I suspect that some enterprising photographer took an aerial shot of the back lot set for “Lost Horizon” (1937) on the Columbia Ranch on Hollywood Way in Burbank because at the time, the Lamasery (upper right corner) was the largest single standing set (in terms of square feet) built for a motion picture of the sound era. It shows us what a massive undertaking it was—especially for the normally tightfisted Columbia studios. The Columbia ranch now belongs to Warner Bros. And, as you would expect, all those empty fields (the movie was shot over the summer of 1936) surrounding it are now fully developed suburbia.
I love it when I find photos of gorgeous buildings that have survived into the 21st century. Case in point is this 8-bedroom replica of a Norman castle. It was built in 1927 for Milton Wolf at 2869 Durand Drive in the Hollywood hills. He was a Hollywoodland developer and it looks like he picked an el primo spot for himself overlooking the Hollywood Reservoir. As you can imagine with a place that looks like this, it’s quite a history including rumors of a secret tunnel and a Prohibition-era speakeasy. According to Curbed LA, Debbie Reynolds, Marlon Brando, and the Beatles have all been occupants at various times. Best of all, it’s still around and in excellent condition.
Close-up view of the garage entrance to Wolf’s Lair located at 2869 Durand Drive in the Hollywood Hills, circa 1930s:
Panorama of Hollywoodland with Wolf’s Lair castle:
Back in the early days of Hollywood, movies were silent, so it didn’t matter who made what noise on the set during filming because there were no microphones to pick up any unwanted noise. So when Universal Studios head, Carl Laemmle realized that moviegoers were intrigued about how movies were made, in invited the general public to see for themselves. To give guests a better view, he ordered a Visitors Observation Platform built. Each person paid 25 cents for which they got a boxed lunch and a chance to see exactly how tedious it could be to make movies. Those doors underneath the platform opened into small dressing rooms where the actors could change costumes. All this might look rudimentary but from such humble beginnings, the world-famous Universal Studios theme park began.
Guest ticket into Universal Studios, 1915:
The filming that the guests were looking at probably looked a lot like this shot of a motion picture being filmed in 1917 at the Vitagraph Studio (today, Prospect Studios) at the corner of Prospect and Talmadge Avenues in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.
Burbank Airport has been through more names than a Hollywood divorcee. It’s had 7 names since it opened as United Airport in 1930. This shot of the airport’s main restaurant, The Sky Room Café, was taken when the facility was known as Lockheed Air Terminal, from 1940 to 1967. We can trace this photo to the war years because attached to the post is a “Black-Out Switch” needed when Los Angeles was under black-out conditions following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Understandably, Angelenos feared they might be next. Also, the land behind the sign is largely undeveloped, a situation that wouldn’t stay that way after the war, when LA experienced a huge boom.
Matchbook cover for the Sky Room Restaurant at Union Air Terminal, Burbank, California:
Menu cover for The Sky Room Restaurant at Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California:
Airplane-shaped children’s menu of the The Sky Room Restaurant at Union Air Terminal, Burbank, California:
The photographer who took this shot in 1906 would have been standing on the hillside we now know as Whitley Heights. We’re looking east toward the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. Right in the middle, nestled among a copse of trees, is the Hollywood Hotel, which would only have been three years old at the time. It’s kind of amazing to see how widely spread the homes are. Everybody had tons of room! But then those frivolous people from the flickers had to come into town and ruin everything.
I wish I had more information about this photo than I do, which is to say that I have no information other than an educated guess that it was taken some time during the first 20 years of Hollywood film-making. But I thought it gave us an interesting glimpse into how flimsy those sets were. This looks like a line of stores shoved together to look like a shopping street for the purposes of filming who-knows-what movie. From this angle we can see that they are just that: facades. And of course, the more cynical among us might even say it’s an accurate reflection of the entire Hollywood macrocosm!
This photo of an unusually somber Walt Disney was taken during the summer of 1955 just before Disneyland opened on July 17. Perhaps he’s not somber at all—just utterly exhausted. Getting the park up and running had been a long, difficult, and exhausting marathon on which Disney had risked just about everything. We, of course, know that Disneyland was a hit from the get-go, but when this photo was taken, Uncle Walt had no idea if his gamble would pay off. He’s sitting in the Town Square part of Main Street – Disneyland’s City Hall is behind him. And it was probably the last time that part of Disneyland was that empty. Shortly after this photo was taken, it would be overrun!
I love the composition of this photo with the silhouette of the guy in shirt sleeves in the foreground as he’s watching the searchlights sweeping a Hollywood premiere and filling Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with a blaze of glorious light. But without any specific telltale hints, like posters or cars, I couldn’t tell when this was from. So I turned to Kurt Wahlner who runs the highly informative graumanschinese.org. Through an impressive process of elimination, he deduced that this photo was taken on the night of the premiere of RKO’s “Show Business” on May 10, 1944, which was RKO’s only wartime premiere at Grauman’s. (I never knew this but the vast majority of premieres there was for MGM and Fox.)
It looks like these girls in the rumble seat are looking for a good time and perhaps have found it at a joint at 6421 Whittier Boulevard. It’s called The Tamale because, well, it looks like a big tamale. The year was 1928, which was in the middle of Prohibition, so I’m guessing the good time also included some bootleg. Remarkably, that building still exists today! And note that one of the menu offerings written across the front reads “Spanish Delight.” Back then, because of anti-Mexican racism, it was easier to sell Mexican food if you called it “Spanish.” Eater LA has an interesting story on it: http://bit.ly/2PxqeZZ
People dressed for the beach a whole lot differently today than they did in 1917, when this photo was taken on Venice Beach. The place is crowded so I’m assuming it’s not the dead of winter. But look at how these beachgoers are dressed: jackets, ties, hats, three-piece suits. I can’t imagine going to the beach dressed like that at all, let alone slogging across the sand in the heat in my Sunday best! (Side question: do people still even have a “Sunday best”…?)
I suspect that some enterprising photographer took an aerial shot of the back lot set for “Lost Horizon” (1937) on the Columbia Ranch on Hollywood Way in Burbank because at the time, the Lamasery (upper right corner) was the largest single standing set (in terms of square feet) built for a motion picture of the sound era. It shows us what a massive undertaking it was—especially for the normally tightfisted Columbia studios. The Columbia ranch now belongs to Warner Bros. And, as you would expect, all those empty fields (the movie was shot over the summer of 1936) surrounding it are now fully developed suburbia.
I love it when I find photos of gorgeous buildings that have survived into the 21st century. Case in point is this 8-bedroom replica of a Norman castle. It was built in 1927 for Milton Wolf at 2869 Durand Drive in the Hollywood hills. He was a Hollywoodland developer and it looks like he picked an el primo spot for himself overlooking the Hollywood Reservoir. As you can imagine with a place that looks like this, it’s quite a history including rumors of a secret tunnel and a Prohibition-era speakeasy. According to Curbed LA, Debbie Reynolds, Marlon Brando, and the Beatles have all been occupants at various times. Best of all, it’s still around and in excellent condition.
Back in the early days of Hollywood, movies were silent, so it didn’t matter who made what noise on the set during filming because there were no microphones to pick up any unwanted noise. So when Universal Studios head, Carl Laemmle realized that moviegoers were intrigued about how movies were made, in invited the general public to see for themselves. To give guests a better view, he ordered a Visitors Observation Platform built. Each person paid 25 cents for which they got a boxed lunch and a chance to see exactly how tedious it could be to make movies. Those doors underneath the platform opened into small dressing rooms where the actors could change costumes. All this might look rudimentary but from such humble beginnings, the world-famous Universal Studios theme park began.
Burbank Airport has been through more names than a Hollywood divorcee. It’s had 7 names since it opened as United Airport in 1930. This shot of the airport’s main restaurant, The Sky Room Café, was taken when the facility was known as Lockheed Air Terminal, from 1940 to 1967. We can trace this photo to the war years because attached to the post is a “Black-Out Switch” needed when Los Angeles was under black-out conditions following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Understandably, Angelenos feared they might be next. Also, the land behind the sign is largely undeveloped, a situation that wouldn’t stay that way after the war, when LA experienced a huge boom.
The photographer who took this shot in 1906 would have been standing on the hillside we now know as Whitley Heights. We’re looking east toward the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. Right in the middle, nestled among a copse of trees, is the Hollywood Hotel, which would only have been three years old at the time. It’s kind of amazing to see how widely spread the homes are. Everybody had tons of room! But then those frivolous people from the flickers had to come into town and ruin everything.
I wish I had more information about this photo than I do, which is to say that I have no information other than an educated guess that it was taken some time during the first 20 years of Hollywood film-making. But I thought it gave us an interesting glimpse into how flimsy those sets were. This looks like a line of stores shoved together to look like a shopping street for the purposes of filming who-knows-what movie. From this angle we can see that they are just that: facades. And of course, the more cynical among us might even say it’s an accurate reflection of the entire Hollywood macrocosm!
This photo of an unusually somber Walt Disney was taken during the summer of 1955 just before Disneyland opened on July 17. Perhaps he’s not somber at all—just utterly exhausted. Getting the park up and running had been a long, difficult, and exhausting marathon on which Disney had risked just about everything. We, of course, know that Disneyland was a hit from the get-go, but when this photo was taken, Uncle Walt had no idea if his gamble would pay off. He’s sitting in the Town Square part of Main Street – Disneyland’s City Hall is behind him. And it was probably the last time that part of Disneyland was that empty. Shortly after this photo was taken, it would be overrun!
I love the composition of this photo with the silhouette of the guy in shirt sleeves in the foreground as he’s watching the searchlights sweeping a Hollywood premiere and filling Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with a blaze of glorious light. But without any specific telltale hints, like posters or cars, I couldn’t tell when this was from. So I turned to Kurt Wahlner who runs the highly informative 
It looks like these girls in the rumble seat are looking for a good time and perhaps have found it at a joint at 6421 Whittier Boulevard. It’s called The Tamale because, well, it looks like a big tamale. The year was 1928, which was in the middle of Prohibition, so I’m guessing the good time also included some bootleg. Remarkably, that building still exists today! And note that one of the menu offerings written across the front reads “Spanish Delight.” Back then, because of anti-Mexican racism, it was easier to sell Mexican food if you called it “Spanish.” Eater LA has an interesting story on it: 
People dressed for the beach a whole lot differently today than they did in 1917, when this photo was taken on Venice Beach. The place is crowded so I’m assuming it’s not the dead of winter. But look at how these beachgoers are dressed: jackets, ties, hats, three-piece suits. I can’t imagine going to the beach dressed like that at all, let alone slogging across the sand in the heat in my Sunday best! (Side question: do people still even have a “Sunday best”…?)