This rather stunning shot gives us a panoramic view of Hollywood taken so high in the air that we can even see the San Fernando Valley behind Mt. Hollywood. For a photo taken more than eighty years ago and from such a great height, it’s remarkable how many details we can pick out. Apart from the Hollywoodland sign, we can see the towers of the Hollywood First National Bank building at Hollywood and Highland, and the Hollywood United Methodist Church farther north. We can also see the Taft Building and The Broadway department store at Hollywood and Vine. And around the center of the photo, the Cahuenga Pass heads towards the valley in a pre-freeway Los Angeles.
Mary M says: “Mt. Hollywood is where Griffith Observatory is. Mt. Lee is the location of the Hollywood Sign, but wasn’t given that name until late 1930s, when the Lee family built their radio tower.”
It’s funny how in the picture the Cahuenga pass doesn’t look all that steep. I can remember way back in the day when I was afraid I was going to have to push my old car to get over the top!
I notice that type of thing in pictures of West Hollywood. Some of the short streets from Santa Monica Blvd. up to Sunset Blvd. are very steep, yet in many photos they don’t look that way at all.
To the right of the Hollywoodland sign is a ridgetop feature that we might call the “saddle & horn”, useful as a spotting feature for images with this in the background. Kind of fitting too for a town that built its’ wealth on those cowpoke dramas/horse operas.