This image is a screen shot from a 1958 movie, “Anna Lucasta.” At one point, Eartha goes to Royal Room, which was a jazz joint that stood at the southwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas Ave. The image was sent to me by a regular commenter on this site, Martin Pal, after he and I talked about a remarkable photo of this place in Kathy Kikkert’s new photo-book, “Hollywood Signs – Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon in Mid-Century Tinseltown.” The exterior of the place really must have been something to see in real life. I also like how Union Pacific weren’t to be outdone and are all lit up too.
Those two musicians listed on the banner – Nappy LaMare and Ray Bauduc – both have Wiki pages
This advertisement in the Hollywood Citizen-News on April 6, 1948 advertised the Royal Room’s opening:
That building is now a tattoo parlor and a 7-Eleven, but at least it’s still there with its Art Deco tower intact. This image is from May 2022.
I’ve been thinking more and more, as I look at these and other old photos, about the fact we have truly devolved. Things are so, so ugly now, for the most part. Dystopian, in a way, don’t you think?
It forces us to use the word “progress” in an ironic way, which is sadly unfortunate.
You are so right. I hate looking at these today photo’s like this one that just shows another dirty dingy corner of LA.
Gina and John: Did you see the film Midnight in Paris? The lead character who travels back in time finds 1920s Paris the bees knees, so to speak, and yet a woman he fancies from the 1920s cannot see why he thinks that at all as she thinks Paris in the 1890s was the end all, be all. It had a charisma that she doesn’t think her present does, but the other guy thinks her present does.
I tend to think of something that Lincoln said over 150 years ago: “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Martin all I know is what I see and I see the streets of LA as dingy and dirty in comparison to how they looked in the 20s and 30s. Pride in our communities has gone to the waste side and I think it is so sad!!!!
With so many of the after photos, progress, for the most part is not a good thing. At least as far as buildings go. So sad.