There are some photos I just want to dive into, and here is one of them. This is the Ralph’s supermarket at Crenshaw Blvd and Manchester Ave in Inglewood in 1956. Maybe it’s the rich (Kodachrome?) color, maybe it’s that Art Deco tower with the pastel patchwork, maybe it’s all those 1950s cars. Whatever reason, I feel like I’m standing beside the photographer in the parking lot before we walk inside and pick up a few groceries.
The supermarket stood on the northeast corner of that intersection, where a Big Lots now stands. This image is from April 2022:
And here is an advertisement for the grand opening of this supermarket. It opened Saturday April 29, 1939, the day before the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair opened in Queens NY.
While hunting down the site, I noticed down the block at 3141 W Manchester Blvd is the Academy Theatre, which opened in 1939. According to some websites, it was was designed to house the Academy Awards, but I don’t know why the Academy would build in Inglewood, so I doubt the veracity of that claim. It features a strikingly tall tower and is now known as Academy Cathedral. This image is from April 2022. (You can read more info about the theater here.)
I went to both places a lot in the 50s. I lived at Imperial and Vermont.
I always check the photos for my 53 Studebaker.
When I lived in Inglewood, there was a Ralph’s on the northeast corner. It’s now a Big Lots.
The Academy Theater probably came about because it was a stone’s throw from Hollywood Park, which was beautiful and popular with celebrities.
https://la.curbed.com/2018/9/20/17691686/hollywood-park-inglewood-race-track-history
The story that the Academy Theater was built to house the Oscar ceremonies is almost certainly apocryphal. “It’s in an unlikely location, has no stage facilities, and was never used for that purpose. The theatre did host a few premieres and was a major suburban venue for its operator, Fox West Coast Theatres.”
The Ralphs at 3003 West Manchester Blvd. in Inglewood was demolished around 1969, and the present structure (today used as a Big Lots store) opened in 1970.
The red “Liquor” sign visible in the photo is still there today at 3006 West Manchester, so that would put Ralph’s on the northeast corner.
Ralphs was located on the North East Corner of Manchester and Crenshaw. The photo was taken from the corner of Crenshaw Blvd and W 85th st looking south so Ralphs faced Crenshaw Blvd. Look just to the right side of the tall Ralphs sign you will see a big billboard and liquor store sign that are still there on Manchester today in 2022. A Biglots store that replaced Ralphs has an entrance that faces Manchester blvd.
Academy was a small, local Los Angeles movie chain. All the theaters were called “Academy ” with the city’s name behind it. To my knowledge there are only two remaining: the Academy (now a church) in Inglewood and a budget priced theater on Colorado in Pasadena.
Folks must have assumed by the name of the chain that it was connected to the Academy of Motion Pictures when the chain started in 1939
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Thanks Anne. I wasn’t aware that it was a theater chain.
I lived about 1.5 miles from this store and graduated from Inglewood Morningside High School. Both the Big Lots store that replaced this Ralph’s and 72 y/o Morningside High are slated for closure, along with Worthington, Woodworth, Kelso, Highland, Crozier, and Centinela Schools. Lane and Freeman were recently closed as well- as overpriced townhouses and multi billion $ sports venues bring brutal traffic, congestion and toxic smog to Inglewood. Don’t you love “progress?”