Six years after Prohibition ended in 1933, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union were still holding firm to their ideal that, as it says on their billboard, “Prohibition: the Best Method Against Liquor Traffic” that stood atop their building at Broadway and Temple St in downtown L.A. To the far right, streetcars are emerging through the Broadway Tunnel that was demolished in 1949 to make way for the Hollywood Freeway. I was surprised to learn that that Union is still around. Sensibly, they appear to have switched the focus of their efforts from alcohol to drugs.A packed and busy Broadway, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1920s
With some photos, you can almost hear the hubbub of the hurly-burly going on in the frame. This circa 1920s shot shows us a packed and busy Broadway with cars and pedestrians and streetcars all contributing to cacophony of klaxons and bells. With one little stop/go semaphore traffic signal controlling this intersection (I’m guessing it’s 2nd Street because of the “Spear’s” sign on the left) no wonder those cars appear to be jamming up the works.
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Tagged Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles, Stores and Shopping, Streetcars
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Premiere of “Spartacus” at the Pantages Theatre, Hollywood Blvd, October 19, 1960
The premiere of “Spartacus” at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on October 19, 1960, was a big night for Hollywood. Not just because the movie went on to earn $60 million on a $12 million budget and four Academy awards, but because Kirk Douglas hiring Dalton Trumbo to write the screenplay brought about the beginning of the end of the Hollywood screenwriter blacklist. Also, I’ve never seen portraits of the stars in the theater’s second-story windows, and the vertical electric sign reads “SPARTACUS.”
Garan G said: “Typical of roadshow engagements which could play exclusively at one theater on a live performance type schedule (only 1 or 2 shows a day, reserved seats) for a year or more. The Pantages blade sign had a neon overlay so the theater name could alternate with the movie title. The Egyptian had similar treatment. Sound of Music was exclusive at the Fox Wilshire for over a year. If you lived in the valley or Orange County you had to drive to LA to see it.”
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Tagged Hollywood Blvd, Movie Premiere, Movie Stars, Night photo, Pantages Theatre, Theaters
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Club Seville, 8433 Sunset Blvd, Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, 1938
Don’t let the rather innocuous looking building that housed the Club Seville on the Sunset Strip fool you. It started out life as the Clover Club, where high-stakes gamblers like David O. Selznick and Harry Cohn lost their shirts before the vice squad closed down the joint in 1938. In its place rose Club Seville, which featured a glass dance floor laid over a pool filled with live carp. It sounds like a cool idea, but women objected to having fish eyes peering up their skirts, and everyone was afraid the floor would shatter. So Club Seville barely lasted a year, after which Billy Wilkerson of The Hollywood Reporter gave the place a lavish makeover and a new name that would soon become synonymous with glamorous Hollywood nightclubs: Ciro’s.
Roughly that same view in May 2016. The Ciro’s building is now the Comedy Store, one of LA’s premier stand-up comedy venues.
“Shane” starring Alan Ladd plays Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood Boulevard, summer 1953
For eight weeks in June and July of 1953, Paramount’s “Shane” played Grauman’s Chinese Theatre sandwiched between Fox’s “Titanic” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” before the theater closed down to remodel for “The Robe” which was the first CinemaScope movie. Across the street is a billboard for The London Shop, which was a mini chain of three three stores located in the Roosevelt Hotel on, Hollywood Boulevard, next to the Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard, and on Rodeo Drive. But I’ve not been able to establish what they sold. Does anybody reading this post recall?
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Tagged Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Stores and Shopping, Theaters
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Looking west along Hollywood Boulevard past the Pantages Theatre toward Vine Street, Hollywood, 1936
In this photo, we’re looking west along Hollywood Blvd toward the famous Vine Street corner. It was taken in 1936, back when you could actually find a place to park on the boulevard, partly because many people were taking the streetcar. Plus, there weren’t 10 million people living in L.A. We know this is 1936 because back then the Pantages was a movie house and banner out front is advertising “These Three,” a Sam Goldwyn production written by Lillian Hellman, who lived for a time at the Garden of Allah Hotel. She was there in 1931 when she met Dashiell Hammett (who wrote “The Maltese Falcon” and with whom she lived until his death 30 years later.)
Roughly the same view in February 2020:
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Pantages Theatre, Theaters
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Aerial photograph of the Beverly Hills Speedway near Wilshire Boulevard, 1919
In 1919, an organization calling itself the Beverly Hills Speedway Association built a wooden motor car speedway race track on a swath of land between Wilshire and Olympic Boulevards. This aerial photo was taken the year it opened and as we can see, much of the land that is now blanketed with the pricey, sprawling homes of Beverly Hills was wide-open space. But not for long. The speedway closed four years later because the price of real estate started to climb and the land was just too valuable. In the upper-right corner, we can see West Hollywood, which at the time was known as Sherman.
Susan M says: “My dad always told me this one closed because the newer Culver City Speedway, was a far superior venue. It drew all the big names in racing. None of the top racers wanted to use the BH one after Culver opened its doors in (I think) ’21. He used to say, the Culver Speedway was a really exciting place to go to. Whereas BH was not outfitted as well for spectators.”
Los Angeles Consolidated Electric streetcar at Pico Heights, decorated for Washington’s Birthday, circa 1892
In this circa 1892 photo, we can see that Angelenos got into the holiday spirit by decorating a streetcar from the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway (a predecessor of the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad) for the George Washington birthday holiday. I don’t know if this was a one-off or an annual thing but they sure went all-out. The sign on top of the streetcar says “Pico Heights” which I’d never heard of. Turns out it’s now known as Pico-Union which lays west of downtown between Olympic and the Santa Monica Freeway.
This is (approximately) where Pico Heights used to be.
Earl Carroll Theatre, 6230 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 1939
When Earl Carroll opened his place at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in 1938, he let the world know about it by installing this huge neon sign of a woman’s head that boasted “Thru These Portals Pass The Most Beautiful Girls In The World.” As we can see, it certainly did the trick. And for $2.50 you got a “lavish revue, dinner, and dancing” – which seems pretty good value for a night out at the biggest nightclub, restaurant and showroom in America.
And check out their ashtray. This sort of thing wouldn’t fly for a number of reasons, but history is context, isn’t it?
With those remarkable opening credits of the “Hollywood” show on Netflix, I went looking for a close-up photo of the 50-foot-tall letters to see if it was actually possible to climb and stand on top of them. I found this photo taken just after the sign was completed in 1923. It looks like some letters would have been easier to climb than others, standing on them would have been pretty much impossible.