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Old Posted Sep 2, 2009, 5:48 AM
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sopas ej sopas ej is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Pasadena, California
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Interesting souvenir photos... hehe! Pretty random and racy imagery for novelty souvenir photos from New Chinatown.

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The Biltmore Hotel, 1943. The largest hotel west of Chicago when it opened in 1923. Plus, the site of some Academy Awards ceremonies in the 1930s and 1940s, and was the last place the Black Dahlia was seen alive. Notice the tops of the streetlights, blacked out during WWII.

USC archive

Oil well in the middle of La Cienega Boulevard near Beverly Boulevard, 1931. There are still oil wells in this area. The Beverly Center Mall, on La Cienega and Beverly, is built in a curve around an active oil well. Beverly Hills High School is also near oil wells.

USC archive

The Knickerbocker Hotel, Hollywood. Some say it's haunted. But a lot happened here over the years. According to Wikipedia, it was built in 1923. Rudolph Valentino was a regular at the bar before his death in 1926. On Halloween 1936, Harry Houdini's widow held her tenth séance to contact the magician on the roof of the hotel. Frances Farmer was arrested in her room at the hotel in 1943, after skipping a visit with her parole officer. D. W. Griffith died in the lobby of the hotel in 1948. The hotel retained its glamor through the 1950s. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio often met in the hotel bar. Elvis Presley stayed at the hotel while filming "Love Me Tender." In 1962 celebrated Hollywood costume designer Irene, despondent over Gary Cooper's death, committed suicide by jumping from her 11th floor room window. On March 3, 1966 veteran character actor William Frawley (who played "Fred Mertz" on "I Love Lucy") was strolling down Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a film when he suffered a major heart attack. His nurse dragged him to the hotel where he died in the lobby. Contrary to popular belief, Frawley did not live in the hotel at the time. Although Frawley had spent nearly 30 years living in a suite upstairs, he had moved to the nearby El Royale Apartments several months before. In the mid-1960's, the hotel played an important part in the movie, "The Graduate," as the scene of Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft's first romantic encounter. By the late 1960s, the neighborhood had deteriorated, and the hotel became a residence primarily for drug addicts and prostitutes. In 1970, a renovation project converted the hotel into housing for senior citizens; it continues in this capacity today. In 1999, a plaque honoring Griffith was placed in the lobby.

From LAPL.org
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Last edited by sopas ej; Sep 2, 2009 at 6:08 AM.
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