This photo from 1947 gives us a glimpse of what Rodeo Drive used to look like before it became a mecca of high-end designer brands. That transformation started in 1961 with the opening of the first expensive boutique: Giorgio Beverly Hills, and then really kicked up a notch when Gucci opened in 1968. But back in the ’40s, Rodeo Dr. was just a local shopping strip. The London Shop and Walter-Morton sold clothes and someone told me that he thought Chapman-Pollock (whose typeface I love) was a realtor. I especially love the irony of the two American flags outside of a store called “The London Shop.”
** UPDATE ** – Chapman-Pollock was a tailor. Here is there listing in the 1955 Beverly Hills phone directory:
To nobody’s surprise, I’m sure, there is no trace of those stores now. This is how that corner looked August 2022.
Two things regarding this image. Note the very interesting street light which has what appears to be a wreath around a very large section in the middle. Is that supposed to look like an old English streetlamp with a wreath, I wonder? And in the phone directory listing, look who’s above the tailor. Do you suppose that is the Marguerite Chapman, who would have been appearing in “The Seven Year Itch” that year. For those who don’t remember her, she was a star of the forties appearing with such notables as Glenn Ford, Paul Muni, Randolph Scott and Edward G. Robinson, and later mostly on tv shows of the fifties.