In this atmospheric nighttime shot, we’re looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd. It was taken on the night of July 27, 1948, and we can see all the neon signs that greeted Angelenos at the time: Broadway-Hollywood department store, Plaza Hotel, Tom Breneman’s restaurant, Capitol Records, as well as the semaphore traffic signal on the southeast corner of Sunset. But I especially love the way the streetlights look like starbursts (which I assume comes from a special filter on the camera.
Andrew S. said: “Vine St. was first called Weyse St. in honor of Harvey and Daeida Wilcox’s business partner Otto Günther Weyse until being renamed Vine St by Senator Cornelius Cole. The name Vine was made official by October 19, 1909 during the annexation of the town of Colegrove into Los Angeles.”
Capitol Records was still in Glen Wallack’s building on the left
Some moving cars are blurs but people are not so much. So I’m guessing it was a slow shutter speed that helped here as opposed to a time exposure.
Looks like a 48 Studebaker at the lower left corner.
A great shot, with all the Vine Street night lights! Odd for July that the streets look wet and the people bundled up.
Generally these starburst light patterns are caused as light refracts within a camera. Based on the design of the shutter and the aperture used (how wide or narrow the photographer tells the camera to open the shutter) can cause this effect. Some photographers control this intentionally as a creative choice and others stumble into it. Depending on the lens design and aperture used the starburst can have more or less rays. There are filters available that can simulate this look but my uneducated guess is this was probably unintentional. Lovely, yet unintentional.
I also see the Coffee Dan’s Coffee Shop adjacent to Capitol Records! Also, I see Ah Fong’s neon sign. Benson Fong opened his first restaurant on Vine Street in 1946. The neon sign looks like the one previously used for “The Tropics,” which had been located on Vine Street at that location.