It might just be the author in me talking, but it’s photos like this that can inspire whole novels. In this circa 1962 photo, we have the Capitol Records building on Vine St, Hollywood, and place I don’t remember seeing before, Bob’s Burger Bar (also with chili dogs and steak sandwiches!) All the elements are there: strings of lights glowing like pearls over a packed parking lot, an iconic Hollywood landmark rising in the background with its seasonal Christmas tree lights, a cheap burger joint standing by its lonesome on a deserted Hollywood street deep into an inky night. Throw in a jaded private eye, a hooker with a heart of gold, a wise-cracking burger-flipper with a secret and a cute dog, and you’ve got yourself a page-turner.
I couldn’t find Bob’s Burger Bar’s address, so I don’t know exactly where this photo was taken. I suspect it was from Argyle St looking west toward the Capitol Records building. If I’ve got it wrong, please let me know. This image is from June 2022.
Michael M. says: “This is looking NW from Hollywood Blvd and Carlos. The building on the right of Capitol Records is Yucca and Vine. There was a large parking lot there until Washington Savings went in around 1963. It was swallowed up by the Argyle and no longer exists. Out of frame to the right would be Nugent Pontiac.”
Bill C. says: “On the left we have the side of the Pantages Theatre. Great photo! Thanks. It was taken on Hollywood Blvd. That’s El Centro St. on the right.”
John J. says: “The Burger joint was on the north west corner of what used to be Vista Del Mar Ave. and Hollywood blvd., until 2012 or so when the street that began as Cyril Drive in 1905 was removed.”
Guessing the photographer stood on Hollywood Blvd opposite Vista Del Mar (no longer exists) to have the Pantages intersect with the Capitol Records building at the shown angle.
Reverse image showing shack in top left corner: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/photos/4441/default.jpg
Street map (scroll right)
https://shamustown.com/images/%7E1930HollywoodMapOutlines.jpg
What was Vista del Mar? An apartment block? A street? Something else?
Short street running into right turn east at Carlos. Then, after a bit, restarting with a left turn northward toward the hills. Watch out, freeway ahead!
Possibly, Vista del Mar (Cyril before 1915) which ran up to connect with Carlos Avenue. (An important early house in that street whichlater burned.) A.E. England Pontiac would be to the right, out of view. We’re looking NW from Hollywood Boulevard with depth compression that hides Argyle. In view is the Pantages’ head building that held the stage/screen area and related equipment (so well back from the cafeteria/restaurant front building) and zooming in that line straight to Capitol. The faux Xmas tree lighting is akways offset to the north side of that stax ‘o wax.
You can pinpoint this location in the posting from two days ago. The Mullen & Bluett billboard sat right on this corner and you can spot the street signs in that image. Hollywood was like layers of Ancient Egypt that changed every ten years at the speed of the latest clothing fad. Each decade should get a title, so 1960-1970 might be called the Bell Bottom era. It began with the ever present sailors-on-leave and then progressed into women’s fashions and “hippie” culture winding up with Levi’s flared jeans and pinwale cords replacing the widewale versions. Then 1970-1980 is the Denim Dogs Decade…real Aloha, Bobby and Rose years. Towards the end, stovepipe 501’s were back in force and the designer jeans were coming in from every direction. Wars were in the stars. 1980 is the start of the Big Wave era. Disco is totally dying and early raw New Wave has evolved into the big hair/big sound flock o’ seagulls descending from all around the planet. By the time the T-1000’s were done with the stretch between the Sunset Strip and Wall Street, it was all over and fiction was ready to go pulp again. The dogs had moved on to the reservoir.
CLASSIC PICTURE, AND WITH THE OLD CARS.
I’VE WORKED NEAR CAPITOL RECORDS FOR YEARS AND THE
PLACE NEVER CHANGES. A GIANT PIECE OF HISTORY.
The big building blocking Capitol Records behind Bob’s Burger Bar is
the back of the Pantages Theater. You can see the side stair exit and the
design in the cement along with the chimney that sicks up in the alley behind it. That puts Bob’s Burger Bar stand on Hollywood Blvd on the North East corner of Argyle. I remember a burger stand just like this one directly across the street from Capitol Records in the parking lot of the Hollywood Palace back in 1967. I had a burger there in 1967 when I went to see a taping of the Hollywood Palace TV show at the then Hollywood Palace Theater.