noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by odinthor

LA Times, 5/23/1906

The McCan Mechanical Works was owned by the seriously pulchritudinous New Orleans boy David Chambers McCan, who built the house on Adams Boulevard that William Andrews Clark took over and is today the site of the Clark Library. Clark's family story and his strangeness is fairly well known; after brilliant beginnings, McCan died of tuberculosis intestate and reportedly destitute in a hospital in Buenos Aires in 1919, where he would also be buried. More on McCan, his business, and the property at the northeast corner of Adams and Cimarron is here.

[odinthor]

Perhaps a glance or two at one of the several New Orleans homes owned by McCan's father would be of interest. This one was, and is, located at 1415 Third Street in the Garden District of New Orleans.

These pix are from The Great Days of the Garden District, by Martha Ann Brett Samuel and Ray Samuel, 1961, p. 36, where further information and description will be found (https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/loui..._district.html):

[Mackerm]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

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Does anyone know if there was a photo arcade in Union Station one of the train stations back in 1918?


Currently on eBay


Perhaps in the Arcade Depot?


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A post from last April.

Originally Posted by Noir_Noir

Marks-Fram at 412 Main Street was the first home of a busy and enduring train - the Los Angeles Special.





archive.org - El Camino Real : Highway 101 and the route of the Daylight - Tom Zimmerman

The History of Television

Here we see the inventor of the modern television Philo T. Farnsworth, with new wife Pem. In 1926 Farnsworth moved from Salt Lake City to 1339 N. New Hampshire in Hollywood, where he set up his first lab. Still standing.

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by odinthor

Perhaps a glance or two at one of the several New Orleans homes owned by McCan's father would be of interest. This one was, and is, located at 1415 Third Street in the Garden District of New Orleans.

These pix are from The Great Days of the Garden District, by Martha Ann Brett Samuel and Ray Samuel, 1961, p. 36, where further information and description will be found (https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/loui..._district.html):

I know that house well. The father of the wife of the couple who bought it from the McCans was my great-great grandfather, which makes her my great-something aunt I guess. Then I knew the house when contemporaries of mine lived there. (Last I heard it had been tarted up with gilded ceiling mouldings and was last on the market by carpetbaggers for something like $8 million, although I don't think it went for anywhere near that much. Anyway, we digress from Los Angeles. So I will connect this to LA by way of saying that that great-whatever aunt's family and mine are all buried in a New Orleans tomb across a circle from that of LA drug kingpin (the old-fashioned kind) Lucien Brunswig, whose mausoleum is in the form of a pyramid. He died in 1943 and his body was sent to be buried in the pyramid. We've seen a good bit of Brunswig's drug operations on NLA before, and I think, his house at 3528 West Adams here on NLA before:




Its full story is here.


The Brunswig tomb in New Orleans:




I think there are one or two pyramid-shaped mausoleums in LA's Rosedale cemetery....

[odinthor]

Of what interest could this modest house in the Silverlake area, at 3431 Larissa Drive--or formerly there, as it was razed--be?


http://www.cemeteryguide.com/gotw-rasputin.html


LA Times, 9/29/1977

In younger days:


LA Times, 4/11/1935

[Lwize]

El Cholo Mexican restaurant turns 100 years old this year.

The current "original" location on Western was a two-bedroom bungalow they converted into a restaurant when they moved there in 1931 (the true original location from 1923 near the Colosseum is long gone)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/d...s-angeles.html

On the satellite view, the original bungalow is still clearly visible. Apparently, they've been adding on to the location for the past 90 years, rather than scrap it and start fresh:


(Google sat image, hosted by me)

[GaylordWilshire]

Originally Posted by Lwize

El Cholo Mexican restaurant turns 100 years old this year.

The current "original" location on Western was a two-bedroom bungalow they converted into a restaurant when they moved there in 1931 (the true original location from 1923 near the Colosseum is long gone)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/d...s-angeles.html

On the satellite view, the original bungalow is still clearly visible. Apparently, they've been adding on to the location for the past 90 years, rather than scrap it and start fresh:


(Google sat image, hosted by me)

It looks like El Cholo had at least four branches, including one in Long Beach. We've seen the Western Ave El Cholo here at NLA at least as far back as 2011. The left end of the current façade hides 1121 S Western, built in 1919. The right side is on the site of 1115, also built in 1919, relocated to 815 Mullen Avenue in 1927 and still standing there. The house that stood on EC's left-side parking lot, 1127, was another cottage built in 1919, demolished in 1961. 1133 S Western, yet another house built in 1919, still stands at left of the parking lot.


LAPL
1121 S Western, still standing behind left end of El Cholo


LAPL

1115 S Western--moved in 1927 to 815 Mullen Ave and still there, seen below

GSV



1133 S Western from post 3759, 2011, and still standing in July '22 GSV

[ethereal_reality]

.
Interesting information on Rasputan's daughter, odinthor.


In 1956 Maria Rasputin was living at 3209 Drescano Drive in Sliver Lake.(Descano Arms)







google-street-view

It's the building on the left. (built in 1928)





It used to have trees out front. (no date / real estate site)







And painted a different color. (no date / real estate site)




It would be interesting to know when Marie moved into the Descanso Arms. (1956 was earliest entry I could find)

By 1963 Maria had moved to Lassiter. (per the 1963 directory)



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[ethereal_reality]

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Is this really Los Angeles?


Seller's description: .."c1900 Los Angeles California Street Scene La Matilde Store Garden City Photo Co."



eBay

The La Matilde store is on the left side of the street and on the far side of the corner building.

I've looked and looked but I don't see any recognizable street lights. (or for that matter, street signs)


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[GaylordWilshire]

Well, ER, under the "Orpheum" it says "Los Angeles Theater" I think. Also, I believe La Matildes are a brand of cigar.... I started to look for downtown cigar stores in old directories but there are many possibilities to be sifted through. Then for some reason I thought of the Braly Block/Continental Building, the east side of which seems to match that of the building under construction in the pic. It was started in 1902, completed in 1904 I believe. If this is the same building, the vintage view would be looking west on Fourth Street from Main Street.

[odinthor]

By George, you've got it!

I photoshopped for a more distinct image of the photo in question:



Observe the building at right, especially the awnings. Now compare to the below:


odinthor collection

That's the Van Nuys. Note the squared awnings on the lower stories, and the rounded ones at the top story. Yes, we are looking west on 4th St. from Main.

Well done, GW!



___

Of course the tree in the original pic is what caught my attention. That tree would have been a remnant of the landscaping for the I.W. Hellman house, which had been at that location (he was completing the house in 1875). Here it is in its younger days when the neighborhood was one of residences:


Detail from LAPL order no. 00014179 https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/coll...id/86256/rec/7

[GaylordWilshire]

Then there is this image, which I'm pretty sure we've seen before on NLA, maybe even recently.... The Hellman house being moved, it apparently to be replaced with the taxpayers seen in ER's pic the same year that the Braly Bldg opened.... The taxpayers didn't last long--Hellman's Farmers and Merchants Bank came along in 1905.




USCDL's caption:
Photograph of Main Street and 4th Street, showing Hellman residence being moved, 1904. Part of the I.W. Hellman home being moved to vicinity of 18th and Figueroa to make way for Farmers & Merchants Bank building. "Braly(?) , Union Trust, Hobernian(?), Continental building in background."

[riichkay]

e_r, re: your question about Maria Rasputin....

"It would be interesting to know when Maria moved into the Descanso Arms."

Apparently sometime after 1950, as the census that year found another tenant in Apt. #24....

[ethereal_reality]

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posted by riichkay


Thanks riichkay...I believe odinthor has found some information on the previous tenant of #24, Teresa Mahoney.


And thanks for solving the mystery "La Matilda" photograph, GW and odinthor. I noticed that tall tree (Pine?) and thought it seemed out-of-place. Now we know it was a survivor of the old Hellman Estate.

VERY INTERESTING GUYS!


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[odinthor]

Thanks, e_r!

The Widow Mahoney (widow of D.F. Mahoney) first shows up (as "Theresa" rather than "Teresa") in the 1925 CD, living at 1911 E. 74th, which evidently doesn't quite exist anymore. She evidently tired quickly of living at an address which doesn't exist, so by 1926 she moved to 1131 E. 73rd; but as far as I can tell that doesn't exist (at least, now) either; but she continued to reside there until I got bored and stopped checking.

She had an adventure in 1930:


LA Times, 5/22/1930

And she had an adventure of another sort in 1950:


LA Times, 12/13/1950

[ethereal_reality]

.
Has anyone heard of Mr. Karpe?



eBay





eBay




I found an address (and his first name) in the 1893 city directory.


LAPL


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[riichkay]

Not sure if it's the gentleman in the photo, but the 1910 census found a Gustav A. Karpe, brother of William Karpe (these docs via the free Family Search site, courtesy the L.D.S.)....


It appears the Karpe family was still at Vermont/Adams in 1910.....



Can't figure the house number but it appears to be in the 2600 block of Vermont, which would put us at Adams....


Gustav was a salesman in the mining industry....





.....this Gustav A. Karpe married a divorcee 5 years his senior, Katherine Bunker Payne, in 1915....he registered for military service at age 43 on 9/12/1918, two months before the armistice....











The 1930 census found Gustav and wife in Hollywood at the Somerset Apts., Franklin Ave. at Gower....his occupation shows as "practioner, Christian Science", same as on his military registration card.



The 1940 census found the couple in Santa Ana, there the trail ends (they told the enumerator that they were in Laguna Beach in 1935, column 17)....


  

[odinthor]

In re: Karpe.


LA Herald, 7/26/1893


LA Herald, 12/11/1903. The "F" in the widow's name is her given name, Frederika, the wife of the deceased Gustav the elder.

But we can have hopes that Miss Karpe was found, as in a report of a traffic accident twenty years later, we see:


LA Times, 5/5/1924

[ovens]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Never tried seven up as a mixer with whiskey. Usually use coke or ginger ale. These guys getting a welcome break from the war. Later probably went to USO Hollywood Canteen. Maybe dance with Barbara Stanwyck or some other star. The guy in the middle has a distinctive face. They probably called him "bulldog" or something like that. Would have done well as a character actor playing a fighter, gangster, criminal or other tough guy. The guy on the left would have got the second fiddle funny best friend parts. The guy on the right maybe a steady eddie banker or teacher.

Replying to a super old post - but I couldn't stop looking at this picture and the fun these fellas were having. I wanted to try to use some 2023 digital tools and see if I could clean this up a bit. It's my first try. Have a look.


(click to enlarge)

[Earl Boebert]

Some time back, CaliNative wrote

"Never tried seven up as a mixer with whiskey."

At the Randolph AFB Officer's Club bar in the 1960s, "Seven and Seven (Seven Crown and Seven UP) was my boss's standard order. I had a few (in those days, when the Colonel suggest a drink, the Lieutenants drank.) Tastes a bit like an Old Fashioned.

Cheers,

Earl