If Angelenos ever needed to buy cigarettes or washing detergent or cash a check or fend off an attack of the munchies at 2 a.m., they knew where to go: the ramshackle, sprawling Hollywood Ranch Market on the southeast corner of Vine Street and Fountain Ave. This market’s famous boast – “We never close.” – meant that it didn’t even have doors. And the big clock we can see in this circa 1954 photo was also famous for hands that always ran backwards at high speed.

Built on the site that used to be the Mandarin Market, the Hollywood Ranch Market burned down in the early 1980s and is now, of course, a mini mall. This image is from May 2019: