American Eagles hobby shop in north Seattle has a 1/32 Scalextric track set up these days and my son and I have sat there and run the cars a few times recently. Big track too, it would take up one garage stall easily. The cars are faster than hell too. I need more room.
My family had a business just down Melrose from there, used to pass it all the time, at one point it was a restaurant. I remember it had some cool night lighting...
Went to a few of these, they were great, hard to believe it was packed with teen agers and nobody got killed... funny to have a teen fair in a building with a huge Lawrance Welk on the outside.. a one and a two.. Hey Mazooma got any picks of the outside and old L.W.
This reminded me of the "Magic Castle" in Hollywood, built in 1908. Its pretty neat there. You have to be invited to go there, and my boss was able to have our work christmas party there.
I've heard the same. One of the many suspects. That home is also used in the the Leo DiCaprio film "The Aviator". It's interior is used as Rick Deckard's apartment in "Blade Runner". The home is very famous among the architectural set.
That house was designed by Frnk Lloyd Wright's son, Lloyd Wright. Its called the Sowden House. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sowden_House here it is in the 40's
Great shot Ed. I spent a lot of time slot car racing back in the day. Don't remember any female-types attending our tracks though. That's something I would've remembered. Denny
Police officer Stanley Elkins beside wrecked car which is used as a warning to reckless drivers in Hermosa Beach, Calif., 1948
We just shot exterior there, by the entrance if I remember right. Interior was all on sound stages.I always loved that building. Ron
The entrance to the old Santa Fe station in Pasadena..trains stopped running in the 80's and the station fell into disuse...but fortunately it was restored and now home to a restaurant....spent many a day there as a little kid watching the steam locomotives.
Long line of people waiting to obtain meat during first day of war rationing in Los Angeles, Calif., 1943
East L.A. and Whittier Blvd........... these guys have been playing some remarkable music for over 30 years
more of the Pasadena train station when it was a ATSF station directly north of here a couple of miles is the "Rose Bowl" the Santa Fe General Motors built "E" and "F" (covered wagons) units were among the best looking trains of it's time the only station between Pasadena and Los Angeles is the South Pasadena station which was at Mission Ave. just north of Highland Park and in Highland Park is the Arroyo Seco bridge which has now been rebuilt and restored and is now used by the "Gold Line" light-rail trains that connect Los Angeles and Pasadena. The trains have been using this same right-of-way since 1885.
The "Hollywood Walk of Fame" was an idea cooked up by the Chamber of Commerce many years ago to promote tourism in Hollywood. Hollywood is not a city, but part of Los Angeles, but it still maintains it's own chamber of commerce. The "Walk of Fame" is on both sides of Hollywood Blvd. and for some reason people like to have their photo taken with a part of the sidewalk because it has a "name" on it. There are lots of people who dress up like movie characters or "celebrities" and will pose for photos with tourists for a fee...no matter how creepy uh, oh...Spiderman must have been doing something even more weird than dressing up like Spiderman... I hope you don't mind if I put a photo of Halle Berry getting her "star" on the walk... oops, here's another one... oh, what the hell...one more
10-4-2009 was the day of the annual 10-4 day, “10-4″, police event celebrated with a police motorcade of many classic restored vintage police cars driving code-3 (full red lights and sirens on). For a change the POLICE were escorted by STARCARCENTRAL.COM members! Included in the motorcade were on duty uniformed Police Officers, and in service CHP and LAPD police squad cars, police motorcycles units and many mebers of the cast of the TV show”CHiP’s.” The cars gathered at Fire Station #27 in Hollywood. From there we blazed down the streets through red lights where the parade ended in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Threatre and the Academy Awards Theater. At that point the LAPD and the CHP had all of the local streets blocked off in advance. Once we all arrived and stopped though, the crowds filled the streets, and thousands of photos where taken in just a few minutes!
We've already posted about the end (or beginning) of Route 66 in Santa Monica, but here is a plaque commemorating it... Route 66 ends (or, for those traveling east, begins) at the Pacific Ocean, specifically at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. In Palisades Park, a bronze plaque marks the spot. Dedicated to Will Rogers, it reads, "Main Street of America, Highway 66, was the first road he traveled in a career that led him straight to the hearts of his countrymen."
I joined this board to see all of the great old picture threads. I particularly relate to this one (old LA), having lived there from 1940 to 1970. I was born in Santa Monica hospital, but we lived in Ocean Park. We were less than 6 blocks from the Ocean Park Pier, later to be known as POP. I haven't finished going through all of the pictures yet, but I saw some captions of the piers that I don't think were correct. I don't remember Santa Monica Pier having a roller coaster, just Ocean Park Pier and The Pike. There were also some other piers that don't exist anymore. I remembered attractions at the pier that I could not find pictures of until I got a book on Venice. Some of the attractions I remembered were actually at the Venice pier, which burnt down and was not replaced. I think they also tore down POP. I will hunt for some pictures and post them later. Then I lived in the Valley from 1949-1964 (Van Nuys, Granada Hills and North Hollywood) when I had to move to the South Bay area of LA (Torrance, Hawthorne and Lawndale). I attended Birmingham when it first opened, then I graduated HS from San Fernando in 1958. I started UCLA in 1958, but I discovered cars and girls and had to transfer to LA Valley College. I went back to UCLA and graduated in 1964. We cruised Van Nuys Blvd, went to three of the Bob's BB (San Fernando, Van Nuys and Toluca Lake). We even raced a few times on Chandler, which really wasn't a good idea. A lot of good memories from those days. As a youngster I hung out at the Van Nuys airport a lot. Lots of stories, but we didn't have a camera so I don't have many pictures. In light of this being a post on vehicles, I have attached two pictures that I was able to get from my Mom. In the airplane car is me in about 1945. The other one has a motorcycle in it. On the right is my Dad. On the left, over the fender of the car, is me. That one is early 1944. Both pictures were taken in Ocean Park.
Thanks old man! you fucken rock! i hope you post pictures soon! i love hearing about the valley in the good old days! and thanks again for the pictures!
Thanks! for the memories! I actually learned alot from this thread What about Coachcraft in Hollywood any pics? lots of History there too
Hawthorne, Lawndale, Torrance, Check. i cant believe that with all the activity on hawthorne blvd, all of the local clubs, and all of the hot rod stuff going on in the south bay that there aren't more pics in this thread.... guess i'd better get searching.
I was only partially correct about the Santa Monica Pier not having a roller coaster. They did not have one for me to remember, but they did have one from about 1916-1930. I have a book titled Venice California, "Coney Island of the Pacific". It has LOTS of pictures of the area and its very interesting history. It is written by Jeffrey Stanton. I have picked out 41 pages to scan and post, but it will take me awhile to do it. They will be in historical order, starting way before my time. Attached are the first two. The one looking up the narrow street is a view of the entrance to Ocean Park Pier from Pier Street in 1905. The other one is on Pier Ave in Ocean Park in 1906.
The Jalopy Journal
