Here we have a shot of Hollywood history in the making. When the Warner Bros. first moved west to California, they built a filming stage on a block of land at 5800 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, which puts it between Bronson and Van Ness Aves. It opened around 1920, so I’m guessing this shot is circa 1919 (especially as that car parked out front is a circa 1918 Scripps-Booth.) So what we’re seeing here is the birth of Warner Bros. west coast filming, which is pretty neat, if you ask me.
This is what The Barn looked like when it was finished. This shot is from circa 1920:
The Barn is no longer around, but the location developed into a much more sophisticated studio lot and was where “The Jazz Singer” was filmed. These days, it’s known as the Sunset Bronson Studio, and is home to KTLA 5 Television.
There are many things to like about this 1945 photo of Herbert’s drive-in restaurant on the southeast corner of Beverly Blvd and Fairfax Ave: The HERBERTS blade sign, the shiny pre-war cars that people were still driving because automobile production was halted for the duration of the war, the falling dusk in the background. But I especially love the concentric circles of neon on the underside of the overhang, and how they’re reflected in the cars’ paint jobs.
As far as I can tell, the Venice Beach Bath House stood at the Ocean Park end of Venice Beach. It was quite a big deal when it opened for business on June 21, 1908 at a cost of $100,000. (More than $3 million in today’s money.) The place featured a 100 x 150 foot heated salt water pool that could accommodate 2000 bathers as well as a plunge. This photo is undated but the place is looking a little worse for wear, so I’m going to guess maybe circa 1950s? I’m not 100% sure what “Bridgo” was, but one site implied that it was some sort of card parlor where people played Bridge? Like for money? If anyone out there knows for sure, let us know in the comments.
It must have been a very big deal for a city to hold a Shriner convention because whenever I see vintage photos of LA welcoming the Shriners, it’s all decked out. In the case of this 1929 photo, the JW Robinson department store mounted an elaborate display over their main entrance at 600 7th Street with palm trees and a camel with a driver. (The full name for the Shriners is the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, so the aesthetic is all very Arabian/Middle Eastern-y.) It looks like it was all in white, which probably made it all the more striking.
Before they merged with Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to become Metro-Goldwyn (L.B. Mayer didn’t get his name added until a year later) Metro Pictures had a four-block studio lot in Hollywood at Romaine St. and Cahuenga Blvd, which opened in 1920. Here we have a photo of its main entrance at 6300 Romaine. It’s interesting to see the Metro logo, which looks quite modern, especially in contrast with those classical columns and Grecian urns on the front steps. In 2021, I posted 
I could find no information on this photo other than these eager window shoppers were gathered outside a Robinson’s department store somewhere in Los Angeles (probably downtown LA, but the looks of it) in 1933. It makes me wonder what was going on that made people swarm the windows like that. The first Roosevelt inauguration—the one where he said, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”—was in March 1933. Maybe there were listening to the broadcast? Or maybe it was just a Dollar Day sale. Whatever was going on, it was causing quite the stir and brought people together in ways we don’t see anymore.
The caption on this photo read: “May Company Department Store golden jubilee, 8th Street and Broadway, 1931” but the May Co was founded in 1877, so their golden jubilee would have been in 1927. So I’m not really sure when this photo was taken, but I can say for sure that it’s a gorgeous image capturing a bygone age we’ll never see again. And the straw hats on those horses are pretty darned cute.
The movie studios were (and still are) so vast that they’re almost cities unto themselves, with their own post office, fire department, police force, and power generators. Universal Pictures went one step further and called their studio lot Universal City. The caption for this shot of the backlot said it was taken circa 1915, which was the year the studio was founded. I’d say it was a little later because that backlot looks very developed for a nascent studio. Regardless of the specific year, we can see how those sets looked from the rear. The large one on the right was probably a castle, fort, or palace, but in reality, it’s just a bunch of wooden scaffolding.
The Hollywood Hotel stood on the northwest corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave from February 1903 to August 1956, and for most of those 53 years, it was a Hollywood landmark. But it was also a place that was usually photographed in black and white, so to find a color shot is always a joy. This one was taken in 1954, when it was only a couple of years away from facing the wrecking ball. It would have started to fall into disrepair by now, and unable to compete with other, newer hotels who were able to offer private bathrooms. However, in this photo at least, she still looks like a grand old dame, if you ask me.