IMAGERY – The Celery Merchants of Venice
You might not know this… but Venice, California was once a landscape of fields called “The Venice Celery District.”
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEWS
Photograph of the ideal field of summer celery in the Venice Celery District, just before applying blanching paper, April 12, 1927. The rows of thick leaves of the celery plants form a congested square at center with a dark irrigation ditch in the foreground. A darker field lies on the far edge of the celery field on the right while another field lies on the far left. Hills stand in the background on the right while electrical poles spot a clearing of grass in the background on the left. “Note the regularity of the plant foliage.” (more…)
IMAGERY – The Los Angeles Wheelmen
Angelenos have had a passion for bicycling for longer than you might think. The image below was taken in Boyle Heights in 1893, about ten years after the bicycle chain was invented. Reformed in 1945, the Los Angeles Wheelmen bicycle riding club is still going strong, with multiple rides every week. There are far more than eleven members now. And don’t worry, I doubt they’re still wearing that fancy uniform. :)
The club’s ride schedule is here.
From their site:
“We are a group of bicyclists who enjoy the pleasure of riding with friends. We are not a racing club, and we welcome members of all abilities. We offer easier, moderate and difficult rides. We hold some multi-day trips, and in late June we offer the Grand Tour, a 24-hour ride of 120+, 200, 300 or 400 miles. At our social events, we make up for all the calories burned while riding. Our monthly newsletter, “The Gooseneck,” contains a descriptive ride schedule and much other news. Newcomers are welcome to try a few of our rides before deciding whether to join. Helmets are mandatory on all rides.”
CLICK ON PHOTO FOR LARGER VIEW
Photographic portrait of the 11 Los Angeles Wheelmen posing as a group in cadet type uniforms at the East Side (Boyle Heights) track, October 3, 1893. “The Los Angeles wheelmen on the track include, left to right, standing — Jack Winters, John S. Thayer, Faye Stefenson, Phil Kitchen, W.J. Allen, E.S. Pauly, Tracy Hugh Rall, W.A. Tufts, and Walter Tyler; seated — Lord Gattensbury, A.D. Cummings, and Ernest Steuart, Paully.”
IMAGERY – Buying The Lakers
The Lakers’ franchise was founded in Detroit Michigan in 1946. Upon moving to Minneapolis, the team got its official title from the state’s nickname, “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” After thirteen years, on April 28, 1960, attorney and trucking magnate Bob Short announced that the failing Minneapolis Lakers team would be moving to Los Angeles.
Below is a photograph of a deposit check written by Bloomingdale heir Alfred S. Bloomingdale in an attempt to purchase the team from Short for $700,000. Although this offer was refused, in 1962 Bloomingdale purchased 29% of the Lakers while Short still kept the majority share. The club was later sold to Jack Kent Cooke for $5 million in 1965.
“Letters and check, 3 April 1961. Negatives show a copy of an offer to buy the Los Angeles Lakers basketball club; Also a check for $100,000.00.”
CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR LARGER VIEW
The letter reads:
March 15, 1961
Mr. Alfred Bloomingdale
900 North LaCienega Boulevard
Los Angeles 46, CaliforniaDear Mr. Bloomingdale:
Thank you for your letter of March 7. We are complimented to learn of your interest in the Los Angeles Lakers.
Your offer was carefully considered by those who hold a majority of the outstanding stock of the Corporation. Their position has not changed. The Lakers are not for sale. In the event that we are of a different mind at a later date, you will be contacted.
Your check is herewith returned. Thank you for your interest.
Sincerely,
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
R. Short
President
IMAGERY – The Old Chinatown Blacksmith, 1899
CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW AT A LARGER SIZE 
Photographic portrait of “The Old Chinatown Blacksmith” in Chinatown, ca.1899. The blacksmith is at center and is dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. He is standing to the left of a brick building with several doors and windows in it, as well as a large key painted on it. There are awnings covering the walkway where the man is standing. There is another man walking in the background; he is dressed in Western clothes, including a jacket and hat.
Photographic portrait of “The Old Chinatown Blacksmith” in Chinatown, ca.1899. The blacksmith is at center and is dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. He is standing to the left of a brick building with several doors and windows in it, as well as a large key painted on it. There are awnings covering the walkway where the man is standing. There is another man walking in the background; he is dressed in Western clothes, including a jacket and hat.
QUIZ – What Lies Beneath #6
WOW. You guys are on the ball today! The full answer is after the jump. :)
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Well, we were a bit busy last week so we fell a little behind on our quizzes… but we’ll try to make up for it now. :)
You regular readers should know how this game works by now… it all starts when we show you a spot on a google map (see below) and tell you that we’re thinking of a reason this particular area is notable. Then you start to guess what that reason might be. Within 24 hours we’ll give you the full details… but as always, you have a nice amount of time to guess what we’re referring to first, we encourage you not to cheat by googling the address and we also ask that if you know the answer right away please try not to announce it too quickly and ruin the game for those who might not.
And with that little refresher course… it’s guessing time! No hints today, either.
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IMAGERY – Easter Sunrise, 1938
1938 Easter Sunrise Services at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW
Have a wonderful Sunday…
whether Jesus and bunnies are involved or not! :)
RIP – Jaime Escalante
UPDATE: Jaime Escalante passed away from cancer on March 30, 2010.
This article is a repost from July 2009.
HiddenLA’s HOT Angeleno of the Day: JAIME ESCALANTE!!!
Our HOT Angeleno feature was created to prove a point and counter the perception that we’re all shallow dimwits here. Knowing this, normally this is about the time I’d make silly jokes about whether or not the accomplished person being profiled has rock-hard abs – just to be a smart ass. Today I’ll refrain from the silliness out of respect for the subject, though. Jaime Escalante was born in Chochabamba, Bolivia, where he began teaching physics and mathematics. In 1964 he decided to find a new life for himself in America, although he spoke no english and had no valid American teaching credentials. He began to go to night school at Pasadena City and CSULA, and in 1974 was hired to teach basic math at Garfield High in East LA. His students were disrespectful, unprepared and uninterested. He considered giving up teaching, but over time his incredible educational and motivational skills as a teacher ended up turning around a low-priority public high school as he single-handedly built a calculus program rivaled by only a few well-funded private academies. His teaching style and students’ accomplishments were the focus of the 1988 movie Stand And Deliver.
So THAT’S why he’s our Hot Angeleno today. But unfortunately, the story of Jaime Escalante didn’t play out as happily as the movie, which is why I won’t joke about his abs. It just doesn’t feel respectful, and he deserves to be honored. Bureaucracy and office politics aside, for our own sakes we need to embrace our passionate and caring educators and leaders instead of underpay them, knock them down and drive them away.
*To see a great video of Jaime discussing his love for teaching, scroll down after the jump.* (more…)
IMAGERY – Passover Seder, March 1928
Photo of a Seder service at the Hebrew Sheltering
Home for the Aged in Los Angeles, ca.1928
“Jewry to celebrate festival! — A typical Seder service at the Hebrew Sheltering Home for the Aged in this city. This Jewish festival will be held at the home next Thursday night, with many prominent Hebrew residents of the city in attendance. This symbolic dinner is one of the features of the Passover holiday” — Examiner clipping attached to verso, dated, “Mar 31, 1928″ Image ©USC Digital Archive
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW 
According to an April 2003 LA Times article:
“Today, as Jews prepare to observe Passover… Southern California has the nation’s second-largest Jewish population (currently over 650,000). By contrast, the overwhelmingly Catholic pueblo of Los Angeles of 1854 had fewer than 200 Jewish residents and no kosher bakery or butcher shop. A lay rabbi slaughtered animals, carefully observing rabbinic laws, so that Jews might have kosher meat. The aroma of matzo — unleavened bread — wafted from a bakery owned and run by a Catholic. In the hinterlands — the Gold Country of Northern California or the outlying reaches of Southern California — men were often the ones who prepared the Passover seder because there were no women around.
“Despite such accommodations to necessity, historians say a common thread of faith and tradition is woven through the fabric of Jewish history in the West.”
“Today, as Jews prepare to observe Passover… Southern California has the nation’s second-largest Jewish population (currently over 650,000). By contrast, the overwhelmingly Catholic pueblo of Los Angeles of 1854 had fewer than 200 Jewish residents and no kosher bakery or butcher shop. A lay rabbi slaughtered animals, carefully observing rabbinic laws, so that Jews might have kosher meat. The aroma of matzo — unleavened bread — wafted from a bakery owned and run by a Catholic. In the hinterlands — the Gold Country of Northern California or the outlying reaches of Southern California — men were often the ones who prepared the Passover seder because there were no women around.
“Despite such accommodations to necessity, historians say a common thread of faith and tradition is woven through the fabric of Jewish history in the West.”
IMAGERY – Olvera Street Market Salesman, 1938
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW 
“In the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Paseo de Los Angeles – later referred to as Olvera Street – was created through the efforts of Christine Sterling and the City Boosters in the oldest section of the city. Olvera Street was an imagined Mexican Landscape not unlike the renowned tourist districts of Mexican border cities (Arreola and Curtis 1993). The theme was “Old Mexico,” pitting a timeless, romantic, homogenous Spanish-Mexican culture against industrialization, immigration, urban decay and modernity itself. The street featured rows of curio shops, house museums, and Mexican eateries staffed by costumed Mexican merchants. As a constructed place, Olvera Street was the product of a social and economic agenda established by civic elites to transform downtown Los Angeles through the removal of undesirable residents. The opening of Olvera Street and the preservation of the old Plaza also popularized an emerging creation mythology for Anglo Los Angeles stemming from the defeat of Mexican forces in 1847, a heroic birth legend in which Sterling emerged as a symbolic mother figure and guardian of the city’s birthplace.”
“In the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Paseo de Los Angeles – later referred to as Olvera Street – was created through the efforts of Christine Sterling and the City Boosters in the oldest section of the city. Olvera Street was an imagined Mexican Landscape not unlike the renowned tourist districts of Mexican border cities (Arreola and Curtis 1993). The theme was “Old Mexico,” pitting a timeless, romantic, homogenous Spanish-Mexican culture against industrialization, immigration, urban decay and modernity itself. The street featured rows of curio shops, house museums, and Mexican eateries staffed by costumed Mexican merchants. As a constructed place, Olvera Street was the product of a social and economic agenda established by civic elites to transform downtown Los Angeles through the removal of undesirable residents. The opening of Olvera Street and the preservation of the old Plaza also popularized an emerging creation mythology for Anglo Los Angeles stemming from the defeat of Mexican forces in 1847, a heroic birth legend in which Sterling emerged as a symbolic mother figure and guardian of the city’s birthplace.”
Excerpted from Los Angeles’ Old Plaza and Olvera Street: Imagined and Contested Space, by William D. Estrada © 1999
FLASHBACK – Our Town Today, circa 1944
Stay on the job and finish the job, Los Angeles!
From the book The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Diego:
In early 1944, fearing a labor shortage, the Citizens Manpower Committee of Los Angeles staged a drive to induce war workers to “Stay on the Job.” The Committee took advantage of the great Army and Navy show at the Los Angeles Coliseum to stress the need for housing. Like so many other institutions in the area, the Los Angeles Coliseum was built by city boosters. It arose in 1923 and was increased in size in order to lure the 1932 Olympics to that city. The Coliseum well illustrates the kind of hubris that Los Angeles’s detractors cite, but it also gave the homefront popularizers of the war effort a magnificent urban space in which to persuade defense workers to “Finish the Job” and landlords to keep renting to transients. (more…)
IMAGERY – Poor Mrs. Pauline Paulson
CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VIEWS OF POOR MRS. PAULSON’S SUFFERING 
On the glorious evening of March 10th, 1952, after watching her beloved film favorites depart the Hollywood Pantages Theater (where the 1952 Oscar ceremonies were held), 80-year-old grandmother Pauline Paulsen fell in between the rows of bleachers and was rushed to Hollywood Receiving Hospital. Ouch!!! Sure looks like Pauline is the star of the show in this shot! (more…)
SERIES – Dr. George Shows Us The Newsroom, 1990
Curious to see what some of our long-standing local news anchors were really like twenty years ago? Well, here ya go. Looks like Dallas Raines was only *half* as orange!
I have to say in all seriousness that I miss Dr. George, though…
“This is Part 1 of a 5 part Mini-Doc series done by Dr. George Fischbeck, entitled “How We Do The News”. It shows all the behind-the-scenes work it takes to put a newscast on the air. The year was 1990, and you can see all the archaic equipment we all had to work with — which was “Top of the line” for that day. Enjoy the telecast from Eyewitness News on KABC Channel 7 here in Los Angeles.”
FLASHBACK – The Chicano Moratorium of 1970
On August 29, 1970, the Chicano Moratorium against the war in Vietnam was held in East L.A.
Loyola-Marymount film student Tom Myrdahl shot this documentary, capturing the events that unfolded as law enforcement and protesters clashed in and around Laguna Park. This film has not been seen in nearly 40 years. Tom, who is still a working cameraman in Los Angeles, is putting this historic film on the web as a tribute to the brave citizens of East L.A. who came together 40 years ago to voice their dissent against the Vietnam War.
IMAGERY – Barbecuing in Montrose, Feb. 22, 1913
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Photograph(s) of an aerial view of a promotional land sale barbeque in Montrose near Glendale, February 22, 1913. A group of automobiles and horse-drawn carriages are parked at the center of a clearing, while pedestrians walk around towards the barbeque tables pictured in the left distance where a small shack can be seen to the side of a dirt road, and in the right foreground, surrounded by temporary fence. A road lined by utility poles curves behind the gathering from the left of the frame towards the mountains in the background, with an even smaller second shack stands near piles of gravel. A sign near the dirt road reads “Montrose Holmes-Walton Realtor Co.”
Images ©USC Digital Library
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HOOD – Laurel & Hardy’s Culver City
“Many scenes in the Hal Roach comedies were shot on the streets of Culver City. The brilliant designer and pop culture historian Piet Schreuders creates a computer model of Culver City as it looked in the 20’s – and matches-in scenes from Laurel and Hardy comedies that were shot on site.”
I saw this a few years ago and it just blew me away. The amount of loving and precise effort this one man put into matching up the scenery is so impressive. Unfortunately, some of it isn’t subtitled, but it doesn’t really matter.
For a 13-page PDF of background about this clip, click here.
LOCAL TV – I’ll Have What Fred Rated Was Having
If you aren’t an old school Southern Californian, the next sentence will mean nothing to you, but here goes. Fred Rated and I once celebrated our shared birthday together. I was working my night job at the time and he just happened to show up so we birthday bonded with each other for a few magical moments. Basically, he partied with his friends while I pretended not to be geeking out. If current tv commercials were half as creative as those old drug trip Federated spots, I wouldn’t fast forward through everything on my DVR.
He now stays behind the scenes as the voice of the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, but decades ago our local airwaves were under attack by actor/radio dj Shadoe Stevens (Terry Ingstad) and his frenetic alter ego, a hyperactive electronics pitchman in a Miami Vice suit. From Stevens’ web site:
“In the 1980’s, Shadoe Stevens was retained to devise an advertising strategy and branding campaign for a 14 store electronics chain known as the Federated Group. He created and played a character named Fred Rated in a series of commercials that were a mix of Saturday Night Live and Monty Python. Over a period of six years, he and a small team of artists created over 1,200 different commercials.”
Now let’s read that again… IN SIX YEARS, SIX PEOPLE CREATED 1,200 FRED RATED COMMERCIALS. Chew on that for a second. (more…)
FLASHBACK – War on the Sunset Strip, Daddio!
Original post 10/19/09
The google video embed directly below is being inexplicably temperamental, so if the video doesn’t play for you, please click here to view it directly on google.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3472800140109729771
This eight minute video shows the culture clash cç one of the Sunset Strip curfew riots (AKA the “LA hippie riots”), a series of crowd control confrontations which occurred in the mid 1960s to early 1970s between insubordinate hippies and angry grown-ups (via the LAPD). Basically, the kids weren’t big on authority… and authority didn’t like that the kids weren’t big on authority. Soooo, drama ensued.
You know how it is… the Man’s always trying to keep us down!!!
Anyhoo, as a little treat… after the jump, please enjoy Hollywood’s far more entertaining and groovy take on these same crazy hoodlum youngsters of our city’s past… behold a few scenes from the 1967 film, Riot on The Sunset Strip.
Can you dig it? I knew that you could! (more…)
FLASHBACK – The Exuberant Zest of WW2 SoCal
I’m not sure how many of the Japanese Americans who were relocated into local internment camps (or their descendants) would’ve considered it a “minor incident” of World War 2… but hey, those people could write their own dagnabbed newsreels! Um, or not.
“This video (part two, which focuses on local character, is after the jump) looks at what the future might be for California after World War II ends. Would there be enough jobs given the rapid population growth that was occurring? What industries might take up the slack when military spending ended? The post-WW2 Cold War was not foreseen. References are made to opportunities for trade with Russia and China. Nuclear energy – surprisingly – is seen as an alternative to hydro (and this is before Hiroshima.) The movie industry is recognized as important for the future. References are made to prewar social movements such as EPIC and the Ham & Eggs pension scheme and religious movements.”
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AWESOME – Frasier the Sensuous Lion
People often ask me how I choose the subjects of my posts. It’s a tough question to answer… often I’ll start working on a post, only to find that by following random links I’m led completely off topic to discover something that’s much more interesting than the original article I had in mind. This is one of those times. So, for the curious, here’s how this post happened: while doing research for a future article on the old Marineland, childhood memories of long-gone Lion Country Safari (1970-1984) distracted me. The quick google search that followed led me to the story of Frasier the Sensuous Lion, shown in all of his sexy glory below.
It was this paragraph on the Yesterland website that jumped out at me: 
“Lion Country Safari was given a big boost by an unlikely star attraction. An elderly, nearly toothless lion named Frasier came from a Mexican circus in February 1971. The old cat’s tongue dangled from one side of his mouth, and he had trouble walking. He may not have been much to look at as far as we humans were concerned, but the lionesses saw him differently. There was population boom of lion cubs at the park. Frasier’s sorry visage adorned tee-shirts and other park souvenirs. Frasier sired 35 cubs until his death in June 1972 at 17-20 years of age, equivalent to a human age of 85-100 years. Frasier even inspired a 1973 feature movie, Frasier the Sensuous Lion, rated PG.” (See creepy poster at right)
Vaguely remembering this funny looking lion from my childhood, I had an instant urge to find out more about Frasier. Imagine my surprise when I found out his active sex life had actually gained enough notoriety for the late jazz greats Jimmy Rowles, Johnny Mercer, and Sarah Vaughan to create a song documenting it (video and full lyrics after the jump).
Go Frasier! (more…)
FLASHBACK – Forced Integration in L.A.
September 1970 “This news clip from 1970 focuses on the start of desegregation-via-busing in the Pasadena school district and the signing of an anti-busing bill by California Gov. Ronald Reagan. A much larger controversy later surrounded busing in the Los Angeles Unified School District, since that district covered many more students. Busing in L.A. and elsewhere in California was largely halted by litigation and the passage of a ballot initiative in the early 1980s. ”
October 1980 “Litigation to order a busing plan for the Los Angeles Unified School District began in the 1960s and a plan was ultimately ordered by Judge Paul Egly in the late 1970s. This news report focuses on “white flight” from the District. Proposition 1 of 1979 was a reaction to the busing plan and limited the scope of busing. After several years of litigation, Prop 1 was upheld and the plan ended. The video shows a sign denouncing Judge Egly.”
FLASHBACK – 1950s Babies On Parade
Gee, your hair smells terrific…
July 28, 1951: Three year-old Bobby Ashe – Everest (”Master Ladera Park”) puts his smooth moves on 22 month-old Sharon Hawkins (”Miss Ladera Park”) at The Ladera Park Baby Show.
CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEWS.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8863776421109511056
MATINEE – Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
After the jump, a really great 30 minute long documentary (shown in 3 parts) about iconic author Raymond Chandler’s take on the corruption of Los Angeles in the 1930s… a paradise infiltrated by dope fiends, smut peddlers, schemers in low places and high, crooked cops and crooked politicians…
And here’s something you might not have known… I’ll bet you’ve passed The Cahuenga Building in Hollywood a million times and not thought twice about it… but the six-story structure erected by John and Donald Parkinson (they also built Bullock’s Wilshire and the Santa Monica City Hall) was once the tallest building on the Boulevard and the high-profile home for L.A.’s best-known fictional private detective. Cynical gumshoe Philip Marlowe’s office was located on the top floor in Suite #615 and it’s for this very reason that the building’s intersection was officially named after his creator, author Raymond Chandler. Interested in checking the building out? Well you’ll soon be able to spend the night… it’s currently being turned into a boutique hotel.
FLASHBACK – Racing Thru The Clouds in Venice
Once upon a time, the first roller coaster ever built on the West Coast reached towards the Venice, California sky. The ride was called Race Thru The Clouds and when it opened on July 4, 1911, even with only half of its cars on line over 25,000 people rode it. Yes, in one day. Roller coasters soon became such a popular attraction in Venice that fourteen were built in between 1904 and 1925. In the early 1920’s, visitors to Venice had a choice of six different rides: three on the Venice Pier, one on the inland lagoon and two on the Ocean Park/Lick Piers.
Although the first coaster is long gone, you can still find evidence of Race Thru The Clouds nearby if you look… architect Steve Ehrlich themed a nearby commercial building after its curves. I think my favorite tribute is this, though: a Folsom Prison inmate named William Jennings-Bryan Burke once spent over a decade erecting a replica of the ride made entirely out of toothpicks! AWESOME! (He actually built entire carnivals from toothpicks. I’m not kidding.)
(CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW FOR LARGER VIEWS)
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HISTORY – Sister Aimee & Her Castle
As some of you may know, as a teenager during the early 20th century my grandmother preached in tent revivals alongside (and also babysat for) local evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, who was once – without question – the most powerful, influential, and controversial woman in all of America. Founder of the Foursquare Church, Sister Aimee opened her Angelus Temple on New Year’s Day in 1923… a giant round building facing Echo Park which no doubt many of you pass daily without thinking twice about. The building’s cost was an unheard-of 1.2 million dollars at the time (paid for through average donations of TWO CENTS!!)… leading one critic to declare that Aimee “put the cost in Pentecost.”
At the very bottom of this post is a rare video tour of Aimee’s castle home in Lake Elsinore. Directly below are a few short samples of the show-womanship of Sister Aimee in all of her sin-battling glory… so REPENT, SINNERS!
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