Some buildings are simply meant to be photographed in color—and this is one of them. The May Co. department store opened its flagship store on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave in 1940. To make sure everybody noticed, they covered the cylinder with more than 350,000 glass and gold leaf mosaic tiles. The tactic worked, because it quickly became a very popular fixture on the stretch of Wilshire Blvd known as “Miracle Mile.” This photo is circa 1950s, when the equally popular Simon’s Sandwiches drive-in restaurant did a brisk trade on the northwest corner.
These days, the May Co. building is home to the Academy Museum. This image is from February 2021.
Here’s some of the original 1939 tile and some of the replacement tile.
Some people take the “A man’s home is his castle” literally. In this case, it was Dr. Schloesser, a physician who made a fortune in real estate and investments. When he moved from Chicago to LA, he bought land around what is now Franklin, Argyle, and Vine Streets. That was in 1904, when Hollywood hadn’t yet been invaded by those pesky motion picture people. Schloesser built what he called Castle San Souci at 1901 Argyle St. And as if that wasn’t grand enough, he also added that elaborate gate. Built in 1912, Sans Souci didn’t have a long life. It came down in 1928 to make way for the Castle Argyle Apartments that overlook the Hollywood Freeway.
This one comes from the “They Sure Don’t Do It Like That Anymore” file. This photo of a Union gas station at 4004 Wilshire Blvd (which puts it at the intersection with Wilton Place) is from 1932 and I can see no less than four neatly uniformed attendants wearing bow ties and matching caps. Two of them are servicing customers while the other two are…well…I don’t exactly know the two on the modified motorcycle are doing but I’m sure they were courteous and helpful when they got there.
In this sweeping aerial shot, we’re looking at the Fox Film studio backlot in Century City. The main street at the bottom, where the grand gates are, is Santa Monica Blvd. William Fox founded his studio in 1915 on what had been a 200-acre ranch, and called his backlot “Movietone City.” This shot is from 1928 and as we can see, the neighboring land was still pumping oil!
This photo gives us a glimpse into the hoopla that studios sometimes whipped up to promo a new movie. In late March, 1939, Warner Bros. chartered a 16-car train to take 36 members of the press along with the stars of their new picture, “Dodge City,” to the real-life Dodge City in Kansas for the film’s premiere on April 1st. The President’s son, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., was in attendance along with 70,000 visitors who had come to the city to witness the celebrations. I can count five spotlights used to light up the train before it left Los Angeles, as well as four loudspeakers rigged up on the balcony of that last carriage.
You have to hand it to developers who manage to construct a building that makes a mark – even in a city like Los Angeles that was filled with eye-catching architecture. This was the Western Auto Parts store at the northwest corner of Wilshire and Hauser Blvds, circa 1931. It was black and achieved so much with relatively little detail. (I do love their Pay’n’Takit sign – but isn’t that how stores work? You pay for something and then you take it with you…?)
It’s hard to see the name “Lou Reed” and not start singing “Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side…” But that song didn’t come along until 1972, so the person who took this photo on July 23, 1955 wouldn’t have been humming “And the colored girls go doo do doo do doo do do doo…” Lou Reed’s Chrysler / Plymouth Dealership at 1200 Pacific Coast Hwy in Newport Beach was one of the biggest of its type in Southern California. I do like the striking, dramatic lighting featured in this showroom, which was probably the whole eye-catching point.
I’ll take any opportunity to post a photo of the first Brown Derby restaurant, especially if it’s in color. Technically, the original first Brown Derby stood at 3427 Wilshire. But that land was acquired by someone else, and the big hat was recreated a block at a half east to the northeast corner of Alexandria Ave, opposite the Ambassador Hotel. This photo is from 1973, which means it still had about a dozen years before it fell victim to redevelopment.
I recently watched an RKO movie from 1946 called “Nocturne” in which George Raft plays a homicide detective. I didn’t think Raft was very good in the role, but the movie had a number of interesting location shots, including this one. I stopped the movie and took a photo of it because it gives us an idea of what the Vine Street Brown Derby looked like in real life. The filmmakers didn’t even bother to hide the roadworks going on in May/June 1946, which is when the film was shot. I don’t know what sort of car is parked out front, but it looks like it had plenty of leg room!