Man, those are some awesome pictures! Look at that store with the bikes in the forefront! That would be such a cool place if they made a shop like that.
While looking through all my old books and photos looking for L.A. related photos pertaining to the car hobby, and I'm learning some stuff, too...thanks
Pardon the brief side track away from the subject... but thats a great pic! I'v had an ongoing research project about the Winfield brothers, and I think this is the only photo I'v see of Bud. I'll add the photos I'v collected from various sources.
Do you know if Deist has always been on Flower St. in Glendale? I drive by it everyday on my way to work.... the brick building looks old enough!
I believe that is the original building. It is now Glendale, but once was actually in Burbank. The building didn't move, the town lines did!
The photo above is of a trolley from the "Yellow Line" which served mostly the inter-city of L.A. The "Red Car" lines (Pacific Electric) also served the downtown but also the sprawling suburbs. The lines totaled more than 1200 miles. It's demise was hurried along by Standard Oil, General Motors and Firestone Tires. Those three were eventually found guilty of collusion and were fined $1 each many, many years later... Pacific Electric was owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad eventually. I can remember the buses that used the overhead electrified wires to power them in the mid-1950's. The big electric buses would spark everytime they would go around a corner. The last trolley would run in 1963.
Nothing screams "Los Angeles Hot Rodding" like the famous shot of Tom McMullen's deuce, ring-slot in the wind, and Pacific Coast Highway. Every kid in the mid 60's had that photo hanging on a wall...I know I did
OK, this is kind of a stretch, but worth a look if you like fast cars, nutty owners and a winding road. In the mid-60's the L.A. area had it hot rods and customs, and had many events and cruise locations to stretch their legs. There were no folding chair car shows like today. The shows were either indoor, three day events, or people would cruise, meet-up, grab a burger and cruise some more. The car show were usually in motion back then. No fat guys, folding chairs, cry-baby dolls and Hawaiian shirts were worn by Hawaiians. There was the sports car guys, too. There were the Triumphs, MGs, Sunbeams and the other ***orted cars that were too refined for us. I had friends with cars like that, but we always took my car when we'd go cruising somewhere. I just never felt comfortable in one of those "furrin jobs". There were the elite sports car guys that you'd see on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. The occasional Ferrari or Porsche would pull up next to you and sneer. I didn't know anyone who owned one of those. We were from the wrong side of the tracks for that crowd. I've saved this YouTube video in my email account and thought that it might be appropriate here. This is a short film, shot in 8mm with narration added later. It shows the well-heeled guys in the L.A. area doing the same things that hot rodders do. Drive a little squirrelly, have loads of fun with their cars and basically acting like boneheads because they are having so much fun. We talk about the "ones that got away" when we refer to the cars that we've sold off over the years. Well, these guys are telling that same tale, I'd guess. Who knew that these cars would be worth a fortune today? The guy doing the narration in this film actually drove his Ferrari GTO as a daily driver. I can't imagine anyone doing that, but I guess it couldn't be any more uncomfortable than some of the cars that I've owned. So...here is the Los Angeles sports car guys enjoying their toys just like we did, but instead of in a straight line, they liked Mulholland Drive.......... (Ryan might have posted this awhile back, something rings a bell that he did) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCfItWwi2V8
Awesome video Doug! The narrator mentions Steve McQueen stopping traffic at an intersection, but he was also a well known participant of those late-night impromptu races along Mullholland Drive...
Speaking of Mulholland, my old hangout from '74 til about '80. A little earlier than these guys. We tried to be low key and not attract attention. Didn't always work. <object height="344" width="425"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r81ogyuYvhU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></object>
Way to go Sam, great pics. Keep 'em coming! Enjoying the ride, Doug ! Beach Bum, could not get video to play, will keep trying.
[/IMG]Brand Bl. in Glendale, next to L.A., was/is a very wide street. Glendale in the early 60's was a quiet dead town at night. Tough police kept the rift raft out (not all). One night about midnight after leaving Van De Kamps Drive In my friend and I, who had a 57 Chev. also, were on Brand and there was not a person or car on the whole street. So we pulled up to the stop light and when it went green we went off. We got about an 1/8 of a mile and two police cars came out of no where. My friend split and I pulled over but we both got a big drag racing ticket. $375.00 ticket when I was making $150.00 a week, we both took 30 days of traffic school. NO GLENDALE for us after that.
Wow! Minimum wage in '63-65 was $ 1.25/hr. That was a HUGE fine. Goodbye Glendale for sure! Great story, great photo Sam.
That reminds me of a weird incident that might relate to what you said. In '68, I was in LA and cruised Harvey's one evening. But there were no customs to be found. The last time I had been in LA in the early sixties it was hard to find a stocker there. So the next morning, we went to "Watson's" shop on Firestone to inquire about why Harvey's was no longer a custom scene. The guy there looked puzzled and said "I don't know what you are talking about".
Hey, watch it man...Taco Bell was a real treat for this Midwestern kid when I visited LA for the first time in '63....there were no Taco Bells anywhere else in those days.
The Jalopy Journal
