Exclusive for NLA!

For those who can't get enough of the Hotel Virginia, here are Hotel Virginia pix from the secret files of the odinthor collection, not published on my site.

https://s26.postimg.org/awip79g6h/Hot_VLob1001.jpg


https://s26.postimg.org/5l3smk1tl/Hot_VLob2001.jpg


https://s26.postimg.org/vtexbz3xl/Hot_VBall001.jpg


For the following two, I tamed down the too-garish colors of the primitivist-tending originals . . .


https://s26.postimg.org/8ryc68jpl/Hot_VGar1001.jpg


https://s26.postimg.org/wvp3ulf21/Hot_VGar2001.jpg
all images from the odinthor collection.

Wowsa! Book me a room:yes:

Has anyone confronted this guy? One of the reasons I don't come around much anymore is because a couple of years ago one of the (then) regulars got in the habit of simply poaching things directly from my Flickr account, sometimes within thirty minutes of me putting the image up and posting it over here as something he had discovered. It got old and I decided I'd mosey along. Sounds suspiciously like the same guy. I don't have a Facebook account so can't really go look at this page.

No room at this :previous: Inn?

In 1915, it might have been worth traveling south to Del Mar, to visit the newly constructed (1910) Stratford Inn (and an area known for Torrey Pines). The "Inn" later became the Hotel Del Mar in '26, and stuck around for another five decades. https://www.laubergedelmar.com/resor...-hotel-history


https://www.laubergedelmar.com/asset...y-masthead.jpghttps://www.laubergedelmar.com/asset...y-masthead.jpg



Stratford Inn, circa 1915
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...27a825b802.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...27a825b802.jpg



Another alternative - without the beachfront? Head northeast to the Hollywood Hotel. Perhaps the good folk at the Virginia will call ahead.

1915, Hollywood Hotel
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...9d46dd8663.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...9d46dd8663.jpg



http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...0036fd04a5.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...4a5.jpghttp://

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=40475

Not wanting to create a big stink on the FB page, I think I've managed to make it clear that some are on to the poster's m.o. by pointing out the original NLA source. In all fairness, the FB page is all about surface (as is all of FB), which attracts people just passing time--no one on FB really wants research or thought of any depth, just pretty pictures--which, it must be said, is one way of appreciating a subject, a legitimate one, that has its place. When I look at the FB arch pages, though, I can really appreciate the value of NLA, which seems made up of actual brilliant amateur researchers, if not officially of professional caliber. Wonderfully quirky individuals too. Artists of a sort. One can't help but be protective. Ok, back to research trenches....

PS-- I may have missed it, but has NLA actually gotten beyond annual tributes to the BD? Has she joined the cliché status of city hall or the Hollywood sign?

Yeah, I was surprised (mildly) that she didn't show up this year. I pruned our rose bushes on her anniversary as a commemoration (at Larry Harnisch's suggestion). I don't do it every year. Sometimes I forget.

Tributes to Brent Dickerson are always welcome, but never encouraged.

In 1935, the "library/art museum" said to have been designed in 1920, appeared like this. Wonder what kind of crowds it drew then. :hmmm:
Fortunately, not much has changed except for the size of the collections and . . . the crowd.
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...9920f2a9b6.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...9920f2a9b6.jpg



http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...37609ad7e7.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...37609ad7e7.jpg

Hi all.

I received a couple requests this past week. If anyone has some spare time this weekend

#1________________________________________________________________________

Hello Mr. reality,

Did I really just say that?

Forgive me for being comical.

I am new to the forum and I am looking for assistance with photographs of the Aliso Manufactured Gas Plant.

Are you aware of sources for photographs of Aliso manufacture gas plant in operation? Or really any photographs inside or out

in and around the Aliso MGP between 1864 and 1950.

Any help or contacts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

#2__________________________________________________________________________



Can you help me find old photos of 4236 Griffin Ave in Los Angeles

We’re trying to restore the site of an old signal gas station but we would like to restore it to its original Art Deco style

and your thread seem to be the authority when it comes to L.A. history any help would be greatly appreciated.

my name is Fred
_______________________________________________________________

thanks in advance fellow noirishers. :)

Cue the orchestra. Structure in foreground is clearly magical :previous:.


1915
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...093020a419.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...093020a419.jpg




1915, Berhnheimer residence aka, Yamashiro's.
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...61f09625bc.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...61f09625bc.jpg




1934 - Bernheimer Residence
http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...1fb19c3a31.jpghttp://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/files/ori...1fb19c3a31.jpg

See LAPL... L.A. Residences-Bunker Hill item A-004-109.18 for a crumbly rooftop view which I i.d.ed for the sadly departed Carol Kozo Cole about 10 years ago-- Must've been taken from the Briggs not long before it's razing. The old Daily News (c. 1952 ?) image also over at UCLA Young Library.

Cohen House
 

I was once again browsing through Calisphere pictures and fell into another rabbit hole.

Here are two photographs, part of the architect S. Charles Lee papers in the Special Collections department at UCLA. They are labelled "Cohen House, Los Angeles, street view" and "Cohen House, Los Angeles, entry view...Hancock Park." So we can assume Mr. Lee was the architect for Mr. Cohen's house, and the house was in Hancock Park.
https://i.imgur.com/FIRS3C0.jpg
calisphere.org

https://i.imgur.com/73OqAAQ.jpg
calisphere.org

Could it be found, did it survive?

The architect's name is familiar to the regulars here. tovangar2 made a excellent post about him two years ago here.

Per Wikipedia's article on Lee:

"Simeon Charles Levi was born in Chicago in 1899 to American-born parents of German-Jewish ancestry, Julius and Hattie (Stiller) Levi. He grew up going to vaudeville theatres, nickelodeons,and early movie houses...In 1922, Lee moved to Los Angeles. His first major movie palace was the Tower Theatre, a Spanish-Romanesque-Moorish design that launched a career that would make Lee the principal designer of motion picture theaters in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s. He is credited with designing over 400 theaters throughout California and Mexico. His palatial and Baroque Los Angeles Theatre (1931) is regarded by many architectural historians as the finest theater building in Los Angeles.

Lee was an early proponent of Art Deco and Moderne style theaters, including Fresno's Tower Theatre. The Bruin Theater (1937) and Academy Theatre (1939) are among his most characteristic. The latter, located in Inglewood, California, is a prime example of Lee's successful response to the automobile. After World War II, Lee recognized that the grand theater building had become a thing of the past, and began to focus on new technologies in industrial architecture."

OK so back to the task of locating the Cohen house. Google was spectacularly unhelpful, even including "-Mickey" in the search field. (Mickey never lived in Hancock Park.) The only hit I found was in a book called "The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater" by Maggie Valentine. She is speaking of Lee's work:

https://i.imgur.com/pEQo08n.jpg
google books

But, no address is given.

So I decided to look through the (many) Cohens in the 1929 LA city directory and use the Googlemobile to examine addresses which might be suspicious for Hancock Park locations. About halfway through, I found the following:
https://i.imgur.com/EuMBU3I.jpg
ancestry.com

And here is what's at 619 S June in 2011:

https://i.imgur.com/Im8at8F.jpg
GSV

and here it's under construction last September (they added a wine cellar and elevator):
https://i.imgur.com/uO8O3ju.jpg
GSV

I hate that they got rid of the asymmetrical flagging on the driveway, the theme had been carried all the way up to the entrance.

That this is the right building is seen on the 1927 building permit,
blurrily showing M. M. Cohen as the owner and S. Charles Lee as the architect.
https://i.imgur.com/cY9WQXc.jpg
LADBS

So who was M. M. Cohen? There is a Wikipedia entry for "Maury Cohen" which, in the way of Wikipedia, conflates the stories of two different people. Our Cohen, the June street resident, was Maurice Mair Cohen (1889-1949). Born in Moscow, he moved to Chicago before his first birthday. He started out in clothing and furniture businesses both in Chicago and here. He became a producer at Poverty Row in the 1930s, moved to Beverly Hills, and co-founded the Palladium in 1940 with Norman Chandler's money, it was said. He died of a heart ailment at Cedars of Lebanon in September, 1949. Lee and Cohen may have known each other in Chicago before each made it big. In any case I am happy the house is still there, even if it needed a wine cellar and elevator to survive.

I have a request....as many pics of the grand old Richfield Oil Co. tower (built in the 1920s) in DTLA as can be posted. Loved that old building from my youth. Torn down in 1968/69 to make way for the construction of ARCO twin towers. I still remember the grand spire shaped like an oil derrick lit up at night. Something to behold. Would love to see some nightime pics with the spire lit up. The only building almost as grand is the blue Eastern Columbia, which fortunately is still there.

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;8052481]We have visited the Laguna Beach Victor Hugo several times in the past; here's a slide to add to the collection.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/LCybsB.jpg
ebay

"Laguna Beach California Rare 1950s Victor Hugo Inn Los Angeles - original slide"

When I was a kid in the 1950s and early 1960s my family used to vacation in Laguna Beach every summer. There used to be a long haired older man they called "the greeter" who would stand on the sidewalk and wave to the tourists. Today he would look like just another homeless person, but back then he was a tourist attraction. Any pictures of "the greeter"? Up in L.A. around the same years, there was a similar eccentric long haired man named "Gypsy Boots", who I believe roamed around Venice Beach and was known as a health food advocate.

[QUOTE=CaliNative;8054034]1975....there were several greeters, he was not the only one.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6...697ea91970c-pi
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6...697ea91970c-pi

I agree, that's dreadful. I require my fainting couch.

I almost didn't recognize the back of the old Huntington residence(European Art) with all the foliage on it. Other than that, looks pretty much the same now. Why yes, I've got lots of current pictures.

BillinGlendaleCA I almost didn't recognize the back of the old Huntington residence(European Art) with all the foliage on it. Other than that, looks pretty much the same now.

.Same view circa 2017.... greenery stripped from the facade of the grandiose 1919 Georgian mansion....once the home of Henry and Arabella Huntington in San Marino... it now masquerades as an art museum.
The various former domestic rooms are now ''art galleries''. When I first visited the place I opened a few closed-off doors to see where the old bathrooms, closets and kitchens were located. Alas, they had all been transformed into storerooms and repositories for cleaning supplies. The vast complex has 475 employees, is spotless and well provided for with a billion dollar endowment.

The divorced Henry acquired a colossal fortune when he married [ in 1913] his second wife Arabella Huntington, his patrimonial uncle's widow and they set about to furnish their palatial new home with far and away the greatest collection of 18th-century British portraits ever assembled by any one man on earth. Of course money was no object. For the record, one might say wife number two, Arabella, could be called Mrs. Huntington-Huntington. :rolleyes:

In 2018, Mr. Huntington might not recognize San Marino the little town [13K people] that he helped found in 1913. There is not a single home in the city under one million dollars [median price is $3 million ] and the population is 46% Chinese...multimillionaire refugees from Hong Kong and other Asian countries.

You might ask, how do these Chinese immigrants pay for their San Marino homes? They usually pay in gold bars....I know this from my experience with them.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b3/16/f9/b...san-marino.jpghttps://img1.exportersindia.com/prod...3-3426212.jpeg
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b3/16/f9/b...san-marino.jpg

I first posted about Simons Brick Co back in 2015 - you can see that post here. It contains links to a couple of previous mentions, and tovangar2 also posted a follow-up here. The last line of my posts says "By 1932, the Simons Brick Co had moved their main office to 1195 S Boyle Avenue." That gave me a rough location for the building below. These three pictures are a selection from a set of interior and exterior shots taken in 1931.

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

A closer look at the entrance.

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

And one of the images of the interior.

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

All from USC Digital Library

Here's the office building on the northwest corner of the central intersection (E 8th Street and Boyle Avenue). The brick factory is in the top left. It's a detail from Flight ID: C-1930, Frame: 76, Date: December 17, 1931.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original
mil.library.ucsb.edu

Although the site of the office building was just south of the freeway, it looks like it was probably lost when the freeway was built. Today, it's just a small parking lot.

A couple of blocks south, I spotted the 1927 Sears, Roebuck & Co building on E 9th Street (now E Olympic Boulevard). They had the foresight to put a sign on the roof (although not the type favored by e_r!).

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...5.jpg~original
mil.library.ucsb.edu