noirish Los Angeles v2.0

[Alkapone]

Originally Posted by HossC

This is 5500 S Soto Street in 1971, seven years after the factory closed, but it's virtually identical to the aerials back to 1948. I'm not sure that it matches the images above which appear to include a circular structure.


mil.library.ucsb.edu

I’m having my own doubts about the identity of those four photos. Wallace should have been a more modern facility. Maxine Nelson’s book “Collectible Vernon Kilns” gives some accounts of the earlier life as Poxon China. What was clear was Poxon had two gas-fired beehive kilns (14’ high by 15’ diameter) for the greenware firing, and one small glost kiln for the glaze firing. That looks like what we see in image 4. And the known frontal shot of Vernon Kilns Limited, before a later fire led to the new factory, looks to have 3 bottle kilns with wood structure for the plant. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that someone may have confused the Poxon/Vernon plant with the Wallace one. And while Wallace was built in Huntington Park, it looks like the city borders may have been altered with the extension of Soto Street such that that upper part of H.Pk. became a southern portion of Vernon? It’s hard to tell if the folks in the photos might be wearing 1920’s clothing rather than 1930’s, and there’s no cars nor ad materials to date the images. Rather perplexing!

[odinthor]

(well, two previous now!)

Aren't we looking north on N. Main around the 300 block (across from the Baker Block)?

Note in your photo, e_r, the bldg. with the flagpole and tower at right. Now compare with this detail below of another photo, the tower and flagpole near center, and the ? whatever you call it in the middle of the roof behind (Baker Block at right):


https://waterandpower.org/museum/Main_Street_300_Block.html

[Alkapone]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

No, I didn't know that. That's really cool.

I wonder if pieces show up every now and then on eBay?....Do you own any Wallace China?

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Thinned a lot of my collections last year, but there should be some odd Wallace pieces stored away. (Know I did have two of those Aztec coffees and hope I still do.) I like to find the ones that are either rarely seen or altogether new user logos. The RWCN idwiki2 (online) has several documented pages of designs, but Wallace products reached as far north as Seattle/Spokane and east to Texas/Kansas and maybe Montana/Wyoming. Like TEPCO in the bay area, they never penetrated into the eastern markets as far as is known.

[Alkapone]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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I have a dilly of a mystery location...(an empty lot)



[url-
eBay

Does the area look familiar to anyone?


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Lone rail sets are saying this is not in dual-guage territory. So I’m think we’re looking north from the eastern side of perhaps S. Hill Street, in the years long before LARy Temple cars were allowed to pass through the Hill Street tunnel #1. But that cross street sign is letters not numbers. Maybe it’s not even in the downtown area?

[odinthor]

We're on the west side of Main's 300 north block, across from the Baker Block, the heights and terraces of New High St. etc., seen in the original photo, are just where they'd be expected to be. Below is a comparison of some details from the mystery photo and then from the other photo showing the 300 north block of Main. Not sure if I properly understand the RR terminology, but if there's a question of whether there are two sets of tracks or only one, in both cases there are two.


Details from earlier images.

[ethereal_reality]

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The mystery photograph is definitely downtown. ..I agree with odinthor on this one....Excellent sleuthing.

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[ethereal_reality]

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mystery location.

I know that First National became Warner Bros. but what about Grand National?


Currently on eBay

ORIGINAL Vintage 1938 Grand National Studios - Hollywood, California Photo


Was it a totally separate movie studio?



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[ethereal_reality]

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A strip of black n white negatives:


1960s Los Angeles City Hall Streets Cars VW Schwinn Vtg B&W Photos Negatives Set



eBay


A couple of closer looks.







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[Lwize]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Feb. 2021 GSV

OK, Sleuthy People - here's what should be an easy one.

What was originally on the Capital Records site?

[HenryHuntington]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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mystery location.

I know that First National became Warner Bros. but what about Grand National?


Currently on eBay

ORIGINAL Vintage 1938 Grand National Studios - Hollywood, California Photo


Was it a totally separate movie studio?



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_______________________

Apparently Grand National was more of a movie distributor than a producer over its rather brief existence, e-r. Here's the Wikipedia history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Nati...(or,operation%20from%201936%20to%201939.

The 1938 and 1940 CD's show its location as 7250 Santa Monica Blvd. (in today's West Hollywood). This address per se no longer exists, but it would've been on the south side of the Boulevard and east of Poinsettia Pl.

[Lorendoc]

Originally Posted by HenryHuntington

_______________________

Apparently Grand National was more of a movie distributor than a producer over its rather brief existence, e-r. Here's the Wikipedia history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Nati...(or,operation%20from%201936%20to%201939.

The 1938 and 1940 CD's show its location as 7250 Santa Monica Blvd. (in today's West Hollywood). This address per se no longer exists, but it would've been on the south side of the Boulevard and east of Poinsettia Pl.

Yup, the 1938 CD has Coast Materials & Lumber at 7300 Santa Monica Blvd.

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

It's the NE corner of Atlantic Avenue and E 23rd Street in Long Beach.



GSV

The frock shop was at 2310 Atlantic and Holmes & Carter occupied 615 E. 23rd (now part of 2300 Atlantic).

You are a wizard, Noir Noir!

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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I tried with all my might not to mention Dick Van Patten's comb-over.



I failed.
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Wait! He has a combover?!

[Flyingwedge]

Originally Posted by riichkay

Betty J. Pettit was born Betty Jane Sharp on Nov. 25 1922, at 808 N. Bonnie Beach Pl. in City Terrace (note that she informed the census enumerator she was 24 in 1950)

....in '43 she was going by Betty Jane Reed (the name change was apparently not via a marriage), and she wed Herbert Beal Steadman Jr., a merchant mariner....

....in his 1940 draft registration card we find Steadman was a strapping 6 ft 183 lbs....




...I can't find the divorce from Steadman, but in '51 Pettitt remarried....note she claims no previous marriages, was the '43 union possibly annulled?...she also says she's still 24....

Great post, riichkay . . . Betty Jane looks like she was pretty hot! I think she's second from the left in the pic with Debbie Reynolds.

Betty's marriage to Herbert Beal Stedman Jr. lasted barely a year before she filed for a divorce (Aug 16, 1944), which was granted Oct 20, 1944:



Oct 21, 1944, LA Times @ Newspapers.com


If you attended a pool party at someone else's house and found a ring at the bottom of the pool, would you
(a) Yell "Hey, did anyone lose a ring?"
(b) Privately inform the party host of your discovery
(c) Say nothing, keep the ring for almost 3 months, then take it to a pawn shop

Herbert chose (c):



Aug 31, 1938, Hollywood Citizen-News @ Newspapers.com


This gives a little more detail but lacks the identifying "Jr" in his name:



Aug 31, 1938, Long Beach Sun @ Newspapers.com

[ethereal_reality]

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Daily life on mystery street.


VTG 50s Snapshot Photo Book W/Theatre Los Angeles, Classic Cars Cali


eBay


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[ethereal_reality]

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This would have been an excellent mystery location except there's a map drawn on the back.



eBay

. . and the reverse.




I wonder if Elmiro was a nightclub?
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[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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mystery vantage point.




Somewhere above old Chinatown.


We might have seen this one earlier in the thread.
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Apablaza street begins at the center.

[ethereal_reality]

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I was thinking Ferguson Alley but I think you are correct, AlvaroLegido... Thanks

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[riichkay]

Originally Posted by Lwize

OK, Sleuthy People - here's what should be an easy one.

What was originally on the Capital Records site?

I could not confirm the usage of the building that predated the Capitol Records tower, but our friend Martin Turnbull posted these images of the site in the early '40's, and at the excavation stage....


















And much thanks to Flyingwedge for the follow-up on Betty Jane Pettit and her first husband, the miscreant Herbert Beal Stedman Jr. 

[odinthor]

We saw a wall sign for the F. See On Co. in one of the recent mystery photos. Here's a little to acquaint us with that firm:




eBay Hollywood Reporter, 11/14/1938

Looking at the various ads and articles on F. See On and his company, including others than the above, it seems as if he would periodically have Quitting Business sales, or at least Reduction of Inventory sales, every so often.