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Streets and Highways Raymond Chandler Traveled

I found 33 different places where Chandler lived between 1912 and 1959, first alone, then off and on with his mother and finally with his wife. Plus, there were five other places where a Raymond Chandler lived, but probably not Raymond T Chandler. All furnished rooms or apartments, some of the places were in Riverside, Cathedral City, Big Bear and La Jolla, as well as all over greater Los Angeles between downtown and Santa Monica. The result was a lot of driving on his part, not to mention the driving he did in researching locations for his short stories and novels. Of course, in the years before 1932 he drove to work in downtown Los Angeles and to the Signal Hill oil field, possibly one in Ventura (on Ventura Ave), and perhaps others. He obviously knew the highways and byways of Los Angeles and Southern California very well.

The pictures below, most from a Foster and Kleiser (a Bill Board Advertising Company) salesman's collection, will give you an idea of what the Los Angeles area looked liked in the 1940s - lots of empty land!

First up, Foothill Boulevard, Route 66 - "The Mother Road!" Foothill stretches over 50 miles, with a few breaks, from the Newhall Pass in Sylmar (San Fernando Valley) to San Bernardino. As you recall from "The Big Sleep," Joe Brody tails Canino and Eddie Mars' wife along Foothill - from in front (good luck!) - to Art Huck's Garage in the hills above Realito. There is no Realito, but Rialto is real, and Foothill runs right through it, and on to San Bernardino just to the East. The Chandlers probably drove along Foothill on their way to Big Bear. I don't know about a cyanide plant, but there is a fireworks factory in them thar hills. Of course, Philip Marlowe drove along Foothill on his way to Art Huck's and back. Could the Philips 66 Gas Station pictured in the Postcard image be the model for Art Huck's Garage

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  © 2007 Loren Latker

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