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.
That building is in excellent shape. Like many buildings in downtown LA, it’s now lofts and the ground floor is a restaurant. This image is from February 2021.
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?
If you’re going to call your movie house the Liberty Theatre, it make sense that you would install a 12-foot Statue-of-Liberty-type figure on top of the roof. This place stood at 266 S. Main Street in downtown Los Angeles from the 1910s .The double bill playing the day this photo was taken was a Clara Bow picture, “The Primrose Path” with “Adventures in the Far North” which places this photo at circa 1925. That’s quite an elaborate three-panel display they’ve got out front—but was it was enough to convince that guy looking at it to buy a ticket? The theater came down around 1930, which leaves me to wonder what happened that facsimile of Lady Liberty.
In this photo, we’re treated to a glimpse of how Pershing Square in the middle of downtown Los Angeles used to look back when it was filled with lush, shady greenery. I don’t have a date on this photo, but all those trees and shrubs were dug up in the early 1950s when a multi-level parking lot was put in, so I’m guessing this is from the late 1940s? Whatever the year, it was when retired gentlemen would go to parks and read the newspaper cover to cover with their similarly minded pals, as we can see in the left foreground.
The Mulholland Dam (named after William Mulholland, who designed the Los Angeles Aqueduct) holds the Hollywood Reservoir in place up in the Hollywood Hills. Construction began in 1923 and this photo shows it still being worked on, but I’m guessing it’s nearing completion because the north side of the dam is filling with water, so this photo is circa 1924. It is now designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and is part of a wonderful trail which allows you to walk around the whole reservoir.
The idea of a café built in the shape of a Spanish galleon (a reproduction of the one helmed by explorer, Juan Cabrillo, when he discovered California) proved to be a very popular idea when Abbott Kinney’s “Venice of America” development opened in 1905. This photo was taken that same year, when the Ship Café also opened, by Baron Long who would later run the Biltmore Bowl nightclub at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. When Prohibition kicked in, this place became a popular destination where thirsty Angelenos knew they could get some—ahem—“tea.”
If this photo hadn’t come with a caption, I doubt that I would have recognized where this photo was taken. What we’re seeing an early shot of the construction site of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. They broke ground on January 9, 1926 so I’m guessing this shot was taken a few months later. That slope we can see is the slope of the auditorium seating, which is being dug out by steam shovels. I wonder if the guys driving those things realized they were helping to build what would become the world’s most famous movie house.
Los Angeles is a city of eclectic architecture, but this one sure takes the prize. It’s the bath house at Ocean Park, which is the beach sandwiched between Santa Monica and Venice. I don’t know who chose to build it in the Moorish style, but you can bet that everyone knew what it was and where it was. Built in 1905, this photo is from circa 1910—back when going to the beach still meant you didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t show much skin.
