Having endured three months of torrential rain, instant hailstorms, and atmospheric rivers (whatever they are) all us Angelenos can identify with the raincoated traffic cop in this photo looking south down a wet Broadway toward the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown LA. If it were me, I’d be ducking into that Owl Drug store for a coffee and a Danish or I’d head into the Los Angeles Theatre to see “Day Time Wife” starring Tyrone Power and “Rulers of the Sea” with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., which is how I know this shot was taken during Hollywood’s greatest year: 1939.
** UPDATE ** – Someone on Twitter told me the photo is from January 1940.
This is the same view in February 2023:
There’s a kid’s (?) face in the back of that car looking at the photographer, who must be standing out in the street as the cop’s pointed finger says to get back on that sidewalk. Just another day of loonies for the Traffic Squad.
Yeah, that’s what I thought when I looked at this pic. The cop is telling the photographer to get out of the street!
I worked at Bullock’s during Xmas.