More recommended reading
 

Merry Ovnick's Los Angeles: The End of the Rainbow is an excellent and thorough (if just a tad academic) history of L.A.'s domestic
architecture, from the Gabrielino Indians to current times. One is struck by the amazing marketing of the L.A. dream, the hyperbole
and propaganda that lured so many west. Ovnick's double-edged subtitle gives an indication of her thoughtful, balanced views on
the subject, giving insight into the not-infrequent disillusionment as well... which Beaudry and gsj have underscored here with their
great shots of some sad endings.

Here are a few scenes of the Los Angeles dream before the Santa Anas began to blow in, before "...meek little wives [began to]
feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks...." The cars are key...what's the L.A. dream without one?

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All images LAPL

Oh that Delmer Dean Dobbs! You know, that's him in the pic I posted of the guy getting wrestled from the roof of the Rosslyn. See, first he went on the roof and everybody cheered and yelled "Jump, you coward!" (Which provoked all sorts of psychiatrist jargon about the meaningless of all life and how Dobbs was performing an act of unconscious aggression on the crowd and how we haven't risen above the Roman circus, etc.) But his girlfriend Bonnie LaRoss talked him down.

One month later, as she was busy being a cashier in her cashier's booth at the Rialto, Delmer showed up again, this time with a gun. She called the cops; as he heard them approach, she watched as he put the gun to his stomach and fired. He later expired at County General.

In a grand piece of true yellow journalism, here's news photographer's sent to the cashier's box to grill La Ross: "So, you were here when you saw your boyfriend shoot himself. What was that like?"

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If you go on Google Maps street view, you can see exactly where he is: 813 Broadway, at what's now "Orient L Ru s" Oh, poor, poor Hamburger's Department Store. Remember how I told you to go into the Pacific National Bank? Don't go in here unless you've got a strong stomach. Trust me.

If you flip the photo you can see that reflected in the glass are the Chapman Bldg, and the marquee for the Newsreel (AKA Tower) theater...

...read more about DDD and Bonnie here...

If you're going to throw yourself out of a window, I mean, third floor? Really? But then, George Menke was 68. And 68 in 1952 would be ancient today.

But throw himself out of 3835 W 8th he did...

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on March 24 of '52. Was that his '50 Studebaker Champion? Ah, probably not.

Now, 3835, that's the Arwyn --

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Of course now it's got a lot of burglar bars, and has lost some of its original wood windows, and it looks like its nice fan lights have gone the way of plywood...

Illegal gambling and immoral sex in Laurel Canyon, circa 1954.


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Below: "Bar maid" Betty Berta talks to the police.



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Below: Policeman showing a secret escape panel.

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Below: "Bar maids" Betty Berta and Robin Jewell Kidd making their way home after the raid.


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edit.......

Crowds
 

who said nobody walks in L.A.?

Wilshire Boulevard 1930's

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/assets...25-4-ISLA?v=hr
USC Digital Archives


downtown shopping crowds broadway and 7th 1951

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USC Digital Archives


Sale frenzy at the May Co. 1942.....honey, you go ahead and keep shopping, i'm gonna catch Betty Grable and Vic Mature in Song of Islands across the street at the Rialto

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USC Digital Archives


Cutting a rug to Tommy Dorsey at the Hollywood Palladium 1942

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LAPL


Parking lot at olympic and olive during the 1955 transit strike

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USC Digital Archives

V-J Day August 14 1945 Broadway and 7th

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LAPL


End of prohibition 1933 at the college inn

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LAPL

here's an image i had not seen before......

looking south from sunset boulevard down both the newly extended spring street to the right, and new high street to the left

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USC Digital Archives

GW (as in Gaylord Wilshire), this ones for you.

The Los Angeles Automobile club holds their very 1st automobile parade on sunset boulevard 1904.

The view is looking South on sunset (that's probably Figueroa up on the right), with fort moore and bunker hills looming on the right

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Great Silver Lake Aerial etc
 

Thanks for that auto-parade shot, gs--do we suppose the palm fronds nailed to the phone poles are part of the decorations?...

Meanwhile, a few miles north...
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Clarence Inman Collection/redcarpropertydotblogspotdotcom

Toward the upper right corner of the shot above is the intersection of Fletcher and Riverside (which, btw, is a stone's throw
from the Silver Lake Auto Rest. I'm assuming it's in there somewhere--attn Scott: your mother probably filled up her Pontiac here).
This set of pics chronicles the corner through the years:

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ca. 1937

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Xj84QYCcFo...ted%2Bcopy.jpg1960/Antonio Futterer/redcarpropertydotblogspotdotcom

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Xj84QYCcFo...ted%2Bcopy.jpg2001/Edwardson/redcarpropertydotblogspotdotcom

Btw--Chevron is still on that corner.


Be sure to visit the excellent website below--there are newer posts than will appear by clicking this particular link, but by scrolling
down on this one you'll find an excellent series of photos chronicling the walling-off effect of the freeway on Silver Lake and
Echo Park.
http://redcarproperty.blogspot.com/s...label/Holyland

:previous:
Such delicious images and tidbits!

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Even in the dream factories of the land of make-believe, not all was always well.

1945 film industry strike at Warner Brothers Studios

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1954, Hollywood Freeway looking southbound towards downtown LA near the Alvarado exit.
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USC Archive

The woman in the photo of the couple walking along Clay Street is wearing typical lady's garb of around 1900 - a long black dress trailing to the ground. It seems unlikely that the photo was taken in 1928.

To quote Gernot Kuehn from his book "Views of Los Angeles".....

"How does one explain a bridge where a tunnel used to be...................."

broadway between temple and sunset 1950

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USC Digital Archives

The photo is quite remarkable, the trench is the construction of the 101 freeway. The straight portion of broadway on the left is the newly opened segment of broadway where the old brodway tunnel was. The curved street to the right is the detour that was constructed to allow for the demolition of fort moore hill and the broadway tunnel.

here's a 1947 aerial just before demolition work was to commence that i had previously posted,

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as the new and improved broadway has now been completed, (with a bridge over the freeway open cut), the detour route on the right will be demolished, allowing for the open cut process of the 101 to proceed eastward, ala this current aerial view

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Googlemaps

here's another shot of the fletcher riverside intersection taken from the train trestle in 1937

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USC Digital Archives

1907 image of the recently opened pacific electric trestle at fletcher and riverside

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LAPL

1904 image of the construction of the trestle

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1959 demolition of the trestle

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USC Digital Archives

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And the trestle footings remain today per Google street view:
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Views from the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall
 

The last couple days I've been merging several panoramic photos from the USC archives. I've been using screen captures to create single panoramas, which is why some are less than seamless. These 5 photos are taken from the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall after the Harbor Freeway had been built and as the Santa Monica Freeway was being built.

"Interchange Olympic (10) and Harbor fwys, 1957" - Looking W and SW from the roof of the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall.
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"Construction of Santa Monica Fwy over Figueroa St, 1958" – In the forground, the SW corner of 18th & Figueroa.
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"Interchange: Harbor and Long Beach fwys, 1958" - In the forground, the NW corner of 18th & Figueroa.
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"Construction of Santa Monica Fwy over Figueroa St, 1958" - Looking N and NW up Figueroa from 18th Street.
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"Construction of Santa Monica Fwy over Figueroa St, 1958" - Looking N and NE up Figueroa from 18th Street.
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No, it's not Arrowhead...
 

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Snow in April is rare even in NYC. But in Los Angeles? Above is a shot from the backyard of 2647 Corralitas Drive, April 1950.

Btw, every Los Angeles neighborhood should have as interesting and vigilant
a website as this one for the northeast corner of Silver Lake:
http://redcarproperty.blogspot.com/

Great views, SpaceCadet. All I can think of is the "10" plowing through Berkeley Square...

OK, how about some juvenile delinquency?







1958
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USC Archive

OK so they're not juvenile delinquents, they're just girls from L.A. High School washing cars.



1958
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USC Archive

This guy was racing in the LA River. 18 years old, Nick Parrino, of 1925 S. Date Street, Alhambra. It's good the officer nipped this in the bud before the kid started getting into worse crimes.



1951
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USC Archive

These boys are nothing but a bunch of juvenile delinquents. They're all N.G.-- No good, I tell you; all up to no good!



1951
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USC Archive

These juvenile car prowlers led cops on an 8-mile chase.



1958
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USC Archive

Cheryl Crane leaving Juvie.

Another shot of her.
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USC Archive

Wow, judging from these pics, LA really was the whitest city in America!

These are incredible! What a find!!
Love the shots of the escape hatch and gambling rooms.

I would love a "where are they now?" biography of these guys.