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tovangar2 Mar 12, 2013 7:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 6045968)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8439/7...852aef55_o.jpg
union station, 1939

A woman speaks with a porter outside the baggage waiting room at Union Station
What's not to like about this beautiful shot?

USC digital archives/Dick Whittington collection

Thank you MR. I could look at that one over and over.

When my daughter was tiny (2 or 3) she said she used to think the waiting room chairs we "as big as apartments". LOL, kids.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v...717%2520PM.jpg
paladino

Our many trips to see cousins in San Diego County all started off with getting to the station early so the kids could play and explore to their hearts' content (and get a Union Bagel) before boarding. Coming home was just heavenly. Most of my trips to Union Station when I was a kid were to pick-up out-of-town house guests. As our house was right on the beach, we got plenty of those.

Nice color view of the outdoor waiting room fountain. Do you remember when it was planted with scruffy looking plants 15 or 20 years ago? I'm so grateful they got it working again. Makes a big difference.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...314%2520PM.jpg
big orange landmarks

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 6046697)


Western view of Wilshire Boulevard looking toward Wilshire Boulevard Christian Church.


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Q...747%2520PM.jpg
usc digital( detail).

Cool, you caught them widening Wilshire. Up one side and down the other.

Here this section finished in 1928. The unsightly telephone poles are gone. The Wilshire Specials have sprung fully-growed outta the ground, but, Yikes!, no lane lines yet:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-S...048%2520PM.jpg
hollywoodphotographs.com


Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 6046060)
Do tell, Sarah...

http://imageshack.us/a/img442/3030/sbscompletye.jpg
The Daily Trojan, 12-8-1927; USCDL

In Material Dreams Kevin Starr notes, refreshingly, that "[Sarah Bixby Smith] refused to be bitter over this abandonment by the man whose children she had supported and whom she had kept in such comfortable circumstances for these many years." It seems to me that she wouldn't have considered herself morally superior to her husbands and that she was intelligent enough to consider herself their equal in terms of being self-determining--that she would not have considered herself a victim, but a fully aware, self-determining participant in her own life. I hadn't thought that she was so weak-willed that she just couldn't say no to duplicitousness or to hopping into the sack with Paul Smith while she was still married to her first husband, or to any of their "caddish" behavior, or that she would have preferred to be considered as something other than a saint if her life were to be discussed 100 years later.

Per Artful Lives by Beth Gates Warren, "...[Paul Jordan] Smith was...offered a teaching position at the University of California, Berkeley, and because he was in the midst of a rather scandalous divorce (his second), he gladly seized the opportunity to escape [his previous post]. In due course, however, Smith's personal conduct once again provoked the public's ire. This time it was because of an affair he was conducting with the wife [Sarah] of the minister in whose Berkeley pulpit he had been substitute preaching. Smith, who indignantly maintained that the whole incident was a case of mistaken identity, took the opportunity to hyphenate his name.... However, the administrators at the University, unconvinced of his moral rectitude [which didn't seem to bother his new lover, Sarah, Mrs. Arthur Maxson Smith], insisted he forfeit his career as an academic. Jordan-Smith reluctantly complied, and as soon as his latest lover [Sarah] could obtain a divorce, the couple married and moved south to Claremont."

And according to Starr, "... the San Francisco newspapers spread the story of the two Reverend Smiths and the one Mrs. Smith across the front pages...". All of which is readily available to anyone who wants to find a fuller picture of the great, though not inhuman, lady. Little digging required.

There are quite a few pages describing Sarah marital exploits in Starr's book,
which can be read online here.

I do wish I had a picture of Kevin Starr's description "of an evening on Los Feliz Boulevard: over pasta and red wine, with everyone, including the plumpish Sarah, dancing Nijinsky-like at the end of the evening, Jake Zeitlin leading the dance like an Hebraic satyr cavorting on a Samarian hillside to the cymbals and lyre of a passing caravan."

Now if I had called you "hysterical"....



When not jousting with straw men ("she wouldn't have considered herself a victim"...an argument I didn't make), Bixby Smith continues to be trivialized as "Sarah" (men are referred to by their last names, but Bixby Smith is forever just "Sarah"), not much more than a bed mate: "his latest lover [Sarah]", "Sarah (sic) marital exploits", "his new lover, Sarah" or a buffoon, "the plumpish Sarah, dancing Nijinsky-like". "Do tell, Sarah".

BTW, "as soon as his latest lover [Sarah] could obtain a divorce, the couple married", rather finesses the situation. Bixbey Smith had her divorce, she was waiting for the final decree when she met her second husband in Berkeley (a weird legal lull that's been mercifully shortened these days). Is that the only point all this giggling prurience has been about? A bit slim and far from your usual standard. Man, if that's "LA's dark side" we haven't got one.

Kevin Starr cannot provide you with the wished-for photo, he wasn't there to take one. I'd take him with a big grain of salt anyway as he refers to Bixby Smith as "apolitical". She was very proud of being the granddaughter of Reverend George Hathaway, abolitionist, firm friend of suffragist Lucy Stone and a "conductor" on the Undeground Railway back in Skohegan Maine. As an active member of her Progressive political circle Bixby Smith seems to have born with good grace the harassment by the authorities, including the Feds (plenty of noir there if you care to look).

Anyway, you haven't provided us with anything yet that would cause Bixby Smith to be remembered as even a minor poster child for sexual profligacy, rather than (or even in addition to) her actual and considerable accomplishments (no offense to anyone here, but I doubt we'll still be widely read 75 years after our deaths) or your reasons for trying to. There seems to be something about Bixby Smith that really pushes your buttons. What's going on? Is it Bixby Smith's politics? Echos of Charles Mills Gayley's famously-deplored priggishness?

And LOL, you're more than welcome to call me "hysterical" GW, but until I exhibit some hysteria it won't mean much. But do it anyway, if you like, just please don't call me pigeon pie and eat me up (as my gran used to say). You've already labeled me a pendant, a buzzkill, ridiculous, a hagiographer and patronizing. Since you've been so generous, you lovable old codger, maybe I'll toss them all in a hat and pick a new username.

A note on the Bixby money: Bixby Smith was an heir to the Bixby fortune, but it seems a very minor part of it. She was the daughter of Llwellyn Bixby (not George, as one of your sources states). I seem to remember it was the Long Beach Bixbys who ended up with the the big bucks. The Llwellyn Bixby house at Court and Hill is indicative of their place in the scheme of things. Bixby Smith seems to have had enough to maintain her childhood middle to upper-middle-class lifestyle without too much worry. Her houses in Claremont and Los Feliz, while certainly comfortable homes, do not qualify as "mansions" by any definition used in LA then or now, no matter how Starr cares to spin it.

GaylordWilshire Mar 12, 2013 9:30 AM

:previous:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

GaylordWilshire Mar 12, 2013 12:47 PM

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ5aloCj6V...INKprelim4.jpgwilshireboulevardhouses.com


FULL STORY HERE: http://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogs...e-see-our.html


Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 6046910)
Assume one of these roofs to the right belonged to the property at 3974 Wilshire Tom n Toms, formerly Charlie Chan's Printing.
http://streetview.merchantcircle.com.../3/5930663.JPGhttp://farm5.staticflickr.com/4003/4...fd65328f_z.jpg


MichaelRyerson Mar 12, 2013 4:42 PM

Beautiful shot, couple of problems though...
 
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8526/8...66bb1ee4_o.jpg
Liberty, George Stevens, 1929

Still from Liberty, a Hal Roach/Laurel&Hardy short (20 mins) from 1929 shot by George Stevens (Shane, Giant) and directed by Leo McCarey (Going My Way, Duck Soup). Here are the boys high above Culver City(?) in a deft piece of staging on a mock-up built atop an existing structure. (I don't believe this is Culver City. It may be the confluence of Main Street, Broadway and Broadway Place. The angle of the sun tells us we're looking south) Is that the 10-story Railway Building over there with the Studebaker sign on it? You know, where Frank Clarke would have flown his Curtiss Jenny about ten years ago. That would be 11th and Broadway, so that would confirm this being Broadway, Broadway Place and Main Street, right? Okay, look over there at Main Street. Where's the pedestrian island and, more to the point, where's our ornate entrance to the subterranean comfort station? Had they simply not been installed yet by 1929? Thoughts?

www.leinwand-lyrik.de/LHP/Presse_Fotos.html

BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 5:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 6047951)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8526/8...66bb1ee4_o.jpg
Liberty, George Stevens, 1929

Still from Liberty, a Hal Roach/Laurel&Hardy short (20 mins) from 1929 shot by George Stevens (Shane, Giant) and directed by Leo McCarey (Going My Way, Duck Soup). Here are the boys high above Culver City(?) in a deft piece of staging on a mock-up built atop an existing structure. (I don't believe this is Culver City. It may be the confluence of Main Street, Broadway and Broadway Place. The angle of the sun tells us we're looking south) Is that the 10-story Railway Building over there with the Studebaker sign on it? You know, where Frank Clarke would have flown his Curtiss Jenny about ten years ago. That would be 11th and Broadway, so that would confirm this being Broadway, Broadway Place and Main Street, right? Okay, look over there at Main Street. Where's the pedestrian island and, more to the point, where's our ornate entrance to the subterranean comfort station? Had they simply not been installed yet by 1929? Thoughts?

www.leinwand-lyrik.de/LHP/Presse_Fotos.html




Not that I know much about downtown LA, but this is 9th looking toward 10th and Broadway. "We Sell Homes Pay Like Rent." Examiner Bldg to the right. Seems fair to conclude that the comfort station was not long-lived. However, in your photo, there does appear to be a comfort-like shadow to the right of Mr. Laurel's leg . . . . . There does not appear to be even a shadow in the '35 image below. Regarding what remnants might still exist, would expect that labor being relatively inexpensive, much of it would have been scavenged for any value prior to entombment. That does not mean surprises do not exist, since that is why they are called surprises.

Circa 1935
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013692.jpgLapl


BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 5:44 PM



I am from out of town and easily confused when it comes to Comfort Stations and with my eyes closed Broadway looks just like Main. With very little certainty, could this be an Island (1901) that evolved into a sand bar (1931) and with the help of seabees formed back to uninhabitable atoll (today)?

Circa '31
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0

Sorry if these vvv are troublesome.


http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0

For anyone keeping score: What a long road trip for the Gators.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0

Interesting ads for a 99 year ground lease and the Champ at the Chinese.
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...%20&DMROTATE=0


__________________________


1939
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...ain&DMROTATE=0

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


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

All from USC Digital






MichaelRyerson Mar 12, 2013 5:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BifRayRock (Post 6047990)
[COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="2"][FONT="Tahoma"]


Not that I know much about downtown LA, but this is 9th looking toward 10th and Broadway. "We Sell Homes Pay Like Rent." Examiner Bldg to the right. Seems fair to conclude that the comfort station was not long-lived. However, in your photo, there does appear to be a comfort-like shadow to the right of Mr. Laurel's leg . . .

I took the 'shadow' to the right of Mr. Laurel's leg to be the corner of the roof of a passing P&E car.

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 6:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRyerson (Post 6046666)
I don't know about the rest of you guys but the truncated pics are pretty much useless to me.

I AGREE. I don't even look at them any longer. I just scroll past them.

It's one thing to find an interesting detail/close-up and post it with the entire photograph.
It's another to post an endless line of seamless chopped up photos. They're unbearable to look at.
__

GaylordWilshire Mar 12, 2013 6:39 PM

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7...2520PM.bmp.jpgHuntington Digital Library


Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckaluck (Post 6044958)
Where 9th and Spring and Main converge - revisited

Any idea about FoX Kiddies? Is it an appendage of Fox Movies for children or a retailer for children's clothes/toys? (Looks like a theater but hard to tell.)

Circa 1917
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...and&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...and&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...and&DMROTATE=0http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/utils/...and&DMROTATE=0USC Digital


I thought maybe it was Fox's "Kiddies" Theater--turns out "Fox Kiddies" was a division of...Fox. The theater was actually Miller's, which had several name changes before being bought by Fox in the mid-'20s. Mr. Miller also owned the California Theatre up the block, variously known as Miller's California and Miller's New Theatre--pretty confusing. BRR recently did a big post on it here.

For more on the theatres Miller, and for even more pics of Ninth & Main from various sources, see Historic Los Angeles Theatres' pages on the Miller here and on the California here.

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 6:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 6046708)
The highly enlarged fragments are interesting as long as there is an accompanying shot of the complete, if small, pic.

....and is it possible to separate the chopped up photos so they don't appear so damn abstract?

__

BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 6:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 4799246)
Boy, wasn't Coulter's a beautiful example of streamline moderne.
Here are a few photos I have of the store.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/126...s1938thent.jpg
usc digital archive
Above: At this point it was no longer Coulter's.

Below: A close up of it's wonderful lines.
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5...s1938detai.jpg
usc digital archive

This elegant building survived until 1980.




Has this image somehow been overlooked on this thread? (I've looked, maybe just not enough. )

1938
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00101/00101387.jpgLapl

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 6:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kznyc2k (Post 6047339)
Hey er, wanna buy this house and perhaps spare it from demolition? Asking price is a cool $1.28 mil :)

http://imageshack.us/a/img10/999/scr...30312at123.png

I am sorry to say, I don't have that much in my coffers at the moment kznyc2k. :(
__

BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 7:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6048196)
and is it possible to space them apart, so they don't appear so abstract.



Not to be a spoil sport, on my screen the enlarged images are together, i.e., not disjointed puzzles. (I can achieve puzzle status by zooming in or out of a page.) I had hoped most could view them as complete images. Inserting a space between each part makes them distorted on my end, and if no one else can appreciate them, I guess I will avoid the USC site or try another hosting system. My equipment is not particularly new, and I noted before that I have viewed the enlarged images successfully on other systems that are not mine. Could it be that others are filtering things or using much older monitors? Seems doubtful. Those that can see the images, it might be helpful if you chimed in.

Comparing some of these enlarged higher-resolution posts to their lower resolution siblings is analogous to Oz versus Kansas. I had been hoping that most could view rather than avoid them.

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 7:09 PM

:previous: I'm just not understanding this.

Can't the images be 'Screen Saved' and then manipulated on a home computer?
__

BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 7:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 6048195)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-7...2520PM.bmp.jpgHuntington Digital Library

I thought maybe it was Fox's "Kiddies" Theater--turns out "Fox Kiddies" was a division of...Fox. The theater was actually Miller's, which had several name changes before being bought by Fox in the mid-'20s. Mr. Miller also owned the California Theatre up the block, variously known as Miller's California and Miller's New Theatre--pretty confusing. BRR recently did a big post on it here.

For more on the theatres Miller, and for even more pics of Ninth & Main from various sources, see Historic Los Angeles Theatres' pages on the Miller here and on the California here.




Looks like another view of the Comfort Station.:)

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014338.jpgLapl

BifRayRock Mar 12, 2013 7:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 6048266)
:previous: I'm just not understanding this.

Can't the images be 'Screen Saved' and then manipulated on a home computer in the picture or document files?




That seems to work in reverse from stitched images on the Noirish site. I tried what you are suggesting from the SC site and found it hit or miss, hence the musing for a grid from which one could assemble or reassemble an image. Once getting it right, it failed to translate as a whole image when moving to a host site. Again, it seems like a few folks are getting it. Will revisit this later when I have more time.

Sorry for the confusion and thanks.

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 7:38 PM

That's fine BifRayRock.
__

so-cal-bear Mar 12, 2013 7:41 PM

I agree about the cut up photos being annoying!
 
.

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 7:58 PM

...just to demonstrate a point (no offense Chuckaluck)


compare to this...

http://imageshack.us/a/img441/5323/aaberspringmain.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=2276

This is from my post in 2010...before the nightmare began at usc digital archives. In the earlier post, I had said
"I hope to God that girl isn't strangling a puppy." lol -I don't remember writing that at all!
__


This view is looking north where Spring and Main converge (just above 9th Street)

ethereal_reality Mar 12, 2013 9:04 PM

http://imageshack.us/a/img5/2735/aab...famousmicr.jpg
color slide/ebay-possibly a Cushman

As most of you probably know, the United Artists building is being renovated into an Ace Hotel.

below: a work in progress.

Kingofthehill
http://imageshack.us/a/img856/6916/a...ngofthehil.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6581





Kingofthehill
http://imageshack.us/a/img822/6916/a...ngofthehil.jpg
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6581


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