The SS Rex was a gambling ship that sat off the Santa Monica coast during the late 1930s. At the time, gambling was illegal in California but technically, the Rex was operating within the law because it sat more than three miles off the coast and therefore outside the jurisdiction of law enforcement. As you might imagine, the aforementioned law enforcement were not pleased and it took them years to dislodge him. In this 1939 photo, the Rex’s crew prepare to repel the approaching police with water cannons, which is a pretty ballsy move. Then again, the operation was run by local organized crime figure, Tony “the Hat” Cornero, who was probably no stranger to ballsy moves. They managed to close down Cornero’s operations but “Tony the Hat” fled to Las Vegas, where he opened the Stardust Hotel.
Slot machines confiscated from the SS Rex gambling ship are being tossed overboard into the sea, November 29, 1939:
They advertised in the legit press with legit advertisement display ads:
This advertisement for the SS Rex gambling ship off Santa Monica is from the Daily Racing Form in 1939:
The other day I sat down to watch a 1947 movie called “Sinbad, the Sailor” and was not quite prepared for what I saw when I clicked “play”: it was the usual “An RKO Radio Picture” logo—but in Technicolor! I can’t imagine “Sinbad” is the only movie to feature the logo in color but it’s the first one I remember seeing. And look how magnificent it was in color. The movie itself was only okay. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. did a retreat of his father in “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924) and Maureen O’Hara stood around looking more stunning than she ever had before. The real star of the picture were the sets and costumes. The crew used every possible hue available to them and shot it all in glorious, glowing, gorgeous Technicolor.
In a view that I can only assume was taken from an aircraft, we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd after it passes through MacArthur Park, makes a 45-degree turn, then heads due west. We can see the striking tower of Bullocks Wilshire department store on the left and the Town House hotel on the right (both buildings are still there.) And in the foreground, in front of the “Eastside Beer and Ale” billboard is a Simon’s Drive-In restaurant, one of first and biggest players to cater to increasingly car-obsessed Angelinos. This photo is circa 1930s.
It looks like Warner Bros. were going all out to promote their Joe E. Brown vehicle, “Top Speed” with half a dozen vertical banners hanging from their Warner Bros. Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The movie came out in the summer of 1930 and as we can see from the marquee, they’re still trumpeting the Vitaphone system of adding sound to movies. Obviously it worked because look at that line down the block. (Also note the store to the immediate right – we don’t see hosier stores anymore. Or perhaps we do except they’re now called Victoria’s Secret.)
In this photo we’re treated to how the original Brown Derby restaurant looked when it was built at 3427 Wilshire Boulevard. That’s when its site was between Mariposa and Alexandria and faced due south, before being moved half a block east to 3377 Wilshire. As we can see here, it was simply a hat-shaped place with no extension off to the side like at 3377 Wilshire. From the looks of it, the Brown Derby was a modest little place so I’m surprised they got their waitresses to wear skirts starched into the shape of a derby. A cute idea but it sounds neither comfortable nor convenient to me!
After the obsessive, global coverage that “Cleopatra” received, it’s little wonder that 20th Century-Fox chose a large movie house to run it. The premiere took place on June 19, 1963 so it surprised me to see that it was still playing six months later at Christmastime. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. Turns out that Cleo had a seventy-two week run. That’s around 18 months, so it’s possible this photo was taken Christmas 1964. But that billboard on the side of the theater doesn’t look like it’s endured 18 months of weather. But don’t you love how Pantages’s vertical neon sign reads CLEOPATRA? I wonder if they did that for “Spartacus” which ran for 61 weeks, starting October 19, 1960.
The identity of this woman waiting on the corner of Hollywood and Vine is lost to the mystery of time, but I’m wondering if she had just booked a ticket at the American Airlines office that opened in the corner office of the Equitable Building in 1955. We can see part of the gold eagle logo behind her. MGM’s “Something of Value” starring Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier is playing down the street at the Pantages Theatre, which came out in June of 1957. The corner now has a different sign alerting passersby that they’re at Hollywood and Vine, and it’s nice but there’s something classy and timeless about that golden ribbon above the woman’s head that I wish was still there.
When I came across this photo of the Goodyear blimp at Hughes Airport, I was struck by how little the design of the Goodyear blimp has changed over the years. This photo is circa 1940s but that blimp could be the current one. Those hills in the background are Baldwin Hills, which had oil derricks until the 1970s.
Back around the turn of the century, when (downtown) Los Angeles was waaaay over here and Hollywood and the beaches were waaaay over there, one of the more popular tourist attractions was an all-day trolley trips operated by the Pacific Electric. It was called the Balloon Route and its promotional brochures boasted that passengers would see “10 beaches and 8 cities” and travel “101 miles for 100 cents in 1 day.” A trolley like the Hermosa pictured here would leave downtown Los Angeles and pass by oil fields, Echo Park, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the make its way to Venice Beach, where this hand-tinted photograph was taken before heading back. I don’t know that I’d want to tour LA dressed in a three-piece suite and a bowler hat but these people wouldn’t have thought anything of it.
When 20th Century-Fox opened its Fox Wilshire Theatre at 8440 Wilshire Blvd in September 1930, it was at the height of the Art Deco era, as evidenced by this stunning proscenium curtain covering the screen—not to mention the surrounding decoration. Thankfully, most of it is still in place. In 1981, the place became a live theater venue and is now known as the Saban.
