noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

More on the Occidental fire




LAT Nov 20, 1976

[Martin Pal]

I've visited Hollywood Historic photos many times, but I did not notice this photo during any of those visits. (If this photo has been on NLA before, my mind is going.)

It's captioned: View of the Cahuenga Pass with the Barham bridge, the Mulholland bridge and Monkey Island.

Hollywood Historic Photos

It's dated 1949, well after Monkey Island had closed. There's pretty clear details of the building and grounds. (Can anyone enlarge that lower right corner? ) I also wonder what was located next door to Monkey Island in this photograph.

Flyingwedge posted this rare photo of Monkey Island off to the side as seen in "The March-April 1949 issue of California Highways and Public Works." Photo looking south at the 101 and the Barham bridge, here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=36237

[Earl Boebert]

Monkey Island, resampled:



Cheers,

Earl

[MartinTurnbull]

At the end of my Golden-era Hollywood versus Disney’s Hollywood Studios – a side-by-side comparison blog post

https://martinturnbull.wordpress.com...de-comparison/

I have three buildings they included whose real-life counterparts I couldn't ID. If anyone here knows what/where they are/were, I'd love to hear from you. I thought this first one with the blue tile was especially well done:

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Earl Boebert

Monkey Island, resampled:
Cheers,
Earl

Thanks Earl, much appreciated!

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

I have three buildings they included whose real-life counterparts I couldn't ID. If anyone here knows what/where they are/were, I'd love to hear from you.

Part of this looks very much like the Beverly-Poinsettia Commercial Building (7290 Beverly Blvd.), designed by John Robert Harris in 1930. Unfortunately the "MILK" sign is covering up important details.



The building was discussed briefly in this forum a couple years back, in a post from Martin Pal. (There may have been earlier discussions too; the search function of this forum is dreadful.)

[ozone]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

At the end of my Golden-era Hollywood versus Disney’s Hollywood Studios – a side-by-side comparison blog post

https://martinturnbull.wordpress.com...de-comparison/

I have three buildings they included whose real-life counterparts I couldn't ID. If anyone here knows what/where they are/were, I'd love to hear from you. I thought this first one with the blue tile was especially well done:

This is modeled on the Oakland Floral Depot building, a deep blue terra cotta Art Deco building constructed in 1931. It's still standing.

[ethereal_reality]

re: My Favorite Martian spaceship / New Orleans Square

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I was walking by and peered in the front glass doors and against the wall nearby was that spaceship from My Favorite Martian! When I went by a few days later to see it, it wasn't there and the one person in there did not know what I was referring to.

Were you sober? nevermind

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I have the shadowy photo somewhere!

Keep searching Martin. I would really like to see it.

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

If anyone wants to look up the history of the New Orleans Square building I'd be interested as to it's original purposes.

I'm pretty sure we discussed New Orleans Square in the early days of the thread. The building was originally a grocery store.

I remember New Orlean Square. Inside it was kind of like Pirates of the Carribean but without the pirates.

_

[Scott Charles]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I've visited Hollywood Historic photos many times, but I did not notice this photo during any of those visits. (If this photo has been on NLA before, my mind is going.)

It's captioned: View of the Cahuenga Pass with the Barham bridge, the Mulholland bridge and Monkey Island.

Hollywood Historic Photos

It's dated 1949, well after Monkey Island had closed. There's pretty clear details of the building and grounds. (Can anyone enlarge that lower right corner? ) I also wonder what was located next door to Monkey Island in this photograph.

Flyingwedge posted this rare photo of Monkey Island off to the side as seen in "The March-April 1949 issue of California Highways and Public Works." Photo looking south at the 101 and the Barham bridge, here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=36237

Wow, Monkey Island, huh? I've never before heard of this place. Was it an amusement park of some kind?

(That photo has a nice view of Lake Hollywood in the background)

Judging by the photo above, Monkey Island would have been where El Paseo De Cahuenga Park is now, yes?

Google Maps

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

The fire horses are staged a half block away at a fire. The Dalmations are a large breed and have a calm temperament. Their bright color makes them easy to see on a dark street.

Other breeds?....good question. Don't know...maybe.

The reason Dalmations are used in Firehouses is because they are notoriously deaf and are not freaked out by the fire alarms. So although all dogs may calm horses, only deaf dogs can do it in a screaming firehouse. Thus, Dalmations.

[Handsome Stranger]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I was wondering that, too, and what the documentary was about!

I wonder where the My Favorite Martian spaceship went? I know that sometime in the 1990's there was a space in the New Orleans Square building in West Hollywood (before or after that the space was a "Crown Bookstore" and currently it's a pet supply store) that was opened as a new wave kind of art gallery and one night I was walking by it and peered in the front glass doors (it was closed) and against the wall nearby was that spaceship from My Favorite Martian!

I don't know about the art gallery, but I do know that in the late 1980s / early 1990s that same space was occupied by EZ-TV, which offered very low cost video production rentals and video editing to fringe creative types like myself. I edited one project there, and also took an evening class in video production from a guy named Aron Ranen. The spaceship prop from My Favorite Martian was right there by the entrance, exactly as you described. I got to look at it up close. It had passed through several owners and was in pretty shabby condition.

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by KevinW

The reason Dalmations are used in Firehouses is because they are notoriously deaf and are not freaked out by the fire alarms. So although all dogs may calm horses, only deaf dogs can do it in a screaming firehouse. Thus, Dalmations.

Another reason Dalmatians were used is that the horses are left by themselves some distance away from a fire. The Fire Brigade cannot spare a man to watch the horses....all of them are needed to fight the fire. Therefore the dogs stay with the horses as a calming influence.

Some dog breeds are known to agitate and excite horses.

They are still chosen by many fire fighters as pets in honor of their heroism in the past.

LA's most famous fire dog.

old file.

[acorn8332]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Your insights to Hoss' Shulman photographs were very informative (not to mention, interesting!) acorn8332.

They helped me understand the layout of the building and what it was like to work at an office during the 1970s (the energy crisis...the fashions )
I got a kick out of the observation deck photo with your office cohorts wantonly pointing in all kinds of misdirections. They remind me of the group
I used to work with at Lorimar. We had a lot of fun. (despite our tedious jobs)

I wasn't able to locate any photographs of the fire yet. In fact, I didn't know there was a fire. (I didn't know there was an observation deck either)
What I did find is a case study of the fire HERE, but it isn't digitalized. (as far as I know)

_

Thanks, E_R! Something I forgot to mention was that there was also a Radio Station at the top of Occidental Center. It had been gone for a few years by the time I arrived in 1974. But I remember listening to it in the late 1960s or early 1970s: "Soaring high above Los Angeles from Beautiful Occidental Center, this is K (Something)." I can't remember the call letters. I think it was a "beautiful music" format a la KPOL. (But NOT KPOL).

Another Occidental Center mystery to unravel! I haven't had much luck trying to find the phantom station.

[acorn8332]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

Did most interiors look alike in the 1970s and 80s?

My boss (at Lorimar) took the staff to lunch at the Playboy Club in Century City. (I was reminded of it by the last pic in the Shulman photographs)
Dark wood paneling...a plethora of ashtrays...barstools with chrome legs...the whole schmeil.

I've been looking for a photograph of the place (Century City Playboy Club) but, so far, I haven't hit pay-dirt.
If anyone has a photograph of the place please post it. I'd really appreciate it.

_

Can't speak for the Playboy Club. But over at Occidental Center, once you got past the dark paneling and luminous ceilings, the office space could be quite a letdown. My desk, circa June 1977. Maybe one of the reasons the November 1976 fire was so intense. Paper, paper, paper. Note the greenbar computer printouts.

The battleship gray furniture would have fit in quite nicely in any number of Noirish films. And that suit coat draped over the back of the chair ...

[acorn8332]

Originally Posted by HossC

There isn't a lot, other than passing references, but I did find a couple of good bits of information. This is from the November 19, 1976 edition of the Oxnard Press Courier:


newspaperarchive.com (rearranged to be screen-friendly)

I also found a reasonably detailed article about the fire at fireengineering.com
A couple of the passing references indicated that the fire was arson, but I haven't found a definitive article about that yet.

Thank you, Hoss! I had forgotten that arson was suspected. I wonder if the arsonist was ever found. (I can account for my whereabouts that evening & morning).

[acorn8332]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

More on the Occidental fire




LAT Nov 20, 1976

Thank you, Gaylord. I hadn't heard about the fire when I headed out to work that day, so when I got to Occidental Center, everyone was just standing around outside. Eventually word drifted to us to go home.

I was using the Park & Ride lot in Studio City, and of course there was no express service outbound that time of the morning. So, it was a looong ride back on the pokey 93 bus, stopping at every other corner in Downtown & Hollywood.

Until the fire happened, we all assumed that those shiny round discs in the ceiling were ultra modern fire sprinklers. Nope!

[HossC]

Originally Posted by acorn8332

Thanks, E_R! Something I forgot to mention was that there was also a Radio Station at the top of Occidental Center. It had been gone for a few years by the time I arrived in 1974. But I remember listening to it in the late 1960s or early 1970s: "Soaring high above Los Angeles from Beautiful Occidental Center, this is K (Something)." I can't remember the call letters. I think it was a "beautiful music" format a la KPOL. (But NOT KPOL).

Another Occidental Center mystery to unravel! I haven't had much luck trying to find the phantom station.

Could it have been KUTE-FM? This is from a round-up of radio stations by format in the March 25, 1967 edition of 'Billboard':


books.google.com

[HossC]

Originally Posted by MartinTurnbull

I thought this first one with the blue tile was especially well done:

Originally Posted by ozone

This is modeled on the Oakland Floral Depot building, a deep blue terra cotta Art Deco building constructed in 1931. It's still standing.

To save people some googling, here's the Oakland Floral Depot building at 1900 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland.


GSV

[Bristolian]

Originally Posted by Martin Pal

I was wondering that, too, and what the documentary was about!

I was walking by it and peered in the front glass doors (it was closed) and against the wall nearby was that spaceship from My Favorite Martian! I tried taking a photo of it through the glass (I had a regular camera with me) but it did not come out very well. When I went by a few days later to see it, it wasn't there and the one person in there did not know what I was referring to.

My Favorite Martian, Uncle Martin, Martin Pal

Martin, Is there something you are not telling us?

[Martin Pal]

Originally Posted by Handsome Stranger

I don't know about the art gallery, but I do know that in the late 1980s / early 1990s that same space was occupied by EZ-TV, which offered very low cost video production rentals and video editing to fringe creative types like myself. I edited one project there, and also took an evening class in video production from a guy named Aron Ranen. The spaceship prop from My Favorite Martian was right there by the entrance, exactly as you described. I got to look at it up close. It had passed through several owners and was in pretty shabby condition.
____________________________________________________________________________

Perhaps I thought EZ-TV was some sort of gallery? That does sound right, though. EZ-TV registers as the name!

____________

I found this Vimeo video titled:
John Dorr's Tour of EZ-TV (1986)

Video Link

It does go into the lobby from the outside where I saw the MFM spaceship, but it was not there in 1986 yet. He does talk about art exhibits (paintings) in the screening room which is probably why I was remembering it as a gallery.

The following link has a lot of info about the history of EZTV and it's locations. It was in West Hollywood in the New Orleans Square building from 1983-1994.
http://www.eztvmedia.com/the-west-ho...1983-1994.html