History The History Of Los Angeles

When I was growing up in Redondo Beach it was known as Playa del Rey. In the 60's, before they fenced it off, we used to take our kids up and park at the top of the hill where you could see the airport and watch the planes take off.

Years later there would be a lot of cars parked all over those streets to watch the non-stop 747 take off from the north runway on it's way to China or Japan. I would spend my lunch hour with them because the plane was loaded with fuel and it was a sight to see it trying to get airborn over the sand dunes at the top of Playa del Rey.

 

Yeah me too. I grew up in santa monica, and that was a pretty good place to "park" in highschool, but its all fenced off. I always wondered about it too.
Thanks for the history lesson!

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FYI - the best thing about the Tam O Shanter is that it is one of the VERY few places you can still buy C.C. Brown's Hot Fudge sauce. C.C. Brown's was on Hollywood Blvd. just west of the Chinese Theater. Mr. Clifton Brown supposedly invented the Hot Fudge Sundae... either way you should pick up a jar if you are in the neighborhood.

 

Cool.

"For whatever reason, the lamp posts that line the abandoned streets still light up at night."

 

And if you listen closely late at night, you can hear the theme music from The Twilight Zone.....

 

Up until the events of 9/11 it was popular to park at the top of the hill and watch the jets take off over you from the North runways. It was cool to have a radio scanner and hear the control tower and pilots talk. Now I believe, the only access is by walking up the hill, and its not fun anymore.

 

I worked the night shift at a printing plant close to the airport. I would leave for work about 10 in the morning and take surface streets from Hollywood in my 48 Ford coupe because it burned oil (too much smoke on freeways). I would go to Playa Del Rey beach for a couple hours before work at the foot of that housing tract. People lived there then and I drove around the neighborhood thinking why would anyone want to live there with all those jets flying low overhead.

 

Hey 50!, wot a coincidence! I was born in Chicago in '38 and lived in LA in '44! went to Budlong school. I recall the hot rods baknthday! Maybe a performance shop nearby?? I do recall an aluminum foundry down the alley where us kids would sneak some aluminum castings from the seconds barrel. They made toy pistols etc. and also a casting what I would say looked like model A intake manifolds, could it have been Burns foundry??? We lived near Slauson and Vermont then.

 

Small world, 39, moved to L.A. in '41, lived on 59th and Haas. went to Horace Mann, (walked past Myer & Drake after school and watched the men building Offys) then Manual Arts. worked at Arden Farms then at Challenge
moved out of dodge in 85.

 

ha! close, I lived at 58th place, near Slauson and Normandy , yea as I recall there was some hot rods runnin around. It wasnt bad area then, I hear its the 'killing fields' now. I think all the places I lived in LA area, [80th and Fig' , then Seville near Randolf in HP] arent best areas now. I remember the Arden building, on Slauson. We moved to Riverside, there it was 'American Graffitti' all over. Worked on the Santa Fe as a locomotive fireman worked in LA some, and went down the Slauson tracks past the old stompin grounds where us kids used to put pennies on the rails.

 

Hey guys, remember these ?

 

Hollywood Bl. and Cahuenga 1953, iconic Acme Signal and Auto Club Stop Sign.

 

that stop sign might be rare or unique, desireable or even "neat" but it's not "iconic". total over used word IMO.

 

Amongst collectors, it is an Automobile Club of So. Cal. Stop Sign with glass cat eye reflectors, which puts it at one of the most desirable Stops to collect. Red reflector signs are very common but that one is not, especially with the flashing red light. The signal is an Acme Semaphore and is probably a $10,000.00 if you can find one. The route shield in back is another piece of gold to 66 collectors.

 

It is an icon of an era long gone... Making it iconic.

Delivered by a blind carrier pigeon.

 

The thread lives on as an archival glimpse into life in L.A. back in the day. Was looking at erlomd's great thread one more time and realized that this post from our resident hot rod expert (Mr. Barter) also belongs here.

 

Redondo Beach 190 just east of Flagler Lane ****Original version of
Gone in 60 Seconds - from the 1973 Independently made film
Director: H.B. Halicki - Writer: H.B. Halicki - Staring : H.B. Halicki,
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I was living in Redondo when they filmed that and when the movie was released I went to see it and was surprised that they let all those people be in the background.

 

The pictures above of the abandoned neighborhood next to LAX remind us that LAX was almost always seeking to expand from its original bean field location. This drawing from the LA County Public Library shows planned expansion in 1951. One of my father's friends was a Western Air Lines pilot and we frequently visited LAX before it was LAX -- just a couple of runways.

 

Photo of 1956 expansion

 

Dedication of Mines Field (later LAX) in 1930

 

Aerial view of Mines Field, 1930

 

In the early 60s We lived on western ave at 104th & it was on the final approach & when the fog came in it sounded like the planes were landing on the apartment. Moved down Century across from Hollywood park- much better. Went to Northrop institute in Ingelwood & could watch the planes coming in to LAX from school. Great days in the southland.

 

The original "Gone in 60 seconds" was an excellent movie, a travelogue of cities in Los Angeles, made with zero dollars and real people as actors and real cars going real fast. If you watch this movie and then compare it to what is filmed today as a modern chase sequence you will laugh yourself silly at the modern chase.

 

The cool thing is that they saved the original hangar

 

...
....Hay Bill, we lived the south side of the final approach, Del Aire, east of Aviation between Imperial & 120th ... North American Aviation owned a great deal of property on the north side of Imperial east of the airport ... they had a large employee's "Park" which we children rarely played in because Mom would not let us cross Imperial Traffic. In the summer with windows open we would hear them testing jet engines in a 90° exhaust port located at the very south east corner of the airport, it would blast for about 90 seconds or up to 3 minutes at a time ... shaking the glass in the windows !
There was a helicopter shuttle service to Disneyland which used a final approach & take-off pattern right over our house as they left the airport.
Carroll Shelby's Mustang Cobra Factory was located on Imperial west of Aviation over inside the LAX in one of the older Hangars... we would see dozens of racing striped Fords parked outside the factory as we drove to go surfing at Playa Del Rey beach.

 

Carl Breer who was one of the Three Musketeers who started Chrysler started as a native Angelino who built one of the 1st steam cars in L.A. Here he is at age 17 in 1900 with his 2 cylinder steam engine..

That car is at the Petersen...



At Chrysler later in life he was the driving force behind the Airflow... you can get a ride in an Airflow on Feb. 9th at a Where They Raced screening which is full of LA Automotive history. More info here...
http://icharry.kinja.com/where-they-raced-screening-1509292231

 

Breer was the son of a German immigrant blacksmith, and rose to become the chief engineer of Chrysler. Quite an up-by-the-bootstraps achievement!

 

Culver Speedway, 1927


Another view, Culver Speedway, 1927, original board track, long since gone

Racing at Culver Speedway



Spectators at Culver Speedway, notice that almost every man is wearing a hat, how times have changed...



Pits on the straightaway, Culver Speedway


Racing at Culver Speedway, board tracks, no roll bars or other safety equipment, pretty high fatality and injury rate...



Parking lot at Fox Movie Studio, 1928



Culver City auto races, no date, 1920s

 

Great photos. Love the Victorian flourish on the utility pole braces.