.
:previous:

Bristolian, here's the Executive 'Room' on Wilshire Blvd. back in 1978. ....hmmm. . . I wonder what kind of 'entertainment' they had?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/S8utqv.jpg
Laskey/lapl

sidenote: In high school I had a bright red Mustang exactly like that gray one.




Here's the complete photograph.

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

That's quite a fancy-smancy entrance they rigged up.


Link

.

:previous:

"Son can you play me a memory I'm not really sure how it goes..." Music is the greatest distillery of truth, emotion and soul. Billy Joel's monster 1st single Piano Man (1973) was born in the Executive Room (3953 Wilshire, LA) where he spent 6 months in 1972 under an assumed name Bill Martin. His 1st album had a mastering error and failed. Joel wanted to leave that label to join Columbia Records but couldn't leave his contract. So he played here 6 months while in legal limbo under a different name as lawyers tried to free him. Joel met his first wife Elizabeth Weber here. "The waitress is practicing politics." That's her. "John at the bar" was an actual bartender here. "Paul is a real estate novelist" refers to an actual customer named Paul (a real estate broker) writing here every night, aspiring to be the next great American novelist. And then there was Bill Martin..."He says, Bill, I believe this is killing me..And the piano sounds like a carnival. And the microphone smells like a beer.And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar...And say, Man what are you doing here?"

https://findery.com/Chung123/notes/b...executive-room

:previous:

Here's some of the demo permit for 3951-73 Wilshire Boulevard from 9/6/85. :(

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...1Wilshire1.jpg
www.ladbs.org

Mustang II - I'm sorry to hear that ;)

^^^

Tnat's only the second photo, first in color, I've ever seen of a Chicken Delight in Los Angeles, though growing up comedians used to constantly use it in jokes, especially Carson, if I recall. I thought it was made up for the longest time.

Here's that first photo I ever saw, that HossC posted, and turns out it was in Lynwood:
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=42484

This one is from a short post on KooKoo California. No date, it just says the building is still there on Hollywood Blvd., but it's not a Chicken Delight anymore.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IJ9dVJfrh...ywood-Blvd.JPGKooKooCA

Correction: That should have been North Los Angeles Street; my mis-read!

.
I just happened upon this AMAZING phootgraph on an auction site.

Harry Houdini - Strait Jacket Escape - Herald Examiner Building, Los Angeles c.1920

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/lircej.jpg
bidsquare

I was hoping Houdini would be hanging upside down but it appears he has just finished his escape. ...Unless I'm mistaken he's down in the crowd.






Let's take a closer look.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/GHLuDE.jpg
detail

I'm still not sure it's him but look at the wooden contraption that was assembled up on the building. ...I'm curious about the tarps too.





Our last hope.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/V12ZPS.jpg
detail

hmmm. . .it's either Houdini or a plucked chichen.



Link....Estimate $400 - $500.

.

:previous:


https://i.postimg.cc/C5R4MZS2/houdiniarticle-UTTTTT.jpg
LA Examiner, April 5, 1923

From Wild About Harry

(In looking around for more info, it seems that rival papers "overlooked" the Examiner's big promo....

Before the Executive Room and Chicken Delight, there was this:

https://i.postimg.cc/YCLX3FHC/WBand-...cyapts-bmp.jpg


Image is from my survey of the post-residential boulevard, Wilshire After Its Houses--as are those below, which we've seen on NLA before.


https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDwED5upd...mWiltonSKY.bmp

https://i.postimg.cc/wvSJ9wvC/WBGramercy2-bmp.jpg

• Video Link



Three interior shots from the Executive Room.



https://i.imgur.com/zfgRH0P.jpg
popspotsnyc.com


https://i.imgur.com/TpGnsLx.jpg
popspotsnyc.com

https://i.imgur.com/v6mhAQ8.jpg
popspotsnyc.com

.
:previous:

If you look closely the padded bar that you see in the corner has the curvy shape of a grand piano. The piano Joel used was an old upright. . .so . . .umm. .tacky.


It's explained better here:

"When not in use the piano was moved to the back hallway which led to the restrooms. They would slide the piano up next to the "piano bar" which was shaped to give the first glance illusion of a grand piano, but since the piano was an upright, it would stick up above it."
popspotnyc

Thanks for pointing out Billy Joel's connection to the Executive Room, riichkay





It appears there was another Executive Room in town.

This one in the Hotel Savoy Plaza at Grand & 6th.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/gEPc64.jpg
eBay

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/WJIYly.jpg

I hardly remember this hotel. It must have gone by a different name the majority of the time.



.

I saw this unusual photo on eBay. It's a photo of Hollywood Blvd. taken through a window.
(I had to hotlink it, by the way, so it'll disappear at some point.)

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Z-MAA...Xz/s-l1600.jpgeBay

The photo is taken toward the southeast corner of Hollywood and Highland Ave. At first glance I thought it might have been taken from the National Bank building across the street, but quickly realized it's diagonally across the intersection, so it must have been taken from the Hollywood Hotel.

I deduced the movies playing at the Hollywood Theatre as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and The Werewolf, which, according to IMDB, both premiered in July of 1956. The Hollywood Hotel was torn down/demolished in August of 1956, so that might account why there's no curtains on the window or awnings outside of it.

I wonder which window it may have been taken from?

https://ssl.c.photoshelter.com/img-g.../HA-024-33.jpgHollywod Photographs

On the left of the eBay photo there looks to be some concrete sort of steps on the left directly outside the window which you can see something like that on the right center of the Hotel photo above.

The watermark is unfortunately covering up the entrances of Coffee Dan's, the Bank of America and a couple other businesses.

I just found another photo, HERE, from the same eBay seller that is taken on the street corner below facing east that shows the Hollywood Theatre marquee clearly (now I see it!). The words at top are Hugh Marlowe. Oklahoma is playing down at the Egyptian and two sailors are on the corner in front of the National Bank building.

.
:previous:

That's a great find, Martin Pal. It's interesting to see the inside frame of the window and how run down it looks. (the glass is missing too)

The photograph was no doubt taken shortly before the hotel was torn down in 1956. (or was it 1957 )


Just for fun (and for newcomers): Here's an aerial of the Hollywood Hotel taken in 1930.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/N2cjNI.jpg
kcet/lapl

I wonder what's going on in the white tents. (maybe we've already discussed the white tents & I've just forgotten)


.

E_R, that photo cannot be from 1930, because the Hollywood First National Bank Building was built in 1927 and it would be in the bottom right of that photo in 1930. I'm placing your photo at no later than 1926.

A 1924 view of that corner with the original bank building:


https://waterandpower.org/4%20Histor...hland_1924.jpgUSC

I was first thinking the tents might possibly be for a premiere at the Chinese Theatre, which opened in 1927. Maybe it was for the groundbreaking?

http://graumanschinese.org/timeline/...ndbreaking.jpgChineseTheatre.org
_____________

Sources say the Hollywood Hotel was razed in August, 1956. One of the last, perhaps the last, film that shows the Hotel in it is Man in the Vault. By the time the film was released in December of 1956, the Hotel was history.


I was going to say the glass was missing, too, but I wasn't quite sure.

Almost certainly Pico and Rimpau because the sign says they accept Santa Monica Bus Tokens... and Cooper Lumber was at 4650 W. Pico, adjacent to the turnaround's west side. Today it's a Starbucks (of course).

Which post are you referring to keizers? I may be able to help out.

Hello all. In a previous chapter of my life I was here all the freaking time (circa 2011-13) but life and personal interests move on and so did I. I still love LA and its history immensely, and I learned a ridiculous amount about the city from this thread, but unfortunately I almost never visit here any more.

ANYWAY, I started to colorize this shot of the 6th Street Bridge from the 1930s probably back in like 2014 in Photoshop but like many creative endeavors I more or less abandoned it, and in the name of cleaning up my computer's memory I came across this file and decided I had to finish it off. Of all the shots I've come across from LA's classic noir period, this is damn near my favorite... there's something very forlorn and evocative about not only the view with those untamed river banks and the gasometer but also in the hazy sky and grainy look.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fe3508da_b.jpg

Now it's debatable whether I should've gone with a blue sky, but for whatever reason I have a much harder time bringing a scene to life with gray skies than I do blue. So I had to make an executive decision and roll with blue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5ebab1e9_b.jpg

Now in doing these, my main objective is to make the image feel more present than the original artifact. It isn't about improving, or making it more real or whatever... it's about bringing out details that hopefully pull you into the shot and into the place of the photographer a little bit more than the original. Fingers crossed that I did that for you, my dear noirish fans.

:cheers:

reference
 

I think he may be referring to your post https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...ostcount=26642

...............................:previous: You did a remarkable job! ....Thanks for sharing it with us, kznyc2k. It's much appreciated. :)

.

Here is a rare snapshot of a woman posing on the roof of the Mission Apartments in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/OdtNGe.jpg
eBay




Here's a closer look at the buildings in the background.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/5vK5aa.jpg
detail

Do any of you Bunker Hill enthusiasts recognize these buildings?

.... . .because I'm stumped. :gaah:


.

.
Hold on folks. ....I just realized there are more rooftop snapshots.


This one, obviously taken at a different angle, shows the old Hall of Records building in the distance.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/2rVJib.jpg
eBay

The Halls of Records looks so far away (for this being Bunker Hill)


.

The Mission Apartments were on the corner of 2nd and Olive. The roof decoration on the right of the building seems to match the shape behind the lady in the picture above. The famous A drive through 1940's Los Angeles! video starts with the car parked outside as we look down over the entrance to the 2nd Street tunnel.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...ssionApts1.jpg
LAPL

The buildings behind the lady are the Melrose Annex and the back of the Richelieu.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...ssionApts2.jpg
Huntington Digital Library

I was in the area two days ago and shot these photos. Looks like progress is being made on the new bridge.

(forgive the warp-y look of the photos, I used my phone's panorama mode)

https://i.imgur.com/D0Vvthh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OljEF9l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MblUs1E.jpg

As a reminder - we get a glimpse of the Mission Apts. at the beginning of this video.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................THIS BUILDING
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/KfQaNh.jpg
Link.


Thanks for figuring out the buildings across the street in the eBay snapshot Hoss. I appreciate it. :)



.

.
Original 35mm Slide - Los Angeles Central Library - Los Angeles, CA 1960.

There is a interesting assortment of signs in this image.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...924/nQ9Bg4.jpg
currently on eBay...6/20/2020


FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

The blade sign of the Mayflower Hotel.

The famous 'JESUS SAVES' sign.

The vertical Ritchfield sign on its derrick-like tower.

And in the far distance (to the south) the large HOTEL FIGUEROA sign.
____________________________________________


I'm still trying to figure out where the photographer was standing when he took the picture. (I'm discombobulated)
.

:previous:

I'd guess that the photographer was at the back of the Biltmore Hotel. Drawing a line back from the site of the Hotel Figueroa, they were probably in the extant older part next to the tower.

Here's the rough line of sight.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...tmoreView1.jpg
Google Maps

Hats off to Scott Charles!

Do you know that guy in the photo SC?

Looks like it is Steel from China.

There's one of those photo folders from a nightclub on eBay right now for a place I don't recall hearing about before:

https://i1.wp.com/atomicredhead.com/...trip=all&ssl=1eBay

Hollywood Casino at 6000 Sunset Blvd. The address is at Gordon St. and the location is adjacent to Sunset Gower Studios. It's a two story building with two modern several story buildings on either side of it.

A nice aerial look at it; note the modern building on the left:
https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...tudios-map.pdf

The building opened as a Cashis King market in 1933.

https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...sh-is-king.jpgLAPL


Exterior view of the art deco style open-air Cashis King market located at 6000 Sunset Boulevard (foreground) just east of Gower in Hollywood. Based on the interior signs that are visible, the market carries a variety of produce, dairy products, fruits (both dried and fresh). Near the right side of the image market employees are setting up a produce display. The bus bench on the corner (left) is advertising the Hollywood Carpenter Shop, located at 4640 Prospect Avenue.

From 1942 to 1944 the place had three names, first as Hollywood Casino as the eBay photo folder shows or Madame Zucca's Hollywood Casino as this one is monikered:

https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...dame-zucca.jpg

The place was said to feature "wild burlesque shows and not-so-legal gambling."

It was renamed Cotton Club in 1943 and The French Casino in 1944 "in attempts to get around new liquor and gaming laws.'

Subsequently the building became these enterprises:

1950: West Coast Productions (radio broadcasting)
1953: Radio Center Theatre
1957: Western Recorders

https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...-recorders.jpg

1960: West Studio
1999: Studio sold and renamed Cello Studios

https://img.discogs.com/Y5iv-YnKc1oH...20493.jpeg.jpg

2005: Cello studios closes down and is sold
2006: Studios begin renovations
2009: Reopens as EastWest Studios

https://www.eastweststudios.com/asse...lden-doors.jpg


For 60 years the biggest stars in all genres of music have recorded here, as well as music for TV series and movies. It's also had some movie scenes filmed here from "You Light Up My Life" to "La La Land" to last year's "Yesterday."

EastWest has a history section on their website (which is where I got most of this information) and it details the building's history and all the famous people and music that was recorded there. There's also a documentary link to Vimeo of their time there.

https://www.eastweststudios.com/history/

A SIDEBAR to the above post: The building across Gordon Street from EastWest Studios is Emerson College at 5960 Sunset Blvd. The building opened in 2014 and has become a favorite of a lot of people.

http://onlyinhollywood.org/wp-conten...2-1024x771.jpgHollywoodPartnership

http://onlyinhollywood.org/wp-conten.../Emerson-3.jpgHollywoodPartnership

More photos:
https://www.morphosis.com/architecture/127/

Looks like Morphosis drew from the Frank Ghery school of design! ;)

Here's a little video:

• Video Link

.
Here's a family posing in front of their home a block or so west of Echo Park Lake. c.1910s(?)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...924/s2ANV3.jpg
eBay

"Mr. & Mrs. Coleman,

Dorothy, Jeannette, Claire,

Hudson, Lauarance* [sic.] & Pa.

1712 Bellevue Ave.






Let's take a closer look. (because we can :))

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/cI8DeI.jpg
eBay

I'm intrigued by the gate on the left that appears to be across the road.....I believe the family's house might still be standing but I can't be certain.

& it's possible the house facing the camera (we can only see the roof & three 2nd story windows) might still be standing as well.




*I'm still befuddled by their spelling of La(u)wra(e)nce..... My grandfather's name was Lawrence & it was spelled L a w r e n c e. of course, lol
In the olden times the name was, more often than not, spelled as Laurence.
-BUT there seems to be an extra letter in the way it's spelled in the Coleman's photo album.
.

:previous:

1712 Bellevue could be the same house. The property websites give a build date of 1920, but the only BP I can find for new construction is a 1920 application for a "private garage".

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...2Bellevue1.jpg
GSV

The gates at the left are the barriers at Belmont Avenue. Bellevue Avenue is only a footpath between Belmont Avenue and Glendale Boulevard, now finishing in steps at the latter.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...2Bellevue2.jpg
GSV

Do you mean the guy with the cowboy hat in his hand, Martin Pal?

He was actually a mannequin!

:previous:

Oops! LOL!!! :cowboy: I thought you knew him or he was waving at you, being friendly!

Don't be anti-mannequin!

THANK YOU for your post. I can't tell you how much I gasped or how quickly I bought this (and the others) snapshot. I mighta missed 'em had you not posted it here!

Just an noirish head's up - a new gritty HBO mini-series retelling of Perry Mason begins tonight.

It will contain real (and evidently CGI) locations around Noirish LA circa 1931-1932.

Hope it's good enough to watch...

Did anyone else catch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC this past Wednesday? Now in its 7th and final season, it currently involves a time-travel storyline. They've been using title cards for each epsiode that are style-appropriate to the time, and in the latest episode they went even further - going full noir for most of the episode, where they are conducting their mission in 1955.

The majority of the episode was in black & white, with a narrator monologue by Agent Coulson, and a clever in-universe explanation at the end as to why. There are scenes on a train (most likely the Fillmore & Western), and a whole bunch of shots at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. A bar that was a speakeasy in episodes set in 1931 has been updated to a tiki bar for 1955. The episode is even named "Out of the Past" in homage to the 1947 noir film.

You can view this episode now on ABC's web site or via the ABC app on streaming devices like Roku, if you have a cable TV or satellite subscription, by verifying with those credentials. Or you can wait until Wednesday or Thursday of this week when the episode should be unlocked for free viewing without credentials. Personally I had an issue with the streaming which seems to be a bug with their streaming feed - it turned on audio narration for the blind by default and there wasn't a way to turn it off in settings. I had to fast forward to the end of the episode and let it get close to finishing, then rewind again to the beginning to get rid of it. Annoying but at least I was still able to watch.

I just flipped through the episode (I don't watch this particular series, though).
They apparently went full noir, especially with the PI voice over, characters in shadow, soft focus, off kilter camera angles and musical cues.
Though they wanted to pay homage to Noir 1947, if I were setting this episode in 1955 Los Angeles, it would have been Hitchcock style in saturated VistaVision Technicolor, and not dark noir.
The tiki bar demanded color! ;)

Hoss, I believe that is the same house. Thanks :)



I'm pretty sure the other house in the ebay photo is still standing as well.

This one.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/pQXyBN.jpg
ebay


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/8hpq4r.jpg
GSV 508 Belmont Ave.




https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/UyCn4w.jpg
.

.
Has anyone heard of Rembrandt Studios at 312 S. Main Street, Los Angeles?


I ask because of this amazing (original!) photograph of a bevy of ingenues in a large faux-room.....(or maybe it's a real room)

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/BtbFR1.jpg
ebay Link




Here's the writing on the back.....If you ask me it's rather intriguing.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/RTEOLl.jpg

Do you think the photograph was taken upstairs at 312 S. Main? :shrug:

.

:previous:

Not sure I can be anything like complete, e_r, but here's a start about photography at 312 S. Main.

As we see, nothing doing until 1915. (Spellings vary as in particular years' CD):

1911 CD: Henry Argue, Fruits, at 312 S. Main; Crescent Creamery Co. at 312 ½ S. Main

1912 CD: Chris J. Rapp, shoes, at 312 S. Main.

1913 CD: Lavin & Tuck, fruit, at 312 S. Main.

1914 CD: Trunk Factory, and Fruiters, are at 312 S. Main.

1915 CD: Barzillai [sic] S. Ansley, photo[grapher] is at 312 S. Main (as is Enterprise Trunk Factory).

Some 1915 ads:

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5b1XPgr/312-SMain-Her-3-25-15.jpg
LA Herald, 3/25/1915


https://i.postimg.cc/9fzsQmc0/312-SMain-Her-8-3-15.jpg
LA Herald, 8/3/1915


https://i.postimg.cc/pd749wdZ/312-SM...11-19-1915.jpg
LA Herald, 11/19/1915


1916 CD: Barzillia [sic] S. Ansley, photo, at 312 S. Main. As is Harry Simon, tailor.

1917 CD: Barzillia S. Ansley (Sheffield Cain & Asnley [sic] at 312 S. Main.

1918 CD: Barzillai S. Ansley at 312 S. Main; Mrs. Lena Swayze, soft drinks, at 312 ½ S. Main.

(evidently no 1919 CD)

1920 CD: Ansley Commercial Photos at 312 S. Main, Rembrandt Studio at 312 S. Main; Raymond B. Swayve [sic], soft drinks, at 312 ½ S. Main.

1921 CD: Ansley still there; Swayze still there.

1922 CD: Ansley still there; Samuel Goldman, soft drinks, at 312 ½.

(I didn't trace it further . . . )

Edit Add:The photo has a definite "Mack Sennett Bathing Beauties" vibe to it for me...

Later Edit Add: Ah, here we are. A Social Cub of 1916 from Sennett, with Bobby Vernon and the well-known comedienne Gloria Swanson:

https://i.postimg.cc/qvgNcFrY/Social-Cub.jpg
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0007364...wer/rm64948480

Why, oh why are they remaking Perry Mason? Some works were so well done the first time that attempting to remake them is almost a sacrilege.

Everyone is familiar with the classic 'Mildred Pierce'. Does anyone even remember the remake?

Would anyone even attempt to remake 'Gone with the Wind'? (Not today, that's for sure!)

Hollywood's excuse is that they have "run out of stories." I don't think that's even possible.

Hopefully this current Perry Mason remake will just fade away and be forgotten.

They made a standard Noir film and just tacked the names from Perry Mason onto the characters. Nothing to do with Mason or Erle Stanley Gardner. They could have used Nick Carter, Nick Charles, Lieutenant Columbo's father Giuseppe, or Shell Scott. Heck, they could have said Father Brown was defrocked and emigrated to LA.

The Perry Mason books and shows have a specific aura dealing with right, wrong, the legal system and rational thought. Leave that out and you have nothing.

Olive front view !
 

What a picture ! For the first time I see Olive Street from Second to Third. Except for the stretch Fourth to Fifth – only a few --, there are no photos of Olive on Bunker Hill if you want to see it as if you were driving a noirish Pontiac.

:previous:

To the left of the "Mission Apts" sign are the Blackstone Apartments at 238 S Olive. You can see the side of them on the right of this circa 1955 image.

"Looking southeast across S. Olive Street showing a glimpse of a small apartment house at 228-234 (far left), the Firmanal [sic] Apartments, a Queen Anne revival apartment house at 238 (center), and a glimpse of The Blackstone Apartments at 242-246."

The 1942 CD lists them as the (less risqué) Fermanal Apartments. Before 1942, they were the shorter-named Ferman Apartments for a few years, and before that they were the Gillis Apartments.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...manalApts1.jpg
LAPL

The 1956 and 1960 CDs show the Steffy Therese Apartments at 238 S Olive, although the 1961 color image I found below has a sign by the door which still reads "Fermanal Rooms-Apts". The demo permit was issued in 1963.

https://i809.photobucket.com/albums/...manalApts2.jpg
Huntington Digital Library

Perry Mason (2020) premise: In 1932, the Great Depression grips the United States but Los Angeles is prospering thanks to an oil boom, the film industry, the summer's Olympic Games, and a massive evangelical Christian revival. Down-and-out private investigator Perry Mason is retained for a sensational child kidnapping trial and his investigation portends major consequences for Mason, his client, and the city itself.


From what I've read about this Perry Mason, the info on this series says it is meant "to be more like the early novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, that were written when this show takes place, the 1930's, and where Perry Mason is more hands-on as an investigator, before he became a lawyer."


So, not your father's Perry Mason, as the saying goes...


In the following responses there's a lot of information from an article in the NYT that I decided to include because people often have to have a subscription to read articles online from there, or you only get a few free articles a month and for some that could be over by now this month. But here's the link to that article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/a...n-history.html


Well, they keep remaking superhero movies with Batman and Superman and The Joker. And Sherlock Holmes movies are one of the most redone characters and stories ever. Etc.

As for Perry Mason being so well done the first time...

The first time:

--Between 1934 and 1937, Warner Bros. released six Perry Mason movies, the first four of which had Warren William playing the charming, crusading attorney.


In one of those Della Street and Perry Mason got married.

--From 1943 to 1955, five times a week, CBS Radio aired a 15-minute serial version of Perry Mason.

Stanley Erle Gardner wasn't happy with the radio series and when CBS wanted to move the show to television in 1956, Gardner balked. So the producers tweaked the names and locations and turned radio’s “Perry Mason” into TV’s daytime drama “The Edge of Night,” which ran for 28 years.

--Before the character’s nighttime TV debut, the best Perry Mason adaptation was a newspaper comic strip, which ran from 1950 to 1952.

Gardner was the credited writer.

--The Raymond Burr Perry Mason was more to Gardner's liking, a properly formulaic version, comforting in its familiar arcs.

The unsung hero of this Perry Mason is its producer Gail Patrick, who in the mid-1950's was a retired actress married to Gardner’s literary agent, Thomas Cornwell Jackson. She won over Gardner, who was so impressed with her that he put her in charge of a series truer to his ideals.

But wait--THERE WAS MORE?

--In 1973, CBS debuted “The New Perry Mason” with a fresh cast, but the show’s overall squareness didn’t fit with the era, and it was canceled.

It stared Monte Markham, Sharon Acker, Albert Stratton and Dane Clark and many well-known TV actors in guest roles.

And...

--In 1985, Burr returned to the role (while Barbara Hale reprised her role as Della Street) for a popular string of NBC movies.

But these stories and the style were more like "Matlock" than his earlier Perry Mason series.

--Now here’s HBO’s “Perry Mason,” decidedly different from what’s come before — like a cross between Gardener’s pre-Perry pulp mysteries and the seedy Los Angeles noirs “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential.” Would the author have approved? Probably not — if only because this new show has a long, winding narrative, not a punchy one. But the new “Perry Mason” does have a Della Street (Juliet Rylance) and a Paul Drake (Chris Chalk). And this Perry is still pushing against the powerful, using every resource he has to make sure the system works for those who need it most.

I agree that it's maybe hard to overcome people who are familiar with a 9 year Perry Mason series that was also in syndication after that for years and then became available on DVD and then streaming markets.

But, as with anything that is rebooted, none of us have to watch it if we don't want to. I'm more interested in the time period and location it's set in than the fact it's Perry Mason, which is why I'm going to watch it.

P.S.: The only COLOR episode of the Raymond Burr Perry Mason series starts out with Perry and Della riding Angels Flight and Angels Flight is where this new Perry Mason series starts as well.

Has anyone watched PENNY DREADFUL-CITY OF ANGELS, which takes place in 1930's Los Angeles? I'm wondering about giving that one a go.

I remember it...because I didn't like it.

The biggest FAUX-PAS of all with that is that they didn't film it in Los Angeles. It was filmed around NYC and environs. WTF? Some scenes had palm trees in front of houses that were in large pots. And it was decidedly moist all the time. Etc. If they ever make the Sunset Blvd. musical into a movie, it'll be doomed from the start if they don't film it in Los Angeles. I mean, it's ABOUT Hollywood and movie making.

I've read three James M. Cain novels, and he's a noted noirish author of the period, but all the movies made from those three I've read are way better than his novels. I think he's a hack pulp writer. I could barely get through Mildred Pierce.

I'm currently reading a noir novel by David Goodis, whose mostly forgotten now, and I wonder if he'd be better remembered, like Cain, if the movies made from his novels were better, though one of them, Dark Passage, is a personal favorite of mine.
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Perry Mason's just gotten attention on NLA, I don't recall anyone talking about Ryan Murphy's HOLLYWOOD series on Netflix. ???

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First of all I am in awe that odinthor was able to pair the old Rembrandt Studio photograph with Mack Sennett's production, A Social Club [1916] simply by matching the young ladies' costumes! ...:worship:... Bravo!


This is an amazing find odinthor! I have never heard of a downtown photography studio offering motion pictures. ...< - - I'm not even exactly sure what that means.
Do they mean 'flip' photographs like the kind used in Mutoscopes?

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/710/1Zvser.gif


That might explain the large number of photographs for sale. ("hundreds and thousands")

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/XsYrBI.jpg
written on the back of the Rembrandt Studio pic.




postscript:

Barzillai Ansley (owner of Rembrandt Studio?) has been mentioned in a back and forth conversation stemming from this intriguing faux 'sailor' photograph.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...922/xeqN7f.jpg
mystery 'sailor', los angeles cal

You can check out the conversation Here. (by Noir Noir and HossC)



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