Amazing Photographs of the Mt. Lowe Railway’s Thrilling, Terrifying Circular Bridge From the Turn of the 20th Century

Call it 19th-century L.A.’s idea of a thrill ride. Leaving the safety of granite slopes, trolley cars arced out onto a creaking, cantilevered wooden trestle, soaring over a 1000-foot sheer drop – with no reassuring seat belts or safety bars.

Even without Circular Bridge, the Mt. Lowe Railway would have been judged an engineering marvel. From the flatlands of Altadena to the Alpine Tavern on Mount Lowe, the “Railway to the Clouds” gained 3,121 feet in elevation over 5.7 miles. Climbing one of the steepest mountain ranges on the continent between 1893 and 1938, the railway twisted and wound its way up a roadbed blasted from granite. The longest straightaway stretch measured a mere 225 feet. On one segment, passengers transferred to an incline railway that scaled the mountainside at a 60 percent grade. At the railway’s upper reaches, snowdrifts buried the tracks in winter months.

But Circular Bridge, with its views of Catalina, was a highlight of a passenger’s ride as well as an ingenious feat of engineering: a bridge that made nearly a full circle while climbing a steady 4.5 percent grade. It was engineer David Joseph MacPherson’s solution to a vexing problem: without a switchback, the steel-on-steel traction railway—limited to a maximum grade of seven percent – could never achieve the elevation it needed to get to the top of the line. But rail cars require a wide turning radius, one not possible in the San Gabriel Mountains’ rugged topography. So, for a brief moment, the tracks left the mountainside, knuckles turned white, and the Mt. Lowe Railway soared over open air.

Photograph of the first passengers of Professor S.C. Lowe’s dramatic Mount Lowe Railway, July 4, 1893. There are a couple of dozen people in the rail car (number “9”) which is headed toward the camera on the circular bridge. The trestle structure is visible below the rails. The hotel on the mountaintop is visible at left as is the rail approach to the hotel.

View of an early style open-air trolley traveling through Los Flores Canyon heading up toward the famous Circular Bridge, ca. 1893.

A group of sightseers travels on one of the trolley cars on the Mount Lowe Railway as it rounds the area of track known as the Circular Bridge. Passengers can look out over the valley below, 1894.

Mount Lowe railway car on circular bridge, showing car from the side, 1895. In the background at center, a steep mountain hillside covered in vegetation is visible. Wrapping around the center of the mountain, a small circular track can be seen. Several large poles are visible alongside the track supporting an array of wires. At left, at least four trestles can be seen supporting the bridge from the large drop below. Above the trestles, a small railway moves along the track. A small metallic arm extends from the top of the car and attaches to one of the wires hanging above.

A Pacific Rail car carries passenger to and from Mount Lowe. Note, another car is at the top of the hill rounding the Circular Bridge, ca. early 1900s.

See more»

Pictures of Marilyn Monroe Hosts a Press Party Held at Her Home in Los Angeles in 1956

These vintage photos of Marilyn Monroe hosting a press party held at her home in Los Angeles taken by Earl Leaf on March 3, 1956.

See more»

23 Amazing Vintage Photographs That Capture Everyday Life in Los Angeles in the Late 1930s

In 1939, Fortune magazine commissioned photographer Ansel Adams to document the city’s aerospace industry as the country was shoring up its air power. He captured more than 200 images for the assignment, many focused on the lunchtime rituals of factory workers along with everyday street scenes he encountered as he ambled about the rapidly developing region.

Adams visited a bowling alley, a forest of oil derricks, and a trailer park, one of many that popped up to meet a fierce demand among the workers for temporary housing. But only a handful of Adams’ images were published with the Fortune article, which marveled at the juxtaposition of the arsenal-making effort in the land of orange groves, neon signs, and movie stars.

It wasn’t until a couple decades later that Adams rediscovered his old photos and offered them somewhat meekly to the Los Angeles Public Library. “The weather was bad over a rather long period,” he wrote in a letter. “None of the pictures were very good.”

The library respectfully disagreed. “Even though you say they are not your best work,” a librarian wrote in response, “they present an interesting and useful study of the Los Angeles area in the late 1930s.”

Three men relaxed on a bench overlooking South Hill Street in Los Angeles. (Ansel Adams/Los Angeles Public Library)

Hanging laundry at Olympic Trailer Court on the border of Santa Monica and West Los Angeles, circa 1940. (Ansel Adams/Los Angeles Public Library)

Workers at Lockheed’s Burbank plant gathered on their lunch break. (Ansel Adams/Los Angeles Public Library)

A young girl outside a market at Olympic Trailer Court. (Ansel Adams/Los Angeles Public Library)

People on Santa Monica’s Ocean Park pier. (Ansel Adams/Los Angeles Public Library)

See more»

Vikki Dougan in Black Backless Dress on the Streets of Hollywood in 1957, the Series Photo That Changed Fashion Forever

If you were to conjure an image of typical 1950s fashion, there’s no doubt the visual would be brimming with knee-length skirts and shoulder covering tops.

It was an era, like most before it, of conservative clothing.

The bikini had been invented only a handful of years before, and society was still grappling with the fact hem lines were creeping towards the knee.

And then Vikki Dougan came along.

While actress Veronica Lake is typically assumed to be the muse behind Jessica Rabbit, it was the lesser-known and near-forgotten Vicki Dougan along with her notorious derrrière that really put Jessica on the map. Pin-up girl turned (struggling) actress, Vicki earned herself the nickname, “The Back” in 1950s Hollywood for so often wearing her outrageously provocative backless dresses.

In 1957, the Oakland Tribune wrote a piece about how Dougan’s style, and subsequent rise to prominence, was part of a carefully crafted image created for her by publicity man Milton Weiss.

Initially, he decided to have three backless dresses made for her. He then gave his client the nickname “The Back”, and had her wearing a backless creation in almost all of her public appearances.

His first move was to have three expensive dresses made for her — without backs. He then titled his client “The Back” and had her appear at previews and parties in her plunging creations. Soon local photographers zeroed in on Miss Dougan’s bare spinal column, and gagsters began originating such cracks as, “Vikki Dougan makes the best exits in town.”

Finally Vikki was banned from someone else’s preview party because her backless formal was drawing too much attention. The incident received proper press coverage. Today Vikkie — born Edith Tooker in Brooklyn — is riding toward fame on the strength of her clothes, what there is of them. It’s a trend, all right.

Dougan’s fame would take flight, and she would score roles in various films, photo spreads in prominent magazines such as LIFE as these candid photographs were taken by Ralph Crane in 1957.

According to Messy Nessy Chic, America had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Vikki and her backside however, and she was often mocked in gossip columns. By 1959, Dougan and her derrière had pretty much disappeared from the Hollywood scene, unable to find work. The daring pin-up girl was forgotten along with so many other names trying to make it in showbiz, until Disney/Touchstone made a little film in 1988 called Who Framed Roger Rabbit? While Dougan received very little recognition as a Jessica Rabbit muse, her trademark style and sex appeal became iconic.

See more»

When Muhammad Ali Stopped a Man From Jumping Off a Ledge in Los Angeles, 1981

Without a doubt, Muhammad Ali is the most influential boxer of all time. Everywhere you go, people are always throwing one of his quotes around. Everyone knows he’s a caring individual. But most people don’t know about one fateful day of January 19, 1981, when Ali saved a young man from jumping off a ledge.

Muhammad Ali (right) leans out of a window of a high-rise building on Jan. 19, 1981, in Los Angeles and talks with a man, later identified by reports as Joe, who threatens to jump. (Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times)

“I’m no good,” the 21-year-old man shouted, leaning out over a ledge nine floors above Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. “I'm going to jump!”

No one in the crowd below knew his name on that day, Jan. 17, 1981. But that didn’t stop some in the crowd from shouting for him to jump, to give everyone the show they wanted. He’d been up there for hours, shouting that the Viet Cong were coming for him, resisting all police efforts to bring him down.

And then, in what must have seemed like a dream to the man on the ledge, Muhammad Ali appeared at a nearby window.

“It’s really you!” the man said in disbelief.

The most famous man on the planet, Ali knew a little something about venturing out on ledges. Knew what it was like to have the Vietnam War twist you up inside, even if this particular man was too young to have served. Knew what it was like to have hostile crowds screaming for your blood.

He’d been nearby on business, and when his manager told him of the standoff, Ali drove his Rolls Royce the wrong way down Los Angeles streets, flashing his headlights all the way. When he arrived at the scene, Ali ignored the crowd of onlookers shouting his name, and sprinted into the building to get to the man's side. Police feared he had a gun, and Ali led off with that.

“I’m coming out,” Ali shouted. ”Don’t shoot me!”

“I won’t shoot you,” the man said. “I don’t even have a gun.”

Ali then began the delicate work of bringing the man in off the ledge. “I’m your brother,” Ali shouted. “I love you and I wouldn’t lie to you ... I want to help you.”

The man told Ali that he couldn’t find a job, that no one loved him. “Why do you worry about me?” the man shouted to Ali. “I’m a nobody.”

The former heavyweight champ replied that to him, the man wasn’t a nobody.

Ali and the man spoke for 20 minutes, and on more than one instance, it appeared that even Ali’s gift for inspiration wasn’t enough. But give Ali six rounds and he could wear down anyone. He convinced the man to open the door to the fire escape, then embraced the man and pulled him inside. Ali later escorted the man to the Sawtelle VA Hospital, and promised to get him the help he needed.

“I’m your brother. I love you and I wouldn’t lie to you” – Muhammad Ali on January 19, 1981 stopping a young man from suicide. (Boris Yaro/Los Angeles Times)

Ali was at the time just two days past his 39th birthday and three months removed from his worst loss ever, a brutal beating at the hands of Larry Holmes. Ali’s speech had begun to slur and his hands had begun to shake, the earliest signs of the neurological damage that would soon ravage him. Ali fought just once more, losing to Trevor Berbick at the end of 1981. But that moment a hundred feet above Wilshire Boulevard showed more of Ali's heart than any of his final fights.

“I’m going to help him go to school and find a job, buy him some clothes,” Ali told reporters afterward. “I’m going to go home with him to meet his mother and father. They called him a nobody, so I’m going home with him. I’ll walk the streets with him and they’ll see he’s big.”

Whether Ali followed through on his pledge has been lost to history, though Ali would often support those in need without seeking the spotlight. Bottom line, though: Ali gave the man a second chance at life.

“No doubt about it,” a police official said at the scene that day. “Ali saved that man’s life.”

Fascinating Behind-the-Scenes of Roman Polanski’s ‘Chinatown’

Chinatown is a 1974 neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, produced by Robert Evans and starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. Inspired by the real-life California water wars, the film tells the story of private detective “Jake” Gittes, hired by a socialite to investigate her husband’s affair, he finds himself caught up in a web of double dealings, deadly deceits, personal scandals and political corruption that will eventually come crashing together for an unforgettable night in Chinatown. The film’s script, which won Towne the Best Original Screenplay out of 11 Oscar nominations, is now regarded as one of top greatest screenplays ever written.

Reportedly, a number of heated clashes happened among Polanski and his two leading stars during the filming. It was said that Polanski, at one point, tried to smash Nicholson’s portable television with a mop and, on another occasion, approached Dunaway then plucked a stray hair from her head that was catching the light. There was even a rumour that Dunaway urinated into a cup and threw it into Polanski’s face after the director rejected her plea for a bathroom break, which she furiously dismissed in a 2008 interview with The Guardian.

Below are some photos from the making of the film, photographed by Orlando Suero and Steve Schapiro, courtesy from Corbis and Jordan Krug:

See more»

When Kids Played With Alligators in Los Angeles in the Early 20th Century

Originally located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Joseph ‘Alligator Joe’ Campbell’s Alligator Farm was relocated to tourist hotspot Lincoln Heights, California in 1907. The animals were loaded onto a train and a banner was hung from the side advertising the advent of the attraction.

After paying their 25 cents admission fee, visitors could enjoy the hundreds of alligators, of various sizes and ages, that lived in the back garden - and, as the postcards show, there were opportunities to ride the reptiles. In time, the farm began to supply alligators for the movie industry and feature in such films as King Solomon’s Mines, The Adventures of Kathleen, Walt Disney’s The Happiest Millionaire, and numerous Tarzan films.

Most famous was an alligator called Billy. Visitors to the farm would witness Billy sliding down chutes and wrestling underwater with famed alligator wrestler George Link, and, until the 1960s, most of the alligator jaws seen in films belonged to Billy, as he would automatically open his mouth when a piece of meat was dangled above him, just out of view of the camera. Billy was one of the alligators so domesticated that his owners could put a saddle on him and give their visitors a ride. Another highlight was 250lb Galapagos tortoise, Humpy. The owners’ children would put a saddle on Humpy and Billy each and race them around the garden. Humpy would regularly stray off the path but was invariably the winner.

In it’s hey day the farm was the most complete reptile collection in the world, as various other species of snake and lizard were introduced over time, and would entertain 130,000 visitors a year.

See more»

The Short Life of Elizabeth Short aka the “Black Dahlia”

On the morning of January 15, 1947, local resident Betty Bersinger taking her child for a walk in a Los Angeles neighborhood stumbled upon a gruesome sight: the body of a young naked woman sliced clean in half at the waist.

The naked corpse of murder victim Elizabeth Short.

The body was just a few feet from the sidewalk and posed in such a way that the mother reportedly thought it was a mannequin at first glance. Despite the extensive mutilation and cuts on the body, there wasn’t a drop of blood at the scene, indicating that the young woman had been killed elsewhere.

The ensuing investigation was led by the L.A. Police Department. The FBI was asked to help, and it quickly identified the body—just 56 minutes, in fact, after getting blurred fingerprints via “Soundphoto” (a primitive fax machine used by news services) from Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles Police Department flyer on Elizabeth Short.

The young woman turned out to be a 22-year-old Hollywood hopeful named Elizabeth Short—later dubbed the “Black Dahlia” by the press for her rumored penchant for sheer black clothes and for the Blue Dahlia movie out at that time.

Short’s prints actually appeared twice in the FBI’s massive collection (more than 100 million were on file at the time)—first, because she had applied for a job as a clerk at the commissary of the Army’s Camp Cooke in California in January 1943; second, because she had been arrested by the Santa Barbara police for underage drinking seven months later. The Bureau also had her “mug shot” in its files and provided it to the press.

Mugshot taken of Elizabeth Short in 1943 for underage drinking.

In support of L.A. police, the FBI ran records checks on potential suspects and conducted interviews across the nation. Based on early suspicions that the murderer may have had skills in dissection because the body was so cleanly cut, agents were also asked to check out a group of students at the University of Southern California Medical School. And, in a tantalizing potential break in the case, the Bureau searched for a match to fingerprints found on an anonymous letter that may have been sent to authorities by the killer, but the prints weren’t in FBI files.

Who killed the Black Dahlia and why? It’s a mystery. The murderer has never been found, and given how much time has passed, probably never will be.

Elizabeth Short murder letter to the Los Angeles Herald-Express.

Evidence concerning the case shown strewn across a table at the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, Los Angeles, California, 1947.

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924 in the Hyde Park section of Boston, Massachusetts, the third of five daughters of Cleo and Phoebe May Short. Around 1927, the Short family relocated to Portland, Maine, before settling in Medford, Massachusetts the same year. This is where Short was raised and spent most of her life. Short’s father built miniature golf courses until the 1929 stock market crash, when he lost most of his savings and the family became broke.

In 1930, her father’s car was found abandoned on the Charlestown Bridge, and it was assumed that he had committed suicide by jumping into the Charles River. Believing her husband to be deceased, Short’s mother moved with her five daughters into a small apartment in Medford and worked as a bookkeeper to support them.

Troubled by bronchitis and severe asthma attacks, Short underwent lung surgery at age 15, after which doctors suggested she relocate to a milder climate during the winter months to prevent further respiratory problems. Short’s mother then sent her to spend winters in Miami, Florida with family friends. During the next three years, Short lived in Florida during the winter months and spent the rest of the year in Medford with her mother and sisters. In her sophomore year, Short dropped out of Medford High School.

In late 1942, Short’s mother received a letter of apology from her presumed-deceased husband, which revealed that he was in fact alive and had started a new life in California. In December, at age 18, Short relocated to Vallejo to live with her father, whom she had not seen since she was six years old. At the time, he was working at the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard on San Francisco Bay. Arguments between Short and her father led to her moving out in January 1943. Shortly after, she took a job at the Base Exchange at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc, living with several friends, and briefly with an Army Air Force sergeant who reportedly abused her. Short left Lompoc in mid-1943 and moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking at a local bar. The juvenile authorities sent her back to Medford, but she returned instead to Florida, making only occasional visits to Massachusetts.

While in Florida, Short met Major Matthew Michael Gordon, Jr., a decorated Army Air Force officer at the 2nd Air Commando Group. He was training for deployment to the China Burma India Theater of Operations of World War II. Short told friends that Gordon had written to propose marriage while he was recovering from injuries from a plane crash in India. She accepted his offer, but Gordon died in a second crash on August 10, 1945, less than a week before the Surrender of Japan ended the war.

She relocated to Los Angeles in July 1946 to visit Army Air Force Lieutenant Joseph Gordon Fickling, whom she had known from Florida. Fickling was stationed at the Naval Reserve Air Base in Long Beach. Short spent the last six months of her life in Southern California, mostly in the Los Angeles area; shortly before her death, she had been working as a waitress, and rented a room behind the Florentine Gardens nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. Short has been variously described and depicted as an aspiring or “would-be” actress.] According to some sources, she did in fact have aspirations to be a film star, though she had no known acting jobs or credits.

On January 9, 1947, Short returned to her home in Los Angeles after a brief trip to San Diego with Robert “Red” Manley, a 25-year-old married salesman she had been dating. Manley stated that he dropped Short off at the Biltmore Hotel located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, and that Short was to meet her sister, who was visiting from Boston, that afternoon. By some accounts, staff of the Biltmore recalled having seen Short using the lobby telephone. Shortly after, she was allegedly seen by patrons of the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge at 754 South Olive Street, approximately one-half mile (0.80 km) away from the Biltmore Hotel.

Short’s unsolved murder and the details surrounding it have had a lasting cultural intrigue, generating various theories and public speculation. Her life and death have been the basis of numerous books and films, and her murder is frequently cited as one of the most famous unsolved murders in American history, as well as one of the oldest unsolved cases in Los Angeles County. It has likewise been credited by historians as one of the first major crimes in post-World War II America to capture national attention.

See more»

Intimate Photos of Sonny & Cher Hosting a Party to Welcome Twiggy to Los Angeles in 1967

A set of intimate photos shows English model Twiggy and American pop music duo Sonny & Cher at a party held in her honor in Beverly Hills on April 30, 1967.

See more»