Looking west from Los Angeles City Hall toward Bunker Hill during war time dim out, downtown Los Angeles, 1943
This rather stunning nighttime view was taken during WWII dim outs in 1943. That building in the foreground was the Hall of Records, which gathered together most LA county offices under one roof and lasted until 1973. (The land on which it stood is now the easternmost section of Grand Park.) Although prowling the streets of LA during a dim out was probably frowned upon (in the post-Pearl Harbor era, Angelenos didn’t know if there might be another surprise attack from the Japanese) it would have been thrilling to roam the deserted and shadowy cityscape.
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Hall, Night photo, WWII
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The Brown Derby restaurant in its original location at 3427 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, circa early 1930s
When the first Brown Derby restaurant was built in 1926, it stood at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard and faced south. It wasn’t until 1937 that it moved a block east to 3377, which is where most of the photos we have show it. As we can see from those two people standing out front, it wasn’t very big—more of a café, really. Their car (either a Cadillac or a LaSalle) is a 1929 model so I’m guessing this photo dates around the early 1930s.
That same view in May 2019 – not quite as interesting, is it?
Looking south down Vine Street across Selma Ave, Hollywood, 1923
Vine Street in Hollywood has been photographed countless times over the decades since those movie people came to town, but I never would have recognized it in this photo. We’re looking south down Vine across Selma Ave in 1923. I see no landmarks that I recognize. However, we can juuuuuust glimpse on the left hand side at the Selma Ave corner the Lasky Studios that grew out of the barn that Cecil B. DeMille rented so that he could make “The Squaw Man” which was the first feature film to be made in Hollywood.
The same view in April 2019 – that’s quite a change, isn’t it?
Looking east along Wilshire Blvd toward Westlake Park (later MacArthur Park), Los Angeles, circa 1930s
In this circa 1930s photo, the photographer was standing at the last few blocks of Wilshire Blvd before it takes a 45° turn toward MacArthur Park (called Westlake Park at the time) and heads into downtown. The building on the left was Town House Hotel (now apartments) but it’s that line of buildings on the right that reminds us how diverse buildings where back then and what architectural eye candy it was. The good news is that those buildings are still with us.
Roughly the same view in March 2019:
The 6300 block of Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, circa early 1960s
Judging from the hubcap-less 1958 Chevrolet on the right, this slice-of-life color photo of the 6300 block of Hollywood Boulevard is probably circa early 1960s. It features three sorts of stores we don’t see much of anymore: Nobby Knit Shop, California Tie Shop, and Albert’s Hosiery. I do particularly love Albert’s neon sign and would love to find a night shot of it. Whoever those two men in suits wearing yellow hats and carrying pink bags were, they seemed to have had a successful day’s shopping.
Roughly the same view in April 2019
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Tagged Color photo, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Stores and Shopping
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A New York Street set on Lot 2 of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio back lot
Yesterday, I was on a blog post at Silver Screen Modes titled “A Virtual Tour of the old M-G-M back lot” (see link below) which contains a bunch of photos of MGM that I’ve never seen before. It’s worth checking out but this one in particular caught my eye. It’s a shot of one of the New York street sets (they had 7 of them: Brownstone St, Eastside St, Warehouse Alley, Church Street, Fifth Ave, Cullem St, and Park Ave) on Lot 2. (Lot 1 is where the soundstages and various departments were housed.) The scaffolding on top can be used for lighting or blacking out for night scenes. And notice there are lots of corners which gave directors a lot of choice of camera angles, and led the audience believe the rest of New York lay just out of sight, which it did—in our imaginations.
Here is a map of MGM ten-acre Lot 2. (Click the image for a larger view.)
Aerial shot of the United Artists studios, Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, 1920
In this aerial shot taken 1920, we can see why the early movie studios moved west to Los Angeles. It offered the two things they needed most: sunshine and land. That white building is United Artists, the studio formed by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Formosa Ave in Hollywood in 1919. With those cast swaths of empty land, they had all the room in the world to expand. This studio later became the Samuel Goldwyn Studios and these days is known simply as The Lot. Oh, and all that wide, open space is now completely filled in.
** Update** – United Artists was formed in 1919, but as distribution for actors who produced their own movies. Pickford and Doug made their their studio there in 1922, and Mary didn’t make a film there til 1923.
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Hollywood, Movie Studios, United Artists
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Looking north up Highland Ave past Currie’s Ice Cream toward Hollywood Boulevard, 1938
In this 1938 photo, we’re looking up Highland Ave from Sunset Boulevard past the Currie’s Ice Cream store toward the gleaming white tower of the Hollywood First National Bank building on the Hollywood Boulevard corner. What caught my eye, though, was the painted zigzag on the road next to the streetcar line. I’m assuming that was where people waited for the next Red Car, but they look awfully vulnerable to inattentive drivers, if you ask me.
Roughly the same view in March 2019:
The Lindbergh Beacon shines from the top of Los Angeles City Hall, New Year’s Day, 1953
In this wonderfully evocative film-noir-ish shot, we can see the light atop Los Angeles City Hall—known as the Lindbergh Beacon—beaming across downtown L.A. The office lights in the tower have been organized to spell out 53, which is the year this photo was taken. It must have been a special occasion because the beacon shone every night until just after Pearl Harbor. This photo was taken just after midnight on December 31st as 1952 ticked over into 1953.
Most photos of the original Brown Derby are taken from the west side looking east, because that’s the best angle. But in his shot, it looks like the photographer was standing at the window of an apartment at the Gaylord building next door facing west. We can see the Brown Derby sign lit up and in color, which is a rare treat, and in the background the Tishman building at 3440 Wilshire. It went up in 1957, so I suspect this photo was taken circa late 1950s.