This is from Marta, Act 2: Last Rose of Summer, 1847. It's beautiful. "Letzte Rose (The Last Rose of Summer)" (Qui sola vergin rosa) (Harriet, later with Lyonel).
Circa 1925 The Plaza Church on Main Street across from the Plaza and Olvera Street. Behind the streetcar is the Hotel Pacific, the office of Philip Morici & Company, "Agencia Italiana," and the grocery store of Giovanni Piume, who also made wine (Piuma Road in Malibu was named for him.) The area north of the Plaza was at this time an Italian neighborhood.
What impressed me about this photo is the caption that says that the area north of the Plaza was at this time an Italian neighborhood and that got me to thinking about the different Italian businesses over there, like Little Joe's, San Antonio Winery, and the the Italian neighborhoods over by Lincoln High School. I had an Italian lunch one time with Dad at the San Antonio Winery. The tables were decorated with checkered red-and-white cloth, and a candle in a Chianti bottle. Dean Martin's "That's Amore" was playing, and I got to enjoy an exclusive hour with my father, one of the few members of the family who enjoyed talking about the past to give me a glimpse of his times, as he put it, the best days.
I will never forget the feeling as a kid driving along the 101 through and along the row of eucalyptus how comforting they were to me, like a row of sentries protecting our way.
This might be the best shot of that intersection at Figueroa and Sunset in Los Angeles. That gas station, I believe, is a Gilmore Gasol, where Tom Donovan's old Texaco station used to be in the 1960s.
Caption reads, "(1924) View looking east toward the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Figueroa Street. A Gilmore service station can be seen on the NE corner. The Orsini Apartment Complex is now situated at this site."
Note the street-level Silverwoodsbill board on the east side of the Gilmore Gasol property. Silverwoods is where Dad used to shop for clothes in their store on Lake Avenue in Pasadena.
Built in 1935, this Art Deco gas station was designed by R.J. Kadow, and was one of the original service stations for the Gilmore Oil Company. The Gilmore family is a longtime Los Angeles institution, having acquired the Rancho La Brea in the mid 19th century. In the early 20th century, oil discoveries on Gilmore land brought about a new fortune in petroleum. The Gilmore family went on to establish Farmer’s Market (HCM #543), which was built alongside the original Gilmore Adobe. They also established the Gilmore Bank, built Gilmore Field for the Hollywood Stars, a minor league baseball team, and also sponsored midget race cars on a small race track. Both the field and the racetrack were later replaced by CBS Television Central. The Gilmore Station itself remained with the company until its merger with Mobile Oil in the 1940s. The station was later leased by Texaco, and today serves as a hand-car-wash facility and movie set.
Mark Lawrence points out that the LA County Hall of Justice in the foreground [built in 1925 is unmistakable]; the Federal Building and Courthouse are in the background.
1962 - Looking westerly over Santa Ana Fwy (US-101) at Alameda St near Union Station (right). Civic center buildings are prominent in center-right background (Water & Power Assoc photo).
At that time, US-101 changed its name to Hollywood Fwy at Spring St. Today most consider that name change occurring at the Harbor Fwy/Arroyo Seco Pkwy (CA-110) four level interchange.
Taix French Restaurant (left center) closed this location on Commercial St in 1964 and is now located on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park.
By 1963, the Hollywood Freeway was a symbol of Los Angeles’ embrace of modern infrastructure and the automobile era. Stretching through the city, it connected downtown to Hollywood and beyond, reducing travel times for commuters and visitors. The freeway was lined with landmarks and offered glimpses of the surrounding hills and iconic skyline. While traffic occasionally slowed, the freedom of the open road symbolized the city’s growth and ambition. The Hollywood Freeway became an essential part of LA’s identity, representing its sprawling, car-centric culture.
The first time I heard the song was probably 2005, 2006 and I absolutely loved it. And I had been trying to find a recording of it since. It's just that the radio announcer, probably Chuck Niles, on KKJZ, 88.1 in Long Beach pronounced the guy's name as Devereaux, or at least that's what I heard. I didn't hear Bob Dorough. Anyway, finally found it after all these years.
I loved this shot because it captures those years the way that I had imagined them. I mean back in the '60s, I used to go Rams games with my dad and cousin and before the game we'd be in the parking lot holding a small tailgate party, eating burritos and guzzling pop from Pedro's on Del Mar in San Gabriel.
1950, Looking towards downtown LA from where the San Bernadino and Santa Ana freeways merge today, showing streetcars and Gasometers (Gas Holders) that once were prevalent throughout the city.
for more Gasometers around Los Angeles, check these out. I know I linked to some earlier this year. Thanks to Jack Feldman for the pic above. He has others.
1950, View looking west on Aliso Street toward the Civic Center. Three extremely large natural gas holders stand in proximity to the Friedman Bag Company and Brew 102, with City Hall in the background. This photo was taken just a couple of years prior to the construction of the 101 Freeway where Aliso Street is seen above.
Dad used to buy his clothes at Silverwood's. There was one location of Silverwood's on Lake Avenue in Pasadena. I still have a sweater of Dad's that he bought at Silverwoods, a sweater and a tie or two.
The caption to this pic reads,
Corner view of Silverwood's at Broadway and 6th. Striped awnings cover the sidewalk, ca. 1905. Signs read "F. B. Silverwood, hatter and furnisher", "Home of Silverwood's Office Boy", and "Silverwood's $3.00 hats". Kremer Hardware Co. is next door and the sign on the building in the background reads "Los Angeles Gas & Electric Fixture Mfg. Co." Streetcar electrical lines hover over the street. A street light is on the corner. Source: LAPL
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of a Silverwoods clothing store in downtown LA. This one is the Silverwoods I think of whenever I see the name. Opening in 1929, it was in the Wilshire Tower Building at 5522 Wilshire Blvd, on the southeast corner of Burnside Ave. That neon sign is really quite striking when lit up at night, both on the corner and at the top of the tower. I wasn’t familiar with the other name in the sign. According to Wikipedia, Hart Schaffner & Marx made ready-to-wear clothes for men dating back to 1872 Chicago. Thank you to Martin Turnbull.
These shots are 11 years apart, and almost the exact same scene with a few exceptions.
One, they've removed the wind-blown tree, revealing more of the shack with the red roof.
Two, they've removed the white fence and replaced it with a chainlink fence.
Three, the S.S. Lane Victory ship has also been moved. In the pic with the blown tree, you can see the S.S. Victory Lane in the background. In the top photo, you don't see it because it's been moved to Berth 52.
1956, The Mountain starring Spenser Tracey and Robert Wagner. In this movie, Spencer Tracy's character falls to his death due to a younger man's error.
1966, Last Train to Clarksville, The Monkees. This is an alternate version of the original music video. Again, the content is totally unrelated to the message and meaning of the song. This is ANOTHER version. Has footage of a locomotive but it doesn't crash; nor is there any plane that crashes or scenes of the Monkees monkeying around on the beach.
It's amazing how many disaster movies or were or that I saw growing up it's it started with the Monkees' music video The Last Train to Clarksville and in that music video there's plenty of imagery where a train is crashing or a train is running off the tracks and falling off a bridge there is another image where there's a plane crashing so you have all these objects in the music video that represent Mobility and they're crashing and some might say that the video or the song is an indictment of young men going off to war in Vietnam but and and dying in Vietnam but it's it's really about young people's choices and you know what they decide to do they have to be wary of crashing.
This version of The Last Train to Clarksville has all the macabre and disaster imagery that no young man should ever see. The video opens with 3 people looking to their left, to our right, standing behind a large crow, that is more scavenger than it is a bird of prey. They do prey on smaller animals, like toads, mice, insects, etc. That's the opening scene. I don't know what movie the scene is taken from.
At the 00:05 mark, a locomotive appears, referencing the Last Train to Clarksville, so we're at least in the ballpark in terms of the visual matching the content of the song and its lyrics.
At 00:09, the Monkees are seen riding horses on a carousel while playing their song. What's the carousel mean? Why the carousel? Their lives seem to be going round and round, no direction? A critique of middle-class suburban lifestyles?
At the 00:19 mark, a self-made glider made of cardboard it appears is flying off the train bridge passing over a body of water. The plane crashes into the sink. So that's our first destructive image. It's not a hang glider. It's not a glider. It's not a commercial plane or a bi-plane, but a craft made of cardboard that doesn't take flight except to descend into the abyss.
At 00:25, Davey Jones is seen talking to a young woman, a scene that reflects the lyrics,
'Cause I'm leavin' in the morning And I must see you again We'll have one more night together 'Til the morning brings my train
Then it's back to the carousel, then back to the locomotive crossing on the trellis, spewing black smoke.
At the 00:30 mark, a cliff is shown. The camera pans down the cliff to show its height and depth. Then a glider falls off the cliff. So the planes and flying objects are in different stages of development, of first attempts at flying or fleeing from the nest, from parents, an experience already fraught with anxiety and excitement. And yet here the video traumatizes that prospect by presenting images of doom.
00:34 Falling off that cliff is a glider. It's empty which serves more of a symbol than anything else. No one is in it. We see no one push it off the cliff. Just the glider dropping onto the rocks below.
At 00:46, we see a man wearing ice skates in the snow with a jetpack on his back. And the jet pack has been lit and he is in the middle of being propelled. But the rocket on his back misfires. Then it does fire, and he loses his balance and drops onto the ice.
At 1:03, we have the Monkees riding a dune buggy on the beach, directly in front of the waves.
At 1:08, the Monkees are seen riding in a souped-up V-8 purple monster car that looks like the 1970s HotRod Monster Purple People Eater.
1:16 Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork are riding unicycles next to each other, Peter holding the receiver to his ear and Mike holding the phone, riding parallel with each other. The unicycles have training wheels as you can see in the next scene. Meaning? They're starting out solo. And it's a red phone, like a hotline to someone important.
1:20 All four Monkees are seen riding unicycles with training wheels all in a line. So they're on their own but with each other.
1:32 We find the Monkees riding motorcycles, something a little more powerful than a unicycle. So they're developing, picking up speed, and independence.
1:37 It's back to the carousel.
1:39 The first Umbrella Helicopter from 1920 made its bow. But the machine doesn't take flight. It simply goes up and down, bouncing up and down, but going nowhere. See the 00:46 mark in the video below. The narrator in the video calls it an undergrown carousel. So they're looking for any machine that can give them safe flight to their future.
1:40 The next image is of a flying machine made of a blimp combined with a bike called a Peddle-Powered Blimp that never gets off the ground. Wasn't able to find that earlier model, but was able to find a modern analog. It was called a Flying Sausage.
1:42 Multi-wing airplane with 12 wings being pushed along until it crumbles and collapses Early failed flight invention on January 01, 1915. The following video is from Google.
1975, The first movie I saw outside of the house that was a disaster was the movie The Other Side of the Mountain. And I don't even like the title of the movie, which refers to an incident occurring on the other side of the mountain, but because it's on the other side you and no one else can see it though you know what happened. It's trauma-based psychology.
the second one that I saw was a movie called Joanie J O N I was in 1979 and again that's about a young girl who dives off of a small pier in a lake and she dives into the shallow and she hits her head and she destroys her spinal column and his crippled.
When I was a boy, my dad would stop at this church in Pasadena on Hill Street directly across from PCC, called St. Philip The Apostle. He'd park against the curb in front and run in and pick up a Tidings, dab his finger in the Holy Water, enter quietly into the apex and kneel at the back to make his quiet, sacred prayers to his mother, father, and sister. I don't know why he picked this church. And he didn't stop here often. But he certainly was compelled when he was in the neighborhood.
Did he attend mass here? I can't recall. He may have lit a votive candle if they were available. But he mostly stopped here on off hours, either just after a Saturday morning mass or stopping in mid-afternoon on our way home from the Police Academy. Regardless of when or what he stopped for, the occasion was always reverent and sacred. Was a friend, relative, or workmate married here? Was someone he knew baptized here?
I think my dad loved the Catholic Church, the history of the church, the personal lives of the Saints and their histories, but I think what was a challenge was answering the call to a sacred life in modern times. I don't think he was a fan of business accounting. He could do plenty of calculations in his head. He often worked a second job on Saturdays delivering for Good Will at least a few times that I recall. 1960s and 1970s inflation being what they were, he relied on charge cards--the Sears card, Montgomery Ward card, the Texaco card, and others. Two of his biggest accomplishments were, one, paying off his mortgage, and, two, paying off the balance on his Sears card.
But how could he reconcile the days of undeveloped days of 1930s Los Angeles, where his dad worked construction and drove a truck in the building of Los Angeles' art deco City Hall in 1932? He wanted the love and adoration of saints in beautiful raiment as opposed to the tactless communist garb.
ut the old days going back to his days and his father's days but also going back to the to the lives of the Saints that was that was his world to be to live out there be part of that history not a modern history not the 1960s you know where the craziness was competing for attention from of all of his kids
This is definitely a fond memory. The shots are taken from 1973, so a few years before we started riding here. Went riding here first with Chuck, so thank you Chuck for showing this place to us. Rode here once with Mike Larkin. Another time with girlfriends, K. Braidhill and Carmela Denton. Was fun. Trail was a bit laboring for the ponies. They had to climb the hill right out of the gate. Had some terrific views of the valleys and foothills and I believe also of the Hollywood sign.
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