From 1920 to 1930, Culver City’s population grew by 1011%, which sounds astounding but in reality, in 1920, there probably weren’t very many people living in the area. An Grauman’s Chinese Theater showing “The Racers,” Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, February 1955
I love the golden glow that Grauman’s Chinese Theatre radiates across a nighttime Hollywood Boulevard in this shot from 1955, when Twentieth Century-Fox’s “The Racers” was playing mid February to early March. That movie starred Kirk Douglas; his love interest was Bella Darvi, the mistress of Fox’s Darryl Zanuck with whom he ran away to Europe the following year. Maybe this movie helped make his decision—it bombed badly.
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Tagged 20th Century-Fox, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Night photo, Theaters
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View of Crown Ave (now Harvard Blvd), Hollywood, California, circa 1909
I couldn’t find any Crown Ave (or Crown St) on a map of Hollywood so I’m guessing its name was changed sometime later. But from those streetcar tracks running along the bottom, it looks like it ran north of Hollywood Boulevard (then called Prospect Ave.) But we can see that by circa 1909, when this photo was taken, the streets were paved, they had curbs, trees, and power lines.
** UPDATE ** Crown Ave became Harvard Blvd in 1915.
Aerial shot of Goldwyn Studios, Washington Blvd, Culver City, 1918
In this aerial shot from 1918, we can see the movie studios formally known as Triangle Studios (because of the triangular lot) which was renamed Goldwyn Studios when Samuel Goldwyn bought it. It didn’t last long. By 1922, Goldwyn was out and by 1924, the studio became the home to the newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Down in the bottom left corner we can see circled in red the colonnaded gate that became famous as the gate through which the MGM stars entered. They’re still there now that the lot belongs to Sony. But look at all that empty land in the top half of the photo. Back then there wasn’t much “city” in Culver City.
A 1916 view of the colonnade at the original main entrance to Thomas Ince’s Triangle Studios:
Looking south down Vine Street past the Hollywood Blvd corner, at night, 1958
In this rather film-noir-ish night photo, we’re looking south down Vine Street through the Hollywood Boulevard intersection. Even at this distance, the derby-shaped neon sign of the Brown Derby restaurant is unmistakable. However, I am surprised to see that the “B” in the vertical neon sign for The Broadway department store isn’t working. Someone call Maintenance and get that fixed—immediately!
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Tagged Brown Derby, Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, Hollywood Blvd, Night photo, Restaurants, Stores and Shopping
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Looking up Spring St to Los Angeles city hall, circa early 1930s
In this photo from sometime in the 1930s, we can how Los Angeles City Hall dominated the LA skyline for so long. Nothing even comes close. We’re looking up Spring St with the Lyceum Theater in the foreground. It had 53-year history opening in 1888 as a legitimate live theater, then converting to showing moving pictures in 1914. The Lyceum’s sign promises its patrons that they can “Hear Every Word” leads me to guess that this photo was taken just after sound movies came in during the very late 20s.
The Lyceum had quite an ornate front:
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Hall, Theaters
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Smokers line up outside the Owl Drug Co. at Santa Monica Blvd and Western Ave, Los Angeles, March 1945
Smokers (in other words, everyone) lined up in front of the Owl Drug Co. store at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Western Ave upon hearing the news that cigarettes were finally available after a prolonged shortage because of WWII in March, 1945. What we’re not seeing is the ‘after’ photo with grateful Angelenos spilling out onto the sidewalk sucking in entire cigarettes with one breath.
Susan M says: “For most of the war, we could get cigarettes – but generally the off-brands. I used to pack little GI care packets for the Red Cross throughout much of the war. There were always a few packs of cigarettes, a tooth brush, tooth polish, a comb, matches, cookies and a few other things in them. Most of us who packed these were bribed to hide a few packs in our purses for high school boys! Seems best I recall (as a non-smoker), we could get loose tobacco always. There was part of a year cigarettes on the home-front got scarce, but nothing like other things such as sugar and meat. I can remember never seeing Oreo cookies during the war – those all went to the troops!“
That same building in June 2017 – and here’s something I don’t often get to say – it looks nicer!
Clune’s Auditorium at 5th and Olive Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1910
Here we have a photo from 1910 showing a Melrose-Ave-bound streetcar passing by Clune’s Auditorium across from Pershing Square (known as Central Park at the time) in downtown LA. The theater opened on November 7, 1906, amid much fanfare because was the largest reinforced concrete structure with the only cantilevered balcony in the world and had largest stage west of New York. In 1915, the landmark (but not necessarily in a good way) film, “Birth of a Nation” had its world premiere here.
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Tagged Downtown Los Angeles, Pershing Square, Streetcars, Theaters
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This shot of downtown Los Angeles in 1910 is filled with Angelenos for whom: catching public transport was a way of life because not many of them knew someone with their own private automobile; the sight of a horse and carriage wasn’t unusual enough to think twice about; wearing ankle-length dresses and corsets was de rigeur even in summer; probably hadn’t yet visited Abbot Kinney’s “Venice of America” development even though it’s been open for 5 years now; and were used to seeing streetlamps with one major bulb surrounded by six smaller ones.
I was unable to find out any information on this model of the Carthay Circle Theater but it’s so intriguing that I wanted to post it anyway. It’s advertising a movie called “Lilac Time” which was a First National picture starring Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper. It came out in the summer of 1928 just as First National was merging with Warner Bros. So I’m guessing this model was like a 3-D billboard that served to advertise whatever was playing at the time…as long as the movie’s title wasn’t too long because there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of room!