I know modern-day apartment buildings are probably more efficient and everything works better, but they can’t hold a candle to the atmosphere to the apartment buildings of yesteryear. This are the Los Altos apartments which stand on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and S. Bronson Ave, which puts it near the Wilshire Country Club. Look at those windows on the corner and those south-facing Juliet balconies. The Los Altos opened in 1925 and so was only a year old when this photo was taken. In fact, it was so new that as we can see, Bronson Ave was being paved.
This is how the Los Altos looked in January 2024. It’s still in very good condition, and I bet the residents on the south side of the building appreciate those shade trees.
The exterior set for Tara, the mansion from “Gone With The Wind,” was built in 1938 (principal photography began on January 29, 1939) and yet it was still standing 20 years later, when this aerial photo (I assume that dark thing on the left was part of the aircraft) was taken during the summer of 1958. David O. Selznick owned the backlot known as “Forty Acres” from 1935 to 1957, after which it became part of the Desilu empire. (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball would own it for another 10 years.) As we can see, Tara was in a fairly sad state of weathered disrepair by 1958. It was disassembled and removed in 1959, and a few years later that spot became Stalag 13 in the TV show, “Hogan’s Heroes.”
In this atmospheric circa 1940s image, we’re looking northeast across Wilshire Blvd toward the Beverly-Wilshire Art Galleries, which was at 8813 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills. Unlike the building next door, the gallery made sure that all the lights were on so that people could see what they’ve got for sale. Near the far right, we can see the neon lights of a drive-in restaurant on the northeast corner of Wilshire and Robertson Blvds. In the 1930s, it was called McDonnell’s, but now it looks like it was called Webb’s. However, I can’t find any trace of a Webb’s drive-in online. Does anyone remember it? (BTW, this image is a screenshot of a remastered video taken while driving around LA in the 1940s. It has been colorized with sound added and gives us a pretty good idea of what it was like to cruise around LA back then! You can see it 
Once upon a time, there was a hallowed and legendary hotel known as the 
During Hollywood’s heyday, the movie studios had large ranches in the San Fernando Valley, where land was still cheap. It gave them lots of room to create expansive backlot sets. In this aerial shot, we’re looking at RKO’s ranch in Encino. (For the record the ranch was located approximately between Louise Ave on the west, Balboa Blvd on the east, Burbank Blvd on the south, and Oxnard St on the north.) On this property their Western street intersected with New York street (It’s all about where you point the camera!) The building on the right with the three pointed arches was Notre Dame in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” (1939) This is also where Frank Capra built 4 acres of sets for “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I don’t have a date on this photo but I’ve see other photos from the early 1950s that looked similar to this one.
Starting in the 1930s, the windmill-topped Van de Kamp bakeries were a common and welcome sight for hungry Angelenos in search of delicious baked goods. (And let’s face it, who isn’t?) But I suspect this one at San Fernando Rd and Fletcher Dr. in Glendale was the very first one they built because that long, pale building behind it was the company’s headquarters (built in 1930.) So I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to suppose that they would build their first windmill café next to their factory. This photo is dated 1936, proving traffic jams existed back then, too!
When this photo was taken on May 4, 1939, the Los Angeles Times building at the corner of First and Spring in downtown Los Angeles had been open for four years. The Art Deco building had quickly become an iconic part of the LA skyline—and still is, even though it’s now empty. This shot was taken from the gardens of LA City Hall, which must have been a nice respite for city workers looking to eat their lunch in the shade.
Following on from 
Attached to the Biltmore Hotel at the intersection of Fifth and Olive Sts in downtown Los Angeles, Biltmore Theatre was a popular venue for live shows from 1924 to 1964. But the opening of the Music Center a few blocks away meant it was no longer needed, so down it came in late ‘64. And that’s what we’re seeing in this photo looking southeast along Fifth St. But it’s easy to be distracted from that unfortunate event by the streetlight in the foreground. Being so tall, we seldom get to see one this close up, so this is a rare opportunity to appreciate their ornate design, and marvel about how much thought and detail went into something that most Angelenos would never see up close.