.

https://i.postimg.cc/xC59v5F2/WSQSIr...t1-USETHIS.jpg


RE:..The business card with the school desk.


"The wooden one-arm chair was a characteristic feature of the “quick lunch” type of eating place which became the popular choice for businessmen around the turn of the last century. The chairs were unattractive and uncomfortable but considering that prior to their introduction patrons seeking a speedy lunch often ate while standing at a counter, they offered relative luxury. Solitary seating made sense in a café where businesspeople usually came in alone and spent little more than 10 or 15 minutes at their meal before rushing back to the office or store."

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/n7B6HN.jpg
https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory...ne-arm-joints/


I don't believe this is a 'Globe Dairy Lunch' spot but it's interesting to see the arm-chairs in situ. (pun intended)

.

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A mystery street.

35mm negative listed on eBay.

1940s LOS ANGELES street scene classic cars - 35mm Film NEGATIVE

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/AbHLQC.jpg
eBay

I can't decide if that's a civic building or a hospital in the distance.

note the wig-wag.

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Another mystery street. This time in living color.



1950's Woman with Ford Thunderbird in California, Orig. Kodachrome Slide

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/O8LF9o.jpg
eBay

I love the different shades of blue in this photograph.

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Is anyone in the mood for another mystery street?..I thought so!



1949 Lincoln Car, Los Angeles Area California, mid 1950's Kodachrome 2 Slides

#1
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/lS7ynM.jpg
eBay

A closer look at the business down the street.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/tKGXTD.jpg
Detail






And here's the same wrecked car looking in the opposite direction.

#2
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/8OMBjH.jpg
eBay

Good luck! :superwhip

.

I believe the not-so-hot-rod Lincoln is parked in front of 1328 N. Elm Ave in Long Beach. The two apartment buildings across the street and a bit north remain today. Major clue was the backside of the Glenn E. Thomas Dodge dealership that then fronted on Long Beach Blvd. née American Ave. The license plate dates the photo to c1956.

Our Fair Lady is standing in front of 1005 E. Green St. in Pasadena at the corner of Catalina Ave. With the exception of the wood frame structure on Catalina Ave. a bit north of Green St., all of the structures shown remain. Alas, the T-Bird probably doesn't, ditto the 1953 (I think) Hudson Hornet. Again, license plates date this photo to c1956.

That karate school with the distinctive plastic backlit sign we saw on Sepulveda was built by Ed Parker, the kenpo karate trainer who opened the first commercial karate studio in America and taught Elvis Presley martial arts.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--qeArB5DN...Bwest%2Bla.jpg
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pZl8ZK9db.../west%2Bla.jpg
http://kenponotes.blogspot.com/2015/
https://blackbeltmag.com/media-libra...=0%2C0%2C0%2C0
https://blackbeltmag.com/ed-parker-a...n-kenpo-master
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...88133087_z.jpg
https://www.facebook.com/edparkersr/...2086490228750/
There were additional schools, including the one at 1705 Walnut Street in Pasadena which has been closed for some time, but remains for the moment.
https://americankenpokarate.net/wp-c...npo-Karate.jpghttps://americankenpokarate.net/2019...na-california/
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...091292dd_n.jpg
GSV

What's going on with the lighting arrangement here? It looks like a continuous
florescent tube that lines the ceiling.

:previous:

And what about the blurred out customers and employee? I thought that only happened on Google Street View. Or are they ghosts?

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JMR, the figures are blurred because they moved while the camera shutter was open for a long exposure.


Now, about that baptismal font.

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:previous:

e_r, I believe that's a spittoon on a column. Here's a more elegant version:

https://i.postimg.cc/j2K4cQmK/Spittoon.jpg
eBay

Elevated spittoons/cuspidors of this sort are most familiar from dentist's offices--"Rinse, and spit!"--though I'd say it has been twenty or thirty years since I've seen one in use in a dentist's office. I used to find the sound of the swirling water to be soothing (but of course the kind in the lunch room didn't have running water in it).

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Thanks for figuring out the recent mystery locations, HenryHuntington...I appreciate it. :)
_____________________________________________________





I didn't know Pioneer Pigeon Chicken had a mascot. (who, for some reason, looks very Italian)


Doug Davis Photo, "Pioneer Takeout" Los Angeles, 1969

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/g86Dhm.jpg
eBay


If I were the advertising agency I might have gone with a. . . .PIONEER! .. :duh

.

:previous:

We've seen the Italian guy before, but not in such good detail. I identified the addresses here.

Question...

Does anyone know if this is a legit ad from back when phone numbers had letters?

And were they really advertising "dance lessons?" :haha:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6c54a224_b.jpg
Source unknown

Oh, I think so. Also notice the phone number is made up of two letters and only four numbers. This has to be from the late forties-early fifties. Our first phone (in Hollywood) was a Gladstone exchange (GL) with four digits following. About 1948-9. And my best guess is it is dance lessons. The vice squad read news papers.

I preferred Pioneer Chicken to KFC.

If it was more than dance lessons, who cares if everybody is happy?

Yeah, it was crispy. KFC back then had mushy crust, not crispy at all, and the chicken at KFC often seemed undercooked.

Pioneer chicken, Pioneer pizza, Pioneer liquor all in the same block! That paisano had all the bases covered.

___


sopas, here's their ad (bottom) amongst those of some competitors. It was apparently a "thing" in 1941.

https://i.postimg.cc/wM24mTF6/2523-W...-1941-6-15.jpg
LA Times, 6/15/1941.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

I was curious to know the full word for the "FI" exchange, and apparently it was "Fitzroy."

Link: Old Telephone Exchange Names Los Angeles County

Exchange Names
 

Names on telephone numbers were puzzling for sure, I had a girlfriend that moved to the Valley, she had two numbers beginning with STate and STanley. Why, well one was for a toll call for dialing from L.A. the other was not a toll call. The list says for downtown LA showed MA was MAin but it also was MAdison, I called regular to that number as it was a line that circumvented the switchboard at City Hall (Michigan-5211, later Michigan 4-5211).

He identified himself as Pioneer Pete in TV commercials. I *think* it was some kind of foam rubber Sid & Marty Krofft type costume.

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Thanks for digging up the old photograph of the three Pioneer businesses all in a row, Hoss. I had forgotten all about Pioneer Pizza. That explains the Italian Chef mascot!


......................................................................This didn't age well.

• Video Link


_____________________________






I could use some help in figuring out the locations of the following 4 aerial images that were recently listed on eBay

The seller only mentions the Stillwell Hotel (it's in #3) . There's a key (without much information) at the bottom of the post.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/lG5Zly.jpg


Hmm. I think I am going to go LARGER.

Let's start over.


#1
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/lG5Zly.jpg
eBay

umm. .too large?

I'm going to switch back to 1280 x 1054.





#2
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/VVUU4h.jpg
eBay










#3
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/kjJILW.jpg
eBay






#4
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/tfmmQ6.jpg
eBay

If anyone wants to see the last two images extra-LARGE let me know.


Here's that before mentioned key.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/BBwFzf.jpg
eBay



Good Luck! .............(no whip. I'm feeling nice)


.

When I was a kid in NoHo I recall our phone number started with PO, which was called "POplar" like the tree. When you gave your phone number, you would say "Poplar 12345", or just PO 12345, and people knew it was just PO representing the first two numbers. Poplar, or those numbers with P O (=76 on the phone dialer), meant North Hollywood, or part if it. It was OK, because you just had to remember 5 numbers instead of 7 when someone gave you their number. The PO you would remember.

Slide 2 is backwards. It shows Century City (C. Plaza on left) and Westwood skyline and SM Mountains from maybe the 1980s before some of the newer buildings. Looks reversed or mirror imaged. Maybe I had too much wine. It just doesn't look right. Flip it around. Ocean is on the wrong side. I can see the Barrington Plaza on the right in the distance, and it should be on the left like the ocean from this viewpoint looking north towards the mountains from Cent. City.

:previous:

The image is mirrored! Thanks, CaliNative, that's why I was having trouble recognizing the location. Here's an approximation of the same view today:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...nturyCity1.jpg
Google Maps

This is the easy one: looking southwest on Main Street from 2nd Street. St Vibiana's is in the foreground.

OJ and I agree - Pioneer was good fried chicken! :tup:

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Thanks for all your help guys.


Here is #2 flipped and corrected.


#2
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/wSzkfV.jpg

Ta Dah!




. . .and Hoss' image again for easy comparison.

I spy Bruce Willis.






https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/3...922/L92DQS.jpg
doogiehorner

^^^

Yes, when I first saw that slide image I thought, that's the Century Plaza, but it can't be 1981 (stated on the key below) if the Century City Mall isn't there yet. Then I realized it was reversed!


Something to look forward to:
The key says "I have a bunch so check back often."

The Stillwell Hotel pinpointed this one. We're looking roughly east from near Olympic and Grand. Here's my "now" approximation:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...ADowntown1.jpg
Google Maps

Hmmm. Hoss finding the Olympic and Grand location (above posting) makes me reconsider a thought I discarded before.

There was a Parnelli Jones Firestone at 1013 W. Olympic:

https://i.postimg.cc/SNPstVjk/Olympi...t-6-2-2015.jpg
LA City Environmental Site Planning Document dated 6/2/2015

Looking at the site today helps not one iota:

https://i.postimg.cc/zGRBmWRW/Parnel...5-WOlympic.jpg
gsv

So maybe the Parnelli Jones Firestone at the center of the to-be-identified pic is at 1013 W. Olympic?

:shrug:

I treasure the mini Pioneer Pete in my collection, who once graced the counter of some long-gone Pioneer Take-Out outlet. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9dfcef00_b.jpg
The most famous of those dynamic (rip-off McDonald's) Pioneers was the triple-arched store at 7290 Sunset Blvd. (1966, George Jelks)
https://losangelesexplorersguild.fil...set_ruscha.jpg
Photo by Ed Ruscha and featured in his seminal Every Building on the Sunset Strip. Courtesy of The Getty Research Institute’s 12 Sunsets project via Los Angeles Explorers Guild
https://losangelesexplorersguild.com...chicken-stand/

https://live.staticflickr.com/1578/2...601bd817_b.jpg
1974 photo by Richard Longstreth, seen in the book Road Trip (Universe Publishing, 2015) via Flickr/Heather David
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/24299463473

Here is an earlier version at 1716 N. Western (1964, Joyce Miller)
https://psyne.co/wp-content/uploads/...dth-1200px.png
https://psyne.co/pioneer-chicken/

You have it odinthor, although as you say, there's nothing left there to confirm it. Here's part of a 1974 Dick Whittington photo. The diagonal street is Olympic. I think that the open area in the top-right of the original image was a parking lot for the conference center. I don't think any of the buildings in e_r's image still exist. They've been cleared for the construction of the Staples Center, LA Live and associated hotels.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...orOlympic1.jpg
USC Digital Library

.


Good sleuthing odinthor. :worship:... I don't believe I could have figured it out.

That's downright depressing.

Thanks for your help, Hoss.

.

There is, or recently was, this remnant of the Parnelli Jones Firestone that operated at 1013 W. Olympic.

The framework of the old Firestone sign was still there last May.

JustTires were making use of it in 2009 and HealthCare Partners in later years but it's been an empty shell for three years.


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

:previous:

1101 W. Olympic has been altered, but the slope of the roof looks the same. Another candidate for the NLA clubhouse, perhaps.

The picture titled " 1716 N. Western (1964, Joyce Miller)" I believe is from the early 70's. The cars appear to be more from that era

Cheers Hoss. Maybe ER was trying to make it more of a challenge by reversing the image. But the Century Plaza and Westwood skyline are unmistakable to a UCLA alum, even if reversed.

Been a very rough week, lost my mother last Saturday. She was almost 102. She was born on Christmas Day, 1920. Wilson was still President. She remembered the 1920s. Very few left who do. Why I love the 1920s. She had lots of memories, even though she was a kid. I love you mom and will miss you terribly, but I will remember you and your stories of the "Roaring 20s" and the "Dirty 30s", and may share them soon so your memories are not forgotten.

Sincerest condolences CaliNative.

So sorry, Cali. My mother was born in 1920 as well and died in 2000. She moved here as a small child and grew up across the street from Echo Park. One of my most cherished possessions is a letter she wrote to her travelling salesman dad about riding out the 1932 earthquake. Its great your mom had a chance to share her stories with you. We can honor them by sharing their stories with others. Take care.

Pioneer Chicken and the Egyptian Theater, playing They Only Kill Their Masters,
at Hollywood Blvd. & McCadden Place, 1973.

The film opened in November, 1972. So an early 1973 date with Christmas decorations could be correct.

https://www.hollywoodphotographs.com...KDHeh5g6oo.jpg

I'm gonna guess 1984 due to the Olympic logo on the sign.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...s_logo.svg.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics

An odd thing about that photo is that the Pinto station wagon is obviously photoshopped into the pic. Weird.

Thank you, Hoss and the others with kind words. In the end she was in pain, so at least she is free. But I can't believe she is gone, but almost 102 years is a long mostly happy life and she saw so many things. From the Roaring Twenties to the Internet Age. She used a tablet computer until her eyes no longer allowed it and her mind began to fade. She enjoyed life until the last few months. A good long life well lived.

Thank you

.

:previous:
I wonder if people tried to smuggle chicken into the Egyptian? Nothing like fried chicken, fries, later popcorn, candy and a movie. The ushers were probably told to look for food smugglers, since theaters made most of their profits from the food stand out front.

The street side of the Egyptian is so ordinary and modest. Unless you knew, nobody would suspect a big and famous premier movie palace was there. The Chinese Theater doesn't hide it. Grand even on the street.

Did they premier the 1963 Taylor/Burton film "Cleopatra" at the Egyptian? That film almost bankrupted the studio that produced it...was it MGM? Can't recall.

Another Taylor/ Burton film from that period is much better..."The Sandpiper". Still worth watching. Set in Big Sur, and filmed there. Tells the story of a private school master and minister, Burton, who has an affair with a bohemian artist (Taylor) who has her son enrolled in the school, and all the consequences that ensue. Really captures the mid 1960s feel, in the transition era from the beats to the hippies. A good film.

An even better film with the two is 1967's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?", based on an Albee play. Liz is fantastic as Martha, a foul mouthed tenured English Professor's wife in constant real/mock/play battle with her boozing hubby George (Burton) over issues in their long marriage. You can't say George is the henpecked victim, because he can inflict as well as receive pain. In many respects this is Taylor's best acting performance, and Burton shows his acting chops as well. Personally I like the Sandpaper just as much, maybe more. The Big Sur setting is gorgeous and the story is gripping. Watch them both.

"Cleopatra" is just a big sprawling cesspool of a film. Rex Harrison doing Julius Caesar with a British accent and British aplomb and reserve is a hoot. Never do you believe for one moment this is Julius Caesar. I almost expect Caesar to blurt out "The Rain in Spain", and Aubrey Hepburn who starred with Rex in "My Fair Lady" might have made a more bewitching Cleopatra than Liz. And come to think of it, Burton as Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) is unconvincing, just going through the motions. The whole film straddles the camp boundary. The 1930s Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert is better, and mercifully much shorter. You don't feel like you've just wasted 4 hours of your life.

I would like to add my condolences to CaliNative on the passing of your mother.


A photo from pinterest.com....


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds

A dapper young fellow and his '65 Ford Galaxie, apparently purchased at Jim Fisk Ford, which was at Manchester Blvd. and Florence Ave. in Inglewood.


I tried enlarging to read the street name, no luck it's just too blurry....our best clue is the Pronto Market sign....this was the chain's Downey location....

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...720&fit=bounds


I could not turn up a list of all Pronto locations, but in addition to Downey I found references to stores in Pacific Palisades, South Pasadena, Culver City, West Covina, and Garden Grove.  


I'd never heard of the store, turns out they were started by Rexall Drugs as a competitor to 7-Eleven, and were the predecessor to Trader Joe's....excerpt from a history of Trader Joe's....


"Although Trader Joe's was not officially founded until 1967, its origins can be traced back to the Pronto Markets chain of food stores that were started in the late 1950s. Pronto Markets was initiated by the Rexall Drug Co. in 1958. The venture reflected the intent of Rexall, an operator of a chain of drugstores, to get in on the burgeoning convenience and corner food-stand market. Rexall appointed Joe Coulombe to head up the new division. Coulombe was only 26 years old at the time and had been with Rexall for only three years. Nevertheless, his managers were impressed with his performance and believed that he could handle the job. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Coulombe managed to build Pronto into a chain with a considerable presence in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Despite its expansion, Pronto was experiencing growing profit pressures by the mid-1960s as a result of increased competition. Southland Corp.'s successful 7-Eleven chain, in particular, was bearing down on smaller competitors like Pronto and was even planning an aggressive expansion in Pronto's region. Rexall elected in 1966 to jettison its Pronto Markets division and escape the convenience store industry. Coulombe, still at the helm, was faced with a choice--attempt a buyout of the chain that he had built and remain as chief executive, or bail out and look for a new niche in the retail industry. Coulombe took an extended Caribbean vacation before deciding to stick with Pronto. With the financial backing of Bank of America, he purchased Pronto from Rexall and went to work.

Coulombe knew when he bought Pronto that the strategy he had used to grow the business in the past would be ineffective in the face of growing competition. 7-Eleven was targeting his customers, and his organization lacked the resources to compete with the national chain. The ever-innovative Coulombe considered two prevalent social trends as he devised a new marketing scheme. First of all, consumers were becoming increasingly educated and sophisticated, and were expecting more from their shopping experiences. Secondly, the surge in global travel, made possible by plummeting jumbo-jet airfares, was exposing Americans to new foods. Coulombe decided to develop a food store at which well-educated, well-traveled, but not necessarily wealthy, people could buy foods that would impress themselves and their friends. "I wanted to appeal to the well-educated and people who were traveling more," he explained in the October 2, 1989 issue of Forbes, "like teachers, engineers and public administrators. Nobody was taking care of them." Coulombe opened the first Trader Joe's outlet in South Pasadena in 1967--the rest of the Pronto chain would soon become transformed into other Trader Joe's outlets."

:previous: Thank you Riich and thank you Hoss for your condolence message. I tried to reply but not sure if it went through. Anyway, I enjoy your posts here. I will try to post her stories and memories here and on my modest 1920s/30s blog as I get more time. Cheers.