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Title
Hill Street Gate, New Chinatown
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 1939
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.
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
Identifier
00101113
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-010-704 8x10
CARL0005119233
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/39825
Subject
Tuey Far Low (Restaurant : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Man Jen Low (Restaurant : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Yee Hung Guey (Restaurant : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Yee Sing Chong Co. (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Architecture--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)--Chinese influences
Signs and signboards--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Neon signs--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Chinese language
Restaurants--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Stores & shops--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Storefronts--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Streets--California--Chinatown (Los Angeles)
Gin Ling Way (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Chinatown (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
Webster, Erle
Wilson, Adrian

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