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Lwize Dec 14, 2012 2:40 PM

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-12/73688927.jpg

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50ca067e/t...5-20120725/600

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50ca063e/t...7-20120725/600

http://www.trbimg.com/img-50ca069b/t...8-20121212/600

(photos from LATIMES.COM article)

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...351,full.story

Quote:

The last call for a skid row era at King Eddy Saloon

The bar, opened in 1933, will close for renovations and reopen with new managers. Regulars, used to paying $4 for a beer and microwave burrito, fear the changes.

By Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times

December 14, 2012, 5:00 a.m.

Wire-thin and slumped like a question mark, James Maley nurses a watered-down whiskey at the battered bar inside the King Eddy Saloon. Around him a boisterous crowd presses in. Maley taps a cracked fingernail nervously on his glass and stares warily at the newcomers.

They've come to see novelist John Fante's son, Dan Fante, read at the bar that inspired his father's 1939 classic "Ask the Dust." They're also here to experience skid row's last dive bar before it shuts down for renovations on Sunday.

"If this happened every day, I would never show up," says Maley, who lives in transitional housing a few blocks away.

Other time-worn regulars, many with leathery skin, bad teeth and watchful eyes, nod in agreement. The bar provides home and family for those who have neither. They come for community and to spend what little money they have on plastic pitchers of beer and $2.50 gin and tonics.

PHOTOS: Last Call at King Eddy Saloon

When the Fante reading ends, the interlopers quickly disperse.

"There go the slummers," says John Tottenham, a poet who has been coming to the King Eddy since the 1980s.

Chances are the crowds will be back when the bar reopens under new management. The owners plan to use old photos to restore the bar's Midcentury look. They hope to renovate the abandoned speak-easy in the basement and open the bar's windows that are covered by stucco, letting natural light into the place for the first time in decades.

They haven't finalized their plans, but one thing is for sure. Drinks won't come cheap at the new King Eddy.

The bar is located on the corner of 5th and Los Angeles streets in the King Edward Hotel, which was built in 1906 and was a tony destination for visitors to what was once a thriving commercial district. The hotel now provides low-income housing for many of King Eddy's regulars.

The pre-Prohibition era King Eddy is painted black. With neon beer signs providing most of its light, the room is dim and gloomy. Its black-and-white checkered floor is grimy. Plastic beer flags hang from the ceiling and the place smells of stale smoke and disinfectant.

The bar itself, shaped in a square, commands the center of the room, with cracked vinyl banquettes lining the perimeter. A glassed-in smoking space is set off to the side. Behind the bar is a tiny fluorescent-lighted kitchen where prepackaged burgers, pizza and sandwiches are heated in a microwave. A beer and burrito would set a person back only $4.

Next week, Maley and the other dislodged drinkers will have to find another bar, but they face a new downtown landscape of high-end mixology bars, restaurants and Brazilian waxing salons.

"I haven't the faintest idea where they'll go," says bar manager Bill Roller, 75, who has worked at the King Eddy for more than 30 years.

King Eddy opened in 1933 and has one of the oldest liquor licenses in the city. It was favored not only by Fante, but also by writers such as Charles Bukowski and James M. Cain for its lack of pretension and colorful clientele.

PHOTOS: Last Call at King Eddy Saloon

"The King Eddy Saloon is the last stand in a world that's completely lost to us — and that's skid row in the 1950s sense, a place where itinerant and semi-skilled laborers could find work seasonally," says downtown historian Richard Schave, who founded the Los Angeles Visionaries Assn., which staged the Fante event.

The bar has been owned by the same family for three generations. Dustin Croick took over in 2008 after his father, Rob, was badly injured in a car accident on his way home from the bar one night. Rob Croick, who has since died, managed the King Eddy for his father, Babe, who bought the bar in the 1960s with money he earned running downtown parking lots.

"This place has been a dive bar since I've been coming here as a kid with my dad, ordering milk and sitting on that stool," says Dustin Croick, 27.

In recent years, Croick has been trying to attract a more mainstream clientele. He started a website that played up the bar's hard-luck roots and featured a catchphrase he coined: "Where nobody gives a … about your name." He tried to lure the producers of the television show "Bar Rescue" to shoot a segment there, but the building's previous owners would not allow the filming.

In the end, he was unwilling to make the sort of changes wanted by the building's new owners, Bristol 423 — a partnership of developers headed by the Shomof family. Croick's lease was not renewed and this summer the lease was granted to the Acme Bar Group, which also operates downtown's Library and Spring Street bars and Urbano Pizza.

"I feel sad for the lack of recognition that Dustin's getting," says Roller, the bar manager. "I'm sad to see it going this way."

Jon Valenti, Acme's point person for the King Eddy remodel, has been spending a lot of time at the bar getting to know the people who call it home. He hopes they will feel comfortable coming back when it reopens.

"I'm sensitive to those people — they feel their comfort level is being disrupted," Valenti says.

Valenti plans to incorporate into the remodel photographs of the regulars that now hang on the back wall, perhaps as an installation above a booth. The new design, he says, will also highlight the bar's history.

A few regulars say they plan to give the new King Eddy's a chance. "Pancake" is one of them.

"Why is Pancake called Pancake?" a newcomer wants to know.

"Because I'm international," Pancake says, nodding his head emphatically. He's been a King Eddy regular for nearly 20 years.

PHOTOS: Last Call at King Eddy Saloon

"We don't want it to be too yuppified," he says one weekday afternoon. "I've seen the changes in downtown Los Angeles — Loft Angeles. Still, no matter what they do to the interior, the spirit of King Eddy will live on."

Sitting across the bar, Dave Ugartechea harrumphs and utters an obscenity. An unemployed Vietnam vet and former IRS auditor, Ugartechea lives upstairs.

"This place is going to die when they close it," he says. "I can't afford yuppie. Most of the bums that come in here can't afford yuppie."

Yuppie isn't on the agenda for the updated King Eddy, the new owners insist.

"We want a place that fits the neighborhood," says Acme's Michael Leko, who lives downtown. "It's not like we can change the location."

They do intend to alter the look of the corner, which is considered the gateway to skid row.

"Rather than hide from the street, let's say, 'Hi!'" says Ricki Kline, who has designed other downtown projects in historic buildings including Cole's, the Nickel Diner and Tony's. "These are our neighbors. We all have to live together, and we should live together graciously. There's a limit to the amount of gentrification that's going to take place in this neighborhood."

Change is closing in. A block away on Winston Street, a slick loft building called the Jeffries opened in June with 675-square-foot, one-bedroom units that rent for about $1,600. A cocktail bar and a wine bar are planned for the ground floor.

The King Edward Hotel's residents are safe from eviction, says Bristol 423 partner Eric Shomof. The Shomofs, who in 1999 opened one of the first upscale loft buildings downtown, also bought the Leland and Baltimore hotels across from the King Edward. A moratorium prohibits the conversion of residential hotels in the area to upscale housing until 2063.

No matter, says Roller, who like many of his customers, lives in the King Edward. He plans to move on once the renovations start.

"I could reapply for my job," King Eddy's manager says, "but I'm not going to."

jessica.gelt@latimes.com

ProphetM Dec 14, 2012 4:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Past (Post 5937586)
Fantastic! That pretty much wraps up the story of the cornerstone, then. Hope you don't mind if I link to your post in my blog. :cheers: Thanks!

-Scott

Not at all, go right ahead! :)

Godzilla Dec 14, 2012 4:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5937215)

I vaguely recall seeing an advert for Castle CC that caught my attention because of the catch phrase: "It's different." This left me wondering, "different than what?"

I would expect that cottage cheese has a brief shelf life, even in moderate and occasionally cool LA. Wonder if the plant was equipped with refrigeration equipment or relied upon ice to keep things well within their sell-by date. It was many years after the photos were taken that our dairy delivery man drove a heavily insulated truck that may have even had a dry-ice backup.

Noticed Hollywood Graham's side-resting delivery truck probably could have used a bit more tread on that right front, not that the best tires of the day could have avoided slip-slid'n over street crumbs, trolley tracks and gold dust. This led to an electronic trip to the Bureau of Street Maintenance which offers an illustrated history of the subject. View it here: http://bss.lacity.org/PDFs/2012-04-2...istory_mod.pdf And yest, they have pictures of horse drawn "Street Flushers."

http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...sc000a64c1.jpg




To avoid any unnecessary mishaps while transporting baked goods, perhaps a trip to Frank W. Dillon's Tire Service is in order? Conveniently located at 1017 S. Olive Street. Rumor has it their patented vulcanizing process allows them to retread tires and add new life to day-old rye bread - while you wait!

1930
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056313.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056312.jpghttp://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056316.jpghttp://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056315.jpghttp://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056314.jpgLAPL

Godzilla Dec 14, 2012 4:56 PM

1937 - Santa Monica Blvd. near Highland Ave.

Nearby: I O Hodges Auto Repair (6861 Santa Monica Boulevard) and Bireley's Inc., makers of fine Orangeade (1127 North Mansfield).

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00097/00097997.jpgLapl

These workers are professionals, but there is only so much they can do to avoid creating dust. In that neighborhood, Muller Bros can probably assist in cleaning your car, but if you wait long enough you can go to the west side's Twin Towers auto wash. $.50, slightly higher on weekends. Void where prohibited by law.

Circa 1940 - 8672 / 8680 Wilshire Boulevard. If you are in the market for a scooter, check out Roy Frankson's Motor Glide Mart, an authorized dealer.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics43/00056338.jpghttp://jpg2.lapl.org/pics46/00057742.jpglapl

GaylordWilshire Dec 14, 2012 5:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 5937549)
[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Tahoma"]1932 - Mott Studios

The buildings seem familiar. Could they have been on the north side of Wilshire across the street from the Wiltern Theater? The lattice work seems quite similar, but the buildings and businesses seem different.

1932 Martha Washington Candies ???
http://catalog.library.ca.gov/exlibr...Q2MHQ3YYDC.jpg

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...our&DMROTATE=0 USC Digital


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009279.jpgLAPL


The General Electric showroom was on the northeast corner of Wilshire & Western for several years before being replaced by Owl Drug (3785 Wilshire). Martha Washington Candies was a national chain; this store was at 3783 Wilshire. The billboard structure appears to have been changed sometimes after the pic above.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-D...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4...lesthepell.jpgUSCDL

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

I can't imagine that we haven't seen this shot over the opening of Warner's Western/Wiltern theater with a structure over Wilshire and a view of the billboard atop the GE/Owl building.


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2417/gecompl.jpgLos Angeles Times

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/996/mwcompl.jpgLos Angeles Times May 28, 1931

Hollywood Graham Dec 14, 2012 5:19 PM

5th Street Bar
 
One of the toughest bars on 5th St. (5th and Wall) was the Hard Rock Cafe. Certainly not the clientele that the present day Hard Rock Cafes draw.
[IMG]http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/t...rdRockCafe.jpg[/IMG]
LAPL Photo

jg6544 Dec 14, 2012 5:57 PM

The General Electric showroom was on the northeast corner of Wilshire & Western for several years before being replaced by Owl Drug (3785 Wilshire). Martha Washington Candies was a national chain; this store was at 3783 Wilshire. The billboard structure appears to have been changed sometimes after the pic above.



The photo of the Wiltern Bldg. appears to have been taken from the Spire of St. James' Episcopal Church on Wilshire at St. Andrews Place.

ethereal_reality Dec 14, 2012 8:09 PM

We've covered the world's longest soda fountains in L.A. Now we have the world's largest barber shop.

http://imageshack.us/a/img547/2788/a...219w3rdstr.jpg
ebay
__



Great article on the King Eddy Saloon. Thx for posting it Lwize.
__

BifRayRock Dec 14, 2012 9:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5937892)
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009279.jpgLAPL


The General Electric showroom was on the northeast corner of Wilshire & Western for several years before being replaced by Owl Drug (3785 Wilshire). Martha Washington Candies was a national chain; this store was at 3783 Wilshire. The billboard structure appears to have been changed sometimes after the pic above.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-D...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4...lesthepell.jpgUSCDL

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520PM.bmp.jpgLAPL

I can't imagine that we haven't seen this shot over the opening of Warner's Western/Wiltern theater with a structure over Wilshire and a view of the billboard atop the GE/Owl building.


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2417/gecompl.jpgLos Angeles Times

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/996/mwcompl.jpgLos Angeles Times May 28, 1931



Thanks for the update.

I am informed that the building was also special because it housed one or more courtyard restaurants somewhat akin to the nearby Chapman Market. According to the directory, the building must have been a good location for sweets since See's Candies moved in at 3771. Thrifty Drugs appears to have been the last occupant at 3785.

Thrifty seems to have had a long relationship with the Wilshire-Western neighborhood. In '38 it celebrated a grand opening in the Pellissier Building, where it eyed its neighbor, Owl across the street. As noted, at least in the '70s and '80s, Thrifty moved to Owl's former location.

1938
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015660.jpglapl

1938 Photographer Herman Schultheis' wife and his in-laws go for Malts at what is believed to be a Thrifty Drug Store at 355 East Colorado - Pasadena
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00098/00098916.jpg Lapl


tovangar2 Dec 14, 2012 10:33 PM

Metropolitan Barber Shop & The King Eddie Saloon
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5938119)
We've covered the world's longest soda fountains in L.A. Now we have the world's largest barber shop.
http://imageshack.us/a/img547/2788/a...219w3rdstr.jpg
ebay
__
Great article on the King Eddy Saloon. Thx for posting it Lwize.
__

Looks like the Metropolitan was possibly in the old Douglas Building (J&M Reid, 1898), 19th century, but just barely. It's another lofted one with a somewhat modernized base. Impressive collection of mounted heads. I can't even count the number of chairs.

Douglas Block, Spring St side, on the left:
http://www.douglasbuilding-lofts.com...ric550x400.jpg
LAPL

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...gS4yuIfmZkxsXv
russell hill

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...F7n3sEZZ30Gbrg
ed fuentes

And thx from me too Lwize. It seems the Yuppie search for an authentic experience keeps pushing it just out of reach.

ethereal_reality Dec 14, 2012 11:41 PM

I am reposting this because I recently found the dedication program on ebay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5379800)
Dedication of the State Building, circa 1932.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5...d2hugeebay.jpg
ebay

above: Notice the people along the roof line. This building was huge.

___





http://imageshack.us/a/img687/2076/a...ationhuge1.jpg



http://imageshack.us/a/img211/1277/a...tionhuge1a.jpg



http://imageshack.us/a/img805/4364/a...ationhugea.jpg



http://imageshack.us/a/img600/4172/a...ationhugeb.jpg








below: As noted earlier in this thread, the foundation of the State Building is still visible.

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/1792/aabdedi2.jpg
__

ethereal_reality Dec 14, 2012 11:59 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img13/6163/aa...tbbooklett.jpg






http://imageshack.us/a/img854/7776/a...otdanapoin.jpg
ebay

Has this unique home survived?




below: Notice the Hollywoodland sign in the distance....this should help us in locating the home.

http://imageshack.us/a/img820/7079/t...hollywoodl.jpg
ebay


__

ethereal_reality Dec 15, 2012 12:40 AM

Packard showroom in Los Angeles, circa 1929. (no address given)

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/848/aaa...howroomist.jpg
ebay

This is one of the most beautiful showrooms that I've ever seen. Look at the wood beams in the ceiling....
and the ornamentation atop the columns defies classification. Superb!

__

tovangar2 Dec 15, 2012 1:16 AM

Packard
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5938508)
Packard showroom in Los Angeles, circa 1929. (no address given)

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/848/aaa...howroomist.jpg
ebay

This is one of the most beautiful showrooms that I've ever seen. Look at the wood beams in that ceiling....
and the ornamentation atop the columns defies classification. Superb!

__

Wow, that's very similar to the famous Earle C. Anthony Packard showroom in San Francisco:
http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/up...hotos/1893.jpg
packardinfo.com

I think they're Maybeck interiors.

P.S.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/40/911...8198fa5227.jpg
lapl

Packard Building, 1000 Hope St at Olympic (1913, addition 1928), Los Angeles
Earle C. Anthony's Packard dealership in downtown Los Angeles.
It was the site of America's first neon sign which simply read "Packard."
(now Packard Lofts LA)

P.P.S. Apparently, according to Bernard Maybeck, Architect of Elegance by Wilson, Mark, the Los Angeles showroom, housed in a wing attached to the Hope & Olympic building (?) was torn down in the 70's, as was Bernard Maybeck's Oakland showroom for Earle C. Anthony Packard. Sorry, it's gone.

Also:
"1928, Los Angeles, Packard Automobile sales room and office interiors, Earle C. Anthony
nm, Los Angeles
Bernard Maybeck; John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson, Architects.
Richly decorative, the Los Angeles showroom still effectively housed automobiles of the 1970s.
In the Los Angeles Packard building, designed by John and Donald B. Parkinson, Maybeck's work was limited to the interior finishes and the styling of the executive office suite."

-http://www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_bm_11.html

2006 LAT article w/ pix: http://www.veniceinvestments.com/pdf/reopens.pdf

Automobile dealer Earle C. Anthony's family home 1927 by architect Bernard Maybeck | 3431 Waverly Drive | Ivanhoe Hills Los Angeles
http://www.you-are-here.com/building/family_home.jpg
http://www.you-are-here.com/building/family_home.html

America's first neon sign, made for Earle C Anthony's LA dealership, 1923, by Georges Claude (the neon sign inventor), Paris:
http://thelongestlistofthelongeststu...ages2/neon.JPG
thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com

unihikid Dec 15, 2012 2:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malumot (Post 5937495)
I gotta do that hike one day.

For the record - I'm betting it was a State project, not something dreamt up willy-nilly by SGV residents.

Second, this effort is now seen as kind of a joke, a folly. It was eventually ditched, that is true. The 1938 floods made sure of that. (Mostly it was a cost-benefit decision, or course. Who knows if it was being constructed today, and similar floods struck, whether the same cost-benefit calculus would apply. They may have cleanup up the mess and pressed on. Maybe. Maybe not.)

I just took Hiway 1, through Big Sur, about a month ago. That was an ambitious project as well, constructed about the same time, and had plenty of detractors. There was nothing guaranteeing ITS successful completion either.

Today, of course, The Big Sur Highway is in the pantheon of California's most treasured attractions. No one can conceive of it NOT being there. But it's not inconceivable to think it might never have been finished either. (Just one plausible scenario: WWII breaks out before it is finished. Obviously construction is halted, and after the war the highway takes a back seat in priority, and never does get finished.)

Some luck, some timing, a flood......all the difference between a road known around the world and a footnote to a trivia question.

Just something to think about, I guess.

when i was in my boy scout troop we did the silver moccasin trail,it was a big to do for our troop.i remember we had to do training for the trail which is 50 miles.Im not sure if the bridge to nowhere was apart of the trail,or an added attraction,but we did cross it.If you do the trail its not too bad from my memory,not alot of uphill travel..but i was 14 so maybe at my present age i wouldn't like the trail too much.:shrug:

Those Who Squirm! Dec 15, 2012 3:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5931022)
Here is a rare view of the Santa Fe Station from across a flooded Los Angeles River

http://imageshack.us/a/img822/1425/a...indistance.jpg
ebay

I would love to know the story behind the excised person.

__

Leon Trotsky?

(I kid, I kid!)

ethereal_reality Dec 15, 2012 3:45 AM

http://imageshack.us/a/img41/848/aaa...howroomist.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by tovangar2 (Post 5938533)
P.S. Apparently, according to Bernard Maybeck, Architect of Elegance by Wilson, Mark, the Los Angeles showroom, housed in a wing attached to the Hope & Olympic building (?) was torn down in the 70's, as was Bernard Maybeck's Oakland showroom for Earle C. Anthony Packard. Sorry, it's gone..

:( :( :(

ethereal_reality Dec 15, 2012 3:47 AM

http://imageshack.us/a/img203/9849/scampcoastal.jpg
ebay

I wonder what the two towers were for....searchlights perhaps?
__

tovangar2 Dec 15, 2012 3:52 AM

Earle C Anthony/Bernard Maybeck/Packard
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5938724)

:( :( :(

It is a pity b/c LA's was actually better than the still-existing SF one.

I updated my last post w/ a pic of Maybeck's LA house for Anthony. Anthony had Greene & Greene build him another home in BH. Guy obviously had an eye for architecture.

FredH Dec 15, 2012 4:32 AM

Belmont Tunnel...Through the Years
 
Building:

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/2...subway6970.jpg
L.A. Times

Opening:

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/3849/00006943.jpg
L.A. Times

Using:

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/9...subway9970.jpg
lapl

Closing;

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1036/00067013.jpg
lapl

The Graffiti Years:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/860...heredotcom.jpg
youare here.com

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7...rbeddotcom.jpg
lacurbed.com

Current:

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6...onladotcom.jpg
Google Street View

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/194/capturecgu.jpg
Google Street View

You know...I'm not an advocate of graffiti by any means, but this current incarnation just isn't right somehow. Its like giving Willie Nelson a shave & haircut and putting him in a three piece suit. Doesn't fit.


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