After yesterday’s photo of the so-called “safety zone” which was really just a rectangle of painted asphalt, I’m now starting to see them everywhere. In this one, we’re looking west along Hollywood Blvd from east of Cahuenga Blvd. This one has four little domes, which I’m guessing were for the benefit of errant drivers, alerting them to the fact that they had driven into the streetcar passenger waiting zone. This photo was taken in 1938, and from the metal Christmas trees mounted on the streetlights, it’s safe to assume it was December.
This is roughly how that view looked in July 2024, by which time that block had lots of shade trees.
Photos like this give me the heebie-jeebies. We’re looking north up Vermont Ave toward a streetcar turning west onto 3rd Street. It was taken in 1939 when Los Angeles was spiderwebbed with streetcar tracks. But I fear for the safety of passengers. All that’s separating them from a collision course with a reckless driver is a stripe of white paint and that little barrier so low that it barely rates as a barrier. I know cars didn’t go quite so fast back then, but still. This sight make me slightly sweaty.
On March 21, 1958, Dean Martin along with a business partner and freshly split from Jerry Lewis, opened Dino’s Lodge in the building where a failed restaurant called The Alpine Lodge used to operate. Serving Italian food, evidently (and somewhat predictably) it had Rat Pack feel with dark wood and plush booths. It was also featured in the TV series “77 Sunset Strip” even though such an address didn’t exist. Dino’s Lodge was on the Sunset Strip, but this bright red 1959 Rambler station wagon was parked at 8524 Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood.
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.
United Artists went all out for the August 8, 1938 premiere of “Algiers” starring Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr at the 4 Star Theatre at 5112 Wilshire Blvd which they draped with all sorts of banners and flags, which I assume they kept up for the run of the movie. At the time, it was quite a hot ticket because it was the first American movie to star the new European discovery, Hedy Lamarr. Moviegoers certainly got their money’s worth in those days. As well as the movie, they were shown a Robert Benchley short and a Walt Disney cartoon.
Here is scenic streetcar ride I’d like to have taken when it was around. This Pacific Electric Red Car is rolling northward out of Redondo on the ‘Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey’ streetcar route that followed the coastline south of where LA International Airport now is. In fact, that photo was probably snapped at roughly the site of LAX. But to ride a streetcar close enough to the beach to be able to jump directly into the sand seems a very Californian thing to do. The line closed in 1930 and I suspect this photo was taken around that time.
Here’s an image that I don’t think has been posted online before. I glimpsed it while watching 
Until I came across this aerial photo of Marina Del Ray, I’d never heard of a development called Silver Strand, which is what we are looking at here. It’s only 10 blocks long and 2 blocks wide, and stretches from Washington Blvd down to Via Marina alongside the Main Channel. It started out as a subdivision in 1906 by Abbot Kinney, who was the brains behind Venice, which is the beach directly north. This photo was taken on February 4, 1959, by which time oil was discovered along the coastline. As we can see, there were some houses in the area, but nothing like the primo real estate it is these days.
Rarely have I seen a photo of LA peak hour traffic look so artistic. We’re looking west along Wilshire Blvd from west of Serrano Ave. That 12-story Art Deco building on the left is called the Pellissier Building, which also housed the Warners Theatre. It had only just opened when this photo was taken in 1931. But look at the road itself: it had a center divider painted down the middle, but that was all. No lane to keep drivers in check. I guess it was “every man for himself”?
I do like the way the photographer framed this shot of the Belmont Theatre at 126 S. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, taking in the lit marquee facing the street as well as the huge sign on top of the theater featuring the current movie, “Two Sisters from Boston” starring Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, and Jimmy Durante. The movie opened on June 5, 1946 and ran for a few weeks. With that searchlight next to the marquee, I’m wondering if the photo was taken the night the movie opened.