I do love finding photos of drive-in restaurants in Los Angeles from back in the day (aka 1930s through 1950s.) They all had such atmosphere and character, and I especially love the cupola on the roof. This one had a great location: 8801 Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood at the corner of Horn Ave, which put it in the middle of the Sunset Strip. Apparently that dark car at the far right is a 1939 Mercury, so I’m calling this circa early 1940s.
Gary H. said: “That was actually the first Simon’s drive-in. Opened in 1935. Became Dolores in 1945.”
John J. pointed out that this place could have been the inspiration for Mildred’s restaurant in Mildred Pierce. (1945)
This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024. That site is currently occupied by a Supreme clothing store, but for a long while it was home to the always busy Tower Records.
Most castles built in Hollywood were made of wood and plaster and stood behind movie actors swashbuckling their hearts out. However, there were a few honest-to-goodness castles here and there. This one was called Castle Glengarry and it stood Franklin Ave. One report I found said it stood on the northwest corner Grand View Blvd, but I could find no such street on any map, so I guess Grand View Blvd changed its name. Dr. Alfred Schloesser, who built it, owned a swath of land around Franklin, Argyle, and Vine Streets, so it must have been around there, and near his other castle—because yes, the good doctor built more than one castle!—which he named San Souci. Castle Glengarry was completed in 1912, and had 12 rooms, 5 bedrooms, a medieval entrance hall, and two 150-year-old Carrara marble lions. All in all, it must have been a sight to see during one’s morning constitutional around 1910s Hollywood.
I don’t know a lot about the Cordova Hotel which stood at 808 S. Figueroa St, on the southeast corner of 8th St in downtown Los Angeles other than the four-story building opened in 1913. But hey, what a stunning example of architectural art. The craftsmanship around the windows, especially along the top of the building, is impressively detailed. And I especially love those features on the tops of the corners. They sure don’t make ’em like that anymore, do they? (Source: Noirish LA)
This image gives us a view of what the Hollywood Hotel on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave looked like in 1922. It is, in fact, a screengrab from a 1922 movie called Night Life In Hollywood which is about a brother and a sister from Arkansas who arrive in Hollywood in search of wild night life. When this location shot was filmed, the hotel was nearly 20 years old already. (The hotel opened in December 1902 or February 1903, depending on the source.) Most color photos I’ve seen of the hotel show those awnings to be yellow and white, which the ones shown here clearly aren’t. But color photographs from 1920s are few and far between, so maybe we’ll never know.
This partial view of Lick’s Pier in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica (next to Venice), California, was taken in 1929. It shows two different ballrooms—the Egyptian and the Bon Ton—as well as a few thrill rides. This is the second Lick’s Pier. The first one only lasted from 1922 to 1924 before it burned down, as so many piers used to do back then, and rebuilt. But look at the beach in the foreground. It’s wall-to-wall umbrellas. How did anybody get to the shoreline and splash around the in Pacific on what must have been a hot day?
After posting yesterday’s photo of the Signal Hill oil field near Long Beach, California, someone sent me this photo, also taken circa 1937. It’s the same oil wells, but this time we’re seeing them from across the Sunnyside Cemetery at 1095 East Willow St. It’s a good thing the deceased didn’t have to listen to all that noise or breathe in that heavy, oil air. I can only guess that the locals were used to them and didn’t mind visiting their relatives, but it strikes me as being a little off-putting to have all that going on in the background. Source: LAPL
In yesterday’s photo of Vine St in 1960, I commented that I could almost hear the sounds and inhale the smells. This photo similar, but not in quite the same way. In this aerial photo, we’re seeing the forest of oil derricks that blanketed the Signal Hill oil field in Long Beach south of Los Angeles. Oil was important to the local economy back in 1937, when this photo was taken, but it can’t have been pleasant to work in or live near these oil wells. I’ve never been near one, but I imagine they would have been noisy and stinky—especially in this area where there are so many wells it’d be nearly impossible to count them. Source: pbssocal.org
There are some photos you can look at and almost hear the sounds, smell the traffic, and taste the air. For me, this is one of those photos. We’re looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, circa 1960, when the street still featured many of the businesses whose signs lit up the night: Wallichs Music City, Santa Fe railway, Plaza Hotel, The Broadway-Hollywood department store, Taft building on the southeast corner of Hollywood and Vine, and at the far right NBC television studios. Those studios would be razed in 1964, so this photo captures it during its final years. (Source: waterandpower.org)
Here’s a building I had never encountered before I was sent this 1964 photo. These days, it’s hard to miss the Director’s Guild of America building on Sunset Blvd on the southwest corner of Hayworth Ave. It’s around 5 or 6 stories high, circular, with a bronze-tinted exterior. It opened in the late 1980s, but I hadn’t ever given much thought to what it replaced. Sitting on the same block was their previous headquarters, a far more modest one-story structure with what looks like a theater at the back (with the sloping roof.) I could find no details on this building, but I do love that white patterned facade at the front. It’s got a very mid-century Palm Springs vibe about it.