This advertisement caught my eye....it's from a 1929 issue of the trade magazine Hollywood Filmograph.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...910/uPhnnL.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...661/4rd7Ut.jpg
https://archive.org/details/hollywoodfilmogr91holl

Otar is pretty much an enigma. I looked for him on IMDB (International movie Data Base) and found nothing.
And I searched his name under google images and found nothing.


I did find that he was born on 9/24/1892 in Ohio, and died on 9/23/1970 in Los Angeles.
http://www.mocavo.com/Otar-Shillet-C...46713637850999


below: Otars management

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...540/d8Lf8y.jpg

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Don't know the cafe, but the radio tower was for KMPC. It was located at
9631 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Info from 710kmpc.com.

On second look, the building on which the photog was standing is now a Saks 5th Ave location.

:previous:

The Macmillan Petroleum Company had a service station at 9601 Wilshire Boulevard in the 1942 CD (that's the corner of N Camden Drive). This is an aerial view from 1947. The gas station is roughly central above Wilshire.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...anWilshire.jpg
Historic Aerials

That means we're probably looking from the roof of Saks Fifth Avenue at 9600 Wilshire Boulevard (in the lower left corner of the aerial above). Would this be part of the Perino's restaurant that Fab Fifties Fan wrote about in post #63008?

Oops! Hoss, looks like we were replying about the same time. Lol

That's the rooftop patio at Sax Fifth Avenue. Here it is ca 1938 (would you just look at that fountain):
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...03741%2BAM.jpg
pinterest

And today:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...05316%2BAM.jpg
google maps

Thanks Hoss, you're very quick today.

Well if I sell out the 600+ theater, than kudos to me and hooray for the popularity of Bunker Hill! I know the box office will be open day-of, so there shouldn't be a problem. Tell you what, if you arrive and can't get a ticket, wave me down and I'll sneak you through the side door :whistle:

Great work C.King, HossC and tovanger2! You guys are working fast today.

I had forgotten that Sak's rooftop was a Perino's at one point in time.
..and yes t2, that fountain is pretty darn ugly.
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Any traces of Otar "The Rat"? ;)

Dreamland
 

At the risk of getting too "political", did anyone else detect a massive subtext to that story?


Does anyone know the history of Sax' rooftop? When did the cafe open? Was that before or after it was just a patio? When was it abandoned? Thx

I thought I'd post this since we had that discussion last week about the location of the various oil wells and Huntington Beach.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/FVEgLU.jpg
eBay

"Huntington Beach California, looking north along the coast toward Long Beach."
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My Gun is Quick
 

:previous: Here's some beach-side rigs looking a little more noiry:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...92224%2BAM.jpg
My Gun is Quick (1957) Parklane Pictures for United Artists / youtube

Any idea where this large house on the hill stood? (maybe it's still there for all I know)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...631/SdLGnU.jpg
old file of mine / possibly ebay

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...673/w89wTP.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...661/05YMUd.jpg
https://archive.org/details/hollywoodfilmogr12holl

"or else slide down." -we talked about a place that had a slide. -was it this place?
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Dreamland's rude awakening
 

Are you suggesting that city council palms were greased? Perhaps a rival skating rink was behind the machinations. Getting an alley built through a competitor's building is one way to increase business!

The house on the hill--
The picture is no later than 1947, the year the LARy [then LATL] class C "Sowbellies" were retired, if that helps any

Otar Shillet shows up in Cleveland Ohio in 1926 as the manager of the "Happ-Shillet Ballet School" "Cleverland's Only Original Limbering School". It was apparently located at 1220 Huron Road in Cleveland. (That building, for what it's worth, is still there) The Cleveland State University, Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections has a postcard with the information and a picture of some dancers.

Ota T. Shillet (sometimes spelled Shillett) and his wife Viola (born 1888, died 1974) do appear in the 1940 Census in Los Angeles. He was working at that time in a collections agency. At the time of that census, he lived at 336 W. 41st Street, Los Angeles. That house is still there but has apparently been divided into a duplex and painted orange. The assessor indicates that the main house was built in 1906.

He only appears in the 1940 Census, none of the others show him in Ohio or California with any possible spelling. Way, Way under the radar

Dreamland
 

It was the clipping you posted Flyingwedge (below). The unnamed (perhaps phantom) developer who was in such a hurry. The owner home sick in bed while the decision was pushed through . The "influenced" city council. The lack of action on the proposed alley for years afterward. That building and business, the largest and finest roller rink in the west, was destroyed less than a year after it opened. Sounds like arson by other means to me.

Of course, for all I know, the owner could've engineered the whole thing for his own purposes. But that's the point, it sounds like one of those LA stories (one gets wind of a new one almost every day) one can never quite get to the bottom of. I just think there's a lot more to Dreamland's story than we'll ever know. (I wish I could read the message on the postcard)

Bye bye baby
Time to hit the road to Dreamland
You're my baby
Dig you in the land of nod

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...4.jpg~original
February 5, 1907 LA Herald -- http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...05/ed-1/seq-7/

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http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...540/sfZ26Y.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...538/4H0tx0.jpg
GSV

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...537/0xN16U.jpg
GSV


Thanks for the information oldstuff. :)
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http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...537/lIJR7e.jpg


per Noircitydame, Topsy's, south of downtown, also had a sliding board.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...633/GFE8VL.jpg
eBay

You can see Noircitydame's post here.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=17931
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yet another 'mystery' location.

I found this photograph in an old file of mine dated 2010. The file was chock full of images I had collected (mostly from eBay).

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/m5qx4b.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...538/HvudEy.jpg
old file/2010

You can clearly see the Hollywoodland sign in the distance so we know this is Hollywood, but I'm interested in the buildings in the foreground, closer to the camera.

All we can see of the prominent sign on the apartment building is "ADDEN". Could this be enough of a clue to figure out the location?

And I'm not sure what's going on at the bottom of the photo....is this a near empty pay-parking lot? -there appears to be a fence around it.
Also, take a look across the street at that massive white house. (or maybe it's two houses.....I can't quite tell)
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:previous:The "...adden" might be McCadden, which would make the east/west street Yucca(?)