In this slice-of-life shot, we’re seeing a busy downtown Los Angeles during the Christmas rush of 1940. We’re looking east along 7th St through the intersection of Grand St, where two types of streetcars are lining up along 7th Street to take Angelenos with their bundles home to wrap their presents. In fact, it looks like a mini traffic jam is happening. Cars going in both directions have entered the intersection, plus streetcars, plus pedestrians, and the only thing controlling the flow is that two-light semaphore traffic signal!
Much the same view in January 2022, when things were a tad more calm than they were back in 1940:
This circa 1930s photo of the Ham Tree Inn restaurant at 6139 Washington Blvd, Culver City, caught my eye for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that ornamental tower has an unusual shape that makes it quite eye-catching, which I assume was the point. And secondly, that tree out front—are there really wrapped legs of ham hanging from its branches? (Or at least fake ones.) This place specialized in baked ham dinners (an alternative take on Mildred Pierce’s chicken dinners?) so I guess it was their way of advertising to passers-by. I’ve certainly never encountered anything like that before.
In this (genuine) color photo, we’re looking west along the north side of Hollywood Blvd from around Cahuenga Blvd. This was taken in 1966, and by then the Warner Bros.-owned KFWB radio station had moved from the old Warner’s lot on Sunset Blvd to 6419 Hollywood Blvd, next to the Warner Theatre. To the far right we can see a Coffee Dan’s location. Parked out front is a nifty red-and-white roadster that would have been fun to zoom around town in.
I recently posted a photo of Western Ave in 1918 showing the 
This photo of the Hollywood Freeway from February 1948 has two very rare elements. Firstly, all four southbound lanes are completely empty. Cahuenga Blvd has a fair bit of traffic on it, so I’m guessing those lanes have been blocked off, probably because of all that white stuff covering the ground. It’s called “snow” and apparently it’s quite cold and falls from the sky on Los Angeles about once every ten years, kind of like rain, although I barely recall what that looks like anymore, so it’s all just theoretical at this point.
I love any vintage shot with a semaphore traffic signal, and in this one from 1948, we get two. The photographer was standing on the driveway leading out of the building on the corner of 5th and Grand Streets in downtown Los Angeles. The Southern California Edison building is now there, so that driveway is long gone, as is, unfortunately, Simon’s soda fountain shop on the opposite corner. In the background, the building with the arches is the Biltmore Theatre, which stood next to the Biltmore Hotel from 1924 to 1964. The space where it stood is now occupied by the Biltmore office tower, but that pale-brick contrasting on the hotel’s west corner is still in place
I do love coming across a striking night photo, and this one is a prime example. This one is of a Union Pacific railroad ticket office sandwiched between a Florsheim shoe store and a drug store. It was at 144 Pine Ave in Long Beach, which Union Pacific moved into on October 1, 1939, so I’m assuming this photo was taken some time after that. They took the trouble to include “The Progressive” in their signage – I wonder if that was part of their company motto? And I especially love the silhouetted lettering above the window: “Road of The Streamliners and The Challengers.”
When I first saw this photo taken outside the Melody Lane restaurant on the Hollywood and Vine intersection, I assumed it was taken on V-J Day, celebrating the end of WWII. But then I saw the bleachers set up with its back to Melody Lane which meant it was facing the Taft Building on the southeast corner. A little digging revealed that these people were part of the estimated 25,000-person crowd who showed up on Tuesday, August 6, 1946 to witness the unveiling of the Trans-Lux Flashcast news ribbon mounted on the Taft. It was owned by local radio station KFWB (which itself was owned by Warner Bros.) and was a big deal because it was the first moving news ribbon sign in the west. According to one report I found, the list of luminaries in attendance included: California Governor Warren, L.A. Mayor Bowron, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Tom Breneman, the Earl Carroll Showgirls, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Trigger, Hedda Hopper, and a score of (Warner Bros. I assume) film stars.
This rather stunning shot gives us a panoramic view of Hollywood taken so high in the air that we can even see the San Fernando Valley behind Mt. Hollywood. For a photo taken more than eighty years ago and from such a great height, it’s remarkable how many details we can pick out. Apart from the Hollywoodland sign, we can see the towers of the Hollywood First National Bank building at Hollywood and Highland, and the Hollywood United Methodist Church farther north. We can also see the Taft Building and The Broadway department store at Hollywood and Vine. And around the center of the photo, the Cahuenga Pass heads towards the valley in a pre-freeway Los Angeles.