This photo looking north along Broadway was taken in 1946, when Los Angeles was paralyzed by a transit strike. These days, a strike like that would inconvenience quite a few people, but it wouldn’t cripple a city like it would have in the 1940s. Back then, downtown Los Angeles was a non-stop hive of activity, especially Broadway, but as we can see from this photo, the street was deserted. Loew’s State Theater at the 7^th Street corner advertises that it was “open all night” but that particular night, I can’t imagine they had many patrons.

The State Theater is now a church. (Photo from May 2019)