noirish Los Angeles

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here's another car lot mystery location. Interestingly enough, this one has another photographer in the photo!


Like the others, this lot is also in Burbank.


eBay

I just noticed the lights are identical to the lights at Mayfield Used Cars but I still think this is a different location.

There are quite a few clues so hopefully we can figure this one out fairly quickly.

I think that's the sign for the Sky Room Cafe at the Lockheed Air Terminal (in Burbank) above the camera.


digital-collections.csun.edu

[ethereal_reality]

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I think so too! ...Good eye, Hoss.

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by bboyelsereno

I believe it's where Mission, Soto, and Huntington meet at the border of El Sereno and Lincoln Heights.

It's where Foothill Blvd, Sunland Blvd, and Fenwick St. meet at the Sunhill Shopping Center in Sunland.

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by bboyelsereno

I believe it's where Mission, Soto, and Huntington meet at the border of El Sereno and Lincoln Heights.

Thanks Bboy that's exactly what i was trying to say, i realized i meant "Huntington" and not "Valley" when i was in traffic (110 southbound) today!

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by unihikid

Thanks Bboy that's exactly what i was trying to say, i realized i meant "Huntington" and not "Valley" when i was in traffic (110 southbound) today!

Google Maps

Foothilll and Sunland in Sunland

[UphillDonkey]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

Here's another car lot mystery location. Interestlingly enough, this one has another photographer in the photo!


Like the others, this lot is also in Burbank.


eBay

I just noticed the lights are identical to the lights at Mayfield Used Cars but I still think this is a different location.


There are quite a few clues so hopefully we can figure this one out fairly quickly.

.

Riverside, Olive and Hollywood Way, Burbank. Across from Warners Gate 4

[1612havenhurstdrive]

Originally Posted by 1612havenhurstdrive

https://100.ucla.edu/timeline/a-snow-day-to-remember
...here's one that I took the other day, post tree-scalping and torrential rains, of a great decaying 1922 "masterpiece" from West Hollywood's Crescent Heights' 1905 Hays and Norton subdivision. The first two-story apartment building on Havenhurst south of Fountain. 1238-1248 Havenhurst Drive.

Once home to Flash Gordon-era Buster Crabbe, MGM's long-time publicist/fixer Howard Strickling (noir figure in his own right), and later Mrs. Potato Head and Seinfeld's Estelle Harris. One of several kinds of this apartment design spread across the Garden of Allah region. Does anyone have more information? Builder, designer, history? We've had three recent deaths on property, though no ghosts that we know of (yet).

As seen in 2023:

(personal photo)

I can show more details if interest exists.

For all the lovers of noirchitecture, the 1934 LACD calls the property "Claybourne Court" ...
(this was a brand new fact, since i hadn't realized about CD "City Directory" listings available until just recently, finally reaching an explanation in the year 2018 within the forum here)...

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

Well I'll be... I used to be acquainted with someone who lived in that building, for 10-12-15 (?) years, before they relocated. (1238 1/2 address; the second apartment in from the street, on the right.) I recall him saying Estelle Harris lived there. And that Keanu Reeves visited someone who lived there for a time. Didn't know about the other famous residents. Yes, one of the only apartment buildings that I've known where the apartments have two floors. In this photo I notice a TV antenna; are those still in use? I may have noticed it as I noticed one on my apartment building this past week and I wondered why it wouldn't have been removed long ago. I'd be interested in "more details."

(personal photo) Sidewalk date stamp.


(personal photo)

The TV antennas no longer work, but the (c.2005) landlord was once affiliated with Donald Sterling's management group, so maintenance lacks. Reeves had visited back in his Dogstar years, but musicians ranging from Hoobastank, Incubus, Anthrax, and The Motels had been seen living and/or working there over the years. As well as Estelle Harris, for decades living here was the great character tv background actor Joseph Medalis, who appeared in dozens of 1970s and 80s TV series and was attacked by a boom mic in the Kentucky Fried Movie.

Harris was attacked by Hard Copy through one of her neighbors' dramas and moved to a more secure home. That neighbor, Anton Greene, moved in to Claybourne Court at age 4 with his parents, became an independent filmmaker in the Valley during his teenage years, returned to live on Havenhurst another 45 years as an artist, such as creating metal sculpture or art directing The Chevy Chase Show, and semi-peacefully dying of lung cancer in his living room in his late 60s. *He brandished both gun and machete, during a mid-life drinking crisis that brought Sheriffs with drawn shotguns to the complex several times in the late 1990s.

Howard Strickling lived here in 1929 while running MGM's Publicity department, a fixer-position along with Eddie Mannix, hiding the worst of the noir and ruling the press for more than three decades - he got his fingers dirty yet presented them as spotlessly clean. Buster Crabbe moved into the front apartment in 1932. According to the Movieland Directory (RIP), most of the residents in the 1930s through 1960s had behind-the-scenes industry jobs, such as van drivers, makeup artists, local theatre actors, and food services, all with the local film studios, but that excellent website is now gone.

Yes, two floors, but bathrooms are only upstairs, so you might need to hold it!


(personal photo)

Once, four of these lamps where hanging on-property. Two given away by a long-time landlord, Israel Eisenberg, in late 1990s, because the wiring had gone bad and he did not want to pay an electrician to fix them. Another was destroyed by gardeners in 2015, and trashed before it could be saved and restored.


(personal photo)


(personal photo) Distinctive sidewalk, red tinted concrete.


(personal photo)


(personal photo)


(personal photo)


(personal photo)


(personal photo)


(personal photo)


(personal photo) Arcway hanging lamp, not original, found in Ojai salvage yard, $10.

There are several similar styled apartment complexes still standing in the blocks surrounding, almost like they share an architect. They don't seem as fancy as the Andalusa, La Ronda, or Garden of Allah, however designed in the same vein. The city of West Hollywood attempted to include 1238-1248 Havenhurst into their historical district, but various landlords have demurred recognition. I've tried to look up more on Claybourne Court, haven't found anything outside of the City Directories yet, but very happy to get help!

[Martin Pal]

Thanks for that, 1612h...!

One of the first times I visited my friend there, I had no idea that the space, the "red tinted" sidewalk area between the apartments, was a driveway to the garage area in the back. I was sitting facing a window and all of a sudden I saw a vehicle outside the window going by and it startled me! It moved past and I was informed the reason for that. I had no idea, though now it seems a bit obvious. I was told the garbage trucks would go through there to the back as well.

Thanks for the info. Great photos as well!

[riichkay]

I went through the 1940 census for 1238-1248 Havenhurst Dr., no one of note appeared....I then went to the 1930 census....


Charles McNaughton, an English actor with 13 Broadway credits and some film work, turned up at 1246 Havenhurst.....







He was in the 1934 version of "Treasure Island", directed by Victor Fleming and starring Wally Beery, Jackie Cooper and Lionel Barrymore....McNaughton and Jackie Cooper....





The neighborhood, in 1930, was populated with all manner of film folk....writers, directors just coming out of the silents, actors....I'll do a post on it....if anyone wants to join in the (rather tedious) process of going through the Enumeration District it's here on the Family Search site run by the L.D.S. Church, access is free with registration....

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61...553&cc=1810731



Right off the bat, very first name in the book, is the legendary film composer Dimitri Tiomkin, at 1445 N. Fairfax..... 

[ethereal_reality]

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Remember this mystery location from a few days back?


eBay

It turns out Gambles is/was the parent company of Western Auto.


LA Times 4/30/1949..via odinthor

The store in the photograph was at 1604 E. Florence. It's no longer there.



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[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by riichkay

[...]
Right off the bat, very first name in the book, is the legendary film composer Dimitri Tiomkin, at 1445 N. Fairfax..... 
[...]

Interesting! I have occasion to walk by there once in awhile. That address is now an apartment building called Casa Cecilia. Something tells me in 1930 houses were probably on the street and not apartment buildings, but I don't know. It's just south of Sunset Blvd. where the current Rite Aid is located and once was a Thrifty and A&P Market in the 30's.

[riichkay]

Tiomkin's wife, the ballet dancer/instructor Albertina Rasch, took out 2 permits in 1930, converting a portion of 1445 N. Fairfax to a dance studio....

















Rasch teaching at an unknown location, photo is undated.






Dimitri Tiomkin and Albertina Rasch photographed in N.Y.C., 1927.....the year of their marriage.

[ethereal_reality]

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Recently listed on eBay


"Original 1969 35mm kodachrome slide of the Original location of Tommys Hamburger on [sic] Beverly Los Angeles California opened in 1946."


eBay

The trouble is, I don't recall where (exactly) the original location was. .um. .located. I thought it was in West Hollywood near Robertson but I must be thinking of a different hamburger stand.


Note the old Hotel / Apartment building in the distance.


detail

. .but as you can see there's no name on the sign.

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[HenryHuntington]

The original Original Tommy's was/is at Beverly and Rampart.

https://originaltommys.com/about/

[Lwize]

Now I'm hungry.

[ScottyB]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.
Recently listed on eBay


"Original 1969 35mm kodachrome slide of the Original location of Tommys Hamburger on [sic] Beverly Los Angeles California opened in 1946."


eBay

The trouble is, I don't recall where (exactly) the original location was. .um. .located. I thought it was in West Hollywood near Robertson but I must be thinking of a different hamburger stand.


Note the old Hotel / Apartment building in the distance.


detail

. .but as you can see there's no name on the sign.

.

Hotel Lafayette I do believe

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

The trouble is, I don't recall where (exactly) the original location was. .um. .located. I thought it was in West Hollywood near Robertson but I must be thinking of a different hamburger stand.
[COLOR="PaleTurquoise"].[/COLOR
_________________________________________________________________

That was Hamburger Habit. That whole block is now under construction.

[ethereal_reality]

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You're absolutely right, Martin_Pal.

Here's the Hamburger Habit the year I moved to Los Angeles. (1982)


weho




But I always ate at the stand on the opposite corner.

This one. I never realized the name was Red-E-Go Foods.



The WeHo website includes this description: "Red E Go Foods on the southeast corner of Santa Monica and Robertson Boulevards in 1982, soon to become Lisa Vanderpump's P.U.M.P."

so. .um. . .I've seen Vanderpump Rules in the tv listings and always wondered what it was. Is it about the P.U.M.P. place?


hmm. .what's that red thumbs down thingy doing beneath my avatar? Am I on someone's hit list?
.

[HossC]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

hmm. .what's that red thumbs down thingy doing beneath my avatar? Am I on someone's hit list or something?

I think you must've accidentally clicked on the Post Icons below the Message box that you type into. It says "You may choose an icon for your message from the following list:" and gives you 14 choices plus "No icon". I picked a thumbs up.

If you edit your post and click "Go Advanced", you can remove it.

[ethereal_reality]

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That's a relief! Now I can raise my blinds. Thanks, Hoss.




Here's an enigmatic mystery location.


abesbooks



Not much information to go on.

abesbooks


HELP

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