Back when Los Angeles was more open field than urban sprawl, Charlie Chaplin’s brother, Syd, leased property bounded by what is now Wilshire, Fairfax, and San Vincente, and named it Chaplin Airfield. In 1918, Cecil B. DeMille started the Mercury Aviation Company, which offered observation flights for $10. This photo is circa 1919, and it’s his planes we can see parked in this photo alongside a blimp. In the background, oil wells that dotted the landscape for years before the relentless march of development took over.