I’m not sure what I like most about this photo of the RCA Victor building at 1510 Vine St in Hollywood, just north of Sunset Blvd. Is it sight of little Nipper? Or is it the circa 1952 Buick stopped in traffic out front? Or is it (what looks to be like) the miniature plane inside a glass bottle which appears to be a promo for the “Truth or Consequences” radio program that ran from 1940 to 1957?
** UPDATE ** – Tommy D says: “This building was on the Selma Ave. & Vine St. This site is where the Jacob Stern Ranch barn was and housed Famous Players Lasky, and is currently the Hollywood Heritage Barn on Highland.”
and Mark T says: “The green lawn here was where the Lasky Barn was originally located before it was moved to the Paramount lot. This is renowned as the studio where Cecil B. DeMille filmed The Squaw Man, the first feature film in 1914. This building is now the headquarters of the Hollywood Heritage group and is across the street from the Hollywood Bowl.”
and Mark J D says: “Jack Bailey was the host of “Truth Or Consequences” from 1954-1956, you can see his name on the banner. So that dates this photo to around 1955. The airplane model resembles a Bell X-1A test plane, which began flying in 1953.”
RCA Victor was in that building from March 1959 to April 1964 before relocating to 6363 Sunset Blvd. So the building in the vintage photo is long gone, as is the side street on whose corner it once stood. As best as I can estimate, this is that location. This image is May 2022.
Really Nice !
Such a unique looking cool spot! Will be missed
Not sure all those people recorded there. RICa’s major studio was in NYC, and they had an even bigger one in Nashville. They were my client in 1969-72. Coincidentally, my first job before that was at Competition Motors, the VW distributor, then it 1219 N Vine St.
I was surprised by some of the names listed on the Rock and Roll Road Map, they they included album names, too, so it seemed to me that somebody had done some fairly specific research.
You (and they) are probably right. I was in NY in the seventies, a bit later than the people on your list of artists who recorded in Hollywood, although many recorded wherever they were, NY, LA, or Nashville. The biggest i remember in NY was Elvis, but I know he did here also.
One case was January 1958 making recordings in advance of projected releases as his deferred time for military service was soon to expire. He would dash back east, by train, for his indictrination right after.
Looking at a side angle from down by Sunset suggests that photographic compression may be at work here. Aerial shots support that. The whole lawn area could be much deeper than it appears, and may have been large enough for car parking out there originally…hard to be sure. The whole building extended down Selma toward the end taking up half a block. The electrical supply building on the right side had disappeared to become a huge parking lot area which was why NBC moved to that location from the earlier studio site. Hard to believe that places like this were so accessible without security barricades everywhere. Things changed rapidly after this.