In hindsight, I guess it was inevitable that the bucolic country town of Hollywood that we can see in this 1905 photograph would be transformed into the bustling commerce-driven city 20 years later. This shot was taken on the northwest corner of Prospect Ave (later renamed Hollywood Blvd) and Wilcox Ave. We’re looking north up Wilcox toward the Hollywood Hills and reminds us that once upon a genteel time ago, homes in Hollywood were large with spacious yards and lawns and plenty of fresh air to breathe, and probably a stable out the back for the horses that pulled the family carriage.
My goodness but it was a busy night at Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset that night in 1946 when columnist Sidney Skolsky hosted a party there. (Skolsky had a column in Photoplay magazine called “From A Stool at Schwab’s”) As we can see from this shot, Schwab’s really wasn’t all that big and yet it still managed to sell everything from ice cream sundaes to prescription medications to – as we can see from the neon sign at the back – Fine Wine & Liquors. Skolsky was supportive booster and good friend to Marilyn Monroe so I wondered if she went that night, but I’m sure that crowd would have been a bit much for her.
One of the places around Hollywood that pops up often in the course of the research I do for my novels is Al Levy’s Tavern at 1627 North Vine St, Hollywood, opposite the Brown Derby. Al got his start with a pushcart in San Francisco selling oysters to the opera crowd. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he operated a couple of restaurants in downtown LA before following the celebrity crowd to Hollywood. On December 17, 1930 he opened his tavern and quickly gained a reputation as serving the best steaks in town for the entire 1930s. In 1941 it became Mike Lyman’s Grill. But what I like most about it is how distinctive the building was. Back then, Hollywood was dotted with places like these. These days so many of the structures that have replaced them seem blandly homogenized. (This photo is circa 1940.)
This shot looking east along Hollywood Blvd from Orange Dr. was taken in March 1955, when 20th Century-Fox’s “Untamed” was enjoying its 3-week run. We can tell that Fox is in the full flight of its CinemaScope glory from the way that the word is emblazoned in orange letters bigger than the name of the movie and/or its stars. (I’ve never seen this movie but it was noteworthy for being Tyrone Power’s final film under contract to Fox, where he had worked for 18 years.) Past Grauman’s we can see the red roof of the Hollywood Hotel. When this photo was taken, it only had a little over a year before it fell beneath the heft of the wrecking ball.
Back in 1905, when this photo was taken, the only thing these two men could see of Hollywood was that small group of buildings to the south of them. Where they’re standing was known as Olive Hill at the eastern end of Hollywood. In 1922, Aline Barnsdall, heiress to an oil fortune, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to develop a theatrical community that would become Barnsdall Art Park, and then build her a house. Wright built a Mayan-influenced home called Hollyhock House. Both the park and the house still remain but every square inch of that wide, open land we can see in this picture is filled in with Southern Californian urban sprawl:
We tend to think—or at least I do—that health food and healthy eating as more of a modern development, i.e. 1960s and later. The advice of Greta Garbo’s favorite nutritionist, Gayelord Hauser notwithstanding, on the whole I don’t think of people in the 1930s as being particularly health-conscious. What, with all that smoking and drinking and full-cream milk with nary a thought for cholesterol or high blood pressure. So I was happy to find this circa 1938 photograph of Shy-Der’s Health Juices with its great, big carrots on the southwest corner of York Blvd and N. Ave 49, just south of Eagle Rock. The sign even trumpets ‘alkalizing’ as one of the benefits. I wonder if these people did Bikram yoga too
In case you’ve ever wondered what it was like to wander the Disney Studios, here’s a rare shot for you. It’s really quite neat and orderly, and without the need for soundstages to film on, the studio lot isn’t crowded with rows of cavernous warehouse-sized buildings. This particular road we’re looking down is called Minnie Mouse Boulevard and that building on the left is the Ink and Paint Department where women spent their days putting the final touches on the hand-drawn animation cels. This shot is from 1943, when the studio was relatively quiet because of the war. It would ramp up again soon as the studio went into production for 1950’s “Cinderella.”
The Hollywood Bowl sure has come a long way. Before the first shell was built for the official opening in July 1922, the stage consisted of nothing more than a simple wooden platform with a canvas ten over it. And all those members of the audience were sitting on moveable wooden benches. No huge speakers, no bar, no souvenir store. It makes me wonder if they even had public restrooms…
Hollywood Bowl program for the opening season, July 1922:
It looks like it was a busy day on Sunset Boulevard in 1924. The photographer was standing on the corner of Ivar Ave – you can tell because Hollywood Laundry was at 1620 Cahuenga Blvd, the next corner down where the building with the arch window still stands today. It is, however, the only one that remains. These days, the building on the left side is now occupied by the striking white-and-red Amoeba Records building, and the corner beyond that is dominated by the 15-story CNN headquarters. But that white building in the distance is still there: it’s the Hollywood Athletic Club.
Hollywood Laundry Service listing in the Los Angeles City Directory for 1929:
The same view in April 2018:
Amoeba Records building at Sunset and Cahuenga Blvds, Hollywood, April 2018:
If the caption for this circa 1920 photo hadn’t told me this was taken in the Cahuenga Pass I might not have guessed—even though that sign on the right says “This is Hollywood.” These days the Hollywood Freeway that connects Hollywood with the San Fernando Valley through the Pass is five lanes in each direction but back then it was a positively bucolic one lane in each direction and trolley car track.
In hindsight, I guess it was inevitable that the bucolic country town of Hollywood that we can see in this 1905 photograph would be transformed into the bustling commerce-driven city 20 years later. This shot was taken on the northwest corner of Prospect Ave (later renamed Hollywood Blvd) and Wilcox Ave. We’re looking north up Wilcox toward the Hollywood Hills and reminds us that once upon a genteel time ago, homes in Hollywood were large with spacious yards and lawns and plenty of fresh air to breathe, and probably a stable out the back for the horses that pulled the family carriage.
My goodness but it was a busy night at Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset that night in 1946 when columnist Sidney Skolsky hosted a party there. (Skolsky had a column in Photoplay magazine called “From A Stool at Schwab’s”) As we can see from this shot, Schwab’s really wasn’t all that big and yet it still managed to sell everything from ice cream sundaes to prescription medications to – as we can see from the neon sign at the back – Fine Wine & Liquors. Skolsky was supportive booster and good friend to Marilyn Monroe so I wondered if she went that night, but I’m sure that crowd would have been a bit much for her.
One of the places around Hollywood that pops up often in the course of the research I do for my novels is Al Levy’s Tavern at 1627 North Vine St, Hollywood, opposite the Brown Derby. Al got his start with a pushcart in San Francisco selling oysters to the opera crowd. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he operated a couple of restaurants in downtown LA before following the celebrity crowd to Hollywood. On December 17, 1930 he opened his tavern and quickly gained a reputation as serving the best steaks in town for the entire 1930s. In 1941 it became Mike Lyman’s Grill. But what I like most about it is how distinctive the building was. Back then, Hollywood was dotted with places like these. These days so many of the structures that have replaced them seem blandly homogenized. (This photo is circa 1940.)
This shot looking east along Hollywood Blvd from Orange Dr. was taken in March 1955, when 20th Century-Fox’s “Untamed” was enjoying its 3-week run. We can tell that Fox is in the full flight of its CinemaScope glory from the way that the word is emblazoned in orange letters bigger than the name of the movie and/or its stars. (I’ve never seen this movie but it was noteworthy for being Tyrone Power’s final film under contract to Fox, where he had worked for 18 years.) Past Grauman’s we can see the red roof of the Hollywood Hotel. When this photo was taken, it only had a little over a year before it fell beneath the heft of the wrecking ball.
Back in 1905, when this photo was taken, the only thing these two men could see of Hollywood was that small group of buildings to the south of them. Where they’re standing was known as Olive Hill at the eastern end of Hollywood. In 1922, Aline Barnsdall, heiress to an oil fortune, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to develop a theatrical community that would become Barnsdall Art Park, and then build her a house. Wright built a Mayan-influenced home called Hollyhock House. Both the park and the house still remain but every square inch of that wide, open land we can see in this picture is filled in with Southern Californian urban sprawl:
We tend to think—or at least I do—that health food and healthy eating as more of a modern development, i.e. 1960s and later. The advice of Greta Garbo’s favorite nutritionist, Gayelord Hauser notwithstanding, on the whole I don’t think of people in the 1930s as being particularly health-conscious. What, with all that smoking and drinking and full-cream milk with nary a thought for cholesterol or high blood pressure. So I was happy to find this circa 1938 photograph of Shy-Der’s Health Juices with its great, big carrots on the southwest corner of York Blvd and N. Ave 49, just south of Eagle Rock. The sign even trumpets ‘alkalizing’ as one of the benefits. I wonder if these people did Bikram yoga too
In case you’ve ever wondered what it was like to wander the Disney Studios, here’s a rare shot for you. It’s really quite neat and orderly, and without the need for soundstages to film on, the studio lot isn’t crowded with rows of cavernous warehouse-sized buildings. This particular road we’re looking down is called Minnie Mouse Boulevard and that building on the left is the 
The Hollywood Bowl sure has come a long way. Before the first shell was built for the official opening in July 1922, the stage consisted of nothing more than a simple wooden platform with a canvas ten over it. And all those members of the audience were sitting on moveable wooden benches. No huge speakers, no bar, no souvenir store. It makes me wonder if they even had public restrooms…
It looks like it was a busy day on Sunset Boulevard in 1924. The photographer was standing on the corner of Ivar Ave – you can tell because Hollywood Laundry was at 1620 Cahuenga Blvd, the next corner down where the building with the arch window still stands today. It is, however, the only one that remains. These days, the building on the left side is now occupied by the striking white-and-red Amoeba Records building, and the corner beyond that is dominated by the 15-story CNN headquarters. But that white building in the distance is still there: it’s the 
If the caption for this circa 1920 photo hadn’t told me this was taken in the Cahuenga Pass I might not have guessed—even though that sign on the right says “This is Hollywood.” These days the Hollywood Freeway that connects Hollywood with the San Fernando Valley through the Pass is five lanes in each direction but back then it was a positively bucolic one lane in each direction and trolley car track.