Imagine, if you will, taking a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway that parallels Santa Monica Beach. Now imagine that it’s 1948 and this is how clear the road is. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for 25 years and have never seen traffic on PCH this light. What a heavenly Sunday drive it would be. Is it any wonder that I often suffer from anemoia which, I’ve recently learned, means nostalgia for a time you’ve never known. Am I the only one who suffers from this incurable condition?
**UPDATE** : The house on the bottom left with the 4 dormer windows on the roof line was Daryl Zanuck’s home during the late 1930s. The hous to the left with the threee-car garage belonged to Sam Goldwyn, and out of frame the house next door to that belonged to Harry Warner.
I have the same affliction. And for the same place an time.
This image doesn’t help matters.
It really doesn’t help matters at all, does it!?!?
So of course I had to dig a little deeper and found out the house on the bottom left with the 4 dormer windows on the roof line was Daryl Zanuck’s home during the late 1930’s and right next door to the left with the 3 car garage was the home of Samuel Goldwyn and out of frame next door to that was Harry Warner. Quite the enclave
Thanks, Stephen! That house did catch my eye because it looked very big and very fancy so I figured *someone* must have lived there. I’ll add it to the text now. Much appreciated!
What a photo! A great project would be to get the names and addresses of the elite of LA who lived then on the beach in royal fashion. Except for the Hotel Arcadia, the rich lived on this strip of land, now only a few buildings
remain, of the rich…When did the road to Malibu get built?
I think anyone who follows your posts or reads your books shares your feeling of anemoia – and is happy to do so. Ray Davies captured this condition perfectly, while mocking it ever so gently, in the Kinks’ “Muswell Hillbillies”: “Take me back to those Black Hills/That I ain’t never seen.”
Hey Bill, I’m glad I’m not alone! And yes, now that you mention it, the people who regularly follow this photo blog probably suffer from it too.
My dad often took my brothers and I to Santa Monica beach for a swim.
I can only sigh & ache for this era.. Notice how close the waves are to the houses? Before Santa Monica or developer dumped tons of boulders into the water for breakwater for failed yacht club. Expanded info on era location:
https://la.curbed.com/2014/7/22/10077618/santa-monica-history-gold-coast-beach-houses