This sparse photo gives us an idea of the size of the Mulholland Dam that keeps Lake Hollywood in place up in the Hollywood Hills. Without that guy sitting there, they could look like regular steps. We can no longer see them because they’re now covered with tons of earth, which were added to reinforce the dam after the catastrophic failure of the St. Francis Dam farther north in Santa Clarita in 1928.
Mary M says: “They added 20 feet to the St, Francis dam without adding to the bottom and foundation which caused the problem. This was built as planned.”
This 2020 satellite photo shows us what the dam looks like now:
This color photo was taken across the street from the Warner Bros. Theatre at 6433 Hollywood Blvd during the run of “This is Cinerama.” The game-changing widescreen format made its New York debut on September 30, 1952 with the movie “This is Cinerama.” The movie opened at this cinema on April 29, 1953. The marquee behind the people in the foreground says it was playing it’s “2nd record breaking year” so I’m putting this photo at 1953. But oh, look at the buffet of 1950s cars on Hollywood Blvd!
In this photo, we’re looking southwest toward Hollywood along the Hollywood Freeway as it stakes through the Cahuenga Pass. This photo was dated at 1940, and as this stretch of the Hollywood Freeway (aka “the 101”) opened to the public on June 15, 1940, I’m guessing that the photo was taken not long after the freeway opened. This would explain why there are so few cars. The 101 is the main freeway into downtown Los Angeles, so these days it’s nearly always packed. As a frequent user of this freeway, it’s actually quite shocking to see it this empty. Those tracks running down the center were for the streetcars and that bridge is the Mulholland Drive overpass.
Los Angeles’s post-WWII decentralization gave Angelenos countless areas to shop without having to traipse into downtown L.A. where all the big (and tons of smaller) stores were. But during before then, downtown was lively bustling place, as this photo shows. It was taken in December 1937, so the people crowding the sidewalks of Broadway were doing their Christmas shopping. I bet the streetcars were uncomfortably crowded with packages that day.
Wilshire Blvd has long been an important east-west cross-town thoroughfare for Los Angeles, and in places quite scenic, like this stretch, for instance. In this photo, we’re looking west along Wilshire from Alvarado St just outside of downtown. All those trees in the distance are clustered around MacArthur Park. This photo was taken in 1940 and wouldn’t be renamed MacArthur Park (after General Douglas MacArthur) until 1942, when the US was embroiled in WWII and MacArthur was leading the battle against the Japanese in the Philippines. On the right we can see a sign for a Sontag drug store, which we don’t see any more but back then was a common sight around L.A.
It looks like that in the early days after UCLA moved from Vermont Ave to Westwood, the parking situation was “You can park in that field, or in that dirt lot behind it, or pretty much anywhere you like, really.” UCLA moved in 1929 and this photo was taken 1932, so I think of this era as its Wild West period: there is some civilization with those gorgeous buildings completed, a few streetlamps, and a bit of fencing, but apart from that, you’re free to do whatever you like.
This photo proves that shadow can be as necessary as light to create a striking image. This one was taken at the entrance to the Olympic Drive-in which stood at 12109 W. Olympic Blvd. I love how the lights reflect off the shiny cars pouring into the drive-in. The photo was taken in 1951, so now I’m wondering what these people were going to see: Quo Vadis? Show Boat? The African Queen? An American in Paris?
This shot of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre taken from across Hollywood Blvd is from 1929, so it’s within a couple of years of the May 1927 opening when you could still find parking right outside the front door. What luxury! Those people looking at the handprints in the concrete would have been gathered a forecourt with a lot more room for fresh prints. And this was long before they installed a long, red marquee stretching from the door to the sidewalk.
This stunning aerial shot is a Los Angeles two-fer: two L.A. icons in one shot—the Goodyear blimp flying over the Hollywood Bowl. This shot gives us a better view of the natural amphitheater in which the Bowl sits, and all those parking lots behind it (which I think is now used for performers and crews, but I might be wrong about that.) This shot was taken on September 24, 1932, so it also gives us a glimpse into what pre-freeway Hollywood looked like. These days the Hollywood Freeway rampages through the area shown here on the far left of the image.
From Dave DeCaro’s always-interesting website comes this striking genuine photo from 1954 of the Hollywood Hotel as seen from the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. It was taken during the holiday season, which is why that white metal electric Christmas tree is out front. In photos like this we can appreciate how red the tiles on the hotel’s roof were. In real life, they must have been quite striking and visible from miles around, especially from the air.