[QUOTE=FredH;5470830]I just found this great shot of the Clover Trailer Park from the movie Cry Danger. The caption reads: Dick Powell, Richard Erdman, and Jean Porter wait between shots.

...and Miss Porter, is here shown, checking her cell phone messages.

Her LA novel from that era, "Play It As It Lays", is pretty noirish in many ways. It certainly captures a kind of existential funk that many seem to experience in the City of Angels. It is "Freeway Noir" writing. A lot of time is spent by the main character driving on the freeways just for the sake of it.

Hello and welcome Bilbo:
A site that will interest you is the Bruce Torrence Hollywood Photograph Collection. There are hundreds of photos of every aspect of the city of Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s (also earlier and later) - the Hollywood Canteen, Hollywood Studio Club, Sunset Blvd., drive-ins, theatres, nightclubs, street scenes, etc. etc.
http://www.hollywoodphotographs.com/...ywood-canteen/

The Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection and the USC photo archives have a wealth of Los Angeles photographs of every imagineable category.

Thanks for the warm welcomes
 

Thanks GaylordWilshire - Jon Paul and JeffDiego for your information and suggestions - and warm welcomes - Hahn is indeed a mysterious character - I know he opened La Rue's restaurant and casino in Las Vegas in 1950 in partnership with Billy Wilkerson - which lasted about a month before being bought by "Mack Kufferman" ( another man of mystery )

I wonder what prompted his suicide ? if it truly was suicide - in the world in which he mixed mysterious deaths were the norm !

In relation to Billy Wilkerson are you aware of any photos of "The Top Hat Cafe" or "Sunset House" ?:shrug:

thanks Bill

:previous:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M...2520AM.bmp.jpg


Nola Hahn committed suicide--or otherwise died--at the Beverly Hilton in 1957. Something unrelated to that incident that I never knew was that Simon Rodia apparently once considered building his towers on the hotel's triangular plot instead of the one in Watts. While I suspect that the towers wouldn't still be standing if they were built in Beverly Hills, it's interesting to imagine that the Beverly Hills Towers might have become a civic icon, the town's Eiffel Tower, "as it were"...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/us/08watts.html?_r=1

Walking Down Vine Street
 

Hi Everyone,
Thought I'd add an image and an anecdote about the Vine Street Theatre.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3608/...ac6819b0_b.jpg
photo: KNX

My Dad and his mother walking down Vine Street just south of Hollywood Blvd. They lived on Selma Avenue at Hudson (now Schrader), so would have turned right at the next intersection. He took lessons nearby and his mother would walk him home afterwards; he clearly remembers the outfits both were wearing, including his cowboy outfit with chaps.

Taken sometime between January 1937, when KNX became a CBS affiliate broadcasting from this location, and April 1938, when its operations moved to Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. The Lux Radio Theater, Burns & Allen, as well as the Campbell's Soup "Hollywood Hotel" broadcast, originated from the Vine Street Theatre at this time.

Some forty years later my Dad was looking through a picture history of old time radio and came across this photograph.* The sidewalk, the theater and shops, his favorite clothes, and his Mom in her best white dress, all came flooding back. He spent many years in television and radio broadcasting, so he looked up the station manager of KNX and they sent him an 8x10" of the photo. I have a version annotated with notes on flickr.

My Dad will celebrate his 80th birthday this December :)

cheers,
Ken

*Curtis Mitchell, Cavalcade of Broadcasting
(Follet Publishing Co., Chicago, 1970), p. 91

What a treasure the photo must be to you and your dad Ken! Thank you so much for sharing it and the provenance! I like everything about this photo.

~Jon Paul

There doesn't seem to be any business ca. 1937-39 named "Grand Central" in this location--so I'm wondering if the sign in the fragment of Ere's pic above is advertising Grand Central Market downtown.... Have we seen a clearer pic of this sign before in any pics of Hollywood?

Could it be a movie theater marquee? There was a 1942 movie called "Grand Central Murder" but that would be inconsistent with the other internal clues. I looked around thoroughly and had the time narrowed down pretty closely to January 1937 to April 1938, based on when KNX was located in the theater.

I LOVE THIS THREAD and will have more to add, soon. But I am starting with Clifton's Cafeteria because I just happened to read that they have been remodeling and are offering the public a "sneak peak" this Thursday, as part of an L.A. Art Walk. My wife and I will be going.

http://www.cliftonscafeteria.com/

I exchanged some emails with my mom, who grew up in L.A. I asked her if it really was "Pay As You Wish" (as is seen on the sign) and she wrote:

"Absolutely! This was emphasized on the brochures at each table. Some of the customers were poorly dressed, as I recall. The place really seemed open to all. The items were marked with a price, but there was no problem if one wanted to pay less, or not at all. We were not well off, but always paid full price. Interestingly, it was not considered a low-class place. Different areas were decorated with a theme. Hard to remember those themes, but Hawaiian would have been one, maybe the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel, maybe one which seemed to be a cave. I have fond memories of it. Corny but nice."

Again, fantastic thread. Be back soon!

Hi Everyone!

I have been lurking in the background here for many months looking at all the fantastic pictures and reading all the interesting articles. What a great and entertaining source of information! I live in San Diego, and have visited the Los Angeles and Hollywood areas on many occasions looking for things from the past. I'm very much into early radio and television broadcasting, and love the pictures of old radio studios, stations, and transmitting towers. I also love to look at pictures of the Richfield Building, an architectural gem that was sadly lost so many years ago. I would like to thank all the knowledgeable participants here who share so much of their good knowledge. This has brought me great enjoyment, and I have learned a lot too.

I liked the pictures of the Vine Street Theater that were recently posted. And I was compelled to write because there were some errors in some information given earlier that I would like to correct.

It is indeed true that Lux Radio Theater was broadcast from the Vine Street Theater as of June 1, 1936 when the show moved from New York to Hollywood. The theater was owned by CBS and always known as The Vine Street Theater. CBS utilized the theater for the production of Lux for many years. As the pictures show, CBS and Station KNX were featured prominently on the theater's lettering.

Lux featured dramatizations based on popular films of that time, starring the same artists who appeared in the pictures. While it is true that Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, and Burns and Allen appeared on episodes of Lux, their appearances did not lead to "spinoffs" and notoriety due to their appearances on Lux. All of them were already established stars at the time of their appearances. Indeed, it was because they were established stars, and now were appearing in motion pictures, that they appeared on Lux Radio Theater.

In reviewing the log of Lux episodes, I don't see any that list Fred Allen or Phil Harris as appearing on any episodes. Also "Life of Riley" with William Bendix was not an episode of Lux. I did find that the on-line info at Wikipedia regarding Lux Radio Theater contains many errors, and perhaps this is where some of this information posted earlier was found.

Station KNX did not broadcast from the Vine Street Theater. The station and offices were located at 5939 Sunset Blvd (later The Spaghetti Factory) from 1932 until 1938. At that time, CBS (which had purchased KNX in 1936) moved to the brand-new Columbia Square, at 6121 Sunset, which was the Western headquarters for the Columbia Broadcasting System and also held studios and facilities for KNX.

Sorry for the long initial post. I hope this was of interest. Just wanted to make sure all the facts were straightened out. Thanks again to everyone for a great site!

Hi Radio63 -
Based on the dates of the Hollywood Hotel broadcast, other internal clues, and your knowledge, what date would you assign this photo? bigger version here. Thanks.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3608/...ac6819b0_b.jpg
KNX

When the "Grand Central" sign seen in Ere's pic is blown up, it appears to say "The Hollywood Grand Central Market"... but still, I can find no listings in '30s directories for it and no other photos showing the sign. I did find some interesting shots of what appears to have been next door: The Hollywood Branch Library in its successive incarnations.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038881.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038916.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038917.jpg
Apparently parts of the prior library on the site were incorporated into the 1940 version, seen below...

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038887.jpg

...and after a 1982 fire.
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038921.jpg
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics38/00038920.jpg


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics19/00029460.jpg
Books and boobs: What's not to love about this view of the new library being built in Ivar Street after the fire? There's
even a Coupe de Ville in the picture.


All photos: LAPL

Hi radio63 - Thanks for your post about KNX, etc. It's a little frustrating trying to find info on the history of broadcasting in Los Angeles pre-1950, and what little can be found on the Internet is maddeningly brief and often contradictory.

Ere - What a terrific photo! And I love the anecdote. It's personal stories such as yours that make the history of Los Angeles come alive for me.

Hi Ere,

The best I can do on this at present is to narrow it down to a span of a few years. Hollywood Hotel aired from October of 1934 to December of 1938. So this photo was taken sometime in that four-year period. I might be able to narrow it down further since CBS obviously owned the Vine Street Theater at this point, due to the CBS-KNX signage. Because of this I might guess the photo is more likely from 1936-38. I'm going to study the photo in greater detail and see if any other clues are hiding. So Ere, this is your dad and grandmother in the photo? Wow!

Hi Handsome Stranger,

You are very right, details of Los Angeles broadcasting history can be hard to track down. What little knowledge I have, I'll be glad to share. Yes, the information on the internet apart from being brief is often in error as well. Somehow facts and dates have gotten lost along the way. I have some good reference books I rely on to help me try and figure things out!

The big black sedan just in front of the lady in the white dress, the car with whitewalls and sidemounts is a 1937 Buick, so that's a clue.

I can't really tell for sure, but it looks like the coupe towards the bottom left, facing the other direction, has a license plate with a light background and dark lettering, which would mean a yellow plate with black letters, meaning 1938. If it is black with yellow numbers it would be 1937.

YAHOO! Something to look forward to!!!

Yes, here they are about the same time standing in front of the Manson Apartments, where they lived, a few blocks to the west.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/...e95cdc75_z.jpg
Those apartments have been renamed but still stand at 1611 Schrader Blvd.
Based on his age (born late 1931), the Vine Street view must be towards the end of your time frame.
They walked that route many times and he remembered her white outfit, and his cowboy chaps he used to wear.