Stanley Kubrick filming a scene from “Spartacus” above Cahuenga Pass, Los Angeles, 1959
While watching Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus” I’m kind of glad I didn’t know that they shot part of the movie on the Cahuenga Pass. It made sense, though. They needed a hillside and the Pass is maybe a 10-minute drive from Universal Studios, where much of the movie was shot. But knowing that just out of shot was the Hollywood Freeway (seen here in the background) might have spoiled my suspension of disbelief that I wasn’t actually watching the Roman Empire, circa 100BC.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Cahuenga Pass, Movie Studios, San Fernando Valley, Universal Studios
6 Comments
Bullocks department store delivery truck, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s
Bullocks was a large and popular department store on 7th Ave in downtown Los Angeles. In 1929, they opened a store on Wilshire Blvd just before the stock market crash. Somehow they managed to survive. This is a photo of their delivery truck, which would have been a distinctive sight on the streets of LA because these were custom built (probably by Advance Auto Body Works of Los Angeles.) I’d love to know if that house behind them is still standing and how tall those palm trees are now.
And here’s another one. Can anybody identify the background behind them?
The premiere of “On The Beach” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Blvd, December 17, 1959
It was all light-and-dazzle on the night of December 17, 1959 when the Stanley Kramer apocalyptic movie “On the Beach” had its premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. In addition to the searchlights, the boulevard was also lit up with the huge metallic Christmas trees that lined Hollywood Blvd every holiday season. Ultimately “On the Beach” lost money but at Grauman’s Chinese its 14-week run was only bettered by one movie that year: “Auntie Mame” with Rosalind Russell.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Christmas, Color photo, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Movie Premiere, Night photo
2 Comments
Usherettes of Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, 6708 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, circa 1920s
On October 18, 1922, Sid Grauman opened his Egyptian Theater at 6708 Hollywood Blvd with the premiere of Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks. As he would five years later with his Chinese Theatre, Sid went all out with the theme. (Egypt was hot that year with the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb.) This is a hand-colored photo of the Egyptian Theatre’s usherettes decked out in—well, it’s hard to know what they’re dressed as. Harem girls? Slaves? Cairo housewives? And that display behind them—you have to wonder if it means anything or is it just a bunch of pretty hieroglyphics?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Color photo, Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Theaters
4 Comments
Dick Powell arrives at the old entrance to the MGM Studios, Washington Blvd, Culver City in his custom 1937 Ford
In this photo we’re treated the sight of Dick Powell driving through the entrance of MGM Studios with the iconic columns. My friend at the Petersen Automotive Museum tells me that it’s Powell because he recognized his custom-made 1937 Ford. Perhaps he was going to visit his wife, June Allyson, who was a big MGM star in the 1940s. I’m intrigued with what looks like a two-light traffic signal suspended from roof. I wouldn’t have thought it was necessary – didn’t everyone have to check in with the security guard?
Woman from the US Air Force poses next to a Marines recruitment poster outside NBC studios near the corner of Sunset Blvd and Vine St, Hollywood, circa mid-to-late 1950s
In this (I assume) Kodachrome photo we see a woman in an Air Force uniform posing next to a recruitment poster for the Marines in the mid-to-late-1950s. Behind her we can see Wallichs Music City on the northwest corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, which means she was standing in front of the NBC studios that stood on the northeast corner from 1938 to 1964. The poster says that the US Marines Recruitment Station was at 731 S. Figueroa at 8th Street in downtown L.A., which is odd because 731 S. Figueroa is at 7th Street. I hope no potential recruits got lost!
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Color photo, Kodachrome, Stores and Shopping, Sunset Blvd
Leave a comment
Pasadena Presbyterian Church at Colorado Blvd. and Marengo Ave, Pasadena, California, circa late 1800s
(Click on the image to get a larger version, then click again to see the details more clearly.)
What a magnificent sight this must have been at the intersection of Colorado Blvd and Marengo Ave in Pasadena. It was the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, which was constructed in 1888, back when Pasadena streets were still dirt roads. Unfortunately that soaring tower was blown down in a tremendous windstorm in 1898 and replaced by a more modest (and we must assume safer) one. In 1911 the whole building was demolished when the Presbyterians moved to a new church.
Advertisement for the Garden of Alla(h) Hotel, Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles in Film Spectator magazine, June 11, 1927
The central setting for my Hollywood’s Garden of Allah series of novels is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard called the Garden of Allah. For most of its 32-year life, the “Allah” was spelled with an “h” but when the hotel opened in January 1927, it was known as the Garden of Alla because the original owner was Russian actress Alla Nazimova. That spelling didn’t last long, a year or maybe two at the most, so it’s rare to come across an advertisement using the original spelling. This ad comes from the June 11, 1927 of “Film Spectator” magazine, and interestingly it features the swimming pool around which many an outrageous cocktail party unfolded. At this time, Sunset Blvd west of Crescent Heights Blvd was unpaved so, strange as it seems now, there would have been plenty of opportunity for the horseback riding also mentioned in the ad.
My thanks to Philip Mershon’s Attic of Orphan Pictures for this gem. You can check him out at on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/atticoforphanpictures or on YouTube at Philip Merson.
The text of this ad reads:
Plan to sojourn this summer at Hollywood’s most unique and extraordinary residential hotel and villas.
In the center of activities of the motion picture colony.
MAGNIFICENT OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL
Bridge, Horseback Riding, Golf privileges. Dining Room De Luxe.
A luncheon or dinner here will delight your guests.
THE GARDEN OF ALLA HOLLYWOOD
G. M. BURBANK, Manager
8152 Sunset Blvd
GLadstone 6121
A variation of that ad appeared in the June 25, 1927 issue of “Film Spectator” really pushing the playing of Bridge (which is ironic because that’s not exactly what the Garden of Allah became known for…if you know what I mean…)
And here is a Garden of Alla Hotel advertisement that appeared in the San Bernardino Daily Sun, June 19, 1927:
I don’t have a date on this one, but notice the telephone number has changed to Crestview 3114:
Original Hollywood High School, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, California, 1905
The Hollywood High School that stands at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Ave today isn’t the original building. This photo, taken in 1905, shows a more impressive building with an imposing dome and a tall flagpole. Equally interesting, we can see how rural Hollywood was back then. The closest building was can see – that large home on the left – looks to be quite a distance.
This is how Hollywood High now looks from the corner of Sunset Blvd and Highland Ave. (This image is from May 2019)
Looking north up Broadway from 7th Street, downtown Los Angeles during a transit strike, 1946
In this photo we’re looking north up Broadway from 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. Normally, it wouldn’t be so deserted, but this photo was taken during a transit strike in 1946. Public transit was the main way Angelenos traveled to downtown so without the streetcars, businesses would have really suffered. But we do get an uninterrupted view of the lights of Broadway in the mid 1940s, including the Lowe’s State Theatre that was, according to the neon, open all night. I wonder if that was a holdover from the war years when theaters showed movies 24 hours a day to accommodate war factory shift workers.
The Loew’s marquee is still there, even though the theater is no longer in operation. This image is from April 2019:
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment