I don’t know who decided that vermilion was the right color to paint the two stations of the Angels Flight funicular railway at the corner of Hill St and Third in downtown LA, but they knew what they were doing. As we can see in this circa 1950s Kodachrome shot, it helped to make the station really stand out. As we can see by the surrounding background, by the 1950s, downtown was starting to look worn and weathered. In the 60s, all those buildings would be torn down and Angels Flight moved half a block down Hill St, so I’m glad we’ve got images like this to remind us how things were 70 years ago.
David M. says: “The car is a 1949 or 1950 Chevy Fleetline. Somewhat desirable fastback that you’ll see at classic car shows.”
This how that same view looked in June 1969:
This is how Angels Flight’s Hill St station looked in May 2024 in its second location across the street from the Grand Central Market.
In this wonderfully atmospheric shot, some quick-minded photographer captured a streetcar running through the intersection of 6th and Hill Streets in downtown Los Angeles. Those trees behind it are in Pershing Square, and behind them is the Biltmore Hotel. The hotel opened in October of 1923, so we know the photo dates to at least then. But in general, the photo screams 1920s, especially the hats on the ladies, and I love it that reason alone.
Imagine flying over Los Angeles and this is the view you see when you look down. This is the area known as Century City but back in 1924, when this photo was taken, it was still a brand new development with only a handful of homes scattered among the freshly laid roads. That’s Pico Blvd near the bottom of the photo with Wilshire Blvd running along the top with all that vacant land laying to the north of it. A few years later, 20th Century-Fox studios would become the central draw for this area.
Not every film is made by a major studio and stars famous actors, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get a big premiere. Well, a medium-sized one, anyway. In this shot, we’re seeing the premiere of a movie called “Troopers Three” put out by a minor outfit called Tiffany Productions. This all happened on March 26, 1930, which was also the night that the Fairfax Theatre at 7907 Beverly Blvd opened its doors. Tiffany sent along the movie’s three stars – Rex Lease, Dorothy Gulliver and Slim Summerville – to appear in person and the theatre mounted a big neon sign advertising “Any Seat 30 Cents Any Time.”
In this intensely colorful photo, we’re watching a Pacific Electric Red Car streetcar turning from southbound Hill Street, onto westbound Venice Blvd where it will head out of downtown Los Angeles and head for the corner of San Vicente and Genesee Ave, where it will turn around and go back. Three things that caught my eye: the semaphore traffic light on the left, the Richfield gas station on the right, and that gorgeous streetlight near the middle. As best as I can tell, this photo is circa late 1940s. (My thanks to Ralph Cantos for is assistance identifying the location of this photo.)
Some photos just pop with almost blinding color, don’t they? I assume this one is a Kodachrome, because they tend to be the most vivid. I have virtually no information on this image other than my friend at the Petersen Automotive Museum that the two newest cars both appear to be 1955 Plymouths. I’m not sure which cookie Nabisco were asking us to switch from, but I guess it was the almost-identical Hydrox, which sounds like a name that Research-and-Development came up with, not the Marketing team.
In this 1953 photo, we see the Newsreel Theater which stood at 802 S Broadway at 8th St in downtown Los Angeles. It’s something we don’t have anymore: a theater that showed only newsreels. These days, we’re inundated with news 24/7, but back then, it was a rarer commodity for those who prized knowing what was going on in the wider world. This theater had opened in 1927 as the Tower Theater, and went through several incarnations in its lifetime, reverting back to the Tower in the 1960s. (Side note: down the street at the Rialto, “The Moon is Blue” was playing. Its claim to fame was being the first major American film to be released without the Production Code seal of approval, which signaled the beginning of the end of the controversial censorship code.)
These days, the Westwood Fox Theatre is surrounded by a bustling Westwood area with shops, businesses, UCLA, and restaurants. But back in 1932, when this photo was taken, the back of it looked out over empty fields in almost all directions. The theater is only a year old in this photo and I’m guessing there must have been more development on the other side because I’m left to wonder how many people actually went to this cinema in its early days. That’s UCLA’s Fraternity Row on the hill in the background so maybe it was mostly students.
I’ll take any and every chance to post a photo of a Van De Kamp’s – especially if it’s in color as we get to appreciate the striking (Delft?) blue windmill that adorned the roof of every Van De Kamp’s bakery or restaurant. This one stood on the southwest corner of Laurel Canyon Blvd at Sylvan St, in North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley. The photo was taken in 1962 which makes me wonder of the zippy little convertible at the corner is still with us.
Having lived in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s, I’m used to a Pershing Square that’s filled with large concrete balls, expanses of tile, and a weirdly abstract, angular tower. In 1952, the park was excavated to build an underground parking garage, so Angelenos lost this peaceful, shady, almost bucolic oasis in the middle of their bustling city. This shot of the square is from around 1890, when it was known as called Sixth Street Park, and Los Angeles was still pretty much only what we now think of as downtown LA. How nice it must have been to stroll down the paths and maybe sit on a bench and watch the world amble by.
