From the angle of this photo, I’d say it was taken from the top of the building on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas Ave looking west along the south side of the boulevard. We can see lit signs for the Gold Cup coffee shop, Union Pacific railway ticket office, a record store, the Egyptian Theatre, and the Hollywood Inn (formerly the Hotel Christie.) From the electrified Christmas trees decorating the store and the fact that “Hawaii” was playing at the Egyptian, we can narrow down the date of this shot to Christmas 1966.
Rob B says: “This 1966-era was during a pretty cool set of years for the Egyptian (notice the added “World Famous” sign at the top…just in case you were there and didn’t know it was). All during the 50s it was a PRIMO showcase (I mean, the list is impressive) and after BEN-HUR left after its big run beginning in ’59 (98 WEEKS, no less), so many top-tier exclusive and/or roadshow films premiered there. “King of Kings”, “The Cardinal”, “Molly Brown”, “My Fair Lady”, the pictured “Hawaii”, “Funny Girl”… Not long after, the big “Road Show” thing wasn’t as effective, but some big-ticket films were there. It was a FANTASTIC place to see a film, when it was really a BIG screen, BIG sound, BIG auditorium cinema.”
This is roughly how that view looked in August 2022.
I remember these Christmas Trees that revolved slowly and looked great. This was the best display ever in Hollywood. I was 13 years old in 1966 and if I remember right they started using these displays back in about 1962. What a great time in Hollywood. Back then it was still safe to walk Hollywood Blvd. It was still clean and without the danger of being approached by the weird people that hang out there today. The 60’s were the greatest years of Hollywood Blvd. Before the store fronts were boarded up at night with metal roll up gates looking like a low end 3rd world street it looks like today.
There’s a drive-by shot inserted into Aloha, Bobby and Rose (1975) where we get a glimpse down the block of Las Palmas with red lighting. They did begin shooting in late ‘73 and may have had stock footage to use in some places, but the movie cars would date those scenes concurrent to the schedule. Hello Dolly was on the Egyptian Marquee, and the music store sign said DISCOUNT right above RECORDS. Got a number of discs at this place back in the ‘60’s. And it was that well lighted inside.