In the ongoing battle about the, supposedly illegal, supergraphics on buildings in Los Angeles, I thought I'd post the above picture of a building that is actually a storage facility on Highland Ave. just south of Santa Monica Blvd. This was how it looked a year or two ago, and though this ad is more graphically appealing than most of them, I would love to see them all gone.
Above is a proof of the same building in all it's 1930 glory. Quite lovely for a storage building, really. I makes me yearn for the innocence of an earlier time. Innocence that is beautifully described from this 1930 article in the Los Angeles Times:
(Dec. 7, 1930 LA Times)
VICE RAID NETS 366 AMID RIOT
Party on Top of Hollywood Building Raided
Four Girls Among Prisoners Seized in Foray
Hundred and Fifty Officers Battle Revelers
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In perhaps the most spectacular raid ever conducted by Los Angeles police, nearly 400 persons were arrested early yesterday on morals charges when 150 officers broke up what they said was a wild stag party on the fourteens floor of Hollywood Storage Building, 1025 North Highland avenue. All but four of the prisoners were men.
The raid was the result of a tip received by vice squad officers and four detectives, clad in tuxedos, were assigned to gather evidence. They arrived early and mingled with other spectators, who paid $1 each for admission. The affair was billed as a "fraternity benefit smoker" and early in the evening began to take on the aspect of an orgy, according to the police report.
BATTLE STARTS
Not until nearly midnight, however, did the vice squad officers feel that the revelry had reached its height, when four young women appeared in what was described as an indecent performance. This was climaxed, they declared, by another dance in which the four appeared without even a semblance of drapery. Rushing toward the exits, the detectives announced that every spectator was under arrest.
Meanwhile, just outside and in the streets below, guarding every means of escape, were 150 reserves who had been summoned in anticipation of a riot. Dozens of men attempted to flee by means of fire escapes, but they were driven back by officers who had expected such attempts.
Hand-to-hand fights were numerous as the officers rushed into the hall, once an exclusive Hollywood night club, and beer bottles crashed through windows as the melee increased in violence. Several thousand persons had gathered in the street below to watch the proceedings.
GIRLS DENY CHARGE
A check-up revealed 362 men had been arrested in addition to the four women. The latter described themselves as: Ruth Williams, 21 years of age, of 1347 North Serrano street; Isabelle Clemons, 20, of 420 Fetterly street; Doloros Moreno, 19, transient, and Ruth Scott, 22, of 1215 West Tenth street. They pleaded not guilty before Municipal Judge Eagen to the charge of being dissolute persons. Bail was fixed at $150 each pending trial on the 19th inst.
Six of the men taken into custody were booked as promoters of the show. They gave their names as Glen B. Mates and George N. Hammond of Glendale; Harry Gaston of Long Beach, Otto Good of Ocean Park, and Lloyd Baxter and Ray J. Faeth of Los Angeles.
Deputy City Prosecutor McDonald announced he will press vagrancy charges against the 362 men, including the asserted promoters of the show.
