I visited L. A. for the first time as a kid in 1955. I still remember how the air made my eyes sting.

http://imageshack.us/a/img812/3825/2ny8.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img163/8827/usd8.jpgebay


today
http://imageshack.us/a/img9/7987/qp19.jpgGSV



I was startled by the amount of trash along the street out front. Yes, that's a discarded box-spring by the utility pole.
http://imageshack.us/a/img14/7555/sqtf.jpgGSV


:(
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/172/xrgi.jpgGSV

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Up the block near 9th there are a couple interesting homes.
http://imageshack.us/a/img9/6135/yz12.jpgGSV



This amazing structure is surrounded by a fence topped with razor-barbed wire. (southeast corner Westlake and 9th)
http://imageshack.us/a/img19/4977/wfwv.jpgGSV

It looks like it's under siege. -Anyone know the history of this residence?

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LAX enters the space age with it's high tech push-button information device.

1965
http://imageshack.us/a/img812/4764/xk31.jpgebay
Model Ann Jacobsen demonstrates
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"Smoke" Turner was Bowditch Morton Turner, an actor in the late teens and early 20s. A motion picture directory from that time lists him in 1919 and again in 1920.
He was born in Cumberland, Maryland (according to the directory) in 1878. Actually, according to his WWI draft registration, he was born on August 8, 1877. He died in los Angeles in 1933 according to "Who Was Who on Screen. Third edition. By Evelyn Mack Truitt. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1983."

When he registered for the draft in WWI his address is listed as 1620 Formosa Avenue, Los Angeles. That registration card indicates that he was of medium height, with a slender build, with gray eyes and black hair. Apparently he only had one eye,(there goes his chance of being drafted).

IMBD list him as being in one movie "Are All Men Alike" in 1920, but there were apparently others as well in the teens and twenties, including "Scaramouche" and the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".

In 1922 he went to Hawaii. The ship manifest lists his permanent address at that time as the "Christie Hotel" in Hollywood, located at Hollywood Blvd and McCadden Place.

He was apparently a character actor so I can't find any specific pictures of him.

:previous: I love that kitschy ad for the Hollywood School of Art. It looks like you purchased a pretty interesting artist portfolio mdiederi
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http://imageshack.us/a/img853/737/bla0.jpgebay
http://imageshack.us/a/img823/5338/nrqz.jpg

I believe the sign on the apartment building says Whitehall Court.
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According to the assessor's office, the structure at 900 S. Westlake was built initially in 1902 and then remodeled in 1930. It is lot 1 Block B of the South Bonne Brae tract. It has five bedrooms and two bathrooms, according to the real estate listings.

If we could find the name of someone else who lived in the area we could find who lived there in the census records, but alas......

"Westlake Park our front Yard."

http://imageshack.us/a/img706/5690/6g17.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img577/8652/gjnb.jpgebay


http://imageshack.us/a/img593/7131/6e49.jpgebay

modernized interior.
http://imageshack.us/a/img32/9623/ga6.JPGebay


http://imageshack.us/a/img713/4066/irpn.jpg


new logo
http://imageshack.us/a/img203/5063/nnqa.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img191/9241/c5xb.jpgebay



The Palms Wilshire Hotel today.
http://imageshack.us/a/img138/7830/ag11.jpgGSV



new name
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/7081/iap5.jpgGSV




gutted interior
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/148/m4xn.jpg
http://www.lahousingpartnership.com/...OnThePark.html




from this...
http://imageshack.us/a/img824/6623/hyed.jpg
http://www.lahousingpartnership.com/...OnThePark.html

to this.
http://imageshack.us/a/img545/6022/lzv9.jpg
http://www.lahousingpartnership.com/...OnThePark.html

http://imageshack.us/a/img13/8279/vk16.jpg
http://www.lahousingpartnership.com/...OnThePark.html

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Whitehall Court was at 722 S Bixel. Here it is from the other side. This is yet another detail of the ever-giving USC Cityscape photo. In the bottom right corner, the Hotel Gotham at 975 Ingraham is just visible (see post #10968 for e_r's postcard view).

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/z...hitehallCt.jpg
Detail of photo at USC Digital Library

The March of Time
 

:previous:

Thirty-five years ago you couldn't breathe in Los Angeles. Things in the city weren't great on a lot of levels. But the city is booming now--just take a look at the old downtown, fast becoming at least as good as it was in the '50s, if with a different purpose--who'd have thought it would come back from its sorry state of 35 years ago? Great times to be living in L.A. It's the best of times, it's the worst of times, as Dickens might have put it.

According to the Times of January 25, 1925, a large house at 626 S Alvarado had just been moved to the corner of Lake and Miramar (I looked--no longer there); the assessor lists the hotel as having been built in 1924.


A little Palms Wilshire noir...

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-c...swilshire2.jpghttp://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5199/v7n5.jpg

LAT Dec 4, 1935/March 19, 1936


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-E...2520PM.bmp.jpg

LAT Dec 11, 1947


Los Angeles Times

We get it CityBoyDoug, you blame it all on illegal aliens...i.e. Mexicans.

..but it isn't that simple, for a generation now the rich have become richer while the poor remain buried in poverty.
What can one expect from a society of haves and haves not?
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I'm sorry I posted the photo of the littered street.

"spring..sprang..sprung."

http://imageshack.us/a/img31/6759/w3ql.jpg
old file of mine

Questionable Taste in Float Design
 

Hey sorry I meant to post this photo last week, but I couldn't find it then. This is the City of South Gate's entry in the 1940 Rose Parade:

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/...e.jpg~original
LAPL -- http://jpg1.lapl.org/00101/00101850.jpg

A float honoring Will Rogers and Wiley Post is fine, but including the plane they crashed and died in seems a little odd. The front of the float says "20th Century Pioneers."

BTW, in the background is the Holliston Methodist Church, located at 1305 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

Even Litter Tells an Important Story.
 

I couldn't find previous posts about Ry Cooder's excellent short stories of fiction from a book title: 'Los Angeles Stories' , check it out here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Stories. I received as a gift, so far I'm into the 2nd story, I like, cover photo is from a Old Bunker Hill residence.

how bad it was!!!
 

It’s hard to get younger folks to understand just how bad the smog was in LA during the fifty’s. I remember day upon day after my Junior High School gym classes, trying to breathe after strenuous exercise and feeling the pain deep in my throat and down deep in my lunges. It was just awful and sometimes I wonder why my generation doesn’t have more repertory problems. And of course few schools were air-conditioned in those days, so even just sitting in class on a hot and smoggy day subjected us to the fowl air. Compared to then, today is heaven.

GW, you are right...35 years ago and longer...there was a lot to be concerned about...today the noir is not visible and yes some areas are run-down and poor, but compared to some other cities we're not so bad off. Do we need to work harder? Sure do, but at least the awful smog I mention in another post today is so much better. A job well done I think.

BTW, these conversations back and forth should always try to be constructive…sometimes I read comments that I interpret one way while others may see differently. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone’s comments that were meant to degrade others…just based on the circumstances they may have been exposed to. I too saw homes in Mexico that were surrounded by barbed wire, and this was in 1957. A truly bizarre and unforgettable exposure to my young eyes.

Yee Mee Loo matches
 

Found these on ebay today:

http://uniqueanteek.com/Matchbook/Ma.../fmbc2401b.JPG
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Vintage-Match...FSr9lI/$_3.JPG

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Matc...item485f456ca9