THE NEW ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: DEDICATED TO FILMS AND FILMMAKING©

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (AMMP) officially opened to the public on September 30, 2021, after decades "in the making" throughout the history of moving pictures -- known in their earliest days over 100 years ago as "the flickers".

A press release issued prior to the Museum's completion stated that "[t]he building's design is inspired by the museum's mission to turn the dream factory inside out and give visitors unprecedented opportunities to peer behind the screen and into the creative, collaborative world of moviemaking". 

Interestingly, the 7-story part of the Museum is not a new building, but instead is a remodeling and repurposing of the building once occupied by one of Los Angeles' leading department stores, The May Company.  

Heralded upon its completion in 1939 as the western gateway to the area along Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax Avenue eastward to La Brea Boulevard, known as the "Miracle Mile", the May Company building was, and still is, often referred to as Los Angeles' grandest example of Streamline Moderne architecture.

The curved Streamline Moderne golden architectural feature on the southwest corner of the building -- seen in the photo herein above -- which faces the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue at an angle, has always been evocative to many residents, including myself, of a fancy lipstick case sold in the May Company's cosmetics department for decades.

May Company Department Store, circa 1940s

Over the years, however, rain, pollution, and ground movement caused by various earthquakes prevalent in the Los Angeles area resulted in extensive cracks in the building's granite and limestone.   By 1992 -- the year that the May Company building was named a Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument --  many of the immediately recognizable, iconic features of the building had become damaged or severely deteriorated.

In 1994, after having been vacant for the previous two years, the May Company building was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), located one block to the east, for use as additional exhibition space called "LACMA West".  The May Company's display windows along Wilshire Boulevard were used for huge posters promoting LACMA's current and upcoming special exhibits.

Adaptive Use of the May Company Building
 as LACMA West, circa 2000

The building remained LACMA West for the next 20 years until 2014, when the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures signed a lease costing $36.1-million for the next 55-years for both the May Company building as well as its adjacent parking lot to be developed into museum and theatre space.  The May Company Building was renamed the Saban Building in recognition of philanthropist Cheryl Saban and entertainment executive Haim Saban's $50-million donation to the Academy Museum in 2017.

DESIGN

The Academy Museum hired Pritzker Prize-winning and world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, who has also designed the Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas, the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Auditorium of the Parco della Musica in Rome, Italy, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion  -- the latter two structures which coincidentally happen to be located on Wilshire Boulevard just one short block east from the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, as can be seen in the photograph below.

Piano was also commissioned to design an adjoining building connected by a glass-enclosed skywalk, now called the "Sphere", a domed structure visible along Fairfax Avenue behind the Saban Building.  The Sphere houses the two screening theatres, the Geffen Theatre and the Mann Theatre, and is topped by a terrace under a curving glass roof.

REPAIR, RESTORATION AND REPURPOSING PROCESS

In February of 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hired international experts from John Fidler Preservation Technology to develop and implement conservation protocols not only for rehabilitating the exterior cladding of the May Company Building for repurposing and new adaptive use as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, but also to ensure that the building retained its distinctive Art Deco architecture, its Streamline Moderne design elements, and its historical significance.

The entire renovation and adaptive use process would ultimately cost approximately  $480-million.

The original seven floors of the May Company building now house the Academy Museum’s exhibition spaces, education and special event spaces, a conservation studio, a café, and a museum store.

In addition, the Museum’s 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and 288-seat Ted Mann Theater, both located inside the Sphere, each present a year-round calendar of screenings, film series, member programs, panel discussions, family programs, and symposia.

David Geffen Theatre

Ted Mann Theatre

With the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, another world-class museum joins the nearby Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Petersen Automotive Museum in this area along Wilshire Boulevard known for decades as  the Miracle Mile, but which now more accurately might be called the "Museum Mile".  

Side view of the completed AMMP along Fairfax Avenue, 
including a view at the extreme right of this photo
of the front and side of the Petersen Automotive Museum 
located across the street from the AMMP on Wilshire Boulevard.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, along with the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Petersen Automotive Museum, are included in our "Los Angeles Architecture -- An Eclectic Landscape"©  custom-designed heritage and cultural escorted group tour Itinerary.  For more information about this unique and comprehensive heritage and cultural group tour covering L.A.'s architectural history from "early settlement to the present", visit us at  http://www.snobbytours.com/EclecticLAarchitecture.html 

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(Primary and Photographic Sources:  academymuseum.org;  oscars.org;  dezeen.com;  structureanddesignzim.com;  Fisher Marantz Stone; Los Angeles Times; Variety  discoverlosangeles.com;  interiordesign.net;  thewrap.com;  Los Angeles Magazine;  archpaper.com; architecturalrecord.com;  Architectural Digest;  objectsmag.it; The Post Internazionale)

© 2022 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE STORY BEHIND THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE USA'S MOST VISITED HISTORICAL SITE©

In 2022, the Empire State Building in New York City became the #1 attraction for US travelers, and #3 attraction in the world overall, according to the coveted Travelers Choice® Awards.  It is perhaps the world's most famous building.

The building's iconic Art Deco architecture, in addition to its height, is immediately recognizable in the skyline of New York City, but since the building's history is lesser known, we will delve into that history here.

BACKSTORY

In 1928, the location were the Empire State Building now stands on Fifth Avenue was occupied by the original Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a carry-over from New York City's late 19th Century "Gilded Age".  

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel's original building from 1893 was demolished in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building following the sale of the property to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation for approximately $20-million in 1928 -- the equivalent of approximately $323-million in 2022.  

In 1929, former General Motors executive John Jakob Raskob, along with NYC movers-and-shakers Coleman and Pierre S. du Pont, Louis G. Kaufman and Ellis P. Earle formed the underlying corporation, Empire State, Inc., and appointed Alfred E. Smith, former Governor of New York, as its Chief Executive Officer.

Designed by the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates and with the building process under the direction of Starrett Bros. & Eken, the Empire State Building would be the first 100+ story building in the world.  Its exterior and interior Art Deco architectural and design elements are generally associated with the 1920s at the height of that style's popularity.

Today, the Empire State Building stands at 1,454-feet tall, inclusive of its tower and its broadcasting antenna, and has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.  It remained the world's tallest building in New York City until 1970 when its height was surpassed by the World Trade Center.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of the Empire State Building was part of a competition in New York City with 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building for the “world’s tallest building” .  

It surpassed both.

Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930.   Actual  construction of what at that time was called "the world's most ambitious building project" commenced on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1930, during the height of the worse economic Depression in USA history.  

Although the project put men back to work, those who laboured on the steel beams hundreds of feet above the City, were constantly at great risk to life and limb.  The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly European immigrants, as well as hundreds of Mohawk iron workers. Despite an astonishing lack of safety regulations, only 5 workers died during construction.

The steel frame literally grew before the eyes of New Yorkers at the astonishing rate of 4-1/2 stories per week, ultimately "topping off" at 102-stories after a record-breaking 13 months and 15 days -- completed on April 11, 1931, almost 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  

It was the talk of the town.  When President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1931 officially opening the building, the lights on the Empire State Building were turned on for the very first time. 

WORLD-WIDE ATTENTION

Being the world's tallest building, the Empire State Building quickly became a well-known attraction for both locals and tourists from around the world who flocked to it, paying their hard-earned 10-cents just to peer through one of its telescopes at the sprawling New York City urban landscape below.  During one 6-month period in 1931, the building collected more than $3,000 in nickles and dimes -- the equivalent of approximately $57,000 in 2022.

The film industry permanently immortalized the Empire State Building by making it the focal point of one of cinema's most famous films, "King Kong", which debuted on March 2, 1933. This film would become the first of many memorable and pivotal  "roles" that the building would play in the movies, firmly establishing it as both an important location integral to a movie's story, as well as an enduring icon of pop culture.

PRACTICAL USES

Corporate Headquarters

By 1948, just 17 years after its celebrated opening, the Empire State Building had become one of the world's most profitable buildings, and one of the world's most recognizable and loved architectural structures.  

It was the headquarters for several major USA and international corporations, and a number of nonprofit charitable organizations, with a combined total of approximately 15,000 people employed there walking through its 5th Avenue Lobby every day.  Visitors used a separate entrance on West 34th Street solely accessible by elevator to the Observatories for almost 90 years, until 2018.

Among the residents of the Empire State Building over the years have been the YWCA of the USA, The King's College, The National Film Board of Canada, Federal Deposit of Insurance Company (FDIC), Linkedin, and various international airlines.

Radio and TV Broadcasting

Broadcasting began at the Empire State Building on December 22, 1931, when NBC and RCA  began transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the building's mast, with two separate transmitters for the visual and audio data. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there.

In 1934, RCA entered into a cooperative venture to test an FM system from the building's antenna. This ultimately resulted in the installation of the world's first FM radio transmitter which commenced transmitting from the antenna in 1940.  After some time, the 85th floor became home to RCA's New York television operations as well, initially as an experimental station.  Commencing in 1941, the station evolved into a commercial station which eventual became WNBC Channel 4.  NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the building until 1950 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the exclusive deal be terminated so that other television broadcasters and sister FM stations could broadcast from the a single dedicated broadcast tower that was completed in 1951. Other television broadcasters gradually joined RCA in the Empire State Building on the 81st through 83rd floors, resulting in six broadcasters agreeing to pay a combined $600,000 per year for the use of the antenna.  A new 222-foot, 60-ton  broadcast tower was completed in 1953.

ACCOLADES AND MILESTONES DURING THE FIRST 50 YEARS

The 1950s also saw the American Society of Civil Engineers select the Empire State Building as one of the seven greatest engineering achievements in America’s history, ranking it alongside the Hoover Dam and the Panama Canal.

In 1956,  as a symbol of welcome and freedom to visitors, four large beacon lights are installed at the foot of the building's tower. These beacons, which could be seen across the city, were known as “The Freedom Lights".

In 1961, Lawrence A. Wien, Peter L. Malkin, and Harry B. Helmsley purchased the Empire State Building for $65-million (the equivalent of approximately $557-million today). The price, which did not include the land, was the highest ever paid for a single building anywhere up to that point in time.

In 1976, The Empire State Building Observatory received its 50 millionth visitor -- marking the beginning of its drawing millions of visitors from all over the world each year thereafter.

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Primary and Photographic Sources: Empire State Building Archives; historycollection.com 

© 2022 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE MUSIC MUSEUMS OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE©

 
There must be "something in the water" in Tennessee for that state to have not one, but TWO, major cities -- Nashville and Memphis -- that have such strong connections to music in their history and culture that when either of their names are mentioned, people all over the world  immediately think of specific types of American music.

This Blog article will focus on Memphis, often referred to today as the "Home of the Blues".  Memphis was THE place for musical artists to be in the post-World War II early days of the music production and distribution of sound recordings of Blues as well as other mid-20th Century quintessentially American musical genres which were gaining  popularity around the same time, specifically Soul, Gospel, and especially Rock and Roll.  

Sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River, Memphis dates back to 1819.  Much of the city's history is inextricably tied to the pre-Civil War rural American South, creating a culture which, from its earliest days to the present day, has been heavily influenced thereby. 

Memphis, circa 1850s

The music born during the existence of slavery prior to 1865, and thereafter following the American Civil War in the late 1800s during the hard times in the decades of economic depression and ongoing racial discrimination, marginalization, disenfranchisement and violence, gave rise to what is known today as "the Blues" and "Soul".  Additionally, the influences of Gospel music coming out of Black churches, and the Blues reflecting life's hardships, have been acknowledged as being at the roots of the Rock and Roll of the 1950s that was propelled into worldwide popularity by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and others.

I first had the opportunity to visit the various music museums in Memphis that I am highlighting herein when I was asked by a school district in Texas to plan and escort  a Civil Rights Heritage/Cultural Tour for a group of multi-ethnic middle school students accompanied by teachers and school administrators who were their chaperones.  The itinerary included Memphis and other cities important to the Civil Rights Movement.   For most of the students, it was their very first time to go somewhere outside of their hometown. Because music is such a significant part of Memphis history and culture, we added the then-existing Memphis music museums to the Itinerary.

Over the years, as additional music museums have been created and opened in Memphis, we have incorporated both the older and the newer museums into our Itinerary because they themselves have reached iconic status, collectively becoming a destination focus of visitors to the city. 

W.C. HANDY HOUSE AND MUSEUM

William Christopher Handy (1873-1958) is considered to be the "Father of the Blues"   and an influential songwriter.

Born in Florence, Alabama, he apprenticed in carpentry, shoe making and plastering.  Handy was deeply religious, and his musical style was influenced by the church music he sang and played as a youth.  His music was also influenced by the sounds of the natural world. He cited as inspiration the sounds of "whippoorwills, bats and hoot owls, the sound of Cypress Creek washing on the fringes of the woodland, and the music of every songbird and all the symphonies of their unpremeditated art".

In 1893, he played coronet at the Chicago World's Fair and joined a touring band the same year.  Over the next three years, the band traveled to Chicago, throughout Texas and Oklahoma to Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, and on to Cuba, Mexico and Canada.  In 1902 Handy traveled throughout Mississippi, listening to various styles of popular Black music.  The state was mostly rural and music was part of the culture, especially in cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta.   Musicians usually played guitar or banjo or, to a much lesser extent, piano. Handy's remarkable memory enabled him to recall and transcribe the music he heard in his travels.

When he moved to Memphis in 1909, he settled in a two-room house on Jeanette Place in South Memphis, where he lived with his family until 1917 when he moved his family and his music publishing business to New York City.  The following years until his death in 1938 in Yonkers, NY were extremely productive and cemented Handy's legacy as a songwriter, musician, musicologist and influence on composers of various musical genre, including classical.

In the mid-1980s, Handy's Memphis home was relocated to Beale Street in downtown Memphis and restored.  It is a relatively small, narrow Victorian-style clapboard house, aptly painted blue, and is surrounded by a white picket fence, with its floor plan laid out in the "railroad" or "shotgun style" popular in that era where there was no central hallway but instead with each room leading into the next room.

Now a museum, the W.C. Handy Home features photos, personal memorabilia and archival artifacts, including the desk at which W.C. Handy wrote many of his most famous songs, such as "The Memphis Blues," "St. Louis Blues," and "Beale Street Blues."

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is the world's only museum dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Stax Records and American Soul music.

Located on the original site of the Stax Records Studio, the Museum pays special tribute to the artists who recorded there, as well as to other legends of American Soul.   Containing a rare collection of more than 2,000 items of soul music memorabilia and artifacts, the Stax Museum also features interactive exhibits, films, stage costumes, musical instruments, vintage recording equipment used at Stax, vinyl records, photographs and both permanent and changing special exhibition galleries.

The evolution of Stax Records reflects the determination of its founder Jim Stewart, who had been inspired by the success of Sam Phillips, a radio technician who had gone "out on a limb", had started a music production company, had first recorded Elvis Presley, and who had made a small fortune therefrom.  

Stewart initially founded Satellite Records.  He was a banker by day and a country fiddle player by night.  Nevertheless, he believed that he could be a music producer in spite of his not having either any experience in, nor any knowledge about, the recording industry.  Satellite cut its first record in October, 1957, a country song with noticeably low production quality. 

To help her brother produce sound recordings of a higher quality, Stewart's sister Estelle Axton mortgaged her house in order to buy an Ampex 350 console recorder for the studio, and in 1960, she refinanced her house to fund the studio's move to McLemore Avenue in Memphis.  Satellite Records was renamed "Stax", combining the first to letters of each of Stewart's and Axton's last names.

For almost 20 years Stax Records continued to sign and produce performers who became widely known, such as Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, and Isaac Hayes; however, by the late 1970s, financial difficulties forced its closure.  The original recording studio was demolished in 1989 and a historical marker was dedicated in 1991, but the lot remained empty.  

By the late 1990s, the surrounding, once-vibrant African American neighborhood had fallen into economic and social decay.   Nevertheless, not wanting to see the entire neighborhood swallowed by blight, a group of community leaders, philanthropists and former Stax employees formed the Soulsville Foundation to revitalize the area, one aspect of which was to open a museum that would tell the Stax story. 

Today, the Soulsville Foundation is the parent organization of the highly-visited Stax Museum of American Soul Music -- and the revitalized area of Memphis where it is located is an urban success story. 

MEMPHIS ROCK 'N' SOUL MUSEUM

The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum is focused on the story of all the types of music which comprise the fabric of Memphis' history from the 1930s through the heyday in the 1970s.  

The Museum is located in downtown Memphis, at the corner of the famous Beale Street (one of the most musically-significant streets in the world) and B. B. King Avenue (an extension of the legendary Highway 61, also known as "The Blues Highway").

The story of this Museum first began in 1990 as a traveling exhibition titled, "Rock 'n' Soul:  Social Crossroads".  It was developed by the Smithsonian Institution to commemorate its 150th anniversary.  Upon completion of the traveling exhibition, the memorabilia was collected, and the Rock 'n' Soul Museum was established in Memphis -- the acknowledged birthplace of the Blues, of Soul, and of Rock 'n' Roll.

The Museum is proud to have been developed in unique cooperation with the world-renowned Smithsonian Institute and is the first and only museum to have ever been developed by The Smithsonian in collaboration with another museum.

Memphis Museum of Rock 'n' Roll provides visitors with a "comprehensive experience" -- introducing many to the music of the rural field hollers and sharecroppers of the 1930s in the Memphis area -- and continuing into the 1970s which marked the pinnacle of success for Memphis' local music producers and recording studios.

The integrity of the Smithsonian Institution is evidenced throughout the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum.   The exhibition is much more than just displays of guitars and autographed albums.  Through the extensive research conducted and scripted by the Smithsonian Institution curators, it tells the story of how people of all races and socio-economic backgrounds broke through social barriers and racial prejudice to create America’s unique musical genres --  not only shaping a city’s profile, but also changing the world’s cultural landscape forever.

MEMPHIS MUSIC HALL OF FAME MUSEUM

The Memphis Music Hall of Fame organization, and its brick-and-mortar Museum, pay tribute to the lifetime achievements of the artists -- the songwriters and the performers of all musical genres initially popularized in the 20th Century and continuing to the present day, which have been part of, and who shaped, the Memphis music scene as well as music worldwide.  In addition, to blues, soul, gospel, and rock-and-roll, other genre are included, such as jazz, R&B, rock-a-billy, country and hip-hop.

The Hall of Fame, established in 2012, holds an induction ceremony, generally annually, each time honoring several noteworthy people of significant importance to the music industry and to Memphis music history.  Since its inception, approximately 60 persons have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including the industry's earliest successful music producers Sam Phillips, Jim Stewart, and Stewart's sister Estelle Axton. 

For a gallery of all of the Memphis Museum Hall of Fame inductees through 2019 --  the last time an induction ceremony was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- and as of the date this Blog article was published, link to:   https://memphismusichalloffame.com/inductees/

The Hall of Fame is under the umbrella of the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum.  In August, 2015 the Memphis Music Hall of Fame Museum opened on the corner of Beale Street and 2nd Street.  It features displays of memorabilia and archival materials, rare video performances, and interviews of the various inductees -- some presented interactively and which are almost as outrageous as the artists themselves!

BLUES HALL OF FAME MUSEUM

Opened in May of 2015, The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame Museum is a Memphis gem for both serious blues fans and casual visitors.  With dynamic, comprehensive exhibits and in-depth history, the museum exposes, educates, and entertains visitors with all that is "blues culture" while highlighting over 400 inductees in five key categories: Performer, Individual, Album, Single, and Literature.

The Blues Foundation was founded in 1980 in Memphis, Tennessee, generally-acknowledged as being “The  Home of the Blues", by its first executive director, Joe Savarin.  Over the next 40 years, The Blues Foundation Foundation grew from a small base of Memphis supporters who had presented the first National Blues Awards at the Orpheum Theatre on November 16, 1980 into an international membership of over 4,000 individuals and organizations.

The National Blues Awards were renamed the W. C. Handy Blues Awards in 1995, and then again renamed in 2006 as the Blues Music Awards -- the name still used today.  The Awards  were initially conducted by Living Blues magazine which polled a worldwide group of blues authorities, deejays, musicians, folklorists, record dealers, and producers.

The Blues Music Awards are now managed by The Blues Foundation staff.  The Blues Hall of Fame has expanded considerably since its inception to the extent that today it includes individuals in Business, Production, Media and Academics.  It has also come to include Classics of Recording in both the single-recording and album categories, and also Classics of Blues Literature.  At the present time, there are a total of 443 Blues Hall of Fame inductees, of which 166 are performers.

In the early 2000s The Blues Foundation embarked upon a successful Raise the Roof Campaign to secure $3,000,000 in private donations in order to erect a physical building for the Blues Hall of Fame located in downtown Memphis.  Construction was completed on schedule, and the Blues Hall of Fame Museum, located on South Main Street,  opened its doors in May, 2015 in conjunction with that year’s Blues Music Awards.  The Museum serves all four components of The Blues Foundation’s mission of preserving history, celebrating excellence, supporting education, and ensuring the future of the music.  The Blues Foundation offices are also appropriately housed in the same facility.

The museum contains 10 individualized galleries with interactive touchscreen displays, along with three master databases where visitors can hear the music, watch videos, and read the stories of each of the inductees.  In addition, each gallery houses one-of-a-kind memorabilia, including such iconic pieces as hard-to-find album covers and photographs, important awards, unique art, musical instruments and costumes, tour jackets, and other special items that can only be seen at The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame Museum.  The upstairs Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise Gallery hosts traveling exhibits that rotate every four months, offering repeat visitors a new experience every time they walk through the front doors.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Celebrating Memphis' connection to American music history, and visiting several of the Music Museums of Memphis, are both included on the custom-created Itinerary of one of our two escorted Civil Rights Heritage Tours. This Tour is suitable for groups of any size, particularly multi-generational families, middle school/high school/college students on school-sponsored trips, historic preservationists, music societies and educators.  This Tour can also be conducted any time of the year, per a Tour Group's preference.  For more information, please contact us through our Website at:    http://snobbytours.com/CivilRtsI.html

Primary and Photographic Sources: wchandlymuseum.org;  Handy, William Christopher, Father of the Blues: An Autobiography, Macmillan, 1948;  historic-memphis.com; staxmuseum.com; memphisrocknsoul.org;   memphismusichalloffame.com; blues.org)

© 2022 Snobby Tours^®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE BOYLE HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD OF LOS ANGELES - Part 3 of a Series: THE LARGEST POPULATION OF JEWISH RESIDENTS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI IN THE 1930s©

Celebrating Jewish Heritage Month in May, we focus our Blog article for May, 2022 on Los Angeles' Boyle Heights neighborhood.

By the 1920s, there were approximately 10,000 Jewish households in the area, which was about one-third of Los Angeles’ Jewish population -- the largest urban Jewish community in the United States located west of the Mississippi River.   Boyle Heights was also one of the most diverse neighborhoods — home to many Mexican, Japanese, Armenian/Turkish, Italian, Russian and African American families.

Map of Boyle Heights Neighborhood in1921

For its "Jewish Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights" Special Exhibit, UCLA gathered archival materials, artifacts and personal stories to explore the rich history of the Jewish community in this neighborhood, while also observing how those experiences coincided with the other diasporic communities that lived there.

The first automobile ever to drive through Los Angeles did so through the streets of Boyle Heights on May 30, 1897.  A New York civil engineer, J. Philip Erie, spent $30,000 to design, invent and build the first gasoline-propelled automobile carriage west of the Mississippi River. The drive started in downtown Los Angeles and ended at Erie’s home near Hollenbeck Park.

In 1908, a group of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe founded Los Angeles’ first Yiddish organization, with the primary goal of establishing a Yiddish school so that Jewish parents could supplement their children’s public school education. In 1920, the Yiddish school's Board launched a fundraising drive to purchase a house at 420 N. Soto St., where the school would become a Yiddish cultural center. 

The new school, known as the folkshul (“people’s school”), opened the following year with 120 students. In addition to being a Yiddish school, the folkshul quickly became a popular destination for organizations and events, hosting meetings of local Jewish clubs, for fundraisers and bazaars, and for an annual dress ball.

The "folkshul" in 1922

As the movie and aviation industries blossomed and grew in Los Angeles in the 1920s, Jewish residents of Boyle Heights became prominent as business entrepreneurs skilled in various professions and crafts.  One such resident during the l920s was internationally-renowned businessman Max Factor, who settled in Boyle Heights with his family in close proximity to his store on South Central Avenue and to the local Jewish community on the eastside.  He first formulated, tested and developed his cosmetics out of the garage of his residence, eventually establishing himself as the source for the makeup and cosmetic treatments which became a favourite among the Hollywood studios and celebrities.

The Max Factor House on Boyle Avenue was built in 1909 in the Craftsman style of architecture with wide eaves and exposed rafters beneath.  During the time Max Factor and his family lived in Boyle Heights, his company car was often seen parked in the driveway because he never learned to drive, preferring instead the nearby public transportation.  The Max Factor House, pictured below, still stands today, and is under the watchful eye of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a local historical preservation group.

Max Factor House as it looks today
Photo Credit:  Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy

In the early 1920s, Jewish residents created a place where Boyle Heights’ multiethnic residents could socialize, learn and organize. They called it the Cooperative Center, a large, three-story building near the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Mott Street. There were several meeting rooms on the top floor, a large ballroom for lectures and social events on the second floor, and a bakery and café on the ground floor.

The Cooperative Center became a hub for neighborhood-based organizations and an important site of political organizing and social activities that blended consciousness raising, mult-cultural mingling,  and fundraising.

About a half mile from the folkshul was the Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center,  referred to as "the JCC",  in Boyle Heights. The Center’s director, Rabbi J. M. Cohen, wanted to “integrate the Jewish community with the general community and the individual with the Jewish community and society as a whole.”  Cohen believed that by celebrating cultural pluralism, the Center would strengthen the Jewish identities of American-born children, foster integration and serve all of the neighborhood’s residents, including children of other ethnicities, such as of Mexican, Asian, Russian and African American descent.

The Soto-Michigan JCC’s three-story facility featured a lounge, game room and clubroom on the first floor and locker rooms in the basement.  The facility’s most popular feature was the Stebbins playground, where there was a jungle gym, volleyball and basketball courts, swing sets and ping pong tables.  As many as 1,000 people regularly visited the Soto-Michigan JCC just to use the playground, in addition to the 2,300 children and adults who used the meeting rooms and auditoriums every week.

SIDE NOTE:  The two photographs below of the JCC and some of the neighorhood children were both taken in 1938 by Julius Shulman (1910-2009), an American architectural photographer who, over his lengthy career, became widely known for documenting and preserving the aesthetic of Southern California's Mid-Century Modern architecture.

Jewish Community Center
in Boyle Heights, 1938
Photos credit:  Julius Shulman

During the early 20th Century, the Jewish community of Boyle Heights established several entities to take care of its residents -- especially the orphaned, the aged, and new immigrants who had fled the anti-Semitic oppression of generations of Jews being forced to live and starve in isolated, segregated impoverished ghettos (walled-off communities within European cities), and being repeatedly subjected to pogroms (violent massacres and forced relocations/removals through the expelling, uprooting and marching of residents of entire Jewish communities out of various European countries).  Included among the caregiving entities were the Jewish Home for the Aged, the Mount Sinai Home for Chronic Invalids, the Jewish Orphans Home, and the Jewish Wayfarers Home.

Pictured below is Mount Sinai Hospital in 1928, during the time it was originally located in Boyle Heights.  The origins of Mount Sinai Hospital can be traced to the 1918 worldwide flu pandemic, when a group of Jewish Los Angelenos provided kindness and comfort to the sick of all races, ethnic origins and religions.

The enduring legacy of Mount Sinai Hospital continues to the present day.  In 1950, a new Mount Sinai Hospital was built on Beverly Boulevard a few short blocks east of Doheny Drive on 3.5 acres of land donated by a locally-based Jewish charitable foundation.  In 1961, Mount Sinai Hospital merged with Cedars of Lebanon Hospital to form what has since become the world-renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center which currently occupies several square blocks between Beverly Boulevard and Third Street in the same -- albeit greatly expanded -- Los Angeles location adjacent to Beverly Hills.

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(Primary sources:  Mapping Jewish L.A.Project/UCLA Newsroom article by Cheryl Cheng, May 25, 2021;  Los Angeles Conservancy;  Los Angeles Eastside History Museum and Cultural Center/Boyle Heights Studios)

©2022 Snobby Tours, Inc,^®,  All Rights Reserved.

UPDATE: CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ENTERS ITS SECOND DECADE©

In browsing through this Travelblog, it becomes quickly apparent that I am a huge fan of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas -- so much so that I have published three (3) articles on its various components and unique attributes since it opened in 2011.

As it begins its second decade in 2022, Crystal Bridges has achieved worldwide recognition, and it has put the small rural town of Bentonville, Arkansas "on the map".  What was once a quintessential rural town in northwest Arkansas located in the southern Ozark Mountains has been transformed into an artistic and cultural public art  work-in-progress, filled with around 130  murals on buildings and sculptures in public spaces.

Recently, Crystal Bridges was featured prominently on "CBS Sunday Morning", showcasing its considerable expansion over the past 10 years.   Its already-extensive private collection of approximately 1,700 works of art more than doubled during its first decade, with plans currently underway for an additional 100,000 square feet of exhibit space on the adjacent picturesque grounds  

Rather than write about how much Crystal Bridges has evolved and expanded over the past decade, and revitalized Downtown Bentonville, the video herein below will literally speak volumes.  

SIDE NOTE:  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art 

is included as a featured stop in the Itinerary of 

our custom-created escorted group heritage and cultural Tour, 

"Presidential Libraries and Fall Foliage of the Midwest©.  

For more information about booking this fun and interesting 

heritage and cultural Tour during spectacular Fall Foliage

between the Ozarks and Southern Illinois  

in October of 2022 or October of 2023, link to our Website at:  

http://snobbytours.com/PrezLibMidwestFFChicago.html

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(Primary Source:  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)

©2022 Snobby Tours®, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

PRE-WORLD WAR II LOS ANGELES THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHIC LENS OF ANSEL ADAMS©

When people think of the Los Angeles of the first half of the 20th Century, they generally don't associate it with world-renown photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984).

Conversely, when people think of Ansel Adams, they generally associate him with his well-known black-and-white photographs of the Western USA, in particular of Northern California's Yosemite National Park, and also of his iconic "Moonrise" photo taken in New Mexico. 

Few people, however, know that Ansel Adams spent time in the early 1940s in Los Angeles teaching photography and training military photographers at what is known today as the Art Center College of Design.  During this time period, he photographed Los Angeles' "urban landscape", capturing for posterity the look and feel of the pre-World War II city which inspired so many dark, brooding movies in the 1940s which collectively came to be referred to as the genre of "film noir".

In 1940 Los Angeles had a population of 1.5-million people. 

In 1940 the cost of gasoline was 10-cents per gallon.

In 1940 the average new car cost $700. 

Also in 1940 the United States of America began re-arming for World War II -- and the prestigious Ansel Adams was commissioned by Fortune Magazine to photograph a series of images for an article covering the rapidly growing aviation industry in the Los Angeles area.

For the Fortune Magazine project, Adams took more than 200 black-and-white photographs showing everyday life in Los Angeles, including businesses, street scenes, aircraft factory workers at lunch, trailer parks, oil derricks in the middle of busy city streets, and a variety of other subjects. 

When the article, "City of the Angels", appeared in the March 1941 issue devoted entirely to the aircraft industry, only a few of Adams' images were included. 

Decades later, in the early 1960s, Adams himself rediscovered the photographs among papers at his home in Carmel, California and donated them to the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL).    At that time, he wrote in a letter: "The weather was bad over a rather long period and none of the pictures were very good... I would imagine that they represent about $100.00 minimum value... At any event, I do not want them back." (Excerpt from: "Ansel Adams Los Angeles" Exhibit at drkrm gallery during "Pacific Standard Time", an unprecedented collaboration in 2011-2012 of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California (SoCal) which had come together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene.)

The video herein below was made in conjunction with the "Ansel Adams Los Angeles" Exhibit at drkrm gallery which was a component of the "Pacific Standard Time" city-wide exhibition in 2011-2012 at multiple SoCal cultural and arts venues.

In 2019, the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) featured a number of photos from the Ansel Adams Collection in an Exhibit at the Library entitled "On Assignment:  Ansel Adams in Los Angeles".

The Ansel Adams Collection at the LAPL provides a time capsule of life in Los Angeles as the Great Depression was coming to an end, and as ominous clouds were on the horizon foreshadowing the impending world catastrophe that would catapult the United States into World War II.

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(Photo and primary sources:  Los Angeles Public Library's Ansel Adams Collection;  Video credit: MPH Productions for the 2011-2012 "Pacific Standard Time" Exhibit at the drkrm gallery)

©2022 Snobby Tours, Inc,^®,  All Rights Reserved.