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Image / Mei Wing Store and Bamboo Inn, China City

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Title
Mei Wing Store and Bamboo Inn, China City
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 193-
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio." His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for "Fantasia," is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
Christine Sterling, the civic leader who created Olvera Street, created a similar project for the Chinese American community. China City covered the entire city block from Spring on the west to Main on the east and from Macy (now Ce´sar Cha´vez) on the south to Ord on the north, with gates on Main Street, Spring Street and Ord. By 1935, the development had an atmosphere of a Chinese village or small town, with booths and stalls along narrow winding streets. Unfortunately, due to two major fires over a ten-year period, China City came to an end by the early 1950s.
Two unidentified women, each holding a child, stand in front of the Mei Wing Gift Store and Bamboo Inn, located on Dragon Road in China City. Partial view of a decorative gate holding a lantern over a pool is visible behind them on the right.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 14 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00102400
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-011-276 8x10
CARL0005148660
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/37598
Subject
Mei Wing Gift Store (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Bamboo Inn (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Women--California--Los Angeles
Girls--California--Los Angeles
Children--California--Los Angeles
Stores & shops--California--China City (Los Angeles)
Storefronts--California--China City (Los Angeles)
Architecture--California--China City (Los Angeles)--Chinese influences
Dragon Road (Los Angeles, Calif.)
China City (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Group portraits
Portrait photographs
Schultheis Collection photographs

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