Until I came across this photo recently I’d never heard of the Winter Garden Skating rink, but I’m sure glad I’ve heard of it now. What a gorgeous example of Art Deco architecture. It kind of reminds me of the Pan-Pacific Park auditorium on Beverly Blvd. Opening in 1940, it stood at 171 S. Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena until it closed in 1966. Did anyone reading this go skating there? Do you remember what color it was painted?
Looking south on Arroyo Parkway on a rainy day showing the Pasadena Winter Garden, circa 1960s:
Here’s another angle:
The building is still there. It’s now a Public Storage facility, and I was pleased to find that they’ve kept the entrance reasonably intact. This image is from February 2021:
I have no information on this house other than it stood on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles in the late 1800s. Whoever owned it must have been very wealthy because all that incredibly detailed fretwork wouldn’t have come cheap, and nor would the on-going maintenance. This sort of detail was very common on late Victorian homes such as this one, but this one is next-level stuff.
In this photo we’re looking west along Hollywood Blvd from the Egyptian Theatre. The movie “Hawaii” was playing at the Egyptian Theatre, which means this photo was taken during the holiday season of 1966. The Christmas trees along the boulevard have a different design from the ones I’m used to seeing in vintage photos of this area. These ones look like they were triangles lit from within, and criss-crossed with tinsel and electric candles. The Egyptian Theatre is still around (now owned by Netflix) and the Hollywood Inn (which used to be the Hotel Christie, is still around—well, the building is. It’s no longer a hotel; the Church of Scientology now owns it. So the view these days isn’t largely different from how it looks in this photo.
This aerial view of Los Angeles International Airport was taken in 1963, two years after the main terminal complex opened, and with lots of empty land around it. These days the layout is pretty much the same, except that the parking lot is now a four-story structure, and a huge international terminal opened in 1984, just before the 1984 Olympics. But here’s my question: those round buildings where the planes are parked, how did passengers get to them? Surely they didn’t walk across the tarmac…?
It’s not often that I get to post a photo from the 1920s of a building that still looks practically the same today. The Hollywood YMCA building on the southwest corner of Selma Ave and Schrader Blvd was completed in 1928, so I’m guessing this photo was taken not long after that. From what I can see, very little has changed to the exterior. The biggest difference I can see is the removal of the bike rack on the sidewalk in front of the Selma Ave entrance. I guess it really does help to be on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s not often that we are treated to a color photo of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at a time when that awning from the front door to the curb still existed. It looks to be fairly elaborate with those gold touches and that decoration on the roof halfway along above what looks to be the box office. “The World of Suzie Wong” had a remarkably long run. Following its gala premiere on December 15, 1960, it ran for 13 weeks from December 16, 1960 to March 16, 1961, making it the second longest run for 1960 (after Stanley Kramer’s “On The Beach.”)
From July 30 to August 14, 1932, Los Angeles held the 10th Olympic Games, largely at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This photo is where Angelenos could get tickets to events. The office was in a building that stood—and still stands—at the corner of Eighth and Spring Streets, in downtown Los Angeles. Just a block east of Broadway, it was a prime location and I’m sure the people who worked in there were kept busy in the lead up to and during the Games. Or maybe not. The Games were held during the depth of the Depression so I can’t imagine many people could easily afford tickets. Then again, Wikipedia says the Games made a $1 million profit, so who knows.
These days, Los Angeles is littered with corner mini-malls. Hardly any of them are particularly attractive or add anything to the overall cityscape (aside from crassly commercial functionality, I guess.) What a much more pleasant vista it would be if they looked more like this one. Taken in 1930, this shows a mini mall on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and Hamilton Dr., a block east of Restaurant Row on La Cienega Blvd. How many mini malls these days have a clock tower, a Juliet balcony, and an arched doorway??? I have two questions I’m hoping somebody might be able to answer: Are other US cities filled with mini malls, or is that more of a California thing? And would people back in the 1930s have called these places “mini malls”?
Back in Hollywood’s heyday, one of the most well-known landmarks was the NBC radio (and later television) studios on the 
In this photo taken from the Gaylord Apartments (which are still around) on Kenmore Ave we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd in 1928, when the Immanuel Presbyterian Church (also still around) was under construction. We can see the shape of the spire taking form. That patch of lawn on the right is part of the grounds of the Ambassador Hotel (now a school), but can anyone tell me what that white stripe painted on Wilshire is?