This (rare color) photo from 1939 shows the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Grauman’s Chinese theater and Highland Ave. These days, it’s where you’ll find the Hollywood & Highland mall, but back then, there was a city street, which has now completely gone, and the famous Hollywood Hotel, with all the trees out the front. We can also see that at the El Capitan Theater on the south side of the Boulevard, a show called “The Mikado in Swing” was playing. It was a WPA (Works Progress Administration, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal) show—a Negro version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” (!!!)
Oh, my, this lovely shot has enough sepia tone to make it very nostalgic to me. I wasn’t even a gleam in my parents’ eyes in 1939, but I sure feel at home in the ’30s and ’40s.
This (rare color) photo from 1939 shows the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Grauman’s Chinese theater and Highland Ave. These days, it’s where you’ll find the Hollywood & Highland mall, but back then, there was a city street, which has now completely gone, and the famous Hollywood Hotel, with all the trees out the front. We can also see that at the El Capitan Theater on the south side of the Boulevard, a show called “The Mikado in Swing” was playing. It was a WPA (Works Progress Administration, part of Roosevelt’s New Deal) show—a Negro version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” (!!!)
Oh, my, this lovely shot has enough sepia tone to make it very nostalgic to me. I wasn’t even a gleam in my parents’ eyes in 1939, but I sure feel at home in the ’30s and ’40s.
Thank you, Martin, for all these wonderful posts!
Jean
I guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t think knocking down the old and building new is real progress.