There’s a lot going on in this photo looking east along Wilshire Blvd in 1934. There is a center divider but no individual lanes so it’s a keystone-kops-esque free for all. On the left, past the open-air double-decker bus is a sign that reads “ENTRANCE AMBASSADOR HOTEL AND SHOPS.” I’ve never seen it before so I’m wondering how long it lasted. In the medium background we can see the spire from the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and past that, the tower of the building which houses the Bullocks Wilshire department store, both of which are still around.
John J. says: “The Ambassador sign was the main entrance to the Hotel located on the west property line. You can see most of the church in the photo. The buildings in front of the church are part of the movie theater, parking garages and servants quarters west of Catalina.”
This is roughly the same view in December 2020 – barely recognizable!
In a funny sort of way, this photo seems to encapsulate Los Angeles of the 1930s: Stunning architecture providing a picturesque backdrop for gas pumps at a filling station. In this case, we’re looking at the stunning St. Vincent’s Church on the corner of West Adams Blvd and S. Figueroa Street, just south of downtown Los Angeles and north of the University of Southern California campus. This photo is from 1934.
** UPDATE** – Bill G says: It’s a lovely photo, but it’s not the grand opening. For one thing, it didn’t say “Egyptian” above the entrance then, only “Grauman’s.” It’s the 1926 double premiere of Mary Pickford’s Sparrows and The Black Pirate with Douglas Fairbanks and Billie Dove.”
I do enjoy coming across a photo of the original “Eat in the Hat” Brown Derby restaurant, and although this one isn’t very big, it is wide enough to give us the context of its location. We can see that by the time this photo was taken in 1948, the Derby had added its outdoor-with-umbrellas dining option. We can also see that it had one of those striking streetlamps out front. It was called the Wilshire Special because they were made to only light up Wilshire Blvd.
You want to talk about the Wild West? This was the true Wild West: Driving north up Vine Street without any traffic lanes painted on the road. Generally speaking, I guess drivers stuck to the right hand side of the street but whatever. Drive wherever you like! In this shot, those foolhardy motorists are approaching Santa Monica Blvd, where the military surplus store now stands. This shot was taken in 1925, when the southern stretch of Vine still had residential homes lining it, and the Hollywoodland sign was only 2 years old.
The local Angelenos lucky enough to live within driving distance of Anaheim were treated to Disneyland’s opening day parade on Sunday July 17, 1955. In this shot, it’s making its way up Main Street from the front entrance to the circular plaza where the statue of Walter Disney and Mickey Mouse now stands. I’m not sure what those nine vehicles are in the foreground. Dodge ’em cars? I don’t know who those people are who got to ride in them, but it must have been a memorable day for them. Well, for everybody, I’d say!
The vitality of this color photo is particularly striking, isn’t it? Although no longer around, those oil wells in the background used to dot the Signal Hill area of Long Beach for decades. It must have been a dirty, smelly, and noisy place to drive through, but hey, oil was king! The silver car is a circa 1950 Chevrolet, but the license plates on the Ford Model A jalopy in the foreground have a yellow tag which dates this photo to 1952.
I don’t know what was going on that day on Hollywood Blvd but it appears that someone had fallen down and couldn’t get up. I hope everything turned out okay for them, but I can’t help wondering what that patch of road is with the curving painted lines. It looks like it used to be a zone where people would wait for the streetcar, but judging from the 1964 Ford Thunderbird in the background, I’d say this photo is circa mid-1960s, by which time the streetcars had been gone for nearly a decade. This all played out at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Whitley Ave, where Hollywood’s Largest Toy Shop and a 
A couple of days ago I posted a photo or a rather 
This is just a random drug store that anchors a building which also houses a bunch of other businesses, including a dye works and something called Sunfreze. It was on the corner of West 48th St and Crenshaw Blvd, so it was in the middle of suburbia, not close to anything special, but it caught my eye because I thought it was so cute and so distinctive – especially with all those decorative flourishes along the roofline. Today’s equivalent tend to be so cookie-cutter samey-samey. This photo is from 1931.