I'm almost positive the first two pix show the first Blessed Sacrament RC church and rectory on the SE corner of Hollywood & Cherokee. It was built in 1904. The congregation outgrew its 250 seat capacity and the land was sold in 1923 for the Cherokee Building (it's a pity the roof line on the Cherokee Building has been altered). The new Blessed Sacrament was built two blocks south on Sunset at Cherokee in 1927, where it still stands.

The streamline moderne court is beautiful. I don't remember ever seeing it. It may be gone.

That's a great lamppost/Christmas tree in front of Bradley's Five & Dime in the last photo. I got a kick out of that.

One more shot of Boardner's. Bud White gets his gun back:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SaY03CIeUQ...1600/Table.JPG
itsfilmedthere.com

Wow...terrific write up. Well worth the read.:notacrook::cheers::banana:

That is just SO WRONG! The Spotlight was special and special/horrible. It had the best juke box in Los Angeles and some damn interesting characters hanging out day and night. Of course, one could get murdered out of there with no problem, but that was part of the charm.

The Spotlight Room 1963-2012
 

Thx for speaking up for the Spotlight. It was everybody's loss when it closed. The Spotlight signage is still up on Google Street View. Cruise by in your Googlemobile before it's gone.

The Disappearance of Jean Spangler - October 7, 1949
 

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4...manadotcom.jpg
abcdelasemana.com

Jean Spangler was a 26 year old dancer at the Earl Carroll Theatre and Florentine Gardens,
and a struggling actress who had landed only a few bit parts in movies.

http://imageshack.us/a/img850/9240/latimesblog.jpg
latimesblog

She lived on Colgate Avenue in the Park La Brea area with her mother, daughter, and sister-in-law.
About 5:00 p.m. on October 7, 1949, she went out, telling her sister-in-law that she
was going to see her ex-husband about a child support payment, then go on to a night shoot at a
movie studio. Except for a brief sighting at the nearby Farmer’s Market an hour later, she was never seen again.

When she did not return home the next day, her sister-in-law reported her missing. Since she had a reputation as
a “party girl”, the police did nothing, figuring that she would show up in a day or so. On October 9th, a Griffith Park
worker found her purse near the Fern Dell entrance to the park.

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1/crackeddotcom.jpg
cracked.com

The purse had a torn strap and contained a strange hand written note. The note said, “Kirk, Can’t wait any longer.
Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away.” The purse prompted an extensive search
of the park, but nothing else was found.

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4...nfreedotco.jpg
z10dotinvisionfree.com

The police pursued several lines of inquiry:

The ex-husband, a plastic manufacturer named Dexter Benner, was interviewed. He claimed that he had not seen
Jean for several weeks prior to her disappearance. His story was backed up by his new wife Lynn, who had been
previously married to Mickey Cohen associate, Ely Lasky. A check with the studios around town also revealed that
none of them had a movie shoot scheduled that night.

http://imageshack.us/a/img189/4360/z...nfreedotco.jpg
z10dotinvisionfree.com


Word spread from a couple of Jean’s friends that she was three months pregnant. The police figured that the Dr. Scott
mentioned in the note was an abortionist, who may have botched things and disposed of her body.
A search for Dr. Scott came up empty.

A few days into the investigation, the actor Kirk Douglas (after reading the story about the note) called the police to say
that he may have briefly met her on the set of his last movie, “Young Man With a Horn”. Jean had a bit part in this movie
as a hula dancer. The police thought that it was strange that Douglas just happened to call them with this information,
but they could make no connection to her disappearance. Some people thought that Spangler and Douglas had indeed dated
several times, but no one had any solid evidence.

Jean had also been seen in Palm Springs a few days prior to her vanishing, with a couple of Mickey Cohen’s associates,
David “Little Davey” Ogul and Frank Niccoli. Strangely enough, both of them had also recently disappeared. Rumor had it
that Niccoli had been dumped into a lime pit in a Cucamonga vineyard and his keys were found down a sewer on
Santa Barbara Avenue. Of course, people began to have sightings of the three of them as far away as El Paso, Texas.
Niccoli was also supposedly spotted in Mexico with his hair bleached blond and a “nose spreader” up his nostrils to change
his appearance. Neither Ogul nor Niccoli were ever seen again.

The real loser here was reportedly Mickey Cohen, who had bailed out the pair at a cost of $75,000 and now had to pay up
the bail money. One report had it that this was the reason that Mickey had to liquidate his haberdashery store in Los Angeles.

Since the Black Dahlia murder was still fresh in people's memories, evryone expected to find Jean's body hacked to pieces
somewhere around town.

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/687/of...aseinvesti.jpg
officialcoldcase investigations.com

Jean Spangler was never seen again and the case is still open in the Los Angeles Police files.

Jean Harlow
 

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/2...wtaylor970.jpg
Los Angeles Times

Feb. 12, 1937: Stars Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor return home after a trip to Washington to both promote their upcoming movie “Personal Property”
and attend the birthday ball for President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Four months later, Jean Harlow would be dead from kidney failure at age 26.

Here is a very early view of the Hotel Nugent, circa 1907.

http://imageshack.us/a/img824/161/aa...nugent1907.jpg
ebay

You get a good look at the front of the building before the fire escape was added.




below: A closer view of the Angels Flight Pharmacy on the ground floor of the Hotel Nugent.

http://imageshack.us/a/img443/1100/a...tdetailang.jpg
detail/ebay
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Great post on Jean Spangler FredH! I didn't know she had been hanging out with gangsters.

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/7240/aabjeanspangler.jpg
posted by FredH

:previous:

I read that she had also dated Johnny Stompanato...but who didn't.

"the mutilator murders"
 

And Spangler's ex was married to Mickey Cohen associate, Ely Lasky's ex. Small world.

P.S. Whoops, I needed to correct that. Lynn was Lasky's, not Cohen's, ex.

And thx for the post FredH, it brought the case vividly back to mind. I had a sudden desire to rush to Fern Dell to try to find Jean.

Yeah, great article for sure. It's 12 years old however so I decided to go looking for Steve Boardner, who would be 99 years old at this point and so was unlikely to still be with us. He made it to 93 - he passed away in 2007. :(

RIP, Mr. Boardner.

Hotel Grand / Nugent
 

:previous:

ethereal_reality:

Your last post just jogged my memory (what little remains).

The Grand Hotel (Nugent) was also in the 1951 noir classic "Cry Danger" with Dick Powell.

Here Powell is entering the "pharmacy" on the corner:

http://imageshack.us/a/img694/2144/capturenjt.jpg
Cry Danger, RKO Radio Pictures

Now he is going up the steps to the hotel. In the movie, it is called the Crosley Hotel.

http://imageshack.us/a/img29/905/capture2tc.jpg
Cry Danger, RKO Radio Pictures

:previous: Those two screen grabs from 'Cry Danger' are great FredH. I really like that old 'EASTSIDE Beer' sign
above the doorway in the first sg. I've never heard of that beer before.
__

:previous:

I do not remember Eastside Beer either, but there were a couple of old posts on it from a while back.

Of course Gaylord Wilshire had an old ad which he posted here:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=5908

I do have a couple of old Brew 102 cans, which stay boxed up in the garage by orders of the wife. :whip:

Early newspaper box?:shrug:

I'm really impressed you were able to figure out the location of my two slides. Thanks ProphetM. :)

http://imageshack.us/a/img849/1726/a...ewprophetm.jpg
google street view

http://imageshack.us/a/img35/8468/aa...naplosange.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img443/5937/a...nap2dogwit.jpg

I'd still like to see the dog wear that orange derby.
__

September 7, 1938 - Captioned "Jitterbugs disrupt City Council." If they danced to music, assume there was a band on hand. FDR's portrait looks to be at least four or five feet tall.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics42/00040676.jpglapl

You're welcome! For some reason I recognized it immediately, even though I have never lived anywhere in the area and I've driven through there just that one time. Go figure.

I noticed something else in the first slide that I hadn't spotted until after I posted:

On the overpass at the top of the stairs - just left of the big pole - there's a dark-haired woman, in a dress with polka dots or flowers on it, waiting for the streetcar with a tan suitcase on the ground next to her.

Online research indicates that this PE line was closed in early 1951, so the photos are more likely to be from the 1940s than the 1950s.

:previous: My God ProphetM!! You certainly have better eyes than I have. I looked to the left of the pole and saw only a palm.
Now all I can see is the dark haired woman in a polka dot dress with a tan suitcase waiting for a train. I'm amazed!
__