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rcarlton Feb 22, 2012 1:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5599051)

Robert Wagner?

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 2:15 AM

:previous:

...and his maroon '47 Cadillac....

Illithid Dude Feb 22, 2012 2:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarlton (Post 5600048)
Another Ansel Adams showing a typical street:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00085/00085742.jpghttp://jpg1.lapl.org/00085/00085742.jpg


Circa 1940.

What street is this? It's actually very pretty. I wonder how well it has held up over the years.

ethereal_reality Feb 22, 2012 2:43 AM

:previous: We should put our inquiring minds together and try to figure it out the name this street. I have a couple possibilities.
Off I go to Google Street Views! :)

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 3:14 AM

:previous:

e_r: You might come up with something that's closer, but barring a match of buildings, I suggest Alexandria north from about 6th St.:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle

ethereal_reality Feb 22, 2012 3:31 AM

Earlier this week I came across this disheartening view on Alvarado Street near MacArthur Park (formerly Westlake Park).

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1...tergoogle1.jpg
google street view


above: I noticed the 'Westlake Mall' with it's pseudo-marquee and wondered if it used to be a theater.





below: In this straight-on view I couldn't help but notice the terrazzo sidewalk design...another hint that the property used to be a theater.

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5...atergoogle.jpg
google street view



below: Next, I found this photo of the 'Westlake Mall' in 2005. The deterioration between 2005 & 2011 is palpable.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2...ertodayken.jpg
Ken Roe & William Gabel




below: By using the street address of 710 S. Alvarado Street, I finally found a photograph of the 'Westlake Mall' as a movie theater!!!

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4...ercalisphe.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/

Let me present the Art Moderne Alvarado Theater in 1936!
(but the caption said this was a remodel by famed architect S.Charles Lee)

I highly doubted I would be able to find a photo prior to the Art Moderne makeover.





But finally, after several more searches I found this photo of the Alvarado Theater before the S. Charles Lee makeover.
The original theater was a pleasant neo-classical design with four corinthian columns and a star embedded pediment.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7...er1936cali.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/



below: One last view of the 750 seat Alvarado Theater in it's prime.

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4...ercalisphe.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/


Mission Accomplished! :)


___

Steve Hoffman Feb 22, 2012 4:13 AM

Very impressive. Langers is still there? It's also a subway stop, isn't it?

rick m Feb 22, 2012 4:21 AM

[QUOTE=ethereal_reality;5600194]Earlier this week I came across this disheartening view on Alvarado Street near MacArthur Park (formerly Westlake Park).

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1...tergoogle1.jpg
google street view


above: I noticed the 'Westlake Mall' with it's pseudo-marquee and wondered if it used to be a thea


below: In this straight-on view I couldn't help but notice the terrazzo sidewalk design...another hint that the property used to be a theater.

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5...atergoogle.jpg
google street view



below: Next, I found this photo of the 'Westlake Mall' in 2005. The deterioration between 2005 & 2011 is palpable.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2...ertodayken.jpg
Ken Roe & William Gabel




below: By using the street address of 710 S. Alvarado Street, I finally found a photograph of the 'Westlake Mall' as a movie theater!!!

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4...ercalisphe.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/

Let me present the Art Moderne Alvarado Theater in 1936...
but the caption stated that this is a remodel by famed architect S.Charles Lee.
I immediately wondered if I would be able to find a photograph before the remodel.





below: Eureka! I finally found this photo of the Alvarado Theater before the S. Charles Lee makeover.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/7...er1936cali.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/



below: One last view of the 750 seat Alvarado Theater in it's prime.

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/4...ercalisphe.jpg
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1c6017px/


Mission Accomplished! :)

Hmm- This was also the Park male adult theater - late 60s to early 70s- Home to legendary Pat Rocco's ballsy beefcake extravaganzas- always luridly advertised inside L.A.Free Press (earlier in H.Examiner adult entertainment page) These ads endlessly fascinated my 9th/10th/11th grade mind!

ethereal_reality Feb 22, 2012 4:32 AM

:previous: That's really interesting rick_m.
It would be great to dig up some of those adult advertisements from the L.A. Free Press.

I've often wondered where the elusive Park Theater was located.
I've heard rumors it was located in the Wilshire District but I never quite figured out the exact address.

It would be quite serendipitous if it turned out to be the Alvarado Theater.

___

ethereal_reality Feb 22, 2012 4:49 AM

Whoa...accidentally hit post. My bad

3940dxer Feb 22, 2012 7:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman (Post 5600253)
Very impressive. Langers is still there? It's also a subway stop, isn't it?

Langer's is still there, and it is a FANTASTIC restaurant.

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 1:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality (Post 5600277)
That's really interesting rick_m.
It would be great to dig up some of those adult advertisements from the L.A. Free Press.

I've often wondered where the elusive Park Theater was located.
I've heard rumors it was located in the Wilshire District but I never quite figured out the exact address.

It would be quite serendipitous if it turned out to be the Alvarado Theater.

___

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...2520AM.bmp.jpgCinema Treasures

No exact address for the Park in this ad... but it is listed in L.A. CDs in the late '60s at... 710 S Alvarado :fruit: (no idea why this emoticon has the name it does, but it seemed appropriate on a couple of levels...)

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 1:32 PM

Three eras of FIAT in Los Angeles
 
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-t...2/fiat1917.jpgAlden Jewell
Circa 1912: South Hope at 10th Street (Olympic Blvd.); the building is gone.


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...iatvermont.jpgAlden Jewell
Circa 1960: 155 N. Vermont at Council; the building is gone, though not the apartment building seen at right.


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...2520AM.bmp.jpgGoogle
Circa 2012: Back to Auto Row; 2025 S. Figueroa at 21st St.


Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino: Same logo since 1899.

transitfan Feb 22, 2012 3:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman (Post 5600253)
Very impressive. Langers is still there? It's also a subway stop, isn't it?

Yes, the Westlake/MacArthur Park station of the Metro Red and Purple lines is close by.

Engineeral Feb 22, 2012 6:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5600514)
Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino: Same logo since 1899.

Fix It Again, Tony!

3940dxer Feb 22, 2012 7:40 PM

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/LAPL00049510.800.jpg
http://www.lapl.org/

Unfortunately, this remarkable place was very short lived. On October 27, 1918 the Lookout Mountain Inn was totally destroyed in a fire. As the L.A. Times explains below, the blaze was blamed on "glowing embers left behind by a party of boys having a sausage bake in the Sherman foothills".

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/10-27-18.Fire.jpg
http://search.proquest.com/hnplatime...ccountid=11124


Like I said in my first post, the few sites that mentioned the Lookout Mountain Inn were unclear about its location and what took its place. A February 27, 1927 Times article announced the completion of a $30,000 mansion "at the summit of Lookout Mountain" for ad executive Chet Crank, and a myth has spread the this amazing mansion, at 8782 Appian Way, is old site of the Inn.

There's another layer to this, stemming from the purchase of this property by Lew Ayres, husband of Ginger Rogers and star of All Quiet On The Western Front, Young Doctor Kildare, etc. Some websites call 8782 the Ginger Rogers house, and one (http://takesunset.com/2010/06/ginger...canyon-estate/) even claims that the house was built for her and Lew in 1927. Pretty unlikely since Lew was then 19, Miss Rogers was 16, and they weren't wed until 1934!

Regardless of when they moved in, and whether Ginger Rogers ever lived there, it is a stunning home. Before moving on, here are some quick photos:

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/G...yon-estate.jpg


http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/20_10457527_0.jpg


http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/8...pian-Way-6.jpg
http://takesunset.com/2010/06/ginger...canyon-estate/

I spent two afternoons hiking all around Appian Way and tried to picture the Inn at this spot, but it just didn't feel right. Mostly, I was bothered that 8782, the dark gray structure almost hidden behind the A, was on the down slope side of Appian Way, not on the plateau. It's hard to tell much from the satellite image, but the contours of the hill didn't look right to me, or the roads leading up to it. And the lot faces Beverly Hills, not downtown. Here are the images, so you can see what I mean.

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/A...out.merge2.jpg


Next stop was the L.A. Central Library. To my surprise their L.A. history section had very little on Laurel Canyon, but a book called Hollywood Then And Now had one major clue -- a "now" photo of the Lookout Inn site. The author didn't give the location or street names, but the "now" photo showed a big electrical tower. There are only a few such towers in the area and by following the path of the high voltage wires in Google Satellite I was able to find the same tower and thus the original site of the Inn. Here's a larger version of the original photo, followed by a panoramic shot I took a few days ago:

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/Lookout.Inn.1200.jpg

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Lookout/PanoramaB4.jpg

It was hazy when I took this photo, but on a clear day one can see Hollywood, mid city, and downtown, just like in the original photo.

The hilltop site was re-graded and the summit road was realigned. The old white fenced road on the left that slopes down to the east was moved to the top of the hill, At the gates and the speed bump it becomes a private road for one block and then connects with the old Cole Crest Drive, which continues east. There is also a short private road to its left -- hidden by trees, behind the wooden phone pole. Moving the main road and adding the other spur road allowed the property to be divided into more lots.

The dirt road in the foreground is now McLeod Drive, which winds around to the back of the hill that overlooks the Inn site. This hill is near where the photographer stood when the old photo was taken and is in fact the summit of Lookout Mountain, as indicated by a survey marker. I'd bet that guests at the Inn often took this 10 minute walk up this path to the summit. The smaller road on the passenger side of the white car looks like it was just a trail in the old days, but is now the eastern end of Blue Heights Drive, overlooking Brier Drive and Walnut Drive.

Finally, we have the road that curves off in the right foreground. It's barely visible in the older photo, but the direction of the fence shows that this was indeed a road in 1927. Today this is the other side of Blue Heights Drive, which intersects with Sunset Plaza Drive, about 2 blocks west.

Here's a small Google map of the area. The large black square marks the Inn site and the small one indicates the summit. The red square indicates 8782 Appian Way. (I believe that the Blue Heights Drive label is incorrect -- I think it should be overlaid upon the unlabeled road to the left.)

http://dkse.net/david/Lookout/LMI.closeup.map3.jpg
http://www.google.com/

The actual summit, with the Inn site in the background. Downtown L.A. can be seen to the left of the tower.

http://dkse.net/david/Lookout/LMI.summit.JPG

The summit marker.

http://dkse.net/david/Lookout/summit.marker.JPG

This is probably a good stopping point for this post but there's more, if people are interested in additional photos and details about the area. I'm still trying to identify some the old roads and will post about them later.

TO BE CONTINUED

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 8:53 PM

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-A...2520PM.bmp.jpgAlden Jewell
1958: 1440 N. Vine, Hollywood

...and now:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle


This also clears up that mystery that I know has been gnawing at you: Apparently Hillcrest Motor Co. did have a branch aside from its 9230 Wilshire store--the lamppost in the first shot below indicates that it was in Hollywood. Apparently Hillcrest left its Hollywood Boulevard location (second pic below) for 1440 N. Vine and was there at least until 1956, by which time it was given over to Clarence Dixon.



Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5595223)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F...2520PM.bmp.jpg
Alden Jewell
A shot of a prior showroom of Hillcrest Cadillac, 1949; the dealership was at 9230 Wilshire then, but the lamppost here
is not one with the typical and long-standing Wilshire Blvd-in-BH base seen in the other pictures. Maybe they had a
satellite showroom somewhere else in L.A.....


Edit: Still don't know where the above showroom might have been, but apparently there was once a Hillcrest branch in this building at the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Orange:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle


AlpineM3 Feb 22, 2012 9:39 PM

Hello all, just wanted to say this thread is amazing!!!!

Being an L.A native (born in 82) and thinking I knew everything there was about L.A my fascination begun with downtown L.A's past whilst playing the game L.A Noire. I found myself googling and dug deeper into the authenticity of the surroundings the characters roamed in. Much to my surprise, Rockstar games did a stupendous job with it and in teaching me there was much more to L.A than I ever thought.

All that being said, here I am and can't say enough about how sad and proud I am to be an Angelino.....the pictures displayed make my blood bubble with excitement, but with anger at the same time. The truth of the matter is that as much as I love Los Angeles, can we only imagine how much more beautiful it would be if all those buildings still existed! Makes me so angry that so much was lost, take for example the rail cars!!!!! We're having to spend millions on a system that we already had! One that was very extensive and easily better than Chicago's and rivaled that of NY's! So frustrating!!!!

My gf lives in Chicago so I travel back and forth at least once a month and have to say (as much as I hate to) that they have incorporated the right blend of old with new architecture thus giving the downtown feel something very original or at least unlike anything i've ever experienced and wished L.A could have....the maddening part is that we did! (still do, but in no way near the same shape their buildings are, yet!). She raves to me how awesome Chicago is yada yada yada yada........Excuse me if any of you are Chicago natives, but the cities are so different it would be unfair to even compare, not saying one is better or much more beautiful than the other, but L.A is L.A and I love it for being L.A and wouldn't want it any other way!

Also with that said, I am proud of all that has been happening and is to come downtown....many new projects and restorations going up by the minute it seems. I'm a part of many other threads like this one and follow tons of blogs and other sites that have to do with the latest news of what's going on downtown....be proud of your city and to those posting all of these fascinating pics I say keep up the great work! All of you are truly doing a great deed by putting all of this valuable information out there for those to come can see.

Ethereal - I see you have Chicago posted as your location, are you a native of Chicago or L.A? Neither? I've read up to page 61 so far and haven't been able to figure it out!

Btw- I live in Rancho Cucamonga and haven't seen anything yet about the SB or Riverside county!!!!! I know its not L.A County, but still pretty important! Also, Anybody have pictures of all the racetracks and hot rod shops like Mickey Thompson's in Long Beach, Shelby Motors in El Segundo or even old Irwindale and Culver City Speedway!

Again, kudos to all of you and look forward to all of your updates!

Steve Hoffman Feb 22, 2012 9:48 PM

David,

Great LOOKOUT MTN. detective work. I'm impressed! You definitely found it!

GaylordWilshire Feb 22, 2012 10:54 PM

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e...2520PM.bmp.jpgVintage Los Angeles

It's the vivid dress that makes it, I suppose, but I love this shot north on Vine Street from Fountain. Per
the source: "1313 Vine Street in Hollywood during the 1950s...the Don Lee Mutual Broadcasting Building.
Also home to KHJ, and the ABC Vine Theater [which] broadcasted... American Bandstand, The Newlywed
Game and the Joey Bishop Show to name a few...."


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-M...2520PM.bmp.jpgGoogle


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