OCR Text |
Show GIVING OUR WORLD THE Once Over Old Familiar Places What a week! Anyone trying to follow in my tracks would have given up in despair, panting for breath, as a cloud of dust over the next horizon gave the only indication of where I had been a moment before, and showed that pursuit was futile. It was a week of travel, by U. P. Streamerliner. City Bus, Greyhound-the Greyhound-the Santa Ke's San Diegan, Metro Coach, Pacific Electric Car, and Taxicab. About the only type of surface vehicle I didn't ride in was my own car, which I left at home, and glad of it. It was a week whose travels took me to East Los Angeles, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, San Diego, Di-ego, Tijuana, Santa Ana, Disneyland, Disney-land, Los Angeles, WestWood Hills, Hollywood, and Las Vegas. Clearly, there weren't enough 'days in the week for me to spend a full one in each place, nor did I need to. I had no schedule. A little business In Huntington Beach, a couple of appointments in L. A., and plenty of time to do exactly as I pleased. It was a business trip, but the business only took about an hour. Having boarded the City of St. Louis early Monday A. M., I reached reach-ed Huntington Beach before sunset. sun-set. It didn't take long to gruT) up, run out and sign some papers the lady lawyer had already prepared, and then decide what to do next. Stay In H. B. that night? Hardly. That town dies on its feet about seven o'clock. Here it was nearly nine. A Greyhound Bus happened to clme into sight just then. 1 hailed It, and was on the road to San Diego. And that's the way things went all week. Time for everything, and no time for boredom. bore-dom. Nice way to travel. Try it sometime. Go where you want to go, on the impulse of the moment, your belongings in hand in a small satchel, and know that when you've left a place you don't have to ever go back. Don't worry about reservations. You can always find a place to flop, and anyway how do you know where you'll be next, and when? No vacancies? If you're not finicky, you can jungle-up, as they say, with the boys who find shelter under the highway bridges. Not that I found that necessery, however, even though, in some ways, I was as free to go and come, or even a little freer, than they. Just a born tramp, travelling deluxe. So, with the time to spare, and being down Southern California way, I Just made the most of the situation and made the rounds of a good many of the plates I used to know and love, some from the time I was a child, and some from a little later. "Hay. Dick-Yes. Dick-Yes. I spent last week in good old Southern Cal, and I can produce pro-duce six witnesses to prove it. It's surprising whom you wont see down there. It was on the main stem in Disneyland Tuesday. I was trying to get my camera focused on the castle when somebody called, "Hey, Dick", and I looked, and it was Bob Ashby. He and his wife. Joyce, were taking it all in with the rest of us kids. It was somewhat some-what uncanny. Bob was in Delta when I left; he was In Delta when I got back; but he and Joyce were By Dick Morrison in Disneyland then just the same. How people get around so fast, I'll never know. I aimed my camera again, and about got seared out of my wits. A gong clanged, someone hollered "Whoa!", and I turned around and there was a horse-car bearing down upon me. Only by some miracle mir-acle was I spared being crushed under hooves and wheels. The next night, Wednesday, I hopped the P. E. to Long Beach, and was strolling along the midway mid-way of the Pike when somebody hollered, "Hey, Dick", and it was Walt Wright. Zola made her appearance ap-pearance a moment later, and they told me they had lost their boy. I said, "You mean Derral?", and Walt said, "No, Wally". Now, I'm not sure whether it was one or two boys they had lost. Seems like it was both Wally and Larry. In any event, they were boyless at that moment. Their boy, or boys, must have followed some Will-O-The-Wisp of the amusement center, and, though I didn't hang around long, I imagine they have them back by now.. It was the morning of the dedication de-dication ot the Los Angeles Temple. Tem-ple. I went out to take pictures, for which my family had given me strict orders, and there, near the pond, in front of that beautiful building, someone gave forth with the old, "Hey, Dick", and this time it was Wallace Reid, the old drummer drum-mer of the Midnight Rounders. He was wearing an "Official" badge, just strolling around helping police the grounds. Told me he is now Bishop down there, of the La Cienega Ward, which is almost In the shadow of the new Temple. It just goes to show that there Is salvation even for ex-jazz drummers, drum-mers, if they'll start living right. And so it goes. If plans go through, I'll see Times Square before be-fore the summer's over; and if somebody doesn't yell, "Hey, Dick", I shall be very much surprised, as well as disappointed. c Around The Town There is a charm to mid-Los Angeles. For a block or two In every direction from Pershing square, it hasn't changed much, outwardly, in many years. The buildings are of the old substantial looking masonry-on-steel construction, construc-tion, mostly of the fourteen-story heicht limit, which was imposed long ago because of the danger of earthauakes: which limit pre vents L. A. from ever becoming a skyscraper city. Even the excava tion of the Sauare for the four level subterranian parking space. lpft the general arraearance little jchanged, once the ground level was planted to lawn ana trees aeain. It is out in the suburbs that the modern type new buildings have been iroinz UP. in their Jewel like, airy style; such, for instance, as the Beverly-Hilton Hotel, at Beverlv and Wilshire. which looks more like a very large Christmas tree ornament than a building. The financial center on West Sixth Street stands stolid as ever, it havine weathered depression boom, and war: the Biltmore Hotel maintains its aeine dignity and class; across the Square, Boos Bros. Cafeteria still does business, and it is a place where you can still get lots of eood food cheap. II you don't mind carrying your own tray, and filling your own water glass. The Subway Terminal, I am sorry to Tcport, is closed. Built in 19257" when the Pacific Electric system was at its zenith, it served for thirty years before the encroachments encro-achments by the rubber-tired conveyances con-veyances pushed it into obsolescence. obsoles-cence. The Freeways provide the same swift access to the center of town, not only for public but for private cars as well, as the subway once provided for the big red cars. The elevated terminal at Sixth and Main seems on the way out, too. much of it having been converted as a bus station. Still, the red trolley trol-ley trains go rollocking along from it to some stations, like Watts and Long Beach; though sooner or later all will be displaced by busses. Nothing can equal the flexibility of the busses, and while L. A. is still served by a variety of systems, even, in some sections, there remaining re-maining stretches of both wide- and narrow-guage track of that old complex arrangement which used to carry both red and yellow cars, they are all on the way out. Some rubber tired, dual-trolley cars are running; yet even these, sans rails, lack the flexibility of motor coaches. Yet for all the growth and hange in the suburbs, the old downtown area, centering, say, near Sixth and Olive, remains little changed; showing Its age, a little, but still very much the dominant center of business. Old Oddity There was a time when you could ride twenty miles for a nic- kle on the yellow cars of Los Angeles. Today the lowest fare on the busses Is seventeen cents, and you can't go twenty miles for that. There remains, however, one old car line that you can ride from end to end for a nickel. This is not very far horizontally, but It is quite a ways vertically. It Is call ed the Angel's Flight. I took the round trip out of pure nostalgia, for the first time I ever rode the Angel's Flight was about 1910, when I was four years old. The 315 foot line is the world's shortest railway. It ascends, on a vv- lierever line Kentucky whiskey 'j is enjoyed I the call is for... xo jji)iRin)(Dis: V. V mm, KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURDON WHISKEY KENTUCKY FLPNDEP WHISKEY 'SlXNY BROOK I EKA.SD ! uvrrcKT wffissn 33 grade, from the corner of Third and Hill to Third and Olive. It operates two cars, which are tied together by a double cable which passes over a drum at the top end of the line. The cars would never do on a level track, for they are built to conform to their 33 grade, their aisles consisting of steps, their seats being step-type, too, and their ends and windows being vertical as they stand on their steep track. I asked the ticket salesman at the upper terminal about the line. He said it was built in 1901; is now-owned now-owned by a man named Moreland, I think, and operated under franchise fran-chise as a private business. The two strange cars carried more than 100,000.000 passengers in their first fifty years more passengers per mile than any other railroad, which !s quite a claim when you consider con-sider it is only 315 feet long. I asked. "Does the line make any money?", and he replied that it really does. Said it grosses about $3000 per month. At that rate, I deduce that its owner has a pretty soft thing of it. Wear and tear seem almost non-existent. The old cars seem ageless. His cost for motive power must be negligible, 'because, as anyone can see, the weight of the car coming down furnishes practically practic-ally all the pull necessery to lift the car going up, both hanging on the same cable. If the owner even nets 50 of his gross. It looks like a pretty good thing, but I'll bet he must net more than that. His old system, which antedated the Subway, is still going strong, and its line Is so steep even the motor busses will never displace it. New Oddity My appointments met, I checked out of my downtown hotel, chucked chuck-ed my luggage in a locker at Union Station, and grabbed a bus for Hollywood. With eight hours before be-fore train time, I wanted to see the old town once more, and did. I've been rather critical of Hollywood Holly-wood in this column lately, but maybe I was wrong. Either Hollywood Holly-wood is looking up, or I am. Guess Hollywood, like England, will always al-ways muddle through. Television came, but the movies saw and con-! quered, and now TV Is just an adjunct of movie town. Disembarked at Vine Street, and ! saw the strangest thing. Like a J country boy new ia the city, I ' just gawped, scarce believing my i eyes. A round glass structure on ! Vine, just north of the Boulevard. I took some shots of it, so people will believe me, and then walked up. It proved to be a new office building, just nearing completion, for Capitol Records. What an idea! Building a building the shape of a phonograph record circular. It's thirteen stories high; on top is a black flat disc, bearing the neon-lighted neon-lighted name, Capitol Records, and above that, perhaps fifty feet high, a narrow vertical metal object probably intended to resemble a phono needle. The leasing agent told me the building was 95 feet in diameter; the record company will occupy the top five floors, and the other Honrs will be for lease to others. Two blocks south on Sunset and Vine, is the TV center of the west, where the three big networks have their studios. Yes, Hollywood is coming back, or maybe it never left. Hollywood and Vine is still Holly Wooden Vine, as they pronounce it striking, stri-king, arty, outlandish, gay the crossroads of the world. Night fell, and wanting entertainment enter-tainment of a "different" sort, I found it. A fellow gave me an address 800 North Cahuenga and I went over, and it was a lot of fun. Just what type of entertainment enter-tainment it was I'm not saying, yet. Haven't told anybody but my mother-in-law, and she aint talking talk-ing either. But it was fun, and after that I just had time to get to Union Station via the Freeway, and off for home. Las Vegas U. P. train 108, the Challenger, leaves L A. at 10 P. M., and No. 6, the mail and express, fifteen minutes min-utes later. The trouble is they go through Delta about six hours a-part; a-part; but the Challenger doesn't step herer Nevertheless, the seasoned sea-soned traveller, by taking both, can arrange a short stop-over in Las Vegas at no extra cost, which is what I did. Riding 108, I reached Vegas at 4:45 A. M. Number 6 was not due until 7:50, so I had a two-hour stop over, which I put to good use. Went uptown and won $8.00 at roulette, then got breakfast "at the Sal Sagev, and had plenty of time to catch the "puny express". It was MILLAKD COUNTY CHRONICLE Delta. Utah. Thurs. March 22. 1956. fun riding that one-coach train on up. -and I took some movie shots like showing our engine going round a bend and into a tunnel. i and like that. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. attractive Brand ready for. immediate occupancy This brand new home has just been completed and is ready for immediate sale. Attractive, modern floor plan . . . well-built, well-built, well-designed. 5 rooms with modern bath. Attached car-port with large storage area. Full basement with plenty of space for a large recreation room. Central heating and electric water heater already Installed. Side walk and cement driveway in and rough grading completed on lot. You can move right in and plant lawn and shrubs this spring. We invite you to inspect this Ideal new home. Phone or see us for appointment F. H. A. or G. L Financing can be arranged promptly with a down payment of $900.00 See Boyd Nelson at TTT I Co l ES2irii314BCSSIK3 rwT LUMBER THE SECRET OP THE SMOOTHNESS IS IN THE S E OO N P COUPLINCI Jetaway festures 1WO fluid couplings to give you twice the smoothness! The second coupling fills and spills with jet-like speed to ease yoa into every driving range so quietly, so smoothly the change is almost imperceptible. Just try Oldamobile's Jetaway . . . it's the greatest advance in automatic auto-matic transmissions in 1? years! o n And how you get away! Tith the flashing "go" that Ily dra-Matic made so famous, plus a new liquid smooth-ness smooth-ness that's Jetaway' alone. Just try Jtsway. Pour on the power! You'll see the dramatic difference, hrn OlJsmobile's revolutionary transmission transmis-sion pairs with the Rocket T-3S0 Engine . . . 9.23-to-l compression big! Here's super action with power to spare. What's more, in this Olds yoa wing along in the solid assurance of its sure-footed Safety-Eide Cha-is ... in the smart luxury of its fashionably fashion-ably tailored interior ... with the SUPER SS HOLIDAY COUi welcome ease of the newest in modem power featuresf. And, when it come to looks, Oldomobile's Starfire styling is in a class by itself with its original side treatment and trend-setting "Intagrille Pumper." This Olds caa be yours at a price that's amazingly low. Stop in today and see? S'encforrf M Srm Hmr C jht, (prion! tdr m4 m wmi Snf4 gu See our Gala Show t42& ft fit jStcHfA iffij 11 iL 3 - VISIT THE "ROCKET ROOM"... AT YOUR OLDSMOB1LE DEALERS! SUNSET CHEVROLET COMPANY- CL0 SUNHY BROCK CO, ON. Of KATiCMAL OISTILIRS FHCD. CCR?. LCUISfillS, IT, BOTH SS fRJCf. KIXSO WHiSKCT CCtfASSS 11 CHAIN KilTRAl SPIRITS Phone 311 Delta, Utah |