Have a great day tomorrow noirish fathers!

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...921/KenUle.jpg
1920s http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/06/prweb4137464.htm

I'm outta' town til Monday......have fun everyone!
__

With the low angle and lens foreshortening, I initially didn't realize that the cross street in this Julius Shulman image was Wilshire Boulevard. This is "Job 3872: Crown Apartments, 1965".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original

The second shot shows the other side of the apartments from Lindbrook Drive.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original

Both from Getty Research Institute

The Crown Towers at 10701 Wilshire Boulevard still look much the same today.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original
GSV

Back in Sept. this photo appeared. I'm commenting because I am probably one of a handful of people, not involved in the production or working at Universal, who actually saw this thing.

The story was that in Sept 1973 I took a room in the house at 3331 Blair Dr. That's up the hill off of Barham/Cahuenga. The development on the west side of Barham is Hollywood Manor, the east side is Hollywood Knolls. Tracts developed in the 20's, both were fairly advanced, with underground utilities, concrete lampposts etc.

Anyway, the house had as it's rear boundary the back lot of Universal. At that time it was just bare hills with a couple of roads running through. The studio mainly used this portion of the lot for Western locales. I recall going down to the fence, this was probably late '73, and seeing a young actor named Martin Sheen shooting a scene in a made for TV production called The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd. In '74 one night they burned a big cross on one of the hills, so I went down to the fence again, and the guy told me it was for The Night Stalker, a Darren McGavin series.

Sometime in early '74 the downtown Hollywood mock-up as pictured here appeared on the back lot hillside. As I remember it had already been publicized that Universal was making the picture, so we quickly surmised that this was for "Earthquake". Apparently rather than doing a process shot they wanted to have the real sky, and the houses/hills on the other side of the pass. If you see the film it came out pretty well.

In about 1980 it was announced that Universal was going to level these bucolic hillsides for a parking lot (paging Joni Mitchell). I was long gone from the house by then, it was owned at that time by Erin Moran, a television actress who was in a couple of '70s sit-coms. I followed the story in the Times, as the neighbors were up in arms about losing their view. But private property rights prevailed, and the parking lot was constructed.

OK, there's a tenuous noir connection to this story. The homeowner I rented the room from pointed out numerous odd outlets in the interior walls, not your normal electric outlets. He claimed these were hooked up to stenography machines back in the 1930's, due to, he said, the occupant at the time: none other than Erle Stanley Gardner, prolific pulp author and, of course, the creator of Perry Mason.

A few years later I got into the title insurance business, and tried to confirm this story. I checked our title plant (Transamerica Title at 3rd & La Cienega), but the plant had a gap in the '30's documents, and I found nothing with Gardner's name on it. Of course, he could have been a tenant, who merely rented the house, and never been on title at all.

So the Gardner story went unconfirmed all these years. Until now, thanks to the online permit resource, which turned up this May 1935 document:

http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/...pszwjc6gnt.png

So Erle Stanley Gardner did, in fact, own 3331 Blair Dr. in the 1930's.

And I confirmed from research that he did indeed compose by dictating to a team of secretaries. So the multiple steno outlets in the wall story fits.

Apparently the house was his principal residence only briefly, as by '37 he settled on a ranch in Temecula. Before he was in the Blair Dr. home he was in Ventura, where he practiced law prior to his career as an author.

Much thanks to Hoss for walking me through the process for copying and posting the bldg permits.

Thanks, E_R, and thanks for the book recommendation. I borrowed a friends Forbidden Hollywood collection of pre-code films that were all directed by Wellman. There are two separate documentaries about him and his films on there that you'd probably enjoy if you could find them, after having read the book.
_______

I also could not find any photos (I'll say "yet") of the "Try Later" place, or it's incarnation afterwards, The Raincheck/Raincheck Room. It probably doesn't look much different than the "O Bar" and "Don't Tell Mama" photos posted. The current Norah restaurant has no signage, though. I guess it's that kind of location.

Thanks, HossC for the dating references to the location. For a place like the Raincheck that I know no one has ever mentioned before and that I didn't know about and yet so many many people of celebrity status worked and visited there it makes me wonder why it never had a public reputation? It does seem that both Try Later and Raincheck were frequented by these people because it didn't have a public reputation, I guess, so maybe that's why. The Raincheck certainly does have a lot of references on line from past habitues. Here are some of the most interesting ones:


I found a very small photo posted by "videodave", that only blurs when enlarged, of the bulletin board of the "New / Old" Raincheck Room.

https://befunkycartoonizer.s3.amazon...87446large.jpgBe Funky

He says, "The Raincheck Room. The bar that saved my sanity and where I met a great deal of the people I know."
_______

There's a Facebook page for the Raincheck Room, "Dedicated to those who visited and loved the Raincheck Room", but there is very little activity on it.
https://www.facebook.com/raincheckroom
_______

There's a youtube channel called RAINCHECK ROOM. It started on March 10, 2016, but the only content is one 15 second video titled "Winner's Circle: Some winners of the Quiz at the legendary Raincheck Room in West Hollywood, CA." I was the third viewer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvCAdPNCnU

I found mention of this "Quiz" in a 1993 article about the Silver Spoon Restaurant. (The Silver Spoon was formerly Theodore's. It has since closed. My phone number used to be one number off from Theodore's. I remember one New Year's Day morning being awakened by the phone ringing. I picked it up to a voice saying, "Do you cook chicken?" I said, "I haven't recently, I usually go to Theodore's and have some of theirs.") From the article:

The quiz began as a somewhat ragtag affair in 1958 at the defunct Raincheck down the street, where Jim Field worked. Moving to the Silver Spoon (then called the Theodore Cafe) five years ago, he brought the quiz--and the patrons--with him. Every week about 50 dedicated souls furrow their brows over questions such as "Who was the first guest on the Johnny Carson Tonight show?" (Answer Below.)*** But basically this is not a trivia test. Rather, it's mostly about "things we should all have learned somewhere along the line," says Field.

Field, 68, a former Broadway actor, insists, "My main purpose is to make it entertaining" but not simplistic. He admits, "I would be a failure at many of these subjects." Cheating is almost unheard of, though quizmaster Field did catch a culprit once at the Raincheck: "He'd look the quiz over and then he'd say he left his cigarettes in the car. He'd be gone 20 minutes. We found out he had all these books in the trunk--an atlas, an encyclopedia. . ."

***(Groucho Marx)
_______

Here's a short snippet from a biography page (on an Irwin Allen site) of Arch Whiting, an actor who came to Hollywood in 1959 and subsequently got the role of Sparks on Voyage ot the Bottom of the Sea:

During Voyage's run, Arch had to work other jobs to make ends meet. In addition to acting on other shows, Arch worked in a seedy Hollywood bar on Santa Monica Blvd., a nightclub called the Rain Check Room. Zell Davis and Phil Pearl owned and ran the place. For some reason, a lot of New York actors frequented the Rain Check Room, people like Ben Gazarra, Shelly Winters, and Rod Steiger. They all knew Arch, knew he was an actor, and that's how he got a lot of jobs. Directors would pop in and ask if he was busy the next day. If he was not on call for VOYAGE, he'd go over and appear on shows such as Ben Gazarra's "Run For Your Life". He worked at the Rain Check Room for three years.

http://www.actordatabase.com/archwhiting/bio.htm
_______

In: Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson by Patrick McGilligan, page 107:

Jack and his friends frequented Chez Paulette's, where Brando liked to go, across the street from 77 Sunset Strip, The Unicorn, a beatnik coffeehouse and bookshop where Lenny Bruce did standup, they'd play darts at a bar called the Raincheck Room, down the street from the Players Ring, they pitched pennies at Barney's Beanery, or they'd repair to Pupi's, lingering for hours over dessert and coffee.
_______

The place is also featured in fictional works:

In the novel by John Kaye titled "Stars Screaming," The Raincheck Room and vicinity is a location for a movie shoot in one of its chapters.

It's also a location in Thomas Pynchon's novel "Inherent Vice," pages 269-270, made into a film last year.

It's mentioned as the workpl;ace of a character in "Force Majeure: A Novel" by Bruce Wagner.
_______

And in this fascinating blog post from Jesse on the Brink, Jesse states "I get mail from the most interesting people! One is a gentleman by the name of J. Lee Cline who lived in California back in the 1960's."

Jesse: Besides Canyon Club, J. talks about another refuge, a place called the Raincheck Room. It was a place where out of work actors, dancers, and singers hung out waiting for their agents to call. One lady, about 70 years old who acted 27, would occasionally swing into the Raincheck Room and vamp it up when she was feeling blue.

Says J:

Someone would come in and say, "Here comes Mae!" and the fun would begin. Drinks were on the house, and we all got to see Mae West perform some of the songs she had done in film. I remember Minnie the Moocher was her favorite and she would camp it up. She always said she owed her style to drag queens she had seen growing up in the 1890's. Each visit, rare as they were, was a performance I think she planned out and enjoyed. Mae had her one liners, rolled her eyes, and wore like 5" platform shoes to make herself 5'5" or so, she was tiny and always supported by a muscle guy who drove her white limo. I think her driver was named Chester, a really nice guy, really gay, and I had never met a muscle guy who was a queen so that was over the top for me. But he could butch it up and was fun to talk to while Mae was doing her "thing".

She just loved being adored. There's a scene in a recent movie where the lead woman who has a scene where she goes to a shopping mall when she feels blue, just to be noticed and praised. Mae was in that mode when she was at the Raincheck. A very different kind of star lived around the corner from the Raincheck Room: Loretta Young. I'd occasionally see her drive out.

http://jesseonthebrink.blogspot.com/2010/07.html

___

Updated timeline of this location with new info from HossC.

8279 Santa Monica Blvd.

Before 1951:
The 1942 CD lists 8279 Santa Monica under the heading Carpet Cleaners and Layers,
with a number for David O. Colley. David and his wife Mae lived at 1245 W. 46th St.
He and his residence phone # were still listed in the 1965 directory but not in the 1967.

TRY LATER - (1951 - c. 1958)
Article indicates it opened in 1951. Closed at least by 1960; it was listed in the 1956 CD, but not in the next available one, 1960.

THE RAINCHECK / THE RAINCHECK ROOM - (1960 - c.1987)
Opened in the early 1960's per the Warren Oates book. Closed: "its lifespan, which ran a few years past the legal drinking age" which was either 18 or 21 depending, and Blaster thinks it closed in the mid-to late 80's.

HossC has noted the place is listed as The Raincheck in the 1960 CD, up until it's listed as the Raincheck Room in 1973 and 1987.

CHEERS - (?)
In between Raincheck and O ar there was at least one other, Cheers, though, perhaps because it was called "Cheers," I can only find vague references to it and no specific information.

O BAR - (2003 - 2011)
L.A. Eater had a post in 2011 announcing O Bar was closing after eight years, which means it opened in 2003.

I found these two exterior shots:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GIchwvJ-aN...restaurant.jpgJason in Hollywood

http://f.tqn.com/y/gaytravel/1/S/q/W/-/-/O_Bar_2.JPGNightLife

DON'T TELL MAMA - (2013 - 2014)
An iteration of the Don't Tell Mama in NYC, but a combination of city licensing problems and revenue was the stated reasons it closed.

NORAH (2016 - ?)
Restaurant that Variety calls "gone way glam" and "rustic and elegant."

Hey guys I posted some of the photos I took in the Subway Terminal a while back (these were actually taken for JLL as the retail talks were just beginning).


http://i0.wp.com/hunterkerhart.com/w...t-19.jpg?w=800

http://i0.wp.com/hunterkerhart.com/w...rt-7.jpg?w=800

http://i0.wp.com/hunterkerhart.com/w...t-11.jpg?w=800

http://i1.wp.com/hunterkerhart.com/w...t-13.jpg?w=800

http://i2.wp.com/hunterkerhart.com/w...t-21.jpg?w=800


More images here:
http://HunterKerhart.com/pacific-ele...l-los-angeles/

Great pics, CDTLA, thanks!

:previous:

Agreed - thanks for posting, ConstructDTLA.


---------------------


There's virtually no information with this Julius Shulman image, but I like the building, so I'm posting it. Besides, we all like a mystery location! I've drawn a complete blank with my Google searches. The only clue is the summary which says "For Wailes-Bageman". Wailes-Bageman was a prefabricated concrete company who were based at 816 W 5th Street in the 1942 CD. Fred Bageman lived in South Pasadena, while Charles Wailes was a resident of Long Beach, so there's a good chance that the picture is somewhere in LA. This is "Job 117: Plyform Company, 1947".

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original

Getty Research Institute

Wow, nice Late Moderne, and dig that script! According to the November 1947 Telephone Directory—Northeastern Section, Plyform was at "720 S Sta Anita SGab" — S Santa Anita runs from Mission to Las Tunas (there was none of that West Santa Anita business in 1947 from what I can tell) and it looks like 720 (now on West Santa Anita, at McGroarty) has been redeveloped:

https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7587/2...2478b33b_b.jpg

Though perhaps there's something I'm not understanding with street numbering out in this part of the world.

:previous:

Thanks so much for finding an address for the Plyform Co, Beaudry. I checked which buildings were standing in the 1948 view at Historic Aerials, and then took the Googlemobile for a spin around the area. I'm pretty sure this is the building from the Shulman picture. The address appears to be 717 Mission Road. It backs onto the property which can just be seen on the far right of your image. It's lost its Deco charm, but could probably be restored - the doors and windows still look original.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
GSV

Seventh, Broadway and more - May 1942 (Nine years after Wild Boys' release and two after the above shot ("The Man I Married" 1940).)




The following were part of a brief Life Magazine photo essay entitled "Streetcar Party" (May '42). IIRC, the original spread did not offer much commentary and clearly portrayed the good life amid bleak news abroad. Can't recall whether the original essay identified the human subjects, but offhand, there are a few shots of Richard Denning, who many may remember from his encounter with a creature from a Lagoon in 1954. I resisted posting these since there seems some disapproval of large posts. However, I submit most of these images should be viewed together. So, if you can't stomach them, please scroll on. If they have been seen before on NLA, send me to bed without supper. Incidentally, there are many more related images on the Life site, although there is no obvious order. http://images.google.com/hosted/life...0bfcbb593.html


In random order.



May 1942, Life Magazine "Streetcar Party" (Woman of the Year first run release was Jan '42, so images were probably taken near that time.)
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/10458a8c3ee81ca7_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/10458a8c3ee81ca7_large






http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/4a9acb808e065780_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/4a9acb808e065780_large







http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c1f4b83b4fd48c6e_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c1f4b83b4fd48c6e_large







Hello Hotel Cecil!
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/da481a0f078ed7c6_large http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/da481a0f078ed7c6_large








Was the "Gilmore" sign ever located?


Interesting signage, among other things . . .
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/67125c3127907d7d_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/67125c3127907d7d_large








More signage and a "sowbelly" for WigWag.
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/6eb3daa7ecdebd55_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/6eb3daa7ecdebd55_large





All aboard! Third and Main
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/850b46a192f34a56_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/850b46a192f34a56_large





http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/7be3c9d569fe9b2e_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/7be3c9d569fe9b2e_large







Ride em cowgirl.
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/af5d0372dfcef9aa_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/af5d0372dfcef9aa_large

Prior "Streetcar Party" collection also includes amusement images, rather than the somewhat more relatable LA Street scenes. There is an open invitation for those who might recognize these locations. The Alligator farm is easy (Lincoln Heights), but the carousel and the Lake - also LH?



Richard Denning inspects the Syncopation Special
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/8c37bdf0938d7966_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/8c37bdf0938d7966_large





Richard Denning at the helm?
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/5ef3c7b3f29fcb44_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/5ef3c7b3f29fcb44_large




http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/82416c3eac0b14b2_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/82416c3eac0b14b2_large






http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/1ec5d990bfcbb593_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/1ec5d990bfcbb593_large







http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/0188563c57f263dd_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/0188563c57f263dd_large



No tax for kids under 5?

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/348e108c9b0fae69_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/348e108c9b0fae69_large



http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/a1965b1e4e5a8724_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/a1965b1e4e5a8724_large






http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c8a3010748a3574b_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/c8a3010748a3574b_large





http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/f86747ba8793651d_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/f86747ba8793651d_large




Beware of gators?
http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bc64894de505f1d4_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/bc64894de505f1d4_large

Well done Hoss, thank you! It's at times like this I wonder—would they call it in as "vandalism" if the owners showed up Monday morning and found giant Deco letters reading "The PLYFORM Co." affixed to their building?

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7313/2...be7e0a48_o.png

Lots of fun and the size is perfect. Thanks for the treat.!!!

I don't think there's any problem with large posts per se, but there are a couple of factors to bear in mind. Try not to submit too many large unrelated posts together - give us time to digest their contents and comment on them. If you're replying to a large post, please don't quote the whole post. As well as avoiding needless repetition, editing the quote makes the reply much more concise and easily understood.

With that said, I thoroughly enjoyed your "large posts", Tourmaline. I agree that the images should be viewed together, and, as you point out, anyone who isn't interested can always "scroll on". Thanks for posting.

Top right you can see some barracks, administration building and the parade ground at Ft. MacArthur. Just below the parade ground you can see large uniform buildings, each with two chimneys. Those are officers' family quarters in a duplex set up. They would have been for more junior officers. There are some single family houses facing the long end of the parade ground for higher ranking officers and their families. A lot of the houses in the foreground, just below the edge of the hill have been replaced with apartments. Warehouse number 1 is also visible just above the fort buildings, next to the main channel. The view is just about due east from the area of the Gaffey Bulge. The street you can catch a glimpse of to the extreme left of the photo would be 34th. I went by there yesterday since we had just been talking about it.

If you look at the Google earth pictures, you can still see outlines in the grass of the Fort MacArthur parade ground from WWI and WWII gun emplacements. They appear as round circles, some with wings standing out from the circles and they stay visible in the grass for a long time, even though the area is now a flat field.

One might presume that these shots were taken at the Alligator Farm in Lincoln Heights, and perhaps there is signage or some other obvious identifiers. Still, one wonders about the pre-'66 Griffith Park menagerie that apparently co-existed with Selig's attractions. Not that it is a problem, but there seems to be more photographic focus on Traveltown and the theatrical venues rather than the zoo.



Do gators respect chicken wire and was Pontchartrain Billy housebroken? (Billy looks pretty good for his (purported) age of 200. Must be the climate and low stress levels.)

(MmmmmMMmmm Tastes like chicken?)


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/abece32fb1f61304_large http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/abece32fb1f61304_large


http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/636901a19fc3b2a7_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/636901a19fc3b2a7_large



A color photo of "Billy" taken circa '41 is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7247251@N07/3283452650




From Wiki:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...28B9957%29.jpgWiki



Remnants of old GP Zoo
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...h_park_zoo.jpgWiki

More Remnants
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...h_park_zoo.jpgWiki



Whatever happened to?:rolleyes:

Tourmaline, thanks for sharing those great Sowbelly pictures! The lovely ladies smiling at the camera raise streetcar photos to a whole new level, making them far more interesting than the typical, staid railfan images of just the cars themselves on LA Streets.

That said, the photo that made my day and almost knocked me out of my chair laughing is this one. When I saw the pennant with the tip pointed at and almost perfectly aligned with the young lady’s excellent topside assets I couldn't help but think of George Carlin’s classic introduction line from the famous 7 Words You Can Never Say on Radio and TV. “Hey Txxs, meet Toots. Toots, Txxs. Txxs, Toots.”

http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/1ec5d990bfcbb593_largehttp://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/1ec5d990bfcbb593_large



Cheers,
Jack

:previous: Excellent little 'who-done-it' RiichKay

Since you mentioned Erin Moran used to own the house as well, I thought I might be able to dig up a photograph of 3331 Blair Drive from the 1970s or 80s. (no such luck)

As a consolation, I found this...

Erle Stanley Gardner and two secretaries(?) in his study at his 'Rancho Del Paisano' in Temecula CA.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/UTxYTD.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...V_od3IKes5M%3A

There are soooo many exotic & eclectic items in just this one photograph.

At first glance, I thought that was a model of a yacht hanging from the ceiling, but now I realize it's some kind of knife with an odd handle.

And is that silver thing on the left:previous:, that resembles a toaster-oven, the back of a Stenograph machine? (first mentioned in riichkay's post)
*On second thought, if it were a Stenograph, it would be over closer to the secretaries------>





*Okay, I decided to enlarge the "toaster-oven".

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...921/jdIEbj.jpg

I didn't notice the bell shaped dark thingy next to it......might this is a mouthpiece? So this is probably a Dictaphone.





I'm still curious about this mutant "Fondue-Pot".

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/v69Jsx.jpg



So many questions, so much time. ;)
__

Here are a few screengrabs from the CHiPs episode 'Supercycle' (S02E11). They ride right past the caves near the start of the sequence, but the camera moves too fast to get a decent still. The old zoo was also used as a filming location for 'Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment', but I don't have that on DVD!

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...1.jpg~original
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...2.jpg~original
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...3.jpg~original

All MGM TV/Rosner TV

Gardner was quite the collector of chinoiserie, wasn't he? Whatever the original purpose of the "fondue-pot," I suspect he was using it as a humidor, since it's next to his collection of pipes. On the back wall hangs a Chinese officer's sword called a jian. The spearhead with two crescent blades is a Song Dynasty Fangtian ji. That hanging thingy defeats me, though I'm sure I've seen something like it before. the Chinese used some truly bizarre weapons. Plus, he must have been a keen archer to have all those arrows.