From the late 1920s to the late 1950, the movie studios at the northeast corner of Melrose Ave and Gower St were home to RKO Radio Pictures. It was hard to miss them if you were driving along Melrose—there was a huge painted concrete globe of the Earth with the iconic radio tower on top. This photo was taken on Gower looking south toward Melrose; we can see the globe and tower on the right. I’ve always liked the oh-so-1930s font RKO used for their logo, but especially displayed along the outer wall like this in huge letters. This space was always used to display billboards of RKO’s movies. We can see “In Person” starring Ginger Rogers, which came out in November 1935.

Much the same view in April 2019. The RKO tower is gone now, but the concrete Earth is still there, as are the billboards: