These days we take ice for granted. We just open our freezer and there it is. But way back when, ice was a precious resource that had to be renewed often. And so, since 1882, Angelinos had turned to the Union Ice Company to make and deliver their ice to them. Back in 1913, when this photo was taken, deliveries were made by horse-drawn wagons. Here we have ten wagons, each pulled by a pair of horses, parked outside the Union Ice depot on Santa Monica Blvd. I assume the building behind them is where the ice was manufactured because in the Southern Californian heat, it didn’t last long, and if you’re traveling by horsepower, you’re not going very fast.
Ten horse-drawn carriages from the Union Ice Company gather at their depot on Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, 1913
1950s menu for C.C. Brown’s Ice Cream Parlor, 7007 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood
C.C. Brown’s was an ice cream parlor that operated in Hollywood, from 1929 to 1996 and claimed to have invented the hot fudge sundae. They were a block west of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, so their location was ideal. Here are some images of their menu.
C.C. Brown’s boxed chocolates:
Color photo of a Red Car running along Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, California, circa early 1960s
This vibrant color photo gives us a glimpse of what it was like to cruise along Ocean Blvd in Long Beach sometime during the early 1960s. This was back when the Red Cars were still running, and they stopped in 1961. I don’t know what model that orange/red car and that blue convertible were, but they sure popped with color, didn’t they? Even that yellow fence on the shoulder does! (I couldn’t determine where on Ocean Blvd this photo was taken, so if anyone can figure it out, I’d love to hear from you.)
Dave M on Twitter says: “The red is a Mercury and the blue is an Oldsmobile. Specifically, they are a 1955 Mercury and 1956 Oldsmobile.”
This is how that intersection looked in February 2023:
Sunset Cashis King Market, 6000 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, circa 1933
You’ve got to love a grocery store with a pun in its name. This place was called the Sunset Cashis King Market – Cash Is King, get it? This place opened in the summer of 1933 at 6000 Sunset Blvd on the southwest corner of Gordon St, which put it right next to Columbia studios. Back then, and for decades later, cash really was king (the first credit card, Diners Club, didn’t start until 1950.) And with those two large signs advertising free parking, Cashis King would have been an early adopter of appealing to what was referred to as “the carriage trade” – i.e. shoppers with their own cars.
1933 ad for Cashis King Market, 6000 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles
Greg H. says: “So much of the music of my life was recorded in that building. As United Western & Ocean Way studios, a good part of the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” & “Smile” was recorded there, as well as Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night”, Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You”, the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin”, and the Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live For Today”. The list goes on and on with Blondie, Elvis Presley, Bobby Vee, the 5th Dimension, the Righteous Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Petula Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Tom Petty, R.E.M., k.d. lang, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Glen Campbell, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt all having recorded there. Hard to believe the building started as a grocery store.”
This is what 6000 Sunset Blvd looked like in June 2022. That site is now home to EastWest recording studios.
Color photo looking north up Broadway from the corner of 8th Street, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1943
With its yellow streetcar and blue sky, this (I assume) Kodachrome photo really pops, doesn’t it? We’re looking north up Broadway from the corner of 8th Street in downtown LA. Behind the streetcar, we can see on the marquee of the Newsreel Theater the name “Pantelleria” which is an Italian island east of Tunisia. During WWII, it was a stepping stone for the Allied invasion of neighboring Sicily en route to the Italian mainland. The invasion of Pantelleria took place on June 11, 1943, so I’m guessing the theater was running a newsreel about it, which I’d say places this photo not long afterwards.
This is roughly the same view in February 2023.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Broadway, Color photo, Downtown Los Angeles, Restaurants, Stores and Shopping, Streetcars, Theaters, WWII
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Looking west along Ventura Blvd at the Topper Motel at 11733 Ventura, Studio City in the San Fernando Valley, 1950.jpg
If you’re going to call yourself the Topper Motel, of course you’re going to have a big top hat as your welcome sign. This place was at 11733 Ventura, Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. And if that sign at the bottom is anything to go by, 3 bucks gets you a room. Or at least did in 1950, when this photo was taken. But that other sign saying “STEAM HEAT” has me intrigued. Obviously it was important enough to advertise, but what is it for? Would it have been used to heat the room?
The Topper Motel is still around, but is now known as Studio City Inn, which means it unfortunately no longer has that spiffy sign. This image is from February 2023.
A helicopter flies over a Foreman & Clark store on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar St, Hollywood, November 15, 1947
This image was taken on November 15, 1947. I don’t know why that helicopter was flying over the Foreman & Clark store on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar St, but from the looks of those dozen or so people standing on the store’s domed roof, I guessing they were expecting it. I can’t imagine it was common to see a helicopter hovering over Hollywood, so I’m whatever was going on, I’m assuming it was high drama.
Al D. says: “Foreman & Clark Hollywood store original opening was in 1940. You can see a gallery of photos here. The 1947 helicopter landing was for a “Re-opening” event.”
This ad was in the Hollywood Citizen-News on Wednesday, November 14, 1947.
This is how that corner looked in May 2022. The Foreman & Clark building is still there, minus its domed roof. The building on the northeast corner is now owned by the Church of Scientology. And the building next to it used to be the Knickerbocker Hotel, and is now a senior housing complex.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Airports Aircraft Airlines, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Hotels
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Color photo of the Hollywood premiere of Judy Garland’s “A Star is Born,” Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, September 29, 1954
** UPDATE** – This is a re-creation. We’re looking at a shot from the 2015 film “Life,”
but I’m leaving it up because it’s a gorgeous image, nevertheless.
This photo recently appeared in a Judy Garland Facebook group, and I knew I had to repost it as the event it captured is one of stops I plan to make in my time travel machine. It’s the premiere of the George Cukor directed, Judy Garland comeback vehicle, “A Star is Born” which took place the night of September 29, 1954 at the Pantages Theatre at 6233 Hollywood Blvd, just east of Hollywood and Vine. These days, the Pantages is a legit (i.e. live) theater, and usually hosts touring Broadway musicals, but back then it was a movie house. I love how the passing vehicles are all polished to such a high sheen that they reflect the marquee’s pink and aqua neon.
This is how the Pantages looked in May 2022, when the stage version of “Moulin Rouge” was playing there.
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Tagged Color photo, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Movie Premiere, Night photo, Pantages Theatre
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Looking east along Sunset Blvd past the Oriental Theatre at 7425 Sunset, Hollywood, 1952
When I came across the night photo of the Oriental Theatre on Sunset that I posted yesterday, I also encountered this one that was taken in 1952, when MGM’s “Singin’ in the Rain” was playing as, I assume, a first-run movie on a double bill with Fox’s “The Pride of St. Louis.” We’re looking east along Sunset Blvd and my first thought was to sigh and wish the traffic along Sunset was still this light.
This is how that view looked in May 2022. Those palm trees are all grown up.
Nighttime shot of the Oriental Theatre, 7425 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 1983
I don’t normally post photos as recent as the 80s (to my mind a “vintage photo” is anything pre-1970, but it’s an elastic rule.) However, I felt this one from 1983 has such a timeless feel to it (maybe because of its stark, black-and-white, film-noir-y atmosphere?) Previously known as the Granada Theatre, Oriental Theatre, stood at 7425 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, Sunset between Vista and Gardner Sts from 1921 until 1985, which is a very good run for a theater. I especially love the neon detailing between the two marquees, and how that stone frontage adds a nice texture to the shadows.
** UPDATE ** Bill C on Facebook supplied the original version of this photo which was in color:
7425 Sunset is now home to a Guitar Center location that has altered the building so much, you’d never know a theater had ever been there. This image is from May 2022.
