As I think we discussed before e_r, the farmland is actually one of the Japanese nurseries laid out at the base of the Hollywood Hills to take advantage of the micro-climate there. They would have been easily seen from DeMille's home in Laughlin Park. The nurseries existed until the 1960s but were then platted, together w/ the undeveloped land just to the north, for new homes. The parcel is between Fern Dell & Nottingham, running north to south from Griffith Park down to Los Feliz Blvd.

I noticed this 1940 photograph of one of them and so thought I would post it:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/s-...Q=w566-h488-no
amoba.

One of the families, the Kuromis, poses in front of their business in 1926. Homes on Nottingham Blvd are in the background. Ise Kuromi (the little boy at the center of the picture) opened Ise Automotive on Hillhurst in 1947. It is still in business, run by his sons:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oq...A=w787-h436-no
lfia

Long since built out w/ mid-century homes:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/sQ...Q=w436-h568-no
google maps

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the house lots sold for $45K-$50K each.

It's pretty boring, not much variation:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Es...Q=w967-h470-no
google maps


There are 25 photos of the nurseries at LAPL (search "Japanese nurseries Los Feliz).

The nursery families only leased the land (w/ a 3-year break during Internment). They did not profit from the sale.



...........................................................................



I've been updating that post on the Los Feliz "Murder/Suicide House" too, AKA the Perelman Case. The home at 2475 Glendower was sold last year to Gloria Allred's daughter and her husband. The new links are at the end of the post.


I am very curious about Bloom and Pollock's plans for the property.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3...35804%2BPM.jpg
gsv

:previous: I didn't realize the Pearlman 'murder' house was that close to the Ennis House.


Yep, here's the information you sent to me a few months ago.

"The DeMille House is at 2000 DeMille Drive in private Laughlin Park. DeMille owned the home from 1916 until his death in 1959.

The "farm" you see in the distance was actually a very large plant nursery, sited to take advantage of the micro-climate on the lower southern slope of the Hollywood Hills. The land was eventually sold and a neighborhood of large single-family homes developed in the 60s. I seem to recall seeing other photos of the nursery, maybe here on NLA."


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/hqzzQr.jpg
http://www.tichenorandthorp.com/book...demille-estate

Located in the gated enclave of Laughlin Park, an early upper-class development hidden in the hills of Los Feliz, the house was built in 1911 by architect B. Cooper Corbette. Sober Italianate Revival in style, the residence crowns a two-acre grass knoll and has commanding views of the greater Los Angeles basin. From its approach, the house cuts a dignified silhouette against extensive greenery. Nearly 8,000 square feet, though with rooms of modest scale, the main house feels as if it had been designed more for intimate family life than for entertaining, which apparently precisely fit the bill for DeMille.


In 1918, newlyweds Charlie Chaplin and his sixteen-year-old wife, Mildred Harris, purchased the house next door. The couple was divorced by 1920, and Chaplin sold the house to DeMille, who soon connected the two houses via a breezeway extending from an atrium, possibly designed by Julia Morgan. The old Chaplin House served as DeMille’s office and screening room until his death in 1959. Both houses remained in the DeMille family for nearly three decades after that, preserved just as he had left them.


The current owners, avid architectural preservationists who have renovated a number of significant houses, found DeMille’s estate in poor condition. The Chaplin House, designed by architect William J. Dodd, was literally crumbling and needed most immediate attention. The couple hired architects Brian Tichenor and Raun Thorp to restore the house. Over the next two years, the interior was dismantled and reassembled, preserving the famous Tudor living room and all the significant details. Eventually, the couple sold the Chaplin House, in order to devote their full attention to reviving the DeMille Estate. Tichenor and Thorp were called in again, this time to renovate the DeMille house and bring the landscape back to its former glory. The interiors now convey a sense of grandeur that was previously lacking. Ceilings were raised where possible. The servant’s quarters were poached to make way for a bigger kitchen and library. Though the winding staircase and period details evoke the past, the art on the walls serve as a reminder that this nearly 100-year-old house is very much in the here and now. In remaking the garden, Tichenor looked to Florence Yoch, studying her plant lists for designs executed for other Hollywood moguls such as Jack Warner. He also designed a studio where DeMille’s stables once stood and a new pool house.

from:
http://www.tichenorandthorp.com/book...demille-estate

__

:previous:



I wish Tichenor & Thorp or the Rizzoli editors had checked the spelling of Corbett's name.... Here is Chaplin in front of another of the architect's efforts... (from 3143 Wilshire Boulevard)

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HBvnG67sc...s640/3101c.jpg


https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RhxrDVhjH...MAIN12716x.jpg

We've only seen ONE photograph of 8781 W. Washington Blvd. when it was the 'Casa Manana', and that was when it was burning down! (shown below)


originally posted by NoirCityDame
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/wbCjIu.jpg

Actually, it was Zucca's at the time of the fire (Feb. 1950), but it still had the art deco facade that was added when it was 'Casa Manana'.







Well, it appears Bruce Torrence, over at 'Hollywood_Photographs', has tracked down two rather rare photographs. (both photos are dated 1940)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/VpJyz8.jpg
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/deta...&c=-1&i=1&r=12


The 'art deco' facade was added in 1938. (the original design was a faux-English Tudor)



#2
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/wnMlEi.jpg
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/deta...&c=-1&i=1&r=12

This location was originally the Green Mill...and then Sebastian's Cotton Club (& several other titles)

NoirCityDame's post here (showing the original 'Tudor' design and a superb aerial view)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=33712

tovangar2's post here (showing the massive interior.....1500 seats!)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...na#post7080270
_____



& if you would like to buy the photographs be sure to visit Bruce Torrence's website.
http://hollywoodphotographs.com/
___

One of my sisters-in-law is a Carmelite nun. I learned pretty early not to make penguin jokes!:uhh:

Anent the above post: where is NoirCityDame these days? Haven't seen her in a while and I always enjoyed her posts so much.

Mstimc, when I was a freshman in High School, the satirical 'soap opera', Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, was on TV during lunch hour. (I would go home for lunch)

There was an episode where 'Loretta' (Mary Kay Place) and her husband were driving late at night and careened into a station wagon full of nuns.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/n5rGGo.jpg

Episode 24 / "Tragedy strikes the Haggers in the form of a station wagon full of nuns." [1975]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/Lr1PnO.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZEi8jGmVx0

I was an impressionable 15 years old at the time.....so maybe that's why find 'tragic' nun situations......a tad bit humorous.

__

The Green Mill/Casa Manana/ Zucca's False Front
 

That really is rather ghastly, to my eyes anyway. Was one just not supposed to notice the Tudor-style wings branching out on either side?

I tend to agree t2, but remember most patrons didn't see it during the day.

I imagine the art deco entrance was the only area lit up at night, while the rest of the structure was left in darkness.

I read somewhere 'Casa Manana' was trying to compete with Earl Carrolls....hence the 'moderne' facade.

Oakleigh Auto Court. (and an absolutely beautiful tree)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/gYsGnx.jpg
ebay

1820 E. Foothill Blvd., Duarte, Calif.

I'm pretty sure this auto court is long gone.

Today, the above address is between two rock quarries (at least that's what it looks like on google-aerials)

Thanks ER! I have so got to show that clip to Sister sister!
Great show by the way--used to stay up late to watch it with the sound turned down so my parents wouldn't catch me!

:previous: If I remember correctly there was also "a station wagon full of nuns" storyline on 'All In The Family'.

Norman Lear produced both 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' and 'All In The Family', so perhaps he's the one that should be worried (about his sanity)
-instead of me. ;)

__

ok, I'm finished.
http://imageshack.com/a/img923/7747/oELI3v.gif

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/j6eVhL.jpg

The novel is set in the 1920s, amongst the opulent living of the Hollywood jet-set, and focuses on one couple, Peter and Judy Lansdowne.

I was curious about the title "Today is Tonight"....it's explained below.

"English writer and humourist Cassandra Parkin reviewed the novel on her blog as part of her series "Adventures in Trash". In her review she listed the novel's many faults, including logical inconsistencies - such as when the heroine convinces her blind husband that day is night and night is day in order to conceal her job as a nude model (from the article: "Because blind people don’t have Circadian rhythms, or hearing, or the ability to sense changes in temperature, or brains, or anything at all really, and are basically just useless lumps of animated carbon sitting around eating and taking up space until they die.") - poor plotting, Mary Sue characterization, and bizarre departures from the story into rambles on subjects like philosophy (from the novel: "If I had a stenographer to take down what I was thinking, it would be an awful lesson to George Bernard Shaw.").

"However, despite confessing that "it’s utter, utter nonsense", Parkin "
also says it is charming – in the way writing often is when it’s written in a breathless rush and without any thought for what anyone will make of it". She also praises the contemporary detail ("There are lots of things I love about this fantastically odd novel, but one of my favourite things has got to be the quirky little glimpses it gives into the time it comes from"), such as the focus on knees, skin, and shaved armpits as signifiers of female beauty."

from https://cassandraparkin.wordpress.com
__________________________-



*I didn't know what was meant by "Mary Sue characterizations"

A "Mary Sue" is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or low-rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities,
sometimes with the intent to inspire young or marginalized people.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...nMarySueTraits

I found this in an old file with no identification what-so-ever.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/gpI8O4.jpg

I spotted the Westlake Theater sign in the distance.....so this is looking north on Alvarado Street from Eighth.

Here's the same view today.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/DnCeHf.jpg
gsv





note the interesting art deco detailing on the liquor store at right.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...924/6d5KIA.jpg
detail


today it's all covered up :(
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...923/M7jVDd.jpg
gsv


Do you think there's a possibility the art deco elements are still there, but just covered up?

__

Memories.
I was driving my old 1949 Chevy up that steep Alvarado street one afternoon when I was about 18 years old. I was attending Chouinard art school on Saturday mornings. Near the top of the hill in the distance the engine blew up. I called my brother and he came and took me home to Alhambra. Later that week he had the car towed to the junk yard.


My teacher at the school....Bob Winquist. One of the best teachers I ever had. He had a natural talent for teaching.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pskucqboda.jpg
youtube

A silent film of him in the classroom...
https://youtu.be/N5X0pl9g4iU

I found the following postcards and text at a Facebook page called Route 66 Mother Road Postcards and more. The images at the link are larger.

"The Oakleigh Auto Court, later the Oakleigh Motel, was one of the earlier businesses to serve travelers along this stretch of Route 66 in the 1800 block of East Huntington Drive. The card from the Oakleigh Auto Court probably dates from the late 1920s. It shows kind of a Pueblo style architecture. The service station part sold Richfield gasoline, the 'Gasoline of Power', and was run by Bill Kluth and Bob Hall. Interesting Indian sculptures on the front of the station as well as the pillars leading to the cabins."

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

"The second card shows the business as the Oakleigh Motel (even though the sign at the left still reflects the old name). The huge oak tree out front, sometimes referred to as "the hanging tree" stood along Huntington Drive for decades but mysteriously collapsed on October 8, 2014."

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

The Google links to images of the tree on the Facebook page both now point to a 2016 Streetview image of the building next door. I think this 2012 view shows the tree they're talking about - it's gone by 2015.

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

I'll finish with this 1952 aerial view, which I've had to tweak quite a bit. I think that the trees just below the center of the image mark the location of the auto court, but it's not clear if any of the buildings seen here are original. The current buildings appear between 1980 and 1994.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...4.jpg~original
Historic Aerials

:previous: Excellent sleuthing Hoss!

I love the two postcards you found, as well as the aerial.

Interesting seeing the four Indians on the gate and station. They look really well crafted....not tacky in the least. (esp. compared to other roadside 'attractions' found along Rt. 66)
__

HossC,

4536 Rinetti Ln., La Canada, CA (just off Foothill Blvd)
Maybe someone can post a GSV, since I don't know how?

Andys

:previous:

Thanks, Andys. Here's the building at 4536 Rinetti Lane as it is today.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...7.jpg~original
GSV

One of the old GSV images shows a sign for Gilmore Bank on the front. I can't read the present sign, but Google indicates it's now a counseling and mental health facility.

I found this postcard that shows a wall mural in the Children's Room of the Los Angeles Public Library.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...924/O4OjAQ.jpg
ebay

Does anyone know if the mural is still there?

(now that I think about it, it was probably destroyed in the 1986 fire)



http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...921/JzhcsI.jpg

screen-grab from a video at vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/81915515

I didn't realize it was arson.