1039 Ardmore Ave. followup.....

I just got back from Sturgis, and of course, one of the first "catch up" things I had to do was to sift thru all the Emails I got while I was gone. Not bad, I only had 60 or so to go thru. Among the offers to make my tits bigger, and my penis longer/fatter, I had these additional bits of information sent to me on the Psychedelic Love Temple. Read along, and learn some more..........

I really need to thank Jahluv for finding this for us, and the other information here he's passed on. Jahluv was parusing this book - Black Gold, The Lost Archives of Jimi Hendrix, when he ran across this entry you'll see below. Basically, it's a notation on a filming/music performance that Hendrix filmed inside the Temple. It also says that some of this footage shot has been used in several Hendrix documentarys. Now that you know what the inside of the Temple looks like, has anybody actually seen any of this footage, or where it can be located, or seen online? I've never seen it, so pass on any info to me if you have.

Obviously, for Hendrix to want to shoot this inside the Temple, it must have been a pretty well-known location in all the right hip circles then, and not only to the hippies and the bikers. It also must have been a real trip to have seen Hendrix and The Experience playing in the "concert" area of the Temple, I can only imagine! Most importantly, the archive entry gives us a positive location and address for the Psychedelic Love Temple - it being 1039 SOUTH Ardmore AVENUE......

The archive entry from Black Gold, mentioning the Valentino Mansion, 1039 S. Ardmore Ave, Hendrix, and the demolition of the Temple.

This really surprised me, that in the past, when it was known as the Ardmore Mansion, it was once owned by Rudolph Valentino. This had to have been his first mansion, because he also owned a 2nd mansion later on in the Whitley Heights section of L.A., which was demolished (along with the original Hollywood High, and many other historically significant houses and buildings that people tried to save) when the Hollywood Freeway was originally built, and later, in 1925, built his most famous Falcon Lair at the mouth of Benedict Canyon - also demolished in '06 for an entirely new mansion.

Also, I found out that Harry Houdini's Mom lived on S. Ardmore Ave, a couple blocks North of the Ardmore Mansion/Temple at the same time period as Valentio did. Also, Jahluv said his Grandma lived up until '68 on S. Normandie, just 8 blocks from the Temple, and she said that the neighborhood back then was integrated, but the majority population was still white. I'm thinking that "El Jake" was getting into the "Baron's Punch" when he wrote his story for Choppers Magazine, and said it was close to the center of the Black Area of L.A. See, you can't always believe what you read as fact.

An article, dated Jan. 24, 1967 that Jahluv found snooping around in the L. A. Times database, on a trip to the Long Beach Library. I've highlighted the bust at the Temple in the red block. Read the whole article, it's kinda humorous...

I also recieved an Email from a "scottg", who said that his Mom was sure the Temple was the place she spent time at in the '60's. His Mom grew up in the W. L.A./Beverly Hills area, and knew quite a few of the MC clubs/members from the Hollywood area. She said that the Temple at that time was owned by a guy who went by "The Duke Of Earl"/"Little Earl". He was going to pass on my blog to her, and see if she'd like to send along more info to me. I haven't heard anything from his Mom yet, but we'll see......

I also got an Email from Harpoon, who said that The Psychedelic Love Temple is his favorite Roth/Mann painting, and he almost went to the Brucker Auction at the Peterson Automotive Museum in May of '06 to bid on it. He was sad he didn't, because it went for the least amount of money of all the paintings. Actually, all those original Roth/Mann paintings went for a song at that auction, I think that the highest one went for around 6g's.

Harpoon wants to "hunt down" the Temple's site next trip I make out to L.A. He also related to me that Droopy and he had spoken about the Temple at El Camino last year. Droopy (what a surprise!) said he had been to the Temple back then, and used to (again, what a surprise!) party for days on end there.

A map from Google, showing the present day location of 1039 S. Ardmore Ave. L.A, CA. I had found this location on previous Google serches, but wasn't sure if this was indeed the right address/area where the Temple originally stood. It was.

The Temple was located in what is now the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area of L.A. The major boundry streets are Olympic Blvd. to the N., W. Pico Blvd. to the S., S. Normandie Ave. to the E., and Western Ave. to the W., if you'd like to check it out yourself sometime.

Here's what's there today - 1039 S. Ardmore Ave.

If the Temple was razed in early '70 as the Hendrix Black Gold archive entry states, it must have been a vacant lot for almost 15 years. The real estate development company who built this duplex didn't do so until '86-'88.

In my previous post, I stated that the Temple sat on a piece of property that was elevated above Ardmore Ave. In the Above photo, you can see exactly how high that was. It looks like they dug back into the property's elevation for the parking area, and built the duplex on the back end of the plot. Look how high it is from the blacktop, to the bottom of the duplexes! If that's the case, the Temple was larger in size, and higher in elevation than it appears in photos, and the property it sat on was a pretty good chunk of land in and of itself.

This property is also listed as 1039 S. Ardmore Ave. by the development company who bought the property that The Temple sat on. It's a 54 unit condo that they built (also in the '80's), after the duplex. I can't find out if this building sits on what was part of the original Ardmore Mansion grounds, or not. It may have been adjoining properties that they acquired and razed, as this building extends from the Mansion property, to the end of the block.

In his Emails, Jahluv expressed the same thoughts that I have wondered about all these years as well. If The Temple has had such a famous and storied history, dating back to the late 1800's, why aren't there more photos of its exterior in existence? Surely there have to be photos taken by the "underground press" of the 60's out there, and surely there have to be photos from Valentino's occupation of the mansion. But, as you can see, they appear to be as rare as hen's teeth. I'm not giving up on this one, so as before, any and all information/photos is most appreciated - especially from somebody who "was there". Send them on to:

irishrich@shamrockfabrication.com

and, I'll post it here.