An amazing album of 8 X 10 photos, more than fifty of them, not only of the exterior but of every room in one of the grandest of old West Adams homes, the 4,946 square foot Craftsman mansion at 2241 S Hobart Blvd. Built in 1910 by Los Angeles merchant Benjamin F. Johnson, one of the founders of what is today Downtown's Grand Central Market. This wonderful album was made available to us by Benjamin F. Johnson's great granddaughter, Katharine Free Liappas.
The 2008 annual WAHA Living History tour at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery at Washington Blvd. and Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles was held September 26. Volunteer actors pictured here portrayed the following personages at the site of their interment: Monroe Salisbury (1875-1935). Broadway stage actor who achieved fame in early silent films, best known as Allesandro in the 1916 12-reel production of Ramona. Played by Chuck Kovacic.
Ernestine Wade (1906-1983), old-time radio performer and pioneer black actress best remembered for her role as "Sapphire Stevens" on the comedy Amos 'n' Andy radio show (in the 1940s) and subsequent television show that ran from 1951 to 1953. She also did voice-overs in the animated Disney film Song of the South. Played by Phyllis Williams.
WAHA's annual Living History Tour at the historic Angelus Rosedale cemetery, September 29, 2007. This year the tour featured portrayals of: Marshall Neilan, libertine film director, 1891-1958 (played by Kyle Wilson) Louise Glaum, silent film vamp, 1894-1970 (Jennifer Cook) Ernest R. Whitman, actor and radio personality, 1893-1954 (Derrick Mathis) Francis Murphy, temperance evangelist, 1836-1907 (Todd Gallahan)(with assistant "Patsy", played by Dan Hakes) John Marcellus Stewart, gold miner and later Los Angeles nurseryman, 1828-1913 (Adam Janeiro) Eliza Griffin Johnston, 1821-1896 (played by Kathy Ralston), famed Western artist and widow of Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnson. The photos are by Leslie Evans
Every year, WAHA selects different individuals buried at the cemetery to portray. At this year’s Living History Tour, visitors met:
• Jean Goldkette, the “Prince of Jazz,” a jazz pianist and bandleader whose orchestras included, at various times, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, and Tommy Dorsey; • William H. Shores, the first African American employee of the Security Trust & Savings Bank, founded in 1889 (predecessor to Security Pacific Bank/Bank of America); • Katharine Putnam Hooker and her daughter, Marion Osgood Hooker, both adventurers, artists and creative spirits who were friends of John Muir and astronomer George Ellery Hale; • Remi Nadeau, grandson of a Los Angeles pioneer whose family once owned the land the cemetery sits upon; and • Everett Sloan, an actor (Citizen Kane) and member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater troupe.
A Festival of Lights in West Adams Avenues. WAHA's 22nd Annual Holiday Historic Homes Tour and Progressive Dinner. Our 22nd Annual Holiday Historic Homes Tour and Progressive Dinner, held Saturday, December 6, and Sunday, December 7. Photos by Harry Demas
