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John
Lv 6
John asked in TravelUnited StatesLos Angeles · 8 years ago

James Dean. Competition Motors in Vine Street Los Los Angeles.?

Guys. Did anyone ever visit the old Competition Motors Building in Los Angele's before it was torn down? James Dean spent some time there getting his Porch Spyder ready for that last trip of his in 1955. The building became a local shrine in L.A. The wall Graffiti was said to be a real artwork before the building was torn down to build a banquette centre. What were your impressions of the Dean graffiti and the old Competition Building?

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  • Anonymous
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    I have visited and photographed the Competition Motors building at 1219 N. Vine Street over the decades as it moved into the transition from a John von Neumann Porsche and VW distributorship/dealership in the 1950 and '60's ...to a Goodyear tire service facility aka Vine Auto...to being sub-divided with an Hispanic grocery store in the former Porsche show room location, circa 2000. I don't think that " the wall Graffiti was....real artwork" at all -- simply the neighborhood fell on hard times during the 1990's and it was common-place to see random spray paint on most of the boarded-up buildings. The Armenian Church, the original neighbor to Competition Motors on Vine Street bought the derelict property, tore it down, and built a new, viable banquet center in 2005. John von Neumann, Porsche AG, and various photographers like Sanford Roth and mechanic Rolf Wutherich captured the spirit of motorsports during the fifties and especially on 9-30-55 with historic photos of many Porsche personalities and their private and race cars....especially of James Dean and his 550 Spyder, the ' Little Bastard.'

    Lee Raskin, Porsche 356/550 historian and author.

    Source(s): James Dean At Speed, 2005 Lee Raskin author ( Amazon.com and Ebay.com) Porsche Speedster TYP540 Quintessential Sports Car, 2004, Steve Heinrichs, Marco Marinello, Jim Perrin, Lee Raskin, Charles Stoddard, Donald Zingg, co-authors, Big Lake Media Publishing (Amazon.com) Lee Raskin, Porsche historian/author. Personal recollections.
  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    The sprawling city of Los Angeles, in Southern California, with hotelbye has been known internationally in the film and amusement business, specially for Hollywood, a place that has drawn future actors and actresses from in the united states for pretty much a century. Nowadays, LA is really a culturally diverse town, with a growing culinary scene, extraordinary buying, excellent museums, and a name to be the creative middle of America. Marina del Rey is one of many areas many visited from Los Angeles. Here you will see the Fisherman's Village, High-end Eateries on the Marina, Venice Beach near Washington Boulevard, Mother's Beach, Burton W. Chace Park, Marina del Rey WaterBus, Free Summer Concerts and more.

  • 8 years ago

    I'm wondering who said it was "artwork". Grafitti evolves, and many times, the art gets painted over by taggers with no talent. Since it's been about 10 years since the building was torn down, I'm not sure you'll find anyone that saw it. You might try to Google "Los Angeles murals" or Los Angeles Graffiti to see if any record was ever made.

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