Take a look out of any window in Los Angeles today and it’s hard to believe this place was ever a horse-and-buggy town. This shot was taken at the corner of 1st Street and Broadway in downtown L.A. circa 1890, where a stables and saddlery shop stands. Behind it, we can see the steep rise of Bunker Hill (which got lopped off half a century later.)Panoramic photograph of the Hollywood Hotel, corner Hollywood and Highland
Most photos of the Hollywood Hotel at the corner of Hollywood and Highland only show a part of the hotel so it’s hard to get a good idea of how big the place was. This panoramic shot shows us how wide the front of the hotel was, and how striking a landmark it must have been in its day.
Entrance to Hollywoodland, 1927
The real estate development known as Hollywoodland opened in 1923, and here we can see the entrance in 1927. The building on the right just past the tower with the “Hollywoodland” sign on its roof was—and still is—the real estate office. I’ll post a photo of how this corner looks today to show not a lot has changed.
And this is how it looks in 2015:
Hollywoodland Real Estate Office:
Rollin P. Lane house (now The Magic Castle) at 7001 Franklin Ave, Hollywood
The Magic Castle is a prominent private magicians club located on a hillside on Franklin Ave overlooking the Hollywood and Highland complex. The place is a perfect venue for a magic club but I’ve never seen what it looked like originally. I don’t know when this photo was taken of the Rollin P. Lane house, but it was build in 1909 for Rollin B. Lane, who was a banker, real estate developer and philanthropist. From the look of this photo, I’d say it was taken not too long after the mansion was built.
And how it looks like now:
“Tuesday Night At The Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles” by Ralph Barton, June 1927
This rather impressive piece is called “Tuesday Night At The Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles” and originally appeared in the June 1927 edition of Vanity Fair. It was the work of celebrity caricaturist, Ralph Barton whose work was frequently seen in magazines like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar. This one is my favorite though because he manages to squeeze dozens and dozens of the leading lights of 1927 Hollywood into one illustration. (As far as I’m concerned, the only person missing is Gwendolyn Brick! (*wink*)
Exterior view of Sardi’s Restaurant at 6313 Hollywood Blvd
Sardi’s Restaurant at 6313 Hollywood Blvd didn’t last too long. It opened in 1932 by Eddie Bandstatter, who ran Hollywood hot-spot, the Montmartre. For four brief years it was one of Hollywood’s most chic hang outs…until it was destroyed by fire on November 2nd, 1936. That location later became a Chi-Chi, one of six locations of the Chi-Chi mini-chain, and in the 1950s was Zardi’s Jazzland.
A rare interior view:
Noirish view of Sunset Blvd. Exit, Hollywood Freeway, circa 1960
What could be more noir-ish LA than this night-time view of the Sunset Blvd exit off the Hollywood Freeway at night, circa 1955?
Gallery of photographs showing the Garden of Allah Hotel, 8152 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood (1927 to 1959)
Photo credit: Many of these photographs have been made available from MARC WANAMAKER at the BISON ARCHIVES.
Francis X. Bushman and his wife at the Garden of Allah’s closing party, 1959
This photo has been colorized:
Various advertisements and graphics associated with the Garden of Allah Hotel:
“Live at the Garden of Allah” advertisement, July 10th, 1930
Advertisement for the Garden of Allah Hotel in the Desert Sun, 4 November 1947:
Garden of Allah Hotel advertisement February 2, 1956
Garden of Allah Hotel advertisement, March 18, 1931
Garden of Allah Hotel advertisement Garden, January 20, 1949
Garden of Allah Hotel advertisement October 12, 1928
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Tagged Advertisement, Chateau Marmont, Hotels, Sunset Blvd, The Garden of Allah Hotel
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Rear view of Brown Derby on Wilshire Blvd
I’d like to thank Marie Escamilla for this one. We’ve all seen photos of the first Brown Derby restaurant – “Eat in the Hat” – on Wilshire Blvd but I doubt if many of us have seen it from this angle. When I saw this rear view, my first thought was oh-so-typically Angeleno: “They had all this land behind them and they didn’t turn it into a parking lot???” And we can see the Ambassador Hotel peeking out from behind the streets on the right of the photo.
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Tagged Ambassador Hotel, Brown Derby restaurant, Los Angeles, Restaurants, Wilshire Blvd
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Los Angeles does have an unfortunately deserved reputation for neglecting its past, however we do still have a few jewels left in our crown. One of them is the Biltmore Hotel, which looks out over Pershing Square. Opening in 1923, the Biltmore became known as the Host of the Coast where most of the socially prominent and important events took place. This is a shot of what was then the foyer of the hotel. Guests entered through the doors at the far end and checked in at the desks on the right. Today, this beautiful area looks largely the same, although it functions now as a restaurant, where you can indulge in a posh afternoon tea.