They say that snow comes to Los Angeles once every ten years so apparently in the 1920s, it came during the winter of 1921. This shot at Hollywood Boulevard and Cherokee Ave shows that it was more than a light dusting. I wonder if the drivers of those cars we can see were freaking out driving under such unusual conditions. I also wonder how effective the car heaters would have been back then—did they even have them in 1921?
The same view in April 2018. That building across the street — FC Rowland (does anybody remember what they sold?) — is now the Escape Hotel, which bills itself as the world’s largest escape room experience.
Who doesn’t love a dramatic night photo of Hollywood with spotlights raking the sky? This taken during the Hollywood Christmas parade that happened every December when Hollywood Boulevard was temporarily changed to Santa Clause Lane. The caption was 1945 but I’m thinking it was probably 1956 or ’57 because the northwest corner has a “FEDERAL SAVINGS” sign around an empty lot. The Hollywood Hotel was razed in August 1956 and in its place the First Federal Savings and Loan Building was built. Today that site has the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall.
We think of Prohibition as America’s (not-so) dry spell that started in 1920, but in reality, it took some time to implement. The proposed Eighteenth Amendment to ban the sale of alcohol didn’t become ratified until Nebraska became the 36th state to approve it. And that happened exactly 100 years ago today, on January 16, 1919. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920. The American Issue newspaper was certainly excited by the news—hardly surprising considering it was the publishing arm of the National Anti-Saloon League, which was the leading organization lobbying for prohibition.
Twentieth Century-Fox’s production of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” had a very solid 7-week run at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre from late August to mid October 1957, beating the preceding picture, “An Affair To Remember” by a full week. What amazes me about this photo is how clean and clear Hollywood Boulevard looks. I count a total of eight people in the forecourt. These days, I think you’d have to stand out front of Grauman’s at three o’clock in the morning to find the forecourt that empty.
In this 1929 photo, we’re looking east long Wilshire Blvd at Wilton Place, a few blocks from Western Ave. As we can see, a number of private homes were still holding out against the march of progress. But they wouldn’t last long. In the distance, we can see the newly completed Wilshire Professional Building at 3875 Wilshire. A few blocks farther long the Bullocks Wilshire department store also opened that year. The commercial takeover of Wilshire Blvd had begun. (But they’d better patch up the road. It’s looking kind of shoddy.(
In this photo from 1934, we’re looking east on Wilshire Boulevard from the Vermont Avenue corner. In the background we can see the iconic tower of the Bullocks Wilshire department store. In the foreground, though, the corner building houses all the stores we still have: drug store, garage, groceries (“12 bottle of Coca-Cola 50 cents” across the street sounds like a good deal to me!) but look at the character of that building with its corner clocks, decorative motifs, that arched doorway on the right, and those second story window shutters. The glass-and-steel tower that stands there now doesn’t exactly have the same atmosphere and curb appeal, does it?
In this photo from 1926, we’re looking north toward the Hollywood Hills on Genesee Ave (which back then was Genesee Street—I wonder why they changed it?) I find it striking to see how clean and clear the streets are. I don’t know when the streets were paved and the curbs and lights and trees were put in but from the look of this photo, I’m guessing not too long after this photo was taken. (My thanks to David G for helping me ID this location.)
More or less the same view in December 2017:
David G says: “Re the Street/Avenue naming issue, at some point Los Angeles attempted to standardize the general convention that east-west thoroughfares were “streets” and north-south thoroughfares were “avenues” (with many exceptions). The 1954 Interstate Highway Act did something similar: east-west highways were even-numbered (e.g., the 10 and the 8), while north-south highways were odd-numbered (e.g., the 5 and the 95).
In this photo, were looking west to where Wilshire Blvd meets San Vicente Blvd. The year is 1940 so those motorists are blissfully unaware of the gasoline restrictions that will fall into place after Pearl Harbor. It was clever for the Van der Kamp bakery chain to construct a windmill atop each of their stores – they probably served as local landmarks. You can see them for miles!
This postcard is from 1905 so the color was obviously hand-tinted but it does give us a glimpse into what turn-of-the-century Hollywood Boulevard (then called Prospect Ave) looked like: pretty much like every sleepy country town. But this one had no idea it would soon become world-famous. Those trees in the foreground were pepper trees that once littered Hollywood’s streets—as well as many Southern California towns. Unfortunately, they were susceptible to a parasitic insect called the black scale that posed a serious threat to the vast orange tree groves so out they came.
This 1940 photo shows a 1941 Pontiac, a circa 1933 Ford, and a 1940 Ford driving east along Hollywood Blvd from Wilcox Ave past the streetcar that I wish still ran and the Warners Theater that I wish was still open. What I am glad for, however, is that our cars no longer belch smoke like that. If this isn’t an advertisement for the value of the enforced smog checks we Angelinos go through every two years, I don’t know what is.
They say that snow comes to Los Angeles once every ten years so apparently in the 1920s, it came during the winter of 1921. This shot at Hollywood Boulevard and Cherokee Ave shows that it was more than a light dusting. I wonder if the drivers of those cars we can see were freaking out driving under such unusual conditions. I also wonder how effective the car heaters would have been back then—did they even have them in 1921?
Who doesn’t love a dramatic night photo of Hollywood with spotlights raking the sky? This taken during the Hollywood Christmas parade that happened every December when Hollywood Boulevard was temporarily changed to Santa Clause Lane. The caption was 1945 but I’m thinking it was probably 1956 or ’57 because the northwest corner has a “FEDERAL SAVINGS” sign around an empty lot. The Hollywood Hotel was razed in August 1956 and in its place the First Federal Savings and Loan Building was built. Today that site has the Hollywood and Highland shopping mall.
We think of Prohibition as America’s (not-so) dry spell that started in 1920, but in reality, it took some time to implement. The proposed Eighteenth Amendment to ban the sale of alcohol didn’t become ratified until Nebraska became the 36th state to approve it. And that happened exactly 100 years ago today, on January 16, 1919. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920. The American Issue newspaper was certainly excited by the news—hardly surprising considering it was the publishing arm of the National Anti-Saloon League, which was the leading organization lobbying for prohibition.
Twentieth Century-Fox’s production of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” had a very solid 7-week run at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre from late August to mid October 1957, beating the preceding picture, “An Affair To Remember” by a full week. What amazes me about this photo is how clean and clear Hollywood Boulevard looks. I count a total of eight people in the forecourt. These days, I think you’d have to stand out front of Grauman’s at three o’clock in the morning to find the forecourt that empty.
In this 1929 photo, we’re looking east long Wilshire Blvd at Wilton Place, a few blocks from Western Ave. As we can see, a number of private homes were still holding out against the march of progress. But they wouldn’t last long. In the distance, we can see the newly completed Wilshire Professional Building at 3875 Wilshire. A few blocks farther long the Bullocks Wilshire department store also opened that year. The commercial takeover of Wilshire Blvd had begun. (But they’d better patch up the road. It’s looking kind of shoddy.(
In this photo from 1934, we’re looking east on Wilshire Boulevard from the Vermont Avenue corner. In the background we can see the iconic tower of the Bullocks Wilshire department store. In the foreground, though, the corner building houses all the stores we still have: drug store, garage, groceries (“12 bottle of Coca-Cola 50 cents” across the street sounds like a good deal to me!) but look at the character of that building with its corner clocks, decorative motifs, that arched doorway on the right, and those second story window shutters. The glass-and-steel tower that stands there now doesn’t exactly have the same atmosphere and curb appeal, does it?
In this photo from 1926, we’re looking north toward the Hollywood Hills on Genesee Ave (which back then was Genesee Street—I wonder why they changed it?) I find it striking to see how clean and clear the streets are. I don’t know when the streets were paved and the curbs and lights and trees were put in but from the look of this photo, I’m guessing not too long after this photo was taken. (My thanks to David G for helping me ID this location.)
In this photo, were looking west to where Wilshire Blvd meets San Vicente Blvd. The year is 1940 so those motorists are blissfully unaware of the gasoline restrictions that will fall into place after Pearl Harbor. It was clever for the Van der Kamp bakery chain to construct a windmill atop each of their stores – they probably served as local landmarks. You can see them for miles!
This postcard is from 1905 so the color was obviously hand-tinted but it does give us a glimpse into what turn-of-the-century Hollywood Boulevard (then called Prospect Ave) looked like: pretty much like every sleepy country town. But this one had no idea it would soon become world-famous. Those trees in the foreground were pepper trees that once littered Hollywood’s streets—as well as many Southern California towns. Unfortunately, they were susceptible to a parasitic insect called the black scale that posed a serious threat to the vast orange tree groves so out they came.
This 1940 photo shows a 1941 Pontiac, a circa 1933 Ford, and a 1940 Ford driving east along Hollywood Blvd from Wilcox Ave past the streetcar that I wish still ran and the Warners Theater that I wish was still open. What I am glad for, however, is that our cars no longer belch smoke like that. If this isn’t an advertisement for the value of the enforced smog checks we Angelinos go through every two years, I don’t know what is.