You’d think that after a dozen years researching and writing about the Garden of Allah Hotel, that somewhere somehow I’d have come across this announcement in the Exhibitor’s Herald, December 25, 1926 that Alla Nazimova planned to turn her movie-star mansion into The Garden of Alla Hotel. (The “h” was added to “Alla” a couple of years later.) But apparently the internet is a bottomless well of surprises and information.
This is an early 1920s shot of the Hill Street station for Pacific Electric, which was the railway company that ran the streetcars known as Red Cars. I’m not entirely sure, but I think this station was on the west side of Hill Street between 4th and 5th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. From this station you could take a Red Car out to the beaches or over to Hollywood, and out to Burbank and Glendale. And as we can see from the huge sign on the building next door, you could take a Red Car to Mt Lowe, a getaway resort in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena. Actually, you’d take the Red Car to the base of Mt Lowe, then a rather precarious railway up the mountain, and then a steep incline railway to get to the top.
** UPDATE ** – The station in this photo was torn down. About 1925, the Subway Terminal Building was built on this site and is still there. It is at 417 South Hill Street and has now been converted to condominiums.
Passengers then transferred to this steep incline railway:
And then on this cog railway to ascend to the top. It looks like this journey was not for the faint-of-heart!
Mt Lowe resort advertisements:
Evidently Angelenos dealing with traffic jams aren’t a modern bane of L.A. life, not if this circa 1931 photo is anything to go by. Most photos of L.A. from the 1930s show wide-open streets with lots of elbow room and free parking spaces everywhere, but something must have gone wrong at the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave I’m not 100% sure, but I think this view is looking east, in which case that’s the Wiltern Theatre going up on the right. It opened in October 1931, so the timeline fits. I love the irony of the “GO” traffic signal—those cars don’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.
Looking east along Wilshire Blvd at Western Ave, in December 2020:
In this 1928 photo, we’re looking west along Hollywood Blvd from around Las Palmas Ave. I don’t often get to say this, but much of what we can see here is still with us. Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre (even the vertical blade sign is there) as is its neighbor, the Pig ‘N Whistle Café are still around. The high rise was the Hotel Christie, which is now a Church of Scientology building. The tower with the turret is the First National Bank of Hollywood building, currently empty, but still there. The blockish building in the distance with the radio tower on top was the El Capitan Theater, which became the Hollywood Paramount in 1942, and then in the 1990s, Disney bought it, renovated it back to its former glory and restored the El Capitan name. All in all, that’s a pretty good preservation ratio over a 80+ year time span.
Roughly the same view in March 2019:
In a city like Los Angeles, where everything always seems to be in a state of flux and change and “progress”, it’s nice to know there are some places that rarely change and look pretty much as they did 100+ years ago. The Beverly Hills Hotel is one of those places. This photo was taken circa 1925, but apart from the cars parked along the driveway and the height of the palm trees, you’d be hard pressed to know what year it was. Let’s hope it never changes.
The Beverly Hills Hotel in April 2019. See what I mean about the palm trees?
This is one of those photos that makes me want to climb through my computer screen and walk around for a day or two. This was taken in downtown Los Angeles in 1910 on Hill Street looking west up 5th Street. On the other side of those trees on the left is Pershing Square, which at the time was called Central Park. (It was renamed after the WWI U.S. Army General John Pershing in 1918.) That building in the distance with the turret was the Normal School, which was a teacher training college. I love the genteel feeling of this photograph, but most of all I love that 5-globe street light on the right. This model was known as a Llewellyn, and they were installed in downtown L.A. around the turn of the century.
This is a blow up of the Llewellyn.
Roughly the same view in December 2020. Not a whole lot of gentility left, but at least the public square is still there.
Looking west along Hollywood Blvd past Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to the Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, February 1954This photo looking west along Hollywood Blvd was taken from the corner of a street that no longer exists. Orchid Ave used to run from north of Franklin to Hollywood Blvd where it formed the eastern side of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre parking lot, which we can see at the forefront. I assume the “20” we can see in the sign refers to a 20-cents-an-hour parking fee. 20th Century-Fox’s “Kings of the Khyber Pass” starring Tyrone Power played Grauman’s the whole month of February 1954, but I wonder who was playing at the marvelous Cinegrill cabaret room at the Roosevelt Hotel.
This is what that stretch of Hollywood Blvd looks like now. Orchid disappeared when the Hollywood and Highland development (which includes the Dolby Theatre where the Oscars are held) came along. This image is from December 2020.
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.”
Roughly that same view in December 2020. Normally this intersection would be a lot busier but, well, you know, Covid and all…
The Loew’s Theatre is still there. Last time I walked past it had become, like many downtown theaters, a church, but in this December 2020 photo, it looks like it’s empty again.
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.
Inaugural program from the Warner Theater, Beverly Hills, May19, 1931:
Warner Brothers Beverly Hills Theatre dedication slide:
Roughly the same view in December 2020. The theater is gone, but at least no ugly monstrosity has gone up in its place.
