Car Hotel flophouse scene

That was real. These were the places that "homeless" people used to spend the night in. Then along came code enforcement, fire inspections, do-gooders, urban renewal (wicked combination of do-gooders, developers and grant money). Most of these old flop-houses went away and people could no longer buy a bed for the night for 25 cents. A step up if you had a bit more luck and income was a small rented room, maybe $15 a week. These buildings and lodgings are mostly gone, too.

Did you look at the sign in the men's "dorm" of the Car Hotel? Hot shower and bed, 30 cents. Bed only, 25 cents. "Lean" (like against a wall), 10 cents. "Sit and lean," 15 cents. Several men in the movie were slouching in chairs at a table in the center of the room, that is the "sit and lean."

In the early 1980's, I was looking at a commercial building to buy. It was in an older part of town. Two story, it had a post office and several small businesses on the ground floor. When I asked the realtor to show me the second floor, he said, "You don't want to go up there." To which I replied, "Oh yes I do," so we went. Almost the same exact scene as in the Car Hotel. It was the middle of the day, over-weight woman at the cage who was the straw-boss. Burning cigarette stub dangling from her lips, perfect film character herself. Men lounging around in their underwear.