This view of the Cafe Trocadero at 8610 Sunset Blvd as seen from Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood, circa 1945 hardly makes it seem as though it was one of the most glittering, popular, and famous of the Sunset Strip nightclubs. Opening on September 18, 1934, it had a number of facelifts and a succession of owners, but it’s probably best remembered during its mid 30s zenith when it was the pet project of its original owner, Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson.Hollywood Boulevard at night, looking east from Highland Avenue, circa 1930s
This spectacular night view of Hollywood Boulevard was taken from the Highland Ave corner sometime during the 1930s—or at least pre 1945 when Hotel Christie (whose sign we can see on the right) became the Drake Hotel. It looks like the biggest searchlights are shining near the Hollywood and Vine corner, so I’m wondering if there’s a big premiere or Academy awards ceremony going on at the Pantages Theatre.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Hotels, Pantages Theatre, Theaters
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Preston Sturges check for $100 dated January 2nd, 1946
When I started work on my Garden of Allah novels series, I gave no thought to the people who I might meet along the way. Case in point: I received an email from the son of director Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan’s Travels (1941) The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1943), Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)) He was doing research for a book about his father and came across my article “Spotlight on The Players” about the Sunset Strip nightclub Sturges opened during the summer of 1940. One email led to another and Tom Sturges ended up sending me a check his father wrote in 1946 as a way of saying thank you for the respectful way I wrote about his father. As a huge fan of this era, the fact that I could own this small nugget of Hollywood history amazes me.
For more info on the address on the check – 1917 Ivar Ave, Hollywood, see Preston Sturges’s Hollywood House–and Its Two Locations
Tom Sturges’s book is called THE LAST YEARS OF PRESTON STURGES, HOLLYWOOD’S FIRST WRITER-DIRECTOR by Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges, with a Foreword by Peter Bogdanovich
Published by Intellect (U.K.) and the University of Chicago Press (USA) and due for publication in spring 2019, it is based on extensive research in the previously closed private family papers of Preston Sturges, including his diaries, private correspondence, Ideas Book, unpublished screenplays and other memorabilia.
A crowd lines up along Sunset Boulevard east of Vine Street, Hollywood, 1944
This crowd was lined up along Sunset Boulevard east of Vine Street in Hollywood in 1944, but it’s hard to know what they were lining up for because that was a very busy stretch of Sunset back then. They could conceivably have been waiting to be in the audience for a radio show at NBC (corner of Sunset & Vine) or CBS (corner of Sunset & Gower) or perhaps even a show at the Hollywood Palladium (Sunset & El Centro.) Together with the Earl Carroll Theater, we can see in the background, it was the busiest three blocks in Hollywood!
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Tagged Hollywood, NBC Radio / Television, Radio, Sunset Blvd, Theaters, WWII
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An Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway train leaves La Grande Station, Los Angeles, 1899
This shot shows us an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway train leaving La Grande Station, which stood at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Ave, just outside of downtown Los Angeles. Is it just me or does it look remarkably bare? Even for 1899? The other noteworthy detail is that in the center-left background is one the 150-foot streetlights, which had been installed to illuminate the railroad yard. There were many of these constructed around LA once electricity had come to town.
Hollywood High School on Sunset Blvd., circa 1905
When Hollywood High School opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1903, it really must have stuck out a mile. As we can see from this circa 1905 photo, there doesn’t seem to be much around. And as we can see from the glimpse of roadway in the bottom left-hand corner, there was no roadway. Sunset Blvd was still a dirt track, which must have made riding your bike to school during the winter a challenge. And look at those teeny, tiny, freshly planted palm trees. They’re full grown now!
Another view, this time from 1920:
Putting together a scene from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
This graphic gives us an idea of how seamlessly the movie magicians can patch together a scene made up of live footage and a matte painting. Here we have Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale running down a dirt road with her little dog, Toto in “The Wizard of Oz.” (1939) On the soundstage, they only needed to build the dirt road and some of the fencing. The rest of the scene was filled in by the talents of a masterful artist. In post-production, an editor flawlessly pieces the two elements together, and voila! We have that gloriously sepia image.
Looking east along Hollywood Blvd at Highland Ave, 1936
Here we’re looking east along Hollywood Blvd at the Highland Ave corner in 1936. We can tell the year from the movie poster hanging in front of the Hollywood Theatre (which is now Ripley’s Believe It or Not) on the right-hand side. They were showing the Frank Capra film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. On the left we can see the vertical sign for the Montmartre Café, which surprises me because the Montmartre was the “in” place to be in Hollywood in the ‘20s. I wouldn’t have thought it’d last into the mid ‘30s after the in crowd had moved on to other venues.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Nightclubs, Restaurants, Streetcars, Theaters
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Due to the growth Los Angeles was experiencing in 1929, it was deemed that La Brea Ave needed to be widened. And so the buildings on the east side of the street were picked up and moved back 15 feet. Here we can see the Charlie Chaplin studios at 1416 North La Brea (now the Jim Henson Studios) being relocated. What a job it must have been!
It’s a little hard to see but this streetcar is packed to the rafters—literally! This shot was taken at the corner of 11th and Flower Streets, downtown Los Angeles in 1919. The destination says “University” so I assume it’s heading for the USC campus, which Flower runs straight to. I’m also guessing that all those bodies squished into the streetcar are students trying to get to class. I wonder if they all made it on time.