On October 26, 1929, “The Taming of the Shrew” starring Hollywood’s original power couple – Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks – opened at the United Artists Theatre, 929 S. Broadway in downtown LA. It was the first sound version of the play on film and only Pickford’s second talkie, which seems to me like an awfully ambitious project to take on when everyone was still trying to figure out how to make talking pictures. Maybe that’s why the running time was only around 65 minutes – they cut out half the play! But as we can see from this photo, the entrance to the theater looked pretty spectacular at night.
This is how that theater looked in July 2024. As we can see, it’s in excellent, beautifully refurbished condition.
The Brown Derby restaurant at 1628 Vine St being one of the most popular joints in Hollywood, it’s rare to find a photo of it without cars parked out front or people passing by or waiting under the awning. So I do wonder how this photographer managed to pull off the impossible. But it does give us a clear view of the building that compassed not only the restaurant, but the Record Room to the south and the 24-hour coffee shop to the north. Without and vehicles or fashions to narrow down the date of this photo, I’m going to guess sometime in the 1950s because I believe that’s when the coffee shop replaced the part of the building that had once held the Eddie Cantor Gift Shop (yes, that Eddie Cantor) in the 1930s and a liquor store in the 1940s.
In this shot, we’re seeing the premiere of 1946’s highest grossing motion picture, “The Best Years of Our Lives.” It took place at the Palace Theatre at 630 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles on December 25, 1946. I wouldn’t have thought Christmas Day would have been the best time for producer Sam Goldwyn to hold a premiere, but it didn’t hamper his movie’s success. It went on to become the highest grossing picture of 1946 and won most of the Academy Awards it was nominated for.
If the caption on this photo hadn’t said we’re looking west along Hollywood Blvd from Wilcox Ave, I would never have known. Who’d have thought Hollywood Blvd had ever been filled with two-story Victorian homes featuring huge, wraparound balconies and broad, lush front lawns. What a delight it must have been to take a walk around a neighborhood as tranquil as this one. And what a shock the people who lived this houses would get if they saw what the boulevard looked like these days. This photo was taken in 1903, the same year that the Hollywood Hotel opened half a dozen blocks west.
I have to tip my hat to this pair of intrepid motorists. The vehicle they’ve parked outside the headquarters of the Automobile Club of Southern California is a circa 1911 Kelsey Motorette. I don’t know why these guys thought a three-wheeled automobile was a reliable way to get wherever they were headed from the corner of at 8th and Olive Streets in downtown Los Angeles, but the guy behind the wheel—actually it’s just a steering stick—seems fairly confident that he and his buddy is going to get there. This photo was taken in 1912. I can’t imagine there were many sealed roads, so let’s join their crowd of admirers and wish them all the luck in the world.
Honestly, I don’t know what the heck was going on in front of the Gables Beach Club in Santa Monica when this photo was taken some time in the late 1920s. What I can tell is that the Gables Beach Club was the first of its kind built in Santa Monica. It opened in 1926 two blocks north of the California Incline (
The steeply graded road connecting the top of the Santa Monica cliffs to the beach is known as the California Incline. I’m used to it being an always-busy, two-lane roadway with a separated path for pedestrians and cyclists. So it’s a little jarring to see it as just a dirt path leading down to a railway line. The Southern Pacific Railroad operated along those tracks between the Los Angeles and the aptly named Long Wharf, which we can see jutting out into the water. The other major difference is how narrow the beach was back then. These days it’s probably twice a wide.
I was yesterday years old when I learned of The Choo Choo diner. Rosanne S. sent me this photo, asking if I had ever come across it, which I hadn’t. I’m guessing those waitresses took your order and it would arrive via the model train that chugged along the inner perimeter of the counter? It’s a cute idea, but I’m wondering how the train knew whose seat to stop in front of. Or were you expected to grab your plate as it rolled past? The Choo Choo was at 6324 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley. I don’t know when it opened, but it closed in 1962. If this photo is anything to go by, it was a popular place for kids parties, so now I’m imagining the din of excited children. I doubt this was the spot was your best choice if you wanted to go somewhere for a quiet coffee and donut.
Like most downtown areas of large cities, downtown LA is a jungle of high rises, offices, stores, and parking lots. It’s nice to be reminded every now and then of how it used to be, and this photo gives us a taste of that. We’re seeing a home built by successful brick maker, Reuben G. Simons, which stood at 2433 S. Flower St, a few blocks south of Washington Blvd. This photo is dated 1910, by which time he had sold the place to lawyer Wiltcie B. Ames, who appears to have been early adopter of the automobile. (The Automobile Club of Southern California was founded in 1900.) But look at the texture of this home: the arches, those small indented windows, the way the corner of the front room curves toward the ground. It’s really something, if you ask me.
This photo looking north up Broadway from 5th St shows that circa 1908 downtown LA was a lively and bustling place—and also a bit dangerous. Ducking around the streetcars are those new-fangled horseless carriages on roads with neither lanes nor traffic signals. Also, those sidewalks look like they’re packed shoulder to shoulder. Underneath the streetlight that appears to have seven lamps is a mother with a young child and a baby carriage. I hope they all made it safely to the other side of Broadway!