It wasn’t until I came across this photo that I learned that Santa Catalina Island used to have its own amphitheater. Nestled in a hillside near the southern edge of Avalon, the island’s main town, it was built in 1904 by the Banning brothers, who owned the island at the time, and continued operations until 1931. In this circa 1909 photo, it looks like the amphitheater is sold out for a nighttime performance for those lucky souls able to escape the LA heat and spend some time enjoying Catalina’s cool ocean breezes.
Daytime shot of the Santa Catalina Island Amphitheatre in 1905:
A view of the Avalon foreshore as seen from the Santa Catalina Island amphitheater, circa 1914:
For more info, see Islapedia:
The remnants of the amphitheater are still there today. This image is undated but someone posted it on my Facebook page:
“The Grapevine” is the name given to the stretch of the Interstate 5 north of Santa Clarita and south of Bakersfield. It’s the area of Southern California highway most likely to be socked in with weather during the winter, but when this photo was taken, potential snow was hardly likely. If this circa 1960s photo is anything to go by, the 5 was hardly the ten-lane behemoth it is today. Apparently the Grapevine Coffee Shop and 76 gas station were the last two buildings that needed to be demolished before roadwork on the freeway upgrade could begin. A shot like this makes me wonder who got that final cup of coffee.
Back in the day, if you had a 2am craving for candy apples, cornbread, and, cucumbers, you had at least one option: the block-long Hollywood Ranch Market at the corner of Fountain Ave and Vine St in Hollywood. And if you did, this is what it would have looked like as you pulled up, those three life-saving words blazing in neon: We Never Close. On the far right we can also see blade sign for the Art Linkletter Playhouse.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, when the burgeoning freeway system was reshaping Los Angeles, the opening of a new one was a bit of an event. In this photo, the couple seen here decided the 1962 opening of the 405 San Diego Freeway was worthy of a family outing. They’re perched on the slopes of the Sepulveda Pass to watch those motorists keen to be able to make a future dinner-party claim, “Y’know, I was one of the very first people to drive on the 405.” It looks like the freeway opened with four lanes per direction. Each side now has six lanes and unless you’re there very, very early, the Sepulveda Pass is a continual parking lot.
And from the They Sure Don’t Make Car Showrooms Like That Anymore file, comes this gem of a building with gorgeous bas relief panels over the doors. The McDaniel Motor Co. built their car showroom at 819 S. Brand Ave in Glendale. I don’t know much about them, but it looks like they sold Nash automobiles. The beautiful two-toned vehicle parked out front (on the right) is a 1926 Nash, possibly as an advertisement because behind it is the price tag: $999.99
These days, riding the LA skies in the Goodyear Blimp is strictly by invitation (which doesn’t prevent it from being a bucket-list item for me!) but back when this photo was taken “somewhere in Southern California” in 1931, that sign on the side of the blimp – “RIDE WITH US – VOLUNTEER” – suggests they were begging for passengers. Granted, in the early 1930s, things may have been a little less safe than they are nowadays, but I’d still have taken my chances. What about you?
In the early years of the Beverly Hills Hotel (which opened in 1912), a popular pastime for hotel guests was to go horseback riding throughout the neighborhood. Back then, a number of Beverly Hills streets had bridle trails (you can see the ghost of one of them running down the middle of the residential part of Rodeo Drive.) The chap perched atop his noble steed in this photo is Charles Brabin, who directed over 100 films in the 1920s and early 30s, two of them with his wife, Theda Bara. And we can date this photo to around 1924 from the Studebaker Special Six Duplex-Phaeton parked next to him.
I couldn’t find no details for this striking photo of the Carthay Circle Theater, but in a way the actual specifics aren’t necessary. To my way of thinking, this photo could have been taken at any of the big, splashy star-studded movie premieres that took place during the theater’s run from 1926 to 1969. Whichever movie was opening this particular night must have been a biggie, if the number of spotlights grazing the inky night sky is anything to go by.
The caption on this photo said this is a shot of the Angels Flight funicular on its opening day, December 31st, 1901. One report I read said that more than 2000 people rode between Hill St (at the bottom) and Olive St (at the top) that day. The seven men we can see in this shot were probably officials who had gathered first thing that morning. Or maybe they were railway enthusiasts keen to claim to be the first passengers! Either way, this is a wonderful shot of the original Angels Flight (it would later move from its original location shown here at Hill and Third to half a block south.) And let’s not forget the guy standing near the Third St tunnel with his cart and broom ready to clean up all the mess from those 2000 people!
