Here is scenic streetcar ride I’d like to have taken when it was around. This Pacific Electric Red Car is rolling northward out of Redondo on the ‘Redondo Beach via Playa del Rey’ streetcar route that followed the coastline south of where LA International Airport now is. In fact, that photo was probably snapped at roughly the site of LAX. But to ride a streetcar close enough to the beach to be able to jump directly into the sand seems a very Californian thing to do. The line closed in 1930 and I suspect this photo was taken around that time.
First day of work on the Pacific Electric Del Rey and Redondo Trolley Line, circa 1900:
Here is the Pacific Electric station at the neighboring beach to the north, Hermosa Beach:
Here’s an image that I don’t think has been posted online before. I glimpsed it while watching 
Until I came across this aerial photo of Marina Del Ray, I’d never heard of a development called Silver Strand, which is what we are looking at here. It’s only 10 blocks long and 2 blocks wide, and stretches from Washington Blvd down to Via Marina alongside the Main Channel. It started out as a subdivision in 1906 by Abbot Kinney, who was the brains behind Venice, which is the beach directly north. This photo was taken on February 4, 1959, by which time oil was discovered along the coastline. As we can see, there were some houses in the area, but nothing like the primo real estate it is these days.
Rarely have I seen a photo of LA peak hour traffic look so artistic. We’re looking west along Wilshire Blvd from west of Serrano Ave. That 12-story Art Deco building on the left is called the Pellissier Building, which also housed the Warners Theatre. It had only just opened when this photo was taken in 1931. But look at the road itself: it had a center divider painted down the middle, but that was all. No lane to keep drivers in check. I guess it was “every man for himself”?
I do like the way the photographer framed this shot of the Belmont Theatre at 126 S. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, taking in the lit marquee facing the street as well as the huge sign on top of the theater featuring the current movie, “Two Sisters from Boston” starring Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, and Jimmy Durante. The movie opened on June 5, 1946 and ran for a few weeks. With that searchlight next to the marquee, I’m wondering if the photo was taken the night the movie opened.
When viewed at night in this circa 1930 photograph, it’s easy to see why this building on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and Hamilton Dr was called the Sunset Clock Tower Market. It looks to have been quite a large place with plenty of parking. That square building on the right was the gas station, but I’m left wondering what was housed in the large two-story building with the clock.
In this photo we’re looking south along a busy Broadway from 4th Street in downtown Los Angeles. Back in 1931, when this photo was taken, downtown LA was much more of a thriving heart of LA than it is these days: packed sidewalks, traffic, streetcars. I don’t recognize those triangular floral banners stretched over Broadway, so I don’t know what was going on that week, but I’m wondering if it’s helping to pack the streets.
I do love coming across an image in vibrant color, especially if it depicts Hollywood in its heyday. Extra points if it was taken with Kodachrome, which I’m fairly sure this was. We’re looking east through the intersection of Sunset Blvd and Vine St, Hollywood. I love how the sign for Music City on the northwest corner is advertising Magnavox television sets. Across the street on the northeast corner are the NBC studios. By the time this photo was taken, they had converted to TV. Channel 4 first went on the air as KNBH on January 16, 1949. That two-toned car on the right is a 1951 Chevrolet convertible, so let’s call this circa early 1950s.
Most Curries ice cream stores had a huge can’t-miss-‘em ice-cream cone out front to advertise their famous 10-cent “Mile High Cones.” I don’t know for sure, but this one was their probably their biggest. I’m guessing 15 feet? It would really have caught the eyes of passers-by—especially cars with kids inside. This Curries stood on the northwest corner of Firestone Blvd and La Reina Ave in Downey in the 1950s. (Apart from being home to LA’s biggest ice cream cone, Downey’s other claim to fame is that it was the home of the Carpenters musical duo.)
In this photo, we see a large group of excited movie fans crowded into bleachers set up outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. To accommodate them, the Radlicks soda fountain had to fold up their awning. The date was March 15, 1945, so this was the 17th Academy Awards, honoring the films of 1944. The big winner that year was “Going My Way” which won 7 awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor. Playing at Grauman’s that month was “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” which ran pretty much the whole month of March.