In this May 1932 photo looking east along Wilshire Blvd from Detroit St, a few things catch my eye. Look at all that gorgeous detailing along the top of the building on the right. It almost looks like it’s wearing a crown. And on that streetlamp – they were called a Wilshire Special and were only on Wilshire Blvd – the “Detroit” street sign points north and south is in a style I don’t recall seeing before. And that big white building on the left is the only one in this photo that I recognize. It’s the E. Clem Wilson Building and was only three years old when this photo was taken. It caught my eye because I recently read that it was used as the headquarters of Daily Planet in the first season of the “Adventures of Superman” TV series. I guess that was before they switched to the more iconic LA City Hall.
Gary H. says: “They only used the building as the Daily Planet in the first season of Superman in 1951, because the following year they added the Mutual of Omaha sign.”
Gary H. also says: “The very first Gilmore gas station was located on this corner, built in 1923 before it was demolished in 1929 to build the E. Clem Wilson building.”
This is roughly how that view looked in November 2023.
What ever became of those Wilshire Special Lights? They were so beautiful.
Also wondering what is that big blue square on top of the Daily Planet building on the current photo? It looks very out of place and really takes away from the architecture of the building.
I guess at some point there were taken out and replaced with more modern streetlights. The blue panels are weird. They used to be a billboard of sorts. For a long time it was for Mutual of Omaha, then Asahi Breweries and later Samsung. And now I guess its up for grabs.
I sure wish someone would take them down and reveal the fine design from the past.
Wouldn’t that be nice. There are some lovely details underneath that eye sore of a billboard. The least they could do it paint it white to match the building.
Yeah, that billboard thing has been there 40+ years that I’ve seen it. Wonder when it was first put there?
Oops, I see Gary H. mentioned what I’d asked; around 1952.
I worked in the E. Clem Wilson Building for several years. Even spent 1.5 hours stuck in its elevator–ha! But it’s a great old building. Second tallest building in the city for a long time during the height restriction age. I’ve seen some fascinating pictures of it under construction. It used to have a zeppelin mooring tower at the top and I have seen one picture of a zeppelin using it. It’s a shame about the billboards.
I never knew about the zeppelin mooring tower and would love to see that photo you mentioned!
Wasn’t sure if I could post links here or not, but 1930s photos show the zeppelin tower (Calisphere, USC Digital Archive). Looks like a really large flagpole. I can’t seem to find the one photo I saw with a zeppelin actually moored, although there are plenty under construction photos in those same archives.
You should be able to post it. I googled but I couldn’t find any photo like that.
I wonder who would have the power to get that ugly billboard removed? It does not seem to be serving any purpose at this point.
I assume the building owners are keeping it up there in case anyone wants to rent the billboard space. I have no idea how much those sorts of things go for, but I assume they fetch a pretty penny.