It’s not too hard to find photos of the exterior of the striking Carthay Circle Theater at 6316 San Vicente Blvd. More challenging, however, is photos taken inside the auditorium. Someone recently mentioned to me how magnificent the theater’s curtain was. About a week ago, I came across a photo of it and learned it depicted the Donner Party crossing the Sierras during the brutal winter of 1846. To be honest, I’m not sure the portrayal of desperate pioneers enduring severe hardships, starvation, disease, and cannibalism made for an appropriate subject for people looking to have a good time at the movies. It does however look like it would have been quite striking in real life.
Andie P. said: “That is the old stage and original curtain. Much of the proscenium and stage surrounds were demolished when the TODD A O screens were installed for the premier of Around The World in 80 Days in December 1956.”
Bill C. said: “The theater had to have an orchestra pit and a pipe organ to accompany silent films. The Carthay had a full stage and used it for elaborate prologues before the feature film.”
Until I came across this photo, I only knew of McDonnell’s as a chain of popular drive-in restaurants throughout Los Angeles in the 1940s. But apparently they also had hotels. This one was called El Rancho Hotel and it stood on San Fernando Rd (I couldn’t find a specific address) in West Glendale, California, right near the Grand Central airport, just north of Griffith Park. I love those two white-topped Buicks parked out front. The black one is a 1954 model, so this photo (probably a postcard) is circa mid-1950s—and looks every inch a 1950s motel, doesn’t it?
The two classic-era automobiles (an Oldsmobile on the left and a Buick on the right) we can see in this color photo (a postcard, is my guess) taken at the entrance to the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd are both from 1960, so I think we can assume this image is circa early 1960s. By then, the heyday of the Ambassador, and its drawcard venue, the world-famous Cocoanut Grove, nightclub was waning. But you’d never know it from this shot, with this beautifully glowing circular entrance. I’d imagine you could see it from all the way from Wilshire Blvd!
Before finding this photo, I’d never heard of the Guardian Arms Apartments at 5217 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood at the corner of Harvard Blvd. So I don’t have much information to pass on, other than to admire the craftsmanship that went into apartment buildings back in the 1920s. (The building opened on June 30, 1928.) I love the arches along the ground floor, the four rows of bay windows, and the detailing along the top of the building, which is eight stories up so very few people would ever even notice. (Source: jhgraham.com)
This photo captures what I think of as being a very LA moment. In 1968, sculptor Howard Ball made a fiberglass mammoth to be placed into the La Brea Tar Pits, where natural asphalt has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years, only the last 100 or so of which has been known as the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire Blvd. Over many centuries, the bones of trapped animals have been preserved in the tar, so Ball’s sculptures were a way to remind people of the pits’ perilous history. In June 1968, it was ready to be installed, but of course they couldn’t simply throw it in, so it had to be lowered into place via helicopter. (Source: miraclemilela.com)
I’ve had my eye on this gem of an apartment building for a while, but have been waiting for a shot I liked. It popped yesterday on the Art Deco Facebook group. It’s known as the Mauretania and it stands at 520-522 N. Rossmore Ave in Hancock Park, which puts it one block north of the Wilshire Country Club. The Facebook post said it was designed by Architect Milton J. Black for 
This photo shows us the end of an era: the removal of the Red Car streetcars tracks along the Hollywood Freeway in 1953. We’re facing north heading into the Cahuenga Pass and I suspect that offramp on the left leads to the Hollywood Bowl. The dismantling of the streetcar network was a long, drawn-out event that reshaped Los Angeles. In a number of ways it was inevitable—the system had been very unprofitable for years—but it’s still rather sad to see the long, wide scar where those tracks had been for decades. (Source: Water & Power Associates)