In 1929, MGM’s big movie was “The Hollywood Revue of 1929.” It was an all-star revue and one of the studio’s earliest ventures into the sound format. The publicity bright sparks had a great idea: “Let’s put up a human billboard!” they enthused, “We’ll get dancing girls and put them two stories up, get them to standing a tiny little platform the size of a dinner plate!” They then constructed the stage you see here on the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Shatto Place opposite what was then a construction site and what later would be the Bullocks Wilshire department store.

Readers of my books might recognize this as I have one of my characters be one of these dancing girls. At the time I wrote it, I was only aware of a similar stunt they pulled in New York outside the Astor Theater.