I look at a photo like this – we’re facing north up Spring St from 3rd Street in downtown Los Angeles – and all I can think of is how noisy it must have been. In this 1902 photo we have automobiles sharing the road with horse-drawn wagons, electric streetcars, bicycles, and (brave) pedestrians. Between the bells, klaxons, horns, neighing, clip-clopping, and good old-fashioned shouting, this scene must have been quite the racket in real life.
This is roughly the same view in June 2022. It’s the opposite of the 1902 view. Not a soul in sight!
When Universal Studios moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1915, the studio development – Universal City – was so large that it qualified for its own US Post Office. That’s the building on the left we can see in this photo. On the right is a place I’ve never encountered before, Universal Café. It was run by someone called Curley Robinson, who apparently was a small-time gangster who specialized in pinball and slot machines, so Universal Café sounds a bit shifty if you ask me. That’s circa 1929 Ford Model A parked out front so I’m guessing this photo is circa 1930s.
In 1925, Continental Baking Co. bought Taggert Baking Co. of Indianapolis, Indiana, and took their primary product – Wonder Bread – to the national level. But they had to convince the American public that slicing the bread wouldn’t dry it out. Hence: WONDER-CUT. (“It’s Slo-Baked.” Did slow baking make the bread softer? Fluffier? Longer lasting?) The photo of this promotional truck, fashioned to look like a giant loaf of Wonder-Cut bread, was taken in 1931 outside what was then the Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park which is now part of the California Science Center.
Remember the time when you could motor around Los Angeles in your 1932 Auburn convertible, and you could pull up to a 76 gas station and two cheery, uniformed attendants would fill up your gas, clean your window, check your oil, and send you on your way with a smile and a wave? Yeah, neither do I, but it sure must have been nice. (The woman in the photo is actress Dorothy Christy who has 
Before I came across this photo, I’d never heard of the F & W Grand-Silver stores, but the people in this crowd who have gathered to watch the grand opening in 1931 sure had. The overall look of it reminds me of the JJ Newberry and Woolworths five-and-dimes on Hollywood Blvd, so I guess Grand-Silver were going for the same aesthetic. But they must have been classier because their sign says, “5 – 10c and $1.00” I wonder if they put the “Cut-rate drugs and soda fountain” place next door out of business.
These days, of course, the Hollywoodland development is filled with homes built into every nook, cranny, and canyon of them there hills. But there had to be a very first completed home. Not long after the March 1, 1923 announcement of the Hollywoodland development came the news that the new home of Hearst newspaper columnist Kenneth C. Beaton and his wife would soon be completed at 2716 Woodhaven Dr., which is just around the corner from Hollywoodland Realty Co.’s office, which is the first thing you see as you reach the top of Beachwood Dr. and enter Hollywoodland. This photo shows the Beatons out front of their home in a Studebaker promotion in 1925.
I don’t have a lot of information about this photo other than it was taken in 1931. With all those mothers sitting in the audience, it looks like some sort of children’s show going on a makeshift stage. The sign says “The May Co. Roof Garden Theatre” so I’m assuming those people are on the roof of the May Co flagship department store at 801 S. Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles. And as this was 1931 and the worst of the Depression had really kicked in, I also assume that this was a way of luring housewives to the store. “Put your kid in a show and stay to buy a scarf, a radio, and a new pair of shoes for your talented little darling.”
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.
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.”
