This photo harkens back to the days when developers built theaters with soaring tower designed to catch the attention of moviegoers. They also added variety and verticality to an otherwise horizontally minded cityscape. This theater under construction is the Leimert at 3341 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles, which puts it roughly halfway between downtown LA and Culver City. It opened on April 21, 1932, so this photo of it under construction — along with the obligatory pretty girl — was taken probably late-ish 1931.
Here’s an earlier photo taken during the construction process:
Here’s how the finished building looked in 1932:
The building is still there. Now known as the Vision, it’s owned by the city and has been under renovation for years (and years…) Because 43rd Place is blocked off to traffic, I can’t get a recent Google Maps Streetview image but it still looks the same as it did in October 2012 when this image was captured.
My Grandfather worked on this project, he was an architect/draftsman with Wells &Clements firm. All the trim was handmade at the National Cornice Works, there in Los Angeles. My father and I visited this building, in 2017. It is a treasure.
Thanks for stopping by, Cherie, and sharing that with us!
Photographers leave us a treasure, yet as persons, they are too often lost to history and go unrecognized. The two early photographs of the Leimert Theatre are beautifully composed and are works of art in and by themselves. The staged shot of the model sitting on the car fender was not an easy shot to set up but we just take it for granted and don’t even think of the effort that it took to stage and process. Yet it leaves us with a nice piece of history and may I say a piece of art. Same with the finished theatre shot. Framing the building between the tree and the street light, which also points to the heavens, is balanced and complements the theatre’s tower. How unfortunate that these photographers, these artists, who leave us these masterpieces are lost to us. I thank them for the work that they did, and for the other unknown people that preserved them. I also appreciate those that took the extra archival effort to document the images creator.
I appreciate all photographers from that era. Many of them took photos of what for them would have just been an every scene that most people wouldn’t have thought worth the effort of photographing.
If you google 3341 west 43rd place you will get a real nice street view of the building and street it actually looks nicer than the 2012 photo “not because of photographer” just looks better than I thought it would. Also if you enlarge the old photo the sign reads another miracle mile starting. Is that in reference to the miracle mile on Wilshire Blvd?
Another detail. From the Indian Head radiator cap and the running lights on the side, I believe the car the model is sitting on is a 1929 Pontiac.
I don’t know what I was looking at the first time I googled the address, but I googled again and its the 2012 pic .