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. The first Chinese on record arrived in Los Angeles in 1852, but by 1910, Old Chinatown had grown to cover approximately 15 streets. In 1931, a California Supreme Court decision was upheld, approving land condemnations and the construction of the new Union Station upon the site of Old Chinatown. The Los Angeles Chinatown Project Association was formed in 1937 and by February the following year the first tenants were moving to New Chinatown. The dedication ceremony took place on June 25, 1938. The West Gate, which marks the Castelar (Hill Street) entrance to New Chinatown, is partially made of 150-year-old camphor wood. The four Chinese characters across the top, composed by T.K. Chang, translate as "Cooperate to Achieve." The white chop suey blade sign of Man Jen Low (475 Gin Ling Way) competes with the black chop suey blade sign for Tuey Far Low (436 Gin Ling Way), which is interesting because Man Jen Low includes the word family on their sign, where Tuey Far Low has a cocktail sign. Tthe Yee Hung Guey restaurant on the right in the foreground (495 Gin Ling Way) seems to have the biggest crowd outside. The store on the left in the foreground is Yee Sing Chong Co., grocery store and importers located at 950 Castelar (now Hill Street) at the corner of Gin Ling Way.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm. Photographic prints
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