FAMOUS Marcia Campbell Photo Location found

[Rik Hoving]

A week or so ago we did a post on the main site about a famous Marcia Campbell photo shoot with a number of Barris car.
Photos from this photo shoot are amongst the most popular Custom Car photos ever. But so far the location has not been identified. (at least not published as far as we know).

Mats Olsson send me a message he most likely found the location. So we looked it up on Google maps.. and at first it looked about the same but a lot had changed. The more we looked into it the clearer it became this was actually the same location. It took us a while to figure out how the cars had been parked, but this really is the location.
8616 California Avenue, South Gate, California

We will be adding some more info and photos to this post later
Thanks Mats… another mystery solved.

This is the little house that appears in the line up photo above Carl Abajian. (we added a green border on the overview photo)

And this photo shows the aprox. location of the line up photo shoot. As you can see the big building was not there yet.
The blue is where there used to be a street, the red is for the cars and Marcia’s location when she took the photo. The green shows the house in the photo above.

Enjoy the beauty of Customizing

[David]

That is really something that Mats was able to figure that all out from Google Maps! It all looks so different now than it did then and LA is a big place to go combing through to find a spot like that. Great job!!

[Jeff Neppl]

This is some detective stuff right here and this is what lights the fire for me.Great work on finding this location.

[Steve Boutte]

Wow! So cool! Great work, Mats!

[Cole]

While it has changed, I’m always so glad to see the old buildings are still there.
I love old buildings almost as much as I love old cars.

Enjoy the distinction that is inherent in owning a customized car.

[Jeff Neppl]

I kind of always wondered why Marcia always took pictures using the side of this building instead of the front. Well maybe she did but im just not remembering right now.

[Rik Hoving]

Jeff Neppl wrote:

I kind of always wondered why Marcia always took pictures using the side of this building instead of the front. Well maybe she did but im just not remembering right now.

Possibly because the main road in front of the building had to much traffic. There are some cars driving on that road in some of the photos Marcia took from the cars sitting on the side of the building. So I guess it was not possible to park the cars on the main road and for Marcia to stand in the middle of the street taking the photos.

See the traffic on the main street (California Ave). btw the small buildings in the main street are still there as well.

Enjoy the beauty of Customizing

[Paul Kelly]

Great Detective work.
In most older magazine features the background has as much a story as the car being featured.
And in some cases time has preserved the setting, or totally changed it.

[Mats Olsson]

Thanks for the kind words,

I saw a picture taken outside a diner in one the Barris Books and the text said that the picture was taken in South Gate. The cars outside the diner are the same as on the lineup so I guessed that they were taken at the same time. The Building in the lineup photos looks publik so I started to look on Google Maps in South Gate. Finaly I searched on City Hall and found a similar building, I used street view and found details that lookes like the house on the photos but it was only similar, then I looked around the block using the street view and found the police station on the oposit side of the block. Then I started to compare the photos to the building and the buildnings in the background. I contacted Rik and he did some detective work on the location I found and he confirmed my finding.

[Håkan Andersson]

Great work Mats,, but now back into the shop,,, to keep up the great customizing work as well !! 😉 🙂

[Jeff Neppl]

Another Marcia Campbell photo location spotted and looking good still. I love her photos and this custom is an all time favorite of mine.

[Rik Hoving]

Thats really great Jeff, thanks

Do you have an address so that I can go for a google map cruise…

Enjoy the beauty of Customizing

[Jeff Neppl]

5801 South Eastern Ave.
Commerce Ca

Maybe this should of been it’s own thread Rik,what do you think ?

[Rik Hoving]

Thanks Jeff… thats is really great.

Yes.. perhaps a famous Custom Car photo location thread would be in order….
There are so many great places…. so we know, others we still do not know.

Enjoy the beauty of Customizing

[Dave (a.k.a. rodncustomdreams)]

Looks like Marcia was able to get out of the car on that occasion!! Ha, ha!

Great sleuthing guys! I think I might do a tour of a few of these locations on my next trip south..

Dave

Jus' creepin' along..

[Author]

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