Going by this eye-catching display from around 1950, it looks like the Carlin’s Cinema Sports Center at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard (near Cherokee Ave) offered something for everybody: cinema, bowling, pool, fountain café and juice bar, gift store (“Send a gift from Hollywood”), a public rumpus room (a games room with ping pong tables, dart boards, table top shuffle board, etc), and a barber shop. All that and free parking. Talk about your one-stop family entertainment destination.
This 1957 video screengrab showing building on the right with the “BOWLING” blade sign:
In a different incarnation, it was the News-View theater that exclusively ran newsreels:
I didn’t know that public rumpus rooms were a thing until I found this photo. Even Mike Lyman had one when he ran his place on Hill Street in downtown L.A. This is taken from the May 1956 Los Angeles Street Address Directory:
From the looks of it, this 1949 photo of Muscle Beach along the Venice boardwalk was taken on a busy summer weekend. Those cafés selling 25-cent jumbo malts, 10-cent snow cones and candied apples and cotton candy now sell $5 tee-shirts and $10 sunglasses. But the sign that I really like is on the right: “Physical Services.” I wasn’t sure what they were selling until I read the fine print: classes in tumbling, balancing, gymnastics, and adagio. So now I’m wondering: does anybody teach adagio anymore?
Patrice says: “Back in 1949 Muscle Beach was actually in Santa Monica, just south of SM Pier. It moved to Venice I believe in late 50s or early 60s. And it was on the correct name of the “boardwalk” which is Ocean Front Walk.”
A much quieter early morning shot of the Muscle Beach outdoor gym in June 2018:
In 1928, Yankees star baseball player, Babe Ruth, appeared in a picture called “Speedy” in which Harold Lloyd played a Babe Ruth fan who saves New York’s last horse-drawn trolley. So I’m guessing that this is a publicity photo dreamed up by the wiseguys in the Paramount Pictures publicity department. Is it just me or there a rather blatantly phallic quality to this photo? Given how libidinous Babe was, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to assume that he didn’t return to the hotel alone that day.
In late August of 1929, the Graf Zeppelin landed at Mines Field (later LA International Airport) on the final leg of a Hearst-sponsored 20-day round-world voyage. Every other photo I’ve seen is taken far back so as to capture the enormity of the German airship. But this shows its size in a different way: put it up against actual people. It really must have been a sight to see up close and I guess, until the Hindenburg disaster 8 years later, people weren’t too concerned about being so close to so much hydrogen.
I guess motorists of the 1920s and 30s got used to driving around Los Angeles and seeing oil derricks scattered across the landscape. But I wonder if any of these motorists driving on La Cienega Blvd (at around where the Beverly Center shopping mall now stands) thought twice about driving around the oil derrick that stood in the middle of the street, northbound to the right, southbound to the left. I love the billboard of a brand of gin I’ve never heard of, Old Man London. If that advertisement can be believed, it was “The Finest Gin at Any Price!”
Bill says: “I remember it “well” (not the sign, but the derrick) – the derrick was removed while I lived in the neighborhood but the pump remained. It was right next to “Kiddieland”, fenced off for safety. Then came Rexall HQ across the street – I was there often. Rexall had a huge store on the bottom floor with a grand toy department and Santa at Christmas time. A See’s candy shop. Newest vinyls of the current recording stars. The “New” ballpoint pens (they either leaked all over or did not write at all) – Lindy was the better one. Ah, the memories.“
In this photo we’re looking at the backlot of Carl Laemmle’s Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. It’s a rather sprawling collection of facades with not much organization. Mind you, it was only 1919, so they were probably still building sets on an as-needed basis. But gosh, look at all that empty land around them. These days, the studio and theme park sprawl out in all directions, along with the Hollywood Freeway to the south, the Lakeside Golf Club and the concreted Los Angeles River to the north, and the Hollywood sign to the east. And beyond all of them, suburban sprawl in all directions.
It’s amazing to me that people used to go for morning horse rides around Beverly Hills at all, let alone to start and end at the Beverly Hills Hotel. These oh-so-properly dressed riders were with the Los Angeles Riding Academy, which had a branch at the hotel. I’d like to see those horses dodge the Maseratis and Lamborghinis that fill the Beverly Hills Hotel’s driveway nowadays.
Most photos of the Pan Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Boulevard tend to focus on the entrance with the four strikingly Streamline Modern towers and flag poles. And why wouldn’t they? They became iconic from the day that the Pan Pacific opened on May 18, 1935. But for this shot taken in 1942, the photographer stood way, way back so that we could see the whole building to better appreciate the context. I do wonder, though, why only three flags were flying. What happened to the fourth? If you’re interested, also have a collection of photos of the Pan Pacific on my website: http://bit.ly/panpacauditorium
Looking around at the cityscape that surrounds downtown Los Angeles, who’d ever have thought that an amusement park used to lay south of where the 10 Freeway now cuts south of downtown. It was called Chutes Park and it occupied a huge area bounded by Grand Ave, Main Street, Washington Blvd and 21st St. It opened in 1899 and what we’re seeing in this circa 1906 photo is main attraction The 10-cent entrance ticket included one trip on Shoot the Chutes flume ride, and over the years there was also a merry-go-round, Japanese village, shooting gallery, bowling alley, zoo, 1400-seat Chutes vaudeville theater, baseball and football fields, roller coaster, skating rink, novelty attractions with names like Sheik Hadji Tahar’s Famous Arabian Horsemen and Billikin’s Temple of Mirth, and a panorama which offered a daily reenactment of the Civil War sea battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. It was renamed Luna Park in 1911 and was gone by 1914, when the land was then known as Horsley Park.
Satellite photo showing location of Chutes Park, south of downtown Los Angeles:
You’ve gotta love it when neon light is used to great effect the way it is in this circa 1938 shot of Los Angeles’s Chinatown, north of downtown L.A. admire how someone thought to silhouette the rooflines in different colors. How about we meet for cocktails at the Forbidden Palace and then jump across the street for some Chop Suey?
Going by this eye-catching display from around 1950, it looks like the Carlin’s Cinema Sports Center at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard (near Cherokee Ave) offered something for everybody: cinema, bowling, pool, fountain café and juice bar, gift store (“Send a gift from Hollywood”), a public rumpus room (a games room with ping pong tables, dart boards, table top shuffle board, etc), and a barber shop. All that and free parking. Talk about your one-stop family entertainment destination.
From the looks of it, this 1949 photo of Muscle Beach along the Venice boardwalk was taken on a busy summer weekend. Those cafés selling 25-cent jumbo malts, 10-cent snow cones and candied apples and cotton candy now sell $5 tee-shirts and $10 sunglasses. But the sign that I really like is on the right: “Physical Services.” I wasn’t sure what they were selling until I read the fine print: classes in tumbling, balancing, gymnastics, and adagio. So now I’m wondering: does anybody teach adagio anymore?
In 1928, Yankees star baseball player, Babe Ruth, appeared in a picture called “Speedy” in which Harold Lloyd played a Babe Ruth fan who saves New York’s last horse-drawn trolley. So I’m guessing that this is a publicity photo dreamed up by the wiseguys in the Paramount Pictures publicity department. Is it just me or there a rather blatantly phallic quality to this photo? Given how libidinous Babe was, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to assume that he didn’t return to the hotel alone that day.
In late August of 1929, the Graf Zeppelin landed at Mines Field (later LA International Airport) on the final leg of a Hearst-sponsored 20-day round-world voyage. Every other photo I’ve seen is taken far back so as to capture the enormity of the German airship. But this shows its size in a different way: put it up against actual people. It really must have been a sight to see up close and I guess, until the Hindenburg disaster 8 years later, people weren’t too concerned about being so close to so much hydrogen.
I guess motorists of the 1920s and 30s got used to driving around Los Angeles and seeing oil derricks scattered across the landscape. But I wonder if any of these motorists driving on La Cienega Blvd (at around where the Beverly Center shopping mall now stands) thought twice about driving around the oil derrick that stood in the middle of the street, northbound to the right, southbound to the left. I love the billboard of a brand of gin I’ve never heard of, Old Man London. If that advertisement can be believed, it was “The Finest Gin at Any Price!”
In this photo we’re looking at the backlot of Carl Laemmle’s Universal Studios in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. It’s a rather sprawling collection of facades with not much organization. Mind you, it was only 1919, so they were probably still building sets on an as-needed basis. But gosh, look at all that empty land around them. These days, the studio and theme park sprawl out in all directions, along with the Hollywood Freeway to the south, the Lakeside Golf Club and the concreted Los Angeles River to the north, and the Hollywood sign to the east. And beyond all of them, suburban sprawl in all directions.
It’s amazing to me that people used to go for morning horse rides around Beverly Hills at all, let alone to start and end at the Beverly Hills Hotel. These oh-so-properly dressed riders were with the Los Angeles Riding Academy, which had a branch at the hotel. I’d like to see those horses dodge the Maseratis and Lamborghinis that fill the Beverly Hills Hotel’s driveway nowadays.
Most photos of the Pan Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Boulevard tend to focus on the entrance with the four strikingly Streamline Modern towers and flag poles. And why wouldn’t they? They became iconic from the day that the Pan Pacific opened on May 18, 1935. But for this shot taken in 1942, the photographer stood way, way back so that we could see the whole building to better appreciate the context. I do wonder, though, why only three flags were flying. What happened to the fourth? If you’re interested, also have a collection of photos of the Pan Pacific on my website: 
Looking around at the cityscape that surrounds downtown Los Angeles, who’d ever have thought that an amusement park used to lay south of where the 10 Freeway now cuts south of downtown. It was called Chutes Park and it occupied a huge area bounded by Grand Ave, Main Street, Washington Blvd and 21st St. It opened in 1899 and what we’re seeing in this circa 1906 photo is main attraction The 10-cent entrance ticket included one trip on Shoot the Chutes flume ride, and over the years there was also a merry-go-round, Japanese village, shooting gallery, bowling alley, zoo, 1400-seat Chutes vaudeville theater, baseball and football fields, roller coaster, skating rink, novelty attractions with names like Sheik Hadji Tahar’s Famous Arabian Horsemen and Billikin’s Temple of Mirth, and a panorama which offered a daily reenactment of the Civil War sea battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. It was renamed Luna Park in 1911 and was gone by 1914, when the land was then known as Horsley Park.
You’ve gotta love it when neon light is used to great effect the way it is in this circa 1938 shot of Los Angeles’s Chinatown, north of downtown L.A. admire how someone thought to silhouette the rooflines in different colors. How about we meet for cocktails at the Forbidden Palace and then jump across the street for some Chop Suey?