Even before it was finished, Los Angeles’s new City Hall dominated the skyline. Of course, it helped that, at 32 stories, it was the tallest building around, but there’s something about its shape and pyramidal top that made it recognizable even when it was still just a bunch of scaffolding. The building’s dedication took place on April 26, 1928, so this photo would have been taken during the latter half of 1927. One of those billboards overlooking the parking lot is for a Warner Bros. movie called “Matinee Ladies” (co-starring future gossip maven, Hedda Hopper) which opened in April 1927.
Ironically the most famous name on the poster for “Matinee Ladies” is Hedda Hopper, but not for her acting. Cute poster, though.
It can sometimes be hard these days to know if a photo has been colorized or not, but my guess is that this shot of the dining room of the Vine Street Brown Derby in Hollywood is a genuine color photo. I haven’t encountered many color shots of one of the most famous restaurants in Los Angeles, so this is a rare treat. It’s not hard to imagine the place filled with faces as famous as the caricatures on the walls and the air filled with chatter about David O. Selznick casting a British actress as Scarlett O’Hara, or how Alfred Hitchcock will fare amid Hollywood-style filmmaking. I don’t know that I would have chosen purple carpet. The pink tablecloths compliment it, but I’m not so sure about that red upholstery.
I normally focus on vintage photos of Los Angeles and Hollywood, but I feel that the name Grauman (as in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) is so synonymous with Hollywood that I’m grandfathering it in. This photo was taken in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake that leveled 80% of the city. Among the destroyed buildings were both Sid Grauman’s Unique and Lyceum theaters. Recognizing that the locals yearned for a return to normal, Sid swung into action. He borrowed a tent from a local preacher, salvaged some church pews and opened the Grauman’s Canvas Theatre on the grounds of his Unique Theatre on Market St, where he showed “The Great Train Robbery” (1903) to such success that he opened a second canvas theater where the National Theatre had once stood. Ever the showman, he promoted his enterprise with this reassuring message: “Nothing to fall on you but canvas if there is another quake.”
As cool as this 1959 Cadillac looks, it would have been a nightmare—for me, at least—to parallel park. Or to park at all, given how long it was. It may just be the angle of this shot, but it looks like it was as long as the Air Lite Luggage storefront was wide. Air Lite was at 6415 Hollywood Boulevard, which put it between Cahuenga Boulevard and Wilcox Ave. I wonder if the driver was shopping there, or was drinking at the next-door bar called—rather suggestively—My Desire. It looks like it could have been a bit barfly-ish, but I do like the sign. On the other side we can see 
Although this circa 1960 photo has been colorized, so we don’t know for sure that those cars were actually those hues, it’s such a strikingly rendered image that I wanted to share it as I found it. The Farmer’s Market is at the northeast corner of Fairfax Ave and 3rd St, Los Angeles, and while the cars parked there no longer resemble these beauties, the tower is still there and looks practically the same.
This photo gives us a glimpse at what it was like to walk up Broadway between 5th and 6th Streets in downtown Los Angeles circa 1906. Between the streetcars and the horse-drawn carriages, I’m guessing it would have been quite a lively and noisy street scene. I do love the banner strung across Broadway announcing the Midwinter Carnival at Venice Beach on January 14, 1906. Farther back, there’s another banner for a horse show at Pasadena. And get a load of those street lamps—it looks like there is a ring of five globes surrounding a large globe on top. I would imagine that at night they gave off quite a glow.
It’s not often that we get a peek into the daily working life of a top movie star, so this shot is quite rare. It was Bette Davis’s dressing room on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank. I would have expected something a little more elaborate. After all, Marion Davies had an 11-room bungalow at the same studio. But then again, Bette didn’t have America’s richest man in her arm. But in a way, I think it does reflect Bette’s no-nonsense, straight-forward approach to how she lived her life. Still, the upholstery does match the curtains around the vanity, which also matches the drapes bracketing the window, as well as the counter beneath it. And unless I’m mistaken, I think the top of that stool is also covered in the same material. Wouldn’t you love to have been a fly on that wall?
This particular night – February 9, 1934 – would have been a big one for Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and MGM as it was a premiere for “Queen Christina” starring Greta Garbo. To the right of the theater behind the movie fans we can see huge letters lit up: “GARBO.” Usually the readerboard features the name of the movie, but Garbo was such a big star that simply her surname sufficed. Above her name was also “Sid Grauman Prologue” which refers to the five-scene live 40-minute prologue that preceded the movie during its six-week run. Oh, and audiences were also treated to a Walt Disney cartoon short called “The Grasshopper and the Ants.” Movie-goers sure got their money’s worth. You can get more information on 
The corner of Figueroa and Seventh Streets in downtown Los Angeles is an always-busy intersection due, in part, to there being a Metro subway stop on the northeast corner. But back in 1919, when this photo was taken, the skyscrapers that now would have been unimaginable. Instead, this is what Angelenos saw on the northwest corner. It is the Foy house, built in the early 1870s, by Samuel Calvert Foy, whose father laid out the grounds of the White House and the Capitol. His daughter, Mary, was the first woman to serve as Los Angeles city librarian. Judging by the signs in their front yard, the Foys had a side hustle of selling Christmas trees.
In this photo, we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd from Westmoreland Ave in 1928, when it seems there was plenty of room for all the motorists heading into downtown Los Angeles. What makes this photo memorable is that the home on the right with the line of trees out front would soon be razed to make way for the Bullocks Wilshire department store, which opened in September 1929. At this time, Wilshire was lined with grand homes, so that house was probably quite lovely, but in its place, L.A. acquired an instant architectural icon that’s still with us today.