The aerial shot really shows how Los Angeles was a horizontal city in contrast to the verticality of New York or Chicago. What we’re looking down at the Melody Lane drive-in restaurant on the southwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave some time during the 1940s. There appears to be more space per square feet for parking than there is for the restaurant itself. With vintage photos like these, we usually see just the interesting part – i.e. circular drive-in part on the right and the tall eye-catching tower. But this photo shows there’s a whole dine-in section that probably seats four times as many people.
This satellite photo from 2020 of the same corner shows that that site is now home to a 20-story office building. Not quite as pedestrian-friendly is it? But it also reveals that the Melody Lane was opposite the stunning Art Deco palace, the Wiltern Theatre:
The aerial shot really shows how Los Angeles was a horizontal city in contrast to the verticality of New York or Chicago. What we’re looking down at the Melody Lane drive-in restaurant on the southwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave some time during the 1940s. There appears to be more space per square feet for parking than there is for the restaurant itself. With vintage photos like these, we usually see just the interesting part – i.e. circular drive-in part on the right and the tall eye-catching tower. But this photo shows there’s a whole dine-in section that probably seats four times as many people.
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