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!
Looking north up Vine Street across Selma Ave, Hollywood, circa mid 1930
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, Night photo, Pantages Theatre, Theaters
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Montmartre Café, 6753 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, 1924
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.
Here is an article from the Los Angeles Sunday Times reporting that the Montmartre is nearing completion. I’ve never heard of there being a 24-hour buffet downstairs so I’m guess owner Eddie Bandstatter reconsidered that idea:
Eddie Brandstatter’s Cafe Montmartre menu – January 1, 1927:
The building is still there and largely intact – the exterior is at any rate. This image is from December 2020.
Northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Shatto Place, Los Angeles, 1928
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: https://wilshireboulevardhouses.blogspot.com/2013/04/3143-wilshire-boulevard-please-see-our.html
This is what stands on that corner today. This image is from November 2020:
Crowds at La Grande Railway Station at 2nd St and Santa Fe Ave, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1910
I don’t know what was going on at the Santa Fe Railway’s La Grande railway station at 2nd St and Santa Fe Ave in downtown Los Angeles in this day in around circa 1910, but my guess is that someone famous and/or important was arriving and Angelenos turned out in droves to see him or her. Or maybe this is just the 1910 equivalent of going to the airport on Memorial Day long weekend.
With the opening of Union Station, the La Grande station was close in 1939, and was torn down in 1946. This building is now on that site. This image is from December 2020.
The Looff Hippodrome housing the Looff’s carousel on the Santa Monica pier, Santa Monica, California, circa 1920
This rather marvelous edifice was called the Looff Hippodrome on the Santa Monica pier, photographed circa 1920. It was built in 1916 by Charles Looff to hold a Looff Carousel. (Looff was a German-born builder of hand-carved carousels and built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876.) I’d love to have seen this in color because it looks like those pointy doo-dahs on the turrets were different colors. And from the sign out front, I’m guessing rides cost 5 cents.
Remarkably, the building is still around, albeit pared down with no pointy doo-dahs. After a 50-year absence, the fully restored carousel was returned to its home and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. This image is from February 2015:
Universal Studios main entrance on Lankershim Boulevard, Universal City in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, circa 1916
Here we see the main entrance to Universal Studios on Lankershim Boulevard in Universal City, which was the municipality that Carl Laemmle opened in March 1915 to house his new and expanded filming facility in the San Fernando Valley. The caption on this photo dated it at circa 1916, so what we’re seeing here is the original entrance. I’m surprised the words UNIVERSAL STUDIOS aren’t emblazoned across that archway, but you can bet that tower in the background was designed to be used in filming.
That gate is now known as Gate 1 but unfortunately the lovely archway is (long) gone. This image is from January 2019.
Nighttime view from L.A. City Hall observation deck looking north toward Chavez Ravine, downtown Los Angeles, 1943
This nighttime view was taken looking north from the observation deck of L.A. City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Those two streets are Main and Spring toward Chavez Ravine where Dodger Stadium would be built in the late 1950s. This photo was taken in 1943 when the city was under wartime dim-out restrictions. In reality, the streets wouldn’t have looked this well-lit, but with a long camera exposure, the streets of L.A. look like rivers of light.
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Hall, Night photo, WWII
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Pacific Electric Railway passenger car number 219 on the first day of service from Los Angeles to Long Beach, July 4th, 1902
The moment I saw this photo, a song started up in my head. “Clang, clang, clang went the trolley…” That song is, of course, from MGM’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” which is set in 1904. This photo was taken on July 4th, 1902, so I was close. What’s going on here is that Angelenos are boarding Pacific Electric’s streetcar #219 on its first day of service from Los Angeles to Long Beach. Maybe their Julys weren’t like our Julys, but I still pity the two women boarding the streetcar in floor-length dresses.
You can learn more about this streetcar line here.
Ornate building at the northwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Berendo St, Los Angeles, circa 1930
And from the “They Sure Don’t Make ’Em Like That Anymore” file comes this gorgeously ornate building that once upon a time stood at the northwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Berendo St. It looks like it housed a group of stores with maybe a large one anchoring the corner block with perhaps second-floor offices? It must have been lovely to see in real life. And those decorative urns—they would have been quite large, probably taller than the average person.
These days, this boring brown nothing of a building sits on that corner. This image is from November 2020:
Women motorists parked outside Hotel Virginia, Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, California, April 1916
I don’t know the reason for this photograph, but we’ve got four women motorists standing in front of their automobiles outside the Hotel Virginia on Ocean Blvd at Magnolia Ave in Long Beach. The hotel opened on April 1, 1908, so I’m putting this photo at circa 1910s. I can’t imagine there were too many female motorists back then, so maybe these woman shared a love of automobiles and drove around in a convoy.
**UPDATE** – These are all Beardsley electric cars. These were 4 of 35 participating in “a reliability / publicity run from the company’s headquarters in Los Angeles to the luxe seaside hotel as luncheon guests of the company owner Volney Beardsley.”
Here is a wider show of Hotel Virginia (date unknown, but probably a little later than the above photo if the size of those palm trees are anything to go by)
I don’t know if this is the same corner but I’m wondering if those young palm trees behind the motorists grew up to be the tall palm trees we can see in this image of the corner of Ocean and Magnolia from January 2018.
