This map was drawn by Stan Watson, CFA of Hollywood, CA. It was
published in the White Tops for Nov. 1936.
What is called on the map the "Olympic Stadium" was built in
the 1920s as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum seating some
75.000 (named "Memorial" for LA's World War I vets). With the approach of the
Olympic games it was enlarged to seat over 100,000. It is the home field of the
Southern Cal Trojans and has hosted the likes of the NFL Los Angles Rams (now
St Louis) and the LA Dodgers when they moved to LA from Brooklyn for the 1958
season.
Just east of what is shown here as City Hall we see the site of
the "Calif Zoo." It originated as the Selig Zoo, established there by movie
producer William Selig. He used so many animals in his silent movies that he
established the zoo to house them. He seems to have sold it to others in the
mid-1920s and thereafter it operated under several different names. It finally
closed in 1940.
The leopard lady, Olga Celeste, was long associated with
the Selig Zoo and its successors.
The last and most famous animal resident was the male Asian
elephant Billy Sunday. He became unmanageable and was shot on October 16, 1939
- - there was much coverage of his "execution" in the press.
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Sunday, May 31, 2015
From Richard Reynolds #1
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5 comments:
The Beatty railroad show always played a big date at Washington & Hill until its final year- 1956- when the lot was not available and they played the Stadium parking lot to smaller crowds. An omen of what was to come that year.
The Russell show wintered at the Selig at least one year after the zoo closed.
After the original John Robinson show closed in 1911, John III had a deal with Selig and John IV was at the west coast zoo to oversee the arrangements. The arrangement did not last much more, if at all, beyond one season.
By way of inheriting the collection of our late Leonard V. Farley, I have this original 1936 WHITE TOPS. The map is a loose approximation of the old sites, but is valuable as the only one I know which gives us the vast lay-out. Goebel is misspelled as Gobel. Take a warning about the Compton of today--do not risk going there hoping to find remnants of the Tom Mix era.
My dad wrestled at the Olympic in the 30s. Match reports sometime list the city as Santa Monica instead of Los Angeles, which is understandable, looking at the drawing. The Santa Monica mountains almost go to the stadium.
Off topic, the 1930 all-talking movie "Rain or Shine" was on Turner Classics today. "Synopsis:
A woman inherits her father's struggling travelling circus, and looks to the circus's manager, Smiley, to save the day when the performers conspire to strike during a performance."
Thanks, MIKE. I had not known of RAIN OR SHINE, and will try to look it up.
IMDb runs synopses and full cast lists for many titles--depending on what is sent in, and vetted for posting. Some movies make it in spite of obscurity, and some we'd like to know of, do not. If anyone has good skinny on anything about films or film folk that will stand up to IMDb's scrutiny--like my bios for Clyde Beatty and Parley Baer, write them up and submit them. You're contributing history, so go for it.
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