Thrifty Drug Store opens at Fourth and Spring Sts, downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1939

Thrifty Drug Store opens at Fourth and Spring Sts, downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1939Sometime in mid-1939, this Thrifty Drug Store opened at 4th and Spring Streets in downtown LA with lots of bunting and streamers. There are several signs saying “LUNCH” so I’m guessing there was a lunch counter inside they were keen to promote. I can also see a poster for Snow White Chocolates featuring the Disney version, whose movie had come out a year and a half before, which shows its staying power. I particularly like that guy out front in the white hat and holding a carry bag. I wonder where he was going that day and if he stopped in at the Thrifty for lunch.

John A. says: “Right in front of the fire hydrant appears to be a “newsstand ” of some type. Looks like a rock holding the papers in place. I wonder if the man near the ladder is selling the papers? Next to the traffic signal is a folding seat, probably for the news vendor. Additional newspapers are held down by a rock, next to the folding seat. Just to the left of the Thrifty sign, it does say “Complete food and beverage service.””

This is how that same corner looks today:

 

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7 responses to “Thrifty Drug Store opens at Fourth and Spring Sts, downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1939”

  1. Gordon Sims says:

    Featuring the Disney version as opposed to???

  2. Mary Hogg says:

    Indeed it did. On the left side of the building it says “Complete Food & Counter Service”. There was a time when most drug or dime stores had a lunch counter or soda fountain. I guess fast food drive-thrus put an end to that. Even as late as the sixties and early seventies I often ate at the lunch counter at W. T. Grant’s in Culver City. They had great hot dogs with unusual buns.

    • Paula says:

      I remember the lunch counter in a store across the street from Grant’s (if we’re talking about Culver Center), but I don’t remember Grant’s lunch counter. I do remember a pet section on the downstairs (remember those wooden stairs and balusters?) level.

    • Martin Pal says:

      The Woolworth’s lunch counter on Hollywood Blvd. lasted well into the ’80s! Or was it J.J. Newberry’s lunch counter? They were next to each other around the 6000 block.

      • Paula says:

        Yeah, I think it was Newberry’s that I was thinking about that had a lunch counter (in Culver Center) across from Grant’s. I don’t remember it being there much later than the 60s though.

  3. Paula says:

    Oh, and I noticed that guy, too. Especially his exceptionally baggy pants!

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