interior, Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, Ambassador Hotel, Wilshire Blvd
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Tagged Ambassador Hotel, Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Hotels, Nightclubs, Restaurants, Wilshire Blvd
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Interior, Brown Derby restaurant, Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
We see a lot of photos of the outside of the original Brown Derby on Wilshire Blvd, but rarely what it looked like on the inside. You can see the curved walls and parallel curved counter. Even the skirts the waitresses wore were starched into the shape of a derby (which can’t have been very practical.)
Clara Bow’s ‘It Cafe’, 1637, Vine Street, Hollywood, 1930s
The It Cafe was at 1637 Vine St in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel near the corner of Hollywood and Vine, and was opened by “It Girl” Clara Bow and her husband Rex Bell on September 3rd, 1937. It had a zodiac motif and was popular with Bow’s silent movies era pals. This same space was, earlier in the 1930s, called the Russian Eagle Cafe & Gardens and counted Garbo among its regulars.
- 1925 to 1928 – Klemtner’s Blue Plate Café
- 1928 – 1931 – Pig “N Whistle Café
- 1931 to 1936 – Russian Eagle Café
- Dec 17, 1936 to Sept 1937 – Cinnabar
- Sept 1937 – It Café (owned by Clara Bow for about a year, then changed management)
- 1944 – Les Comiques
- 1952 – Westerner Lounge-Grill
View of the It Cafe foyer, from the inside looking toward the front door:
Clara Bow and her husband Rex Bell in one of the booths:
After Clara Bow sold out, it later became Phil Selznick’s It Café (Phil Selznick was David O. Selznick’s uncle and in the 1950s, opened Phil Selznick’s Blue Evening in Toluca Lake.)
Carthay Circle Movie Theater, circa 1927
Aerial view of the Carthay Circle Theater near Olympic and San Vicente, circa 1927, a year after it opened. Outside of Grauman’s Chinese theater, Carthay Circle was one of the most popular theaters where the studios like to hold their premieres. This theater saw the premiere of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Marie Antoinette” with Norma Shearer, “The Great Ziegfield” and the mother of all Hollywood movie premieres: “Gone with the Wind,” on December 28, 1939.
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Carthay Circle Theater, Hollywood, Theaters
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Beverly Hills Hotel, 1921
Beverly Hills Hotel, looking south, in 1921. I love this shot because it shows the gracefully curved streets of Beverly Hills. But I’m wondering: The photographer who took this shot—where was he standing? I guess maybe he was in an aircraft? But considering how slow the shutter speeds were back then, this shot seems surprisingly clear. Maybe he was on a slow, smooth-sailing blimp.
Premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater for Douglas Fairbanks’ “The Gaucho”, 1927
Nothing says “glamorous Hollywood premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater” like klieg lights strafing the sky. This photograph was taken in 1927 for the premiere of a Douglas Fairbanks picture, “The Gaucho” which co-starred Lupe Velez, aka “The Mexican Spitfire” (…as Johnny Weissmuller found out during their dramatic 5-year marriage.)
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Tagged Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Movie Premiere, Night photo
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RKO-Studios, Gower Street entrance, Hollywood
Yesterday’s shot was of Paramount and today it’s RKO’s turn. This is the Gower St. entrance of the RKO Studios, located on the corner of Gower and Melrose adjacent to the Paramount lot (and now a part of it). RKO came into being in October 1928 when RCA acquired the theater chains of Keith–Albee–Orpheum as well as the film production company and merged them to form a new company called RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum). This photo was taken the year of the merger. The entrance is still there but looks a little different these days.
Hollywood Athletic Club, Sunset Blvd, 1929
Street view of the Hollywood Athletic Club, located at 6525 Sunset Blvd, shown here in 1929. Designed by the same architects who built Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Egyptian Theater, it was built in 1924. It was where Johnny Weissmuller trained in the pool for his “Tarzan” films. In 1949, it was used in 1949 for the first televised Emmy Awards. And–wonder of wonders–it’s still around!
If only the Hollywood Athletic Club would re-institute their mid-week rhumba buffet parties, we’d all be able to deal better with our Hump Day blues. (1941):
Hollywoodland Sign and San Fernando Valley, 1920s
The Hollywoodland sign in the 1920s (probably not long after it was erected in 1923) showing the San Fernando Valley behind it. These days it’s full of suburbia, but back then it was filled with all the orange and lemon groves that California was famous for.
Streetcar at the corner of Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave, Hollywood
At the corner of Hollywood and Highland, passengers board a streetcar heading north on Highland. On the right, they’ll pass the Hollywood Hotel. I wonder if those cars went “Clang! Clang! Clang!” like Judy Garland said they did.
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Tagged Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood Hotel, Hotels, Streetcars
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