In this gorgeously gritty image, we’re looking west along the south side of Hollywood Blvd from Las Palmas Ave. On the corner is the ticket office for the Union Pacific railway, and past it we can see the blade sign for the Egyptian Theatre. Playing at the time was “Oklahoma!” which had its Los Angeles premiere on November 17, 1955, so I’m guessing this photo was taken later that year. And opposite it on the north side we can see Pickwick Books, an iconic Hollywood Blvd bookstore that was open from 1938 to 1995.
Here is an undated map showing us how many bookstores used to be in Hollywood. At the time of writing this (March 2024) where was only one left, Larry Edmunds.
This how that stretch of Hollywood Blvd looked in May 2022.
In this view, we’re looking east long Wilshire Blvd from Normandie Ave. It was taken on December 14, 1949 (note the Christmas wreath on the Wilshire Special streetlight on the right.) It reminds us how Wilshire Blvd wasn’t always a long corridor with tall buildings looming on each side. In fact, in this photo we can see one of the large homes that still stood on Wilshire. On the plus side, we can see Bullock’s Wilshire tower, the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and the pylon at the driveway of the Ambassador Hotel, all of which are still with us. And a special shout-out to the driver of that two-toned Pontiac!
What looks like a bunch of people standing around in overcoats is actually moment of Hollywood history in the making. It was taken at the Selznick studios lot in Culver City, the night of December 10, 1938. Selznick and his crew had used some old movie sets (namely The Last of the Mohicans, King Kong, The Garden of Allah, King of Kings, and Little Lord Fauntleroy) to recreate the burning of Atlanta for “Gone with the Wind.” It was also the night that David Selznick’s brother, Myron, brought his newly-signed client, Vivien Leigh, to meet David for the first time. She’d been on his radar as an outside-chance Scarlett. That’s David Selznick near the center of the photo with a cigar in his mouth and Vivien Leigh standing next to him in a hat. He later said that that he took one look and knew she was perfect. And he was right.
Film promoters like Sid Grauman would resort to anything to encourage people to come see films at his Chinese Theater—including a statue. The movie he was advertising was Douglas Fairbanks Sr’s “The Gaucho” set in Argentina. It had its world premiere at Grauman’s Chinese on November 4, 1927 ahead of a 12-week run. We have two clues about where this statue stood. In the left background we can see the Fox Belmont Theatre, which stood at 126 S. Vermont Ave, and on the right we can see the massive El Patio Ballroom (later the Palomar) which covered a whole block on Vermont between 2nd and 3rd Street. I assume the statue was made of plaster and was disposed of after the run of the movie, but wouldn’t it be great if it was still around? Although where anyone would put something like this is a mystery.
This photo from 1947 gives us a glimpse of what Rodeo Drive used to look like before it became a mecca of high-end designer brands. That transformation started in 1961 with the opening of the first expensive boutique: Giorgio Beverly Hills, and then really kicked up a notch when Gucci opened in 1968. But back in the ’40s, Rodeo Dr. was just a local shopping strip. The London Shop and Walter-Morton sold clothes and someone told me that he thought Chapman-Pollock (whose typeface I love) was a realtor. I especially love the irony of the two American flags outside of a store called “The London Shop.”
One of the most popular tourist attractions in turn-of-the-century Los Angeles was to ride a cable funicular railway called The Great Incline to the top of Echo Mountain to a 70-room hotel. What we’re seeing in this circa 1890s photo is a float showing the railway and the hotel in miniature. It was made for a parade and festival called La Fiesta de Los Angeles which was held each year between 1894 and 1916 in recognition of the city’s birthday. The float is standing on Los Angeles Street as Fiesta de Los Angeles was a downtown LA event, but then again back in the 1890s the whole city was pretty much what we now call “downtown Los Angeles.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if LA still had stores like this. To be clear, it still does, but there aren’t nearly as many as there used to be, and that’s a grand shame because they add so much to a pleasant urban landscape. This particular building housed Chapman’s Fancy Ice Creams at 60 S. Lake Ave on the northeast corner of Green St in Pasadena. This photo was taken in 1928. Whenever I see a sign for “Chapman’s Fancy Ice Creams” I always wonder if the word “Fancy” was an official part of the brand name, or was it simply the adjective they chose to describe their product?
In this slice-of-life photo, we get to stand on Broadway (at 11th St) in downtown Los Angeles in 1928. It’s been a while since I’ve walked that far down Broadway, but that sidewalk looks remarkably wide. The sign in the background puzzles me a little. It reads “We Sell Homes Payable Like Rent.” So in other words mortgage? But it’s the semaphore traffic signal that really has me stumped. Usually you see them on street corners, so what is it doing in the middle of the block? If it’s some sort of crosswalk, it’s not working because all those automobiles and streetcars are ignoring the “STOP” sign.
I guess (director) Joseph von Sternberg was a big draw in August 1931, which is when his film of Theodore Dreiser’s novel, An American Tragedy had its West Coast premiere at the United Artists Theatre at 929 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. As we can see in this photo, crowds were packed in on both sides of the theater’s entrance and across the street. But it seems this night was its high point as the film didn’t do well at the box office. However, a 1951 version did much better when it was given a more evocative title: A Place in the Sun.