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Los Angeles Past Jan 4, 2011 9:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsjansen (Post 5113213)
a 1940 view looking across the future park la brea site from wilshire boulevard.

the pan pacific auditorium is just left of center. to the left of the pan pacific is gilmore field, (baseball) then gilmore stadium, (football). The farmers market is just below and to the left of gilmore stadium.....(scott....hold your nose).

:haha: LOL! I hated the smell of Farmer's Market worst of all. I'd rather have a babysitter than go to that place. :yuck: Not to mention it was a lon-n-n-ng, boring drive from Covina, especially before the Santa Monica Fwy. was built out that far...

Mom took me to a couple of Auto Shows at the Pan-Pacific back in the '60s, but I'm pretty sure that was just another excuse to go across town and get her fresh-butchered meat (P.U.!!!) at Farmer's Market and pick up some steak and kidney pies at Dupar's. ;)

Fantastic post, by the way! ethereal's right - it really brought the old place to life again. :)

-Scott

sopas ej Jan 5, 2011 1:19 AM

Great pics of the Pan Pacific Auditorium indeed! :tup:

Mmm, Dupar's. I love their pancakes.

GaylordWilshire Jan 5, 2011 3:15 PM

Set your D V R for noir
 
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...83004%20PM.jpgMGM/Alpha Video www.oldies.com

Loretta Young in.... TCM is playing Cause for Alarm! tomorrow at 5 pm. I've always thought this was a pretty bad movie, and yet have always loved watching it. There are some location shots of what seem to be streets within a block or two of West 1st--Loretta and Barry appear live in the 100 block north of a street somewhere between, say, Highland and Western; 116 N Van Ness would seem to be the most likely candidate, but the house is proving elusive. I'll stay on the case, as life depends on it, right? OK, anyway, Tay Garnett directed this short (74 min) film--he of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cause has been termed noir--I've always thought this was stretching it a bit, but I've also seen it called "suburban noir", which I can see. It does hang together as it is, although I can't help but wonder if, given an extra, say, 45 minutes, it couldn't have been turned into something much more traditionally noirish. What exactly are Loretta and the handsome doctor up to? Their reactions to the fate of Barry are most curious.... are they just a watered-down version of Lana and John or Barbara and Fred?

Check it out.


Dinner on me at Perino's for the first person to identify the man in middle below. (Hint #1: TCM is running episodes of his star vehicle all day today, in which there are sometimes great location shots of developing L.A. Hint #2: He had a sad end--shot to death at 31.)
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...64948%20PM.jpgMGM/Alpha Video www.oldies.com

malumot Jan 5, 2011 3:51 PM

Cause For Alarm
 
Perino's.....


I'll put the Perino's dinner on your tab, Gaylord. Carl Switzer.

This story, from his Wikipedia entry (if true), is every bit as good as the Lana Turner/Schwab's Pharmacy one. Better, in fact - Lana had to hang out at Schwab's every day after school at Hollywood High, wearing the tightest sweaters she could find until she was noticed. :D

The Switzers took a trip to California in 1934 to visit with family members. While sightseeing they eventually wound up at Hal Roach Studios. Following a public tour of the facility, 8-year-old Harold and 6-year-old Carl entered into the Hal Roach Studio's open-to-the-public cafeteria, the Our Gang Café, and began an impromptu performance. Producer Hal Roach was present at the commissary that day and was impressed by the performance. He signed both Switzers to appear in Our Gang. Harold was given two nicknames, "Slim" and "Deadpan," and Carl was dubbed "Alfalfa."

PS - They just "happened" to end up at Hal Roach? And just "happened" to give an impromptu performance? Smells like a 1930's version of the Colorado Balloon Boy. LOL LOL LOL

gsjansen Jan 5, 2011 5:28 PM

i'm in the mood for love

http://www.hallowfreaks.com/articles/images/alfalfa.jpg
Source: Hallow freaks http://www.hallowfreaks.com/articles/images/alfalfa.jpg

The death of alfalfa is quite noir tale of it's own

Switzer as an adult bred hunting dogs and guided hunting expeditions. Among his more notable clients were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (Switzer's godparents) and James Stewart.

Prior to a hunting guide job, Switzer had borrowed a hunting dog from Moses "Bud" Stiltz. When the dog was lost, Switzer offered a $50 reward for the dog's return. A man found the dog a few days later and brought it to the bar where Switzer was working. Switzer paid the man $35 and bought him $15 worth of drinks from the bar. Several days later on January 21, 1959, Switzer and his friend Jack Piott decided that Stiltz owed $50 paid to the man who found the dog. The pair allegedly arrived drunk at Stiltz's home in Mission Hills to collect the money Stiltz "owed" Switzer.

He banged on Stiltz's front door, demanding, "Let me in, or I'll kick in the door." Once Switzer was inside the home, he and Stiltz got into an argument. Switzer informed Stiltz that he wanted the money owed him, saying "I want that 50 bucks you owe me now, and I mean now." When Stiltz refused to hand over the money, the two engaged in a fight. Piott allegedly struck Stiltz in the head with a glass-domed clock, which caused him to bleed from his left eye. Stiltz retreated to his bedroom and returned holding a .38-caliber revolver, but Switzer immediately grabbed the gun away from him, resulting in a shot being fired that hit the ceiling. Switzer then forced Stiltz into a closet, despite Stiltz having gotten his hands back on the gun. Switzer then allegedly pulled a switchblade knife and screamed, "I'm going to kill you" and was attempting to stab him with it, but just as Switzer was about to charge Stiltz, Stiltz raised the gun and shot Switzer in the groin. Switzer suffered massive internal bleeding and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

GaylordWilshire Jan 5, 2011 11:09 PM

Cross your legs
 
:previous:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028171.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028171.jpg
Picture it: 1951. Joan--Jennings--Walter


Speaking of guns and groins--gs, you've reminded me of one of my favorite Hollywood stories: Walter Wanger shooting agent Jennings Lang in the nether regions after suspecting him of wooing Mrs. Wanger--a Lang client, and none other than Miss Joan Bennett. (I once worked with a great editor in NY who happened to be the youngest daughter of the Wangers. Naturally I never brought up the shooting--but she did have tales of a glamorous life in a Wallace Neff house in Holmby Hills, and of flying back and forth between LA and NY on TWA Super Constellations. No bragging--just True Tales of a Hollywood childhood. She was--and I assume still is--funny and down to earth, and she looked alot like Joan, too--very beautiful.) Details of the unmentioned-to-the-daughter incident here: http://www.opossumsal.com/Christmas/...t/Bennett.html


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-s...2520AM.bmp.jpghttp://books.google.com/books?id=H0o...page&q&f=false
Joan at home in Holmby Hills. (More pics at link above.)


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028170.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028170.jpg
Lang recovering at Midway Hospital. (That's Mrs. Lang--not to be unkind, but one can sort of understand the
allurements of Miss Bennett.)


http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028168.jpgLAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics17/00028168.jpg
Mrs. Lang leaving the hospital after a visit, accompanied by Miss Jane Wyman.

ethereal_reality Jan 6, 2011 12:41 AM

Joan Bennett also played a femme fatale in two of Fritz Lang's film noirs.





below: "Woman in the Window" (1944)


http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/7...nthewindow.jpg
Universal





below: "Scarlet Street" (1945).


http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2...street1945.jpg
Universal


Cigarettes are so ubiquitous in film noirs.

If you were to film a neo-noir what could possibly take their place?

ethereal_reality Jan 6, 2011 1:00 AM

Another brunette beauty......this time in real life "noirland".





Below: Hedy Lamarr confronts burglars that had ransacked her home.


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5...arrconfron.jpg
ucla archive

GaylordWilshire Jan 6, 2011 2:50 AM

Ah, Hedy
 
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...k/50397448.jpgBill Ray/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/503...1E70F2B3269972


Why I thought I'd find a picture of Hedy in handcuffs or in a mug shot with a black band across her face, I don't know. Naturally, instead she looks like a million bucks after her unfortunate brush with the law after being arrested for shoplifting at Mays Miracle Mile store in 1966. (What is it about fading movie stars and Mays?) Btw, Hedy was acquitted. She has a bit of the Joan Bennett look about her... doubly interesting because the two shared a husband, producer and screenwriter Gene Markey (Joan was first; after Joan and Hedy Markey married yet another major actress, Miss Myna Loy. Not sure how he missed Gene Tierney.)... Hence the "Markey" on the patent drawings for what Hedy is equally well known for--some sort of precursor to radar, I think:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWyMbtGP_j.../s400/fig4.JPG http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWyMbtGP_j.../s400/fig4.JPG

gsjansen Jan 6, 2011 11:00 AM

Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler November 9, 1913 – died January 19, 2000)

Frequency-hopping spread-spectrum invention

Avant garde composer George Antheil, a son of German immigrants and neighbor of Hedy Lamarr, had experimented with automated control of musical instruments, including his music for Ballet Mecanique, originally written for Fernand Léger's 1924 abstract film. This score involved multiple player pianos playing simultaneously.

Together, Antheil and Lamarr submitted the idea of a secret communication system in June 1941. On August 11, 1942, US Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey", Lamarr's married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.

The idea was not implemented in the USA until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent had expired. Perhaps owing to this lag in development, the patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award for this contribution. In 1998, Ottawa wireless technology developer Wi-LAN, Inc. "acquired a 49 percent claim to the patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock" Antheil had died in 1959.

Lamarr's and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones. Blackwell, Martin, and Vernam's 1920 patent Secrecy Communication System (1598673) seems to lay the communications groundwork for Lamarr and Antheil's patent which employed the techniques in the autonomous control of torpedoes.

Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council, but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.

For several years during the 1990s, the boxes of the current CorelDRAW software suites were graced by a large Corel-drawn image of Hedy Lamarr, in tribute to her pre-computer scientific discoveries. These pictures were winners in CorelDRAW's yearly software suite cover design contests. Far from being flattered, however, Lamarr sued Corel for using the image without her permission. Corel countered that she did not own rights to the image. They reached an undisclosed settlement in 1999.

GaylordWilshire Jan 6, 2011 5:02 PM

'The Exiles' in NYC
 
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...D_011%2520.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...D_011%2520.jpg

Heads up to anyone in NYC or visiting: The Exiles is playing at IFC (323 Sixth Ave.) tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday (Jan. 7-9, 11am only each day).

GaylordWilshire Jan 6, 2011 7:46 PM

An editorial
 
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpgHBO
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpg
The first time I saw this picture a few months ago, I didn't notice that there weren't any palm trees....


OK. I got over the idea that HBO was going to remake Mildred Pierce after seeing the cast and given to understand that it would be truer to the Cain novel and set when the book was, in the '30s, a good decade before the famous 1945 version. I also became convinced that apparently the world has been crying out for a less-inhibited movie version of the book. Some Cain "scholars" have argued that we need such a version so we know that, for instance, Monty is sleeping with Mildred and Veda, not just sending them flowers--these things are very hard for adults to figure out, you know. But it looks like we may have to transfer our imagination from sleeping arrangements to accepting New York City and Long Island as stand-ins for Southern California. Actually, it is unclear to me whether the whole story might even have been relocated to the East Coast--which would defeat the whole purpose of keeping closer to the book, of course. But if we are meant to accept NY locations as noirland--well, this is where my anticipation for the new mini-series, due in March, curdles. Could this be another megabomb like the Black Dahlia of a few years ago? It's the LIGHT, people, and the PALMS. But forget 200-foot palms for the moment--not even on the brightest day does Glen Cove or Locust Valley resemble Pasadena, nor does Midtown Manhattan resemble '30s downtown L.A. I guess I should reserve judgment until I see it--while HBO has done great things, including the best series of all time (The Sopranos), it has also given us Boardwalk Empire, which is wildly overproduced (and unwatchable, I think) even if it at least isn't being done with Santa Monica standing in for Atlantic City. I'm not sure that the new Mildred Pierce trailer is working for me, either:

http://www.hbo.com/mildred-pierce/in...ayMQIAVKYXOA==

Anyone see it differently?


Nary a SoCal location is listed in the IMDB for the new production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492030/locations

ethereal_reality Jan 6, 2011 9:13 PM

Thanks for the info on Hedy's frequency-hopping spread-spectrum invention gsjansen.





Below: For visitors to the thread that might not be familiar with Ms. Lamarr's astonishing beauty.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8997/hedyh2.jpg
MGM






http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7...lamarrpose.jpg
MGM

JeffDiego Jan 7, 2011 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5115993)
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpgHBO
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpg
The first time I saw this picture a few months ago, I didn't notice that there weren't any palm trees....


OK. I got over the idea that HBO was going to remake Mildred Pierce after seeing the cast and given to understand that it would be truer to the Cain novel and set when the book was, in the '30s, a good decade before the famous 1945 version. I also became convinced that apparently the world has been crying out for a less-inhibited movie version of the book. Some Cain "scholars" have argued that we need such a version so we know that, for instance, Monty is sleeping with Mildred and Veda, not just sending them flowers--these things are very hard for adults to figure out, you know. But it looks like we may have to transfer our imagination from sleeping arrangements to accepting New York City and Long Island as stand-ins for Southern California. Actually, it is unclear to me whether the whole story might even have been relocated to the East Coast--which would defeat the whole purpose of keeping closer to the book, of course. But if we are meant to accept NY locations as noirland--well, this is where my anticipation for the new mini-series, due in March, curdles. Could this be another megabomb like the Black Dahlia of a few years ago? It's the LIGHT, people, and the PALMS. But forget 200-foot palms for the moment--not even on the brightest day does Glen Cove or Locust Valley resemble Pasadena, nor does Midtown Manhattan resemble '30s downtown L.A. I guess I should reserve judgment until I see it--while HBO has done great things, including the best series of all time (The Sopranos), it has also given us Boardwalk Empire, which is wildly overproduced (and unwatchable, I think) even if it at least isn't being done with Santa Monica standing in for Atlantic City. I'm not sure that the new Mildred Pierce trailer is working for me, either:

http://www.hbo.com/mildred-pierce/in...ayMQIAVKYXOA==

Anyone see it differently?


Nary a SoCal location is listed in the IMDB for the new production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492030/locations

Gaylord: Couldn't agree more. I was skeptical that this new version of "Mildred Pierce" would be good, and the trailer confirms the worst; all seems stagey and unreal. I can't really comprehend that you say it was mostly filmed on the East Coast. WHAAAAT???
BTW, speaking of old Hollywood, an earlier post (forgot who it was, sorry) made reference to Lana Turner hanging out at Schwab's Pharmacy in tight sweaters. That never happened. in 1936/37 Lana was having a coke at the Top Hat Malt Shop on Highland Ave. across from Hollywood High where she was a student, and Billy Wilkerson of the Hollywood Reporter thought she was pretty enough to ask if she wanted to be in the movies and sent her to a casting director at Warner Bros. Don't know where or when the Schwab's Drugstore story originated; maybe a movie magazine writer thought it sounded catchier and more glamorous (and it takes attention away from the fact that Lana was only a high school student when "discovered") - but it is one of THEE legends of Hollywood.

ethereal_reality Jan 7, 2011 2:23 AM

RKO Hill Street Theater.


http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5...streetthea.jpg
usc digital archive





Below: The Sun Building at Hill & 7th St.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6...dinghill7t.jpg
usc digital archive

sopas ej Jan 7, 2011 2:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire (Post 5115993)
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpgHBO
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TS...cation-1lg.jpg
The first time I saw this picture a few months ago, I didn't notice that there weren't any palm trees....


OK. I got over the idea that HBO was going to remake Mildred Pierce after seeing the cast and given to understand that it would be truer to the Cain novel and set when the book was, in the '30s, a good decade before the famous 1945 version. I also became convinced that apparently the world has been crying out for a less-inhibited movie version of the book. Some Cain "scholars" have argued that we need such a version so we know that, for instance, Monty is sleeping with Mildred and Veda, not just sending them flowers--these things are very hard for adults to figure out, you know. But it looks like we may have to transfer our imagination from sleeping arrangements to accepting New York City and Long Island as stand-ins for Southern California. Actually, it is unclear to me whether the whole story might even have been relocated to the East Coast--which would defeat the whole purpose of keeping closer to the book, of course. But if we are meant to accept NY locations as noirland--well, this is where my anticipation for the new mini-series, due in March, curdles. Could this be another megabomb like the Black Dahlia of a few years ago? It's the LIGHT, people, and the PALMS. But forget 200-foot palms for the moment--not even on the brightest day does Glen Cove or Locust Valley resemble Pasadena, nor does Midtown Manhattan resemble '30s downtown L.A. I guess I should reserve judgment until I see it--while HBO has done great things, including the best series of all time (The Sopranos), it has also given us Boardwalk Empire, which is wildly overproduced (and unwatchable, I think) even if it at least isn't being done with Santa Monica standing in for Atlantic City. I'm not sure that the new Mildred Pierce trailer is working for me, either:

http://www.hbo.com/mildred-pierce/in...ayMQIAVKYXOA==

Anyone see it differently?


Nary a SoCal location is listed in the IMDB for the new production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492030/locations

Oh that looks horrid. It just isn't "Mildred Pierce" without the Max Steiner score, Ann Blyth, of course Joan Crawford, and the wise-cracking Eve Arden-- if anything, maybe as recently as 10 or 15 years ago, if they were to have remade "Mildred," I think Joan Cusack would've made a great stand-in for Eve Arden.

I'm glad I don't have HBO.

Come on, how can you top this?

Video Link

ethereal_reality Jan 7, 2011 2:31 AM

The Metropolitan Building at the northwest corner of 5th & Broadway in 1938.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2...litanbldgn.jpg
usc digital archive

Can any one tell me what's going on with the sign at the top of this building?
The top part looks like a silhouette from Dante's Inferno.

sopas ej Jan 7, 2011 3:15 AM

Valley noir. Or Valley non-noir.

Here's Lankershim Boulevard looking south at Weddington in North Hollywood. Once the commercial center of North Hollywood, it became run down over time, and beginning in the 1980s, a slow but steady revitalization began. This is now called the NoHo Arts District, with a "restored" El Portal Theatre. I put restored in quotes because it was originally built in 1926 as a vaudeville house, then became a movie theater, then became abandoned and seedy. In the late 1990s it was rebuilt to house 3 theaters for the performing arts.

If anyone is familiar with the area, today the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the organization that awards the Emmys) is down the street and across from the El Portal, and that rock n' roll sushi place, Tokyo Delve's, is on the same block as the El Portal.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/260...dnorthholl.jpg
USC Archive

sopas ej Jan 7, 2011 3:43 AM

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Bette Davis/Jane Hudson walking towards the Hollywood Citizen News Building at 1545 Wilcox Ave. in Hollywood after having parked her 1940s Lincoln.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XRrU8-3Nmi...0/DSCN1195.JPG
dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com

I just couldn't resist:
Video Link


Scene from the 1954 version of "A Star is Born." Looking south down Figueroa towards the Atlantic Richfield Building.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XRrU8-3Nmi...%2Bcomment.jpg
dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com

What that scene looks like today:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XRrU8-3Nmi...%2BComment.jpg
dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com

gsjansen Jan 7, 2011 3:18 PM

a great 1920 rainy night noirish image looking south on broadway between 5th and 6th streets

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...es%2C_1920.JPG
Source: Wikipedia commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...es%2C_1920.JPG

a great noirish image looking north on vine street across selma the night of may 24th, 1930. Hollywood Boulevard is lit up for the grand opening premier of Howard Hugh's Hell's Angels

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5206/...386ae7cd_o.jpg

quite possibly the most amazing aerial i have ever seen of los angeles. taken in 1850 from a balloon, this image is looking north from between main street and los angeles street, across temple street towards the plaza..............stunning

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/...9eebabae_o.jpg


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