Some of my most popular posts feature night photos of neon light. And with good reason, there’s nothing more striking than a colorful neon sign lit up in all its glory. This is one of the more famous and enduring neon signs in Los Angeles: the 32-foot clown outside of Circus Liquor at 5600 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood. It was installed in the 1960s, and made famous by its appearance in 1995’s “Clueless.” This photo was taken in 2010 by Mark Peacock (markpeacockphotography.com) and is featured in a new book about the history of neon, called “Neon – A Light History” by Dydia Delyser and Paul Greenstein. It has been published as a not-for-profit project to benefit MONA, the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California. It’s a marvelous history of the development and impact of an invention that we sometimes take for granted but which has made our lives that much brighter. You can buy it on the Museum’s website.
The cover of the book features a rendering of the glorious neon sign out front of the Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Blvd.
The Circus Liquor clown by day, May 2019:
The Life magazine photographer who took this slice-of-life shot was standing on the streetcar stop at Broadway and 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The view is looking south toward the Loew’s State Theatre, MGM’s main movie house, where “Woman of the Year” starring Katharine Hepburn was playing in 1942. I’ve ever seen that sign three stories up: “There’s Always a Better Show at Loew’s State.”
One of my favorite of all the old theaters in Los Angeles is the Warners Theater at 9404 Wilshire Blvd, on the corner of Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. As we can see from this photo, it was a palace of Art Deco glory, teeming with details and embellishments we no longer see on any buildings, let alone our cinemas. It opened in 1931. The marquee is advertising a Richard Barthelmess picture, “The Finger Points” (and describes the movie as “To daring to print”) which came out in 1931, so this picture was taken not long after the theater opened.
This photo of a Red Car stopped out front of the Hollywood Hotel at the Highland Ave intersection with a 1950 Chevrolet and a 1954 Oldsmobile makes me want to climb through my computer screen and roam around in mid 1950s Hollywood for a day or two. In the background, we can see that Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is playing a movie in CinemaScope, so I’d probably head there first. And after the show, I’d go down the block for a hot chocolate fudge sundae at C.C. Brown’s.
Once—just once, is that too much to ask?—I would have loved the chance to walk through this ornate entrance (look at the detailed artwork around the arches and columns) and into the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd. From when it opened in 1921 until after WWII, this place was one of the epicenters of Los Angeles’s social life. Those palm trees were originally used in Valentino’s “The Sheik” so I do wonder is anybody tried to make off with one of them. It’s probably safe to say that someone (drunk, most likely) made a good attempt.
In this circa early 1950s view of Hollywood Blvd looking east from Wilcox Ave, we can see Woolworths at 6410 Hollywood Blvd, which stood opposite the KFWB radio station, whose (now empty) building also housed the Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre at 6433 Hollywood Blvd. The Security Bank building is still there, as is the curved building on the south side. And, of course, the Broadway Hollywood department store building is still there, but is now condos.
Back—way back—when nobody had even heard of the movies, Hollywood was just a sleepy little town with a bunch of churches and no booze allowed. Central to the lives of the locals was this place: Sacketts General Store on the southwest corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga Boulevards. Just as important as the canned goods and bars of soap, was that Sacketts also doubled as Hollywood’s first post office. This photo was taken in 1898, when letters from home were rare and precious links with life back East.
Though little remembered these days, back in the 1920s through the early 50s, a French village stood at the corner where Highland Ave met Cahuenga Blvd, which put it near the entrance of the Hollywood Bowl. It saw a revolving directory of screenwriters, actors music teachers, and costume designers (including MGM’s Adrian) who had their offices there. You can see clearer pictures 
In this photo we’re looking west along Sunset Blvd from Highland Ave, right in the heart of Hollywood. This was taken in 1922 when apparently the city saw no need to paint traffic lines on the road. What could possibly go wrong? That building on the right hand side is Hollywood High School. The school is still there but the building itself has been replaced. But look at the right-hand curb of Sunset Blvd. Do you see the large bell? I wonder if it was part of the El Camino Real Mission Bell Marker system of 450 bell markers that used to stretch from San Diego to Sonoma.