This photo shows us the signs for the haberdasher and hairdresser inside Sunset House, which was the Hollywood Reporter Building at 6715 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. I wish I’d found this photo 10 years ago—one of my novels protagonists works at the Hollywood Reporter and I may have set a scene or two at the in-house salons. How terribly convenient it must have been for publisher Billy Wilkerson to have a haberdasher and a hairdresser in the same building! The building is still around and might possibly soon attain Historical Cultural Monument status.
This photo wsa taken much later:
How it currently looks after a stint as the headquarters for LA Weekly:
One of my time travel destinations would be this place: the Cafe Trocadero at 8610 Sunset Blvd. It opened on September 18, 1934, by Billy Wilkerson, owner of The Hollywood Reporter. (According to one story I read, the building had once been a warehouse where Wilkerson had stored his alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition.) It very quickly became Hollywood’s premier nightclub of the mid-to-late 1930s and was where David O. Selznick chose to hold the post-premiere party for Gone with the Wind on December 28, 1939.
And here are a couple of interior shots:
This ceiling looks surprisingly low, don’t you think? (see comment below)
Advertisement for the opening of the Cafe Trocadero, 8610 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 1934:
Susan says: “The ceiling was sort of low because that was the private ballroom on the lower level. The club upstairs had a high ceiling. I don’t remember the club well as I only went there a couple times to an early dinner show with my folks, probably around ’35 and ’36 I would guess. I only remember the lower level from my wanderings when I went looking for the ladies room and could not resist going downstairs to take a peek there.
My cousin says that lower ballroom was not only available for private parties, but was open a number of nights per week and it was the place to just grab a light meal and cocktails vs. the full-on show room upstairs.
The upstairs main room had sort of accordion pleated padded walls. I think they had some plants in there too. As best I recall, the dance floor was pretty large – but then I was just a kid. But I think the dance floor was as big as some of the ones in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.”
Here’s Hollywood movie making at its finest, if you ask me. This shot is of a circa 1880s London street set built for Paramount Pictures’ 1931 production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” I love how the key lights cut through the fog they’ve filled the soundstage with in order to recreate misty Victorian London. (And of course the dramatic camera angle doesn’t hurt, either.)
In this 1933 photo, we’re looking east along Sunset Boulevard at Doheny Drive, which is the western end of the famed Sunset Strip. (The Garden of Allah Hotel marked the eastern end at Crescent Heights Boulevard.) I don’t have a fix on when Sunset was paved over, but it was some time in the early 1930s, I believe. So when this photo was taken, the Boulevard would have still been fairly freshly sealed, which I’m sure would have made driving the Strip a whole lot more pleasant.
This circa late 1940s photo gives us a pretty good idea of what the front entrance of the Garden of Allah Hotel looked like from the north side of Sunset Blvd. The car in the lower right corner looks like a Studebaker Starlight coupe, which was introduced in 1947, so this photo is probably late 1940s or perhaps early 1950s. In fact, this photo could have been taken at virtually any time because it didn’t change all that much. That bungalow on the right is where the Chase bank building is now. F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed there when he moved to Hollywood in 1937. The “Popcorn & Flickers” blog has a post about Fitzgerald that’s worth reading: https://bit.ly/2JxEbnq
In this photo, we’re looking east on Wilshire Boulevard at Vermont Avenue in 1934. These days, LA is growing vertically, with hotels and apartment blocks, and office towers reaching ever upward. I love finding photos like this because it reminds us that Los Angeles was once a horizontal city of open spaces and broad, wide skies. From Vermont Ave we can clearly see the tower of the Bullocks Wilshire department store. Standing on that same spot today you can still see it, but it’s a much more crowded view.
Judging from the circa 1950 Pontiac, I’m guessing this was the view looking south along Vine Street from the Broadway Department store on Hollywood Boulevard. In the distance we can see the distinct sign for the Brown Derby restaurant. Below, I’ve posted a closer photo of the stores along the east side of the street. My favorite is “The Ham’n’Egger” whose motto is: “The bite that’s rite – morning, noon, and nite.” I’m also rather envious of TWA’s $99 airfare to New York advertised on the billboard.
This is one of those slice-of-regular-life photos that I love to come across. In this one, we are able to catch a glimpse of life at the corner of 7th and Olive Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1937. We’re treated to aspects of 1930s life that we don’t see anymore: all the women are in hats; all the men are in suits; and there’s a streetcar trundling along 7th Street whisking people in and out of the city, who are glad they won’t have to search for decent parking.
In this shot we get to see how the first Highland Park segment of the Arroyo Seco Parkway looked like on its opening day, July 20, 1940. I bet the drivers of these four motorcars were thinking, “Hey, is this is what it’ll be like getting around town on these new-fangled freeways, then sign me up. I’ll never have to deal with traffic jams again!” #FamousLastWords
In this shot we can see Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica crowded with bathers, circa 1920s. Given the fashions of the time and the weather of Los Angeles, I’m sure all these people were very glad to be at the beach, where they had some chance of cooling off. (That’s the Ocean Park pier in the background.)
This photo shows us the signs for the haberdasher and hairdresser inside Sunset House, which was the Hollywood Reporter Building at 6715 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. I wish I’d found this photo 10 years ago—one of my novels protagonists works at the Hollywood Reporter and I may have set a scene or two at the in-house salons. How terribly convenient it must have been for publisher Billy Wilkerson to have a haberdasher and a hairdresser in the same building! The building is still around and might possibly soon attain Historical Cultural Monument status.
One of my time travel destinations would be this place: the Cafe Trocadero at 8610 Sunset Blvd. It opened on September 18, 1934, by Billy Wilkerson, owner of The Hollywood Reporter. (According to one story I read, the building had once been a warehouse where Wilkerson had stored his alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition.) It very quickly became Hollywood’s premier nightclub of the mid-to-late 1930s and was where David O. Selznick chose to hold the post-premiere party for Gone with the Wind on December 28, 1939.
Here’s Hollywood movie making at its finest, if you ask me. This shot is of a circa 1880s London street set built for Paramount Pictures’ 1931 production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” I love how the key lights cut through the fog they’ve filled the soundstage with in order to recreate misty Victorian London. (And of course the dramatic camera angle doesn’t hurt, either.)
In this 1933 photo, we’re looking east along Sunset Boulevard at Doheny Drive, which is the western end of the famed Sunset Strip. (The Garden of Allah Hotel marked the eastern end at Crescent Heights Boulevard.) I don’t have a fix on when Sunset was paved over, but it was some time in the early 1930s, I believe. So when this photo was taken, the Boulevard would have still been fairly freshly sealed, which I’m sure would have made driving the Strip a whole lot more pleasant.
This circa late 1940s photo gives us a pretty good idea of what the front entrance of the Garden of Allah Hotel looked like from the north side of Sunset Blvd. The car in the lower right corner looks like a Studebaker Starlight coupe, which was introduced in 1947, so this photo is probably late 1940s or perhaps early 1950s. In fact, this photo could have been taken at virtually any time because it didn’t change all that much. That bungalow on the right is where the Chase bank building is now. F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed there when he moved to Hollywood in 1937. The “Popcorn & Flickers” blog has a post about Fitzgerald that’s worth reading: 
In this photo, we’re looking east on Wilshire Boulevard at Vermont Avenue in 1934. These days, LA is growing vertically, with hotels and apartment blocks, and office towers reaching ever upward. I love finding photos like this because it reminds us that Los Angeles was once a horizontal city of open spaces and broad, wide skies. From Vermont Ave we can clearly see the tower of the Bullocks Wilshire department store. Standing on that same spot today you can still see it, but it’s a much more crowded view.
Judging from the circa 1950 Pontiac, I’m guessing this was the view looking south along Vine Street from the Broadway Department store on Hollywood Boulevard. In the distance we can see the distinct sign for the Brown Derby restaurant. Below, I’ve posted a closer photo of the stores along the east side of the street. My favorite is “The Ham’n’Egger” whose motto is: “The bite that’s rite – morning, noon, and nite.” I’m also rather envious of TWA’s $99 airfare to New York advertised on the billboard.
This is one of those slice-of-regular-life photos that I love to come across. In this one, we are able to catch a glimpse of life at the corner of 7th and Olive Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1937. We’re treated to aspects of 1930s life that we don’t see anymore: all the women are in hats; all the men are in suits; and there’s a streetcar trundling along 7th Street whisking people in and out of the city, who are glad they won’t have to search for decent parking.
In this shot we get to see how the first Highland Park segment of the Arroyo Seco Parkway looked like on its opening day, July 20, 1940. I bet the drivers of these four motorcars were thinking, “Hey, is this is what it’ll be like getting around town on these new-fangled freeways, then sign me up. I’ll never have to deal with traffic jams again!” #FamousLastWords
In this shot we can see Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica crowded with bathers, circa 1920s. Given the fashions of the time and the weather of Los Angeles, I’m sure all these people were very glad to be at the beach, where they had some chance of cooling off. (That’s the Ocean Park pier in the background.)