Whoa! So much going on in this photo taken during the premiere 20th Century-Fox’s first CinemaScope film, “The Robe” ahead of a 13-week run. In addition to the searchlights and electric banner across Grauman’s Chinese, we can glimpse the Hollywood Hotel in the shadows, and past it, the tower of the First National Bank building. And on the right we can see a huge sign for The London Store, which was a mini chain of a chain of upscale menswear. And in the foreground is something I don’t recall seeing before: a drug store called Roosevelt on the Hollywood Blvd/Orange Dr. corner opposite the Roosevelt Hotel from which this photo would have been taken.
Everett E. says: “The Robe” was the first CinemaScope movie released. It was partially the brainchild of Spyros Skouras, head of production at 20th Century Fox. It has been referred to as the ‘poor man’s wide screen process’ because instead of using 70mm wide format film, this process was achieved using the standard 35mm film stock. It saved the theaters from having to invest in 70mm projectors. The camera was outfitted with an anamorphic lens that was wide angle and ‘squeezed’ a larger field of view onto a 35mm frame. All the theaters had to do was buy a lens that would squeeze the image back out to normal proportions allowing for a wide aspect ratio. The process was impressive in its efficiency but quite often the image showed signs of distortion, especially on the edges of the frame. Straight lines were nearly impossible as the extreme wide angle lenses exhibited varying degrees of concave ‘barrel’ distortion. It was popular because it was cheaper to exhibit than a true 70mm configuration like Todd-AO.”
You can see the drugstore is the last in the line of storefronts:
This is roughly the same view in May 2022. It looks like Hollywood Blvd was blocked off that day, too—probably for another big movie premiere. And that Roosevelt drug store is now a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café.
Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park near Disneyland in Anaheim started out as a berry stand, then added a tea room which became a chicken dinner restaurant, and eventually a theme park. We can see the sign for the restaurant in the background of this 1960 color photograph. But it’s easy to be distracted by the buffet of late-50s American cars in the parking lot. According to someone who posted in the comments of a Tumblr that featured this photo, the cars are:
Like most movie studios, MGM had several entrances. This one looks different than how it is now because it’s now contained within the studio lot, and not on its perimeter. It was called the Eastern Gate and is next to the Thalberg Building, which was behind and to the left of the photographer. This photo was taken in 1939, when that building would have only been a year old, and the studio was reaching its zenith during what we now refer to as “Hollywood greatest year.” Those buildings with numbers on them are soundstages, and of course that great Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sign could be seen for miles around.
And from the “They Sure Don’t Built ’em Like That Anymore” file comes the Pasadena Athletic Club at 425 E. Green St, corner of Los Robles St. I couldn’t find when it was built, but this photo is from 1926, back when they made buildings with unique character and atmosphere. The sign on the ground floor reads “Pacific Mortgage Company” and it looks like there could be other businesses on the ground floor. If this building is anything like the Hollywood Athletic Club on Sunset Blvd, it’s probably offered rooms as well as athletic facilities.
I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to witness this disaster unfold. At 4.10pm on the afternoon of March 5, 1929, an electrical circuit sparked a fire at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which was being held under four large tents at the corner of Hill St and Washington Blvd south of downtown LA. None of the 2500 people attending the show were harmed, but the nearly 400 cars were ruined beyond saving. I’d imagine the pall of smoke (and the smell) must have hung in the air for days.
Most Angelenos who see that “Bob’s” logo immediately think of the chain of Bob’s Big Boy retro diners, like the one in Burbank that plays host to automobile meet-ups of lovingly restored cars. So I was surprised to encounter this photo of a Bob’s coffee shop. It was on the northwest corner of East Broadway and Maryland Ave in Glendale. We can see the Bob’s mascot on the wall to the left. I love the addition of four dots on the marquee (is that what it’s called) – it looks very 1950s, which, by the look of how those women are dressed, is when this photo was probably taken.
This photo gives us a glimpse of what it was like to film a simple scene for a movie. Or not so simple as it turns out. On the set of “Gone with the Wind” Vivien Leigh films a scene with William Bakewell playing a Confederate soldier. I count five huge lights needed to illuminate the scene, even though they’re outdoors. That’s because the Technicolor camera (the big box to the left) needed A LOT of light to photograph properly. The dapper man in the jacket and tie is Victor Fleming, who took over from George Cukor on February 17, 1939. Given how grueling the colossal movie was to film, I’m impressed that he’s dressed so properly.
Before Sid Grauman opened his Egyptian Theatre (1922) and his Chinese Theatre (1927) he opened his more prosaically named Grauman’s Theatre at 307 S. Broadway. In this photo, we can see eager fans packing the theater on its February 1, 1918 opening night. The film chosen for the debut was “The Silent Man” with a personal appearance of the film’s director and star, William S. Hart. Ever the showman, Grauman renamed it the Million Dollar Theater one year later, I guess because it sounded classier.
Imagine being in Long Beach on October 16, 1924 and looking up into the skies to see the U.S. Navy airship USS Shenandoah dirigible floating over you. These days Angelenos are used to seeing the Goodyear blimp, which is around 250 feet long, which is nearly the length of a football field. The Shenandoah, however, was 680 feel long, which made it the size of a battleship. One report I read said that thousands of locals lined the streets to witness the enormous dirigible glide silently over them as it set off for Tacoma, Washington and ultimately Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the center of the Navy’s lighter-than-air activities (which is where the Hindenburg met its fiery end in 1937.)