History The History Of Los Angeles

Westlake Village late 1930's

 

I would bet that's WestWOOD Village rather than WestLAKE. I remember those towers from growing up near there in the '50s.

 

Yep your right.... I hate getting old

 

Just remember... Getting older is better than not getting older.

Glad to see this thread get bumped. If you haven't read it yet, start at page one and let it all soak in. It makes LA look like some kind of a wonderfully deranged theme park.

 

I remember the ZAMBOANGA CLUB! gads in the forties, Mom an Dad used to go there, never know what ya miight see here on the HAMB. We had the ol 39 Pontiac coupe back then.

 

Came upon this link and remembered rustygem's post:

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/...arch&after=&specific=&before=&lowdate=&hidate=


Don't know if the link will bring up the photos or not. If not, just type in "ansel adams" and search.

Anyway, thought I would post the pics, but really (to me) they are no different from many already posted in the thread. But it is Ansel Adams, after all, and maybe all you professional photographers (Doug?) will find something different in them.

 

I apologize if I've posted this before, but feel like Harry's film should be part of this thread. The history he tells, bringing to life Harold Osmer's book Where They Raced, really comes close to the bullseye for the history of L.A. that we're all interested in.

If you're interested in this sort of thing (racing on the streets of L.A. back in the day), then please support Harry's effort and buy the DVD.

http://www.wheretheyraced.com/WHERE_THEY_RACED/Where_They_Raced.html

 

It isn't???

 

Yup, it is. It's also "ground zero" for the hot rodding world.
Always was, always will be.
I was very fortunate to grow up in the 50's and 60's here.
Every weekend there'd be no fewer than four drag strips or more to choose from.
Our hot rods were our "daily drivers".

 

Miss this place

 

Army camp in Lynwood, 1940, tents not very interesting, but that Willys coupe waiting to be turned into a gasser is...

 

That particular fire engine (a 1937 Amercan LaFrance) had a name, "Lulabelle". The LAFD purchased many ALF engines in 1937-1938 in a major buying spree.

Here's a better view.



The LAFD also purchased several two-piece engine company equipment, hose wagons (with no pumps) like this one:



And Duplex pumpers (dual V-12 engines each with a 1,500 GPM pump) like this one.

 

Oh sure, rub it in for us milk and cookie eat'n age group during that time

 

Glad to see your reply... After I reread my post I wondered if maybe I should have added that "I mean that in the best possible way." Turns out I didn't really need to.

 

Looking west on Hollywood Blvd, 1930


Lido Club at the Ambassador Hotel, photo from 1937, hotel demolished in 2006


Spring Street, 1896


Spring Street, around 1897



Bombing of the Los Angeles Times Bldg., 1910

 

6th street bridge, wasn't this the bridge that Otto threw up on in Repo Man?


Streetcars on Broadway, late 1930s



Richfield building, 1955, I remember this one...


7th street, 1955, Los Angeles still had street cars then

 

I'm getting into this thread kind of late, but I'm a born and bred L.A. resident (born in 1939, you can do the math).

Many folks that are not from around here may get a little confused when we discuss "Los Angeles", as there is the City of Los Angeles, and also Los Angeles County. Many towns that you might have heard of, such as Burbank, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, etc. are separate incorporated cities, and yet are still part of Los Angeles County. There are over 80 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County. To further confuse people, the city services are typically separate entities. For instance, the police services in the City of Los Angeles are handled by the LAPD. Outside of the L.A City boundaries, the police may either be handled by the L.A. County Sheriffs Office, or a police department of one of the incorporated L.A. County cities. And to make it even more confusing, some incorporated cities contract with L.A. County for services. In some cases, they even "mix and match" services. For instance, the city of Claremont has their own police force, but contracts with the L.A. County Fire Department for fire services. Some cities like Beverly Hills maintain their own fire and police departments. There is a lot of overlap on emergencies, many of the smaller communities rely on "mutual aid" agreements, especially with fire departments.

Okay, here are a few photos I have, hopefully, they are not repeats.


The corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Canyon Dr. in Beverly hills. The tracks that the Pacific Electric street cars used that ran up and down Santa Monica Blvd. also were used by some limited freight trains. It was not uncommon to see an electric powered locomotive hauling a half dozen freight cars through Hollywood (Hollywood is not a city, it is part of the City of Los Angeles).


The LAPD.


Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Santa Monica, with the Santa Monica pier in the background. The road on the left of the photo is the California Incline, which runs between Ocean Blvd. above the cliffs on the left, down to PCH. An interesting fact about the Santa Monica Pier is that it's the extreme western point of Route 66, which technically terminates at the end of the pier.


I saw some photos of this a few pages back. Pan Pacific Auditorium (on Beverly Blvd. just east of Fairfax Ave.), once the home of the yearly General Motors Motorama, as well as many other cars shows, etc. As noted earlier, the place burned down years ago. The PPA was built long before we had the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown L.A. An interesting thing about this place was that it was actually not part of the City of L.A., but rather the County of L.A., with the City of L.A. completely surrounding the area. Just a little island of L.A. County, which was one of the reasons that it burned to the ground. The nearest L.A. County Fire station (Station #8) was located about 7 miles away, on Santa Monica Blvd, while the nearest L.A. City Fire station was less than a quarter of a mile away (Station #63, on 3rd St.). It was not that the City Fire Dept. didn't respond, it was that they weren't notified for over 20 minutes, despite the reality that the City and County Fire Depts. of L.A. do have a Mutual Aid agreement. A L.A. County Fire Dept. dispatch mistake, or so I've heard (the City and County maintain separate fire dispatch centers and do not communicate on the same frequencies).

The famed Sunset Strip is also an island of L.A. County, completely surrounded by L.A. City on one side and Beverly Hills on the other side.


This cute little 16 year old girl posing on Catalina Island in the 1940's, with the Casino in the background. Catalina Island is part of Los Angeles County, despite the fact that it's about 23 miles from the mainland. By the way, the little girl was named Norma Jean Dougherty at the time of this photo. She lived on Catalina during WWII, her husband James Dougherty was serving in the Navy and was based on the island.


The happy couple. They were married for four years. James passed away in 2005, at 84.


Venice Beach. Arnold is trying to pick up a couple of local ladies...


Annette. All you need is to say her first name, and you can sprout a woodie.


Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-8-4 locomotives. As far as I'm concerned, the best looking steam locomotives ever built.

Roy Rogers. His real name was Leonard Slye. Roy was a hot rodder, had a hemi Chrysler in a 1950's Ford station wagon. I met him once on the Salt Flats. He also was into fast outboard boats, owned the company that produced the Yellow Jacket boats if I recall. Roy and Dale lived in the San Fernando Valley for a long time before moving to Apple Valley.


Another hot rodder. Clark Gable lived on a neat little ranch in Sherman Oaks during the later years of his life. I used to see him pretty often cruising through Bob's Big Boy in Burbank (actually Toluca Lake). Gable had a '55 T-Bird with a McCulloch supercharger and was not against a little street racing on Riverside Dr.


He wasn't weird back then. We were in the Fairfax High School band together; he played the drums, I played the trombone.


Nothing but cool.


Hollywood Blvd., with Graumans Chinese Theater in the background (looking west) and the street cars going up and down the street.


Graumans Chinese Theater, with the hand and footprints of "the famous" in the courtyard.


Another view about 30 years later (looking east).


Any old timer (like me) knows exactly where this oil well derrick was located. Smack dab in the middle of La Cienega Blvd., just a tick south of Beverly Blvd. This is looking north toward the Hollywood Hills.

 

I was a Lifeguard here. Puddingstone lake now Bonelli park, San Dimas

 

Great stuff, nearly all of it new to the HAMB. We are nearly contemporaries; I was born in Chicago in '40 but lived in LA from '44, and I recall much of what you have shown. Thanks for the cool stuff!

 

Pretty damn cool, George. So what if he became psychopathic in his later years, he was something of a musical genius. Wall of Sound, and all that.

And 16 year old Marilyn Monroe! How cool is that! Of all the hundreds of photos of her I've seen, have never seen that one.

Tremendous contribution to the thread, please keep them coming!

 

Someone posted this photo earlier.


A great shot of the Casino in the town of Avalon, Catalina Island, and the seaplane, of course. To the right in the photo you can see the Hotel St. Catherine. Definitely a shi-shi-la-la place for the wealthy. It was torn down long ago but it was still there (although not in use) when I first visited the island with my folks (1946). The Navy took it over during WWII, to house their personnel, and to my knowledge, it was never used by the public again.


I think this place was originally built in 1915.


And then there were the famous "Miss Catalina" speedboats. They were originally powered by Liberty V-12 aircraft engines. They were used to take paying guests out to greet the steamers when they were coming in to Avalon.



Al Bombard designed and built the “Miss Catalina” series of six boats to an odd length of 29 feet, 11 inches for a specific reason. Back in the day, the US Coast Guard regulations required all passenger-carrying vessels 30 feet and over to be inspected and certified, so Bombard and the Catalina Speedboat Company built the boats one inch shorter.



Miss Catalina VI is alive and well at Lake Tahoe, CA, having been restored and converted for private use, and also repowered with a more efficient (meaning getting better mileage) engine.

I still visit Catalina once or twice a year. I love the place.


Probably the most well known building on the island. Even though it's called a casino, there is no gambling inside. It was built many years ago as a place for people to dance. It's primarily a big dance hall.


I mean a BIG dance hall. Music was provided by the big bands of the era, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, etc.


My photo doesn't do the entrance to the Casino justice. Beautiful tile work. They still hold dances in the Casino, and a lot of wedding receptions.


And they have a pretty spiffy movie theater inside, too.




The dance floor set up for dinner and dancing.

The whole place is really a step back in time, a work of art.

I took this photo from Wrigley's house. William Wrigley, the chewing gum king once owned the entire island. He used to bring his ball club (The Chicago Cubs) to the island for spring training every year, so he could keep an eye on them. He lived on the top of a hill. I think it's a bed and breakfast place now.


Nice view of the harbor...


...and the town of Avalon.


The Wrigley mansion.


This used to be Zane Grey's home.


Nice view from his dump, too.


A better perspective. I have gone to Catalina on every conceivable mode of water craft, sail boat, the "big white steamers", V-drive ski boats (not recommended), and even (when I was young and dumb), a 16-foot Hobie Cat. The Catalina Flyer out of Balboa is the ONLY way I go there anymore.

I'm into big and fast and comfortable these days, and this cat is the way to go.

 

Here are a few more photos and then I'm done with Catalina Island.


The main street in Avalon, Crescent Ave. No motor vehicles permitted.

Hasn't changed that much since the first time I was there.


The St. Lauren Hotel. Home away from home for me if I want to get out of Dodge for a couple of days.


My girlfriend likes the view, too.


The Catalina Flyer anchored in the harbor. One trip over from the mainland in the morning, and one trip back in the afternoon.


The Flyer tied up in her home port, Balboa Island, Newport, CA. She can take 500 passengers per trip. 118-feet long and 40-feet wide in the beam. Twin Cat V-16 3516 diesels, one in each hull. 4,210 cubic inches and 2,200 horsepower each. The boat is rated for 27-knots per hour in normal cruise, but I've been on her at 35-knots.




Once out in the open ocean, they turn up the wick. If you are near the transom, you had better hold on to something, it can be an E-Ticket ride when the channel gets choppy. If you like to ride in the open deck on the top and pretend you are in a 118-foot ski boat, don't wear your hat, if you ever want to see it again.

In this photo, you can just barely make out the mainland behind the boat.

 

the scuba diveing there is awesome ,my first wife and I at 30ft .great place to go

 

I agree, a wonderful place to get out of LA and bliss out for a few days. I've been there by most of the same means of transport that you've used, minus ski boat and Hobie Cat, but plus DC-3, seaplane, hydrofoil, and gaff-rigged schooner. I saw the speedboats back in the '40s, but never rode in one.

I imagine that maybe 1% of tourists to LA take the time to go to Avalon for a night or two, and those who don't, don't know what they're missing.

 

This is a pretty neat thread, I hate to let it die off. I wish I had more to contribute but..............it is about "history" and it is about "Los Angeles", so how about some photos of some historical LAFD fire apparatus?


1923 Seagrave aerial - wooden aerial ladder with hand crank to raise it up.


1926 Seagrave hose wagon. The LAFD loved those big "fireboat size" monitors on all their hose wagons.


1929 American La France triple.


1936 American La France wooden aerial, with hand crank to raise the stick.


1938 American La France hose wagon


Another view. Powered by the ALF V-12 engine. The transverse hose beds contained nothing smaller than 2 1/2" hose.


1938 ALF water tower. It was used very sparingly by the LAFD. Twice it put so much water into the upper floors of a 4 and 6 story (respectfully) "high rise" that the buildings collapsed.


1938 Seagrave hose wagon, same specs as the ALF hose wagons.


1938 ALF City Service truck. Lots of ladders, but no aerial.


1938 Seagrave aerial, Truck 3, the pride of the department.


1938 ALF Duplex pumper. An V-12 engine and pump in the front, and another V-12 and pump in the rear. These pumpers ran as a 2-piece engine company with the hose wagons.


A typical engine company in the commercial areas of L.A., "back in the day", when an engine company had a 7 man crew plus an officer.

Another view of the Duplex pumper.


Are you ready for the water? Ok, here come the water...



1943 Kenworth tractor, 1923 Seagrave aerial


1943 Kenworth triple, powered by Hall-Scott straight-6 engines.


1944 ALF aerial truck.


1946 Seagrave aerial truck.


1955 Seagrave aerial


1985 Seagrave aerial truck.

 

Here's one of the ALF hose wagons at work. The smallest hose in the transverse beds was 2 1/2-inch. If you wanted smaller than that, you used the hose real (the hose wagons carried only about 200 gallons of water, for car fires or trash cans).


1938 ALF triple. The ALF hose wagon/Duplex pumper combination proved very popular in the commercial areas, but generally not very practical in the residential areas. So the LAFD purchased a bunch of these triple combination pumper/hose wagons with plenty of 1 3/4" hose and a 500 gallon water tank. Rigs like this operated as a single engine company.


Another view.


One of these ALF triples still resides in the LAFD Museum in Hollyweird...

 

I know this is a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone recognises these dealer tags/licence plate surrounds on my 37 Dodge coupe or would have any old pics of these L.A dealerships? I have searched high and dry thru this thread,google etc to find info on these mopar shops. I am particularly interested in the Valentine - Pelton Beverly Hills tag as it looks to be original 1937...anyone heard of these places in LA?

 

From post #7. This Mobile station is still there! The windows are covered over, it is still automotive.
https://maps.google.com/maps?num=10...F-8&ei=8fOCUvDrDsTD2AWd8IDoDg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg