Aftermath of the reservoir collapse.



http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/9...dwinrapids.jpg
LAPL




http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1...amage1963a.jpg
LAPL



http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7...amage1963b.jpg
LAPL


http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/1...damage1963.jpg
LAPL



http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8...naftermath.jpg
LAPL


The Baldwin Hills Disaster caused the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power to phase out small regional reservoirs.


________

Mr. Bengston, I'm certain, could identify it. Unfortunately I can't find my copy of "Silent Echoes" to see if he's already done so.

Baldwin Hills Flood
 

Great post etheral_reality! I don't think I was ever aware of the reservoir collapse and flood and the photos are quite disturbing. I dealt with the aftermath of a flood, a few years back, when a vacation home that I owned in Sonoma Couty was destroyed by a massive flood. aaand don't get me started on FEMA :yuck:

Anywho, I was just chatting with a long-time neighbor of mine who I knew grew up in Baldwin Hills. Even though she was only eight at the time, she remembers the collapse very well.

Their house was not damaged by the mud flow, fortunately, but she recalls her dad boosting her up so that she could look over their backyard wall and see the flow.

Her most vivid recollection of it was that there were what seemed like hundreds of shiny and colorful Christmas ornaments dotting the sludge and a large hollow plastic Santa spinning around on the currents.

Obviously, since the flood was just 10 days before Christmas, a lot of decorated trees had been swept into the flow.

She told me that, being eight, she was on the fence about believing in Santa Claus, but that experience convinced her he didn't exist. Poor kid!

Thought I would share her memories on here, she's a great person and loves her Los Angeles!

~Jon Paul

:previous: That's a great story Jon Paul....
especially the part about the hundreds of shiny Christmas ornaments stuck in the sludge.
No wonder she remembers it after all these years.

Have we seen this 1932 drive though Hollywood before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3BXhNIIRMA


It includes glimpses of Chaplin's studio seen recently in color shots posted by Handsome Stranger...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...2520PM.bmp.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...2520PM.bmp.jpgUSC

Apparently there was to be an exposition of some sort in Los Angeles in the early '40s, no doubt derailed by the war.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-O...2520PM.bmp.jpgHathi Trust

:previous:
Wow, just Wow! I've been a big fan of expositions and world's fairs...so much so that I started a World's Fair thread
entitled 'Ephemeral Cities' several years ago...http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=178168

I have never come across any information on this proposed 'Pacific Mercado' exposition.
Good find G_W!

Wow...nice find! I'm having fun trying to identify the buildings and locations in each shot. I love the lengthy shot of United Artists Studios on Santa Monica Blvd., but I'm a bit puzzled by the building that sits at an angle as the studio comes into view. Would that be the Formosa Cafe? If so, at some point the original building must have been torn down and the current building erected in its place.

A postcard view of the Hollywood Palladium and the Columbia Broadcast System's western headquarters on Sunset Boulevard.


http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8...diumhugece.jpg
postcard via Cesar Del Valle



The Headliner in the above postcard is Freddy Martin and his Orchestra.


http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6...edsreduced.jpg
amazon




http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/7...diumfromra.jpg
radiocityhollywood




below: The vast interior of the Hollywood Palladium featured a round dance floor.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9...diuminteri.jpg
LAPL



below: Freddy Martin in the 1943 movie 'Stage Door Canteen'.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9...ymartinsta.jpg
H.R. Studios




below: Freddy Martin received billing in numerous movies in the 1940s.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/186...diumposter.jpg
movieposter_w

What's Buzz'in Cousin?



In 1947 Freddy Martin wrote the song 'Pico and Sepulveda' under the alias Felix Figueroa.

This should be our theme song here at 'noirish los angeles'. Click on the link below.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8...ndsepulved.jpg
forbidden zone

Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-DGz...eature=related


_____

I absolutely agree e_r! I love Dr. Demento and Freddy Martin (Felix Figueroa) AND Ann Miller!!!!

Who else here remembers Ann Miller dancing on a soup can?

~Jon Paul

five, four, three, two, one......
 

Ann Miller dancing on the can for Great American Soups 1970's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jU2pl7bqKg

Love her makin a production out of everything :D

~Jon Paul

Hi everybody,

I have been enjoying this site for the past few months. At this
point, I don’t even remember how I first found it. Other sites on
old Los Angeles were o.k. but I was always left only partially
satisfied. Noirish Los Angeles has everything; fabulous old pictures,
lessons on architecture, great stories (and pictures) of family
members living in Southern California, bar fights, gangsters,
punk rock concerts, murders, suicides, and Hollywood intrigue.
It’s like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates; you never know what
you are going to get.

I worked for over 20 years for a printing and photography company
in the Little Tokyo area. I have a few things I’d like to post, so I
might as well give it a shot. Thank you all for sharing your great
photos and vast knowledge with the rest of us.



Way back on page 65, gsjansen posted the following photo, which
I recognized immediately. This photo was taken by my old boss
Earl Witscher, who owned the company I worked for. The second
photo was taken on the same flight and shows a different angle. They
both from about 1965, I believe.

Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service Inc.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7325/downtown2.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service, Inc.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5896/downtown1.jpg

City Produce Market
 

On page 96, etheral reality posted this picture of the City Produce Market from back around 1900:

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2...ducemarket.jpg
USC

This is my old neighborhood. Take a look at these two buildings in the picture:

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/233...ducemarket.jpg
USC

The building in front (the one under construction) was the Produce Exchange Building and the one in the back has a sign which I believe says Towne Produce Co.

These two buildings are still there and look like this today:

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/4052/333scentral.jpg
Google Street View

Here is the neighborhood today:

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/603/market6.jpg
Bing Maps

Number 1 is the area where the wagons were parked. This building is now the Little Tokyo Shopping Center (better known as the Yaohan Plaza).

Number 2 is the old Produce Exchange Building, which was constructed about 1908.

Number 3 is the old Town Produce Co., built around 1906.

Number 4 is where I worked for 20 years when it was Modernage Photo Service. An interesting fact is that the description on the property tax records for the building is Wolfskill Orchard Tract. I believe that Third Street was the northern boundary of the tract.

Ann Miller Milner
 

:previous:

FredH: Welcome to the thread--might I say, you've made quite an auspicious debut. I don't think it would have occurred to me that anything in those produce market shots would still be standing.


And speaking of
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...illerstill.jpg,

the scion of the family behind the
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-a...2520AM.bmp.jpg,

pictured with his wife here
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-y...4%252520PM.jpg,

gave her and quickly took away our Ann's only child in a particularly brutal way:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-5...7%252520PM.jpg.


Read all about this little-known noir-era episode in which Hollywood clashed with the Los Angeles establishment in the story of #7 Berkeley Square:

http://berkeleysquarelosangeles.blog...ner-house.html

In it, you will see Ann dance in Easter Parade while wearing a back brace as a result of the treatment given her by Reese Llewellyn Milner.


Photo credits from top: LAPL, MGM, Fanpix, Findagrave

Little Tokyo
 

This shot was taken sometime before the 1971 earthquake:

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9...ttletokyo3.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service Inc.

Little Tokyo today:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/5...ttletokyo1.jpg
Google Maps

Interesting note: Sometime , I believe in the late 1980's, the building shown below was stripped down to the steel frame...

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/558/littletokyo2.jpg
Earl Witscher, Modernage Photo Service Inc.

...and this was built up around it. I have no idea how they pulled it off.

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5...ttletokyo4.jpg
Google Maps


Some Little Tokyo noire (neo-noire actually)

This screen grab is from the 1975 movie Farewell My Lovely with Robert Mitchum playing Philip Marlowe. That is Jack O'Halloran playing Moose Malloy

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8...llmylovely.jpg
Farewell My Lovely (1975) - E.K. Corp.

The scene was shot inside the Far East Cafe on First Street. The Far East Cafe was closed for a few years after the 1994 earthquake, and I
have not been in there since it reopened. Prior to the earthquake,
the interior still looked like the screen grab 15 years later.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/6398/fareastcafe.jpg
Google Street View

(Emphasis mine)

Sadly, this is what was lost. When the County took over in 1953, the merchants and whatever residents there might still have been were sent packing and the buildings were padlocked. I consider it likely that the local storefronts and inhabitants were thought to represent the quintessence of urban blight--poor, transit-dependent people renting rooms in the Pico House and depending on cheap cafes, stores, and other businesses in the area. More so on Bunker Hill, but also to a definite extent in the Plaza, the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 60s might better be termed suburban renewal, because it was largely a suburban aesthetic that was imposed. In the Plaza area, most of the historic buildings were cleared away not only for parking lots, but also simply to be replaced by bits of greenery here and there whose siting made them anything but inviting--but if you knock down an old building you have to put something in its place anyhow.

Recently I brought an out-of-town colleague to La Golandrina, and as we drove past the Plaza he asked if there was a street festival going on. Of course there wasn't; it was just the ordinary summer evening rush, so I guess we can be grateful that the area does yet live, in spite of everything that's been done to it.

Welcome to the thread FredH! I thought your first three posts were amazing.

I didn't know the triangular building was the Produce Exchange Building.
To be truthful, I didn't recognize it in the old market photograph until you pointed it out. Thank you for that information.

The additional Earl Witscher aerial was a treat as well.

Such amazing posts FredH! Thanks for posting such great pics. I've been staring at the large photo of Little Tokyo for a while now.



I totally agree with you about the suburban aesthetic. It's a shame that so much was torn down in the Plaza area.

What'd your colleague think of La Golondrina? I really like that restaurant.

You can just make out the Dan-Dee Shoe Repair Shop at the far right. Amazingly, it's still there, or at least it was into the mid-2000's when I drove by there the last time.

ETA: According to James Lileks' website, the large corner building became a Hody's Coffee Shop some years later. How many years later I don't know, but from the cars I'd say the picture on the other website must have been taken sometime in the 1960s.

Lileks mentions the Dan-Dee shop as well, which is how I knew to look for it.