History The History Of Los Angeles

LAFD's finest, Station 27 in Hollywood. 1937 America La France hose wagon and matching duplex pumper.

LAFD's Station 27, Hollywood. 1937 custom America La France hose wagon in the lead, and the duplex pumper right behind. A two-piece engine company.


Station 9, downtown L.A. A 1938 Seagrave hose wagon along side of a duplex pumper. The hose wagons had no suction pumps, just a small pump for a 200-gal. tank and hose reel. All the pumping from hydrants had to come from the duplex pumpers, equipped with two separate V-12 engines and two separate 1500-gal per minute pumps. Note the fireboat-size monitors on top of the hose wagons...

 

Which DJ would say they were broadcasting from Central and Vernon, Vernon and Central, Central and Vernon ...... ?

 

Johnny Otis, I believe.

 

I remember these guys well...Art Lebeau would broadcast from a drive-in restaurant (I forgot which), and take dedications from the patrons...Hunter Hancock would play R&B, and Bill Balance, well...here are a couple of shots of him at Lions with Linda Vaughn from Don Ewald's site.....





Uhh, watch your hand there, Bill

 

Art LeBeau broadcast from here...........

 

Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg

 

Not sure what location that is but I do remember cruising to a drive-in on Western near Imperial after school when he was broadcasting from there. It too may have been a Scrivners.

Question for today - Were there more than one Scrivners and where were they?

 

Santa Monica Blvd. in 1922. Photo shows the laying out of Santa Monica Boulevard in the Westwood area in California.

 

A little more

 

The Tail of the Pup has been in storage for a few years and was to have been taken to Vegas last year to get restored,we were going to take it up on the car hauler Fururliner but its all on hold for now

 

Cool keep us posted

 

In Hollywood, Sunset Blvd. and Cahuenga.

 

That round building looks a lot like the Patmar's that was on PCH in El Segundo near Imperial.

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When it was closed, they moved the building south and used it as a pro shop for a golf course they built on PCH across from the Chevron refinery. Not sure if it's still there.

Here are a few comments I found while looking for more info .....

They met on the assembly line at North American on the wing of a B-25 bomber. Around midnight, when the swing shift ended, they sometimes went on a date. Romance bloomed and, in 1943, they were married. Years later, Olivia and Alphonse Heimann would tell their four children about their World War II-era courtship in Los Angeles. About burgers at Patmar's open-all-night drive-in in El Segundo and such places as Pan American Gardens in Culver City.

The '30s and '40s saw an explosion of drive-ins. At their zenith in the '40s, they were a center of social life for the young. Where they went to see who was dating whom, to linger over a Coke and fries with ketchup. In high school, the drive-in was about cruising. It was not a place to be seen with your parents, God forbid. And it was not a place to be seen inside.

By the '50s, the drive-in was losing its luster. Families felt menaced by the kids who'd hang out there. The same space could be put to more profitable use as storefronts. But ultimately, says Heimann, "Fast foods killed it."

 

Drive ins in the 30’s were extremely popular, many chains of them popped up in the L.A. area. Simmons, Henry’s, Stan’s, Carl’s (not the Carl’s of today) Brown’s, Carpenters and countless independents. The round drive in was very popular as it could acommodate many cars. The 50’s brought less attendance and drive ins started to dwindle. Would you guess that at Sunset and Vine there was once a drive in and Sunset and La Brea and the Brown Derby on Los Felix even. Now try to find one.

 

"vandee's" was a favorite of ours back in the 50's, the one at the corner of San Fernando Rd. and Fletcher Dr. We would go there after school to check out the cars, and then my girl and I would stop for onion rings and cherry cokes on the way home from the San Val after an evening of "movie watching".

 

Art Laboe is still on the air with a top rated Sunday radio show.

 

I found this picture of Shrivner's in Hollywood in the LA Public Library collection

 

and as I was searching I found some other LA drive-in photos and some street scenes:



The exterior of Herbert's Drive-In is built so that customers in cars can park all around it. Waiters/waitresses are seen serving food for people to eat in their cars. Owned by L.A. restauranteur Sydney Hoedemaker; opened in the early 1930s. Drive-in is located at the southeast corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, in Los Angeles. It was designed by architect Wayne McAllister in circular Streamline Moderne style. It has a neon-ringed roofline and advertising pylon. Gilmore Stadium is in view behind the restaurant, on the left. (my comment: you can see the walls around Gilmore behind the restaurant)



A daytime view of Simon's Drive-In Restaurant, located at 5171 Wilshire Boulevard, taken on December 13, 1939. Carhops are walking to cars, which have trays placed outside their windows. Above the "Simon's" sign is a vertical sign that reads "Sandwiches."



View of an early "mini mall" at 3649 Beverly Boulevard, consisting of Barkies Sandwich Shops, a chain of sandwich shops, featuring a larger than life image of a mascot named the 'Ponderous Pup', gracing the entrance way with his head on the roof and paws on either side of the door, a huge sign hanging from his mouth which reads: "Toasted Barkies Sandwich Shops, No. 4"; and on the right of the photo, Tip-Top Drive In Market. Crates of oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and other fruit have been placed next to the sidewalk, giving cars enough space to drive between those and the market entrance.



Exterior view of a McDonnell's drive-in, located at Beverly Boulevard (foreground) and La Brea Avenue (right), with two cars parked directly in front. The restaurant's sign at the corner reads "Eat in Car, 1/2 fried chicken, 50 cents, Oyster sandwich, and fresh fruit pies." To the right of the drive-in is an advertisement for Eastside Ale, and in the distance, the sign for Waikiki restaurant, at 335 N. La Brea Avenue, is visible.

 

Van de Kamps was my hang out starting in 1959, great place to eat and find a race or two on Riverside Dr.. I was 86’ed from there eventually and had to hang out at Hughs Market across the street. The security told me I was tipping off the racers when the coppers were coming. Lies, lies, all lies I tell you.
296 Ardun posted a photo of Scrivners in Hollywood, I don’t think that is the correct one, the area is too undeveloped to be Sunset and Cahuenga. I found a web site that had the correct photo but can’t post as it is watermarked. Try hollywoodphotographs.com they have some great drive in shots.

 

This is the one I remember from the 50s.

 

Crash about to happen?

 

That photo puzzled me too, the caption was only Scrivners Hollywood, but no other information...it could have been mis-captioned...notice that near the drive in is a sign that says "Hanger Room," which makes me wonder if this site was closer to an airport...though if it was near the present site of LAX it also would have been much more populated...really not sure on this...the photo on the website does list Scrivners as the place where Art Labow (we all spelled it differently!) broadcast on KPOP...

 

1885 Los Angeles with Calle Corta now Sunset Boulevard in foreground.

 

Art Laboe.

 

Finally, someone beside me spells the name "Laboe" correct.

 

Real name is Arthur Egnoian I believe., but forever Art LABOE

 

If this is inappropriate, go ahead and delete it. It would be nice if some one could come up with some pictures of Terrell Buick (it's gone now) in North Hollywood (just down the street form Nudies) My dad worked there many years until it closed.

 

My formative years were also spent in and around Van De kamps in the 60's. Most evenings their would be street racing any number of places within a few miles of the drive in. Just had to stay ahead of the police. I remember one night they made a large effort to get us and blocked Riverside Drive at both ends along the freeway and got 2 or 3 hundred people for "aiding and abetting" a speed contest. Then we moved to Forest Lawn Cemetery where the inhabitants weren't bothered as much but eventually someone turned over a SS Ford Galaxy one early AM killing the driver and that brought the heat on real bad then. BTW I may have been at Hughes parking lot as well talking with you.

 

Riverside Dr. was easily blocked off by LAPD. 2 Fwy was good as it was incomplete, Bridge to Bridge was about 1/4 Mi.. We even tried the 134 where it takes off from the 5. No traffic late at night, sure is not like that now. I got caught on Brand Bl. one night, no cars in sight except the two coppers that were sitting behind a restaurant. Sitting in Hughes was not to bad but no burgers so off to Bob’s on Colorado then back to Hughes.

 

Anyone got a good picture of the Union 76 Station that was on the corner of Sepulveda and Sana Monica Blvd in the 1940's. My Uncle Ralph ran this station around 1948 or 49 before he was drafted for the Korean War.
One of his employees was Michael Ansara (Cochise from the TV show Broken Arrow). Even after Michael started working in TV and Movies, he kept in touch with my Uncle. In 1958 he married Barbara Eden (I dream of Jennie) and on their Honeymoon trip back East they stopped in Rochester to see my Uncle.
We have been looking through his pictures but have not found any good one of the Station. It would be nice to find an old shot that I could show him.