In this atmospheric shot, we’re looking north up Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles with the uniquely striking Richfield Oil Building lit up at night in all its glory. It really must have been a sight to see – day or night – and I’d love to have seen it for myself before it was razed in 1969. I don’t know when this photo was taken but I’m guessing circa 1950s – but if anyone reading this can correct me, I’d love to hear from you.
Roughly the same view in February 2021:
In this shot we’re seeing the Manhattan Beach pier which stretches in the water from the western end of Manhattan Beach Blvd at Ocean Dr. I wonder if the building on the left is the change rooms, or did people change and shower off the sand in the one marked Bath House on the right. My favorite sign is the one outside the restaurant on the far right. It simply says “EAT.”
From the Manhattan Beach Historical Society: “The Manhattan Beach Pier, as seen looking down Center St. (now Manhattan Beach Blvd.). The neon sign was built by Metlox Industries in the late 1920s. The two buildings at the foot of the Pier served as a waiting room for the Pacific Electric Red Car (south building) and a restaurant (north building). The Red Cars along the South Bay beaches were discontinued because of poor ridership in 1940.”
Roughly the same view in February 2021. I like the addition of palm trees but it’s a shame that “Manhattan Beach” sign hasn’t survived.
Double-decker buses are something I associate with London rather than Los Angeles, but in the earlier part of the 20th century, double-deckers with an open-air top deck were quite a common sight around LA. I don’t know what was going on in this circa 1920s photo of businessmen in their suits and ties and hats and overcoats, but someone thought it worth taking a photo of. Maybe they were going to the Los Angeles Motor Bus Company’s Christmas party and decided it was best if someone else did the driving—even if it was Prohibition!
This 1915 view looking west along Seventh St, past Spring St, in downtown Los Angeles shows us four different types of transportation: streetcars, automobiles, horse-drawn wagons, and pedestrians. Imagine the noises the people in this photo were hearing. Without that traffic cop in the middle of the intersection, woman in the long dark dress would be taking her chances. Near the center of the photo we can see a sign for Bullocks, which was a very popular department store that was on Seventh Street for most of the 20th century.
Here’s roughly the same view in February 2021. It’s one of the few instances where the modern-day photo is a lot quieter!
On May 15, 1927, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel opened at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. It was financed by a group that included Louis B. Mayer, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Sid Grauman, which possibly explains why the first Academy Awards ceremony took place there. Not long after that, this photo was taken from Orange Drive, which lays directly north of the hotel. As we can see, the street was lined with trees that shaded the locals from the California sun, but it also looks like finding a place to park was challenging even back then!
Hollywood Blvd itself has more trees now than it did back then, however Orange Drive wasn’t quite so lucky. This all looks rather stark, doesn’t it? (This image is from March 2018)
And here’s a menu dated October 2, 1933. It’s extraordinarily extensive!
With so few landmarks to go by, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where this 1914 photo was taken, but it we do know that it’s looking west from somewhere near the eastern end of Santa Monica Blvd. That peak we can see in the background to the right of those two buildings is Mount Lee, where the famous Hollywoodland sign would go up less than 10 year later. But meanwhile, in 1914, on a road that is constant with traffic these days, there are all of two vehicles and I can’t help but wonder where they were going.
Who even knew they had traffic jams or peak hours back in 1914? In this photo we’re looking at a dozen or so Los Angeles Railway street cars lined up along Seventh St in downtown Los Angeles while waiting their turn to cross busy Main Street. I bet the guy driving the horse and cart is thinking the same thing when I’m on the 405 Freeway heading north and the southbound lanes are clogged to a standstill: “I’m glad that’s not me!”
In this photo of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre taken from the roof of the nearby Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel during the late-summer 1961 seven-week run of “The Young Doctors,” two things stood out to me. All that parking! There’s a lot to the immediate west and east of Grauman’s, as well as that huge lot in the upper right corner. It belonged to the First Federal Bank building, which replaced the oft-lamented Hollywood Hotel, which had fallen to the wrecking ball in 1956. Also catching my eye is the line of stars in the sidewalk. That dedication ceremony for that project took place on November 23, 1960, so those stars we can see aren’t even a year old.
This photo from 1963 during the run of “Irma La Douce” show that there was also parking behind the theater.
Here’s that same block from a different angle showing us how big the bank’s parking lot was.
My thanks to Kurt Wahlner from the highly informative GraumansChinese.org for his help with this post.
Color photos of the Vine Street Brown Derby aren’t too common so I’ll gratefully take every one I can get. This one was taken in 1948 when their neighbors were Western Air Line and Maurice Inc, which sold knitwear. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that rent in the Brown Derby building wouldn’t have been cheap, so Maurice Holman would have had to have sold a lot of sweaters and scarfs to make the rent. The archway to the right of Maurice was the alley leading to the guest parking. Given the A-list clientele of the Derby, there must have been some might fine vehicles back there every single day.
What’s left of the building is now dwarfed by high-rise apartment buildings. But at least there’s *something* left of it. (This image is from January 2018.)
This home looks like a fairly typical Southern Californian dwelling with lots of windows and wide verandas. But this house at 1749 N. Cherokee Ave, Hollywood on the corner of Yucca St didn’t belong to just anyone. It was home to L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wizard of Oz” who moved to Hollywood when it was still a sparse village filled mostly with citrus groves. He built the house in the early 1900s and called it “Ozcot.” Baum died in 1916, long before MGM premiered its film version in August 15, 1939, at Grauman’s Chinese Theater only three blocks away. Ozcot was razed in the late 1950s.
This is what stands on that corner today. It’s a shame the house is no longer there. It would make a wonderful museum who a man who led a rather extraordinary life. Aside from writing the Oz books, he also kept exotic birds and was a highly skilled horticulturalist. (This image is from May 2016.)
