Ocean Aquarium, Hermosa Beach, California, circa late 1940s/early 1950s
This photo of the Ocean Aquarium in Hermosa Beach, California has me worried. They felt the need to add a sign that says “ALL ALIVE!” Are we supposed to deduce that other aquariums features animals that are dead? Or fake? Or that they’d recently killed all their marine life but now they’re all alive? Either way, I am very suspicious…Susan says: “It was common for both small aquariums as well as large ones back then, to have some of their collection made up of painted plaster specimens. They would lure you in with advertisements to ‘come see the giant squid’ and the like, only to find out that was not a live specimen, but rather just a plaster one in a ‘frozen in time’ deep sea diorama. This one was open in the late 40s, but I think it was closed by the later 50s when the pier was going to be refurbished. They used to have a trained seal show in that enclosure behind the turn-stile/fence.”
Panoramic photograph looking north across Hollywood, California toward the Hollywood hills, circa 1930s
In this panorama photograph of Hollywood circa 1930s shows us a number of buildings that are still around. From left to right, we can see the Roosevelt Hotel, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood United Methodist Church and the First National Bank Building with Highland Ave running between them, and closer to the camera is the Hollywood High School. That’s a pretty good tally for an 80-year-old shot of Los Angeles!
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hotels
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Stunt doubles from various Hollywood studios pose for a publicity photo, late November 1943
I thought this is a very cool photo. In late November 1943, stunt doubles from various studios posed for a publicity photo.
Top row (l to r): John Moss (Errol Flynn), Gino Corrado (Leo Carrillo), Paul Bradley (Ronald Colman), Roy Thomas (Spencer Tracy), Rodney Bell (Charles Laughton)
Center row (l to r): Linda Landi (Frances Langford), Pamela Drake (Veronica Lake), Mary Miner (Irene Dunne), Ezelle Poule (ZaSu Pitts), Margaret Bryson (Loretta Young), Elaine Waters (Mary Astor)
Bottom row (l to r): Len T. Brixton (Edward G. Robinson), Robert Katcher (Peter Lorre), Sydney Chatton (Paul Muni), Rod Rogers (James Cagney)
Premiere of “The Floradora Girl” at the opening night of the Pantages Theater, Hollywood Boulevard, June 4, 1930
Here’s a bit of Hollywood history in the making. What we’re seeing here is the opening of the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on June 4, 1930. The crowds gathered six bodies deep are there to see “The Floradora Girl,” the movie was chosen to open the magnificent theater. Though hardly remembered anymore, it features a 7-minute finale filmed in 2-strip Technicolor, giving us rare color footage of its star, Marion Davies.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Movie Stars, Night photo, Pantages Theatre
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A view from the stage of Ciro’s nightclub on the Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, 1950
While researching a scene set at the closing night of Ciro’s, the Sunset Strip nightclub (December 31st, 1957) for my 9th and final (gulp!) novel in Hollywood’s Garden of Allah series, I came across this photo. It gives us the view from Ciro’s stage in 1950. It’s what performers like Desi Arnaz, Ella Fitzgerald, Martin and Lewis, Nat King Cole, and Lili St. Cyr must have seen as they gazed out over the star-studded audience. That little patch of different-colored tile has me wondering though if that was the dance floor. I’d love to hear from anybody who knows.
Susan says: That’s carpeting with a change in color of it under the tables — take a look over by the window-wall. The carpet is the same combo over there (light surround with the darker center section). The dance floor when out, was wooden. There was a large dance floor and then a smaller one they could pull up when there would be no dancing to add tables, or to have the performance stage build out erected. Here’s a photo of Nat King Cole singing at Ciro’s with that stage addition up.
It just dawned on me Martin, your photo is not a view from the stage looking out – that’s a view from the back of the club, looking toward the windowed wall (that would have been the west wall). That’s where the scalloped false ceiling detail was (at that back area leading off toward the ‘cheap seats’. To the left of what you thought was the stage in your photo are the ‘cheap seats’ as we called them. They had some tables that went back into a recessed hallway that lead to the entrance and off to the bar. I can’t quite picture what that ‘thing’ is you thought was the stage. Maybe it will come to me.
In the later 40s, the club got a minor face lift, right before they closed it for a short time and really did the next face lift that had all the lattice work that also framed the stage, turning the room into more of a garden room look. They got rid of much of the last of the vestiges of the heavy drapery that had been there throughout the 40s at that time. They kept the drapery along the over flow seats that were behind that railing you see in some photos. A lot of the performers there complained about how muffled the sound from the band was with all that drapery around.
Production photo of the Yellow Brick Road set from MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).
What??? You mean the Yellow Brick Road wasn’t real? Apparently not, Dorothy. It was all just a dream. This is a production shot from the set of MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) showing us the road where Dorothy met the Scarecrow. (The “1060” at the bottom refers to the films official studio production number.) It still amazes me that this movie didn’t even recoup its budget upon its original release: cost: $3,700,000, box office: $3,017,000.
Royal Albatross gas station at Ventura Blvd and Laurel Canyon Blvd, Studio City, 1939
This Royal Albatross gas station used an actual aircraft to catch the eye of passing motorists—and I’m sure it worked! It was at the corner of Ventura Blvd and Laurel Canyon Blvd in Studio City, which is a prime position for drivers coming from Los Angeles, over the Hollywood hills and into the Valley. It is, of course, no longer there, but the 1970 bank building there now features a Millard Sheets mosaic, so it’s not a complete waste.
The Chase bank branch that now stands on this same corner:
The California Incline, Santa Monica beach, California, 1916
The steep road that ramps from Ocean Avenue to the Pacific Coast Highway at the bottom of the cliffs along Santa Monica beach is known at the California Incline. It opened in 1896 and has been a boon to Angelean motorists ever since. This shot was taken in 1916, when any sort of motoring was still a novelty. I’m particularly envious of the driver in that little white convertible for being able to drive through a largely deserted Santa Monica in an open-top vehicle and park pretty much wherever he pleased!
And in February 2017:
I wish I’d been in LA in 1946 to witness this one-in-a-lifetime event. By June of that year, Howard Hughes’s $20 million giant Spruce Goose was ready to be transported in pieces from Hughes Airport in Playa Vista down to Long Beach, where it was reassembled for its sole test flight in the following year. The move took two full days; the aircraft was so big that 2100 power and telephone lines had to be raised or lowered to clear the way. The sight of this gargantuan aircraft inching its way through the streets of Los Angeles must have been jaw-dropping.
The next time I find myself driving around and around the block looking for a park, I’m going to think about this photo and take comfort in the fact that even in the 1920s, even on Roosevelt Highway (later Pacific Coast Highway) there were busy days at the beach when finding a free parking space was pain in the butt.