Union railway station at the edge of downtown Los Angeles is one of LA’s great iconic buildings, and this photo hints at why. The two men standing in front of the glass wall gives you an idea of the proportions of the place. The “Restaurant” sign is pointing past the series of arches to the Fred Harvey restaurant, which represented “the end of the line” for the chain that ensured passengers were well fed as they rode along America’s transcontinental train lines.The front of an apartment on Anaheim Blvd in Long Beach after an earthquake hit on March 10, 1933
At 5.44PM on March 10, 1933, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Long Beach. For those of you who don’t live in California, 6.3 is a pretty bad one. Especially in 1933 before there were significant building codes designed to make buildings withstand earthquakes better. There were 115 deaths and $45 million in damage, which was a big chunk of change for Depression-era California. This photo shows how the entire front wall of an apartment building on Anaheim Blvd fell away, leaving the interiors open to the world. It kind of looks like a dolls house, doesn’t it?
Looking north up Broadway toward 3rd Street and the Bradbury building, downtown Los Angeles, 1900
In this photo we get to see what Broadway looked like in 1900. The photographer was facing north toward 3rd Street. On the right is the Bradbury building, which was built in 1893. It’s still around, which is a godsend because although it doesn’t look like much on the outside, the interior is like nothing else in LA, which is probably why so many films and TV shows have shot there. It’s a shame that tower with the pyramid on top didn’t survive, though. It would make for a more interesting skyline.
This is the interior atrium of the Bradbury Building. The huge skylight roof gives the place a glow, especially on a sunny day:
Roughly that same view in January 2017. The Grand Market is on the left:
Robert K says: “That’s one of the original Cable Cars, we had them briefly before San Fransisco did, but they were quickly replaced with streetcars.”
Announcing the release of “THE HEART OF THE LION: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood”
Imagine that you were born with a blazing desire to make your mark on the world, and that you knew you had what it took to achieve those far-reaching ambitions. And then imagine that your birth coincided with the rise of a new art form, and you were part of the generation who invented it as they went along. Ah, but there’s a catch. Isn’t there always? The heart in which this all-consuming drive lives is also weak and frail. It could stop beating at any time.
Do you hold nothing back as you pursue your dreams, knowing that the unrelenting pressures and strains could be the very thing that brings you down?
Or do you sacrifice those ambitions, even though they fuel and fulfill you? And you live your life with caution instead, because every safe and sensible choice you make will help you live another day?
This is the dilemma that Irving Thalberg, head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studios from 1924 to 1936, faced every day of his remarkable life. And that’s the predicament I wanted to explore in my new novel.
I am very excited to let you know that THE HEART OF THE LION: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood is now available.
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Lose yourself in the Golden Age of Hollywood—and discover the story of the man who helped create it.
Hollywood in the 1920s: the motion picture industry is booming, and Irving Thalberg knows it takes more than guts and gumption to create screen magic that will live forever. He’s climbed all the way to head of production at newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is determined to transform Leo the Lion into an icon of the most successful studio in town
The harder he works, the higher he soars. But at what cost? The more he achieves, the closer he risks flying into oblivion. A frail and faulty heart shudders inside this chest that blazes with ambition. Thalberg knows that his charmed life at the top of the Hollywood heap is a dangerous tightrope walk: each day—each breath, even—could be his last. Shooting for success means risking his health, friendships, everything. Yet, against all odds, the man no one thought would survive into adulthood almost single-handedly ushers in a new era of filmmaking.
This is Hollywood at its most daring and opulent—the Sunset Strip, premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, stars like Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford—and Irving is at the center of it all.
From the author of the Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels comes a mesmerizing story of the man behind Golden Age mythmaking: Irving Thalberg, the prince of Tinseltown.
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You can read Chapter 1 on my website.
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The Heart of the Lion is now available through these retailers:
Overdrive – COMING SOON
Book Depository (free shipping worldwide on all paperbacks) – COMING SOON
Audiobook – COMING SOON
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The Heart of the Lion on MartinTurnbull.com
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Looking southeast along Canon Dr toward the Warner Brothers Theater on Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, 1936
In this photo, we’re looking along Canon Dr toward the Warner Brothers Theater with the strikingly ornate tower, on Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills in 1932. Nowadays, the street looks nothing like this. That building on the right is a storage facility and Beverly Hills real estate is far too valuable to be used as some place to shove your old furniture. And on the left is an Auburn Cord motorcar showroom. It’s a shame they’re no longer around; they produced gorgeous cars. It’s a shame, too, that the building is no longer with us. It looks like it’d would have been worth keeping.
A closer view of the Warner Bros Theatre at 9404 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills:
And roughly the same view in April 2019:
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Tagged Beverly Hills, Stores and Shopping, Theaters, Warner Bros., Wilshire Blvd
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The Ambassador Hotel as seen from Wilshire Blvd Los Angeles, circa 1921
When the Ambassador Hotel opened on January 1st, 1921 on Wilshire Blvd, its location was so far out of downtown Los Angeles, that Angelenos considered it a resort hotel. All that wide-open space would have been relief from the crowded, noisy city streets. Judging from the early 1920s motorcars parked out front and from the sparse vegetation, I’m going to guess that this photo was taken not long after the hotel’s opening, when its Cocoanut Grove wasn’t yet the new epicenter of Hollywood social life.
I ran this photo through an auto-colorize website just to see how it might turn out, and I think it worked pretty well, giving us an idea of what this viewpoint looked in real life. (Well, except that it covered Wilshire Blvd with a nicely manicured lawn…)
The Monte Carlo set built for Erich von Stroheim’s “Foolish Wives” on the Universal Studios backlot, Universal City, California, circa 1920
When you have Erich von Stroheim in charge of (and starring in) your picture, you can kiss all financial responsibility goodbye and hope it’s a hit when it’s finally released. That’s what Irving Thalberg and Universal Studios had to do during the 11-month shoot—practically all of 1920—when von Stroheim was filming “Foolish Wives” (1922). The story was set in Monte Carlo, so he had the casino recreated in exquisite (and/or excruciating, depending on who you were) detail. I would imagine that driving past the Universal back lot, this would have made such an amazing sight, surely more than one or two motorists stopped to take it in. Personally, I would have jumped the fence taken a closer look.
Here’s what the set looked like in the movie:
Looking east along Wilshire Blvd from Western Ave, Los Angeles, April 12, 1926
These days, the intersection of Wilshire Blvd and Western Ave is dominated by the gloriously Art Deco Wiltern Theater, which opened in 1931. But this photo of Wilshire looking east from Western in 1926, shows us a more low-key neighborhood with no high rises and semaphore signals controlling the (surprisingly busy) traffic. I can’t see any lanes painted along Wilshire, which makes me wonder if it was a drivers free-for-all.
Roughly the same view in March 2019:
The Los Angeles City Hall as seen from a largely empty Hollywood Freeway, circa 1950s
In this circa 1950s photo taken from an enviably empty Hollywood Freeway, we can see how the Los Angeles City Hall dominated the skyline of downtown LA. Its domination wasn’t an accident; until 1964 it was, by law, the tallest building in the city, so it’s little wonder that it became an iconic symbol of the city.
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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