During late February and early March of 1938, a double-whammy of two storms swept in from the Pacific and pounded Los Angeles. Together they generated almost a whole year’s worth of precipitation in just a few days, and killed over a hundred people. The main consequence of the storms was that it was decided that the Los Angeles River ought to be concreted over to more effectively channel excessive flood water. Before I found this photo, I never really gave much thought to how the Army Corps of Engineers carried out the massive job. In this photo show us: With massive walls of prefab concrete.
John M says: “I believe that is a form not a prefab wall. See the funnels at the top to pour the concrete in. We can also see the rebar through the access points.”
Until 1942, LA’s famous MacArthur Park to the west of downtown Los Angeles was known as Westlake Park. In this circa 1934 photo we see a practically empty Wilshire Blvd as it winds its way through the middle of the park. (1934 was the year the park was extended to the south side of Wilshire.) Interestingly, the caption calls it “West Lake” Park (two words) which I don’t recall seeing before. I do love seeing those streetlights (known as a Wilshire Special because they were only on Wilshire Blvd) line both sides of the street. And I can’t help but wonder where that lone motorist was going that day.
I love a night shot that glows with neon light. And the people at the then-newly opened Hamilton Diamond Company at 860 Broadway on the northeast corner of 9th St in downtown LA knew what they were doing. After all, nobody’s going to buy those jewels if they can’t see them. This photo was taken in 1930, when the Depression was really starting to hit, so selling diamonds that year would have been a hard slog. I also like the 5-lamp electrolier streetlight next to the semaphore traffic signal, neither of which we see in LA anymore.
When you’re the real estate developer who’s known as the “Father of Hollywood,” I guess you get to live in a gorgeously ornate house. HJ Whitley was the guy who, in the 1890s, took Harvey Wilcox’s subdivision and transformed it into a desirable place for wealthy people to live. He was the one who brought telephone, electric, and gas lines into the new suburb, and also built the Hollywood Hotel on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. In 1911 he convinced Nestor Studios to lease Blondeau Tavern (for $30 a month) and build Hollywood’s first film stage on the northwest corner of Sunset and Gower. Oh, and he also developed Whitley Heights on the south side of the Hollywood Hills looking out across Hollywood. Oddly, though, he didn’t live in the area. The house in this photo was on Flower St in downtown Los Angeles and was taken around 1894.
When Angelenos want to get away from it all, they have no shortage of places to go: the mountains, the beaches, the desert, north to Santa Barbara, south to Mexico. But one of the nicest getaways lays (as the song goes) 26 miles across the sea (from Long Beach, that is): Santa Catalina Island. This aerial shot was snapped on June 26, 1936 and takes in the town of Avalon snuggled into Avalon Bay. That circular building near the bottom is the Casino, which opened in 1929 at a cost of $2 million. It’s not a gambling house, however, but a ‘casino’ in the old-fashioned sense of the word, meaning a place where people have fun. In this case, that fun mostly took place is the huge Casino ballroom that still hosts many fun events.
From what I can tell, all the bicyclists stopping traffic at the intersection of Washington and Culver Blvds in Culver City are women, so I bet there was something special going on. From the look of the cars, this photo was taken circa late 20s/early 30s, a time when (I’d imagine) that sort of thing didn’t happen every day. In the background, we can see two water towers. They would have belonged to MGM (now Sony) and the studios now known as The Culver Studios but back then would have run by Cecil B. DeMille and/or Pathé and/or RKO, depending on the year.
As if the entrance to Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park wasn’t colorful enough with that gold prospector and mule statue welcoming funsters to the park, but in this photo, we’ve also got a two-toned orange-and-white 1955 Oldsmobile at the stop light.
My focus has always been vintage photos of Los Angeles, usually up to the late 1950s, sometimes into the 60s and 70s if the subject is interesting or the image is extraordinary. But yesterday I came across one of the most striking photos I’ve ever seen of the Hollywood sign and had to post it. Taken by Ted VanCleave in 2015, it gives us a rare opportunity to experience the iconic sign close up. That’s the Hollywood Reservoir – aka Lake Hollywood – in the background. You can clearly see the sign from the lake, but this view of the lake from the sign is really something.
This is the sort of photo I love because it’s of a famous spot but taken from a different angle. Those steps on the right are of the NBC studios at the corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood. 99% of photographers take photos of the studio while standing on that corner behind the semaphore traffic light. When this photo was taken in the early 1950s, that corner was occupied by the Radio City Pharmacy and Fountain Grill, so this photo is a rare shot of that. And that semaphore signal wouldn’t be there for much longer as they were gone by 1956.
