The irony about this color photo of the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre at 6433 Hollywood Blvd is that neither of the movies playing at the time were Warner Bros. releases. “Bend of the River” was from Universal, and “As You Were” which was from a company I’ve never heard of (R&L Productions) which makes it a classic B-movie double-bill filler. “Bend of the River” came out in February 1952, so I’m pegging this photo at circa mid-1952. But at least we get treated to a color photo of Warner’s main Hollywood theater around a year before it was converted to the latest trend in movie-going: the curved-screen Cinerama experience.
This is how that theater looked in August 2022. Although the cinema has been closed since 1994, the marquee looks remarkably the same.
If that’s a running clock inside the ticket booth it would seem to place the photo at about 11:00 a.m. just before any early showings. Whatever happened to the Stromberg Jewelers clock on the sidewalk?
William Stromberg is on the 1928 list in here: https://martinturnbull.com/2024/01/25/promotional-advertisement-by-the-hollywood-blvd-association-circa-1928/
Thanks to NLA postings, the clock appears momentarily later on in this video on that-tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3wqXKK9xGA
I shouldn’t admit to this, although after 75 years, it’s probably safe. A group of us Hollywood kids regularly snuck into this theater through the back door in the 50’s, even 40’s.
Earl, you naughty little scamp, I think it’s safe now to confess. I assume you never got caught?