In this intensely colorful photo, we’re watching a Pacific Electric Red Car streetcar turning from southbound Hill Street, onto westbound Venice Blvd where it will head out of downtown Los Angeles and head for the corner of San Vicente and Genesee Ave, where it will turn around and go back. Three things that caught my eye: the semaphore traffic light on the left, the Richfield gas station on the right, and that gorgeous streetlight near the middle. As best as I can tell, this photo is circa late 1940s. (My thanks to Ralph Cantos for is assistance identifying the location of this photo.)
This is how the corner of Hill St and Venice Blvd looked in May 2024. Rather bland, isn’t it?
Some photos just pop with almost blinding color, don’t they? I assume this one is a Kodachrome, because they tend to be the most vivid. I have virtually no information on this image other than my friend at the Petersen Automotive Museum that the two newest cars both appear to be 1955 Plymouths. I’m not sure which cookie Nabisco were asking us to switch from, but I guess it was the almost-identical Hydrox, which sounds like a name that Research-and-Development came up with, not the Marketing team.
In this 1953 photo, we see the Newsreel Theater which stood at 802 S Broadway at 8th St in downtown Los Angeles. It’s something we don’t have anymore: a theater that showed only newsreels. These days, we’re inundated with news 24/7, but back then, it was a rarer commodity for those who prized knowing what was going on in the wider world. This theater had opened in 1927 as the Tower Theater, and went through several incarnations in its lifetime, reverting back to the Tower in the 1960s. (Side note: down the street at the Rialto, “The Moon is Blue” was playing. Its claim to fame was being the first major American film to be released without the Production Code seal of approval, which signaled the beginning of the end of the controversial censorship code.)
These days, the Westwood Fox Theatre is surrounded by a bustling Westwood area with shops, businesses, UCLA, and restaurants. But back in 1932, when this photo was taken, the back of it looked out over empty fields in almost all directions. The theater is only a year old in this photo and I’m guessing there must have been more development on the other side because I’m left to wonder how many people actually went to this cinema in its early days. That’s UCLA’s Fraternity Row on the hill in the background so maybe it was mostly students.
I’ll take any and every chance to post a photo of a Van De Kamp’s – especially if it’s in color as we get to appreciate the striking (Delft?) blue windmill that adorned the roof of every Van De Kamp’s bakery or restaurant. This one stood on the southwest corner of Laurel Canyon Blvd at Sylvan St, in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. The photo was taken in 1962 which makes me wonder of the zippy little convertible at the corner is still with us.
Having lived in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s, I’m used to a Pershing Square that’s filled with large concrete balls, expanses of tile, and a weirdly abstract, angular tower. In 1952, the park was excavated to build an underground parking garage, so Angelenos lost this peaceful, shady, almost bucolic oasis in the middle of their bustling city. This shot of the square is from around 1890, when it was known as called Sixth Street Park, and Los Angeles was still pretty much only what we now think of as downtown LA. How nice it must have been to stroll down the paths and maybe sit on a bench and watch the world amble by.
In this circa 1953 photo, we’re looking southeast across the intersection of S. Spring and First Streets in downtown Los Angeles toward a restaurant called Nibblers. It was a small chain of diners who were also at Wilshire & San Vicente as well as Wilshire & Spaulding Dr. in Beverly Hills. I don’t know what they were like; I just love the name: Nibblers. It sounds so inviting, warm, and friendly, doesn’t it? I also love the name on the white van over to the left: Lucky Lager.
This is the sort of photo I’m always thankful for that someone with a camera thought to take a snap of what was happening in front of them. On this day, the photographer was standing on Sunset Blvd, across the street from the Hollywood Palladium, when a Southern Pacific Railroad truck transporting Chevrolets stopped at the El Centro Ave corner. Whoever it was whipped out their camera and froze a moment that would have been a common sight back then, but for us captures a circa early 1950s memory that so few of us have, and yet so many of us cherish.
Looking at this photo, it doesn’t take much imagination to think you’re looking at some grand, 17th century building somewhere in Europe. But no, it’s actually in California. This is the Pasadena City Hall on Garfield Ave in Pasadena. It was built in 1927 and (according to Wikipedia) combines elements of both Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture. These days, it is of course surrounded by neighboring buildings, but back in 1930, when this photo was taken, it stood out like a beacon drawing people to the city.
In this aerial color shot, we’re gazing down on the Hollywood Bowl that still had its 100,000-gallon reflecting pool. It was installed as part of a host of upgrades in 1953 and remained until 1972. It really stands out at this height doesn’t it? The layout of the buildings that surround the bowl have changed a fair bit over the years, but the Bowl itself has barely changed at all.
