This photo gives us a chance to see what Grauman’s Chinese Theatre looked like before it opened in May 1927. Not all that different from what it looks like now, it’s the surrounding environment that’s changed. The empty lots to the immediate west and east later became parking lots and are now highly developed. Orchid Ave on the right is gone completely, and the wing of the Hollywood Hotel past it is, of course, long gone. More interesting than that, though, is the sidewalk out front of the theater. These days it’s where the stars on the Hollywood Walk of fame stretch for blocks and blocks, but back then it was an interesting checkerboard of dark and light squares.
Bird’s-eye view of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd before it opened in 1927
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Orchid appears to only be a stub-street extending to the back property line. And wasn’t the site a lemon grove before….there is one tree by the left wall that might be a remnant of that. Lots of yards around L.A. held old trees that yielded fruit (peaches, apricots, avacados, pomegranates, on and on) long after they had been planted. A lot of them must have pre-dated the structure on that property.
Had to look again to see that Orchid does continue through, but why does it appear so narrow like a one laner with parking alongside? The lines for the first day of Star Wars wrapped around that corner and up the block. It was quite the event.