Yesterday, someone sent me this Life magazine photo taken in 1948 from inside a very crowded Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd and asked it was always like this. Never having been to Schwab’s myself, it’s hard for me to say. I do know that for decades it was a very popular place for film industry folks to gather, talk business, and dish the gossip. But I doubt it always quite as busy as this. This is shoulder-to-shoulder, shout-in-my-ear, good-luck-ordering-a-coffee crazy-busy.

** UPDATE ** – This photo was taken during a party hosted by the columnist Sidney Skolsky.

I didn’t expect the auto-colorizer to do such a good job on this one, but it turned out pretty well, don’t you think?