Yesterday, many of us Angelenos saw hail for the first time in who-knows-how-long, so I thought this circa 1950s photo might be appropriate today. Until I came across it, I didn’t know that in the 1950s, giant snowman were put up along the Miracle Mile stretch of Wilshire Blvd during the holiday season. And this LA city bus was painted to advertise them, which, I assume, was intended to attract customers to all the stores on Wilshire. Does anybody remember seeing those giant snowmen?

** UPDATE ** This photo isn’t very clear, but it shows us how big those snowmen were:

The May department store building in the background is still there, but these days it houses the Academy Museum. This image is from August 2022.