^^^ At first I thought V.T. might stand for Verree Teasdale (actress married to Adolphe Menjou) ; but there's no resemblance.

The woman above looks more like Norma Shearer with mumps.

Yes, ethereal, the girl in the roadster does remind me of Norma.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FrcKYI1I67...r+New+Year.jpgMGM

But Norma didn't drive herself around town.

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/317...52222F25EC092CGetty Images/Hulton Archive http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/317...52222F25EC092C

The initials on the roadster door--especially the first one--also put me in mind of another Los Angeles babe:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...tiacDeluxe.jpgWarner Bros.
"You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, because you'll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing." And, who could ever forget "Mrs. Biederhoff is distincly middle class!"

Chords to 'SIGN' by Five Man Electrical Band.

D C G
Signs, signs, everywhere signs
D C G
Blockin' up the scenery, messin' my mind
D A
Do this, don't do that
C
Can't you read the signs.




http://a.imageshack.us/img405/3532/l...lopyjourna.jpg
BrerHair on jalopyjournal, probably from ulca archives








http://a.imageshack.us/img405/2391/l...opyjournah.jpg
BrerHair on jalopyjournal. ucla archives

I love Ann Blyth. Or shall I say Veda Pierce? Now you got me started, I've seen the movie like at least 21 times. "With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls."

I'm sure you're right. You can even see the same "Hotel" sign in both photos.

If I was rich, I could spend whole days trying to ID locations in old LA photos. Like the guy who did those books on Keaton and Chaplin filming locations.

In the works
 

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...c8JfejOHTaJY4=medialibrary

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...qjXjUrv2rSAiw=HBO
Kate Winslet: Mildred II

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...Cp2yxM8iBREso=HBO
Evan Rachel Wood: Veda II

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...K7YlOC126bcwA=HBO
"...this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls...."

In production now is the remake. If it's going to be remade, I guess HBO and Kate Winslet are the ones to do it, though I can't imagine it'll ever come close to the original even with them--will it? Hope it's not filmed in Bulgaria rather than on location in L.A.--remember the travesty of the 2006 Black Dahlia? Neither was I a fan of Far from Heaven (2002)--not an "L.A." movie, but one sharing directors with the new Mildred--Todd Haynes. It should be interesting to see a filmed MP set in the novel's Depression background, although it's hard to imagine it being better than the pure noir '40s of the 1945 version.

My goodness. Those are museum pieces. Someone could probably start a decent retirement fund on the $$ those signs would fetch today...

Oh, say it isn't so, a remake? Well at least it'll be on HBO (a station I don't get, incidentally) and I assume it'll more closely follow the novel? I haven't read the novel.

I never saw "Black Dahlia." I did like "Far From Heaven," though; I thought it was a good tribute to Douglas Sirk, hehe but another good Douglas Sirk homage is "Polyester," at least in my opinion.

I know I'm going off topic but a few months ago I saw a movie on DVD which was set in old Los Angeles but was actually shot in South Africa, called "The Fall," which I actually liked but I don't think it did well at the box office. I say this because there was another film which I haven't seen yet, an adaptation of Fante's "Ask the Dust" starring Colin Farrell, which was also shot in South Africa but set on old Bunker Hill in LA.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...OdTkGdeWLG_xg=

Ask the Dust is discussed at some length here, with interesting pictures: http://www.onbunkerhill.org/AsktheDust

The Continental Air Map Company.
The company responsible for many of the wonderful aerials of Los Angeles back in the 1930s.




Below: Their hanger at Long Beach Airport.

http://a.imageshack.us/img153/5360/l...ntalair2ma.jpg
R.T. Gerow Collection / Mark Gerow




Below: Russ Gerow

http://a.imageshack.us/img261/1271/l...ntalrussge.jpg
R.T. Gerow / Mark Gerow






Below: Their offices were located in this building at 114 S. Beaudry.


http://a.imageshack.us/img153/5424/l...ntalairmap.jpg
R.T. Gerow Collection / Mark Gerow






Below: This photo was taken many years later in 1977 (notice how much the plants have grown).

http://a.imageshack.us/img259/5424/l...ntalairmap.jpg
R.T. Gerow Collection / Mark Gerow

Notice the Department of Water and Power building over on Hope Street peeking out in ethereal's 1977 shot.


Continental Air Maps' interesting building is gone, but its wall is still there:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TQ...02308%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View

the site is now a parking lot....funny that they left the retaining wall and entry steps:???: i guess it was cheaper to put in the ramp in lieu of leveling the site. not very efficient having a two tiered parking lot though......

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/...2bf0e511_o.jpg

a few more then and now's of images posted in this thread from the the past


looking south on broadway from 10th street 1962 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/...568b51a2_b.jpg

looking north on hill street between 5th and 6th 1954 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/...d542f237_b.jpg

looking nw at the intersection of broadway place and main street 1953 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4134/...63132cda_b.jpg

looking ne on main street at the intersection of market street 1935 and now, (the flag poles in the now image is where market street once ran)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4136/...05f0efd1_b.jpg

looking east on wilshire across detroit street 1954 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/...1bb19b1f_b.jpg

looking north on gardner across sunset 1948 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4136/...59209e91_b.jpg

looking north on main street from 2nd street 1953 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/...6a9060db_b.jpg

ne corner of wilshire and crescent drive 1940 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4079/...ce2c0cf0_b.jpg

sw corner of wilshire and ridgeley 1939 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4100/...e23f93ab_b.jpg

Could it possibly be that the "architects" (I use the term loosely in connection with the current structure at the sw corner of Wilshire and Ridgeley) actually looked at pictures of Coulters, gone for years, when designing their building? I ask because there is a vague resemblance in the corner and in massing. Or am I dreaming?

GSJ-

I meant to thank you awhile back re: the story of the original southern terminus of Broadway. Fascinating! When I visited Los Angeles in 2009 and went to take a "now" picture of where my mother was walking on Broadway in October, 1936, I had to park just south of Olympic, and I noticed that odd, abandoned alignment immediately. Since then I've always wondered what the story was behind that, and thanks to you, now I know! That really was great.

I was also intrigued by your and ethereal's photos of Wilshire before its widening. I remember reading somewhere that Wilshire was originally laid out as a real four-lane boulevard, but clearly that was not the case.

Anyway, thank you all again for your great contributions! This is undoubtedly the greatest internet thread ever on the subject of L.A. history! :tup:

Actually, it was-- but only if you look at it from when and where Wilshire was originally laid out.

Wilshire originally only extended west from what's now MacArthur Park; it was from there that it was originally a real, true four-lane boulevard; it even had the restriction that no streetcar line would ever "clutter" it. It wasn't until the 1930s that Wilshire was extended eastward through MacArthur Park and into downtown; the trouble was, east of MacArthur Park, the only street that would line up with the Wilshire Blvd. axis was Orange Street, a narrow street that was broken up by city blocks. So they actually had to demolish whole buildings and blocks to extend Wilshire to Grand Avenue; this stretch east of MacArthur Park was always the lackluster part of Wilshire Blvd. and never became the prestige address that it did on the western part. In fact, the downtown section of Wilshire was lined with many surface parking lots well into the 1950s and 1960s.

Here's a picture of the intersection of where Wilshire ends at Grand Ave., looking west, in downtown LA in 1946. The large parking lot in the foreground is now the site of the One Wilshire building.
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics41/00070236.jpg
LAPL

Here's Wilshire Blvd. downtown, looking east to where it ends at Grand Ave. and the One Wilshire Building, in 2006.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...neWilshire.jpg
SpaceMan1's photo from SkyscraperCity

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009289.jpgLAPL
Gaylord's original stretch of Wilshire, west from Westlake Park. From right are the Otis, Earl, and Henderson houses.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics23/00061331.jpgLAPL
And to the east of the park, two houses (including the Shatto residence at right, also seen below) on Orange Street, which became Wilshire in the '20s.

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061756.jpgLAPL
The Shatto house, 1213 Orange/Wilshire. George Shatto once owned Catalina.

Yes, that makes perfect sense now. It was Wilshire immediately west of Westlake Park that I heard was the original wide boulevard. I guess I just assumed the rest of it was built that way, too, and maybe it was to the west, but to the east - yeah, that had to be brutally widened in places...

Those mansions on Orange were extraordinary! I can't recall seeing anything like those pictures before. Thank you for posting them.

-Scott

Speaking of Wilshire Boulevard--we've seen before here a number of shots of the Gaylord Apartments at 3355, including a few from just before completion, but I just came across these from as early as groundbreaking:

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0261.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0262.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0263.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0265.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0266.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/la.../2005-0268.jpgCSL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics14/00026729.jpgLAPL
The completed Gaylor from the grounds of the Ambassador.