Infamous Hollywood madam, Brenda Allen (possible ties to Elizabeth Short).


http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9...llenmadamb.jpg
usc digital archive

Elk's beauty contest in Long Beach, 1935.


http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/670...utycontest.jpg
ucla archive

Cummings Block, northwest corner of 1st Street & Boyle Ave.


http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/995...sblocknwco.jpg
ucla archive






Below: Martz Flats at 7th & Flower Streets, 1965.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/eTw76i.jpg
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/7...atsat7thfl.jpg
ucla archive






Below: St. Angelo Hotel, 237 N. Grand Ave.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/318...ohotel237n.jpg
ucla archive

i'll look for some color smog photos, but in the meantime, this should do nicely

1st and hill looking east 1947

http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/ima...caleFactor=1.2
UCLA Digital Collections/L.A. Times photo Archive

cough....cough....:slob:

Welcome, Tykxboy! I haven't dropped-in for a few days, so I didn't realize you had already contributed. Told ya you'd be hooked!

A post-script on the Doheny Mansion: A while back I posted about Greystone Mansion, which was built by Edward Doheny. But there is also a building in West Adams that is popularly known as "Doheny Mansion", which is now owned by Mount St. Mary's College.

Below: Doheny Mansion, 8 Chester Place (1899, Eisen/Hunt)

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics24/00061655.jpg
[LAPL]

Although the mansion was not originally commissioned by the Dohenys, they bought it from the original owner within about a year of its construction.

Big Orange Landmarks has written about this property with more authority than I ever could, but I just wanted to point it out.

Below: Doheny Mansion today. According to BOL, the Dohenys made some major changes to the original structure.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/...55f83a95d5.jpg
[Big Orange Landmarks]

Ohhhhh yeah. I can tell you a little bit about the Golden Gopher, back when my liver was young and and I drank a lot of two-dollar double whiskies with beer backs in smoky bars with old men. Ah, the romance of youth. Some kids go to Paris. Anyway.

The Golden Gopher was mostly a Mexican joint, work clothes and cowboy hats, played Norteño music sometimes but mostly it was real quiet and guys just stared into their glasses. Bartender reading the racing form on his stool. Here's a pic I took of the GG back in the day:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/...e1c4ee62_o.gif

When it got bought we were all very worried that the neon would disappear...but we got lucky with this one. The inside, now, 110% different. Still dark, but upscale, the people are pretty and the drinks pricy.

Speaking of the Hotel Bristol: rent Fight Club -- which you should do anyway -- Helena Bonham Carter's character Marla lives in the Bristol, there's some good shots in the lobby, going in and out, the hallways, the neon "Italian Kitchen" sign across the street.

Oh yeah, and the word around town is that the Bristol is going to get a "D-Town Burger" which also opened in the Hotel Hayward on 6th about a year ago. Now, here's the problem with that, or at least my issue with it.

D-town does a retro-50s thing, super brightly illuminated, black and white tile and faux Elvis and Marilyn kitsch Johnny Rockets thing. Which is all fine and good, in its place, I suppose. But not in the 1906 Woodward/Bristol, with bay windows. How many buildings in Los Angeles have bay windows?! And then you put a big bright faux-fifties diner in it? I don't know. It's just too...

...shiny.

:previous:
Oh yes, I do recall a little sign saying that a D-town Burger was going in. And that Club El Gaucho is still in business, apparently. I wasn't enthused with the ground floor alteration with the large paned clear windows.

Beaudry, I love the picture you posted of the Golden Gopher. Did you ever go into the Italian Kitchen? I'm curious to know what the food might've been like, and when it closed. That whole block looks like it was forgotten by time. It also reminds me somewhat of the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

My father does Karaoke at Club El Gaucho. It caters to the Latino crowd. I doubt if it stays in business another two years. The owner owns three other clubs that are all pretty much the same...

great pictures, wonderful history
 

I've been watching this thread for several months, and I absolutely adore it! Wonderful historical pictures and history from you guys. Thanks again.

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/fl...gs/g58-008.jpg
CSL

I don't think I've ever seen this picture before--
a house at the southwest corner of Hill and 3rd.
Note the the Crocker house above, atop Bunker Hill.

I found some better early shots:

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/laci/1998-0537.jpgCSL

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/ma...artin-6275.jpgCSL

Btw, an excellent book is Bohemian Los Angeles by Daniel Hurewitz.

^^^That's quite an impressive residence!

I'll have to try and find 'Bohemian Los Angeles'.

I'm currently reading a book on Los Angeles' corruption in the 1920s,
'A Bright and Guilty Place' by Richard Rayner.

http://www.brightandguiltyplace.com/

Six photographs from a panorama taken in 1913.


http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8...ive7th1913.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9...ve7th1913a.jpg

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3...ve7th1913b.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/763...ve7th1913c.jpg

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1...ve7th1913d.jpg

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/242...ve7th1913e.jpg


All the photographs are from the USC Digital Archive.

The Elaine Apartment Hotel at 1245 Vine Street in 1954.


http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/171...partmentho.jpg
usc digital archive


Frank Sinatra, Man Ray, and Orson Welles have all called the Elaine home at one time or another.

The 'Jester Room' looks like a great cocktail lounge.

An abandoned well in the hills of Elysian Park, 1956.


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4...elysianpar.jpg
ucla

A 1937 photograph of Flower Street from 7th.


http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6...r7thst1937.jpg
usc digital archive

Gates of Berkeley Square
 

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067265.jpgLAPL

The gates of Berkeley Square were designed by Alfred Rosenheim, who also gave us the Hellman Building, Hamburger's Department Store, and Clune's Broadway Theater downtown as well as the Doheny conservatory and natatorium in Chester Place and the Britt house and the Second Church of Christ Scientist, both still on Adams.


FOR A COMPLETE HISTORY AND HOUSE-BY-HOUSE SURVEY OF BERKELEY SQUARE, see berkeleysquarelosangeles.blogspot.com

Here is an interesting shot of the church under construction, and one of it finished:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075483.jpgLAPL

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics51/00075490.jpgLAPL

Below: Another view of the Hotel Bristol vacinity back in the day.


http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9...fsspring5t.jpg
usc digital archive

Cast-off props from Republic Studios along the Los Angeles River in 1956.


http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2...propsfromr.jpg
ucla