In this 1925 photo, we’re reminded how tranquil Hollywood Blvd was back then. We’re looking west from La Palmas Ave, with the Paulais Café on the southwest corner, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre next door (opened 1922) and the Hotel Christie (also opened 1922) next to that. Nearly 100 years later, the Egyptian is now owned by Netflix, and the hotel is now a church of Scientology building, but this view hasn’t drastically changed.
This is roughly the same view from December 2020.
When people think of the Brown Derby restaurant, they usually think of the original one, shaped like an actual brown derby hat, or the one on Vine Street in Hollywood, which attracted a A-list Hollywood crowd. But there was also a third Brown Derby, which opened in 1931 at the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Rodeo Drive. This one was popular with the Beverly Hills crowd, so it was busiest on Thursday nights which was the traditional maid’s night off. (In 1940, a 4th location at 4500 Los Feliz Blvd in Los Feliz. It also included a “drive-in” called the Car Café.)
In 1932, the Schwab brothers (Bernard, Leon, and Martin) opened a second pharmacy at 8032 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Their first was in downtown Los Angeles on 6th Street, with subsequent locations at 6255 Hollywood Blvd, 430 N. Roxbury Dr, and 401 N. Bedford Dr. They chose the Sunset Blvd location because it had already been a drugstore, so it required minimal investment on their part. It was also close to the movie studios. This proved to be a smart move because Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd quickly became one of the most popular and famous meeting places in all Los Angeles, especially with the movie crowd.
Here are some of the photos I’ve collected over the years:
Advertisement for Schwab’s Pharmacy in Hollywood Low-Down, May 1935:
The above photo was taken during the construction of Googie’s Coffee Shop next door at at 8100 Sunset Boulevard in the very late 1940s.
The next two photos were taken during the 1950s remodel and expansion.
The chaotic filming of Casablanca was only one reason why Humphrey Bogart wasn’t in a happy place in 1942. Another reason was that his marriage to Mayo Methot was foundering on the rocks so badly they were known around Los Angeles as “the Battling Bogarts. But I’m sure the necessity of his wearing three-inch wooden platforms didn’t help his mood. His co-star, Ingrid Bergman, was five foot nine, so several inches needed to be added to his stature because having a Hollywood hero shorter than his leading lady broke every rule in the Hollywood Myth-making rule book.
See also my novel set against the making of Casablanca: ALL THE GIN JOINTS – a novel of World War II Hollywood.
Once upon a time—and by that I mean the late 1800s—downtown Los Angeles—in other words “Los Angeles” because that’s all there was—became dotted with magnificent homes. This particular one was known as the Rose mansion, named after J.L. Rose, whose 1,900 acre property in Pasadena became famous for its vineyards whose vines were imported from Spain, Italy and Peru. Rose’s enormous success made him a very wealthy man, hence his mansion on the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and 4th Street. It cost $50,000 to build in 1888, which is when this photo was taken.
The mansion had fallen into disrepair by the 1930s and was gone in 1950s. These days, that corner no longer even exists. 4th Street is now an underpass. Here’s what it looks like nowadays. This image is from March 2021.
This aerial photograph from 1925 was taken looking south toward the Hollywood Hills from the San Fernando Valley. The straight road leading into the hills on the right is Coldwater Canyon Avenue and is still one of the main roads between the valley and Los Angeles. These days, of course, most of that empty land is now filled in. That golf course to the left of Coldwater Canyon Ave is now Harvard-Westlake School, a private (and I assume very expensive) 7 through 12 high school.
The golf course was called the Hollywood Country Club and you can read more about it here.
This aerial shot from 2021 shows how filled in the land now is.
In this photo we’re looking west along the south side of Hollywood Blvd toward the Hollywood and Vine intersection. Behind the guy with the kid is The Hitching Post Theatre, which was an appropriate name for a theater that only ran westerns. Before that it was the Tele-View Theatre, which ran only news reels and short films. So it was the 1930s version of CNN, and all for 25 cents per ticket. But in 1941 it changed to The Hitching Post, which must have proved popular because by 1946 there were five Hitching Post Theatres around the greater L.A. area. This photo was taken in 1947, which is when “Thunder Mountain” came out. And from the large metal trees lining the sidewalk, we can see that it was Christmastime. (I also like the name of the barbershop: The Barber of Seville.)
All those stores are now long gone. In their place is now the Hollywood W Hotel. This image is from February 2021.
Here we have a rather historic moment captured for prosperity: On March 27, 1921, the Los Angeles Philharmonic played its first concert. It was the first Easter sunrise service at the Hollywood Bowl. As we can see, it was a rather rudimentary affair. The stage was a plain wooden platform, with a dais for the conductor and Grand Lady In Big Hat, whoever she was. There was no seating yet, so the 2,000 attendees sat on the grassy knolls of Daisy Dell. The service ended with them singing along as the orchestra played “Holy Holy Holy.” Judging by those overcoats, it also must have been rather chilly. I wonder if anyone thought to bring along a thermos of hot coffee.
Before Malibu became the beachside addressed favored by Hollywood’s celebrated, the place to build was along Ocean Front (now Pacific Coast Highway.) In 1926, MGM chief, Louis B. Mayer, had his leading set designer, Cedric Gibbons, come up with a 20-room villa at 624. A few doors down from them lived Anita Loos (author of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.) Paramount founder, Jesse Lasky and his wife Bessie were known for the Sunday night parties at 609. 20th Century-Fox president, Darryl F. Zanuck, had a beach house at 546, which he called “Surf Cottage” and which was anything but a small little cottage. Sam Goldwyn was at 602, and of course, the mother lode was the 110-room palace that William Randolph Hearst built for Marion Davies at 415. So it was almost inevitable the MGM production head, Irving Thalberg and queen-of-the-lot, Norma Shearer, would build another Gibbons-designed house at 707 Ocean Front. I don’t have a date on this photo, but they moved in around 1931, so I assume it was taken there. Ironically, because of Thalberg’s delicate health, he needed quality sleep, so he had the rooms in his French Norman style home soundproofed so that he wouldn’t be disturbed by the sounds of the ocean.
As hard as it is to believe, these people are picking beans on what was known at the time as the Hammel and Denker ranch but later became known as Beverly Hills. This photo was taken circa early 1900s, when much of the 3,055-acre was ranch used to grow beans. But around this time, a group of investors formed the Amalgamated Oil Company and went looking for oil. So it’s possible that this crop of beans was the last to be farmed before Amalgamated Oil vainly searched for oil and was later forced to resort to their backup plan: a housing development. I’d say things worked out for them in the long run.
I thought this auto-colorized version did a pretty good job bringing this scene to life.
