Gilmore isn’t a name we see much of anymore but during the first half of the 20th century, it was everywhere. Not just the many gas stations but the Gilmore field and stadium and drive-in. In 1948 they opened the first self-service gas station on Beverly Boulevard. Because they didn’t need so many attendants, they could offer motorists a substantial saving of 5 cents a gallon. Eight islands with three pumps per island is alotta gas—it’s little wonder that this place became known as the Gilmore Gas-a-teria.
After oil was discovered in Huntington Beach and Long Beach south of Los Angeles, oil wells popped up in their hundreds and pumped out oil for decades. This is a 1940 shot of Huntington Beach—not exactly the sun-dappled, picture-postcard vista of Californian beaches we usually think of.
It’s hard to imagine that Hollywood was ever this rural, even in 1895, when this photo was taken. This farmhouse stood at the corner of Western Ave and Hollywood Blvd (which back then was called Prospect Ave (it wouldn’t be renamed Hollywood Boulevard until the early 1910s)) and by the looks of it was stuck out the middle of nowhere. The streetcar system didn’t get up and running until 1901 so these people were strictly the horse and buggy crowd.
In this glorious 1940s view looking east from the top of the Town House Hotel we can see where Wilshire Blvd bends at Lafayette Park. In the lower right corner is Simon’s drive-in restaurant at the Hoover St corner, which, by the 1950s, had become Stan’s. Traffic is so light here that I wonder if this was taken during the war years during gas rationing.
Los Angeles being the home to Hollywood, the city of imagination, it’s little wonder that it’s had a treasure trove of mimetic architecture over the years. I’d love to have seen this one in person: The Mushrooms looked like a giant mushroom surrounded by toadstool seating. It stood at 3500 W Olive Ave. in what is listed as Los Angeles but I assume is Burbank. It opened in 1928 when I doubt there was much traffic around so I wonder how long it lasted—especially as I doubt those toadstool seats were very comfy!
Between Elizabeth Taylor’s unprecedented million-dollar salary, her affair with co-star Richard Burton, and a runaway budget that virtually sank a movie studio, Angelenos were primed to see what the fuss was all about over “Cleopatra” during the summer of 1963. Twentieth Century-Fox held the premiere at the Pantages and I’m sure traffic was hellacious around the Hollywood and Vine corner that day. But what a thrill to have been in the audience that night.
The E. Clem Wilson Building at Wilshire Blvd and La Brea Ave has been a landmark building since the moment it opened in 1930, which is when this photo was taken. At a time when LA didn’t have that many building above a dozen floors, it must have really stuck out. What caught my eye, though, is that I can’t see any traffic lights. Even in 1930, I would imagine that it took a brave pedestrian to cross that intersection. That building in the lower left corner looks interesting, too.
For as long as I can remember, that the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood has always been a live theater but back in 1942, it was playing a pretty good double bill: Paramount’s Take a Letter, Darling with Rosalind Russell and Columbia’s They All Kissed the Bride with Joan Crawford, which indicates it was a second-run movie house. Interestingly, the place next door is “Dr. Beauchamp” who I assume was the same dentist whose prominent offices stood at 
These days the intersection where Wilshire Blvd meets San Vicente Blvd has traffic coming and going in all directions. (It also marks the eastern edge of Beverly Hills.) But back in circa 1925 when this photo was taken, it almost makes it seem like negotiating it was nothing more than a Sunday drive in the country. Of course, it may have been a Sunday when this photo was taken but the view from the top of that open-air double-decker bus is something I’d love to have seen
