As the prosecution began its case in the War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg, 3000 G.I.s were back home, waiting in line for Thanksgiving Dinner at Castle Steak House. They were guests of the Los Angeles Herald-Express.

The year was 1945.

Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library

Downtown Los Angeles was no stranger to adaptive reuse. Dr. Walter Lindley built California Hospital at 315 W. Sixth Street in 1887. Years later, you could yourself buy a hat for $2.00, or rent a room for 50 cents at “The Lindley.”

The year was 1912.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Halloween. Celebrated with free carnivals for kids at all Los Angeles City Recreations and Parks Department Playgrounds.

The year was 1961.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Sixth and Hope was the birthplace of Biola University. Back then, it was still called the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.

The year was 1926.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

Once all 10 are up it will reportedly be the world’s longest length of the wall outside of Berlin, and it’s available for viewing through November 14.

Flickr photoset is here.

A few weeks ago, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina announced a $45 million renovation of this memorial to the nearly-extinct doughboy veterans of WW I. (God bless them all–my own late father-in-law included.) I’d hoped her plans would include some suggestions for more and better use of this handsome but obsolete facility, but not so….… Molina did promise a new kitchen and plumbing and that the renovated Hall would meet national LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design) standards. These standards are usually brought to new buildings at their planning stage and cost a whole lot to attain. I’ve never heard of them being applied to the rehabbing of an 83-year old masonry pile built in the dawn of America’s  energy glut. So this part of the proposal  sounds like trying to turn a 1926 Hupmobile into a plug-in hybrid.

Patriotic Hall has long been a structure in search of a day-to-day function. It’s got a library and a fine 660-seat auditorium (the perfect size for chamber music concerts and small elementary-school graduations, but not much else) and galleries of pictures and displays from America’s wars going back nearly 150 years. It also houses the American Society of Military History, LA Chapter No. 5 of Disabled Veterans, the LA County Council of the American Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and The Friends of Patriotic Hall. Not many  tenants for a building this size.

The problem is location. The 1800 block of South Fig St. is far from Civic Center and well off the downtown tourist trail. And LA County  veterans are served well enough by their local VFW and American Legion posts–plus the VA of course. The last time Patriotic Hall was really in the news was when it was renamed in 2003 after the late Bob Hope (My father-in-law, Capt. (ret’d) Min Hamilton of the  Army’s 42nd “Rainbow” Division, would surely have preferred that it be renamed after his own 1917 commander, Gen. John J. Pershing). Before that, I recall its being used in the early `80s as a shelter for homeless veterans. Maybe that was its best-ever use. But  you suspect the true purpose of this renovation is to create jobs, rather than to enhance a county public facility. The rehab plans had been lying around for a while and somehow the money was suddenly there. Now it will go into pay envelopes and the economy and help keep working people fed. That’s fine  with me. These recession days, none dare say “Pork.”

But Molina’s press release didn’t offer a clue as to where that $45 million fixerup money suddenly came from. Asking elsewhere around the county offices, I discovered this is in fact, funding from the ARRA or ‘‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’’ – better known as the U.S. Stimulus Act that President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009.  It’s odd that Supervisor Molina, one of the region’s top Democrats, wouldn’t mention where her funding originated. And maybe–even– show some gratitude.

By contrast, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, a registered Republican, made it very clear earlier this year that $160 million in Stimulus funds now available to LA County for pure employment creation came right out of the ARRA. (These funds will make for 10,000 varied temporary jobs lasting at least until September 2010).  Just last week, the county voted a couple more 7-figure public-works style programs, also confessedly funded with ARRA money. It’s not, you might think,  something you’d want to hide.

Politics being what it is, the more you express your gratitude to  the president and the members the congress people who got the act passed, the more likely you are to see more of said money. That apart, what’s wrong with the ancient  custom of just saying “thank you?”  Even if you happen to be the almighty Supervisor of LA County’s First District?

Here’s hoping hard that history doesn’t repeat itself.

In June 1973 in New York, his wife, Yoko Ono, pushed for a separation and said he should take May Pang, their personal assistant, as his boy-toy while they reassessed their marriage.

Lennon and Pang in LA, 1974

In quick order, Lennon moved to LA with Pang and flung himself into what has become known as his “Lost Weekend,” an eighteen-month period during which he caroused, recorded some middling material, caroused, reconnected with Paul and Ringo, caroused– you get the picture.

From a rented home in the Hollywood Hills, Lennon lived out loud and large in public places in Los Angeles, making a drunken, coke-fueled spectacle of himself with stars and players of the day. When confronted by the press with criticism, he said, “So it was a mistake, but Hell, I’m human.”

Shortly thereafter, Lennon cleaned up his act.  He and Yoko reunited (in NYC, backstage after Lennon’s cameo during an Elton John concert) into renewed matrimonial bliss, had a son together, Sean, and lived a happy family life in relative seclusion at the Dakota until that fateful, sad night in December 1980 when Lennon’s fame tragically caught up with him.

From where we are with sexual politics in the early 21st century, maybe some wisdom can be gleaned from the way the Lennons openly navigated their relationship in the 1970s and the way it was received. Little public pillorying of John, no tearful media statements from Yoko, no desperate extortion attempts from lurking opportunists due to needlessly keeping secrets about the bumps in a relationship’s road, no knee-jerk accusations about employer/employee dalliances from self-appointed know-it-all scolds.

Just honesty about how a particular marriage of interest was going; forthrightness about monogamy and the lack thereof occasionally as a reality check; and not a speck of shame, contrived or otherwise, from anyone involved.

Imagine.

Hotel President Herman B. Sarno was joined by film starlets Heidi Heidemann, Beverly Anderson, and Kathy Marlowe, comedian Jack Carson, film Actress Connie Towers, and singing star Byron Palmer for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the luxurious Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel.

The year was 1955.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

When you hailed a 1929 Fiveborough Paramount Cab from the Yellow Cab Company, you were never charged for extra passenger or traffic delays.

The city was Los Angeles. The year was 1934.

Photo from the USC Digital Library