In this photo we’re Looking west along Hollywood Blvd from Highland Ave. The photo is undated, but the hotel is in pretty good condition so I’m going to guess this was taken in the 1930s.
Mary M. says: “It started its downhill run when the Christie Hotel came in. Each room in the Christie had its own bath, but guests shared bathrooms down the hall in the Hollywood Hotel.”
My focus on vintage Los Angeles peters out at the end of the 1950s, the twilight years of the studio system era. And so it came as a surprise (to me, at least) to learn that Ciro’s, which from 1940 to 1957 was one of the premier nightclubs in L.A., later became known as It’s Boss, pictured here in 1967, when Lovin Spoonful were playing. In 1972, it became a stand-up comedy venue called The Comedy Store, which it still is, and which means it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
This is how that building looked in November 2021:
Hollywood Park racetrack opened in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles (near L.A. International Airport) in 1938 by the Hollywood Turf Club, whose chairman was Jack Warner (from Warner Bros.) It closed during the war years when it was used for storage. On the night of May 5, 1949, the grandstand caught fire. It was bad timing as a million-dollar upgrade had recently been completed. As we can see from this spectacular shot, fire engulfed the entire grandstand. I can only imagine the heat it generated. The stand was rebuilt in 1950, and the track continued to hold meets until 2013. Part of the site is now home to the new SoFi stadium.
Here’s aerial shot of it not long after it opened in 1938. The parking lot is bigger than the racetrack…naturally.
Back in 1925, when the San Fernando Valley was still largely pastoral, one of the most well-known farms was the one that provided L.A. with a lot of its milk: Ahohr. (Named after the owner’s wife, Rhoda, but spelled backwards.) Established in 1916, the farm’s Guernsey milk cows grazed both sides of Ventura Blvd at around White Oak Blvd in Encino until after WWII, when the post-war spread of suburbia put the squeeze on all that land.
This is a 2022 satellite image of the same area – and not a cow in sight.
Here we have a bird’s-eye view the Warner Bros. studio at 5800 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood where they filmed their game-changing “The Jazz Singer.” I’ve only ever seen photos of these studios from ground level, and always of the classic-style façade with row of columns which we can see in this photo. I never knew that building had a huge sign painted on its roof: WARNER BROS WEST COAST STUDIOS. After a few name changes, KTLA television moved in 1955, and now it’s mostly used as a production facility by Netflix.
How that main building facing Sunset looked in February 2021:
I always thought that the only screen credit that MGM’s Irving Thalberg got was a posthumous one attached to The Good Earth. (1937) So imagine my surprise when I saw this credit pop up on Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) which opened three years after Thalberg’s passing. Those first 4 signatures are James Hilton (who wrote the novel), Victor Saville (producer), Sam Wood (director), and Sidney Franklin (uncredited director.) It’s nice to see that Thalberg (the hero of my novel, The Heart of the Lion) was so well thought of so long after his death.
Arthur C. says: “Goodbye Mr. Chips, the 1934 novel by James Hilton, was one of the many film projects that Irving Thalberg had planned to produce, along with Maytime (1937), A Day at the Races (1936) and Marie Antoinette (1938). Thalberg’s closest collaborators, Sidney Franklin, Hunt Stromberg and Lawrence Weingarten, Thalberg’s brother in law, were assigned to handle these films after his death. It should also be mentioned that Thalberg a number of unrealized film projects. He wanted eagerly to film The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. A novel by Franz Werfel that was published in 1933, which focused on the events involving The Armenian Genocide in 1915. Thalberg also wanted to borrow Frank Capra from Columbia to film a story about engineer hired to build a pipeline in Russia.”
Laurel Canyon Blvd is one of the main (twisting, turning) roads that connect Los Angeles with the San Fernando Valley. These days it’s nearly always busy, but back in the early 1900s when this photo was taken, Angelenos’ main method of transportation was the trackless trolley, which was powered by overhead electrical wires. On an unpaved road, it must have been a tad bumpy. Of course, back then a visit to the valley was more like a day’s outing into the countryside. But I’m worried about that automobile coming the other way. It might just be the angle, but it looks like a certain collision!
Stanley G. says: “This trolley coach connected a Pacific Electric streetcar line (which used Hollywood Blvd) with a housing development up the canyon. It did not go all the way to the San Fernando Valley.“
The Los Angeles Pacific Company’s “Balloon Route” was a streetcar ride that started in downtown Los Angeles and took passengers on a scenic trip around L.A. It was marketed as being for tourists, but in reality was an extended advertisement to encourage people to buy real estate. This service started in 1905, so there would have been puh-lenty of land available and not much competition. (The population of L.A. in 1900 was 102,000.) This photo was taken in 1906 and these people would have ridden the rails of the route that went from Playa del Ray along the coast to Redondo Beach. I believe this photo was taken at the second last stop, Hermosa Beach.
Here’s a map of the Balloon Route. You sure got to see a whole lot of LA!
In the late 1880s, John H. Jones was a bit of a big deal. He was a very successful real estate developer and active in city politics. That’s his house on the far left, but it’s not what I find interesting about this circa late 1800s photo. We’re looking north up Main St toward Fifth St in what is now downtown Los Angeles. Look how residential it is. All those leafy trees, and hedges, and lawns. Main Street looks like it would have been a nice area to live in back then. Also, note that everyone in this photo, kids included, is wearing a hat.
Much the same view in February 2021. That building on the left is great, but you’d never know it was the same place, would you?
In this photo, we get to be a part of the West Coast premiere of “White Christmas.” It was held on October 27, 1954 at the Warner Bros Beverly Hills Theater on Wilshire Blvd, which is odd because it was a Paramount release. And not just any old movie, either, but their first movie in VistaVision, which was their wide-screen process. Made for $2 million, the movie earned 15 times that, making it the most successful movie of 1954. So I guess naming it after the biggest-selling song in history was a pretty smart move.
Mark D says: “The reason it’s at this theater was due to the 1947 law (or Supreme Court ruling) that stripped the Studios of the theaters due to it being a monopoly.”
Susan M says: “The Warner Beverly Hills along with the Paramount downtown were the first two theaters in the Southland to get the special VistaVision projectors installed. The film ran through horizontally, not vertically like previous projectors. There had been tons of buzz over the film release, it was apt to be a big hit most said. Thus, it also opened the day after the Beverly Hills premier at the downtown Paramount.‘
