i was perusing the historical los angeles forum pages at skyscrapercity.com, when i stumbled upon this amazing aerial looking north on the harbor freeway across 7th street.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...3679a5a8_b.jpg

I am dating this photo in 1966 based on the point of construction on the union bank building.

The stuart K. Oliver house and the briggs are still sitting on their perch's at 4th and hope.

Any color photograph that shows the richfield tower is a cause for celebrating.

if you look closely towards the upper right of the photograph, you can see the salt box, and the BLUE castle on bunker hill avenue.

Cinnabar Street is still in existence, (kind of), though it and 3rd street have no buildings any longer.

what a photo!

another then and now

looking west towards hollywood from on top of fargo street in echo park 1930 and now

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/...50f2879a_b.jpg

you can see the Griffith observatory as well as the hollywood(land in 1930 photo) sign in both photos as well

http://www.thaddeuslowe.name/MLEchohouse.htm

My parents used to take us up there when we were little, it was a pretty long hike, but not too difficult. Seems the hotel was owned by the owner of the railway, Professor Thaddeus Lowe.

Welcome to the thread nativeangelean! Great Mount Lowe images!

The Mount Lowe Railway was a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe. The railway, originally incorporated by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe as the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Co. existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and had the distinction of being the only scenic mountain, electric traction (overhead electric trolley) railroad ever built in the United States. Lowe’s partner and engineer was David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University. The Mount Lowe Railway was a fulfillment of 19th century Pasadenans' desire to have a scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The Railway opened on 4 July 1893, and consisted of nearly seven miles of track starting in Altadena, California at a station called Mountain Junction. The railway climbed the steep Lake Avenue and crossed the Poppyfields into the Rubio Canyon. This part of the trip was called the Mountain Division. At this juncture stood the Rubio Pavilion, a small 12-room hotel. From there the passengers transferred to a cable car funicular which climbed the Great Incline to the top of the Echo Mountain promontory.

Atop Echo stood the magnificent 70-room Victorian hotel, the Echo Mountain House. Only a few hundred feet away stood the 40-room Echo Chalet which was ready for opening day. The complement of buildings on Echo included an astronomical observatory, car barns, dormitories and repair facilities, a casino and dance hall, and a menagerie of local fauna. Passengers could then transfer to another trolley line, the Alpine Division, which would take them to the upper terminus at Crystal Springs and Ye Alpine Tavern, a 22-room Swiss Chalet hospice with a complement of amenities from tennis courts, to wading pools, to mule rides.

The Mount Lowe Railway was officially abandoned in 1938 after a horrendous rain washed most everything off the mountain sides.

Here is a 1968 photo of the remains of the mount lowe railway

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics45/00072181.jpg
LAPL

gs-- your north-on-the-Harbor shot brought my attention to a skyscrapercity.com forum that somehow I didn't even know existed. In it I found this shot:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3338/...bace35_b_d.jpgverner_oscar™'s photostream

I'm posting this because when I recently posted a current Google Street View shot of Grauman's Chinese to align with yours of the theater in 1953, I wasn't aware that between Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and now, it was missing its vertical "CHINESE" signs and that marquees covered the arches.

BUT--more important is the set of pictures from verner_oscar™'s photostream to which the picture above belongs. It is in a color series of all sorts of L.A. locations in the '60s:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...&postcount=345

Somewhere in my garage (don't anyone hold their breath) I have photos of the inside of the the Greystone Mansion. The grounds are open to the public, the interior is not. In 1992, my friends and I slept there on a dare (they worked for the City of Beverly Hills and had the keys) and it was a long, spooky and extremely dark night. There are passageways between the walls of each room with peepholes everywhere (strange), there is an old hidden bar and an old 2 lane bowling alley. The movie "There Will Be Blood" ends in that same bowling alley. The bathrooms are beautifully tiled floor to ceiling with built-in scales. It is a beautiful and very creepy house.

^^
A little off topic, but couldn't help but notice the mustang & corvette in GaylordWilshire's picture of the chinese theater:tup:

I second that emotion! I have been hooked on this thread for three days and am on page 72? Thank you so much for all your hard work and amazing photographs! We should get all of these together and make a gigantic photo map (before and after). I am in love with this site!

^^^Now that's a great story!

Welcome to the thread nativeangelean.
I like your enthusiasm.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9...ddheadline.jpg
latimes






Below: Mike Todd's residence on the day of his death in 1958.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7...d2death195.jpg
usc digital archive



http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4...dsresidenc.jpg
usc digital archive

I'm watching The Set-Up (1949) on TCM.
They just had a night scene with Audrey Totter standing atop the 3rd Street (or 2nd St.) tunnels
contemplating suicide by jumping in front of a red car.

Anyone familiar with this scene?

Thank you ethereal, gaylord, gsjansen and everyone else!
 

I have literally spent 15 hours over the past 4 days going through all your posts and photographs of Los Angeles and her changing skyline. It has been a wonderful journey, and it (almost) brings a tear to my eye to come to the most current posting. I found this site and your thread totally by accident; I was looking for more information on my very favorite house on Lucerne. I hope you keep going with this thread and please let me know of others that you find interesting as well.
I think we should schedule a walking tour of downtown or the Adams District. Have any of you ever gone on a tour sponsored by the L.A. Conservancy?
Anyway, thanks! :cool:

Mike Todd.
 

But the plot thickens -----

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1977 that Fisher's story was false—remains of Todd were indeed found and buried. His remains were desecrated by robbers, who broke into his coffin looking for a $100,000 diamond ring which, according to rumor, Taylor had placed on Todd's finger prior to his burial. The bag containing Todd's remains was found under a tree near his plot; the bag and coffin had been sealed in Albuquerque since his remains were identified after the 1958 crash. Todd's remains were once more identified through dental records and were reburied in a secret location.

There's a screenplay in there!

Speaking of Liz and crashes...
 

http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpre...pg?w=600&h=341cliftblog.com


After Montgomery Clift left a party at Liz and Michael Wilding's house in Beverly Hills on the night of May 12, 1956, he hit a telephone pole. His '55 Bel Air was totalled. Clift and Taylor were in the middle of making Raintree County, which is probably more interesting for its before-and-after scenes of Monty than for its story. I was surprised to find no stills of the movie online showing the change in his looks. (If I had a DVD of Raintree handy, I would do some screen-capturing.) But here is a set of shots that show the change on either side of RC:

http://kittypackard.files.wordpress....ore_after2.jpgKitty Packard

This video game coming out next year, set in 1940s los angeles, has a new trailer:

LA Noire Trailer

Its called LA Noire (adds an "e" to Noir for some reason). But the word is they tried putting a lot of effort into an authentic 1940s LA.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...40253%20PM.jpgRKO Radio Pictures/Turner
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...42850%20PM.jpgRKO Radio Pictures/Turner
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...40329%20PM.jpgRKO Radio Pictures/Turner
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...40956%20PM.jpgRKO Radio Pictures/Turner
Did she or didn't she?


Whatever became of Audrey Totter? Also in the cast are Weejee, the famous photojournalist, and two who later turned up on tv sitcoms: George Tobias (Abner Kravitz) and Herbert Anderson (Dennis the Menace's father, Henry Mitchell).

Totter's whole walk is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhH1p...eature=related

^^^Yes! That's the scene. Thanks for posting it GaylordWilshire.

At first I thought Audrey Totter was Carolyn Jones.
And I didn't realize WeeGee was in the cast.

:previous:

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/313...0A760B0D811297RKO Radio Pictures/ICP/Getty Images
http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/313...0A760B0D811297
Arthur "Weegee" Fellig as the timekeeper in The Set-Up.

As for Audrey Totter--it seems that despite being considered a good actress (and according to Wikipedia, having dated Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Lew Ayres, and Robert Walker!) her film career faded in the '50s. She moved to tv (who could ever forget Our Man Higgins?) and appeared on the small screen as late as 1987, according the the IMDB. She seems to still be with us--her birth date is given as December 20, 1918, so she will soon be 92. Happy Birthday, Audrey. We're glad you didn't jump in front of the Red Car.

Thanx for posting the youtube link GW :tup: . the tunnel that Audrey Totter is contemplating 'cide of the sui kind, is the hill street P&E tunnel at 1st street

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068279.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068279.jpg

which as we know is long gone

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068280.jpg
Source: LAPL http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068280.jpg

(amazing that these two images are of the same view)........:koko:

the scary thing about the scene from the film, is how fast the red cars are travelling on hill street....at grade.....while co-mingling with street traffic....wow! those trolly's look like their doing 35 mph or better:eek:

Just a reminder that images must be properly sourced, including hotlinking to the source.

Failure to property source contravenes copyrights and may result in removal of linked images. Thank you :)

I've always been struck by the barrenness often apparent in scenes of early development in any city. In L.A., for instance, there is the site of stubby young palms, seen in later shots of the same location growing ever taller through the years, dotting the former barley fields. (It seems that every subdivision south and east of downtown was once a barley field.) What strikes me nowadays, when comparing shots of mid-20th-century L.A. to today, is not only the ever-more-lush (and often obscuring) vegetation, but the ever-increasing urbanization of L.A.--to-the-lot-line development is now the norm. I've posted then-and-now shots of Wilshire near the Fremont Place gates to demonstrate this; here is another set of pictures as evidence, these taken from Vine west toward the old RCA Building at 6363 Sunset (now the home of the Los Angeles Film School):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2642/...cb202d_b_d.jpghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/7117270...494236/?page=2 and http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...&postcount=345

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...84417%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View

All that said, in some cases, camera angles can preserve the old--I once posted then-and-nows of the Cinerama dome across the street from the RCA Building, looking east, which showed the urbanization big-time. Well, here are shots from 1965 and today at a diffeda90027's photostream on flickr/rent angle that seem to show little change:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...erama1865a.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7117270...494236/?page=2 and http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpo...&postcount=345

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TN...91630%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View

Old Traffic Signs
 

What a fascinating thread, love all of the old photos of downtown, especially street level ones. Lots of great shots of traffic signs, my specialty.

I collect old porcelain enamel traffic signs erected from 1920 to 1960, by the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC), the California State Automobile Association (CSAA), and the old California Division of Highways.

I also created a web site that contains a brief history of signing in California and photos of old signs, here is the link: www.Caltrafficsigns.com

Enjoy


Brian
CASIGNS

:previous:
Hi Brian, thanks for the link to your very fascinating website! I think I saw your website from some years ago, I see you've changed its look and have added more photos. Very awesome!

Tail fins, chrome, wraparound windshields and freeway construction. Ah, Los Angeles in 1959. This is the Venice overpass under construction, courtesy of the USC Archive.
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/9...erpass1959.jpg

:previous:

sopas-- How did you know I have a thing for Mercurys (may the brand rest in peace)? There are no less than three in your shot--2 '57s (the car closest to camera, and the Turnpike Cruiser in the middle of the shot, in the far lane) and a '46 (dark car at left). The other vehicles are a '55 Dodge (second from front) and a '58 Chevy.


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TO...BcU/Roche1.jpg
http://www.edsel.net/dealer/MEL.html

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TO...41947%20PM.jpgGoogle Street View
Apparently there is still a Lincoln-Mercury dealer at 4437 Lankershim Blvd--well, a
Lincoln dealer, anyway (love the name). It may or may not be the same building--
could be, since the shape and the door and window spaces match--perhaps it's
just been modernized. Chucking the neon was not a good move, however. I'm sure
if it had been retained, Mayberry L-M would have sold hundreds of thousands
more Mercs, thereby saving the brand....

Not sure why the photographs are missing. I will try and find them again

Mobilgas 3304 N. Figueroa


http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9...s3304nfigu.jpg
jalopyjournal



http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3...3304nfigui.jpg
jalopyjournal



Below: 3304 N. Figueroa today.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2...stodayat33.jpg
jalopyjournal

Packard Dealership at 1626 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica


http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/711...santamonic.jpg
jalopy_ journal



Below: This beautiful building appears to be in pristine condition as a Mercedes Benz Dealership.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/139...ardbyjosey.jpg
Jose Ybarra

Wow, 3 Mercurys in one shot, I didn't realize. Cars sure did have more character and personality back then, not like the plastic-bumpered metal eggs people drive today; cars today have the personality of an electric razor. And is the SUV trend finally dead, please? Aerodynamics and side airbags be damned. I want a '62 Lincoln, or a '61 Pontiac Tempest.

This stunning art deco building was designed by Schilling & Schilling in 1928.
It was located at 1910 American Ave. (now Long Beach Blvd.) in Long Beach.
The facade featured oversized ornamentation utilizing salmon-colored cement and stucco.


http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1...acificauto.jpg
j_journal

MOBILGAS -- 3304 N Fig.
 

.....the fact that the lot is now barricaded by an iron fence and topped with razor wire speaks volumes as to the current state of LA today....

I'm just sayin'......:shrug:

now this is exciting

from here http://gameinformer.com/games/la_noi...ostPageIndex=1

By Rockstar’s estimation, L.A. Noire will feature a game world that’s bigger and more detailed than any it’s created so far, and will be a near one-to-one recreation of the city at the time. That’s not to mention the over 140 interiors (many of which are multi-room structures) and the mind-boggling number of fully rendered objects that Cole Phelps can examine in his investigations.

i don't know who else is with me, but i think i'm going to search out a few locations that have been posted when this game comes out :P

L.A. 4D Model
 

For years now, I've been trying to find an investor interested in producing a 4D model of Downtown Los Angeles (and eventually the whole town) that would be a 3D model as you've described in this Noire game but would have a time slider so you could sit at an intersection ner bunker hill and watch the victorians disappear and the skyscrapers take over. Anyone know an interested investor? This could be used for games, digital backgrounds for movies, even historical kiosks around town to show people what used to be here. L.A. simply erases its history and it would be nice to help people seen what it's been.

here's a screen cap of the hill street tunnel before it became a twin tunnel to accommodate vehicles as well as the p&e cars. I don't think i have ever seen a photo of when it was only a single tunnel before. The view is looking north from 1st street.

it is a screen cap from a great little movie detailing the hill street tunnels.

you can view the movie at youtube by clicking the source link below the photo

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1315/...71f3f7a2_b.jpg
Source: Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk2xh...eature=related

I really, really love this thread! All these photos are just amazing!

That is a great find gsjansen.

Thx for the link.....

On April 4th, 1958 Johnny Stompanato was stabbed to death in Lana Turner's Beverly Hills Home (730 N. Bedford Drive).
The assailant was Turner's teenage daughter Cheryl Crane.


http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/8...anatomurbe.jpg
Los Angeles Mirror



Below: Gangster Mickey Cohen paying his last respects.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3...ohenjohnny.jpg
Los Angeles Mirror.


Below: A rare photo of Mr. Stompanato (behind the man with the glasses).

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9...atoiwaswro.jpg
unknown

he sort of looks like Al Pacino in that last picture, does anyone else find that a tad coincidental?

Lana, Lana, Lana...
 

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011614.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
Johnny Stompanato, originator of the
medallion-in-chest-hair fashion trend


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013006.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
730 N. Bedford Drive: the arrow marks Lana's pink (now-
crimson) boudoir


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_zXN_GwdMYMo/TO...72034%20AM.jpgGoogle Street View
One of an increasingly rare number of unchanged Beverly Hills houses


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013022.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
Hollywood glamour reduced to a black-and-white diagram


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014316.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
The actual knife--imagine the force it took to get this big knife through
all that hair and muscle--or is such a stabbing easier than I think?


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011612.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
Courtroom reenactment, with Johnny the
Dummy


http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics47/00043396.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
Poor Lana--or was she attempting to win an Oscar?


http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics04/00011613.jpgHerald-Examiner/LAPL
Johnny in 1952

This thread is so damn good, keep it coming.

The jewelry Johnny Stompanato was wearing the night of his death.


http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/3...atojewelry.jpg
Los Angeles Times





Below: Johnny leaving 730 N. Bedford Drive for the last time.

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1...panatodead.jpg
Gary Smith/Los Angeles Times





Below:

Johnny Stompanato's T-Bird, parked outside Lana Turner's home the night of his killing.


http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1...mpanatocar.jpg
LATimesBlog

A little known fact.

Before his affair with Lana Turner, Johhny Stompanato was married to Helene Stanley, Miss Smog 1951.

http://imageshack.us/a/img138/130/1t0h.jpg
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/co...id/10386/rec/1

The marriage lasted from 1952 to 1955.

If the knife is really sharp, I'd imagine it could go through flesh really easily.

Poor, poor Cheryl. Maybe she just didn't understand that her mom and Johnny liked to play games? Just kidding.

Cheryl Crane at court.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9...n123240181.jpg
USC Archive

Cheryl Crane leaving juvie.
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8...n123240186.jpg
USC Archive

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7...n123240185.jpg
USC Archive

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8...n123240183.jpg
USC Archive

Helene Stanley
 

Helene Stanley, Johnny Stompanato's wife (and Miss Smog) in the early 50's was a well-featured MGM starlet in the 40's. She had fairly prominent roles in films like "Thrill of a Romance" (with Esther Williams), "Holiday in Mexico" (with Jane Powell) and was the girl dancing to Jukebox music in a key scene in "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1949/50. You can check her out at IMDB.

a very nice color noirish image postcard from 1965

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/...e145396b_b.jpg
Source: public domain post card from LMU|LA http://library.lmu.edu/

the view is looking south on broadway across chinatown from the Arroyo-Seco Freeway

This is Dan Mathews of the Highway Patrol......
 

Most of the show was filmed in the San Fernando Valley, but other locations were used as well.

The "Broderick Crawford Buick"
 

http://www.highwaypatroltv.com/HP%20...20Shot%202.jpg


http://www.highwaypatroltv.com/Buick...ickcentury.jpg

http://www.highwaypatroltv.com/Buick...ckcentury2.jpg

http://www.highwaypatroltv.com/Machi...ingCopter1.jpg



Being interested in cars all my life, as well as in vintage Los Angeles, I've always noticed that in almost every photo of the city involving vehicles, from late 1954 and continuing for many years, there is always at least one (and often more than one) '55 Buick in the shot. This isn't really so surprising since Buick, despite notoriously weak brakes, was the third most popular make in '55 after Chevy and Ford. As for Detroit iron in Highway Patrol, one of the stars of the early seasons was Dan Matthews's own '55 Buick. The actual CHP ordered 270 '55s of a model not for sale at your local Buick dealer. The 2-door post sedan was available to the public only in the entry-level Special series and only with the 188-horsepower (264 cubic-inch) V8. Buick offered to make a special Special by installing the 2-door sedan body on the Century chassis, which included the bigger 236hp (322ci) V8 that was standard on the Century, Super and Roadmaster. By offering such a unique hotrod and by underbidding other manufacturers, Buick won the contract. (Half the order had three-on-the-tree, the other half Dynaflow transmissions.) Buick badged these hybrid models as Centurys, and even included the additional "Ventiport" of the upper-series Buicks on each front fender to signal to potential highway robbers that extra power was under the hood.

Source of all photos above: http://www.highwaypatroltv.com

Believe it or not, I've never heard of 'Highway Patrol'. But it would certainly be a hoot to watch these old episodes.
I think Broderick Crawford is one of the best character actors ever.

It would also be interesting to watch old 'Adam-12' and 'Emergency!' episodes to see L.A. in the 1960s and 70s.
I wanted to be Kent McCord or Randolph Mantooth when I grew up. :)



I just came across these bloopers from Emergency!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IphLB...eature=related

An old Pacific Electric Car in Crestline CA.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2...estline219.jpg
Brian Norden

This is an interesting illustration of Union Station proposed for this site along the Los Angeles River in East L.A.


http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/1...unionstati.jpg
unknown

If you look closely you can see the existing Santa Fe Depot.
(I just notice another one ; that one must be the Southern Pacific Depot)

Here is the very same car, rescued by the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, back on wheels and awaiting restoration:

http://www.oerm.org/pages/4-3-09_PE_..._rails_sm3.jpgOrange Empire Railway Museum


I've looked in vain for a shot of this actual PE car (#179) in service. Below, however, is sister ship #173 stopped at Beverly Hills ca. 1920, which shows how #179 once looked, and presumably will again before too long. The 170-series cars were built in 1912 by Pullman and used at first by the Southern Pacific in Oakland before being transferred to SoCal, where they ran until 1934.

http://www.oerm.org/pages/PE_173_Bev...930_002_sm.jpgOrange Empire Railway Museum

Btw--the Orange Empire Railway Museum is an amazing operation, well worth the visit to get a sense of the vehicles (both Red and Yellow cars) that plied L.A. streets in the noir era: http://www.oerm.org/