I always enjoy coming across photos like this one where nothing in particular is happening. Just another day looking south down Broadway from 4th St in downtown Los Angeles in 1931. Photos like this remind us how lively downtown LA used to be—look at that packed sidewalk. I don’t think I’ve seen those triangular banners strung across Broadway before, but there are a lot of them. Does anybody recognize them or know what they represented?
** UPDATE ** – The consensus on Facebook seems to be that those triangular banners were in celebration of Fiesta de Los Angeles in recognition of the city’s birthday.
This is that same intersection in February 2023. It may have been taken early on a Sunday morning but it sits in stark contrast with the bustling energy of the 1931 photo, doesn’t it?
The fake Mission Bells might be a clue…La Fiesta? City, State, & Federal flags with pseudo Spanish banners but not matching up to any anniversary years?
How do you know that it is 1931?
What were the circumstances under which you came across the photo?
Gordon
I wonder what that view would look like on a Friday at 1700?
It was in the caption when I found the photo, probably on waterandpower.org
I wonder what that view would look like on a Friday at 1700?
The banners hanging over the street look like Spanish-inspired shawls or ponchos. LA used to have an annual event it called Fiesta de Los Angeles – a few days of celebrating the city and parades in which the colorful Spanish-Mexican heritage (and other ethnicities) of the city was displayed in a way to appeal to tourists and act as a boost businesses and LA’s self-image. So those banners could relate to that. But I’m not sure the Fiesta de Los Angeles lived on into the 1930s.