This shot gives us a rare bird’s eye view of the busy corner of Broadway and 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles, anchored by the Loew’s State Theatre, which was MGM’s flagship theater. I wonder what was playing when this photo was taken in 1943: “Presenting Lily Mars”? “Lassie Come Home”? Or maybe an Andy Hardy picture? The war was on, which means gas restrictions were in place, which may explain the six streetcars lined up along 7th Street.The Fred Harvey restaurant prepares to open with its staff of Harvey Girls at Los Angeles’s new Union Station, 1939
When Union Station in downtown Los Angeles opened on May 4, 1939, passengers on the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific railway lines arrived and departed from the same glorious station that combined Art Deco and Mission Revival with Streamline Moderne—AND a Harvey House restaurant. This photo shows us how the place looked just before it opened with those Harvey Girls (made (even more) famous by MGM’s “The Harvey Girls” (1946) starring Judy Garland) lined up ready to serve hungry passengers with a train to catch. You can see lots of color photos of it here: http://bit.ly/1yDmQlj
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Restaurants, Trains and Railways
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Hollywood Blvd looking east from Western Ave, Hollywood, circa early 1950s
In the early 1950s, some adventurous person leaned out of a Red Car heading east along Hollywood Boulevard and caught the intersection of Western Ave and a Red Car heading west. Whoever they were, I’m grateful for the glimpse into 50s Los Angeles, with its then-ubiquitous Thrifty drug store. That red-brick building is no longer there but cater-corner to it is a building that was built by MGM’s Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. Opening on December 8, 1928, it was the first location of Motion Picture Association of America, Central Casting, the Hays Office. So going into the 1930s, the decisions made inside that building determined the course of Hollywood filmmaking.
That same view in March 2019:
Historical note: that building in the background of the vintage photo – the one directly behind the Red Car – is the Guardian Arms Apartments at 5217 Hollywood Boulevard. The building is still there but does have a connection with infamy. Room 726 at the Guardian Arms was Elizabeth Short’s residence from October 10 though October 22, 1946. She lived there with her friend Marjorie, and two men, Bill Robinson and Marvin Margolis. Marjorie and the two men slept in the bed while Short slept on the floor. In January 1947, Elizabeth Short would die at the hands of a sadistic killer and the world would remember her as the Black Dahlia.
Grauman’s Chinese Theater showing “The Racers,” Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, February 1955
I love how the lights of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre throw a golden glow across a nighttime Hollywood Boulevard. This photo was taken in February or March 1955—that’s when Twentieth Century-Fox’s “The Racers” played Grauman’s. I’m surprised it lasted three weeks there because the picture was a huge and expensive flop. Maybe it’s because studio chief, Darryl Zanuck, foisted his … let’s be kind and call her his “protégé” … Bella Darvi on Kirk Douglas. I haven’t seen the movie so I’m not saying she was the reason why it flopped but I doubt she out-acted Douglas, Gilbert Roland, Cesar Romero, and Lee J. Cobb.
UPDATE – Robert Cullen says: “The back story is great. Fox wanted to get rid of all the used race cars. A guy wanted to buy one for $10k but Fox said, “No. All or nothing for $200,000.” He bought the lots and the cars ended up being worth many millions. The three drivers Douglas, Roland, Romero were pretty great.”
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Tagged Color photo, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Night photo, Theaters
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Looking north up Main Street, Los Angeles, California, circa 1882
It looks like traveling up Main Street, Los Angeles in the early 1880s was a piece of cake. The street was wide with lots of room for everybody’s horses and carriages on their way to perhaps make a deposit at the Farmers and Merchants Bank or visit friends who have just checked into the Cosmopolitan Hotel. One store that caught my eye is on the right: Bright’s Cheap Store. Is that the 1880s equivalent of the 99 Cent Store?
Traffic on the corner of Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Rd, Atwater Village, Los Angeles, 1936
In this photo, we’re reminded that even L.A. drivers in 1936 had to deal with heavy traffic. This is the intersection of Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Rd in Atwater Village, south of Glendale. I guess it’s the morning rush hour, all controlled by two-light semaphore signals. We can also see the windmill of a Van de Kamp’s bakery and opposite it a sign for a “General Petroleum” gas station. Not much has changed for this intersection. These days, it has a Burger King, a Yoshinoya, an El Pollo Loco, and a Chevron gas station.
That same intersection in May 2019:
Mary Pickford (in the white suit) entertains young Royal Air Force students at Pickfair, Beverly Hills, 1944
When Mary Pickford was married to Douglas Fairbanks (1920 to 1936) their palatial estate, Pickfair, was filled with visiting royalty and A-list stars of stage and screen. After they split up, and Mary later married Buddy Rogers (1937 to her death in 1979,) Pickfair wasn’t nearly so often packed with luminaries. But if this photo is anything to go by, Mary did what she could for the servicemen passing through Los Angeles en route to the war by opening up the house for their enjoyment. This photo was taken in 1944 on a day when she entertained Royal Air Force students. What British trainee pilots would be doing in LA I’m not really sure, but they sure seem to be having a whale of a time.
Manuel D. said: “RAF flight cadets were trained at contract flight schools at various locations in the USA. Several groups were trained at flight schools in San Bernadino and Riverside counties.”
Staff (and children) in the rooftop garden atop Bullock’s department store, 7th Street, downtown Los Angeles, 1907
This photo was taken not long after John G. Bullock opened his luxury department store on 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles in 1907. Bullock provided a rooftop garden for his staff to relax in while taking their break. (The garden would later be open to the public.) I don’t know whose children are seated on those large chairs but I’m guessing they belong to one of the staff. In one account I found, the name “BULLOCK’S” was ablaze with electric lights could be seen for miles in the LA skyline.
Life goes on along the 200 block of East Fifth Street, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1952
In this circa 1952 shot, life is going on, raw and real along East Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles. The 200 block isn’t a great part of town nowadays and wasn’t that great in the early 50s, either. Along that one block we’ve got a rifle range, a religious mission, a music company, Evans cafeteria and no less than three pawn shops. If the photographer had taken this shot at night, it could almost have been the set for a film noir.
The same block in February 2019:
Los Angeles Street Address Directory, May 1956:
Art Deco building housing the Hollywood Lighting Fixture Company, 662 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles, circa 1929
I do love me some Art Deco so if the exterior of the Hollywood Lighting Fixture Company at 662 N. Western Ave is anything to go by, I would have been a regular customer. The caption for this photo said that it was a business originally formed by a few creative designers on March 9, 1929 so I’m guessing this photo was taken right after then because everything looks pristine. The chandeliers in the window don’t look particularly art-deco-y but that signage alone would have drawn me in.
The Los Angeles City Directory of 1942 shows them at 662 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles:
David says: “The 1929 building depicted as it looks today is actually the one next door, not the colorful one. At some point, the owner extended the roof and added a usable second story with windows. The decorative pillars remain, but, like many buildings in LA, were re-plastered either as a “modernization” or after an earthquake or other damage. The address change is explained either by the 1945 street standardization ordinance, or, more likely, by the property’s subdivision into two or more smaller businesses.”
