This photo takes us back to a time when Hollywood Blvd offered nighttime strollers a smorgasbord of window shopping delight. We’re looking east along Hollywood Blvd toward the Iris theater at 6508. Just within the frame of this shot we can see four stores, each with a display lit up at night and neon signs. I love the Art Deco blade sign for the Iris, however I’m not so sure about their claim that those two movies were “two great hits” – I had to dig deep on IMDB to find them. “Renegades” came out in 1946 and “The Desperadoes” in 1943, but they do let us date this photo circa late 1940s.
I remember going to the Iris in 1964 with my mother, brother and sister. We saw Don Knotts there and I got his autograph. A very nice man. He had taken his kids to see the “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. This was back in the day when Hollywood still had class. I was lucky to be old enough to remember those days when I was 11 years old. Very sad how Hollywood and the rest of Los Angeles has degraded. Believe it or not, it was once a clean, beautiful city. Today you walk the streets in fear.
For what it’s worth…I’m going to be contrarian… I went downtown to the Dodgers parade a couple weeks ago and the city looked really beautiful to me. The subway was hoppin’ with thousands and thousands of people and it took no time at all to go there and back. Grand Park was so festive.The weather was picture perfect. No smog. I don’t walk the streets in fear. I do agree that more people equals more problems. In 1964 there were roughly 2.5 million people. In 2024 nearly 4 million. The whole metro this year area is projected to have 12,598,000 people! But a few months ago I also read: “If you’ve ever wondered ‘is Los Angeles safe?’ — the answer to that question is yes! In fact, it received a very high overall score of 76.5 on the recent Safe Cities Index, making it the 18th-safest city among 60 cities worldwide. That’s a huge feat, considering its size.” I also like these two sayings I reference: “What ye seek, ye shall find” and Lincoln said, “Most people are about as happy as they want to be.” I also read an article that people who consume large amounts of news media every day are way more fearful than those who don’t. You are what you eat?
Thank you, Martin. Politicians are stoking the fear and talking nonstop about crime crime crime. But crime rates have fallen — drastically — over the last several years. They’re WAY down from the 70s and 80s.
((((((( Paula )))))))
Thank you for putting this so very well. It’s exhausting reading all the doom and gloom responses to views back on the city’s past. Repeat something often enough, and it ends up seeming like it’s fact.
We also know that this photograph was taken around autumn because there’s a sign in that very lighted window that says “Back to School,” but I have to wonder what people were actually wearing what is pictured in that window to school in the 1940s? Hmm…!!!
Heh, sounds like an interesting double feature. Renegades AND Desperadoes??? LOL.