Seperated at Birth?
 

Is it just me, or does the photo BifRayRock posted of Gene Tunney look creepily like John Erik Hexum (who met an untimely end that may not have noir, but still icky)?http://imageshack.us/a/img16/6757/geneu.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img716/9892/jonj.jpg
Photo of Gene Tunney http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/180/5248975.page
Photo of Jon Erik Hexum http://pdhexum.tripod.com/sitebuilde...g.w300h372.jpg

Good Food with Jack Dempsy...
 

Companies showering celebrities with luxury items for the promotional value, to keep or to borrow, is nothing new. While we've read about Jack Dempsey's Rolls-Royce and Chrysler Imperial here, and you can find pics of him online driving various other makes as well as vague references to him driving still others including the DuPont, the car he's driving here took me a while to positively identify. Zooming in on the wheel hub I found the fuzzy suggestion that it was the DuPont, a high-end make produced from 1919 to 1931 by an arm of the chemical company (which in the '20s famously owned GM, of which the DuPont car was not part); apparently only 600 were made during those years. I was surprised to find nowhere online identification of the car in these photos featuring Dempsey, but as far as such triumphs go I am happy to say I've managed to nail down the car: It's a 1929 DuPont Model G. And perhaps Jack took delivery of it through E. A. Van Trump, Jr. Inc.:


http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/8301/vantrumpad.jpgLos Angeles Times June 16, 1929


Van Trump would have been in the corner store in the photo below at right, although I see no signage in this shot the LAPL dates as 1929. More significantly, this pair of buildings, similar but not matching, is attributed to Morgan, Walls & Clements. I know it will never be 1929 again, and thank God for that in a about 1,000 ways, but I'd like to have on pikes the heads of those who decided to replace them with what is at the north corner of Wilshire and Oxford today....


http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1...ordmwcpair.jpgLAPL

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/539...re2day1194.jpgGoogleSV

Is that the Stark of Stark's restaurant of fond memory in West Covina? Ate there a lot in the early 70's. All kinds of old-timers from the entertainment business would get up and do bits (mostly songs, some jokes).

Cheers,

Earl

Congratulations GWilshire for finding the make of this car...duPont.!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...psb0362f3c.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps2b60dd4f.jpg

I'm not sure I would park my car there, especially on a rainy day. Does anyone know where this parking lot was located?

http://imageshack.us/a/img338/6469/dsc0236gg.jpg
found on an old cd of mine

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SEASONS

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/8151/aa...losangeles.jpg
EBAY
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Murderer captured!

http://imageshack.us/a/img853/338/aajerry.jpg
ebay

http://imageshack.us/a/img560/9978/aajerry1.jpg
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I also found this article on the murder. It's noir from beginning to end.

http://imageshack.us/a/img690/9189/aajerry2.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img706/2316/aajerry2a.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img560/1917/aajerry2b.jpg
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=6746,6389727

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The Colonial/Coral Sands Hotel/Motel, Hollywood
 

1948:
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Hollywood-Cal...Lehw~~60_3.JPG

1958:
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/CA-HOLLYWOOD-...ZDg~~60_57.JPG
eBay

Now the Coral Sands:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...729%2520PM.jpg
gsv

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a...641%2520PM.jpg
http://coralsands-la.com/

Some things never change, or not much anyway...

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Hollywood-Col...92!~~60_57.JPG

http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...RCU5BK5F57.jpgCSL


That's the Mission Apartments at Olive & 2nd st-- The corner reminds me of a great video we've seen before, always worth another look: A Drive Through Bunker Hill and Downtown Los Angeles, ca. 1940s


Another angle:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068376.jpgLAPL

Thanks GW!

Diamond Bob's 111-year-old Date Palms at the Plaza Hotel, Hollywood
 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/LB...Q=w532-h507-no
google maps

Col Robert Northam, called "Diamond Bob" for his extravagant tastes, made a fortune off real estate in Huntington Beach while working for Abel Stearns.
In 1901 he bought the block bordered by Hollywood, Vine, Selma and what-was-then Cosmo, of the original Hollywood tract, from Philo & Daeida Wilcox Beveridge.
Northam built a Spanish/Moorish home, surrounded by citrus trees and date palms, smack in the center of the block, facing east.
In 1902 he added another parcel, also acquired from the Beveridges, southeast of Vine and Selma where he built a barn and raised horses.
Less than two years later Diamond Bob moved on again, selling his Hollywood property to Jacob Stern (some accounts claim Northam lost the property to Stern in a bet).

Original Wilcox/Beveridge Hollywood tract:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/DM...g=w377-h507-no
hollywoodheritage.org

The original plans for the Northam home were more ambitious that what was actually built. (It was planned for Northam's first wife and finished for his second):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ha...A=w895-h438-no
historicalhuntingtonbeach


Diamond Bob Northam's house with citrus trees and date palms facing Vine, ca 1901-03:
(the palms don't even have trunks yet, they're just sprays of fronds coming out of the ground)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ag...A=w910-h426-no
hollywoodphotos.com

Northam-Stern estate, east front of house.
The palms have gained a bit of height., 1910:
(population of Hollywood: 5,000)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dR...w=w735-h464-no
leapingfrog/eBay

Northam-Stern estate, 1920, showing the great arc of date palms (Hollywood & Vine, upper right):
(population of Hollywood: 100,000)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1...948%2520PM.jpg
hollywoodphotos.com

2012. Compare with the shot immediately above. The site of the remaining palms was at the NE corner of the Northam-Stern house
(The site of the actual house is now a vacant lot. - 2017 UPDATE: it's a parking structure now):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_y...w=w477-h496-no
google maps

Stern meant to keep the estate until retirement, but the crush of commercial development led him to rent his barn in 1913
to filmmakers LL Burns and Harry Revier who, in turn, sublet it later that same year, to Lasky, Goldfish (Goldwyn) and DeMille
of The Lasky Company/Famous Players (the deal was signed at the Alexandria Hotel, drawn up on Alexandria stationary).

DeMille signs on the dotted line for the Lasky Company, 1913:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fl...Q=w494-h467-no
hollywoodheritage

Northham-Stern estate, center left margin.
Famous Players/Paramount stretches along Sunset Blvd, east of Vine.
(including DeMille barn at SE corner, Vine and Selma), pre 1925
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-U...858%2520PM.jpg
hollywoodphotos.com

In 1925, giving up all hope of a quiet life on Vine Street, Stern enthusiastically embraced real estate development
and built the Hollywood Plaza Hotel (Walker & Eisen, 1925) on Vine near Hollywood Blvd, carefully preserving
a stand of Diamond Bob's date palms to enhance an outdoor lounge plaza for guests at the rear of the building,
giving the hotel its name. The plaza was called Patio de las Palmas.

The extremely convenient hotel attracted a fabulous clientele.

Patio de las Palmas, 1925
http://paradiseleased.files.wordpres...d-plaza-43.jpg
paradiseleased

In 1931 the palm grove became The Russian Eagle Garden Cafe with an equally awesome roster of customers,
Greta Garbo always sitting at the same table.

The Russian Eagle Garden Cafe, 1931:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/hg...w=w780-h495-no
paradiseleased

Two palms were moved in 1952 to build a pool in the palm grove for guests.
(Palms have very shallow roots and are actually easy to move and replant. Their tap root grows back quickly)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/xl0mo7.jpg
ebay via e_r


In 1973 the pool was filled in and the hotel converted to senior housing.
The building's owner, Robert Stern, grandson of Jacob, resisted
advice to grub out the palms for additional parking.
The date palms still stand, 50 to 60 feet tall and 111-years old.

2012:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-v...609%2520PM.jpg
googlemaps

Other 1920's development on the west side of Vine between Hollywood and Selma:
Vine Street Theater (Myron Hunt, 1926)
Dyas Specialty Emporium/The Broadway Hollywood (Frederick Rice Dorn, 1927)
Mom's/The Curb Charbroiler/Molly's (1928)

More info:
http://www.hollywoodheritage.org/museum/timeline.html

http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/...-luxury-hotel/

http://historichuntingtonbeach.blogs...ch-hidden.html




UPDATE:

As of February 2017, the palms are still there and now 116 years old (here seen from Ivar):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...A=w842-h619-no
gsv

Always love a great palms story! ;) Thanks!

-Scott

An in depth look at the lighting scheme of the Richfield Building.


from this wonderful book
http://imageshack.us/a/img577/4049/dsc1389e.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-N.../dp/3791325876



http://imageshack.us/a/img42/4707/dscr1n.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/7559/dsc1384k.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img189/6177/dsc1376q.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img832/7498/dsc1377x.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-N.../dp/3791325876

Happy Holidays everyone!
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Seasonal-type greetings, ye merry Noirishers!

I was recently tricked into taking part in a little side project that involves spending a lot of time looking at this year's Christmas-themed television commercials. Twice now I've spotted vintage Los Angeles landmarks used for location shoots, and I thought I'd share them.

The first shows Santa walking among his prized collection of automobiles. Santa's "garage" has been somewhat modified by digital means, but it's still as gorgeous as it is recognizable.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8356/8...425a2208_b.jpg
[source: KABC Channel 7]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8...c92c8d7a_b.jpg
[source: KABC Channel 7]

The second shows throngs of excited holiday shoppers happily steaming into a magnificent retail store.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8216/8...4c4be249_b.jpg
[source: KNBC Channel 4]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8362/8...7d4a52ac_b.jpg
[source: KNBC Channel 4]

Hmm...I wonder why the art directors on these commercials didn't use some of the more recent architectural marvels around town?

Hollywood & Highland plus Sunset & PCH
 

I had your post with this 1905 photo up on screen when a friend came by. He surprised me with it for Yule. He was the only bidder. My fave present this year. Thank you e_r!
It has CC Pierce's stamp and his, or a staff member's, pencil notations about the location on the back, which is totally cool. I am thrilled to own an original CC Pierce print.

I actually bid on the CC Pierce photo below of campers at the mouth of Santa Monica Canyon (later Inceville, later still Sunset & PCH) but it went for $140.00!
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/SANTA-MONICA-...i+Q~~60_57.JPG
c.w.hall/eBay

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6356/starkcomplb.jpg


LAPL/LAT

John Parkinson
 

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-G...934%2520PM.jpg

Time to leave that man a thank you note:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...271803&df=all&

(Parkinson's revered in the UK as "the Brit who built LA".)