From the late 1920s to the late 1950, the movie studios at the northeast corner of Melrose Ave and Gower St were home to RKO Radio Pictures. It was hard to miss them if you were driving along Melrose—there was a huge painted concrete globe of the Earth with the iconic radio tower on top. This photo was taken on Gower looking south toward Melrose; we can see the globe and tower on the right. I’ve always liked the oh-so-1930s font RKO used for their logo, but especially displayed along the outer wall like this in huge letters. This space was always used to display billboards of RKO’s movies. We can see “In Person” starring Ginger Rogers, which came out in November 1935.
Much the same view in April 2019. The RKO tower is gone now, but the concrete Earth is still there, as are the billboards:
I’d say this photo is about as Hollywood as a Hollywood photo can be. A single, powerful searchlight shines a bright beam into the sky over the RKO Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Blvd as the hopeful and the notable arrive for the 22nd Academy Awards on March 23, 1950. This ceremony honored movies released in 1949, so it was the night Broderick Crawford won for “All the King’s Men,” Olivia de Havilland one for “The Heiress,” and “All the King’s Men” won Best Picture.
During the 1940s, one of the most popular radio shows was “Breakfast in Hollywood” hosted by Tom Breneman, who ran an eponymous restaurant at 1525 N. Vine St., Hollywood. The show ran from 1941 to 1948 on three different radio networks: NBC, ABC and Mutual – which seems like a lot of bouncing around. Can anyone tell us if that was normal back in those days? I’m guessing this (gorgeously atmospheric) photo was taken mid 1940s, before the façade got a neon makeover.
August 14, 1945 was a big day around the world, but especially in Southern California, which had been the U.S.’s main gateway to the Pacific theater during WWII. This photo was taken that day—known as V-J Day (Victory over Japan, marking the end of hostilities)—and here we see about a dozen Angelenos, giddy with joy, packed into (and onto) a Plymouth at the intersection of Olive and 6th Streets in downtown Los Angeles, where Western Airlines had their office. As we can see from the trash on the street, much celebrating was done that day. And I bet there were many hangovers suffered on the morning of the 15th.
Here’s a shot of something I’ve never seen before: the original canopy that stretched from the front door of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to the Hollywood Blvd curb had stencils on the side flaps. Those dragons must have been at least a couple of feet tall. This photo was taken during the run of MGM’s “David Copperfield” which, according to 
Until I came across this photo, I never knew a bank existed that was open 24-7, but apparently the appropriately named “All Night And Day Bank” did exactly that. This photo was taken in April 1910 on a day when it looks to me like there was a run on the bank. All those people are crowding the sidewalks of the intersection of Spring and 6th Streets in downtown L.A. were certainly there for some reason. Note also the mix of horseless and horse-pulled vehicles trying to get through the people.
It’s hard to believe that Los Angeles ever looked like this, let alone downtown L.A. This is Figueroa Street south of 16th Street, circa 1890. (
In this 1924 photo, we’re looking east along Hollywood Blvd from close to the Highland Ave corner. This is the south side of the street where the Hollywood Theatre is playing a Lewis Stone movie called “Why Men Leave Home” which was produced by a pre-MGM Louis B. Mayer Productions, and also featured a pre-columnist Hedda Hopper. The photo was taken before the theater was remodeled and acquired the angled marquee and blade neon sign that we see in a lot of later night shots of Hollywood Blvd. With lots of vehicles, streetcars, and pedestrians, it looks like Hollywood Blvd was quite a bustling thoroughfare in 1924.