Roy Knabenshue was an aeronautical engineer and aviator, who worked with the Wright brothers, so he was there at the very start of aviation. He was big into dirigibles and was the first person to make a dirigible flight over New York in 1905. In this photo, he’s flying 13 brave and trusting thrill-seekers over the Raymond Hotel in Pasadena in 1913. (The Raymond was popular with Easterners who came to California to escape the brutal winters.) I’d have been very wary going up in that thing. It looks awfully flimsy, if you ask me.
Roy Knabenshue flies his 13-passenger dirigible over the Raymond Hotel, Pasadena, California, 1913
Carpenter’s drive-in restaurant at the corner of Glendale Blvd and Silver Lake Blvd, Glendale, California, circa mid to late 1930s
Going on the 1935 Ford in the foreground, this photo of Carpenter’s drive-in restaurant at the corner of Glendale Blvd and Silver Lake Blvd was taken some time in the mid-to-late 1930s. And it was certainly still around in the mid 1940s when it was used as a location in Warner Bros.’s “Mildred Pierce.” I’m also curious about that tower in the back ground. The Rite Spot was a restaurant, and the two places combined made up what was known as Carpenter’s Village.
** UPDATE ** – The consensus is that Carpenter’s address was 606 E. Colorado Street (not Blvd), which puts it at or near the intersection of Glendale Avenue (not Blvd), in Glendale. My thanks to everyone who chimed in to clarify the location.
The listing for the Garden of Allah Hotel in the Los Angeles Extended Area telephone directory for March 1937
I was recently gifted with four Los Angeles telephone books from the 1930s and ’40s. Naturally, the first thing I looked up was the Garden of Allah Hotel, where my Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels are set. And there it was in the Los Angeles Extended Area telephone directory for March 1937.
Cars line up at the El Patio Auto Laundry and Gas Station, 260 S. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, 1927
We’re so used to the word “car wash” that I think I just assumed they were always called that. But this photo from 1927 shows that they were also called an “auto laundry.” Or, at least, that’s what the El Patio Auto Laundry and Gas Station at 260 S. Vermont Ave called it, and I think I like their version better. It was called “El Patio” because of the large building with the ornate towers on the left. It was the very popular El Patio Ballroom, which was later known as Rainbow Gardens.
These days, that site is a supermarket parking lot. This image is from February 2021.
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The Warner Brothers salary roster for 1937 & 1936, published in “Motion Picture Herald” in 1938
This makes for interesting reading: the Warner Brothers salary roster for 1937 & 1936, published in Motion Picture Herald in 1938. Several people made more money than studio boss, Jack Warner, including Kay Francis. I wonder how he felt about that. Bette Davis’ salary is only mid-range, and Humphrey Bogart didn’t even make the list yet.
The crazy busy intersection of Broadway and 7th St, downtown Los Angeles, 1916
I read somewhere that in 1924, the downtown L.A. intersection of 7th St and Broadway was the busiest in the world with 504,000 people crossing those streets each day. I knew it was a busy intersection, but “busiest in the world”? I found that hard to believe. Until, that is, I came across this photo, from 1916, but if this is what it truly was like on any given day, you’d do anything to avoid it, wouldn’t you? I pity everybody in this photo, but most of all I pity that poor white horse on the right.
What a difference nearly 100 years makes. This is that same intersection in January 2022.
Aerial view of the Automobile Club of Southern California building, Figueroa St., Los Angeles, circa 1930s
The Automobile Club of Southern California building on Figueroa St. south of downtown Los Angeles is a marvelous example highly photogenic architecture, and has often been captured on film over the years. But it’s rare to see a shot taken directly overhead, as this one was sometime in the 1930s. What’s even more interesting is that on its roof is painted the names, distance, and direction of four local airfields: Vail Airfield in Montebello, Griffith Park Aerodrome (which was the California National Guard’s airfield), Clover Field, which later became Santa Monica Airport, and Mines Field, which later became LA International Airport.
This is how the building looks from the air these days (2022.)
This is the building as seen from the street in May 2022.
Transferring mail from an ocean liner to the Goodyear Blimp in Los Angeles Harbor, May 25, 1931
The caption to this photo read “Transferring mail from an ocean liner to the Goodyear Blimp in Los Angeles Harbor” which left me wondering: Was the liner arriving into LA, in which case couldn’t the mail just taken off the ship? Or if the liner was leaving LA, how much mail could they have already accumulated? It seems to me that transferring something like mail from a little row boat to the Goodyear Blimp sounds awfully tricky with an all-too-real danger that the mail might end up in the Pacific.
** UPDATE ** – “20,000 Letters on Ship for Transfer to Blimp” – From the San Pedro News-Pilot, May 25, 1931″
View looking east along Wilshire Blvd from Camden Dr., Beverly Hills circa 1936
I wish Wilshire Blvd still looked this calm and peaceful. We’re looking east along Wilshire from Camden Dr. in Beverly Hills circa 1936. This was before Rodeo Dr. became the mecca of luxury shopping that it later became. Back when this photo was taken, it was just a regular type of street where local Beverlyhillians shopped. The J.J. Haggarty department store on the right is gone, but the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is still with us. Around the middle of the photo, we can see the hat-shaped sign for the Beverly Hills Brown Derby restaurant, which opened at Wilshire and Rodeo in 1931. Its busiest night was Thursday, which was the traditional maid’s night off.
Kinda sorta the same view in January 2021.
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Tagged Beverly Hills, Brown Derby, Hotels, Restaurants, Rodeo Drive, Stores and Shopping, Wilshire Blvd
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Aerial view of Vine St, Gower St, and Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, 1938
Most aerial photos of Los Angeles I find look out across LA or Hollywood or sometimes the San Fernando Valley. So it’s nice to find one that looks directly down. This is from 1938, and those three main north-south streets are Cahuenga Blvd, Vine St, and Gower St. The east-west street at the top of the photo is Santa Monica Blvd, which means that park at the far right is the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (known back then as Hollywood Memorial Park.) And directly to the south of that, we can see the soundstages of Paramount Studios. And on the left are a few open fields. There aren’t many of them left in Hollywood anymore.
This satellite image from 2022 covers much the same area.
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Tagged Aerial photographs, Hollywood, Movie Studios, Paramount Pictures
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