The concept of drivers pumping their own gas was unknown until Gilmore Oil opened their self-serve gas station near Farmer’s Market at the corner of Third St and Fairfax Ave in 1948. I don’t know if they came up with the catchy name of “Gas-A-Teria” or some wisenheimer did as he was pumping his gas, but the nickname caught on. In order to encourage drivers to do what they were used to other people doing for them, Gilmore offered their customers a 5-cent-per-gallon discount. It did the trick as we can see from this circa late 40s photo.
Gilmore Oil’s innovative Gas-A-Teria self-serve gas station near Farmer’s Market, corner of Third St and Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, circa late 1940s
Interior shot of a very crowded Schwab’s Pharmacy, 8024 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, 1945
When someone recently sent me this interior shot of Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd, they asked me if I thought that was Dick Haymes with his hands on Sidney Skolsky’s shoulders at the center of photo. I don’t know if that’s Haymes, but it looks like Skolsky to me. (Sidney Skolsky well-known column “From A Stool at Schwab’s” appeared in Photoplay magazine.) At any rate, it shows us how popular Schwab’s was. At one spot the crowd at the counter is three people deep and spills over into the retail area. I bet the energy in there was a tonic for people enduring the grind of trying to make it in Hollywood.
The auto-colorizer did a pretty good job of bring this vibrant scene to life.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Restaurants, Schwab's Pharmacy, Stores and Shopping, Sunset Blvd
Leave a comment
Looking east along E. Ocean Blvd toward the Villa Riviera Hotel, Long Beach, 1934
In this photo, we’re looking east along E. Ocean Blvd toward the 16-story Villa Riviera Hotel in Long Beach. At one time, Joseph M. Schenck of 20th Century-Fox studios and his movie-star wife Norma Talmadge, owned the hotel. The photo was taken in 1934, less than a year after a huge earthquake rocked the entire Long Beach area. Although shaken violently, the hotel sustained no worse damage than a few cracks and falling plaster. What strikes me about this photo—apart from the charming if somewhat lopsided streetlights—is the lack of lanes painted on the road. Looks like a perfect recipe for a multi-car accident, if you ask me.
** UPDATE ** – David J on Facebook supplied this photo, saying: “The steel frame structure is buried deep in bedrock, borrowing from Japanese innovations in earthquake-resistant architecture.”
The Villa Riviera is still there, having converted to condos in 1991. This image is dated February 2023 and as we can see the area around the building is now filled with high-rises and tall palm trees.
Color photo of a 1956 Dodge Custom Royale parked in front of Disneyland, Anaheim, California, circa mid 1950s
From the always-interesting Shorpy website comes this color-popping shot of a 1956 Dodge Custom Royale parked directly in front of the entrance to Disneyland. Disney’s theme park opened in 1955 so it was still fairly new when this shot was taken. Long gone are the days when you could just drive up to the entrance and drop people off. (Oh boy, wouldn’t it be great if we could still do that?) In fact, could we ever? This photo looks like “movie parking” – when Doris Day needs to go to Bergdorf’s, bingo, she finds a parking spot right out front – so maybe this was an advertising photo for Dodge. What do you think?
** UPDATE ** – This Kodachrome photo was taken by Maurice Terrell.
Tammy B says: “Definitely a drop-off zone! I went here as a little girl in the 60’s and we’d get dropped off here or sometimes park and either take the trams in or walk if our parking spot was closer. I loved it when we parked in the Tinkerbell or Minnie Mouse areas. In the Indiana Jones queue you can see an Eeyore sign as a homage to the fact the queue sits on what was his parking area.”
Maggie CK says: “My MIL’s family built and owned the Alamo Motel just south of Disneyland. They would come inside the park on most weekdays to do their banking at the bank on Main Street (visible in the background, to the right of the train station). Having grown up a few blocks away, I remember these days fondly, and I definitely can recall the entrance looking like that. You can still drop people off at a plaza east of the entrance, but they’ll definitely have a bit longer walk. My kids grew up walking in from the parking lot out front (where DCA is now). Even as toddlers, we rarely used a stroller for them. They slept very well at night.”
A horse and carriage wait outside the elaborate Glendale Hotel, Broadway, Glendale, circa 1890s
In the late 1880s, the Glendale Hotel opened on Broadway in Glendale. It was built in the popular late-Victorian style – very elaborate with lots of levels and planes and detailing. I don’t have a date on this one, but there appears to be very little landscaping around the hotel, so I’m guessing it was taken in the 1890s. That horse-driven carriage seems to be from that era, too. It doesn’t look too comfortable so wherever those people were going I hope it wasn’t too far. In 1922 the hotel became the Glendale Sanitarium.
Andie P. says: “The vehicle is a “buckboard” – no metal axel springs, only “springy” boards between the axle mounts and the bottom of the wagon body – flat bottomed and could easily be converted from freight to passenger with up to three rows of double seats that could carry 2 or 3 persons, depending on size, on each seat, including the driver on the front seat. The front wheels were smaller than the rear wheels. The ride over rough ground was uncomfortable. One type of buckboard was the “surrey” in the U.S. Any of these could be open or covered. My grandpa owned several antique carriages, coach type, “sporting carriages,” buggies, as well as buckboards. My cousins and I often played with them, later drove them.”
Beverly Wilshire Hotel, 9500 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, 1937
When the Beverly Wilshire Hotel opened at 9500 Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills on January 14, 1928, it was known as the “Beverly Wilshire Apartment Hotel” and operated as an apartment building not a hotel as we conceived hotels today. Back then, Beverly Hills’ population was less than 18,000 (it’s currently around 32,000) and nearby Rodeo Dr. was decades away from being the famous commercial strip it is today. Built on the site of the former Beverly Hills Speedway, it opened just a year and a half before the stock market crash, so it’s lucky to have survived the Great Depression (movie money may have had something to do with that.) This image was taken in 1937, by which time it had weathered the worst of the worst and was on its way to becoming the landmark hotel is today. And yes, it’s often referred to as “the Pretty Woman hotel” as this is where Richard Gere was living when he picked up Julia Roberts.
John J says: “The Los Angeles Speedway was south of Charleville blvd., and not under the hotel. Maybe the confusion comes from the entrance being on Speedway Drive, now El Camino?”
This is how the hotel looked in December 2022. Those colorful awnings are changed every season.
Color photo of NBC Studios on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Vine St, Hollywood, circa mid-1950s
In yesterday’s photo of the RCA Victor building on Vine Street, it was hard to get a bead on where exactly it stood. Google Maps puts 1510 Vine just north of the corner of Sunset and Vine but the NBC studios took up most of that block. And then I was sent this photo of the NBC studios in the mid-1950s and if we look at the extreme left, we can juuuust see the red “RCA VICTOR” sign of the white building sitting on the corner of Vine and Selma. We can also see that by the time this photo was taken, NBC had fully transitioned the studios from radio to television. And aside from all that, it’s just great to see a color photo of the Sunset-and-Vine corner.
And in this circa early 1940s photo, we’re looking south down Vine Street along the NBC studios. It shows how far the building extended north of the Sunset and Vine intersection.
Color photo of a circa 1952 Buick outside the RCA Victor building at 1510 N. Vine St, Hollywood, just north of the NBC Studios on Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, circa mid-1950s
I’m not sure what I like most about this photo of the RCA Victor building at 1510 Vine St in Hollywood, just north of Sunset Blvd. Is it sight of little Nipper? Or is it the circa 1952 Buick stopped in traffic out front? Or is it (what looks to be like) the miniature plane inside a glass bottle which appears to be a promo for the “Truth or Consequences” radio program that ran from 1940 to 1957?
** UPDATE ** – Tommy D says: “This building was on the Selma Ave. & Vine St. This site is where the Jacob Stern Ranch barn was and housed Famous Players Lasky, and is currently the Hollywood Heritage Barn on Highland.”
and Mark T says: “The green lawn here was where the Lasky Barn was originally located before it was moved to the Paramount lot. This is renowned as the studio where Cecil B. DeMille filmed The Squaw Man, the first feature film in 1914. This building is now the headquarters of the Hollywood Heritage group and is across the street from the Hollywood Bowl.”
and Mark J D says: “Jack Bailey was the host of “Truth Or Consequences” from 1954-1956, you can see his name on the banner. So that dates this photo to around 1955. The airplane model resembles a Bell X-1A test plane, which began flying in 1953.”
RCA Victor was in that building from March 1959 to April 1964 before relocating to 6363 Sunset Blvd. So the building in the vintage photo is long gone, as is the side street on whose corner it once stood. As best as I can estimate, this is that location. This image is May 2022.
Color photo looking north up Vine St toward the Sunset Blvd intersection, Hollywood, 1962
In this glorious color photo, we’re looking north up Vine St in Hollywood. The cross street ahead of us is Sunset Blvd where the NBC studios were still standing on the northeast corner. The photo was taken in 1962, by which time NBC had converted their radio studios to television. A couple of years later those studios would be gone altogether. At the extreme right side of the frame, we can see the sign for Stan’s drive-in restaurant. I don’t know when it closed, but I suspect it didn’t last much longer, either.
** UPDATE ** – Glen N says: “If this was 1962, we should see the “5-Star” streetlights North of Sunset. They were installed along that stretch of Vine from 1960-61. But, they’re not here in this photo–dating it to around 1960. Maybe the cars provide a hint?”
This is that same view in May 2022. Vine St is more crowded these days, but those shade trees are a welcome addition.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Color photo, Hollywood, NBC Radio / Television, Restaurants, Sunset Blvd
1 Comment
Looking northwest from Temple St between Broadway and Spring St, downtown Los Angeles, 1892
No matter how many photos I see of downtown Los Angeles in the 1890s, I will always be amazed at how spread out and low-key and quiet it was before the discovery of oil and the development of the movies. In this photo, we’re looking northwest from Temple St between Broadway and Spring St in 1892. There are still many homes in the area, but commercial buildings like the one in the foreground have started to dominate. The large building in the right-hand background with the tower was LA’s second city hall and would be replaced by the now-iconic Los Angeles City Hall in 1928.