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ethereal_reality Nov 29, 2015 8:37 PM

Here's an interesting slide from the 1970s looking south on N. Main Street toward the Federal Courthouse and City Hall.

On the right is the Brunswig Bldg. (built 1888) and the shorter Garnier Bldg. (built 1883).

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...903/2QHtXf.jpg
eBay

What first caught my eye was that 'old school' bakery cafe in the Garnier Building. I don't recall seeing it before.



close-up
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/Gx9bQp.jpg
detail

:previous: Try as I might, I can't make out the name. (help please)
__





Believe it or not, here are the same two building in the early 2000s. (we've probably seen this photograph before on NLA)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...910/12f4rj.jpg
http://wikimapia.org/6418013/Vickrey.../photo/3781914



And today :): (I tried to line up the google-mobile to match the angle of the vintage slide)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...908/R90gd5.jpg
gsv

__

Great photographs of the Oviatt Building HossC, Noircitydame and CityBoyDoug.
I've always thought the Oviatt was one of the most interesting buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

_

HossC Nov 29, 2015 9:11 PM

:previous:

The sign is for La Esperanza Bakery and Cafe at 507 N Main Street. I found this rather sorry-looking version of their sign on Flickr. The Flickr user has tagged the image as "Downtown Los Angeles", but gives no other information, so it may be from another location.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...nzaBakery1.jpg
cyan79 on Flickr

GatoVerde Nov 29, 2015 9:16 PM

"La Esperanza" is a common name for a bakery. Just a guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7252097)
Here's an interesting slide from the 1970s looking south on N. Main Street toward the Federal Courthouse and City Hall.


close-up
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/Gx9bQp.jpg
detail

:previous: Try as I might, I can't make out the name. (help please)
__


_


CityBoyDoug Nov 29, 2015 9:18 PM

Here's the old Brown Derby interior. You know the one...."Eat In The Hat"....that's shaped like a hat.
It was owned by Bob Cobb, inventor of the Cobb Salad.

I don't think we've seen this one before.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psypmc6zth.jpg
CDfile

:previous:

ethereal_reality Nov 29, 2015 11:17 PM

:previous: Interesting look at the Brown Derby interior CBD. I'd say this was taken not long after it opened in 1926.
__


...another 1970s bus slide.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...907/tLU7wJ.jpg
eBay



note the address is written on the optometrist's sign on the second floor.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...911/DtkQRE.png
detail




same view today.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...910/MS4BNL.jpg
gsv

__

ethereal_reality Nov 29, 2015 11:23 PM

bus noir, 1970s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...911/AFiVD5.jpg
eBay




Here's a better look at the building behind the bus. (the old Burbank Theater on Main Street, seen many times on NLA)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...908/4vhhY9.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

note the Bill's Chicken sign that appears through the window of the bus. (the Rick's sign on the left also appears in the bus slide)

Wild Wooly Beaver. lol ;)

_

Those Who Squirm! Nov 29, 2015 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7252185)

Which serves to remind us that there actually are bus spotting enthusiasts who post and discuss photos of old transit bus models like this GM Flxible Flyer--and include in the background interesting architectural history like this.

tovangar2 Nov 30, 2015 12:02 AM

Washington Gardens
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 7252081)
re: Washington Gardens Park
One of my sources also said it opened in 1887. https://sites.google.com/site/losang...palaces/chutes
__

ALL of the sources say 1887, obviously copied from each other (I was part of that crew too). If it weren't for the 1880 History of LA and your alertness I wouldn't know any better. So three cheers for primary/contemporary sources and fearless leaders :-)

Those Who Squirm! Nov 30, 2015 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GatoVerde (Post 7252114)
"La Esperanza" is a common name for a bakery. Just a guess.

That's exactly what it is, or rather, I mean it was the name of this bakery.

Although the bakery had already existed for many years, it didn't move to 507 N Main until sometime before 1935, based on a photo from that year appearing in William David Estrada's historical study of the neighborhood, The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space
(Link to Google Books page, where the book is available in preview, and you can see the photo in question on page 131. You might need to be logged into your Google account for that to work.)

The last we see of it in the LAPL directories collection is in the 1969 volume:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/613/2...74fcf4_o_d.png

It must have closed a few years later in the early to middle 1970s. When I first took an interest in the neighborhood, around 1980 or so, the sign with the cheerful little baker guy and platter was still there but had become so faded and weathered as to be indecipherable. It was a very sad scene; the main entrance was just a large locked door which, IIRC, didn't even have a knob or handle on the street side, and the entryway was filthy with accumulated dust and dirt. This, especially, was the period when I began thinking of the Plaza neighborhood as California's largest ghost town this side of Bodie.

I'm very glad to have seen what the sign was supposed to look like when it was in business.

Those Who Squirm! Nov 30, 2015 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 7251838)
Where was City Gardens?

This ad doesn't bother to give the address.
I guess everyone knew where it was:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7...3%252520PM.jpg

Would that this were the only reason that the exact addresses of places were omitted. Sometimes there's no address because the compilers of city directories didn't want to bother with the suburbs. I have yet to see any entry for Palms in the older directories that doesn't merely say Palms and leave it at that. This has been the brick wall thwarting my efforts to locate the old Villa Palm Hotel from a century ago.

tovangar2 Nov 30, 2015 1:07 AM

"Eat in the Set"
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug (Post 7252116)

That's gorgeous. Thx CBD!

At the original Derby, shown here, there were a pair of double doors on either side of the cigar counter/cashier, unlike the rebuilt version across the street, which had a centrally-sited, single pair of doors.


P.S.

My question is finally answered re if the Brown Derby interior in "What Price Hollywood?" (1932) is a set or not. The exteriors are real, but, alas, the interior is not. The door and booth end do not match your photo and, even more tellingly, I at last noticed the change in the door as Lowell Sherman ("Maximilian Carey") enters. It goes from multi-paned to single pane (something I should have noticed long ago).

IRL:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...6%252520PM.jpg
youtube clip/an RKO Pathé Picture

Make-believe:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...4%252520PM.jpg
youtube clip/an RKO Pathé Picture

...and are there undercurrents in this film or what? "I'll take vanilla", "Who's your tailor?" LOL, when subtext becomes text.

Flyingwedge Nov 30, 2015 6:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flyingwedge (Post 7245024)
Chapulín is Spanish for Grasshopper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug (Post 7245036)
Grasshopper in Spanish is: Saltamontes

Chapulines, plural for chapulín are small grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium, that are commonly eaten in certain areas of Mexico. The term is specific to Mexico and derives from the Nahuatl word chapolin

Figueroa Street was once known as Grasshopper. I've never seen a 19th-century LA map that uses
Saltamontes for what is now Figueroa; just Chapulín (sometimes spelled phonetically) and Chapules.

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...j.jpg~original
http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/chapul%C3%ADn

westcork Nov 30, 2015 7:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm (Post 7251848)
(Bolding mine)

I'm curious as to why you say the LAPL captions are all wrong. Whether or not it was strictly correct, and based on all I have seen in the last few days, it does seem that many people considered Marchessault to be an eastward extension of Sunset. When looking at the area on HistoricAerials.com, it's surprising how wide and busy Marchessault or East Sunset appears to have been, while it was still open to cars. When you see the Marchessault signs in the Plaza today, you tend to think it was never more than a narrow little byway since the Park people want to emphasize only the Plaza's early bucolic character rather than the way it was in the 1940s and 50s.

Remember also that prior to the Plaza being entirely closed off, driving east on Sunset would take you directly past the Plaza Church on your right, then across Main and straight on into Marchessault. I think the Plaza must have been closed off to cars in the early 1960s, at which time Sunset was rerouted north to the other end of Olvera Street. Today if you walk out of the northern end of Olvera, you end up on the south side of Cesar Chavez, or of course Sunset as it used to be called.

ETA: I absolutely don't mean to challenge or "get at" anybody here; I simply want to know if there's some other issue with their captions that I need to be aware of. Certainly I've noticed some minor inaccuracies with the captions, as well.

I posted the captions if they were correct, and refrained from posting the captions where they were incorrect. I have not been able to locate the original pages at LAPL, and don't recall what was wrong. But I am pretty sure my objections were not related to street names...


Edit
I found the problem
Go to this link
http://www.lapl.org/collections-reso...-photo-archive
Type in a search for 127-SB-0015 and 127-SB-0015
The results will show you a thumbnail of one photo, and when you click on it you get an entirely different photo.

For example this is
dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pueblo/tn/127-SB-0021.jpg
http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pue...27-SB-0021.jpg

And this is
dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pueblo/ws/127-SB-0021.jpg
http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pue...27-SB-0021.jpg

CityBoyDoug Nov 30, 2015 7:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 7252247)
That's gorgeous. Thx CBD!

At the original Derby, shown here, there were a pair of double doors on either side of the cigar counter/cashier, unlike the rebuilt version across the street, which had a centrally-sited, single pair of doors.


P.S.

My question is finally answered re if the Brown Derby interior in "What Price Hollywood?" (1932) is a set or not. The exteriors are real, but, alas, the interior is not. The door and booth end do not match your photo and, even more tellingly, I at last noticed the change in the door as Lowell Sherman ("Maximilian Carey") enters. It goes from multi-paned to single pane (something I should have noticed long ago).

IRL:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...6%252520PM.jpg
youtube clip/an RKO Pathé Picture

Make-believe:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...4%252520PM.jpg
youtube clip/an RKO Pathé Picture

...and are there undercurrents in this film or what? "I'll take vanilla", "Who's your tailor?" LOL, when subtext becomes text.

Here's the famous Cobb Salad....circa...1929. [a la Canter's Fairfax.]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pslthev4lo.jpg
CDFile.CBD

Interesting history of the unique Hollywood dish:

http://kitchenproject.com/history/CobbSalad.htm

Those Who Squirm! Nov 30, 2015 8:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westcork (Post 7252434)
I found the problem
Go to this link
http://www.lapl.org/collections-reso...-photo-archive
Type in a search for 127-SB-0015 and 127-SB-0015
The results will show you a thumbnail of one photo, and when you click on it you get an entirely different photo.

For example this is
dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pueblo/tn/127-SB-0021.jpg
http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pue...27-SB-0021.jpg

And this is
dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pueblo/ws/127-SB-0021.jpg
http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/el_pue...27-SB-0021.jpg

Ah, thank you.

Those Who Squirm! Nov 30, 2015 8:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 7252110)
:previous:

The sign is for La Esperanza Bakery and Cafe at 507 N Main Street. I found this rather sorry-looking version of their sign on Flickr. The Flickr user has tagged the image as "Downtown Los Angeles", but gives no other information, so it may be from another location.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...nzaBakery1.jpg
cyan79 on Flickr

The Estrada book does mention that they had several locations in and around DTLA, but the 507 N Main was the primary one.

HossC Nov 30, 2015 11:04 AM

:previous:

The "E Moreno" on the La Esperanza sign was Ezequiel Moreno. I've had a quick look through the City Directories, and found the following:

I think the first appearance of La Esperanza Bakery is 1929, when they were based at 1430 N Main Street. By 1930, the business is listed at 367 and 1430 N Main Street. The "La Esperanza" name disappears from the CDs during the mid-1930s, but I found listings for bakeries belonging to Albert Moreno (1932) and Ezequiel Moreno (1934 and 1936) at 367 N Main Street. The 1938, 1939 and 1942 CDs all show La Esperanza at 507 N Main Street. The next CD, 1956, has three addresses: 507 N Main Street, 1803 E 103rd Street and 139 S Broadway. Throughout the 1960s, La Esperanza is listed at 507 N Main Street and 2131 N Broadway.

That appears to be where the story ends. The 1973 CD doesn't have a listing for La Esperanza or 507 N Main Street, and 2131 N Broadway is listed as a pharmacy.

tovangar2 Nov 30, 2015 5:09 PM

La Esperanza Bakery, Plaza House
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by HossC (Post 7252110)
:previous:

The sign is for La Esperanza Bakery and Cafe at 507 N Main Street. I found this rather sorry-looking version of their sign on Flickr. The Flickr user has tagged the image as "Downtown Los Angeles", but gives no other information, so it may be from another location.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...nzaBakery1.jpg
cyan79 on Flickr


Going by the awning remnant, etc. I'd guess this is the Plaza House location.

HossC Nov 30, 2015 8:03 PM

In 1959, Julius Shulman photographed these two service stations. The description says they were taken "For United States Steel Corporation, market development division", but gives no other details. This is "Job 2755: Service Stations (Los Angeles, Calif.), 1959".

I haven't been able to find the location of this Shell station. Probably the biggest clue is the "Fifield" sign on the roof above the canopy on the left.

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

This Flying A Service station was easier to track down. Next to the door I could read "37?? S Sepulveda Blvd", and on the right is a street sign for the 3700 block of S Dufresne Court.

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

Both from Getty Research Institute

The view below is from 1948 - the Flying A Service station is the one at top center. The photo above is from 1959, but by 1964, the station was replaced by a squarer design. The croissant-shaped station on the left was redesigned by 1967. There's now a 7-Eleven on the site of the Flying A.

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

GaylordWilshire Nov 30, 2015 9:33 PM

:previous:


"Fifield Manor" was an interim name of the Arcady, now the Wilshire Royale, at 2619 Wilshire (http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html); the top of its north side appears in the photo. The Shell station was at 2500 W Sixth Street at the SW corner of Coronado. At right is a glimpse of the top of the Rampart Apartments, which we've seen before here, at the SW corner of Rampart & Sixth.

James Fifield was an interesting character--sort of an upper-class Aimee McPherson, who presided over the nearby First Congregational Church for many years. Like Amy, he believed in living not humbly like Jesus but well--in his case at 118 Fremont Place. He was a supporter of Joe McCarthy, btw. The Rev Fifield founded the Manor, which was a nursing home once with a location in the Chateau Elysee/Scientology Celebrity "Centre"-- Fifield died in 1977--the 2619 Wilshire Boulevard location lasted until at least the next year.


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