Mystery Photos
I had some scans that I decided to share, thinking that they were related to some Santa Cruz photos that I'd posted back in January. It's the same family, anyway. But after sending them to Santa Cruz expert Ken Martinez, I learned that these are going to have to be filed under the category of "Mystery Photos".
So there's Dad, and his eldest son, posing in front of "Casa Alta". A clue! Or so I thought.
I found a postcard of a hotel in Santa Cruz called Casa Alta. I admit that it does not resemble the building seen in the first picture, but figured that it might have just been taken from a different angle. Ken says that there is no Casa Alta in Santa Cruz, and there never has been, and that I should be ashamed of myself (well, he didn't say that last part). Maybe it's the Casa Alta in Argentina?
For those of you who care, here's the back of the postcard:
I hoped that this also might have been Santa Cruz, but again, Ken said "Nope!". Not that there is a lot to go by, but this family was also at Disneyland, so we know that they visited SoCal. Darn those mysteries, why can't I solve them??
32 comments:
Major-
Of course I remember that family, but can be of no assistance when it comes to identifying any of the locations. But it's still fun to look around.
Thanks, Major.
Hmmm, maybe a search for "Club Casbah" or "Pizza Village" would help narrow down the location of that Casa Alta photo? I wonder if that club ever hired Charles Boyer to stand outside, and tell passersby to "COME to the Casbah!"
In the Club Alta pic, like TM! suggested, I tried looking up Casbah Club (or Club Casbah), which is in the background here. I found a couple places by that name, but none seemed to resemble this location.
In the last pic, the younger of the Hands-In-Pockets bros. looks like he just caught a whiff of something unpleasant. Better check the bottoms of your shoes, guys. Lots of ye olde cars in this photo. GDB Car Guys, ready, set, GO!
Sorry I couldn't solve the Mystery Locations, Major. Maybe someone else can come up with a possibility or two. It's fun to play the Mystery Game nevertheless. Thanks, Major.
Okay, after doing a search for "Club Casbah," I've come to the conclusion that the first pic was taken in Liverpool, England, and that the structure in the background is Pete Best's mother's home.
Mystery solved! Next, please! Haha. Yeah, I found that Liverpool reference too, TM!. Good sleuthing to pinpoint Pete Best's mother's home! ;-)
I give up searching and am calling it a night. I tried googling every combination of things—including “Elsie Smith”—or whoever that is—on the front of the Casbah sign. (This reminds me of those Condé Nast travel magazine solve-the-location articles they had each month...anybody else remember/do those?? They may still have them, but I haven’t looked in years.)
Sue
Are we sure this isn’t Oxnard?
I’m stumped, but the pics are fun.
Still confused, if there was no Casa Alta in Santa Cruz, how are there postcards of it? Did I misread that?
Thanks Major!
JG
I hate to contradict Ken, but I'm positive that first photo was taken in Santa Cruz at the intersection of Beach and Riverside, about where the arched "Boardwalk" sign is located today.
The Casa Alta postcard is enough to drive the most dedicated Internet sleuth a bit mad (fortunately, I'm already a bit mad, so no worries). The front of the postcard has a photo with the sign "Casa Alta Court, Office 182 Beach St," while the back of the postcard says "Casa Alta Hotel Apartments and cottages, 701 Beach Street, corner Raymond Santa Cruz." Well, which is it?
I took a look at the July 1950 phone book for Santa Cruz County and it turns out it's both...and neither.
Casa Alta Hotel Apartments is listed at Raymond & Beach, while Casa Alta Court is at 119 Liebbrandt. So it's two separate buildings at two separate locations. Nothing for 182 Beach in 1950, but that was probably just the business office address, which wouldn't have to be on site.
If you look at the corner of Beach & Raymond in Google Maps, you see that the building at the top of the postcard is still standing, although it's now called the "Shoreline Apartments." It's directly across the street from the back side of the Haunted Castle. 119 Liebrandt (note that a "b" has been dropped since 1950), site of the Casta Alta Court, appears to either be gone or totally remodeled beyond all recognition.
"OK, Chuck," you say (go ahead - say it), "but what does this have to do with the location of today's photo?" I'm glad you asked! If you go over to Historic Aerials and type the coordinates for the Casa Alta Hotel Apartments/Shoreline Apartments (36.96485537040157, -122.01679003326291) into the website's search bar (where it says "geo coordinates or street address"), it will pull up a modern-day map of Santa Cruz. Zoom the map in as far as it will go and put the stoplight at the intersection of Riverside Ave and Beach St in the middle of the viewer. Click on "aerials" below the search bar, then click on "1952" or "1956" (1956 is the clearer image).
When the photo comes up, find the building on the beach with the roundish roof on the SE corner of that intersection. That is the building in the right background of today's first photo (note the cupola on top in the GDB photo). The grassy area with the flowers is visible just to the west (left) of that, which corresponds to the location of the "Boardwalk" sign today.
Another clue is that the boy's shirt in that photo is the same as the one he wore in the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk photos posted back in January.
Interestingly, Club Casbah, Elsie Smith, and Pizza Village do not appear in the 1950 phone book, a testament to the ever-changing nature of the American business environment.
Unfortunately, no clue on the second photo, which was probably taken on a different day based on their clothing. You say this family went to Disneyland; have you posted those photos yet? The older boy and his outfit look familiar.
I wonder if that Casa Alta (Hotel or Motel) sign belongs to a structure BEHIND the building our friends are standing in front of. Granted, I’m on my cell phone and not wearing glasses, at this moment, I may even be commenting on the wrong blog, right now...but I’m not positive where that sign is positioned...
Sue
Sue, the sign would have been behind the building and across the street.
Chuck, I see YOU have YOUR glasses on....
Sue
Because I DON’T have my glasses on and am on my phone, I’m very slow...and my comments are coming out late and are reading like I’m a smart-butt to Chuck....that’s not my intention!
Sue
Addendum...the building behind the family in today's photo is the original Beach Boardwalk Hippodrome, which housed the 1911 Loof Carousel until it was torn down and replaced in 1966-67. The carousel is still operating today in this same location.
Yay! You solved the mystery - excellent work, Chuck!
Sue
I found several photos of that same family at Disneyland posted previously at GDB in 2016 and 2017. I knew they looked familiar, but it’s been a minute.
They wore the same clothes on one day of their visit to Disneyland as they are wearing in the second photo of today’s post, so I am going to guess that this photo was taken that same day somewhere within easy driving distance of Disneyland.
There are probably other posts that I missed, but here’s that same family on their 1957 visit to Disneyland, which must have lasted at least two days since they are wearing different clothes than in the linked post above:
Fabulous Autopia
Frontierland River
The Indian Village
wow, Chuck, amazing sleuthing and documenting.
I'm looking at the second photo, and it has very few clues. Can't even get a good look at even one license plate on a car, including looking at the relections in the windows!
all the signs seems to be just barely unreadable.
this could use an expert in municipal street light styles, which would be a start!
@ Chuck-
WOW... nice work-! (Now - when do we all leave for Oxnard-? Ahh - Santa Cruz-!)
Nanook, there’s at least a car or two for you to ID!
TokyoMagic!, yeah, I looked up “Club Casbah” too. Pepe LePew spent some time there, but otherwise I can find nothing. “Pizza Village” is way too generic (even though it makes me hungry).
JB, I should be grateful for a clue like “Club Casbah”, sometimes all I can see in city views are signs that say “SHOES”. Maybe The Clash spent time at Club Casbah? I’m sure little bro was just squinting in the sun, a common problem when people want to take your picture in “good light”. Though I can’t entirely rule out that he might have stepped in something too.
TokyoMagic!, poor Pete Best. He had it all. Of course everyone knows that I am often called “The Seventh Beatle”.
JB, I guess this was after the Stuart Sutcliffe days?
Sue, yes, I spent too much time trying to solve this one - and this was after several “successes” with other slides (all lost now, after my computer glitch). I don’t believe that I’ve ever looked at a Condé Nast travel magazine, I’m more of a “Cat Fancier” person.
Chuck, it does have the pleasant look of Oxnard, but there’s something not quite right. Good guess though!
JG, ha ha, good point! I blame my own stupid writing. What can I say, I was very itchy the day I wrote that.
Chuck, what does this have to do with the location… oh, you already predicted I would say that. Are you clairvoyant as well? Anyway, WOW, you did some truly impressive detective work! I’m not sure I was aware of “Historic Aerials”, that’s a neat resource. I’d say that the round building sure looks like the one in my first photo. With the name change (“Shoreline Apartments”, so creative), I can’t blame Ken for not being aware of a hotel that was there before he was born. I think the fact that the shirt on that boy was the same was one of the clues, although a family on a road trip will have limited fashion choices over a period of weeks. Anyway, thanks for all the time you clearly spent, you were a lot more successful that I was!
Sue, yes, I was thinking that the sign was not actually a part of the building that we can see!
Chuck, if elected President, I will outlaw signs across the street.
Sue, hey, I’m wearing glasses too.
Sue III, my comment is for your comment.
Sue IV, ha ha “smart-butt”. I appreciate that you are being delicate for the GDB audience!
Chuck, oh cool, that makes sense! And it’s neat knowing that there is a Carousel, though it is a bummer that the 1911 version burned up. I blame myself.
Sue, yes, Chuck has earned a stinky cigar today.
Chuck, ah, I’m glad you found the family at Disneyland, because I wasn’t sure how to find them. I was going to look after responding to the comments. It’s interesting to think that the second photo might be somewhere in Anaheim (or thereabouts).
LTL, yes, the clues are nonexistent in photo #2. I’ve been doing a lot of photo sleuthing for random roadside views, and sometimes all it takes is one little sign, but holy moly, that one is impossible. OR IS It?
PS, just yesterday I stumbled on this cool story of pedestrian bridge west of the Minneapolis Airport -- placed across the highway for no apparent reason -- and one person's quest to find why it's there.
Lots of research!
Spoiler alert (not really): at the end, the answer becomes clear
https://tylervigen.com/the-mystery-of-the-bloomfield-bridge
Good grief! When Chuck does his "Chuck thing"... he really DOES it! Nice work, Chuck! And thanks for the carousel history link.
Nanook, you should wait for the Oxnard Film Festival, which will have “A Salute to Jim Varney”.
LTL, wow, who knew that a story about a pedestrian bridge could be interesting? I guess I just like a mystery. And the author did his research, by golly! It ultimately makes sense that the bridge was there to be used by the school (and church). Thanks for that link!
JB, you ain’t kiddin’!
Found it!
Photo #2 is the At-Ocean Motel in Long Beach, CA
i went on a hunch... first Santa Monica, then Santa Barbara, then Laguna Beach, then Long Beach.
just google... downtown motel 1950s Long Beach
I'm a little sick today, and am resting in bed... so, it's fun to have a challenge
8-)
LTL, by golly, that does look like it! The wedge-shaped blue-ish sign, the gray rockwork on the wall, the landscaping, the palm trees a little further down... yep!
LTL, wow, crazy! I still don’t really understand what you searched for, besides the names of those cities. All we had to go on was “T-E-L”, which could have been “hotel” or “motel”, and could have been anywhere in California. Well, kudos to you, it sure looks like the same sign, same cypresses (or whatever those are), and even that palm tree.
JB, truly incredible.
Hi, Major. oops, now I remember... via Google Photos, I clicked to a vaguely similar motel on a site that sells old postcards. then it dawned on me to search that postcard site for "long beach motel"
https://www.hippostcard.com/search?keywords=long%20beach%20motel
... then I googled At-Ocean Motel to find the best link. I resisted buying any postcards, though I was tempted to buy the At-Ocean paper bath mat I saw(!)
@ LTL-
Just insane on your part-! (Can the Lindbergh baby be far behind-?)
@ Major-
Well, since you asked...down front is a two-tone 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, probably in Pinecrest Green and India Ivory. To its right is a 1948 Oldsmobile Club Sedan, possibly in Cayuga Blue. And to its right is another Oldsmobile - this one a 1956, in what looks like Cirrus Blue. (You're on your own for the cars across the street).
LTL, holy cow! I am in awe of your ability to find the location of the second photo. I at least had a few more clues to work with on the first picture. And we’re Bush League compared to the guy in the story you linked. That’s dedication!
Major, I don’t think I was as clear as I thought I was. The 1911 Loof carousel is still operating on the same site in Santa Cruz. It’s just the 1911 building that was torn down and replaced in 1966-67. Like the building it replaced, the “new” (now 56-year-old) building, a “Space Age” structure is very much a product of its time. Funny to think it’s now a year older than its predecessor was when it was torn down.
Chuck, you single handedly slayed Jay Nartubez today. Now he's going to go in hiding out of shame for not knowing his own hometown. ;-)
Great job solving the mystery! I'm amazed how you did it.
Major, great action today by your readers solving the mystery photos.
Wow, today is a real "Come for the pictures, stay for the comments day!"
I really appreciate Black and White Mom's effort to find matching jackets for two boys of such different sizes. They don't match perfectly, but it was a darn good try.
LTL, even after you described your process I am still amazed. I love to look for old postcards for reference, but “T-E-L” would not have been enough for my tiny brain!
Nanook, I just love the names of the colors. So artsy! “Pinecrest Green” and “India Ivory”. “Cayuga Blue”, fantastic. You did great.
Chuck, oh I see, I’m glad that the 1911 Loof carousel is still around. Boardwalk amusement parks seem to be so prone to fires that I guess I just shrugged, took a bite of my toast points with caviar, and chuckled wryly. Yes, I am a weird dude. Thanks for clarifying!
K. Martinez, it’s no big deal! You can’t know the history of every hotel and motel. Yes, it was fun to watch the detectives do their stuff!
This post is a prime example of why re-visiting an earlier post is a good idea.
Like Beef Wellington or Lobster Pot Pie, good research takes time, and when the history of GDB is studied by future internet scholars in their domed cities on Mars, this is one that will live in out-famy, which is the opposite of infamy!
Thanks, Chuck, Ken, Nanook, LTL, and everyone!
JG
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