Panorama photograph looking across the Hollywood Hills toward the Hollywoodland sign, Los Angeles, circa late 1920s

Panorama photograph looking across the Hollywood Hills toward the Hollywoodland sign, Los Angeles, circa late 1920s

Click this photo for a larger version, then click again to enlarge.

I don’t have a lot of information on this panorama photograph looking north across the Hollywood Hills toward the Hollywoodland sign. The sign went up in late 1923 and it looks like it’s still in fairly good condition. Along with the fact that homes have started to fill in the foothills—and some of them quite big, too—I’d say this shot was taken sometime in the late 1920s.

Andie P says: “The “leveling” of Mt. Lee has been extended so I think this would be just before the transmission tower was erected in 1931.”

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Night shot of Sebastian’s Cotton Club at the intersection of Washington and National Blvds, Culver City, Los Angeles, circa 1930s

Night shot of Sebastian’s Cotton Club at the intersection of Washington and National Blvds, Culver City, Los Angeles, circa 1930sOne of the most colorful characters to come out of Culver City was an energetic entrepreneur named Frank Sebastian. Over his multi-decade career, he owned many venues, but the one he’s best known for was Sebastian’s Cotton Club at the intersection of Washington and National Blvds. He transformed the former Green Mill into one of the most respected jazz joints in LA. He sure gave its patrons value for money with “3 shows nitely” as we can see in this photo which I’m guessing was taken when the club was at the height of its popularity, during the Depression. Sebastian shuttered the Cotton Club in 1938 and in 1939 reopened it as Casa Manaña.

Advertisement for Frank Sebastian’s Cotton Club, Culvery City, with Les Hit and his band featuring “Fats” Waller, from The Hollywood Low-Down, May 1936

Advertisement for Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club, Culvery City, with Les Hit and his band featuring "Fats" Waller, from The Hollywood Low-Down, May 1936

Advertisement for Frank Sebastian’s “Casita Manana” opening Friday, October 27th, 1939:

Advertisement for Frank Sebastian's Casita Manana opening Friday, October 27th, 1939

If you’d like to know more about Frank Sebastian’s colorful career, the Culver City Historical Society has an informative and entertaining lecture on their YouTube channel.

I don’t have a “now” photo of this view because I couldn’t determine which direction the Cotton Club faced. If anybody knows, I’d love to hear from you.

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Technicolor’s headquarters, 823 Seward St, Hollywood, built 1930

Technicolor's headquarters, 823 Seward St, Hollywood, built 1930When I think of Technicolor (and I often do) I think of their large, white, 3-story building at 6311 Romaine St. in Hollywood. So I was somewhat surprised when someone sent me this photo asking if I knew they had a different building prior to the Romaine location. These headquarters stood at 823 Seward St in Hollywood, which puts it around 8 blocks west of Paramount. It was built in 1930 and so I assume this photo was taken within a year or two.

The front door of the headquarters of Technicolor, Seward St, Hollywood

This is the building that now stands at 823 Seward. It’s certainly a lovely building, but is it the same one? I’d like to think so, but this one looks wider than the 1930 one. Or is that just because the Google Maps Streetview lens distorts images? This is from July 2022.

** UPDATE ** – Steven K. says: “According to the building permits, yes, this was built as a one-story structure in 1927 and designed by architect Walter L. Duzan. A second story was added in 1929. A machine shop addition took place in 1936, a paint shop addition in 1939, and more additions in 1947, 1949, and then more minor additions (and subtractions) through the 50s and 60s and early 70s.”

 

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Merchants line up outside Hasting’s Place store at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Blvd, East Hollywood, circa 1915

Merchants line up outside Hasting’s Place store at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Blvd, East Hollywood, circa 1915In this photo we see six merchants in East Hollywood lined up with their automobiles outside a general store called Hasting’s Place. The store stood at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Blvd, at the eastern end of the Pacific Electric Red Car line. Apparently they’d line up like this every Sunday and take visitors to Griffith Park for 10 cents. You can see a sign on the front of each vehicle. Would they still have called them “horseless carriages” by the time this photo was taken in around 1915?

** UPDATE ** – Gregory H says: “Searching newspapers, the use of the phrase horseless carriage peaked in 1899 with 10,200 mentions. By 1915 the term “horseless carriage” pretty much always has quotes around it in reference to the introduction of them in the 1890s in articles looking back at that time. There are only about 900 mentions of the phrase in 1915.”

And here is a shot of Hasting’s Place store. We can see the streetcar tracks running along the bottom of the photo. It looks like they were also an agent for Wells Fargo. And that El Merito sign on the left most likely refers to a brand of cigars.

Hasting’s xPlace store at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Blvd, East Hollywood, circa 1910s

Advertisement for El Merito tobacco

 

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Color photo looking north up Vine St from the Brown Derby restaurant to the Hollywood Blvd intersection, Hollywood, circa mid-1950s

Color photo looking north up Vine St from the Brown Derby restaurant to the Hollywood Blvd intersection, Hollywood, circa mid-1950sI do love a Kodachrome color photo that pops with color. But I especially love it if it’s looking north up Vine St from the Brown Derby restaurant to the Hollywood Blvd intersection. Those two blue cars turning into the 25-cents-per-hour parking lot immediately north of the Brown Derby (whose gold-yellow sign we can see at the far right) are a 1953 Cadillac convertible and a 1955 Mercury station wagon, so I’m dating this photo circa mid-1950s. The Capitol Records building north of this intersection would be brand new (or being built) as it opened in 1956.

Oscar on my Facebook page posted this photo showing Vine St looking south at around the same time.

Looking south down Vine St, Hollywood, circa mid 1950s

This is how that view looked in May 2022.

 

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Seaboard National Bank building, 5505 Wilshire Blvd on the northwest corner of Dunsmuir Ave, Los Angeles, circa 1930

Seaboard National Bank building, 5505 Wilshire Blvd on the northwest corner of Dunsmuir Ave, Los Angeles, circa 1930The Seaboard National Bank building on the northwest corner of Wilshire Blvd and Dunsmuir Ave reminds us that, like yesterday’s photo of the French Chateau Apartments, we used to create beautiful buildings before the square-box mentality took hold. Look at that intricate grillwork between the first and second floors, and the bas relief along the top. This photo was taken around 1930, when the building would still have been new, which explains why there was still some store space available for lease.

And here is a $10 bill from the Seaboard National Bank, dated 1929 – back when banks used to issue their own currency!

Ten-dollar bill from the Seaboard National Bank, 1929

While the building isn’t exactly how it used to be, it is remarkably similar. Today it’s known as the Korean Cultural Center. This image is from August 2022.

 

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The French Chateau Apartment building at 900 S. Hobart Blvd, Los Angeles, 1937

The French chateau style Ashmont Apartment building at 900 S. Hobart Blvd, Los Angeles, 1937It’s nice to know that once upon a time, architects designed and developers built apartment buildings that weren’t just square boxes. Yes, square boxes are more efficient, and yes, they maximize floor space (and therefore profits) but get a load of the French Chateau apartment building at 900 S. Hobart Blvd on the southeast corner of James M. Woods Blvd, 3 miles west of downtown LA. This photo is from 1937, which I assume is when it was built as it looks brand spanking new and the trees are mere saplings. The Los Angeles cityscape would be so much more interesting if we had more of these, wouldn’t it?

** UPDATE ** – The French Chateau Apartments is now a condo building and is Historic Cultural Monument #815, City of Los Angeles.

John Vicente posted this video on Instagram.

Brace yourself! The Ashmont Apartments are still with us, and those saplings are now fully grown trees. This image is from July 2022.

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Color photo of the Broadway Theatre, 428 S. Broadway, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1954

Color photo of the Broadway Theatre, 428 S. Broadway, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1954In this vibrant color shot we’re looking down Broadway to the aptly named Broadway Theater at 428 S. Broadway, between 4th and 5th Streets around the corner from Pershing Square. They had a pretty good double bill playing that week: “Rob Roy” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” The latter movie came out in March 1954, so I’m guessing the shot was taken later that year. I would also love to have seen the neon sign for the neighboring American Music Co that sold records, televisions, radios and appliances. A veritable one stop shop!

A 1954 advertisement for Philco portable record player, available at the American Music Co for $29.95:

A 1954 advertisement for Philco portable record player, available at the American Music Co for $29.95

This is roughly how that view looked in February 2023. There no sign of the Broadway Theatre any more. That space now appears to be occupied by The Judson loft apartments.

 

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Night view of Silverwoods men’s clothing store at 5522 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, circa 1930s

Night view of Silverwoods men’s clothing store at 5522 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, circa 1930sA couple of days ago I posted a photo of a Silverwoods clothing store in downtown LA. This one is the Silverwoods I think of whenever I see the name. Opening in 1929, it was in the Wilshire Tower Building at 5522 Wilshire Blvd, on the southeast corner of Burnside Ave. That neon sign is really quite striking when lit up at night, both on the corner and at the top of the tower. I wasn’t familiar with the other name in the sign. According to Wikipedia, Hart Schaffner & Marx made ready-to-wear clothes for men, and dates back to 1872 Chicago. They closed on September 17, 1991 due to declining sales.

Dave E. said: “Originally promoted as F. B. Silverwood, after its founder, was a men’s clothing store chain founded in Los Angeles in 1894 by Francis Bernard (F.B. “Daddy”) Silverwood, a Canadian-American originally from near Lindsay, Ontario. He was a colorful character covered in the newspapers, a “songster” composer of popular songs, Shriner, and who famously married in 1920. The first store opened on May 8, 1894 at 124 S. Spring St., carried only men’s furnishings, had 4 employees and had sales of $38,000 in that year. Silverwood’s then moved to a larger location at 221 S. Spring St. The flagship store was established in 1904 at Sixth & Broadway. In 1920 the store removed to temporary quarters at 320 S. Broadway while the old store was torn down starting January 26, 1920. A brand-new 115,420 sq ft (10,723 m2) six-floor store was built on the site of the old one at 6th and Broadway. The new store opened September 1, 1920. Photo is the store on Wilshire Blvd (Miracle Mile). The company incorporated in November 1920; at that time there were four branches (Long Beach, Bakersfield, Maricopa and San Bernardino)[4] plus the flagship. F. B. Silverwood died in March 1924. In later decades the store was purchased by Hartmarx and focused on business suits until the end, after eventually becoming out of sync with the clothing preferences of Southern California men. By 1992 when the chain closed, Silverwoods had grown to an eighteen store chain with branches across Greater Los Angeles.”

Although Silverwoods is long gone, that building is still there and in pretty good shape. This image is from November 2023.

 

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The offices of Municipal Light, Water, and Power at the intersection of 59th Place and Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, 1936

The offices of Municipal Light, Water, and Power at the intersection of 59th Place and Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, 1936The sign on the magnificent building says “MUNICIPAL LIGHT WATER POWER” so I’m assuming it’s a forerunner of what we here in LA now call the DWP (Department of Water and Power.) In 1936, when this photo was taken, it stood at the intersection of 59th Place and Vermont Ave, which put it a few miles south of downtown. For a utility company building, it’s pretty spectacular. Actually, it’s eye-catching for any sort of office building.

Andie P. says: “There were bright lights on that building. My dad had a photo of it lit up at night, that he had taken in about 1949.”

Matt H. says: “An interesting thing – the name of the entity included “Light,” as if it is a service provided separate from that provided by “Power,” which refers to electricity. “Light” sometimes referred to, archaically, gas service, which was how light was provided in the home prior to the prevalence of electricity. I wonder if that was the case in Los Angeles, and the agency eventually dropped the word in its name, to become simply Dept. of Water and Power?”

Tim I. says: “The DWP is owned by the City of LA (that would be by the taxpayers). The price of bringing water and electricity to consumers in the city is about half of what private companies in So Cal charge. I believe the architecture of the Department’s buildings also served as advertising for the agency. The old Water And Power headquarters (across from the Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center), later renamed the Ferraro Building, has a breathtaking light scheme that is sometimes lit during the holidays. I wish I had a photo of the building going at full-tilt.”

John J. says: “The actual story is always more interesting! DWP came from the merging of the Bureau of Water and the Bureau of Power and Light in 1937. Before then, In 1929 they hired movie cinema architect S. Charles Lee to design a number of combined offices in Hollywood, Lincoln Heights, North Hollywood, the one at 59th and Vermont, and as many as 17 in total. Lee also remodeled a Toberman warehouse into the Max Factor building in Hollywood.”

Surprisingly, there is still a DWP office on that site. Not-so-surprisingly, the 1936 building is no longer there. This image is from January 2023.

 

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