It’s not often we get an elevated view of downtown L.A. at the turn of the century, so this shot from 1900 is a rare chance to see what the city looked like. We’re looking at Hill St between 2nd and 3rd Streets as seen from City Hall. These days this block is filled with high-rise housing, but back then it was a jumble of houses gouged out of the hilly terrain that has long since been flattened out. They’re mostly two-story houses, some on fairly big lots, so it looks like a fairly affluent area, which means they’d also have had a carriage house for the horses and carriage, and room for the guy who looked after them.The Tony Duquette-designed showroom at Adrian’s salon, 233 North Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, circa 1940s
When MGM’s lead costume designer, Adrian (last name: Greenberg) left the studio in 1941, he opened his own salon. Smartly, he chose to relocate to Beverly Hills and took over the building that had formally housed the Victor Hugo restaurant at 233 North Beverly Drive, which had been an upscale eatery, very popular with the Hollywood set. When he asked artist Tony Duquette to design his showroom, he told Duquette to come up with whatever he wanted. This photo shows the result. I can’t decide if it’s fabulous or over the top. What do you think?
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Tagged Automobile Showroom, Beverly Hills, MGM, Stores and Shopping
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The first Los Angeles Times Building at Broadway and First Street, downtown Los Angeles, 1886
This is one of the earliest photos I’ve ever posted. It shows us the Los Angeles Times building at Broadway and First Street, downtown Los Angeles before it gained its iconic tower, and before the whole thing got destroyed by a bomb in 1910 (which, I imagine, kinda put an end to the building’s nickname: The Fortress.”) But back in 1886, which this shot was taken, it housed what would have back then have been a modest paper for a modest town. I doubt that any of the Angelenos captured in this photo would ever have guessed that their home town would become the behemoth it is today.
The rebuilt LA Times building in 1926, now with its tower.
Orchestra playing the Hollywood Bowl in 1927
I couldn’t find much information on this night shot of an orchestra playing on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl. But what I do know is that we’re looking at the second incarnation of the bowl. The first version wasn’t successful, aesthetically or acoustically, and only lasted one year. In 1927, Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) designed a new pyramidal-shaped bowl and that’s the one we’re seeing in this photo. Visually, it’s quite arresting and apparently it was the most acoustically successful of the bowls—perhaps because of that enormous flattened dome suspended above the musicians. But it was considered a little too avant-garde and was replaced two years later by the famed concentric circles.
The 3,800-foot-long Rainbow Pier in Long Beach, California
The aptly named Rainbow Pier in Long Beach, California was actually a breakwater. Opening in 1931, the pier extended a quarter of a mile into the Pacific and was so wide with that vehicles could drive along it. For more than thirty years it gave the Sunday drivers of Long Beach a lovely day’s outing. Contained within it was the 40-acre Rainbow Lagoon that protected swimmers and sailors from the choppy ocean. By the mid-60s though it wasn’t in great shape and huge land reclamation project that gave Long Beach a convention center and Aquarium of the Pacific spelled its doom.
Driving on the Rainbow Pier, Long Beach, California, 1940
That large building in the center was the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. Demolished in the mid-1970s and replaced with the Terrace Theater.
Decorated Christmas trees form a twinkling wonderland in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, December 19, 1949
What a difference a couple of thousand little lights can make. These Christmas trees were set up in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum for the holiday season of 1949. This photo was taken at dusk on December 19, just as the last of the sunlight was fading over L.A. It makes me want to break out into a chorus or two of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which is, of course, my wish to all of you who follow my vintage discoveries, potted histories, and rhetorical questions. Thank you for your interest and participation, and happiest of holidays to you all.
Giant Santa Clauses adorn Hollywood Boulevard during the holiday season, circa 1943
I’ve seen plenty of photos showing the metal Christmas trees that used to decorate Hollywood Boulevard for the holidays, but this is the first one I’ve seen using giant Santa Clauses instead. This photo was taken circa 1943 so perhaps the trees were melted down for the war effort? Whatever the reason for the change, they sure look festive—I only wish this shot had been taken in glorious Kodachrome.
Daniel N says: “The trees were impounded ‘for the duration’ because of street light restrictions on the West Coast—this was outside of actual blackouts. The santas were not lit.”
Christmastime on Hollywood Blvd. near Vine Street facing west, circa 1950s
Once upon a time in Hollywood, the city used to decorate Hollywood Boulevard with large metallic trees high on top of poles. They would light up at night and transform the street into what was known as “Santa Claus Lane.” Those trees changed from time to time. This shot looking west from around Vine Street was taken some time in the 1950s, when the trees were painted white to look like they had snow on them because, as Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby taught us, we’re all dreaming of a white Christmas.
Premiere for “Giant” at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood Blvd, October 18, 1956
The premiere for Warner Bros’ “Giant” starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on October 18,1956 was a very big deal. We can see from this photo that a long line of limos were outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre along Hollywood Boulevard and any number of searchlights strafed the night sky. The number of stars who attended is mindboggling. http://www.graumanschinese.org/1956.html lists over 100 of them, everyone from Nick Adams to Shelley Winters, along with Art Linkletter as the Master of Ceremonies. The movie’s 10-week run was the longest run of any movie at Grauman’s that year.
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Tagged Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Movie Premiere, Night photo, Theaters, Warner Bros.
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Looking north up Broadway toward 6th Street, downtown Los Angeles, 1956
In this 1956 photo (Ektachrome, I’m presuming), we’re looking north up Broadway toward 6th Street. On the left, we can see the sign for Zukor’s (no relation to Adolph Zukor, the founder of Paramount Pictures, as far as I know), which was a clothing store next door to the greatest movie palace in town: the Los Angeles Theater. We can also see a sign for Richman Brothers, which was a subsidiary Woolworth’s, and was an upscale men’s clothing store. The L.A. Theater is still around, so one out of three ain’t bad.
Zukor’s in January 2017 looking a little worse for wear:
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Tagged Color photo, Downtown Los Angeles, Stores and Shopping, Streetcars
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