Here’s a slice of Los Angeles life from in 1942: A streetcar stops in front of the State Theatre at Broadway and 7th Street in downtown L.A. The only protection those streetcar riders have from the traffic is that raised platform, which is more than they usually got, if other photos of the era are anything to go by. The State Theatre was a Loew’s house showing mostly MGM movies, but at this time it was playing Joan Bennett picture, and none of her 1942 releases was from MGM. Like most theaters, the State pushed the purchase of war bonds and stamps. During WWII, it also played movies 24 hours a day to accommodate shift workers at the war factories who worked around the clock.
Roughly the same view in January 2022. The State Theatre is still there; it’s now a church.
I USED TO TAKE THE RED STREETCAR TO DOWNTOWN FROM WEST L.A. IN THE 40’s.
FOND MEMORIES OF YESTERYEAR
Scarlett letter comes to Los Angeles! The girl crossing has knees peeking out while two other femmes stare her down thinking, “Hussie!”. (Of course she does seem to have on shoes straight from the Pilgrim warehouse, even appears to have giant buckles.) Jeez, next they’ll be wanting to parade on the beaches in bikinis and dance to bongo beats. The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
Eh, dresses got shorter during the war to save on fabric. Everybody (who wore skirts) wore shorter skirts then. Once the war was over, Dior introduced The New Look which dropped skirts way down again!
The State Theater is one of the few downtown theaters I didn’t get to see via the Last Remaining Seats program of the Los Angeles Conservancy. I always liked it curved marquee.