In this nighttime panoramic shot, we’re Looking north from 3rd Street toward Vermont Ave. The two main hotspots along Vermont was the Fox Belmont Theatre (opened 1926) and the huge Rainbow Gardens ballroom. The Rainbow Gardens opened in 1925 as El Patio (admission was 40 cents for gentlemen and 25 cents for ladies) and later became the Palomar. Whatever name it went by, it was a popular fixture on LA’s social scene and played host to all the big-name orchestras, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, and Kay Kyser. One of the billboards in the foreground is for a movie called “Aloha” which came out in April 1931, so we can assume that’s when the photo was taken.

Here’s a close up of those billboards:

And, remarkably, here’s another photo taken from the exact same place but during the day: