** 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.
When I came across the night photo of the Oriental Theatre on Sunset 
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.
I do so love finding a vibrant color photo of yesteryear Los Angeles. In this one, we’re looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd. We can see signs of Coffee Dan’s, Alexander Stationers, American Broadcasting Co, Santa Fe Railway, Plaza Hotel, and the Hollywood-Broadway department store—and that’s just the western side of the street. I don’t know what those two banners strung over the roadway mean, so leave a comment if you know. The red-and-white striped awning on the left belongs to a Wil Wright ice cream parlor. In 1957, Sachson’s Haberdashery took over that space, so I’m placing this photo as circa mid-1950s.
In this circa 1931 photo, we’re looking east along Sunset Blvd from Vista St, which puts it around half a dozen blocks west of Hollywood High. The caption of this photo mentions how Sunset had just been widened. I hadn’t heard that it had ever been made wider, but gauging from the (low) volume of traffic, it almost makes me wonder why they bothered. But as a 21st century LA motorist, I’m awfully glad they did.
1930s Los Angeles was knee-deep in cafeterias. They were everywhere: Ontra, Schaber’s, Clifton’s, Stillwell, None Such, and don’t forget the Vegetarian Cafeteria next to Angels Flight. One of the most well-known was the Boos Bros Cafeteria. There were four brothers in all, and their restaurant, pictured here, was at 530 S. Hill St in downtown LA, opposite Pershing Square. I especially love the vaguely Tudoresque architecture contrasting with the very modern typeface they used for their logo in the windows. And from those banners hanging from the second floor, we can date this to the Los Angeles Olympic games in August 1932.
In this beautifully crisp photo, we’re looking southeast across downtown Los Angeles past St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which is the one with the pointy tower. Past it, that expanse of trees is what we now know as Pershing Square. This photo is from 1913, so it was then still known Central Park. But the detail that catches my eye is that pale building down in front – the “Young Women’s Boarding Home” which I had never heard of before. It stood at 514 S. Grand Ave, and was run by the Salvation Army, and was torn down to make way for L.A.’s Biltmore Hotel, which opened in 1923. It looks to be quite a large place and has me wondering if it housed any young and independent women who eventually made it into the flickers.
Most photos of the Carthay Circle Theatre at 6316 San Vicente Blvd are (understandably) taken much closer – all the better to appreciate that striking tower. But it makes for a pleasant change to see it more in context from farther back. We’re looking south from McCarthy Vista towards Henry Lion’s “the Miner’s Statue” in the triangular park across San Vicente boulevard. Even though it is an iconic Los Angeles movie palace, it’s nice to be reminded that it was also a neighborhood cinema, where local Angelenos saw movies that we now watch on TCM.
