In yesterday’s photo, I highlighted three lonely looking shrubs in a planter along the stretch of the Hollywood Freeway that ran past Vine St and the Capitol Records building. Later, David G. sent me this photo taken around the same time (this shot is specifically from 1955.) We’re looking along the Hollywood Freeway at the original exit sign for Sunset Blvd. It’s a night shot so the three shrubs are harder to see but if you look closely near the bottom left corner, there they are, struggling to stay alive like their cousins farther north up the freeway.
Night shot looking along the Hollywood Freeway at the original exit sign for Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 1955
Announcing the release of “Selznick’s Girl Friday” – book 1 in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy by Martin Turnbull
If you are a fan of movies from Hollywood’s golden era and/or a regular watcher of TCM (which amounts to pretty much the same thing, doesn’t it?) then chances are good that among your personal list of Top Ten Favorite Movies Of All Time at least one of them came out in 1939. That’s because in the late 1930s, Hollywood was on an unstoppable roll. Many of the most creative people to have ever worked in film were operating at the top of their game, and collectively, they were producing movies that enthusiasts like us could (and do) watch again and again.
Among those movies might be:
As it happens (full disclosure: it’s no coincidence) these six movies are mentioned in my newest novel which is now available for sale:
SELZNICK’S GIRL FRIDAY
A Novel of 1939 Hollywood
by Martin Turnbull
Book 1 in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy
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Polly Maddox lives under the sheltering wing of Santa Catalina Island, her world as small and idyllic as the isolated cove where her father ran a not-so-secret moonshine operation during Prohibition. But when he’s accused of a startling crime and goes on the lam, Polly’s life capsizes, leaving her with little choice but to flee toward the gleaming mirage of 1939 Los Angeles.
Armed only with lightning-fast fingers and a sharp wit, Polly talks her way into the executive suite of demanding, brilliant movie producer, David O. Selznick, as he labors over his most ambitious project: a film the rest of Hollywood scornfully dismisses as “Selznick’s Folly.”
As Polly gets swept into the chaos of filming “Gone with the Wind,” she realizes Selznick may hold a clue to where she might find her father—but does he have murky motives of his own? Undaunted, Polly’s battle to clear her father’s name thrusts her directly into the path of a ruthless insider—and he plays for keeps. Polly must outmaneuver his insidious ploys in a town where favors and fraud reign hand-in-hand.
From the author of the Garden of Allah novels comes book one in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy. This delightfully nostalgic yet gripping tale promises to transport you to a time when movies were larger than life and Hollywood was reaching its golden zenith.
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Pick up a copy of Selznick’s Girl Friday in your favorite format from your preferred retailer:
Audiobook: COMING SOON!
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ALSO BY MARTIN TURNBULL:
The Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels
Book 1 – The Garden on Sunset
Book 2 – The Trouble with Scarlett
Book 3 – Citizen Hollywood
Book 4 – Searchlights and Shadows
Book 5 – Reds in the Beds
Book 6 – Twisted Boulevard
Book 7 – Tinseltown Confidential
Book 8 – City of Myths
Book 9 – Closing Credits
Chasing Salomé: a novel of 1920s Hollywood
The Heart of the Lion: a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood
The Hollywood Home Front trilogy:
Book 1 – All the Gin Joints
Book 2 – Thank Your Lucky Stars
Book 3 – You Must Remember This
~oOo~
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Color photo looking south across the Hollywood Freeway toward the Capitol Records building on Vine St, Hollywood, circa mid-1950s
As most of you will probably know, that building in the center of this photo is the Capitol Records building. It opened at 1750 Vine St, Hollywood in 1956. That freeway in the foreground is the Hollywood Freeway, which had been completed in 1952. But what I’d like to draw your attention to is that three-shrub planter in the diving strip. Here’s my question: Whose idea was it to put living plants in the middle of a freeway, and did they really think those poor shrubs would survive?
This is a 2024 satellite photo of that same stretch of the Hollywood Freeway and—surprise, surprise—there’s no sign of that planter.
Stan’s Drive-In at the southwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Hoover St, Los Angeles, circa mid-1950s
Stan’s was a popular chain of drive-in restaurants that at its peak had over a dozen locations around LA. This one was at 2902 Wilshire Blvd at the southwest corner of Hoover St. It didn’t have a date, but going by those cars parked out front, I’m guessing mid 1950s. Drive-ins with a central tower to attract attention were a fairly common sight around LA in the 30s through 50s as were my favorite part of this photo: Those three phone booths tucked away in the background. I’m half-expecting Superman to emerge and launch himself into the air.
Mike F. says: “Stan’s was owned by Stan Burke. Who also owned a chain of Googies coffee shops.”
This is how that corner looked in November 2023.
Color photo of the Cinerama Dome building site, 6360 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, circa August 1963
This photo show us how quickly the Cinerama Dome was built. It opened at 6360 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood on November 7, 1963, however this photo was taken a scant 15 weeks before the opening, which dates this photo at around the beginning of August. I don’t know how long it takes to build a full theater from scratch these days – or even back then – but 15 weeks sounds like a short time to me. But I suspect that was the appeal of the concept: to have a fully functional movie theater up and running in a relative short amount of time. From this photo we can also see that Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” was already booked in to be the movie that opened the Dome. I love how you could call MAD.1100 for tickets!
The Cinerama Dome never reopened after the pandemic. According to a November 2023 article I read in Variety, it’s due to reopen some time in 2025. This is how the Dome looked in June 2022.
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Tagged Cinerama Dome, Color photo, Hollywood, Sunset Blvd, Theaters
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Let’s visit the exhibit – “Meet The Stars: 100 Years of MGM Studios and the Golden Age of Hollywood”
I thought I’d share some photos with you that I took this past weekend at the Hollywood Heritage Museum. It’s located opposite the Hollywood Bowl and is housed in the same barn that Cecil B. DeMille rented when he and his Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company arrived in Hollywood in 1913 to film The Squaw Man.
They currently (this particular exhibit closes this weekend) have a marvelous exhibit called Meet The Stars: 100 Years of MGM Studios and the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s filled with an impressive array of artifacts from Hollywood’s golden era. It closes next week, so for those of you who can’t make it, here are some of my favorite photos.
The museum has a miniature model of how Paramount Pictures looked in its early days.
This life-sized portrait of Jean Harlow was painted after her death.
And this was Jean’s rather fabulous Art Deco cigarette holder. (Here is some more info.)
(UPDATE: Here is some more info about the Art Deco cigarette holder.)
When you’re Mae West, of course you have a telephone with a picture of yourself in the middle of the rotary dial:
On October 13, 1939, MGM released Babes in Arms starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. It became the 4th biggest hit of the year (it made even more money than The Wizard of Oz did in both films’ first release.) The pin tells you the theater it was playing at and the address. The Boyd was a theater in Philadelphia at 1908 Chestnut St. It was open from 1929 and 2002. Those pins could be made up for each theater showing the movie. It was something that the theater could order from the MGM PR department campaign book. They would make them up for those theaters that ordered them. That pin was used for the Mickey and Judy fan club too.
A pack of playing cards promotional tie-in for The Wizard of Oz. It’s a card game that was released in 1940 in the UK. It has the entire movie in pictures on each card.
On April 29, 1932, when the stars arrived at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the premiere of MGM’s all-star Grand Hotel, they were asked to sign in as though they were checking into an actual hotel.
Oliver Hardy had his own wallet for his business cards:
This compact was once owned by MGM’s queen of the lot, Norma Shearer:
I have to wonder who might have put out the cigarettes into this MGM ashtray:
I’m not sure what this was, so let’s call it a paperweight:
When MGM’s super-producer, Irving Thalberg died on September 14, 1936, he was only 37 years old. But he was held in such high regard that The Hollywood Reporter devoted its entire cover to a fitting tribute. (I wrote a novel about Irving Thalberg called The Heart of the Lion.)
Yes, even the Creature from the Black Lagoon was there:
Cary Grant wore this tuxedo in 1958’s Indiscreet:
Carole Lombard had this coin locket monogrammed with her initials. It was hanging next to a bottle stopper fashioned to look like her husband, Clark Gable:
Outside the museum (aka the Hollywood Barn) is this commemorative plaque about the building’s history. Its current location is its 5th!
~oOo~
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Heritage, MGM, Movie Stars, Movie Studios
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The Wooster building on the southeast corner of Fair Oaks Ave and Green St, Pasadena, California, circa late 1800s
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of the Universalist Church on N. Raymond Ave in Pasadena. A follower of my main Facebook page, Nick Lewis, posted this photo in the comments, which I felt was worth featuring. Known as the Wooster building, it was built in 1887 as the home of Throop University (forerunner to Caltech) and stands on the corner of Fair Oaks Ave and Kansas St (now Green St) in Pasadena. What a marvelous testament to 19th century architecture, and how builders back then took so much care to imbue their projects with texture, details, and individuality.
Nick L. says: “The chimneys were/are functional. When the Wooster Block was annexed into the Hotel Green Complex, it was for longer staying guests. The rooms/apartments had fireplaces. Coal and wood were used.”
Remarkably this building is still around. These days, it’s part of the Castle Green Hotel complex. This image is from June 2022.
Casa de Petrol gas station on the southwest corner of Ventura Blvd and Beverly Glen Blvd, Sherman Oaks
For nearly 30 years I’ve driven past the Casa de Cadillac showroom on the southwest corner of Ventura Blvd and Beverly Glen Blvd in Sherman Oaks and always admired its sleek 50s-era signage. But until I found this two-for-one image didn’t I think to look into its history. In 1948, a gas station opened up next door to Casa de Cadillac. Naturally it was called “Casa de Petrol” but not because of the dealership, but because that intersection was known as “Casa Corner” as it also included a Casa burger stand and a “Casa de Cascade” car wash. But even more interesting is that, Casa de Petrol was the final stop in Los Angeles that 24-year-old James Dean made on September 19, 1955. At around 2pm, he gassed up his new Porsche 550 Spyder before setting out on the drive up the coast that took his life.
The gas station was demolished in 2016. This image of the neighboring Casa de Cadillac is from July 2022.
Unitarian Universalist Church at Chestnut and Raymond Sts, Pasadena, California, 1890
What a remarkable building this is! I wouldn’t have even picked this as a church, but apparently it was the Unitarian Universalist Church located on the southeast corner of Chestnut and Raymond Streets in Pasadena. The photo was taken in 1890, and we can see the streets aren’t even paved yet – note the ruts in the dirt caused by the wheels from horse-drawn carriages. The detailing on the exterior walls is striking, but especially that domed tower!
Here’s the church from a different angle:
And here’s in interior view:
What a shame we lost such a unique building to (yet another) parking lot. This is how that corner looked in April 2017.
Color photo of the now-dingy entrance to the once-stately Angelus Hotel at Spring and Fourth Sts, downtown Los Angeles, 1956
I had never heard of the Angelus Hotel before I came across this sadly atmospheric photo taken in 1956, just before it was torn down. The hotel stood on the southwest corner of Spring and 4th Streets and opened for business on December 28, 1901 with a bowling alley, billiards room, buffet, and what was described as “a finely furnished ladies’ hair dressing parlor, with professional attendants.” It sounded like it was the height of 1901 elegance. How sad to see it like this with “Auction” and “Close Out Sale” signs and its entrance covered with grime and neglect.
Andie P. says: “I don’t believe this! That Chevy station wagon belonged to the foreman on one of my dad’s construction crews and he, my dad and two other workers were at the hotel to purchase by auction a bunch of architectural pieces, doors, a bar and back bar, a bunch of ceiling fixtures and etc., after they began dismantling the building. It took two large trucks making several trips, to haul away all the materials dad purchased. A dozen other contractors were bidding on varous things, but they were all friends and had pretty much “shared out” the particular pieces each was bidding on. I recognize the station wagon from the crease in the side where his wife made a too close turn around a pile of bricks in the supply yard, didn’t see a big plank protruding from the pile and one end scraped along the side.”
Here’s an photo of the Angelus Hotel in its prime in 1905
And here is a menu for their “Business Lunch” dated Saturday, June 27, 1903:
And this is what the southwest corner of Spring and 4th looked like in April 2022:
