In this photo, we get a taste of how crowded L.A. streetcars could get during rush hour. These streetcars were on what was known as the Venice Short Line, which took Angelenos from Hill St in downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, and out to Venice and Santa Monica. In the background, the Town Theatre was playing the Charles Boyer/Lauren Bacall Warner Bros. picture, “Confidential Agent” which came out on November 10, 1945, so we can peg this photo as circa late 1945.
The Venice line is what my mom took to meet my dad in Beverly Hills when he had his store on Beverly Drive. She’d also take me with her to meet Dad downtown when it was Market Week fir retailers to order stick. Then we’d go to Clifton’s. Before my brother was born in 1950. We lived right off Lincoln Blvd. in Venice.
What kind of store did he have, Carole? What name did it go by?
Imagine that now in New York City, who would be getting mugged, slashed in the face , pushed in front to the train, (which is a everyday problem in NYC) Back then things were just more pleasant,
It was also called the “red car” in those days
As kids we would put a penny on the tracks and as the trolly would pass over, it would flatten the coin.
Lived near La Cienega
x Venice Blvd.
We would take it with mom to do some shopping in downtown L.A. and always have lunch at Clifton’s cafeteria.
There’s two trains here…the inbound has a duo of cars of another type and appears to be stopped also. “Redondo via Playa del Rey” line on the map went out of passenger services around 1930. Cars would have used the same route into the city as the Short Line, so this may have been really a sight in the jazz age. What looks busy here is actually just cause & effect of wartime conservation. The plan to kill trolleys, take over Toon-town, and build uncongested 70 m.p.h. flier freeways was already being played out and no wacky wabbit was going to get in the way of “?pppp-progress?”. Tha, tha, that’s all folks! [Place crazy music here]
That’s probably the line I would have ridden, had I worked in City Hall back then, as I did from 1982 through 2014, and lived where I have during that same period, just east of the Santa Monica city line.
Oh, and looking at Google maps street view, it looks as though that theater’s building is still there, albeit vastly remodeled on its exterior. Can’t be sure of that, though.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/444+S+Hill+St,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90013/@34.0491635,-118.2515166,3a,90y,66.73h,107.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMZZmm3lnIWMsA2ufnPh4ig!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2c64b3d8a4701:0xd4b56a673ec60740!8m2!3d34.048999!4d-118.2512201?hl=en
I would normally include a “now” photo, but the building looked so different that I didn’t bother.