Cry Danger Houses
 

etheral_reality:

You are correct. The house you found on Google Street view is the house that was in the movie. It was the office for the trailer park.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7...acouldbeco.jpg
Google Street View

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg3/s...jpg&res=medium
Cry Danger, RKO Radio Pictures

The house across the street...

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg809...jpg&res=medium
ElectricEarl.com

...has been torn down. And, as you had surmised, has been replaced by some crappy apartments:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg716...jpg&res=medium
Google Street View

Nice landscaping! :yuck:

:previous: Thanks FredH. :)

____


A fantastic postcard of 'Little Tokyo' in 1935.


http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/3...etokyo1935.jpg
found on ebay

I came across this photograph on an old CD of mine from 2008 (a year before I started this thread).
The only information I had for it was "a residence in Los Angeles".

At first I thought it was one of my ebay photos due to the watermark that is visible just to the right of the house.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7...ngeles2008.jpg
unknown


But after a closer inspection I realized the watermark wasn't a watermark at all!! It was the backside of the giant 'It's in the Examiner' sign!


http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4...ilosb2sign.jpg
LAPL detail


So where would that put this house......on a street above North Broadway several blocks in?

__________

Nice postcard!
I think it is Weller Street, now Astronaut E.S. Onizuka Street

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5117/wellerk.jpg
Google Street View

Thx Fred.....

75 years of "Modernization" turned Weller from a perfectly interesting streetscape to a bland, soul-less and deserted ravine of uniform concrete.

Well done, Los Angeles. Well done, Urban planners.

And while Mr Onizuka should certainly be given his due, "Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Street" hardly rolls off the tongue. Let alone fits on the back of a post card.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...520LAT8109.jpgLAT


This clears up some of my confusion--I knew that Clarence De Camp (he was in lumber) had built 919--the 909/919 addresses have long confused me, but now I'm realizing that 919 was mid-block, more or less across the street from southbound Portland Street (corner of the Curse of the Cat People Waters house at 900) and not closer to Scarff (more or less at the point where OneArchives's brick wall meets the Page fence of the parking lot), and that the Newton house, later the Lambda Chi Alpha house at 931 was on the ne corner of Thompson where the apartments are now. Through the years, of course, there was lots of demolition and lot rejiggering. The addresses 919 and 931 were still extant in 1960 with the frats in residence, but by 1969 there was no 919 and the ΔTΔ's were occupying 909--so maybe the new structure OneArchives is now in was built by then. The old ΛXA house seems to have been gone by then too. And I've GOT to see your map....


UPDATE: For the full history of 919, including its rabbits, see https://adamsboulevardlosangeles.blo...ease-also.html

Barney's Beanery
 

I've now read this whole thread so I'm caught up. I'm a bit sad because I've lost what, a month ago, seemed like a limitless supply of great photos and history. The good part is that now I can contribute without being too redundant.

One topic I've had in mind has been Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood. Barney's began in Berkeley, but in 1927 moved to its current location at 8446 Santa Monica Blvd. (once a part of Route 66).

In the 1970's when I lived on Flores St., Barney's was just a couple blocks away and I became a bit of a regular. With its pool tables and jukebox it was a great place for a late night burger & beer, though the waitresses weren't very cheerful and generally forgot half of your order. I had a love-hate relationship with this place. Sometimes it was really annoying but the burgers were good and hey, I got them to put Werewolves Of London on the jukebox. The wooden walls and partitions were stained by decades of cigarette smoke, the bar was covered in old license plates before they became a diner cliche. At times it had a slightly dangerous vibe. Along the east side of the building was the bar, and you couldn't miss the old sign, prominently posted among the bottles that read FAGOTS-STAY OUT. The red matchbooks had the same slogan.

It seemed strange and confusing because West Hollywood was heavily gay, and Barney's was like the Cantina in Star Wars, you never know who would walk in the door next. There were bikers, business men, actors, hippies, hookers, soul brothers, lost souls, hipsters, old timers, tourists. There were gay patrons too, and they seemed perfectly comfortable. It seemed the sign was not a statement of policy, but an artifact whose history was mysterious, at least to me. I think there were one or two old newspaper articles posted somewhere, but I never "got" what the sign represented until I came across an article that explained the history of Barney's. I can't find it now, but...

From Wiki:
"Barney's location combined with fact that the owner was apt to extend credit and occasionally give away food made the bar popular with people from all walks of life including artists, writers, and other celebrities. Old Hollywood actors like Clara Bow, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, and Rita Hayworth were all regulars in their day. By the 1960s the neighboring Sunset Strip had become an important music center and Jim Morrison (who was reportedly thrown out of Barney's for urinating on the bar) and Janis Joplin (who had drinks at Barney's the evening of her death) became regulars. Poet Charles Bukowski lurked around, as did artists Ed Kienholz and others associated with the Ferus Gallery that was located nearby on La Cienega Boulevard."

Some snippets from Barney's long, strangely written history page:
"...Barney's Beanery took root in Berkeley, California. An L.A. native, John "Barney" Anthony attended U.C. Berkeley and enlisted in the Navy during World War I, serving his special blend of chili burgers and onion soup to soldiers...He opened his first Beanery, for men only, in 1920...moving to the current location in 1927.

...The area surrounding Barney's Beanery was primarily a huge Poinsettia field...Discarded license plates above the bar were left by travelers, who came out to California to find a better life...In 1945, Hollywood Nightlife magazine noted the way in which Barney treated his customers, as if they were buddies from the service. "Barney Anthony is a name known to most writers who at one time or another have been broke in this town. Barney has always made sure that they have had food and just a little cash to tide them over."

...In 1942 Rob Wagner's described it as "...a little wooden shanty, with a whole row of cheap floor lamps illuminating the counter, and a dinky little bar down at one end." The Herald called it "a shack, on Santa Monica Boulevard near La Cienega, which has not greatly changed since I dropped in there one afternoon in 1929 for a hamburger and root beer."

...In the fifties...the old-fashioned coach lamp hanging in front of Barney's Beanery has a gadget inside it installed by a radionics inventor from U.S.C." reported Bill Kennedy in his Mr. L.A. column in a '55 issue of the Herald-Examiner. "Operating like a radio-controlled garage door, the coach lamp is able to pick up radio beam signals from as far away as 25 miles. By prearranged signals, messages flashed from a unit installed on a patron's car can inform Barney just how many will be in the party, what they want to order, and how soon they'll arrive. Among the celebrities who have installed a Beanery Beam are Lou Costello, Wayne Morris, Donald O'Connor, George Gobel, Otto Kreuger and Gloria Jean."*

...Frequented by beatniks, rockin' teens and the likes of Charles Bukowski, the aging Barney showed his impatience with the homosexual element that came with bohemian culture. This was first pointed out by a 1958 Torch Reporter column titled "Barney's Unique Signs" that read "unique indeed - Bold, Black Letters on a Dusty Pink background read 'FAGOTS - STAY OUT' over the bar." It was an issue that was not soon forgotten, though one account in The Los Angeles Times seemed to deflate its importance. "Nobody ever paid much attention to it" claimed David Barry in 1977. "Barney's always had a regular gay clientele but it's not a pickup joint. In the old, crazier days the sign was a joke to a clientele in such advanced stages of social decay that gender seemed an unnecessarily picky distinction."

By 1965... nearby Sunset Strip was again the center of the action...Barney's Beanery was a natural magnet for people involved with the new scene...Marlon Brando to Jack Nicholson had gravitated to the art, jazz and rock 'n' roll scenes, and frequented Barney's...Two of the main figureheads from Los Angeles and San Francisco, Jim Morrison of the Doors and Janis Joplin of Big Brother & the Holding Company, respectively, became the celebrities most associated with consistent patronage of Barney's Beanery. Janis had a favorite booth; #34. Morrison had a penchant for teasing Joplin, and one incident commonly recalled is a catfight between the two, with the bawdy Joplin successfully belting the playfully demonic Morrison.

...In 1964, a Life magazine story on the emergence of the gay culture in public had featured a steadfast Barney posing in front of his sign. By the end of the decade, Erwin Held** had acquired the restaurant from the estate of Barney C. Anthony, who had passed away on November 25th, 1968. Erwin contested that he wanted to keep the place close to original, as he had obtained it...but on Saturday, February 7th, 1970, the Gay Liberation Front and other concerned organizations began picketing in front of Barney's Beanery, to have the "FAGOTS - STAY OUT" sign removed from the bar...he offending sign was removed in the mid-seventies and relocated to its current place in storage."
http://barneysbeanery.com/stories/history.php

*As an electronics engineer specializing in older technology, I doubt this system worked, or worked for very long.
** Erwin Held was an obnoxious ass. A friend once got his cheeseburger without cheese, and paid the bill minus the extra 75 cents. Erwin called the cops on him and there was a big scene in the parking lot. I found him extremely unpleasant, and liked Barney's a lot more when he wasn't around.

As to the infamous sign, I think went up and down a few times over the years, and might have been replaced with a new version at some point. Rev. Troy Perry of The Metropolitan Community Church told the L.A. Times "We started picketing the restaurant in 1970, and on March 12, he said he would take the sign down, but then he put up more signs and had matchbooks [with those words on it] made." I think the sign ended up a museum piece at West Hollywood City Hall, though Erwin probably longed for the days when it was posted and enforced. :shrug: I last ate there about 8 years ago. Erwin's gone and the place has changed hands once or twice. The current owners have morphed Barney's into a kind of diluted sports bar/diner franchise. Now there's even a Barney's in Burbank where I live. It's in the "date night" district, near the new movie theaters and cafes. But going there would sees a hollow experience compared to the old Barney's -- even though it sucked sometimes.


Barney's in 1949
http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Barney%27...ery%201949.jpg
http://www.hollywoodhistoricphotos.com/


Barney's today
http://wwww.dkse.net/david/barneys.now2.jpg
Google Street View


Barney's as seen through the eyes of R. Crumb on the Janis Joplin Cheap Thrills album cover
http://wwww.dkse.net/david/CheapThrillsBarneys3.jpg

And finally, Barney with his infamous sign, and a shocking quote not mentioned in any of the histories that I've seen. Yeah, he was a real sweetheart!
http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Barneys.Life2..jpg
Life Magazine June 26, 1964, Homosexuality In America

Hollywood gazes into the future and sees skyscrapers
 

The Planning Commission is going after Hollywood now:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6746/66882560.jpg
Los Angeles Times

Story here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,3388358.story

It's always good to be reminded that it was the architecture and scale of old L.A. that causes us to wax nostalgic. There will always be those who feel disenfranchised by the relentless coming of the present and future--modern day Barney Anthonys--and I do think it's too bad that Los Angeles seems hell-bent on becoming Manhattan, as delineated in the Times article FredH has pointed out--but reminders of unhappy old coots like Barney do make it easier to accept that we really have little choice whether we live in the hideous aesthetics of the present or not. I do love ugly old Barney, who needn't worry a bit, warning that "They'll approach any nice-looking guy." Colorful, but can't say much missed.

Great Post on Barney's Beanery 3940dxer!!!

I can speak from experience about the place. In late 75 or early 76 (sometime during our holiday break from school), a group of us FIDM students got together to attend a play that a schoolmate had designed and built the sets for. After the play, she suggested that we walk the block or so to Barney's becuase they had cheap beer and burgers. None of us had ever heard of the place, so we were game.

There was about 10 or 11 of us, as I remember, and one was a guy from Brazil named Richard (or as he pronounced it, Reechard). Richard was a life of the party young guy who was very animated and flamboyant. We sat down at two tables next to each other and a waitress came by, carded most of us, and then took our order for 2 pitchers of beer. Richard, as usual, started a lively conversation with the waitress and she stood there laughing and joking with all of us.

What seemed like an eternity later, she came back to the table and told us that "Bud" the manager said she couldn't serve us. We demanded to know why and she wouldn't say, she just nodded toward an older man behind the bar. Richard and Michelle (who suggested we go there) turned to face the guy behind the bar and asked for an explanation. He reached down under the bar and brought up the sign. Holding it in front of himself like a banner, he pointed to the sign, then at Richard and said "that's why, go somewhere else".

Richard, with his Brazillian hot temper flaring, went off at the guy in a mixture of portugese and english. You might not have understood him, but you got his point clearly. The old man put the sign down, came out from behind the bar and started menacingly advancing towards Richard. Never one to back down, Richard stood his ground, still letting the old guy have it verbally. Richard was not a big guy at all and the old man got right up in his face telling him that he was going to physically throw him out and beat the crap out of his "faggot ass" in the parking lot. That's where I came in, I'd heard enough!

The old fart must not have been paying attention when we first walked in, but he sure as hell did when I pulled my 6'7" frame out of my chair, pushed Richard out of the way and got in his face. I glared down in to his craggy old face and growled "how's about trying to beat the crap out of my faggot ass old man! Come on, let me drag your boney old ass outside?". The guy practically jumped over the bar trying to get behind it. Once he was securely back there, he yelled that he was calling the cops. We told him don't bother and left. Being 22 and angry as hell, I may have taken a leak in the potted plant out front but, then again, that could just be a vicious rumor:D

So, even though the sign wasn't "posted' during the mid-70's, it was still very close at hand. I personally have never been back to that hell hole and have no plans to either. Just had to comment, thanks again for the post.

~Jon Paul

Jon Paul, thanks for the feedback and for your own great story. I was a little reluctant about posting this story but it seemed important, and Noirish in its own sad way.

I don't want to sidebar too far into political history, but here are two articles about the final decommissioning of the sign and the "matchbook controversy".

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/GiveUpSign.jpg
L.A. Times Jan. 16 1985

http://wwww.dkse.net/david/Matchbooks.jpg
L.A. Times Jan. 8 1985

Excellent post on Barney's Beanery 3940dxer!!!! You really did your research...bravo to you.

....and Jon Paul...you're 6'7" wow :)

Yep!

That's why I never looked up at all the beautiful buildings in downtown LA and Hollywood. If I don't look down and in front of me, I tend to walk into and over anyone in in my path. I have, unwillingly, knocked many a short person on their butt over the years. My partner is 6'6", so it can be a stampede when we're walking together;)

~Jon Paul

An adobe on the east side Castelar Street between Ord and Alpine Street. To the left of the adobe in the far distance you get a glimpse
of some of J.W. Robinson's neighbors atop the hill.

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/4...telarstbtw.jpg
LAPL

View south on Castelar Street (now Hill Street) from Bernardo Street before construction of the new thoroughfare, February 13, 1936.
Notice the hilltop mansions in the distance on the right.


http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/5...honcastela.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1324426634656






Castelar Street (now Hill Street) viewed south from Bernardo Street after construction of the new thoroughfare, February 10th, 1938.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5...honcastela.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/search...=1324426634656

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00080/00080156.jpgLAPL

A lovely Angeleno sunbathes on her lawn, Westmoreland Avenue near Beverly Blvd, 1958.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...stmore120.jpg]Google Street View

See my answer above your final question-Oops---Rick M

:previous: That is so great Rick M!! Thanks for finding out the owner and exact location of the house! I really appreciate it.
I am surprised so my notables lived in the same vicinity...I thought they were clustered a bit further south.

____

I googled the new information you gave me and found a couple more photos of the Baker residence.
In the photograph below the Baker residence is the large house on the left. If you look closely you can see a small portion of its onion shaped cupola.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/8036/fortmoore.jpg
http://ahistoricalpanoramaoflosangel...nker-hill.html




http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3003/fredbaker.jpg
http://ahistoricalpanoramaoflosangel...nker-hill.html

Thanks again Rick M!

_____

Eastern Oil Field, looking north from Baker Iron Works, Los Angeles County in 1905.


http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/8...rfield1905.jpg
http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/cgi-...36&SIZE=medium