i own a bas relief over one of the lobby water fountains in the downstairs Carthay Circle lobbyshowing a pioneer woman against a wagon wheel. i bught it from Cleveland wrecking and it proudlystanding in my garden
Thanks vokoban for the air view. the reason Carthay seemes the same as it was is that like, South Carthay it is in a historic overlay. This was voted through a number of years ago. I own a house on Commodore Sloat and was involved in the vote.
Thansk also for your note on Olympic Boulevard and the article of how it would cut through the Fox studio to the sea. I just found out that Fox located the studio there because it was the old Tom Mix ranch.
I don’t think Olympic was Copuntry Club. Country Club still exhists and branches off Olympic near Crenshaw. It was named for the Los Angeles Country club which used to be there before it moved to Rossmore and Beverly Boulevard. Olympic was formerly know as 10th Street and was renamed when the Olympics came to Los Angeles.
voxopop
I grew up on Commodore Sloat Drive one of the streets on which the theatre was situated. I rode my bike in the parking lot. The theatre was described as mission style but the theme of the theatre had to do with the old west. There were glass display cases in the lobby of old saddles and western memorobilia. Above the lobby water fountain was a bas relief in concrete of a tribute to pioneer women, showing a woman standing next to a wagon wheel. I know this because I own it, having bought it from Cleveland wrecking when they tore down the theatre. It is in my garden.
Next to the theatre on a grassy way, officially dedicated as a park, were historic monuments of the west, chosen and maintained by the Native Sons of the Golden West organization. This grassy way continued north of the theatre in a median on Crescent Heights Blvd., to Wilshire Boulevard. and south onto the next block. The median and the monuments are still there.
These things are significant in that when Natioanl General tore down the theatre, it was their intention to destroy the parkway and construct a huge building in the center of a residential neighborhood, effectively destroying the community. Years later I attended a party with some lawyers who were laughing that they had almost destroyed a community and made a lot of money.
Unfortunately for National General, the community was an activist community who stopped the plan and forced NG to build, respecting the grassy park. For this reason, NG constructed two smaller buildings with a park between them, denying them the huge profit they anticipated from a huge building.
This helped the neighborhood survive but didn’t save the theatre.
I believe that the mettle of a companiy’s leadership shows when times are difficult and creative thinking is required. The same minds who sold the Carthay Circle Theatre to National General are the ones who sold the 20th Century Fox backlot to Alcoa outright, without any royalty, to create Century City, so they could finance the movie Cleopatra which lost money.
I wonder if Rupert Murdock, who now owns Fox, would have made the same decisions. I think not.
i’ll do it when i have a chance and post it
i own a bas relief over one of the lobby water fountains in the downstairs Carthay Circle lobbyshowing a pioneer woman against a wagon wheel. i bught it from Cleveland wrecking and it proudlystanding in my garden
voxpop
They built the castle just under the wire. It’s silly looking.
Thanks vokoban for the air view. the reason Carthay seemes the same as it was is that like, South Carthay it is in a historic overlay. This was voted through a number of years ago. I own a house on Commodore Sloat and was involved in the vote.
Thansk also for your note on Olympic Boulevard and the article of how it would cut through the Fox studio to the sea. I just found out that Fox located the studio there because it was the old Tom Mix ranch.
voxpop
I don’t think Olympic was Copuntry Club. Country Club still exhists and branches off Olympic near Crenshaw. It was named for the Los Angeles Country club which used to be there before it moved to Rossmore and Beverly Boulevard. Olympic was formerly know as 10th Street and was renamed when the Olympics came to Los Angeles.
voxopop
I grew up on Commodore Sloat Drive one of the streets on which the theatre was situated. I rode my bike in the parking lot. The theatre was described as mission style but the theme of the theatre had to do with the old west. There were glass display cases in the lobby of old saddles and western memorobilia. Above the lobby water fountain was a bas relief in concrete of a tribute to pioneer women, showing a woman standing next to a wagon wheel. I know this because I own it, having bought it from Cleveland wrecking when they tore down the theatre. It is in my garden.
Next to the theatre on a grassy way, officially dedicated as a park, were historic monuments of the west, chosen and maintained by the Native Sons of the Golden West organization. This grassy way continued north of the theatre in a median on Crescent Heights Blvd., to Wilshire Boulevard. and south onto the next block. The median and the monuments are still there.
These things are significant in that when Natioanl General tore down the theatre, it was their intention to destroy the parkway and construct a huge building in the center of a residential neighborhood, effectively destroying the community. Years later I attended a party with some lawyers who were laughing that they had almost destroyed a community and made a lot of money.
Unfortunately for National General, the community was an activist community who stopped the plan and forced NG to build, respecting the grassy park. For this reason, NG constructed two smaller buildings with a park between them, denying them the huge profit they anticipated from a huge building.
This helped the neighborhood survive but didn’t save the theatre.
I believe that the mettle of a companiy’s leadership shows when times are difficult and creative thinking is required. The same minds who sold the Carthay Circle Theatre to National General are the ones who sold the 20th Century Fox backlot to Alcoa outright, without any royalty, to create Century City, so they could finance the movie Cleopatra which lost money.
I wonder if Rupert Murdock, who now owns Fox, would have made the same decisions. I think not.