At first glance, I assumed this nighttime photo looking west up Hollywood Blvd from around Highland Ave was of the annual Christmas parade, but on further research, I found something far more interesting had been happening. On the night of November 7, 1947, a train of 12 boxcars left Los Angeles. It was known as the Friendship Train, and each of the boxcars were loaded with food donations for a war-weary, food-starved Europe. Over the next month, the Friendship Train wound its way across America, adding more and more boxcars loaded with donations. At the same time, a second train called the Freedom Train, was doing the same thing. By the time the first (of four) boats left New York for Europe on December 7, 1947, over $40 million worth of supplies had been collected. And with Harry M. Warner from Warner Bros. as chair of the Friendship Train Committee, leave it to Hollywood to kick off the whole endeavor with spectacular fanfare.
Nighttime shot of the Friendship Train making its way down Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, November 7, 1947
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Night photo, Trains and Railways
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Color photo of the NBC radio studios on the northeast corner of Sunset Blvd and Vine St, Hollywood, circa WWII
In this circa WWII color photo, we’re looking east across Vine St to the NBC radio studios on the northeast corner of Sunset Blvd and Vine St in Hollywood. I’m guessing it was taken around WWII because of those sailors crossing the street (and that cute little kid in his dixie cup hat!) This era was the peak of commercial broadcast radio, and NBC was one of the most important studios, with many of the Top Ten shows in the country being made there. Many of those shows would have live audiences, so this corner was always busy with people eager to see their favorite stars.
Glen N. says: “The street light is no longer wearing its “blackout/dimout cap.” They lasted into mid 1944, so my guess is late 1944 to 1945.”
The NBC Studios were demolished in 1964. This is how that corner looked in June 2022.
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Tagged Color photo, Hollywood, NBC Radio / Television, Radio, Sunset Blvd, WWII
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Looking south along N. Beachwood Drive at what used to be the Western Pictures Corporation, later Columbia Pictures, Hollywood, 1934
These days, what is known as the Sunset-Gower studios used to be home to Columbia Pictures. But back when this photo was taken in 1934, Columbia hadn’t yet swallowed up all the shooting stages between Gower St and Beachwood Drive. The sign atop this two-story building on Beachwood Drive reads “Western Pictures Corporation.” Before that it was called “California Studio” which was home to many, many film companies, most of them fly-by-nighters whom I’ve never heard of.
Philip M says: “I’ve stood in Harry Cohn’s old office and thought, “Man, all the stuff that went down right here!” I’ve also stood in the room right behind his office, which was his private dressing room, bath and shower. On the back wall is a short door with a little 2 or 3 step well in front of it. From inside the dressing room the door only looks 4 or 5 feet tall. But as you approach and walk down those 2-3 steps now the door is full sized. When you open it, you are suddenly in the long corridor of the building next door, which used to be the second floor starlets dressing room corridor. Since Gower St has a slight incline when going from Fountain Ave to Sunset Blvd, the dressing room building is about a half-story lower than the executive office building that Harry was in hence, the dugout and short door. You can see in the picture, the smaller window on the second floor to the left of the drainpipe was Harry’s dressing room. To the right of the pipe at a slightly lower elevation is the second floor of the dressing room building next door.”
Beachwood Drive south of Sunset Blvd is now a private road into Sunset-Gower Studios. This image is from June 2022.
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Tagged Columbia Pictures, Hollywood, Movie Studios, Sunset Blvd
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Hollywood Theatre and its neighbors at 6764 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, 1957
Yesterday, after I posted a 1942 photo of the Hollywood Theatre and its neighbors, someone sent me a second photo from almost exactly the same angle, but 15 year later, in 1957. Let’s compare the changes. Italian Kitchen has new sign and now offers pizza! And cocktails! See’s Candies is still there, but the bookstore is now an outlet store. Hollywood Theatre has changed its blade sign and is now open all night. That week it was playing a 20th Century-Fox double bill: “Sea Wife” and “Hell on Devil’s Island.” The theater’s neighbor to the west has undergone a makeover and Coffee Dan’s has now opened. And in this 1957 photo, we can see the sign on the Max Factor building to the south.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Restaurants, Stores and Shopping, Theaters
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Hollywood Theatre and its neighbors at 6764 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, 1942
Decades before it became a Guinness World Records Museum, Hollywood Theatre was an popular movie house at 6764 Hollywood Blvd just east of Highland Ave. In this photo, 20th Century-Fox’s “My Gal Sal” was on a double bill with Paramount’s “The Great Man’s Lady,” both of which came out in 1942. But what I love most about this photo is seeing its neighbors. You could have dinner at Italian Kitchen restaurant, drop by See’s Candies for some munchies, then browse in the Hollywood Book Store, until it’s movie time at the Hollywood Theatre. That’s a whole evening’s entertainment on one short block.
** UPDATE ** – For a comparison, see this 1957 photo taken at the same angle.
This is how that view looked in November 2021.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Restaurants, Stores and Shopping, Theaters
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Looking east along the north side of Hollywood Blvd toward Sardi’s restaurant at 6315 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, circa early 1940s
In this photo, we’re looking east along the north side of Hollywood Blvd just west of the Vine St intersection. That tall banner has been hung outside Sardi’s restaurant, which was at 6315. In mid-to-late 1941, radio personality, Tom Breneman, changed the name of his “Breakfast on the Boulevard” show to “Breakfast at Sardi’s” which joined the Blue Network on August 3, 1942 (or in 1943, reports vary.) In 1945, Brenneman moved to his own restaurant around the corner on Vine Street. But in this view, we can see the blade signs for the Equitable Building on the northeast corner of Hollywood and Vine, and farther along the boulevard, the sign for the Pantages Theatre.
This was roughly that view in August 2022. Both Equitable Building and the Pantages Theatre are still there.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, Pantages Theatre, Restaurants
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Color photo of a parking lot at the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Grand Ave, downtown Los Angeles, circa mid-1950s
I have two favorite details in this color photo looking north across a parking lot at the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Grand Ave in downtown Los Angeles. Firstly, that gorgeous teal Ford station wagon. (Officially the color was called Sea Foam green.) What a bright splash of color in an otherwise white-filled parking lot! And then in the background, we can see the tower of the Richfield building which was a spectacular office tower that stood due north of the parking lot at 555 S. Flower St until it was unfortunately razed in 1969. That two-toned station wagon is a 1955 Ford, so I’m putting this photo at circa mid-1950s. (You can see my collection of photos of the Richfield building on my website: https://tinyurl.com/2x4ejckx )
What used to be a parking lot is now a skyscraper. How’s that for a reversal from the way it usually goes? This image is from May 2022.
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Tagged Color photo, Downtown Los Angeles, Richfield Tower, Wilshire Blvd
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Looking southeast down Rodeo Dr from Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, 1932
In this photo we’re looking southeast down Rodeo Dr from Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills. It was taken in 1932, back when Rodeo Dr. wasn’t home to blocks of high-end stores that 99% of people can’t afford. It was a regular local street with regular local stores and cafes, which is why it looks so clean and uncluttered. I don’t know what sort of trees lined the street, but their uniformity almost makes it look as though they’re pointing to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel that back then would only have been four years old.
This is how that view looked in November 2023.
Announcing details of Martin Turnbull’s upcoming historical novel of golden-era Hollywood
Depending on how you measure it, Hollywood’s golden era lasted between 30 and 40 years. Personally, I believe it ran from the 1927 release of Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer to 1959, when the studios treated us to some of their let’s-go-out-with-a-bang blockbusters: Ben-Hur, Some Like it Hot, and North by Northwest. (Coincidentally (or not-so-coincidentally) those are the same years the Garden of Allah Hotel was open.) But during that time, there was a particular year when everything came together, when the most talented people were at the top of their game and putting out their best work.
And that year was 1939.
In the space of those twelve short months, moviegoers were treated to some of the most timeless movies to come out of the studio system. Here is just a short list:
Gunga Din (RKO)
Beau Geste (Paramount)
The Women (MGM)
Drums Along the Mohawk (20th Century-Fox)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (RKO)
Union Pacific (Paramount)
The Wizard of Oz (MGM)
Stagecoach (United Artists)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia)
Ninotchka (MGM)
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (20th Century-Fox)
Of Mice and Men (United Artists)
And, of course, the big kahuna:
Gone With the Wind (Selznick International Pictures)
For a while now, my author mind has been whispering in my ear, “There’s got to be a story worth telling in there somewhere.” Over time, the whisper became louder and more insistent until it grew into a nagging shrew I couldn’t ignore. And so when I finished You Must Remember This, book 3 in my WWII-era trilogy, I turned my attention to 1939.
I first read Mark A. Vieira’s Majestic Hollywood: The Greatest Films of 1939, then went onto 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year by Thomas S. Hischak. Soon, the “What Ifs?” were swirling in my head.
What if…a character from outside Los Angeles lands in town?
What if…she arrives as Hollywood is gearing up to have its greatest year?
What if…she finds herself in the eye of a hurricane that nobody knows is happening?
These days, we have the benefit of 21st century hindsight. We can look back and wisely nod as we tell each other, “Yes, oh, yes, 1939 was the year when Hollywood reached pinnacle moviemaking, and there would never be another quite like it.” But back then, did those people know it? Highly unlikely, I think, but gosh, wouldn’t it be fun to look back with hindsight?
Yes, I decided, it would.
And so now I’m ready to reveal to you a few details of my next novel.
Selznick’s Girl Friday
by
Martin Turnbull
Book 1 in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy
As with my Hollywood’s Home Front trilogy, what started out as a stand-alone novel fairly quickly showed me there was more story to tell in just one volume. So, yes, Selznick’s Girl Friday kicks off a new trilogy.
And here is the book description:
~oOo~
Polly Maddox lives under the sheltering wing of Santa Catalina Island, her world as small and idyllic as the isolated cove where her father ran a not-so-secret moonshine operation during Prohibition. But when he’s accused of a startling crime and goes on the lam, Polly’s life capsizes, leaving her with little choice but to flee toward the gleaming mirage of 1939 Los Angeles.
Armed only with lightning-fast fingers and a sharp wit, Polly talks her way into the executive suite of demanding, brilliant movie producer David O. Selznick as he labors over his most ambitious project: a film the rest of Hollywood scornfully dismisses as “Selznick’s Folly.”
As Polly gets swept into the chaos of filming Gone with the Wind, she realizes Selznick may have information about where she might find her father—but does he have murky motives of his own? Undaunted, Polly forges ahead, but the battle to clear her father’s name thrusts her directly into the path of a ruthless insider—and he plays for keeps. Polly must outmaneuver his insidious ploys in a town where favors and fraud reign hand-in-hand.
From the author of the Garden of Allah novels comes book one in the Hollywood’s Greatest Year trilogy. This delightfully nostalgic yet gripping tale promises to transport you to a time when movies were larger than life and Hollywood was reaching its golden zenith.
~oOo~
You can read the first chapter here ahead of the June 2024 release.
As ever, thanks so much for your interest!
Martin Turnbull
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Atmospheric night shot of Bay Cities Laundry at 2334 Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, 1940
This shot is an odd one. I couldn’t find this image posted anywhere else online, nor could I find “2334 Washington Blvd” on a map. I did, however, find a listing for Bay Cities Laundry at 2334 Washington Blvd in the Santa Monica and Venice 1936 City Directory online, so I know it existed and that the caption gave the right address, but that’s all I know about this place. But in a way, I don’t mind. The image is dripping with so much atmosphere that it pretty much speaks for itself, if you ask me.
This photo gives us an idea of what their delivery trucks looked like:
2334 Washington Blvd is now is now 2334 Abbot Kinney Blvd:
