Looking east along Hollywood Blvd to Vine Street, Hollywood, 1948

Posted on October 28, 2020 by

Looking east along Hollywood Blvd to Vine Street, Hollywood, 1948The photographer who took this photo of the Hollywood and Vine intersection in 1948 was probably standing on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the 12-story building at Hollywood and Ivar. We’re looking east toward Vine where we can see the Equitable building on the left, the Taft building in the center, and the Broadway Hollywood department store on the right. All three buildings are still there. On the far left we can see a marquee for what was then the Admiral Theatre at 6321 Hollywood Blvd, which then became the Vine Theatre, which eventually devolved into a two-buck grindhouse. It’s hard to tell from the marquee, but it looks like that the day this photo was taken, the double bill was “The Razor’s Edge” (1946) starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and “The Housekeeper’s Daughter” (1939) starring Joan Bennett and Adolphe Menjou.

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6 responses to “Looking east along Hollywood Blvd to Vine Street, Hollywood, 1948”

  1. Skip Nicholson says:
    October 28, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    Our family doctor, Julius Simon, had offices in the Taft Building. Still remember the rickety (even then) elevator and getting shots, having treats in the huge Rexall on the ground floor. If memory serves, it called itself “the World’s Biggest Drug Store.” I had forgot that the busses where yellow and white–and not a red car in sight, although they ran down Hollywood Blvd for several more years.

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    • Martin Turnbull says:
      October 28, 2020 at 12:45 pm

      Hey Skip, thanks for stopping by and sharing your memories with us. I didn’t realize that Rexall is a large one. From photos I’ve seen of it, I figured it was just regular size.

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      • Skip Nicholson says:
        October 29, 2020 at 11:19 pm

        It was probably about half the building running north-south, but along the east-west side, along Hollywood Blvd, it ran the length of the whole building. The front part (east end) had ‘cards and stuff’ but, of course, I remember only the candy. The eastern part was the fountain that seated maybe 50 people? Don’t remember for sure… I was young. My memories are from something like five years after this photo, in the early 50s. Across from the Admiral Theater is the Lerner Shop. My sisters like it because it was less expensive than the Broadway. I preferred the Broadway because of the new escalators–the little platforms you stand on weren’t metal but wood slats, and it was fun to try to run up the down escalator.

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  2. Skip Nicholson says:
    October 30, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    It was an “Owl Rexall” drugstore. I remember it had a lightboard two or three stories up that ran around the corner with the news in a crawl of lights…first one I had ever seen. Thought it was magic. The Admiral was an inexpensive theater (25¢ for “under 12,” which I was until at least 14)–second- and third-run movies: two features, cartoons, the newsreel, coming attractions–a day’s events. I remember, but only vaguely, my grandmother taking us to a theater on Hollywood–I’ll try to remember the name, although you would know it–that ran only newsreels. This was shortly after the war, but there was still much war news. I was only three when the war ended and remember only being frightened by the blackouts and that Joe at the Norwood Market at Hwd and Normandie gave us more toilet paper than we had coupons for because he had a crush on my mom.

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