I’m sure Angelenos were glad when the first cable car system opened in Los Angeles. The Second Street Cable Railway started operations in 1885, and ran from 2nd and Spring to 1st and Belmont, a run of around a mile and a quarter, with a power house at Boylston St. But more important to the locals, they no longer had to trudge up the steep incline a Bunker Hill, which must have been a huge relief.
The Second Street Cable Railway running up Spring St’s steep incline, Bunker Hill, downtown Los Angeles, 1898
Color shot of Grauman’s Chinese Theater showing “The Street with No Name,” Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, circa July, 1948
I do enjoy coming across a color photo of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre—even if they’re showing a movie I’d never heard of before. In July 1948, 20th Century-Fox’s “The Street with No Name” had a 3-week run at Grauman’s. This was back when the theater would put up a huge readerboard on the lot to the immediate east of the theater advertising what was playing. It was ever more impressive at night, when the whole thing would light up.
Here’s how that stretch of Hollywood Blvd looked in July 2022.
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Tagged Color photo, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Hollywood Blvd, Theaters
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The United Cigar Company store, 4th and Spring Streets, downtown Los Angeles, 1912
It’s hard to beat a nighttime shot for atmosphere. This is the United Cigar Company store, which stood at 4th and Spring Streets in downtown Los Angeles. It was taken in 1912, just as cars were starting to take over. We can see the silhouette of a wagon wheel on the left. And on the right an elevated police traffic box—though I’m not sure how much attention drivers paid to a cop up there. And in the middle the United Cigar Company boasts the claim that they are “the largest retail cigar dealers in the world.” That’s quite a claim, but they do look very well stocked.
John J says: “The United Cigar company were part of the American Tobacco Company that were broken up by the Sherman anti-trust act in 1911, after which they were not the largest retail cigar dealer. They had two other shops on Spring street. This photo is likely the Fourth street store, which was their first shop from 1906.”
Andrew C says: “The box is a LA Railway control tower. It’s operator controlled the routing at that busy streetcar junction point. There was a similar tower at several major junctions including at 9th and Main.”
I’m not 100% sure that this is the same corner, but this is what the northwest corner of 4th and Spring looked like in June 2022. (And even if it’s the wrong corner, there is no sign of that cigar company on any of the other corners of this intersection.)
Filming the parting of the Red Sea for “The Ten Commandments” at Paramount studios, Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, 1957
Although some of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” did film in Egypt in October through December of 1954, most of the movie was shot at the Paramount lot (March to August 1955) including the famous parting of the Red Sea sequence. There’s Charlton Heston in his red Moses robes with a line of key lights in the background. Meanwhile, much braver extras face swirling waters gushing past them at what looks like quite a force. I hope they got hazard pay that day.
A shot from the finished sequence as it appeared in the movie.
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Tagged Color photo, Movie Stars, Movie Studios, Paramount Pictures
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Aerial shot of the Warner Bros./First National movie studios, Burbank, Los Angeles, 1928
In September 1928, Warner Bros., flush with all their Jazz Singer money, bought the First National studios in Burbank in the San Fernando Valley and relocated their main production facilities there. This aerial photo (we’re looking east, so that’s the LA river on the right) was taken in 1928, so I’m going to guess that this photo was taken after the merger to show people what Warners had just bought. It also shows how empty the surrounding land was back then.
This satellite image is from March 2021, and shows how much the studio has grown since then—and the area around it.
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Movie Studios, San Fernando Valley, Warner Bros.
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Color photo looking east along Wilshire Blvd to the May Co. appliance store, December 1946
Today’s post is a follow-up from yesterday’s post of the aerial shot of Fairfax and Wilshire in 1954 in which I asked what the long, flat building to the east of the department store was. Evidently, not long after the end of WWII, the May Co. dismantled its nursery and in its place built an appliance store, which saved them from having to haul all those heavy Frigidaires upstairs in the main building. The appliance store opened on June 24, 1946, so this photo was taken during that first Christmas season in 1946, complete with trees covered in fake snow.
My thanks to David Ginsburg for tracking down this photo.
This is how that stretch of Wilshire looked in June 2022. The LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) now occupies that site.
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Tagged Color photo, Kodachrome, Stores and Shopping, Wilshire Blvd
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Aerial photo of the intersection of Fairfax Ave and Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, 1954
This aerial photo gives us a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the busy intersection of Fairfax Ave and Wilshire Blvd in 1954. The May Co. department store, which opened in 1940 on the northeast corner, dominated the corner then as it does now. We can see their huge parking lot. The popular Simon’s drive-in that stood on the northwest corner during the 30s and 40s is now gone, and not yet replaced by Johnie’s. On the other side of the May Co, there is a long flat building I don’t recognize—does anybody know what it was?
This is a satellite view of that same intersection in January 2020. The May Co is now the Academy Museum, the Johnie’s building is still there but is now empty, and the flat building is now LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art.)
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Restaurants, Stores and Shopping, Wilshire Blvd
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Open-air cars on the first electric railway along Pico St (later Blvd) in downtown Los Angeles, 1887
I’m glad that someone had a camera on this day back in 1887 when the first electric railway line opened for business on Pico St, in downtown Los Angeles. It wasn’t installed as public transport, but as to assist in sales for a real estate tract. I’m guessing the endeavor was successful because Pico St later got upgraded to Pico Boulevard. It looks like the sides of the cars had striped drapes that could be unfurled and used as a shield from the sun. I can’t imagine these things went very fast, but it sure beat walking!
** UPDATE ** – Per the Los Angeles Historical Museum the line ran from the Plaza to Pico Heights. Started in 1887, the Los Angeles Electric Railway (LAERy) ran the first electric powered streetcars in Los Angeles. It, however, operated only intermittently and frequently one had to wait two hours for a car. Operation was discontinued in the Fall of 1888.
Clipping from the Los Angeles Daily Herald, January 5, 1887:
Color photo of the Big Do-Nut Drive In at the southwest corner of W. Century Blvd and Normandie Ave, Westmont, Los Angeles, 1951
And from the “Let’s Not Be Subtle About It” file comes this color (possibly even Kodachrome) photo of a donut joint called the Big Do-Nut Drive In (although technically it looks more like a drive through.) It opened on July 10, 1950 at the southwest corner of W. Century Blvd and Normandie Ave in the Westmont area of Los Angeles, not far from LAX Airport. This photo was taken in 1951 just as a sleek black 1946 Cadillac was leaving with, I assume, a bag of freshly cooked donuts.
Miraculously, that location is still home to a donut drive-through. Even more miraculously, the giant donut has also survived. So hats off to Kindles Donuts! This image is from April 2022.
Night shot of the Fox Theatre, 300 Diamond St, Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, circa late 1956
The Fox studios sure knew how to build a fancy-looking theater, and also how to light it effectively at night. This was the Fox Theatre at 300 Diamond St in Redondo Beach. “The Eddie Duchin Story” starring Tyrone Power came out in June 1956, and “Pillars of the Sky” starring Jeff Chandler came out in October of that year, so this was probably taken late 1956. Note that fancy scroll work above the marquee, and that huge (what looks to be a) mermaid (mosaic?) that I bet was colorful in real life.
The theater came down in 1973 and in its place is now a liquor store. This image is from July 2022.
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Tagged 20th Century-Fox, Beaches, Night photo, Redondo Beach, Theaters
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