This view must have been both spectacular and horrifying to see in real life. One of the jewels of downtown Los Angeles architecture was the Richfield Building at 555 S. Flower St (1929 to 1969.) Clad in black and gold terracotta, it really was something. But on the night of March 1st, 1954, a wire short-circuited near a can of lacquer causing a fire to break out in an elevator shaft. This sent the flames roaring up to the top of the building and spreading to the top floors, causing $50,000 worth of damage. That’s nearly half a million dollars in today’s money, but they were lucky they didn’t lose the entire building. If you’d like to see the Richfield Building in all its glory, see: Different views of the Richfield Tower (aka Richfield Oil Building) downtown Los Angeles, 1929 to 1969
These days if you stand at 555 Flower St and look up, you see this unimaginative glass tower. This image is from December 2020:
I love the film-noir-ish feel of this nighttime shot of Vine Street in Hollywood looking south from half a block north of Hollywood Blvd. Maybe it’s just the angle of the shot, but I don’t recall seeing so many streetlights lining Vine. This shot was taken in the 1950s, when the Plaza Hotel was still a viable hotel before it later went to seed. That horizontal neon sign in the far distance says “Ravenswood” for the apartment building at 570 N. Rossmore Ave. Vine St becomes Rossmore south of Melrose. It was built in 1930 by nearby Paramount Studios and is still there in all its 1930s glory. But look at the angle of this photo. The photographer is at least two stories up—what was he standing on in the middle of Vine Street?
In this circa 1929 photo, we’re looking at an intersection that no longer exists. It’s where Carlton Way meets Van Ness Ave in Hollywood. Carlton runs left to right (i.e. west to east); Van Ness runs from the bottom to the top (i.e. south to north.) As we can see, this part of Hollywood was still semi-rural, with that orchard on the right, lots of empty land, and no fences between those three houses in the middle.
After organizing a post-premiere fundraiser at Ciro’s that resulted in $6,500 seed money, Bette Davis and John Garfield’s project, the Hollywood Canteen, opened at 1451 Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood on October 3, 1942. Servicemen were welcomed with refreshments, world-class entertainment, and the chance for Tommy from Tennessee and Ike from Idaho to meet—and possibly even dance with—a real, live movie star. Bette insisted on full integration allowing Black men to dance with white women and vice versa. It doesn’t sound like a bit deal these days, but back then it was a first. This photo is from 1942, so it was taken not long after the Canteen opened.
When I saw the top photo of searchlights combing the sky over Hollywood during WWII, I figured it was unlikely that they’d have 24 searchlights all going at once and so what I was seeing was more likely a side effect of the slow shutter speed necessary for night photography. But then I came across the bottom photo showing two banks for 12 searchlights at the Hollywood Bowl reaching up into the night sky. We can see the curve of the Bowl in the background. What a sight it must have been standing on the stage that night!
Jerry from the Netherlands alerted me to a Tumblr account that focused on photos of theaters and cinemas – 
In this striking photo, we’re looking north up Vine Street across Selma Ave toward the Hollywood and Vine intersection. The caption of this photo said it was taken on May 24, 1930. But those extraordinary searchlights suggest to me that they’re celebrating the opening of the Pantages Theatre, which opened on June 4. It was a very big deal, playing MGM’s The Floradora Girl, starring Marion Davies, with Al Jolson serving as the MC that night. It was definitely 1930 because the Dyas department store hadn’t yet changed to the Hollywood-Broadway, which happened in 1931. And on the right, we can see a billboard for “Hell’s Angels” which had its legendary Hollywood premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on May 27. So whenever this photo was taken, there was a lot going on!
Montmartre Café, at 6753 Hollywood Blvd, half a block east of the Hollywood Hotel was tucked away on the second floor but is credited with sparking Hollywood nightlife. Opening in December 1922, the Montmartre was Hollywood’s first nightclub and quickly reached its zenith drawing both movie stars and movie fans during Prohibition. More than just a nightclub, though, it was also very popular a lunchtime venue where the newly arrived Louella Parsons wasn’t above eavesdropping on lunching celebrities.
This shot from 1928 gives us a glimpse of how Wilshire Blvd looked in the 1920s with its large homes on spacious grounds. This view is looking toward the northwest corner of Wilshire and Shatto Place at the Tudoresque mansion at 3143 Wilshire. I suppose it’s inevitable that the relentless march of progress would decree that a major thoroughfare like Wilshire would eventually give over to commercial interest, but how pleasant it must have been to motor along the boulevard at that time and gaze out the window at homes like these. There is a detailed history of that home here: 