VLA member Daniel Alexander made this excellent discovery of how you can see the original art deco facade exposed as the Thrifty/Rite Aid building at Sunset and Fairfax undergoes renovations (something tells me they're not bringing deco back :( ). Anybody with a high quality camera care to swing buy and illuminate this subject further?

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/7909/qny2.jpg

Earlier this month, Martin Pal posted a link to the December 1938 Pacific Electric Magazine because of the Monkey Island picture it contained (see post #17996). Looking through the magazine, I found this seasonal message:

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...s.jpg~original
libraryarchives.metro.net (PDF file)

A lot of the pictures that are blown up to huge proportions are high quality scans of 4x5 negatives. If your picture is not a high quality scan it is difficult to impossible to get details out of no matter how good you are at Photoshop or additional plug ins you have.

:previous: I really like the frosted glass window as well TWS. It's much better than the glass blocks.




Here's a photograph of the Palms Post Office in 1941. I'm not sure of the street address.
http://imageshack.us/a/img839/2232/uzi8.jpg
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/hist...45-mentone.htm

http://imageshack.us/a/img62/8893/g1t5.jpg
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/hist...45-mentone.htm


below: Berean Chapel Foresquare Church, circa 1937

3371 Mentone Avenue, Palms
http://imageshack.us/a/img194/4773/kmql.jpg
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/hist...45-mentone.htm

If you're interested in Palms, this man's ancestry page is well worth your while.
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/hist...45-mentone.htm
__



Lwize, fantastic 'stitch' job on sadykadie2's 3 foot long photographs! They're truly remarkable.

Well, I am off to my Mother's house in Illinois for the Holidays.

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S EVERYONE!!

Thanks to all of you for making noirish Los Angeles such a special place.

__

MERRY CHRISTMAS e_r and enjoy!

(If you're wondering what the holidays will be like in your old Hancock haunt, it's supposed to be near 80 degrees here!)

I wanted to paraphrase a 40's Christmas song for you...

"Would you like to spend Christmas on Monkey Island...?
Go to 3300 Cahuenga; just take P.E.
How'd you like to spend Christmas on Monkey Island?
How'd you like to hang your stocking on a great big coconut tree?

Play by the volcanoes like the anthropoids do?
Santa crossing the moat with all your presents--bananas for two?
If you ever spend Christmas on Monkey Island
You will never stray 'cause every Monkey Island dream comes true."

Happy Holidays to all Noirish Los Angelenos!

Actress Grace Bradley and her art deco Christmas Tree!
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tVEal9aiNs...1600/decco.jpg

[QUOTE=Martin Pal;6383768]SANTA CLAUS LANE aka Hollywood Blvd.


At some point (maybe the tree supply was dwindling) the organizer’s experimented with
metallic wreaths featuring Hollywood stars likenesses. Here’s a photo from 1932 at Vine Street.
You can make out John Wayne’s photo on the corner. (The CoCo Tree Café!)
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/CHS-35331.jpgUSC


Not sure that's John Wayne. However, the couple standing on the corner appear to be looking up at an advertisement for Boris Karloff as the Mummy.

The 1942 CD has a clothing company called Brooks at 6666 Hollywood Boulevard. Seeing as they were "The West's Largest Clothiers", they could've moved a couple of blocks east before the photo above was taken. The 1956 CD shows Harris & Frank at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...LABrooksAd.jpg
rescarta.lapl.org

The business called Chi Chi is in the old Sardi's building at 6315 Hollywood Boulevard. I found a reference to Chi Chi Hollywood at that address in a list of "1946 Hollywood Boulevard Night Spots and Eateries" on theblackdahliainhollywood.com. There was a well-known restaurant/nightclub in Palm Springs called Chi-Chi which lists a hollywood location on it's menu, and suggests that it opened after 1946, so that fits the time frame. There's more info on the Palm Springs location at www.palmspringslife.com.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...u.jpg~original
www.palmspringslife.com

I'm afraid I couldn't read the marquee on the Admiral, but I did spot a sign for the Pig ’n Whistle just to the right of Brooks.

That is one of the locations of the Palms Post Office, formerly a bank building (IIRC Citizen Bank - it's written on the entryway tiles) and now The Surplus Store (occupying all buildings in the photo). This is the NE corner of Venice and Motor.

John W. did not become box office gold until '39 with the release of Stagecoach. Suspect the star was one of this thread's more popular subjects, Tom Mix.


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

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rh7eSz_06O...00/tom_mix.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rh7eSz_06O...00/tom_mix.jpg



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

Merry Christmas to all!

Ho ho ho...
 

That is so funny Martin.....Merry Christmas to all. :D:D:D

I couldn't figure this out until I saw this L.A. Times article, nor did I know she was a designer. It doesn't look like a retail store. But now having seen the article, it's easy to make out the tops and bottoms of women's swimsuits behind the frosted glass.
This building is 10341 Venice Boulevard, on the NE corner of Motor Avenue and Venice.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3806/1...d0cbe4c6_z.jpg
(Snip from GSV)

Both it and the building with the three little shops directly east of it are still there, although the latter has apparently been annexed to the surplus store and the individual store entrances walled off. It's been a surplus store as far back as I can remember; I think we once came here for some camping supplies sometime around 1970.

According to this article on the Expo Construction Authority's website,

I don't want to quote too much directly, but it goes on to describer a number of interesting architectural details which you can read in the link. It also seems curious that the ECA is writing about something relatively far from the route, but I unfortunately doubt that it's because they're thinking of putting the Venice Short Line back in.

You can still see the polished granite paving with the bank's name just outside the entrance. There was some good reason I wasn't able to compose the shot better or get a decent vantage point, but I don't remember what that was.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2890/1...12182e69_z.jpg
(Own work)

The other former post office on Motor was apparently built in 1950, according to county property records, so it seems safe to assume this was probably the post office until just before then.

ETA: 20:57 I see now where you have already mentioned the bank, but now we have a picture of the paving as well.

Merry Christmas 1953 from beautiful Hollywood and North Cahuenga Boulevards!

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3725/g7es.jpg

Courtesy of Vintage Los Angeles

Merry Christmas everyone!

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...stlakeXmas.jpg
Ebay

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Here's my favorite LA Xmas pic...

http://ibytes.es/images/content/post...s_Cadillac.jpg

They actually have quite a few interesting holiday photos at the website I got the image at; I just wish my Spanish was better so I could understand all the commentary provided....

Happy Holidays to posters and lurkers alike
 

...and thank all of you for making this such a fascinating corner of the interwebs. And especially thanks to e_r for all his work in keeping this going.

Acme
 

WOW, love this color close up of an ACME, ACSC STOP with red beacon,route shield in the back and Christmas trees on light poles. My kind of holiday greeting card. Thanks for posting!

Merry noirish Christmas !
 

The Christmas traditional mood with snow, firs, sleighs and all, doesn't fit too well with Los Angeles. However, there's a noirish movie ("Lady in the Lake" by Robert Montgomery - 1947 - with him and Audrey Totter - who performs a tour de force in it) which mixes the Christmas mood with Los Angeles (plot, dialogs, action, music, screen credits...) in a very subtle and even obsessive way. May I recommend this movie to Noirishers for Christmas ?
Merry Christmas, Friends.

RE: The 1920's photos of crowds at an amusement park...
This comment and "personal observation" is from someone who is certainly not as "svelte" as when I was younger, and who has family members battling overweight. I always notice in these old photos of groups of people that generally NOT ONE PERSON could be called obese. Virtually everyone is slim, especially anyone who appears to be younger than 40. The occasional person who is mildly "husky" or "portly" is usually middle-aged or older. What an amazing contrast to all of the hefty and even enormous people in any typical group or crowd scene today.