Distraction
 

[I guess GW is right. I recognize the white building on the right with the 9 rectangular windows. We've seen it numerous times. It was located on the east sidewalk of Hill Street just south of the back of the Plaza Church. And it seems we see the shape of a gaz tank behind the building.]

I'm very proud to play a part on this identification but not so proud to be inattentive on the other hand on NLA where accuracy is our dedication. The white building (the Brunswig) was on Spring and not Hill streets as I wrote.

"[George Lehman] planted shade-giving pepper trees, and built a labyrinth of arbors, which in time were hidden under a profusion of vines and roses. He planted fruit and ornamental trees, shrubbery and plants. There were statues of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, a serpent and golden apples, as well as a frame work for flying horses for the amusement of children. Scattered about under the trees were effigies in cement of the animals which passed in review before Adam to receive their names."

-paraphrased by wiki from George Hazard, Historical Society of Southern California

The Roundhouse before enclosure w/ its famous tuna tree:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pX...-oc=w1366-h768
lapl (first posted I think by Flyingwedge)

Ready for its close-up:

.

http://imageshack.com/a/img923/5750/QpYazY.gif



Actually, there are the same number today, with the same spacing, as there were in the sailor's day. Count 'em.

It doesn't show up for me because of that pesky -rw-no on the end of the URLs. (Or because I use Firefox, depending on your perspective.)

OK, OK. You win.

Fixed...trying to remember to remove the suffixes.... No one should be deprived of Brown's wavy hair

'mystery' house

"Los Angeles, 1990s"

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...922/oNCLUU.jpg
old file of mine/possibly from ebay

I'm hoping one of you sleuths here on NLA recognizes this house.


If you look closely, there's a 'For Sale by Owner' sign.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...921/AmfqqD.jpg
detail

I have my fingers crossed that someone bought it and refurbished it.
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And lastly, a close-up of the house itself. (I was hoping there'd be a street number)

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/HrJrqM.jpg

:previous: I was going to say it's located on a brick street, but then I realized that's the interior of the car. lol :)


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I'm still trying to find out about Joe Roig.

:previous:
http://imageshack.com/a/img922/5093/R8J2WR.gif
Joe my Joe!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OA...366-h768-rw-no

Johnny Mack, Joe, Guy, and Snowy, sailors and their flies too-- I can see why it's all too much

Holy moly! Did this get posted and I missed it? Well in any event it's the first I've seen of it. Witness:

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll88/id/1440/rec/1

First off, I don't believe it dates to 1935 (leaving aside the 1939 Ford in the first twenty seconds, come on) because—if you've wondered why sometimes you see the Hotel Clift (L.A. Smith, 1924) at 148 S Fig look like this

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/654/32...9743e6ff_b.jpg

and then like this,

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/567/32...5c607915_b.jpg

it's because Figueroa was widened. The Clift pulled permit in October 1939 to chop 10' off its Figueroa side and do the remodel; so all that scaffolding indicates such. The remodel is designed by Clifford A Balch. Interesting that both architects on the original design and remodel were prolific theater designers. I tried to connect the owners (who had originally portmanteau'd the Clift as the Whitmore, via their surnames,) (and indeed it's in the directories as the Witmore through '28) to theater construction, to no avail.


Across the street, 123 South Fig (Asher & Ponder) pulled permits in December 1939 to chop off 10' and remodel the facade, so they're a month and change behind the Clift in getting that accomplished.

What's especially nice is that while there are images of the facade of 123 S Fig after the remodel (by Webber & Nelson, engineers)—

https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/690/31...01086f57_b.jpggetty research-->nadel-->west 2nd st area

—but shots of it beforehand (L. C. Maurer, 1925) are rare. I think this ad is the only one I'd seen, until this short film.
https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/633/31...b3d09f20_b.jpgLA Times, 1926

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/298/32...d45f842c_b.jpg

We've seen some of this area before, here and here and here.

:previous: That's a great video Beaudry! Thanks for the link.



Saturday night 'mystery' house.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...922/vKL1TE.jpg
old file

If I remember correctly there was a studio worker that built his home out of old props. Could this be it?
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OK, I just found this:

In 1920, John McDermott, a writer for Famous Players-Lasky and Universal, was living in a large rooming house on South Hill Street near Pico Boulevard, with about 25 other boarders, including several other studio employees. One of his fellow boarders and best friends was Norman Z. McLeod, who became a successful director of comedies in the 1930s and 1940s. McDermott decided that he should have his own place, so he found a remote piece of property high up in the Hollywood Hills, on Vale Vista Trail, off Mulholland Highway, which he purchased in 1921.

McDermott started work on his house in 1923. He built the house using an assortment of sets, furniture and props he bought or took from discarded remnants from the various film studios where he worked.

McDermott started with six full rooms he took from the set of "The Song of Love," which starred Norma Talmadge. He took the sets apart, used donkeys to haul the pieces up the hill, and reassembled them. McDermott's house, a jumble of different architectural styles, became a virtual museum with pieces from many of the classic silent films of Hollywood, including girders from "The Thief of Baghdad," which starred Douglas Fairbanks; roofing from Lon Chaney's "The Phantom of the Opera"; a fence from "The Eagle," which starred Rudolph Valentino; three small cannons from "The Sea Hawk," with Wallace Beery; a large table from "Robin Hood," also starring Fairbanks; a goddess statue from Alla Nazimova's "Salome"; and even an assortment of tombstones from the Chaney version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which McDermott used as part of a stone wall.

The inside of the house was just as unique and eclectic -– visitors to the house entered through a tunnel and a shaft leading up to the center of the living room, and pushed aside a manhole cover to enter. The living room chandelier was an inverted baptismal font, stolen by McDermott from a church during renovations. In the bathroom, the handle to flush the toilet also set off a blaring fire alarm. On the outside, the house featured a golden mosque-like dome, surrounded by gold-tipped minarets, and...as mentioned earlier, the cannons from "The Sea Hawk" were on the roof. It also featured pricey tile imported from places such as Italy and France due to McDermott, posing as a tile dealer, contacting tile companies for samples. In this manner, he was able to acquire thousands of dollars worth of free tile. Last but not least, McDermott owned a collection of pigeons-– which McDermott dyed in pastel colors.

The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1947."[/I]


Jack McDermott
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640...922/4QT6EQ.jpg



McDermott's ruins include the fantastically noirish 'Spider Pool'! (which we've visited a few times on NLA)

Here's the first spider pool post (it's mine ;))
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=16193

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...921/NP2gkk.jpg
laist


'quoted' description from
http://cemeteryguide.com/gotw-mcdermott.html
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Here's another view I just found of McDermott's house.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...922/RjVeJn.jpg
http://wikimapia.org/20297067/The-Spiderpool

He took his life here on July 21, 1946.
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from Beaudry's video.

Would this be considered a 'place-holder', generating income until something more substantial is built on the site?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/102...923/UwJ8Ny.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/si.../id/1440/rec/1

Glad you liked the video! Did you catch the guys at the beginning putting up handbills with their big brushes and buckets of glue?

As for the shack-like digs, yeah, I raised an eyebrow at that too. Here's what I came up with: there was a house there next to the Shasta, at 114. Next door is the empty lot 116, though apparently it had an old garage in back, and in 1922 a permit is filed to convert said garage ("one story and a basement") to a residence, 10x20, and that looks about 10x20. The owner lived at 4th & Hope so it's safe to assume she rented this out, but I think banking on the area being ripe for new development is iffy—on the other hand, they built the Witmore/Clift not soon after, and the big garage across the street, so I suppose the area was booming!

Capture from vid:

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/459/31...82cf91ef_b.jpg

In the image below, 114 against the Shasta, a bit of that Van de Kamp's billboard at far right, and behind, steps running up to the converted garage at 116:

https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/447/32...c973759b_b.jpghistorical society

One other thing: I took a look at the Shasta, which turns out was built by George P. Upp, and was designed in 1910 by none other than Train & Williams. Wasn't expecting that. Of course it disappears in '39-'40 for the First Street Viaduct. Here's a coupla Shasta-shots from the same collection at the Historical Society.

https://c7.staticflickr.com/1/529/32...e9bb6cba_b.jpg

https://c4.staticflickr.com/1/338/32...686aaf8c_b.jpg

Adding this: the Norfolk, 1909, was also erected by Upp, also Train & Williams.
https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/323/31...683fa311_b.jpggetty "Fremont Ave., Figueroa St., 1955 September 16" > "BH2-7 (negative 9)"

Addendum: it was actually part of the same lot. Phyllis Balshauser owned 114-116/116½ South Fig, and you can see both addresses in the 1906 and 1950 Sanborns:

https://c5.staticflickr.com/1/737/32...30b4d336_b.jpg-https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/725/31...61b17531_b.jpg

Do you have a citation for John Wayne's saying Andy Devine was his favorite sidekick? I'm very curious, because I'm a big fan of both and have never heard that.

I originally came across the Spider Pool a few years ago, not long before it first appeared on NLA. In my case, I found it while looking for the location of Colt Seavers' house in the '80s TV show 'The Fall Guy'. At the time, the house was owned by Dave Somerville (lead singer of the doo-wop group The Diamonds) who also wrote the theme tune for 'The Fall Guy'. In the video below, he explains how Lee Majors said they wouldn't be going there often after discovering the only way to the house was up 135 steps. The Spider Pool appears in the video, and seems to be on the same property.

Off Mulholland - Dave Somerville

• Video Link