noirish Los Angeles

[JeffDiego]

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

CaliNative : If I remember well the posts on "Double indemnity", the Stanwyck house is still there in Glendale.
BTW, I was born too in 1952. I appreciated your wide comments.

Alvaro, the "Phyllis Dietrichson"/Barbara Stanwyck house in "Double Indemnity" is at 6301 Quebec Drive in the Beachwood Canyon/ Temple Hill Drive area of Hollywood.
Perhaps you are thinking of the Glendale train station, where a key scene took place.
http://www.historyshomes.com/detail.cfm?id=616

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by AlvaroLegido

CaliNative : If I remember well the posts on "Double indemnity", the Stanwyck house is still there in Glendale.
BTW, I was born too in 1952. I appreciated your wide comments.

Thanks. We 1952 club members are special.

As kids we remember "Ike", Howdy Doody, the Davy Crockett coonskin cap mania, the Zorro mania, the hula hoop mania, the big tail fins on new cars mania, Edsels, Marilyn Monroe mania, the first frisbees which weren't called frisbees at the time, but "flying saucers", when our rockets almost always failed to launch and blew up, nuclear drop drills in school, monster and flying saucer movies with cheap special effects (except "Forbidden Planet" which still holds up), summer polio outbreaks that put kids in iron lungs and gave us nightmares until the Salk/Sabin vaccines came along, Khrushchev banging his shoes at the U.N. The ol' cold war.

Looks like we are going back to that era, with some extra horrific hot war in Ukraine (what would "Ike" do with Putin?). Return to noirish land, but with seemingly unending pandemics, homelessness, the internet, social media, texting and email, ipads with billions of times more computing power than anything in the '50s in our pocket. Noir2.0 Dystopia. Noir1.0 had more predictability and rules to it. This noirish era is more chaotic, without rules and thus scary. In WW2, we were united as one. Now we are cleaved into countless factions.

[Mackerm]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Thanks. We 1952 club members are special. As kids we remember "Ike", Howdy Doody, the Davy Crockett coonskin cap mania, the Zorro mania, the hula hoop mania, the big tail fins on new cars mania, Edsels, the first frisbees which weren't called frisbees at the time, but "flying saucers", when our rockets almost always failed to launch and blew up, nuclear drop drills in school, Khrushchev banging his shoes at the U.N. The ol' cold war. Looks like we are going back to that era, with some extra hot war in Ukraine....what would "Ike" do with Putin? Return to noirish land, but with iphones and texting.

Linkedin

I found it amazing that after Wham-O left their factory in San Gabriel, the building became home to a second iconic brand - Sriracha Hot Sauce.

While I thought the buildings were entirely gone now, it looks like the portion of the warehouse east of, and cantilevered over, Rubio Wash is still intact.

Former Wham-O, Sriracha Factory Gets New Lease on Life

[GaylordWilshire]

The noirish part was actually the baby-selling...

I was surprised not to find the story of 304 Muirfield Road when looking back through years of NLA posts--trying the clunky search feature here as well as searching via the web. Anyway, entertainer-of-sorts Norwood Young took pleasure in shaking up tacky-averse Hancock Park with his personal style that only began with an array of 19 or so copies of the Accademia's David that stood along his driveway from 1998 to 2012. Young told an interviewer in defense of his aesthetic that "The house was a piece of ---- when I bought it and I brought it up." The noirish part of the house's story wasn't really Young's--it was the attorney's who was on the county's crime commission and then went to jail for insurance fraud in the early '70s. Getting out quickly, he then became the kingpin of an international baby-selling ring while having announced a run for D.A. Back to jail for a whole 11 months. The house, btw, seems to have started out as his swinging bachelor pad after he divorced his actress wife who had played The Black Ghoul in Ed Wood's 1965 Orgy of the Dead.

The full story of 304 Muirfield Road is here.

[Ossrae]

Much of this 1914 Charlie Chaplin movie seems to have been filmed in old Chinatown: https://youtu.be/puXwlh4m1pM?t=186

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

I stumbled across an amazing set of photos on Twitter taken in old Chinatown, courtesy of The Hungtington. They're from a set of glass plates that were discovered in the 1940s and only recently digitized.



Link to Twitter thread with several photos.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Mackerm

Linkedin

I found it amazing that after Wham-O left their factory in San Gabriel, the building became home to a second iconic brand - Sriracha Hot Sauce.

While I thought the buildings were entirely gone now, it looks like the portion of the warehouse east of, and cantilevered over, Rubio Wash is still intact.

Former Wham-O, Sriracha Factory Gets New Lease on Life

The Wham-O hula hoop/frisbee factory the place where they later made the tasty Asian hot sauce. Now a warehouse. America constantly reinventing itself. I vaguely recall that the Sriracha factory is now in Irwindale. A few years ago residents were complaining of the hot pepper+garlic smells, but I think they worked something out. I blast sriracha, tobasco, salsa on everything I want to add spicy heat to...Asian, Mexican, pizza, burgers...doesn't matter. I make hot thousand island sauce by combining sriracha/tobasco to mayonaise instead of ketchup.

[unihikid]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

The noirish part was actually the baby-selling...

I was surprised not to find the story of 304 Muirfield Road when looking back through years of NLA posts--trying the clunky search feature here as well as searching via the web. Anyway, entertainer-of-sorts Norwood Young took pleasure in shaking up tacky-averse Hancock Park with his personal style that only began with an array of 19 or so copies of the Accademia's David that stood along his driveway from 1998 to 2012. Young told an interviewer in defense of his aesthetic that "The house was a piece of ---- when I bought it and I brought it up." The noirish part of the house's story wasn't really Young's--it was the attorney's who was on the county's crime commission and then went to jail for insurance fraud in the early '70s. Getting out quickly, he then became the kingpin of an international baby-selling ring while having announced a run for D.A. Back to jail for a whole 11 months. The house, btw, seems to have started out as his swinging bachelor pad after he divorced his actress wife who had played The Black Ghoul in Ed Wood's 1965 Orgy of the Dead.

The full story of 304 Muirfield Road is here.

Great story GW! i always called it the House of David. It was for sure an eyesore and i never got that part of Muirfield Rd (i want to say there are a few other mid-century homes on that block). Makes sense it never really fit in.....its not an attractive house. Is there a reason for the delay builds in the area?

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by unihikid

Great story GW! i always called it the House of David. It was for sure an eyesore and i never got that part of Muirfield Rd (i want to say there are a few other mid-century homes on that block). Makes sense it never really fit in.....its not an attractive house. Is there a reason for the delay builds in the area?

Hi unihikid: The Depression came on after the intial phase of Hancock Park building--then the war--and after that the Westside was offering plenty of real estate opportunities to the affluent, which left quite a few original HP lots choked with weeds. Also--some empty HP lots were parts of parcels originally belonging to adjacent houses whose owners sold them off. It was on these long-empty lots that the Midcentury houses went up.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Hi unihikid: The Depression came on after the intial phase of Hancock Park building--then the war--and after that the Westside was offering plenty of real estate opportunities to the affluent, which left quite a few original HP lots choked with weeds. Also--some empty HP lots were parts of parcels originally belonging to adjacent houses whose owners sold them off. It was on these long-empty lots that the Midcentury houses went up.

Is HP holding up as a wealthy area, or do most wealthy still go to Beverly Hills and west? Are HP houses holding their value, and in demand? I haven't been there for years, but back in the 1980s and 1990s HP still looked affluent, at least upper middle class, if not quite Beverly Hills/Bel Air levels. Sort of like a newer West Adams.

If I were really rich I'd probably move near the coast, where you usually get the fresh cool refreshing ocean air in summer. Places like Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Malibu, Manhattan or Hermosa Beach etc., or even Brentwood a bit farther from the waves but still cooler than HP. West of the 405 for sure.

Beverly Hills is a bit more inland, but their police department does do a pretty good job keeping the criminals away. LAPD, not as effective or responsive. Understaffed. Of course if you were rich rich, you could also afford some 24 hour private security to keep bad people away.

[ethereal_reality]

.
Tis the season.



eBay






How 'bout we take a closer look.



Pretty cool.

.

[ethereal_reality]

.

GIANT WOMAN ACCIDENTALLY WALKS THROUGH TRAIN TRESTLE.



eBay







Not really...giggle

eBay

Judging by the way the woman is dressed I'd say the photograph was taken in the 1920s. ..

Any ideas as to what movie this miniature train tressle might have been built for?





for search purposes:..vintage photograph miniature train warner brothers hollywood california photo



.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

GIANT WOMAN ACCIDENTALLY WALKS THROUGH TRAIN TRESTLE.

Not really...giggle



Judging by the way the woman is dressed I'd say the photograph was taken in the 1920s. ..

Any ideas as to what movie this miniature train tressle might have been built for?

As you indicate, a studio prop built for a silent or early talkie film. Warner Bros. is mentioned on the photo. In the silent era, they sometimes used miniatures, including trains, and props like this tiny bridge to show things like a train wreck like we still do today. Most every movie trick we still use was invented very early, before or early in the sound era.

As far as what Warner Bros. film the prop was used for, was the famous Buster Keaton Civil War film "The General" made at WB? I think it was a UA distributed film, but maybe they borrowed WB facilities or WB co-produced it. It was an expensive film for the time. I recall there was a train wreck in that one. The whole film was about a stolen train and pursuit of that train.

[GaylordWilshire]

We've at least touched on the Attack of the 50-foot Woman here on NLA--the three main stars, Hayes, Hudson & Vickers, all had noirish endings. (The first two died young, Vickers apparently died alone and her mummified body wasn't found for a year).... See this post from 2011.

Maybe ER's pic is from a silent version....

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Is HP holding up as a wealthy area, or do most wealthy still go to Beverly Hills and west? Are HP houses holding their value, and in demand? I haven't been there for years, but back in the 1980s and 1990s HP still looked affluent, at least upper middle class, if not quite Beverly Hills/Bel Air levels. Sort of like a newer West Adams.

If I were really rich I'd probably move near the coast, where you usually get the fresh cool refreshing ocean air in summer. Places like Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Malibu, Manhattan or Hermosa Beach etc., or even Brentwood a bit farther from the waves but still cooler than HP. West of the 405 for sure.

Beverly Hills is a bit more inland, but their police department does do a pretty good job keeping the criminals away. LAPD, not as effective or responsive. Understaffed. Of course if you were rich rich, you could also afford some 24 hour private security to keep bad people away.

CaliNative: While there have definitely been years when you couldn't give HP houses away--they'd sit on the market for months, even years, and dozens of them at a time. During the Depression of course, then the war. After the Watts riots and then the Manson murders, and '70s stagflation, some recovery. Down again after the '92 riots. Booming now, or at least in the first two decades of the 2000s. $15-$20 million sales not uncommon. And these sometimes for what were nothing-special upper-middle-class houses in a fairly high-crime area. HP seems to try desperately to keep up with Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby etc.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Here is a wonderful view of the Richfield Building at night, circa 1955.



ebay

This was among a group of slides I recently found on ebay.

LIFE Mag




LIFE Mag

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

CaliNative: While there have definitely been years when you couldn't give HP houses away--they'd sit on the market for months, even years, and dozens of them at a time. During the Depression of course, then the war. After the Watts riots and then the Manson murders, and '70s stagflation, some recovery. Down again after the '92 riots. Booming now, or at least in the first two decades of the 2000s. $15-$20 million sales not uncommon. And these sometimes for what were nothing-special upper-middle-class houses in a fairly high-crime area. HP seems to try desperately to keep up with Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Holmby etc.

The real estate correction we are now in because of higher rates could lower prices a bit, not only in HP, but everywhere. Properties are sitting on the market longer, even at the high end. You say HP is fairly high crime. How much higher is crime there, compared to Bev Hills for example? Are burglaries a problem in HP? And you are right about Manson, I recall that the LaBianca victims lived near or in HP.

I think you can get nice big houses in the flats of Beverly Hills south of Wilshire for $15-20 million, or even less. If I had a choice, I'd buy in BH because of the better policing, and the better care of the street trees by the city of BH compared to L.A. $15-20 million in HP doesn't seem like a bargain to me.

[sadykadie2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

.

A trifecta of items from the collection.


eBay



A closer look at the documents.






An unsold share of the Woodruff Co.?





The mystery sign.



I think if one were to adjust the contrast the writing might show up. (I started to do it but ran out of time)




And finally. . .a mystery photograph.




Is anyone familiar with the Clark & Sherman Land Co.

Far right: W.G. van Rosseau (I think) 1/12/25 - - - - - >
.

I do not know how to upload pictures, but I worked on the contrast and it says "S.H.Woodruff
Licensee
Real estate Broker
this part is unreadable

[Lwize]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

As far as what Warner Bros. film the prop was used for, was the famous Buster Keaton Civil War film "The General" made at WB? I think it was a UA distributed film, but maybe they borrowed WB facilities or WB co-produced it. It was an expensive film for the time. I recall there was a train wreck in that one. The whole film was about a stolen train and pursuit of that train.

As I recall, "The General" was filmed in Oregon and the train wreck used a real train, making it a budget-busting stunt (no pun intended).

[riichkay]

Uh, I'm going to suggest "valley ho" may carry a somewhat salacious connotation in today's world....


The place was built in 1956 at 8126 Van Nuys Blvd., just south of Roscoe.....image from the Feb. '57 issue of Signs of The Times magazine, via flickr.com....





Sign permit....

[odinthor]

We can bring a bit of Noir to the Valley Ho with:


LA Times, 12/15/1964

This must have been something of a last straw, as it wasn't too long before the Valley Ho was no more, and a new restaurant occupied its place:


LA Times, 10/9/1966