How nice it must have been to go to the Hollywood Hotel at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave and just park your car at the curb right outside the hotel and pop inside to meet with your visiting friend who’s staying there (after you’ve bought them some flowers at the Hollywood Hotel Florist, of course.) I suspect its decline didn’t start happening until after the war (it was razed in August 1956) but this photo was taken in 1937, when the hotel probably still a popular place, so my reverie of having lunch in the restaurant can remain daydreamily alluring.

Vicki M says: “I remember having one or two ballet recitals in the ballroom there when I was a kid (somewhere around 7, 8, 9), around 1953 or so. I remember it being dark in the hallways with potted palms which were almost dead. The place smelled really dusty. And it was eerily quiet.”