I knew I'd read something about this recently, but couldn't find it on NLA. It turns out the information below is part of Debunking Venice's Historic Myths, a page I linked to a few weeks ago because it denied there was any connection between Isadora Duncan and 16 Thornton Avenue. Here's what it says about Speedway (the myth is in bold):

The alley behind the buildings on Ocean Front Walk was named Speedway because automobiles and motorcycles used it as a race track.

Since Trolleyway (now Pacific Avenue) was unpaved and used exclusively by the Pacific Electric trolley cars, the only suitable but narrow north - south roadway near the beach was called Speedway. Both its narrowness and the frequency of traffic coming the other way made it unsuitable for racing. However, most teenagers and adults raced there [sic] cars along Washington Boulevard (now Abbot Kinney Blvd.) There were numerous accidents along a dangerous curve where it approached the intersection of Compton Blvd. (now Lincoln Blvd.)

I had my 6th grade graduation party at the Pickwick pool. We thought we were very special to go there. You could either choose to swim, ice skate or go bowling. Since it was hot, most of us chose swimming.

In the aerial photo, the baseball field, just above and slightly left of "Ave" in Olive Avenue was the stadium where the St. Louis Browns would have spring training from 1949 to 1952.

In the picture of Orange Grove and Glenoaks, the old public library building is visible at the right edge. Just beyond that is a house facing Olive Avenue with an arched window in the front. While that building is now a dentist's office, the structure is still there.

I had my 6th grade graduation party at the Pickwick pool. We thought we were very special to go there. You could either choose to swim, ice skate or go bowling. Since it was hot, most of us chose swimming.

In the first aerial photo, the baseball field, just above and slightly left of "Ave" in Olive Avenue was the stadium where the St. Louis Browns would have spring training from 1949 to 1952. At the bottom, Disney Studios can be seen at Alameda and Buena Vista. The empty triangle of land between the studio lot and the river was where Walt Disney initially wanted to build Disneyland. the Ventura Freeway 134, eventually took a big chunk of that land. In the third aerial photo, the sound stages at Disney are visible at the top left.

In the picture of Orange Grove and Glenoaks, the old public library building is visible at the right edge. Just beyond that is a house facing Olive Avenue with an arched window in the front. While that building is now a dentist's office, the structure is still there. The spire in the background is the Bellarmine-Jefferson Catholic High School, built to look like Constitution Hall in Philadelphia. It is also still there and looks just the same.

The Holiday Lodge is no more.

The "Amityville" style house is actually what was called "Dutch Colonial"

The County Assessor's office has newer build dates on all of the buildings anywhere near that intersection

Here's a good example... 3101 Wilshire Boulevard:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_8A50LhnY...lowersplus.jpg


http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html

That style of roof is called a gambrel, much beloved of H.P. Lovecraft.

:previous:


Myron Hunt designed this particular example. He was from Massachusetts--so, more or less, from Lovecraft country.

Help me pinpoint this location:

"Twenty-five people narrowly missed death early this morning when a Pacific Electric bus was forced over a 40 foot embankment by a butane truck (shown in the photograph).
Thirteen people were injured, including the bus driver who almost drowned when he went through the windshield of the bus. The accident occurred just before the early morning rush hour began at the busy intersection where the Hollywood and Santa Ana freeways meet."
10/11/1952

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/909/CWrrxc.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-Press-P...item5669b38271

:previous: Does anyone recognize the old building(s) at the top of the embankment?

I've been trying to read the vertical blade sign (I believe the last four letters are A R C U S (maybe)
The horizontal sign reads......"French Dip Sandwiches, Ribs, Barbeque, Meats."

__

"Terrific blast nearly kills scores of screen stars.!" -Hollywood Cal.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/907/ddA3l2.jpg
eBay

"Charles Chaplin, Colleen Moore and a score of other Hollywood's greatest stars narrowly escaped death when an explosion completely wrecked the American-Russian Eagle Cafe here. Eight persons were injured, two probably fatally. The stars were dining when an incendiary fire was discovered and warnings shouted. Soon after the diners rushed out, the building was completely wrecked by a terrific detonation."
06/21/1928.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...540/HEDMzp.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1928-Hollywo...-/271705076419


I was only able to find this (in the 1926 Los Angeles directory)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...909/I5Lu4B.jpg
lapl


and I also found this (but it's not in Hollywood)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...661/ulojhk.jpg
lapl

So does anyone know where the 'American-Russian Eagle Café was located?

It might have appeared on one of those illustrated map that we see every once and awhile on NLA. --or am I thinking of the Russian café 'BUBLICHKI'?
__

Coincidentally, this photograph for sale on eBay shows a movie set from the silent film 'Lilac Time' starring Colleen Moore (mentioned in the 'blast' post above)
that was filmed in 1928 (the same year as the mysterious explosion at the American-Russian Eagle Café)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/PijBoI.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1928-Lilac-T...item1c53ba1675




http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/qtHTHE.jpg
http://silenthollywood.com/lilactime1928.html

:previous: At "Carthay Circle Theater, 10 Minutes From Here."






below: Gary Cooper and Colleen Moore in 'Lilac Time', 1928.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/9mex3F.jpg
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm17184583...8?ref_=tt_ov_i

:previous: Quite a beautiful couple.
__

My mother was living at 116 S. Hope St in 1934...and I can see the building in your post-photo...wonderful!

This is along the portion of the 101 near the south end of Union Station, east of Alameda. Looks like the original location of Phillippe's along Aliso, before they moved up to Alameda & Ord. The hole is probably part of the construction of the 101 freeway "trench" through downtown.

MartinTurnbull gives the address as 8428 Sunset on his Hollywood Places site, plus this account:

"Time Magazine – June 18, 1928 – “Charles Spencer Chaplin, funnyman, picked up a garden hose, squirted it. He was serious. He was helping to fight a fire at the American-Russian Eagle Club in Hollywood, Calif. His efforts were stopped when an explosion of leaking gas wrecked the building and injured eight people. Among those present and unhurt were Jack Dempsey & wife (Estelle Taylor), Richard Dix, Renee Adoree, John McCormick & wife (Colleen Moore), Marquis de la Falaise (husband of Gloria Swanson). The owner of the nightclub, Theodore Lodiginsky, 56, onetime Russian general, was seriously injured.”

After the fire it reopened at the Plaza Hotel as the Russian Eagle Garden Cafe. It was one of the iterations under the palms out back and also, according to Martin's site, took up indoor space in the area that would later become the It Cafe. I read quite a bit about the fire/explosion when researching the Plaza, but don't recall ever seeing a picture of the wreckage or any photo of the cafe when it was on Sunset. Thank you for your post.



P.S.

Another account from a Swanson bio is here

The 8 June 1928 Chicago Daily Tribune mentions injured firefighters and the name of the arson suspect:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0...05239%2BPM.jpg
trib archives

Former Czarist Russian General Theodore Lodijensky (who survived the explosion and died in 1947) also inspired the 1928 Josef von Sternberg film The Last Command, in which Emil Jannings portrays a former Czarist Russian General reduced to playing bit parts in Hollywood films.

See: https://books.google.com/books?id=nu...jensky&f=false and http://siffblog2.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_La...281928_film%29

1927 . . . how sad he didn't know where his son was:
http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...n.jpg~original
fold3.com

These were (I think) rail racers, promoted as a spectator sport, powered by model airplane engines. If you look closely at the car on the lower left corner, what looks like a radio antenna sticking up is the shut-off for the ignition system. As BiffRayRock noted, WWII killed this version of the hobby, but it was resurrected immediately postwar in tether car ("Spindizzy") format. The greatest makers were the Dooling Brothers, whose location was listed as:

3433 West 59th Street
5452 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles 16, California

The Dooling .61 was the Offenhauser of model engines. One in good condition will set you back about 2500 bucks and their cars go for four grand or so.

Cheers,

Earl

Thanks


Whether each midget racer pictured was equipped with a radio controlled engine is unclear. I see two antennae and exhausts and most appear to have tether attachment points.

The car dunning is holding does not immediately evidence an engine or radio receiver - but there is clearly room for them. As I mentioned above there is one'64 listing for a miniature speedway at 9137 S Western Ave., so maybe it was a survivor. I assumed it was more likely the electronic slot car version (bottom).




http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...XT=&DMROTATE=0





http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...d/90490/rec/11

Quote:

Spindizzy racing started in Los Angeles in the late 1930s when hobbyists began building miniature cars powered by the engines of their model airplanes, which were fueled by a mix of alcohol, castor oil and gasoline. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/au...THER.html?_r=0

Amazing variety of tether cars. More about it here >>>>> http://theoldmotor.com/?p=128796http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2...-in-the-1940s/



http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-c...00-700x466.jpg
http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2008/01/tethercars_12_1200-700x466.jpg"]http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-c...00-700x466.jpg[/URL]







http://www.tethercar.net/images/railtrack.jpghttp://www.tethercar.net/images/railtrack.jpg



http://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-c...00-700x543.jpghttp://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-c...00-700x543.jpg




1964, slot cars (somewhere in the valley)
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00117/00117808.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00117/00117808.jpg

"Los Angeles Transit bus #49 Figueroa."

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...673/eimcDX.jpg
eBay