In 1939, Rita Hayworth was still an up-and-coming starlet (she had a minor role in “Only Angels Have Wings” starring Cary Grand and Jean Arthur) when she posed for this photo stepping off the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and N. Beverly Dr. in Beverly Hills. Behind her is a tri-light traffic signal. In 1931, those lights began to replace the semaphore signal, and Wilshire was the first street in LA to get them. I can’t imagine Rita’s controlling studio boss, Columbia’s Harry Cohn, would’ve been too happy to see a Warner Bros. theater in the background.
David S. posted this overlay on my Facebook page:
This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024.
We see the spire of the Warner Bros. Theatre that was at 9404 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. Just thought I’d mention: “The Art Deco theater was built in the 1930s and was considered a civic pride of Beverly Hills. It closed in 1975 and was demolished in 1988 because it was too expensive to retrofit for earthquake safety.”
She was my dad’s favorite. I liked how the movie stars dressed up back the. The other ladies in the background dressed more like my grandmother.