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Image / Patio dining at Cafe Caliente

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Title
Patio dining at Cafe Caliente
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 1937
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.; Original print is very light.; 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.
Cafe Caliente, opened in 1936 and designed by architect Wayne McAllister, was named after his earlier resort in Tijuana, Mexico called Agua Caliente. The restaurant was located in Olvera Street adjoining the Avilla Adobe and was rebuilt from the walls of Los Angeles' first bonded winery warehouse. The dining room accommodated 120 guests, not including temporary sidewalk seating and an outdoor patio that was used for summer parties.
Cafe Caliente is painted over the arched entrance to this restaurant in Olvera Street, and a striped awning covers the patio dining. Tuxedoed waiters mix with musicians, while a man in an embroidered shirt watches. Signage behind the musicians announces the featured players at the Cafe Caliente floorshow. White linens cover empty table set for service. Three women sit on a stone bench with the rooster shaped cocktail sign behind them.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00097190
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-006-977 8x10
CARL0005072259
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/36916
Subject
Cafe Caliente (Restaurant : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Restaurants--California--Los Angeles
Musicians--California--Los Angeles
Patios--California--Los Angeles
Waiters--California--Los Angeles
Signs and signboards--California--Los Angeles
Architecture--California--Los Angeles--Spanish influences
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
Olvera Street (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.)
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
McAllister, Wayne,1907-2000

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