At first glance, it would be easy to think you’re looking at the forecourt of some French chateau and Italian palazzo. But nope. This is the forecourt of the Beverly Hills City Hall at 455 North Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills. With its matching fountains and young palm trees, the photo was taken around 1932, the year the city hall opened. There are a lot of tacky pockets of Los Angeles, but this isn’t one of them.
When Crossroads of the World at 6671 Sunset Blvd opened on October 29, 1936, it was one of America’s first planned outdoor shopping malls, o of course it deserved a big splashy opening, complete with searchlights scraping the sky. The place is kind of amazing with seven architectural styles: Cape Cod, French, Italian Renaissance, Mediterranean, Moorish, Spanish Colonial, and Streamline Moderne. I’d imagine Angelenos seeing it for the first time must have been popping their eyes wide open.
Crossroads of the World is still around. This is how it looked in May 2022.
In 1958, three years after Capitol Records opened their iconic building, they started an annual tradition of decorating the top of their building with lights that resemble a Christmas tree. In this shot we’re looking south down Vine St circa 1970 (if that 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air on the right is anything to go by.)
Gail R posted this shot of the Capitol Records taken December 2023:
And in other news…I’d like to wish everyone who follows my vintage musings here a merry and bright Christmas and cheery 2024. I’m very happy to see your interactions and appreciate your interest so very much!
This is how that same view looked in August 2022:
From the angle of this photo, I’d say it was taken from the top of the building on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and Las Palmas Ave looking west along the south side of the boulevard. We can see lit signs for the Gold Cup coffee shop, Union Pacific railway ticket office, a record store, the Egyptian Theatre, and the Hollywood Inn (formerly the Hotel Christie.) From the electrified Christmas trees decorating the store and the fact that “Hawaii” was playing at the Egyptian, we can narrow down the date of this shot to Christmas 1966.
Rob B says: “This 1966-era was during a pretty cool set of years for the Egyptian (notice the added “World Famous” sign at the top…just in case you were there and didn’t know it was). All during the 50s it was a PRIMO showcase (I mean, the list is impressive) and after BEN-HUR left after its big run beginning in ’59 (98 WEEKS, no less), so many top-tier exclusive and/or roadshow films premiered there. “King of Kings”, “The Cardinal”, “Molly Brown”, “My Fair Lady”, the pictured “Hawaii”, “Funny Girl”… Not long after, the big “Road Show” thing wasn’t as effective, but some big-ticket films were there. It was a FANTASTIC place to see a film, when it was really a BIG screen, BIG sound, BIG auditorium cinema.”
This is roughly how that view looked in August 2022.
Ever since I first saw the movie “American Graffiti” I knew that cruising up and down one of the boulevards in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles was a popular Saturday night ritual. But I never quite realized that Van Nuys Blvd got *this* packed with kids looking for love, trouble, and adventure. The A-framed building on the right is Coffee Dan’s, which was located at 6576 Van Nuys Blvd. I wonder if they did a roaring trade on Saturday nights, or was everyone too busy driving around and around and around.
** UPDATE ** – The caption I found on a forum called Pistolheads said the cruising took place on Saturday nights, but the consensus on my Facebook page seems to agree that it was a Wednesday night thing.
This is how that stretch of Van Nuys Blvd looked in February 2023.
According to the caption on this photo, some sort of sporting event was happening on the grounds of the Hotel Green, a large and luxurious hotel that opened in 1893 in Pasadena, where it quickly became a social hub. In the background we can see the turret of the nearby Santa Fe Railroad station, which was conveniently placed for guests arriving by train to escape the harsh winters back East. But what intrigues me most about this (I’m guessing circa early 1900s?) photo is that very tall pole in the foreground. Why is it so tall? Is it a streetlight? A beacon? Suggestions, anyone?
Stephen C. says: “The light is an arc light. They were blindingly bright if placed too low, but if placed high enough they provided the perfect illumination for large areas that almost gave a daylight effect within their field of illumination. Many cities used them in this era.”
In this atmospheric nighttime shot, we’re looking north up Vine St from Sunset Blvd. It was taken on the night of July 27, 1948, and we can see all the neon signs that greeted Angelenos at the time: Broadway-Hollywood department store, Plaza Hotel, Tom Breneman’s restaurant, Capitol Records, as well as the semaphore traffic signal on the southeast corner of Sunset. But I especially love the way the streetlights look like starbursts (which I assume comes from a special filter on the camera.
Andrew S. said: “Vine St. was first called Weyse St. in honor of Harvey and Daeida Wilcox’s business partner Otto Günther Weyse until being renamed Vine St by Senator Cornelius Cole. The name Vine was made official by October 19, 1909 during the annexation of the town of Colegrove into Los Angeles.”
In this photo from 1925, we’re treated to a glimpse of Wilshire Blvd’s wild west days, i.e. before traffic lanes were painted on the road. We’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd from the Gaylord Apartments. That construction site with the tower that resembles a rocket is the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at Berendo St. The streetlights known as Wilshire Specials (because they were only on Wilshire) have been installed, and those tress paralleling the sidewalk look like they haven’t been there long. But what is that thick white line painted on the road near the center of the photo? Suggestions, anyone?
Henry G. says: “At the bottom of the photo is a line that goes all the way across the street, with a dividing line intersecting the middle suggesting there might be another line across the street to mark off a pedestrian crossing out of frame. So, the arrow is pointing to that crossing and, in agreement with Harvey’s comment, seems to say ‘Pedestrians Ahead.'”
And Gary H. posted this image on Facebook of “Slow crossing” road sign painted on Wilshire Blvd;
This is how Wilshire looking east from The Gaylord Apartments looks today. Lots of trees which is nice, and we can juuust see Immanuel’s steeple in the background.
I’m not 100% sure, but I suspect/assume this photo was taken on some high perch somewhere at the Hollywood Bowl (or perhaps zooming in from the Jerome C. Daniel Overlook northwest of the Bowl?) We can see George Stanley’s 15-foot white granite “Muse of Music, Dance Drama” statue that stands at the start of the Bowl’s driveway. It was dedicated on July 8, 1940. We can also see the French Village that used to stand opposite the Bowl on the east side of Highland where the Hollywood Barn now stands. It was demolished in 1951. So my best guess is that this photo was taken some time in the 1940s—during peak hour if the back up on the Hollywood Freeway is anything to go by!
Here is an aerial photo of the French Village opposite the Hollywood Bowl:
Look how many Angelenos turned out to watch a Victory Loan Parade as it made its way northward up Broadway. The cross street here in 7th Street, where “Laura” was playing at the Loew’s State Theatre (where movies ran 24 hours a day to accommodate wartime workers. This photo was taken in December 1944, during WWII, when 4 of 5 street lamps were blacked out on top and instead of Christmas trees decorating the streets, we can see Santas sitting in the middle of a big “V” for Victory.
This is how that same corner looked in February 2023. The building is largely intact, and the Loew’s State is now a church.
