Constructed in 1928 as a shopping center and seafood restaurant, in the early 1930s, this building house Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café, a fun place owned by screen actress Thelma Todd who unfortunately met an early death in 1935. But until then, it was a busy café run by the popular screwball comedienne. Remarkably, the building is still there, largely untouched. This is how it looked in June 2014:
When I finally climb into that long-wished-for time travel machine, I suspect that this night might be on my list of destinations. This is the premiere of MGM’s The Women at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The date was July 31, 1939, which means MGM was operating at the top of their game, with their all-star cast, and one of their primo directors (George Cukor) at the most famous theater in Hollywood. And as we can see, the sidewalks are PACKED. And maybe—just maybe—if you look closely you might see my face. (I wish!)
Oh, be still my beating, thudding, singing Art Deco heart! This is the powder room adjoining the Ladies Lounge at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I don’t know if it was hard to check one’s makeup but this is most striking powder room I’ve ever seen—which, admittedly is none. Does anyone know if it still looks like that?
It’s not often that Los Angeles leaves its buildings intact, let alone leave intact from the day it opened in 1927. (When it opened in 1927, it didn’t have the Cinegrill sign.) From the buses parked out front, I’m guessing this photo was taken in the 1960s but take the buses away, and it could easily have been the 50s, 40s, or the 30s. I realized this recently when I was at Madame Tussauds across the street and snapped a pic that showed how little about this hotel has changed, which makes the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel a rare LA bird, indeed. (The
“Let’s go for a nice, long Sunday drive down to Long Beach,” they said. “We’ll get out of the city and take in some of that fresh sea air,” they said. “It’ll be fun!” they said. They lied. (Long Beach, California, circa 1935, Life Magazine)
This circa 1937 shot looking north up Vine Street from Selma Ave shows all the places I’d visit when I jump into that time machine: The Lux Radio Playhouse, the Plaza Hotel, the Broadway-Hollywood department store, the Taft Building (where the Academy had its offices) and of course the Brown Derby. I’d happy spend my 1937 day right there. The most shocking thing about this shot is how different it looks today.
This photo was taken in 1940, which means the May Company building at Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave would have just opened. Most photos of this iconic building are taken of the front so we rarely get to see the huge parking lot behind the store. It’s big enough to rival any shopping mall today. We can also see near the top of the photo the white tower of the nearby and equally iconic Carthay Circle Theatre.
Without a caption, it would’ve been hard to determine where this 1907 shot was taken because these days it looks unrecognizably different. But fortunately someone thought to note it down. We’re looking north up Vine Street from the Hollywood Boulevard intersection. Today, this block is dominated by the Capitol Records building, but back then it was a very rural and pastoral scene, just like most of Hollywood was back then.
The northwest corner of the famed Hollywood and Vine intersection has been a number of different restaurants. From 1932 to 1940 it was called the Coco Tree Café, which was opened by Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios. In this 1936 we can see people filming a movie out front of the CoCo Tree. I don’t know what movie it is but I think we can assume it was a Universal picture!
I wonder of the drivers in these cars got apprehensive about negotiating the intersection where Fairfax Ave meets San Vicente Blvd and Olympic Blvd without traffic lights. I know the traffic would have been much lighter back in 1936, when this photo was taken but throw a streetcar into the works too? It’s enough to bring on an attack of the vapors!
Constructed in 1928 as a shopping center and seafood restaurant, in the early 1930s, this building house Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café, a fun place owned by screen actress Thelma Todd who unfortunately met an early death in 1935. But until then, it was a busy café run by the popular screwball comedienne. Remarkably, the building is still there, largely untouched. This is how it looked in June 2014:
When I finally climb into that long-wished-for time travel machine, I suspect that this night might be on my list of destinations. This is the premiere of MGM’s The Women at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The date was July 31, 1939, which means MGM was operating at the top of their game, with their all-star cast, and one of their primo directors (George Cukor) at the most famous theater in Hollywood. And as we can see, the sidewalks are PACKED. And maybe—just maybe—if you look closely you might see my face. (I wish!)
Oh, be still my beating, thudding, singing Art Deco heart! This is the powder room adjoining the Ladies Lounge at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I don’t know if it was hard to check one’s makeup but this is most striking powder room I’ve ever seen—which, admittedly is none. Does anyone know if it still looks like that?
It’s not often that Los Angeles leaves its buildings intact, let alone leave intact from the day it opened in 1927. (When it opened in 1927, it didn’t have the Cinegrill sign.) From the buses parked out front, I’m guessing this photo was taken in the 1960s but take the buses away, and it could easily have been the 50s, 40s, or the 30s. I realized this recently when I was at Madame Tussauds across the street and snapped a pic that showed how little about this hotel has changed, which makes the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel a rare LA bird, indeed. (The
“Let’s go for a nice, long Sunday drive down to Long Beach,” they said. “We’ll get out of the city and take in some of that fresh sea air,” they said. “It’ll be fun!” they said. They lied. (Long Beach, California, circa 1935, Life Magazine)
This circa 1937 shot looking north up Vine Street from Selma Ave shows all the places I’d visit when I jump into that time machine: The Lux Radio Playhouse, the Plaza Hotel, the Broadway-Hollywood department store, the Taft Building (where the Academy had its offices) and of course the Brown Derby. I’d happy spend my 1937 day right there. The most shocking thing about this shot is how different it looks today.
This photo was taken in 1940, which means the May Company building at Wilshire Blvd and Fairfax Ave would have just opened. Most photos of this iconic building are taken of the front so we rarely get to see the huge parking lot behind the store. It’s big enough to rival any shopping mall today. We can also see near the top of the photo the white tower of the nearby and equally iconic Carthay Circle Theatre.
Without a caption, it would’ve been hard to determine where this 1907 shot was taken because these days it looks unrecognizably different. But fortunately someone thought to note it down. We’re looking north up Vine Street from the Hollywood Boulevard intersection. Today, this block is dominated by the Capitol Records building, but back then it was a very rural and pastoral scene, just like most of Hollywood was back then.
The northwest corner of the famed Hollywood and Vine intersection has been a number of different restaurants. From 1932 to 1940 it was called the Coco Tree Café, which was opened by Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios. In this 1936 we can see people filming a movie out front of the CoCo Tree. I don’t know what movie it is but I think we can assume it was a Universal picture!
