George Dolenz--father of Monkee Mickey--opened the Marquis restaurant at 8420 Sunset in 1956 with his earnings from "Count of Monte Christo." He died on the roof of the Marquis in 1963--he'd gone up to inspect something and had a heart attack. Not sure how long his family might have had it after that, but in 1970, it became the Martoni Marquis. L.A. restaurateur Mario MARino opened it with a coworker named TONI--hence Martoni's Marquis. A family website claims that "regulars Liz Taylor, John Wayne and Elvis Presley made it famous." It seems to have lasted about six years... the building is gone now.


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...2520PM.bmp.jpg
hollywoodphotographs.com in case you couldn't tell

I love that 'greasy spoon' to the left of the theater. Imagine grabbing a juicy cheeseburger and coke after watching 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'. :)

Thanks for posting rcarlton. I've never seen this theater before.

below: Interesting facts about the Wilshire Country Club. The membership fee alone made me throw up in my mouth a little.


http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/202...ryclubjaso.jpg
http://www.jamescolincampbell.com/





http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1...tryclub1bs.jpg
http://www.jamescolincampbell.com/



below: A view of the 'stream' in 1925 before the golf course was established.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7...reamin1921.jpg





below: And to answer your question about the clubhouse G_W. (This isn't what we wanted to hear) :(

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3...untryclub1.jpg
http://www.jamescolincampbell.com/




below: An expansive view of the Wilshire Country Club. Notice the impressive Royale Apartments across the street on Rossmore.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/171/w...ryclub1ahu.jpg
http://www.jamescolincampbell.com/




below: The Royale Apartment building in 1929.

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/5...royalein19.jpg
LAPL





below: An aerial view of the Wilshire Country Club clubhouse in 1925.

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/3...9253timesa.jpg
http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/F...olNumber=33630




below: An aerial view of the Wilshire Country Club in 2011.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/985...ryclubaeri.jpg
google views

Kelbo's
 

Kelbo's at 101 N. Fairfax St. near 1st, with a second location on Pico. Fun place but as I recall the food wasn't all that great.

Couldn't find a good exterior shot, unfortunately.

http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/...rb04821-01.jpg

http://dbase1.lapl.org/images/menus/...rb03878-01.jpg
http://dbase1.lapl.org/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll

Club 88 in west Los Angeles.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6121/club88.jpg
http://gogonotes.blogspot.com/2008/09/club-88.html

This 'Childrens Paradise' looks anything but. Found on an old CD of mine (no address...no date)


http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/9...bybeverlyc.jpg
unknown

I don't recall the name of the small amusement park that occupied the site of the Beverly Center.
Is this it?.....or was it called something else.....perhaps 'Adventure' something??

____

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/1...ysterybldg.jpg
postcard/ebay

So which bridge is this......sopas_ej?

Alex in Wonderland - 1970
 

In 1969, Paul Mazursky (in his first effort) directed the hit movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. As a reward, he was allowed to choose his next project, which (inexplicably) turned out
to be Alex in Wonderland, starring Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. To his credit, I suppose, his career continued on after this movie.

Anyway, one Sunday morning, he took his crew out to Hollywood Blvd. to film this scene:

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/353...oodblvd970.jpg
Los Angeles Times

Forty two years later, the area looks pretty much the same:

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4...ywoodblvd2.jpg
Google Street View

The Supply Sergeant is still going, but the House of Magic has turned into a tatoo shop, the Cinema bookstore now sells cell phones, and the Ritz Theater (the New View back then)
is a church.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg190...jpg&res=medium
Google Street View

The Ritz Theater has an interesting history. It started life as a bowling alley. In 1939, it was converted to a theater called News-View, which showed newsreels.
Later (as in the Alex in Wonderland photo), the "s" was dropped and it was just called the New-View.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9158/t03911.jpg
https://sites.google.com/site/hollywoodtheatres/ritz

In the mid 1970's, it went porno and was called the Pussycat. Then in 1989, it was re-done as the Ritz. In the end, the "I" fell off the Ritz sign and it ened up the
church you see two photos above.

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg41/...jpg&res=medium
https://sites.google.com/site/hollywoodtheatres/ritz

On the other side of the street (in the Alex in Wonderland photo), you can see part of the sign for the Vogue Theater. The Vogue has gone through a number of changes too.
Here are a few of them.

In 1935, it looked like this:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg854...jpg&res=medium
https://sites.google.com/site/hollywoodtheatres/vogue

In 1959, it went through this remodel:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg542...jpg&res=medium
LAPL

Lately, it has been converted into a supper club:

http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg16/...jpg&res=medium
Google Street View

Anyone interested in the history of Hollywood theaters, please check out this excellent website:

https://sites.google.com/site/hollywoodtheatres/home

I'm sure you're thinking of Lucas Kiddie Land (AKA Beverly Park), which coincidentally I mentioned this morning in my post about "The Hot Dog Show".

Maybe Childrens Paradise was some little corner of Kiddie Land? This photo has been posted on our thread before, but what the heck. Mom and dad took us kids here once or twice and the place became a little family joke. When we took any sort of family vacation or road trip my dad would often quip on the drive home "Do you wish we'd gone to Kiddieland instead?"

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics27/00063268.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics27/00063268.jpg

Not sure of the location, but the photo is from LAPL's Ansel Adams collection, circa 1940.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00085/00085759.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/00085/00085758.jpg

ethereal_reality:

I googled around downtown L.A. and decided (from the angle of the buildings) that this might have been shot from an overpass on the 101 freeway.
This street view shot was from Los Angeles Street, but it may also have been from back at Alameda.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9...elesstreet.jpg
Google Street View

That shot was taken from the retaining wall of the Union Station tracks, which overlooked Aliso Street (now overlooking the 101 freeway and El Monte Busway/San Bernardino Fwy. carpool lanes).

In fact, there's a photo posted on here with a locomotive that broke through it... here, from the LA Times archive:
http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress....hruwall970.jpg
LA Times



Here's a Google Map view of the retaining wall:
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1870/picture3xo.png
Google Maps

As you can see, an overpass was built through the retaining wall for the Gold Line light rail tracks to cross over the 101 freeway.

Hmmm, I take that back. That old postcard photo was indeed taken from the track area of Union Station, but from a retaining wall that no longer exists. You can see the tiled covered walkway from the postcard here, in this Google Map image, in the lower left corner. You can't get that same view anymore because of the MWD headquarters building.
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/1290/picture5wj.png
Google Maps

Here's an aerial image of Union Station from 1940. That retaining wall is near the upper right-hand corner, where the curved ramp for the roof parking is. The old postcard photo was taken from there. The MWD headquarters building now occupies that site.
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2...940uscarch.jpg
USC Archive

I remember that ramp. The MWD building was built in the late 1990s.

Undated photo
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics25/00032382.jpg
LAPL

Found another picture of the Carlton Theatre:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015268.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015268.jpg

The car in the foreground is a 1964 Plymouth and one of the cars in the background is a 1961 Chevrolet.

From http://www.westadams-normandie.com/

"Address given as both 5409 and 5411 S. Western (between Vernon and Slauson)

Demolished.
Style: Mission Revival
Seats: 1200
Architect: Unknown
From Cinema Treasures:

"My brother and sister and I spent many a Saturday afternoon at this theatre. They had children's matinees every week and for 25¢, I recall, you could see two features plus a cartoon and previews of coming attractions both for the regular theatre and for next weeks childrens matinee on Saturday. My brother was just reminding me of how he saw the Three Stooges in person at this theatre. I remember the candy being 6¢ and 12¢. I would always get ju-ju-bees because they lasted longer. Sometimes I would splurge on a 12 cent box of Flicks - chocholate wafers (before Hershey kisses) that came packed in a box cylinder container. They even had membership cards that were punched each week you attended. When it was your birthday or birthday week, you came up on stage at intermission and stuck your hand into a grab bag full of money and candy and kept everything you could hold on to. BOY THOSE WERE THE DAYS." -- posted by MagicLantern on Sep 17, 2004

Another contributor adds: "The film 'Ed Wood' depicts the premiere of "Plan Nine From Outer Space" (1959) as taking place at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The premiere was actually held at the Carlton Theatre in Los Angeles."

Wilshire CC $150,000 to join and $20,000 a year for a membership three years ago!:koko:

Having fun in an abandoned city
 

All taken this morning, starting around 5AM to about 6:30AM. Sunday mornings around that time are fascinating, as there are quite literally less than zero people out on the streets, and it is really creepy and cool at the same time, to be in the middle of what feels like an abandoned city.

Obviously we have all seen wilshire bullocks a billion times before, but this was my first time seeing it all lit up in the dark.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...-/006-Copy.jpg

over on Los Angeles street between 9th and olympic, theres the gerry building, which I am not sure has been covered on here...

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...-/004-Copy.jpg

As much as I hate the parking lots, the only upside to them is you can get some back views of buildings you normally wouldnt see, also, it makes it easier to get into alleyways.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/012.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/013.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/014.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/006.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/008.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...tulio-/022.jpg

And for fun, heres a little then and now, taken in almost the same spot.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...grapefruit.jpg

All photos by me...

Also, awhile back I posted pictures of the hotel clark neon sign all lit up...however, it was only lit for like 2 or 3 days it seemed, its been off for months. Not sure what the deal is with that place, I hear rumors its being fixed up, however I never see any evidence. Anyone know anything about it?

Vampira actually recalled that the cast headed to this preview by a rented bus - and rather forbodingly nervous they all were about the entire evening-- so much to their suprise it went over with the audience!

Speaking of Beverly Park...

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics38/00068991.jpgLAPL

I know we've seen the this picture of a ride at Beverly Park--with its swanky Cadillac mini-cars--before, but the "search" option here isn't turning those older posts up... anyway, despite a review that, as a writer, would have made me throw myself under those mini-Caddy tracks, I just finished a borrowed copy of Unreal Estate by Michael Gross. It's the kind of thing I am interested in--old Los angeles houses--but I'm afraid Janet Maslin of the NYT was right--there is too much grotesque detail of the trashy lives of celebs and sleazy businessmen in their BH, Bel-Air, Holmby Hills and Beverly Park palazzos--500 pages of it really is enough to make you gag and head for genteel Pasadena. Anyway--apparently Beverly Park was long in development--there were many unbuilt incarnations with various names until the subdivision, as it is today, opened (and what a--how shall I put this?--group the place has attracted). According to the book, the successful developer decided on "Beverly Park" because he'd played there as child....

I might add that while Unreal Estate is finally a really boring read, I read somewhere that HBO has optioned it. I'm not sure how they'd put it all on the screen, but I'll be watching.

Can you imagine how much the land underneath places like the Wilshire CC, LA CC, and Hillcrest CC must be worth. I wonder what kind of real estate taxes these clubs pay. I bet they get bargain rates, but with annual dues that high I guess some of it goes towards RE taxes.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M...nglishflat.jpgGoogle Books

This amazing apartment house I stumbled upon is identified only as the "English Flat Court Building, Los Angeles." Where could it have been? (I don't want to get to excited and ask, "Where is it?")

Actually, the country clubs pay extremely low taxes-- so low that they're practically non-existent. Here's a link to an interesting piece of crowd-funded investigative online journalism into how that came to be the case, and if anything can be done about it.