This is fun.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/DIWzkE.jpg
ebay

In the photograph is the Cameo Theater (opened as Clune's Broadway in 1910) at 528 So. Broadway.

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Now this was an amazing billboard.


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/A1vXlQ.jpg
ebay

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/2MbeMP.jpg
ebay

further reading...........

When the City of Angels had it's own Wrigley Field
http://www.lamag.com/citythink/cityd...wrigley-field/

Sorry, Chicago-Los Angeles Was Home To The First Wrigley Field.
http://southland.gizmodo.com/sorry-c...gle-1566651692

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I just found three more slides from that first group of four. (1953)

Wilshire

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/674/2l6tfv.jpg
ebay

Union Station

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/674/BOyHHn.jpg
ebay

Civic Center (I still haven't figured out how to straighten photographs on my new computer) :(

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/ZMtchw.jpg
ebay

I know they're pretty pedestrian, but I thought someone might find something interesting in them.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/743/v9vTat.png

Now I see why the Plunge was advertised so prominently on the Nu-Pike sign next to the Hotel Stillman.

As you can see in this impressive aerial, the plunge was located directly behind the Hotel Stillman.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/Dq58YM.jpg
ebay

also -note the oil well in the upper left hand corner. (at first I thought it was a ride)



Here's a stereo-photo of another Nu-Pike sign.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/912/LgBn5C.png
https://www.flickr.com/photos/curiou...ream/lightbox/

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https://otters.net/img/lanoir/BOyHHn_mir.jpg

I found a site with loads of pictures and history from the Pike - you can find it here. There's even a whole page on the Plunge. Here's the interior.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z.../LAPlunge1.jpg
www.millikanalumni.com

The pool was apparently vacuum cleaned to keep it free of dust!

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z.../LAPlunge2.jpg
www.millikanalumni.com

A couple of sources I found mentioned that the Plunge was used for a scene in 'I Wake Up Screaming', a 1941 movie starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature and Carole Landis. It's only a short scene, but here are some screengrabs.

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...Screaming1.jpg
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...Screaming2.jpg
http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...Screaming3.jpg
Twentieth Century Fox

I can't help but notice Harry's "loincloth" bears a striking resemblance to the modern-day utilikilt:
http://www.utilikilts.com/

As early as the 1930s and 40s, some practitioners of alternative lifestyles adopted many of the outward trappings that would be associated with the counter culture in the 1960s, and often blended right in when the 1960s did arrive.

For a more encouraging example, check out Gypsy Boots, who opened what was probably L.A.'s first health food store around the turn of the 1960s. eden abhez, an associate of his, wrote "Nature Boy", a remarkable jazz-pop hit reminiscent of Bacharach, and covered by a host of music luminaries including Nat Cole, Sinatra, Grace Slick, Miles Davis, and Lady Gaga to name just a few.

The Italian neighborhood was just north of Sunset and Main, and probably extended into present-day Chinatown. The famous Little Joe's restaurant hung on into the 1970s or 80s, and even today I believe St Peter's Church still holds an Italian mass at least once a week. But if memory serves, the life of the neighborhood pretty much ended with the Bunker Hill outrage of the 1960s, the coming of the freeways, and the collapse of the north end as a residential area.

In a regrettable demonstration of good intentions and bad results, I consider a contributing factor to have been the establishment of El Pueblo State Historic Park in 1953, as it resulted in many old buildings being removed from productive use and padlocked.

I had a little conversation with Gypsy Boots one time back in the day. It was around 1993. I asked him his age. He said he would tell me if I bought one of his health bars.....which of course I did. His age? I forget. Nice guy overall.


Gypsy....Robert Bootzin born 1914 ~2004

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps54947091.jpg
GB

It was THE Robert A. Heinlein. A 1940 directory shows he and his first wife Leslyn living at 8777 Lookout Mountain Avenue. That directory lists him as "USN" since he had left the Navy in 1934 due to TB. He possibly would have been writing at the time he lived on Lookout Mountain as his first published story was in 1939.

:previous:

8777 Lookout Mountain Avenue

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/633/9CHri6.png
GSV

Thanks for information old_stuff. I can totally see Heinlein living here.

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Giant head on the Long Beach Pike ca 1940s.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/RNLH1G.jpg
old file of mine / possibly ebay


I believe it's supposed too be Joe E. Brown.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/913/e83Enm.png
http://peerie.com/Acting/4628/Joe-E.-Brown/

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....and closer to home.

I don't recall seeing this wading pool for children in Echo Park before.

1920s?
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/xNKRPs.jpg
ebay
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What I found interesting is how little traffic there was on the 101.

:previous: I noticed that too jg6544.


Here's an interesting slide. Joanne Gilbert at the Mocambo.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/910/Tnu2O0.jpg
slide / ebay

-but I had no idea who Joanne Gilbert was.


Here she is...a very pretty Joanne Gilbert

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/908/aBJrdZ.png
http://fanpix.famousfix.com/gallery/...t-pictures.htm

Joanne Gilbert timeline here:

http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilversc...8/register.php
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"Criss Cross"
 

Very interesting. It made me think of Criss Cross. I guess this is more or less the former location of Burt Lancaster's house.

I was surprised it still says St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church on the facade.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/904/7mjq0C.png
GSV

You can see it a little better in this view.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/hUlYgi.png
GSV


and next door is the Casa Italiana (a banquet hall I presume)
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/zoEy0m.png
GSV
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Italian Hall at 622 N. Main was built in 1907

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/745/6h5Nt5.png
http://italianhall.org/


below: 1919 banquet held in the Italian Hall.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/910/1Cryi7.png
http://italianhall.org/



Here is the Italian Hall today, on the northeast corner of N. Main & E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/rzq8IQ.png
GSV


/ Olvera Street runs directly behind it on the left.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/j5fefW.png
GSV


http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...910/mn5Dlg.png
http://italianhall.org/

"By the late 1800s, Italians owned over one third of all the businesses that made up the Olvera Street area. By 1900. there were 3,000 Italians living in Los Angeles. At that time, the Italian Quarter or Little Italy, was made up of the Plaza, the area that would become New Chinatown, the foothills of Elysian Park and Lincoln Heights. By the 1930s there were an estimated 30,000 Italians living in Los Angeles."
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"In the Plaza area alone, there were five Italian owned wineries. One of the wineries was owned by Secondo Guasti who ran a restaurant and boarding house in the Avila Adobe, which still stands today. Another wine maker, Antonio Pelanconi, purchased from another Italian, what would become the Pelanconi House, the first and oldest brick building still standing in Los Angeles.
It is now the site of the La Golondrina Restaurant, an Olvera Street landmark.
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Those_Who_Squirm also mentions Little Joe's.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/743/7FHchD.png
http://kim-reynolds.blogspot.com/201...estaurant.html

I know we've seen Little Joe's on NLA (and the Italian Hall for that matter).
I only get "sorry-no matches" while searching for "Little Joe's"

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It's funny how little information there is available about Joanne Gilbert - at first glance. There's no wiki page on her.

I found the Wikipedia page on the Mocamboand and noticed this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocambo

Vimo has the full version of it: http://vimeo.com/69975085

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4te9Pgd3rM...0/111slick.jpghttp://tropicaljon.blogspot.com/2012...lution-of.html

I just found this great photograph of Selma Avenue looking northeast toward Hollywood & Vine a few minutes ago on ebay.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/9YtxGE.jpg
http://www.ebay.com/itm/C-1930S-8-X-...item2ed9c6f747

the traffic pattern is interesting...
-that's an aggressive driver trying to exit the service station. -midway down the block a car is entering a building on one side, while across the street a car is coming out of a building.
One car is trying to park (I think)....or he's cheating by passing on the right.

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