Aerial photo looking south along Western Ave from Sunset Blvd at the William Fox Studios, Los Angeles, 1918

Aerial photo looking south along Western Ave from Sunset Blvd at the William Fox Studios, Los Angeles, 1918In this aerial shot, we’re looking south along Western Ave. The cross street near the bottom of the photo is Sunset Blvd, which means that block with the long buildings is the William Fox movie studios. They were built in 1917, so they were only a year old when this photo was taken in 1918. William Fox was a force to be reckoned with through the silent era, but he suffered huge losses in the stock market crash and by 1930 was no longer studio head. In 1935, the studio merged with 20th Century Pictures to form 20th Century-Fox. Their main lot was in Century City, but through to the 1970s, they maintained this secondary lot. The area was fairly well developed at this point, but there does appear to be a small orchard at the very bottom of this photo.

Tommy D says: “William Fox took over the Thomas Dixon Studios and then expanded to both sides of Sunset Blvd. and Western Ave. on the South. On the Right hand side of this image contained the Glass roofed stages, School, and Commissary.”

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Looking north up Broadway where to a parade is celebrating the dedication of the new City Hall, downtown Los Angeles, April 26, 1928

Looking north up Broadway where to a parade is celebrating the dedication of the new City Hall, downtown Los Angeles, April 26, 1928It’s not often we get to see L.A.’s Broadway from this angle. The photographer was standing on the Chamber of Commerce building, which was next to the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper building. (That’s the “NER” sign we can see on the left.) There’s a parade going up Broadway because on this day, Los Angeles was celebrating their new, instantly iconic City Hall. That was quite a parade because the cross street we can see in this photo is 11th Street and L.A. City Hall is at 1st Street. But it means we can date this photo on City Hall’s dedication day, which was April 26, 1928.

Tony V says: “The Western Pacific Building will bring back bittersweet memories to Baby Boomers. During the Vietnam War, when the draft was major part of life in the USA, the Western Pacific Building was where young men—most of them about 18 years old—reported for their mandatory physicals to evaluate their readiness for military service. All those who ended up being drafted said goodbye to their families and friends here before being sent to Basic Training and two years away from home.

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Interior shot of a very crowded Schwab’s Pharmacy, 8024 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 1948

Interior shot of a very crowded Schwab’s Pharmacy, 8024 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 1948Yesterday, someone sent me this Life magazine photo taken in 1948 from inside a very crowded Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Blvd and asked it was always like this. Never having been to Schwab’s myself, it’s hard for me to say. I do know that for decades it was a very popular place for film industry folks to gather, talk business, and dish the gossip. But I doubt it always quite as busy as this. This is shoulder-to-shoulder, shout-in-my-ear, good-luck-ordering-a-coffee crazy-busy.

** UPDATE ** – This photo was taken during a party hosted by the columnist Sidney Skolsky.

I didn’t expect the auto-colorizer to do such a good job on this one, but it turned out pretty well, don’t you think?

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Looking north up Broadway from 10th Street (now Olympic Blvd), downtown Los Angeles, December 1929

Looking north up Broadway from 10th Street (now Olympic Blvd), downtown Los Angeles, December 1929In this festive scene taken in downtown Los Angeles, we’re looking north up Broadway from 10th Street, which was later renamed Olympic Blvd in honor of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic games. The photo is dated 1929, and from the Christmas lights and bells strung up over Broadway, I think we can safely say it was taken in December. On the left we can see the multi-story Western Costume building in which was housed thousands of rentable costumes used by all the studios. And past it, we can see the blade neon sign for the United Artists Theatre, which had been built in 1927, so it was still fairly new when this shot was taken.

This is roughly the same view in December 2021. Both those buildings I mentioned are still there:

 

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Victorian mansions fill the 200 block of S. Olive St, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1895

Victorian mansions fill the 200 block of S. Olive St, downtown Los Angeles, circa 1895It’s good we’ve got photos like this one to remind us that once upon a time, downtown Los Angeles was filled with grand Victorian mansions. This circa 1895 shot was taken on the 200 block of S. Olive St near the top end of downtown. It must have been a lovely neighborhood to stroll around in back then.

Naturally, all that gentility is long gone, and enormous buildings have replaced it…along with some nice shade trees, so at least there’s that. This image is from December 2021.

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Looking north up Figueroa St past the Automobile Club of Southern California toward W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, 1926

Looking north up Figueroa St past the Automobile Club of Southern California toward W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, 1926

Yesterday’s photo was taken looking west along Adams Blvd from Figueroa St, so today I thought I’d post a photo taken around the corner. In this one, we’re looking north up Figueroa St toward Adams Blvd. On the left is the beautiful Automobile Club of Southern California building, and next to that, across Adams is the St. Vincent Catholic Church. It’s a good thing traffic is so light because look at the road—there are no lanes! I guess you got to drive wherever you wanted. This photo was taken in 1926, as was yesterday’s, so it’s quite possible they were taken on the same day.

As with yesterday’s photo, the auto-colorizer did a great job of bringing this street scene to life.

Looking north up Figueroa St past the Automobile Club of Southern California toward W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, 1926 (colorized)

This is how that same intersection looked February 2022.

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Looking west along Adams Blvd from Figueroa St, south of downtown Los Angeles, 1926

Looking west along Adams Blvd from Figueroa St, south of downtown Los Angeles, 1926Look at how genteel and quiet this view is. We’re peering west along Adams Blvd from Figueroa St, south of downtown Los Angeles and north the USC campus. I love how leafy and green everything is, especially with those young palm trees in the center median strip. This is from 1926, so the Angelenos motoring along Adams Blvd here had three more years of the Roaring Twenties before everything went pear shaped.

I thought the auto-colorizer did a great job of bringing this scene to life.

Looking west along Adams Blvd from Figueroa St, south of downtown Los Angeles, 1926 (colorized)

I’m not entirely sure I’ve got the right stretch of Adams Blvd, but this is what it looks like face west from Figueroa, with the AAA headquarters on the left. This image is from January 2022.

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Color shot of the offramp to the Hollywood Bowl from the Hollywood Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass, Los Angeles, circa early 1940s

Color shot of the offramp to the Hollywood Bowl from the Hollywood Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass, Los Angeles, circa early 1940sIf L.A.’s freeways still looked like this, I’d probably be inclined to take them more often. We’re looking west up the Hollywood Freeway as it heads into the Cahuenga Pass. Traffic is remarkably light, so I’m guessing this photo was taken not long after this stretch of the 101 opened in June of 1940. In the left-center of the photo, we can see the “Muse of Music, Dance, Drama,” which is the 200-foot long, 22-foot high sculpture at the front of the Hollywood Blvd that was a Depression-era Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project installed in 1939.

** UPDATE ** – The consensus on social media is that this photo was taken after 1952 because there are not streetcar tracks running up the middle of the freeway.

Here’s a lovely photo I found of the “Muse of Music, Dance, Drama” on the Hollywood Bowl website.

Here is a January 2020 satellite photo of that same area.

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Aerial shot looking east along Wilshire Blvd across the San Vicente Blvd intersection, Los Angeles, 1930

Aerial shot looking east along Wilshire Blvd across the San Vicente Blvd intersection, Los Angeles, 1930In this rather stunning aerial view, we’re looking east along Wilshire Blvd. The cross street around cutting through the middle of the image is San Vicente Blvd, which means the street running along the bottom of the photo is La Cienega Blvd, and so the oval on the triangular plot of land is La Cienega Park. If you run your eye directly up from the park you’ll see a large white building. That’s the Carthay Circle Theatre, where many a splashy Hollywood premiere took place. This shot was taken in 1930 when the area was becoming quite developed—in fact, more than I would have thought, but there’s still a lot of empty land…but not for long!

That same area in 2022. As we can see, those oil wells have all gone and a lot more buildings line Wilshire Blvd.

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Aerial photo of Warner Bros movie studios, Burbank, California, 1933

Aerial photo of Warner Bros movie studios, Burbank, California, 1933This aerial shot gives us a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the Warner Bros. movie studios in Burbank in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. This was taken in 1933, which means they could have been filming “42nd Street” or “Gold Diggers of 1933” at the time. The top half of the lot is home to their extensive backlot where they could recreate anything from sailing ships to Sing Sing. The bottom half is filled with their 7 or 8 soundstage. One of them has the word “Mines” painted on its roof. It’s there to tell pilots that if they’re looking for Mines Field airport, it’s thataway. Today, Mines Field is known as L.A. International Airport.

This is how the Warner Bros. lot looked in March 2021. Obviously they have a lot more soundstages now!

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