noirish Los Angeles

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by HossC

Carl Maston House (West Hollywood, Calif.), 1949"


Shulman

Hoss, I'm still in awe of this sleek banister in yesterday's Shulman post.

I was sorry to see that it was replaced (with something sturdier no doubt)

[Blaster]

The other day I ran across a source that said the classic swimming pool sequence in CAT PEOPLE (1942) was "shot at a hotel in the Alvarado District of Los Angeles."

The building and lobby where Jane Randolph and Simone Simon arrive look as if they might have been shot at the studio (RKO) but the pool itself looks like it could have been an actual location.

Does anybody have any candidates for possible underground hotel pools in the "Alvarado District?"

Here's the famous sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKWp2ixW5vs

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

There was a brass pushbutton panel in the entry hall that controlled all eight lights in the house.

I remember push-button light switches. The ones at my great-aunt's house were particularly nice. The ends of the buttons were inlaid with discs of abalone shell.

One can still buy push-button switches.

[ethereal_reality]

Originally Posted by Blaster

The other day I ran across a source that said the classic swimming pool sequence in CAT PEOPLE (1942) was "shot at a hotel in the Alvarado District of Los Angeles."

The building and lobby where Jane Randolph and Simone Simon arrive look as if they might have been shot at the studio (RKO) but the pool itself looks like it could have been an actual location.

Does anybody have any candidates for possible underground hotel pools in the "Alvarado District?"

Here's the famous sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKWp2ixW5vs

I'm still searching for pool possibilities, but I found this interesting.

"RKO held a test screening for Cat People at a downtown Los Angeles theater. Everyone connected to the film was apprehensive, including Simone Simon, who feared that her performance would be laughed at. Writer DeWitt Bodeen, who was there that night, recalled, "The preview was preceded by a Disney cartoon about a little pussy-cat and Val's spirits sank lower and lower as the audience began to catcall and make loud mewing sounds. 'Oh God!' he kept murmuring, as he wiped the perspiration from his forehead. The picture's title was greeted with whoops of derision and louder meows, but when the credits were over and the film began to unreel, the audience quieted, and, as the story progressed, reacted as we had hoped an audience might. There were gasps and some screaming as the shock sequences grew. The audience accepted and believed our story, and was enchanted."

tcm

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by HossC

I initially liked this unusual handrail, but thoughts of walking into that sharp angle and children falling through the gaps have changed my mind!

Does this stair-rail pass CA Building Safety Codes in 2017...not even slightly..

But I do like its ingenious 1949 design. ER ....yes it is very soigné.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by John Maddox Roberts

A few months ago we saw a picture of SoCal Indians living in what looked like Army Sibley tents from the Civil War. Many of these men are wearing U.S. military jackets and even hats, but they have no military firearms so they are not Indian auxiliaries. Were they given castoff military attire as government support?

I've read, despite an extermination order on them ca 1870, by the late 1880s some Yavapai were employed as scouts by the US army.

[ethereal_reality]

I don't believe we've seen this motel with the generic name

East L.A. Motel

ebay
ebay

[ethereal_reality]

re: Pioneer western photographers

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Photographer D[udley].P. Flanders, according to one source, was allegedly born in 1840 and, among other things,
had a Los Angeles gallery prior to 1872 and had him as a registered voter in 1875.

Godzilla, I found a death notice for Flanders.

He died of consumption on May 10, 1875 when he was 37 years old.

Los Angeles Herald, Volume 9, Number 139, 11 May 1878


https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=...anders-------1

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=...anders-------1

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Pioneer Western photographers, Flanders and Stanton, both had Los Angeles connections although they both traveled with their cameras outside of the area. It is just an uneducated guess that Flanders may have captured the image and Stanton printed/published it. Or someone may have co-opted the image, innocently or otherwise.


A source of similar images bearing "T.E. Stanton's" imprimator (Calisphere) indicates that Los Angeles was the "place of publication." See e.g., https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf4d5nb6c7/
T.E. Stanton is listed as a photographer at 119 N Main in the 1887-8CD. (He resided at "7 Friend Av.")

Thomas Elwood Stanton (7 April 1854 - 21 Jan 1940)

He's buried out at Calvary:


findagrave


...and that's that.

[ethereal_reality]

Los Angeles Herald, December 7, 1889

[ethereal_reality]

A couple more mentions of T.E. Stanton.

Safety Council 664 (anyone know what that is?)



Los Angeles Herald, January 8, 1886
________________





Los Angeles Herald, November 5, 1905

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Blaster

The building and lobby where Jane Randolph and Simone Simon arrive look as if they might have been shot at the studio (RKO) but the pool itself looks like it could have been an actual location.

IMDB lists stages 7 & 14 as the filming locations for "Cat People", but then there's this:

"Paramount Studios - Stage 32

Date of Construction: 1930

Stages 29-32 (all adjacent to each other) were originally capable of being opened up into one huge stage, to allow long camera moves and continuous dancing sequences associated with the golden days of Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals. Stages 30 and 31 still have a soundproof partition between them which allows them to be joined to this day.

The end of Stage 32 marks the dividing line between the old RKO and Paramount Studios.
Stage 32 was originally named Stage 10 prior to the Desilu merger with Paramount. A 'Stage 10' sign is shown briefly during the trailer for Citizen Kane, which Paramount records show was filmed on this stage. (reference)

Pool

In the basement of this stage is a large swimming pool which Howard Hughes had constructed. The pool was last believed used in Mel Brooks' 'The History of the World Part One'."
-ParamountTour



paramount map




CBD do you know anything about a basement pool? I couldn't find a picture of it.



ETA:





I can't figure out if its a possible match or not. Some major reconstruction would have had to happen.

[Blaster]

The swimming pool in CAT PEOPLE looks pretty small. Why go to the trouble of major reconstruction and redressing when they might find the right pool nearby in some hotel or apartment building basement? (And that's only if we believe the source that said it was in a hotel in the "Alvarado District.)

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

IMDB lists stages 7 & 14 as the filming locations for "Cat People", but then there's this:

"Paramount Studios - Stage 32

Date of Construction: 1930

Stages 29-32 (all adjacent to each other) were originally capable of being opened up into one huge stage, to allow long camera moves and continuous dancing sequences associated with the golden days of Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers musicals. Stages 30 and 31 still have a soundproof partition between them which allows them to be joined to this day.

The end of Stage 32 marks the dividing line between the old RKO and Paramount Studios.
Stage 32 was originally named Stage 10 prior to the Desilu merger with Paramount. A 'Stage 10' sign is shown briefly during the trailer for Citizen Kane, which Paramount records show was filmed on this stage. (reference)

Pool

In the basement of this stage is a large swimming pool which Howard Hughes had constructed. The pool was last believed used in Mel Brooks' 'The History of the World Part One'."
-ParamountTour



paramount map




CBD do you know anything about a basement pool? I couldn't find a picture of it.

.

T2:

When I worked at Paramount Studio, stages 29-30-31-32 [450' x 150'] were opened up into one huge stage. There was a real asphalt street built on the floor with sidewalks and curbing. It was really amazing to see and I'm hard to impress.

Since I was assigned an exact position directly in front of the scene star Karen Black, I had to be ready for lighting-filming set-ups at a moments notice, therefore I didn't have much free time.

I had to be there 8+ hours a day even though they only filmed for about 15 minutes a day. There were dry run setups twice a day, each lasting about 15 minutes. Also, since the scene was nighttime, the stage interior was always pitch black.

To your question....I don't recall talk about a pool in any of those 4 stages but there could be one ....somewhere unseen. Much of the ''floor'' of those 4 stages was actually just plain compacted dirt....

That's me, CBD, in the light brown suit, staring at Karen's ice cream cone. They gave her a new cone every five minutes. This photo is not an actual still from the film...its a publicity shot made by a studio photographer.

http://jake-weird.blogspot.fr/2013/0...-dystopia.html


I'm standing just to the right of that red canopy....see me? The set is about 2/3 and 1/2 scale buildings....and smaller in back.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i6myrirVhL...he-Locust2.png

[ethereal_reality]

'mystery' glossy

This 8 x 10 photograph is currently on ebay (you can buy it now for $49.99)

Any idea what movie this is from? -that's Betty Grable in black on the right.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-COLLECT...sAAOSwCGVX~~ds

I know my movies, but this doesn't ring a bell at all.

__

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Blaster

The swimming pool in CAT PEOPLE looks pretty small. Why go to the trouble of major reconstruction and redressing when they might find the right pool nearby in some hotel or apartment building basement? (And that's only if we believe the source that said it was in a hotel in the "Alvarado District.)

It was stretch I know, but when I read that there was a basement pool on the lot I was intrigued. Later, after I found the "HOTW" shot, not so much.

I just didn't think the "CP" pool looked like a hotel. So institutional. I actually thought it might have been boxed in, the walkway around it is so narrow.

Are the pools very different sizes? I can't judge.

........................................................................


Thank you CBD. I'd know you anywhere :-)

[ethereal_reality]

I thought it might be fun to try and figure out where the photographer was situated when he took these slides. (from what roof-top)



#1

ebay

We recently saw this corner in a previous post.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=39264






#2

ebay

Naked darts.




#3


Kid






#4


Groovy phone pods





#5

ebay

Greasy Spoon







below: In my opinion this is the most intriguing.

#6


It looks like a decrepit mexican restaurant set back in an alley or something similar to an alley.

the plants have pretty much taken over the entrance-

________________________________









I've enlarged the first two vertical slides.

Who knows, maybe there's a murder happening in one of windows. (that thought crosses my mind whenever I inspect these old photos)

enlargement #1


ebay











enlargement #2



ebay

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Is the radio outlet something like this oldstuff?


http://www.electrical-contractor.net...io_Outlet.html

but I'm still confused how the house wiring doubled as an antenna.

I don't know for sure that the house wiring was used as an antenna, that was just what I was told. I saw that one online yesterday, and then forgot to go look at it last night. It is in a corner, behind some heavy furniture now. The plug in our house was not a double, electrical and radio, just a single plug. It is adjacent to a regular double outlet.

[oldstuff]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

I remember push-button light switches. The ones at my great-aunt's house were particularly nice. The ends of the buttons were inlaid with discs of abalone shell.

One can still buy push-button switches.

A friend's 1920's home on the Arroyo in Pasadena has those inlaid switches. They also have ornate brass switchplates.

[Blaster]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

It was stretch I know, but when I read that there was a basement pool on the lot I was intrigued. Later, after I found the "HOTW" shot, not so much.

I just didn't think the "CP" pool looked like a hotel. So institutional. I actually thought it might have been boxed in, the walkway around it is so narrow.

Are the pools very different sizes? I can't judge.

........................................................................


Thank you CBD. I'd know you anywhere :-)

You're right about it having an institutional look, or possibly the kind of pool you'd find in a residence hotel/apartment building or possibly a private club or small health club.