Even before it was finished, Los Angeles’s new City Hall dominated the skyline. Of course, it helped that, at 32 stories, it was the tallest building around, but there’s something about its shape and pyramidal top that made it recognizable even when it was still just a bunch of scaffolding. The building’s dedication took place on April 26, 1928, so this photo would have been taken during the latter half of 1927. One of those billboards overlooking the parking lot is for a Warner Bros. movie called “Matinee Ladies” (co-starring future gossip maven, Hedda Hopper) which opened in April 1927.
Ironically the most famous name on the poster for “Matinee Ladies” is Hedda Hopper, but not for her acting. Cute poster, though.
Love that poster!
Exactly what I came to say!
Great photo of City Hall. Was it Lohman and Barkley who used to call it “the pointy building”? And wasn’t there some kind of earthquake-related code that prevented any taller buildings in the area? in the city?
Yes, ostensibly it was because of potential earthquake damage, which is why the building is shaped the way it is – solid, with a very broad base. But sometimes I wonder if it was a show of authority – that nobody could be taller than the city itself = nobody is above the law. (I don’t know if that’s an actual thing so right now it’s just a pet personal theory of mine.)
Byron Haskins, who directed Matinee Ladies, had a long career, lasting all the way to 1968. His most famous movie was probably War of the Worlds, from 1953. Hedda Hopper’s second-most famous credit is probably as the mother of William Hopper, who played Paul Drake on the Raymond Burr version of Perry Mason.
That’s an impressively long career by any measure–but especially by Hollywood’s.
The large building on the left is the Hall of Justice, which still stands. At the time the County Jail was on the upper floors where the pillars mimic the jail bars. The building housed the criminal courts as well as the District Attorney, the Public Defender (my office was on the fourth floor) and the Sheriff. The morgue was in the basement. The building with the tower immediately to the left of City Hall was the old court house. It was torn down and the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center is there now on the corner of Broadway and Temple Streets. The large building to the right of City Hall was the old Hall of Records that was built to house the Clerks offices and to have overflow courts for the small courthouse. It is gone and Grand Park is on that land now.
Thanks for all that extra interesting information.
I deduced that’s where the actual jail cells were, because in the Perry Mason TV show, they would often have a shot of those upper floors with the pillars before Mason would meet with his incarcerated clients. I didn’t think of them mimicking jail bars — cool!