoa!!!! Never knew about this one.. I love it. So sad to see whats there today.. Does anyone have any more info on it? Like why it was demolished / when? :???:

Quote:

Originally Posted by malumot (Post 5979592)

At first I asked myself.......what is with this guy, busting my balls lately?.....I should respond, point by point......How he's misinterpreting.......misunderstanding. Why, I should just tell him to go pound sand.........

And then I realized.....I would be "arguing on the internet" with the well-known foe everyone knows. Which makes me no better. It's just not worth it.

So I'm droppin' it.

Dear Malumot and GaylordWilshire, please keep on fighting from time to time. It is an entertainment to read that stuff as it adds to the thread more noirish mood than we're used to... liking you both very much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej (Post 5979761)

photo by me...

http://imageshack.us/a/img24/6764/59164487.jpg

So we finally get to see what you look like sopas. You're quite a handsome man.
If I remember correctly the only part of you we've seen before were your calves down in Little Tokyo back in 2010. ;)
__

Excellent photos of the West Coast Theater BifRayRock. And no....Anaheim is not too far south. (if that's what you meant)
__

Viewing Page 586 of 3005