Long before Los Angeles became a city of automobiles, it was—like all cities—filled with horse-drawn wagons, carriages, and buggies. It’s the size of those wheels that surprise me. Some of them are nearly as tall as the men are. This line-up was on Spring St between 1st and 2nd Streets in what we now refer to as downtown Los Angeles, but back in 1878, when this photo was taken, it was simply “Los Angeles.”
Gary H. says: “Big wheels not only made The ride smoother ride, it made it possible to get over very rough terrain in the first place. Also, bigger wheels require less pulling force, so a smaller horse could pull the wagon.”
According to one source I found, Roeder’s stood on the west side of Spring Street just south of First. These days, that block is occupied by the headquarters of the LAPD. This image is from June 2022.
Night shots like this one are taken with a slow shutter speed, so it makes the lights seem brighter than they actually were. Even so, it does make for a gloriously atmospheric shot, doesn’t it? We’re looking up Broadway past the Rialto Theatre at 812 S Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. At the time, a movie called “Today” starring Conrad Nagel was playing, which dates this photo at 1930. At the time, downtown LA was the center of city, and Broadway a golden thoroughfare of cinema palaces. The Rialto was one, and just past it was The Tower, where “The Jazz Singer” was first shown before its revolutionary New York premiere.
This image is a screen shot from a 1958 movie, “Anna Lucasta.” At one point, Eartha goes to Royal Room, which was a jazz joint that stood at the southwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas Ave. The image was sent to me by a regular commenter on this site, Martin Pal, after he and I talked about a remarkable photo of this place in Kathy Kikkert’s new photo-book, “
Here we have a bird’s-eye view of Hollywood High School. That main road running from left to right near the bottom of the picture is Sunset Blvd, crossing with Highland Ave at the bottom right corner. The school no longer looks like this. One site I found said it was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. From the look of the surrounding nice homes and apartment buildings and the baby palm trees lining the north side of Sunset, I’m guesstimating this photo to be circa late 1920s. (If you can help narrow that down for me, I’d love to hear from you.)
Let’s file this circa 1933 shot under “They Sure Don’t Make Gas Stations Like They Used To.” This was a Richfield Oil Station that used to stand at 1215 Westwood Blvd in the Westwood area of Los Angeles (near UCLA.) I love the clean lines and those triangular decorations. But I especially love that soaring tower. Yes, it made sure that everybody could see there was a Richfield gas station in the area, but it also added verticality to an otherwise fairly horizontal cityscape, so they get extra points in my book. (No “now” photo today because Google Maps made it hard to pinpoint where the Richfield station was.)
I don’t know what these five girls were doing sitting on a Ford truck at the top of the California Incline overlooking Santa Monica beach, but if you put a bunch of pretty girls on a vehicle, they’re bound to be promoting something. The truck is marked “Life Guard” so maybe it was a promo for them? Or maybe the Incline had been closed for repairs and it was the city’s way of saying “The Incline is open for business again!”? I really couldn’t find out the reason for them being there. But my friend at the Petersen Automotive Museum said that it’s a 1932 truck with a “1934” on the license plate and that the “E” inside the square meant it was city-owned vehicle. (The “E” meant it was therefore exempt from taxes.)
These days, the ironically circular Capitol Records Building at 1750 N. Vine St, north of Hollywood Blvd is a Los Angeles landmark. But when this photo was taken, it was a new and unusual addition to the skyline. The building was completed in April of 1956, and this photo was taken shortly after that. At this time, the big draw was the Du-Par’s restaurant, although I’m sure the neighboring Pacific Finance company also saw its fair share of foot traffic.
I don’t normally post photo as far south from Los Angeles as San Diego, but this place was so cute, and so of-its-era that I had to. This is Oscar’s Drive-In restaurant which stood at 4751 El Cajon Blvd, and was photographed on July 18, 1947. I love the cute circus theme with the parade of elephants along the top and roof painted to look like a big top. If you’re wondering what you’d order if you went there, you can check out 
This is a photo I took of a photo I saw during a recent visit to the Academy Museum. It was taken during the premiere of “Giant” that took place at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on October 17, 1956. I love the dramatic way those searchlights were lined up behind the bleachers where movie fans had gathered to see the parade of stars attending the big event ahead of an impressive 10-week run. And what a parade of stars it was. Go to