This photo shows us a couple of interesting things. Firstly, how gorgeous the streetlights around LA used to be. This particular model was called a Llewellyn and featured four globes surrounding a fifth, larger one. It stood at the corner of Main and 33rd Streets, south of downtown Los Angeles. The photo was taken circa 1943 and shows how the tops of streetlights like these were blacked out during WWII in case of a surprise air attack from the enemy. Does anybody know how they were blacked out? Was it paint or some sort of easily removable cap?

Susan Milner says: “It was problematic to keep the top of street lights blacked out. Ones like these they found, even good, thick marine paint chipped and flaked off due to the heat produced by the light bulbs. Various efforts were made to come up with suitable alternatives. What worked best, were newer lamp posts that had a metal piece that covered the emitted light with a metal shield that resembled a clam or scallop shell. That design, helped direct the light downward.Those eventually went in many places around LA after the war. We had those for years until newer light technology like mercury vapor came in I think in the later 50s.

We didn’t have the kind of flexible plastics in the early 40s to fabricate stretchy covers for these old light fixtures. It wasn’t an issue far as black outs/brown outs for very long. After Midway (June ’42), the threat of Japanese invasion of the West coast was deemed nearly impossible. The drills pretty much ended after that. People were asked to keep their black out drapes up post Midway, just in case. We still had to use car headlight covers and dim them to boot when driving into, or approaching secure places like San Pedro, aircraft manufacturer installations, and other high security sites around the Southland.”

And this is the streetlight that currently stands at Main and 33rd (March 2020.) Not exactly an upgrade, is it?