This image was taken on November 15, 1947. I don’t know why that helicopter was flying over the Foreman & Clark store on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar St, but from the looks of those dozen or so people standing on the store’s domed roof, I guessing they were expecting it. I can’t imagine it was common to see a helicopter hovering over Hollywood, so I’m whatever was going on, I’m assuming it was high drama.
Al D. says: “Foreman & Clark Hollywood store original opening was in 1940. You can see a gallery of photos here. The 1947 helicopter landing was for a “Re-opening” event.”
This ad was in the Hollywood Citizen-News on Wednesday, November 14, 1947.
This is how that corner looked in May 2022. The Foreman & Clark building is still there, minus its domed roof. The building on the northeast corner is now owned by the Church of Scientology. And the building next to it used to be the Knickerbocker Hotel, and is now a senior housing complex.
The helicopter is a Bell 47B, and the image is dated November 15, 1947. It is landing on the roof of the Foreman & Clark clothing store as it celebrates the grand opening of its Hollywood store on Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue. The helicopter was part of the Paul Mantz Air Service, made a delivery of goods coming directly from the airport to demonstrate the new advances in air transport. See:
https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/48514/
Thanks for all that extra info, David. I did a Google image search on this photo, but found no matches, which surprises me now that I know it’s on the LAPL’s Tessa site.
This Kodachrome photo, that Martin has posted before, has the Foreman & Clark store in the background and I’ve always assumed it was taken during WW2, but if that store opened in November of 1947, I guess I’m wrong.
https://martinturnbull.com/2016/09/26/kodachrome-slide-of-hollywood-boulevard-in-the-1940s/
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Oh, wait, I just read the additional info above: Al D. says: “Foreman & Clark Hollywood store original opening was in 1940.”
Okay, then! Those linked photos are new to me! People sure were fascinated but that “escalator.”