I do love finding Los Angeles area supermarket openings that resemble Hollywood movie premieres. This dramatic nighttime photo of the opening of the Great Southwest Market is no exception. This market stood at 5800 S. Vermont Ave, on the northeast corner with Slauson Ave. Those are some serious lights illuminating the store, along with speakers, too. It’s a gorgeously impressive building, especially with those circular windows set back from the outer wall. My friend who works at the Petersen Automotive Museum says that those vehicles silhouetted in the foreground are from the early 1920s.
** UPDATE ** – According to this article from the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, the grand opening was on Saturday, June 9th 1928:
And this sad scene is how that corner looked in September 2022.
I don’t think there are actual glass windows. The description of operators reads like a farmers market type situation such that an open air enclosure might have been the intent. They don’t close shop there and, of course, “it never rains in California”.
And that might explain why the back bakery had to be glass enclosed.
What a beautiful building it was in the before photo.