This slice-of-life photo gives us a glimpse of downtown Los Angeles early in WWII. We’re looking north up Hill Street to the 7th Street intersection where 2000-seat Warner Bros. Downtown Theatre stood. (It’s still there but is a jewelry store now.) The double bill at the time was “Lady For a Night” (released January 1942) and “The Male Animal” (released April 1942) so the people we can see here were still adjusting to life a few months after Pearl Harbor. I wonder if that’s the photographer’s bicycle we can see leaning on the curb.
Looking north up Hill Street toward the Warner Theater at 7th Street, downtown Los Angeles, 1942
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Streetcars, Theaters, Warner Bros., WWII
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Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, downtown Los Angeles while showing vaudeville acts, August 3, 1949
Vaudeville died a long, slow death during the 1930s, especially after the Palace Theatre in New York switched to an all-movie format on November 16, 1932. So I was surprised to come across this 1949 photo of the Orpheum Theatre, on L.A.’s Broadway holding a gala inaugural premiere of a vaudeville show of “8 big acts.” Maybe it was just a novelty show with a limited run? It makes me wonder how successful it was. Perhaps by the late 1940s there was some nostalgia for the vaudeville years.
Bullocks Wilshire department store, 3050 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, circa late 1930s
The Bullocks Wilshire department store on Wilshire Blvd is one of those Los Angeles buildings that I never get sick of looking at. It’s also one of the buildings that has survived the unrelenting onslaught of progress, which is amazing considering the store opened on September 26, 1929 and a month later the stock market crashed and along with it the entire economy. But it survived that and went on to thrive as L.A. became a car-oriented city and Bullock’s was a “carriage trade” oriented store. This photo was taken around the late 1930s, by which time Bullocks Wilshire had established itself as one of L.A. premier shopping experiences.
I would normally post an image showing what this building looks like today but Google Maps has disabled their Street View feature, so here’s an auto-colorized version instead:
Andrew S. says: “The plan started In 1922. John G. Bullock and his investors bought the house on s/w corner of Wilshire and Vermont from Mr William Lacy, built by Sumner P. Hunt. Bullock moved that house to Windsor Sq. 627 S. Plymouth using the Kress House Moving Company, leaving the s/w corner bare. By 1929 when the store was finally opened, Bullocks chose a site a few blocks east from that corner of Vermont, which was considered too noisy and busy by the store. But they did use the 3200 Wilshire corner for billboard space.”
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Tagged Bullocks Wilshire, Stores and Shopping, Wilshire Blvd
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Corner of Hollywood and Vine, looking south down Vine Street, Hollywood, nighttime, circa late 1940s
The person who took this photo was rather bravely standing in the middle of the Hollywood and Vine intersection at night, pointing his camera southward. We can see the hat-shaped neon Brown Derby sign on the left, and farther down on the right the angled sign for Tom Breneman’s. Wrapping around the Taft building (left) is the KFWB flashcast which started on August 6, 1946, so this photo is circa late 1940s. But look at that tiny “No Left Turn” between the streetcar tracks on Hollywood Blvd. How many times a year did they have to replace that?
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Tagged Brown Derby, Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood Blvd, Night photo, Stores and Shopping
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The front porch of the Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, circa 1930s
Here we have a shot of the front patio of Hollywood Hotel, on Hollywood Blvd at Highland Ave, in the heart of Hollywood. This photo is circa 1930s, when the hotel was still a popular place to stay when visiting Los Angeles. What I wouldn’t give to be able to while away an afternoon sitting on that long porch and look out over the comings and goings of heyday Hollywood in the 1930s.
Looking west along 6th St from Olive St, downtown Los Angeles, 1930
In this photo we’re looking west along 6th St from Olive St in downtown Los Angeles. The photographer has his back to Pershing Square, which puts him right in the heart of downtown. The year was 1930, which means these Angelenos were only just starting to grapple with the reality of the oncoming Great Depression. I look at the people in old photos like this and wonder where they were going that day and how they fared in the years to come. In the far background we can see the spire of the beautiful Richfield Tower. It would have been a recent addition to the L.A. skyline when this photo was taken.
Roughly the same view in April 2019:
Gus Arnheim Orchestra, Cocoanut Grove at Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, 1932
One of the names most often associated with the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel was Gus Arnheim, whose orchestra and a three-year engagement in the late 20s/early 30s. He was also instrumental in helping to get Bing Crosby’s career going. This 1932 photo taken out front of the hotel shows 26 bandmembers and (I presume) their current girl singer together. There’s a large sign behind them that I’ve never seen before: Ambassador Hotel and Shops – Complete Business Center – Famous Cocoanut Grove”
This advertisement would have been from around the same time as the photo. Check out the line-up!
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Tagged Ambassador Hotel, Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Hotels, Nightclubs, Wilshire Blvd
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Most shots taken at the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park overlooking Los Angeles are of the observatory itself (which is fair enough) but this circa 1940s photo shows the view from the observatory. That tall sculpture in the foreground is called the Astronomers Monument, which features six influential astronomers: Hipparchus, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Herschel. Past that is the parking lot, and beyond that are the hiking trails that lead you all over Griffith Park. But watch out for those rattlesnakes!
Sitting at the top of downtown Los Angeles opposite Union Station, Olvera Street is L.A.’s oldest street. These days it’s jam-packed with Mexican crafts and tchotchkes (and a couple of pretty good Mexican restaurants) that it’s hard for me reconcile that this quiet and laid back pedestrian street in 1934 is the same place. I don’t ever remember being there and seeing L.A. City Hall.
In this photo we’re looking west along Wilshire Blvd from Vermont Ave. In the medium distance we can see the I. Magnin department store at 3240 Wilshire Blvd, which had some major competition a couple of blocks east: Bullocks Wilshire. This photo was taken circa 1940s when Wilshire was a busy commercial thoroughfare, but, as we can see here, was still had a feeling of spaciousness that it no longer has. I’d love to see the full United Airlines billboard on the right and know how much airfares to San Francisco were back then.
