Jayne signs an autograph

Back to Jayne Mansfield at Disneyland, circa May 1957. As luck would have it, I have been able to acquire a few more images from her family visit to the Park. In the previously posted shot above, Jayne is attempting to sign an autograph on the back of a cast member. The recently purchased image below shows her writing it on the side of the passenger car. I am going to “assume” that she had difficulty writing on the cast member’s back and decided to use the train siding instead.



A closeup of the sign on the back of the passenger car:



This shot has Jayne’s husband, bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay at left, Jayne and daughter, and radio/TV star Art Linkletter, near the Casey Junior attraction:



I wouldn’t bet the house, but the guy at left looks an awful lot like silent screen star Harold Lloyd:



MELTDOWN! It would appear the Jayne’s daughter is on the verge of a meltdown on the King Arthur Carrousel; it had been a very long day!



See more Jayne Mansfield photos at my main website.

Marmont Monday: Franco illustrated

Actor/Director/Artist James Franco published a book in 2014 titled Hollywood Dreaming: Stories, Pictures, and Poems. It contains a piece titled “Chateau Dreams,” which takes place at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. If you’ve read my blog, you know it’s pretty much favorite place. And Willis loves it, too. The above shots were taken by Mona Kuhn for the debut issue of MisterMuse magazine. I immediately recognized the headboard from the Chateau:



The below Mona Kuhn polaroids of Franco were also taken at the Chateau and have circulated on eBay for awhile.



Some have sold, some have not.



I decided to pair some of my Chateau shots taken over the years with the appropriate prose from Franco’s piece:

Chateau Dreams

I picture them all, in different positions,
And the same positions,
And I, like a sculptor, would position them, and mold them.
Or like a choreographer put them through the same paces,
Again and again.



There is an area off the main hotel building
Where the bungalows are.
At the center of the arrangement of chalk bungalows
There is an oval pool like a blue pill,
Huddled by ferns, palms, and banana trees
Tended to be wild,
Webbed by a nexus of stone walkways.



In the day, in summer,
Mermaids and hairy mermen drape the brickwork.
At night the underwater lights electrify the pool zinc blue;
The surface cradles the oven-red reflection of the neon Chateau sign



Above Sunset, above the paparazzi and miniskirts.

There is a painting of a blond sailor,
Dressed in blue and red and white,
A stoic version of myself.
For nine months in ’06, while fixing my house,
I stayed in the bungalows,



First in 82, next to the little Buddha in the long fountain
Trickling.



Lindsay Lohan was about.
The Chateau was her home and the staff were her servants.
She got my room key with ease;
She came in at 3 a.m.;
I woke on the couch, trying not to look surprised.
Instead of f***ing her.
I read her a short story about a neglected daughter.
Every night Lindsay looked for me.
My Russian friend Drew was always around like a wraith—He, like the blond painting,
was my doppelganger—
Writing scripts about rape and murder.
A Hollywood Dostoevsky, he gambled his money away.



We played a ton of Ping-Pong.



In ’82, John Belushi died from a speedball in Bungalow 3;
In ’54, forty-three-year-old Natalie Wood in Bungalow 2;



In 2005, Lindsay Lohan lived in Room 19 for two years
Because she “didn’t want to be alone.”
Ambulance calls were a regular antidote to her demon rights.



Midway through my stay,
I changed to Bungalow 89.
In that room,
I read a bunch of Jacobean plays
About revenge, seduction, and lust.



In Bungalow 89 there was the sailor on the wall,
Glass-eyed and pale,
My stoic self.



The room was on the second level,
The exterior walls hugged by vines.

Every night Lindsay looked for me and I hid.
Out the window was Hollywood.

See more Chateau Marmont cottage/bungalow photos at my main website.

Disneyland August 1958, Pt. 1

This glorious image from August 1958 shows the colorful attraction posters and Mickey Mouse entrance floral just as the E. P. Ripley is pulling into the Disneyland Main Street Train Station.



In Town Square, Vesey Walker is conducting the Disneyland Band as guests relax on the surrounding benches. Below, White Wing Trinidad Ruiz pushes his cart down Main Street, collecting the horse puckey from the Horse Drawn Streetcars.



Last image for today is a shot of the Monsanto House of the Future, perched atop its concrete foundation off Central Plaza.



I’m glad plastic homes never caught on, aren’t you?
 
See more Disneyland photos from my collection at my main website.

Old Town: Church of the Immaculate Conception

At the heart of Old Town you can find the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Whether you are Catholic or not, it is hard to deny the beauty and serenity of this little gem surrounded by the festive businesses and restaurants of one of San Diego’s biggest tourist areas.



Edited from the church’s website:

Saint Junípero Serra celebrated his First Holy Mass in California on July 2, 1769, near the site of the present Immaculate Conception Church, and it was on the hill overlooking Old Town that he planted the cross which marked the site of the Mission and the Presidio. In 1849, the parish was established with the appointment of Rev. John C. Holbein as the first pastor. He laid the cornerstone for the old adobe church in 1851. Masses were celebrated in the homes of residents of Old Town. A chapel dedicated to The Immaculate Conception was dedicated in 1858. It still stands and is known as the Old Adobe Chapel on Conde Street. The cornerstone to the present Immaculate Conception Church was laid in 1868 under the direction of Father Antonio Ubach. Due to the population swing toward the south, a lack of funding and a devastating fire in Old Town, it was not until July 1917 that the church was completed and Masses began to be celebrated. It was dedicated by Archbishop John J. Cantwell of Los Angeles on July 6, 1919.



In 1998, the church was seismically retrofitted to withstand earthquakes and it was rededicated by Bishop Gilbert E. Chavez. On July 14, 2019, the parish celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Dedication of Immaculate Conception Church with a Mass officiated by Bishop John P. Dolan. It now serves over 300 families throughout the San Diego region as well as visitors from around the world.



The decor is tasteful and simple; and unlike the surrounding areas of this church, inside it is very serene.







For those that didn’t take Latin, “Sanctus” means holy, sacred, or consecrated. Once a requirement in Western education, it began to be phased out in the 1960s. I was able to bypass it as a student; not sure if that was a good thing or not, but I remember being relieved as a kid that I didn’t have to take it after hearing what a struggle it was to learn and how nobody used it in the real world anyway. But I digress, as always.



If you decide to hit Old Town for a margarita or a meal, take a quiet moment first and check out this historic church.



See more Church of the Immaculate Conception photos at my main website.

Cinco de Shirley

Six years ago, I did a Cinco de Mayo themed Temple Tuesday post; one pitiful photo that is new to my collection is what I have to offer today. Scanned from a badly faded transparency, this undated image is most likely from 1949. The chopped caption on the sleeve states, “Ektachrome by Arnold Johnson. Shirley Temple shops for imported Mexican fabrics in the Maya de Mexico shop in Beverly…”
 
Deductive reasoning would conclude that the shop was in Beverly Hills. I did the usual internet deep dive and came up with very little about the shop itself, however, I did find an Etsy listing for a skirt that has a Maya de Mexico label as well as some eBay listings for similar items. Perhaps the caption was off and the shop was a different name but carried these colorful and vibrant fabrics. Any vintage Beverly Hills aficionados know the story?



It would appear that based on the decor in her 1949 home, Shirley was no stranger to bold prints!



Above and below, Shirley poses with then husband John Agar and her first child, Linda Susan.



These were shot for the April 1949 issue of Modern Screen, shown below in full color!



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Casa de Bandini Memories

In the 1950s, this structure in the Old Town district of San Diego was known as the Casa de Bandini, an upscale tourist motel.



Going back to its origins, Casa de Bandini was built between 1827 and 1829 as a one floor Spanish colonial style home for cattle rancher Don Juan Bandini. In the 1850s Bandini sold his home to Albert Seeley, who added a second floor to the property, converting it into a stagecoach stop and hotel with 20 rooms. The hotel prospered as a stagecoach stop for layovers between Los Angeles and San Diego. By 1888, Seeley sold the hotel due to an increase in railroad use and the popular Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego. In 1928, Don Juan Bandini’s grandson, Cave J. Couts Jr., bought the property and restored it as a memorial to his mother, Ysidora Bandini de Couts, renaming  it “The Miramar,” a hotel and restaurant. In 1945, James H. and Nora Cardwell purchased the Bandini property, with their son Frank renovating the building into the motel you see in these vintage images. The Cardwells eventually sold the property to the state of California in 1968, when Old Town became a state historic park. Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s proceed to modern times!



I became aware of it when it was Casa de Bandini, a lively Mexican Restaurant which was a popular spot for both tourists and locals.



Mariachi bands, festive decor, tasty Mexican dishes, and an outdoor patio made it my go-to choice for both food and margaritas when my friends and family came to town.



And then there’s that one time I got frosted tips, but that’s another tale entirely…



Margaritas of every flavor and color were served at Bandini in glasses as big as you desired!





Then in typical fashion when the government steps in to “help,” things go down the toilet. Diane Powers was the masterful businesswoman behind the successful Casa de Bandini restaurant, making it thrive for over thirty years. In 2005, the state park agency decided not to renew her contract and instead gave it to Delaware North, an unimaginative company who dutifully went along with the state park’s desire to make Old Town a more authentic and historically correct place to visit. 



Revenue plunged under the new management, dropping from $18 million to barely $8 million. From a  San Diego Union Tribune article:

Dave McGuire, co-owner of Bailey & McGuire Pottery, a retail shop within the state park, said the era the park is trying to recreate was not an especially romantic time. "If you read all the history books, it was not that appealing," he said. "It was dusty and dirty."...It is unclear whether people want a history lesson or just a tasty margarita when they visit Old Town.

In spring 2009, Delaware North withdrew from its contract with the state and management changed hands to the Old Town Family Hospitality Corporation, headed by local restaurateur Chuck Ross. Recently, I decided it was time to revisit my old haunt and see how it was holding up. Hoping to see if the menu had improved since I first ate there after the “historic renovation,” I learned that they only serve a limited menu on Fridays and Saturdays during happy hour. That’s it. Not surprisingly, on the Friday afternoon that I visited the once vibrant patio looked like this:



Empty. Completely. The Casa de Bandini restaurant I used to frequent was so popular they didn’t have to take reservations. Patrons dutifully waited in line for an hour or more to get a coveted table by the courtyard fountain. Today, you could walk in and be seated immediately.



This is the type of fare you can expect.



A beat-up fake leather menu and a piña colada served in a basic bar glass. Stupendous!



While I applaud the restoration efforts to the interior of the hotel…



it looks more like a museum than a spot that encourages people to visit and enjoy.



If you want to visit what once was, you need to trek up north to a strip mall in Carlsbad. Diane Powers took her successful business and relocated it about 20 minutes away from where it started. And yes, it’s doing well.

See more Casa de Bandini/Cosmopolitan Hotel photos at my main website.