My last vintage L.A. Christmas photo for 2021 was taken in December 1953 looking east along Hollywood Blvd from around Cosmo St in Hollywood. The electrified decorative trees along Hollywood Blvd during that time were painted white—I’m assuming to mimic snow that fell in Los Angeles once every ten years. The big store in this picture is Foreman & Clark at 6353 Hollywood Blvd. They were a department store that I think of as being mostly for men, but if anyone reading this can tell me otherwise, I’d love to hear from you.
The Foreman & Clark building is still there, as is the high-rise across Ivar Street. (The building is now owned by the Church of Scientology.) This image is from January 2021.
Foreman & Clark was indeed a Men’s clothing store, but the internet says the Sacramento outlet added a women’s section in 1948. I’m guessing it was a failed experiment.
It is amazing how many historic buildings remain on Hollywood Blvd.
Btw, I love the photo blog. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, David. I’m glad to know you enjoy my various postings.
Herein is an aerial view from upper floors of Broadway Store at Vine (which is mis-identified) looking toward these stores (the fabulous “Bond” Clothiers is just beyond Foreman-Clark)….shot is on left side at third row from the bottom in the Volkmer collection in this on-line archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20041015085409/http://www.davesrailpix.com/pe/pev1.htm
That tall building was the Christie Hotel, not built by the Christie brothers, they had another hotel on Sunset called the Hotel Regent, which has been torn down (now a parking lot).
Snowy-the Christie was actually west of here when facing Highland (this is looking east and that’s a bank building at Ivar) on the south side of the roadway. No doubt all of SoCal is rather confusing in images. Thank goodness there have been some real inquisitive people who have generated historical documents to guide the rest of us. Martin included.