Looking north along the Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica Beach, 1948

Looking north along the Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica Beach, 1948Imagine, 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.

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9 responses to “Looking north along the Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica Beach, 1948”

  1. alistair quick says:

    I have the same affliction. And for the same place an time.

    This image doesn’t help matters.

  2. stephen dimmick says:

    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

  3. william m mcnally says:

    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?

  4. Bill Wolfe says:

    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.”

  5. james knott says:

    My dad often took my brothers and I to Santa Monica beach for a swim.

  6. Matt says:

    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

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