The Bullocks Wilshire department store opened at 3050 Wilshire Blvd in September 1929 (a month before the stock market crashed—timing is everything!) It was the first store of its type to intentionally cater to what was then called “the carriage trade” which meant “shoppers with their own cars” (as against “shoppers who rode on streetcars.”) This 1938 photo from Life magazine shows us three Bullocks shoppers lining up to part with their cash. The store had a wonderful system whereby when customers bought an item, they didn’t have to lug it around the store with them; it would be taken directly to their car. How civilized!
You can’t see the incredible mural on the underside of the portico in the vintage photo, so here are the photos I took when I was there in June 2018.
This 1961 photograph by William Claxton is reeking with atmosphere. It was taken at Audrey’s Hotdog stand at the corner of Olympic Blvd and Alvarado St at 3am when the glamorous couple in the foreground had obviously been to some swanky soiree and needed a little nosh on the way home. Maybe they’d been dancing all night and had worked up a hunger. I’ll bet that girl had tamales, otherwise she was taking a big chance of spilling ketchup or mustard on her ballgown.
You’d never know it, but these six people were picking poppies at what is now around the intersection of Woodbury Rd and Lake Ave in Altadena, north of Pasadena. I don’t know if this was a poppy farm or these people were randomly picking poppies because there was nobody around to stop them…except perhaps the people in the horse-drawn buggy in the background. This photo was taken in 1895, so naturally these people were dressed from neck to ankle in layers of Victorian clothing—not exactly comfy gardening wear, if you ask me.
In 1940, it was decided that the Hollywood Public Library should be moved from its current location at 6357 Hollywood Blvd to 1623 Ivar Ave—so they picked it up and moved it! It looks so stripped down that I have to wonder if it was worth the effort. Wouldn’t it have been easier to start from scratch? According to one report I found, the cost of the whole operation was $72,000, so maybe it was the cheaper option. In the background, we can see the Broadway-Hollywood department store on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. It’s still there, but is now a loft apartment building.
I don’t normally post vintage photos as late as 1970, but the Brown Derby is an exception to the rule. This is the original, hat-shaped Derby that stood on the northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd and Alexandria Ave from 1937 to 1980. That’s a 1969 Buick Skylark, so I’m guessing this photo is circa 1970 and had another 10 years before it abruptly closed.]
This natty group of Angelenos was photographed beside a Pacific Electric streetcar on what was known as the Santa Monica Air Line, which was took people from the Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main Streets in downtown Los Angeles, to Santa Monica via Culver City. (Most of the route is now used by the Metro E Line.) The line was in operation from 1909 to 1953. This photo was taken circa 1909, so these people may have been among the first passengers. The streetcar has “U.S. MAIL” emblazoned across the front, which makes me wonder if it was also carrying the mail out to the beach.
Yes, perhaps Los Angeles had outgrown it, and yes, perhaps it hadn’t been maintained well, or perhaps it was damaged by the Long Beach earthquake of 1933, but still, it’s a shame this magnificent building is no longer with us. It’s the Old County Courthouse at the corner of Temple Street and Broadway in downtown L.A., circa 1900. It really must have been a sight to see at the time.
In this aerial photo, we’re looking north across Hollywood from roughly the intersection Ivar and De Longpre Avenues. That circular structure in the foreground is the construction site of the Cinerama Dome theater, which was announced in February 1963 and opened in November with the premiere of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” It’s still there, as is the building on the north side of Sunset, which is also under construction. And the black tower at Sunset and Vine St is also still there, albeit with the shiny glass makeover it received a few years ago.
In this aerial photograph from circa 1928, we’re looking north across West Hollywood from Third Street. (Robertson Blvd is the main road on the left that takes a sharp angle northwest.) As we can see, there was still a lot of empty land in this part of Los Angeles. That main compound in the foreground was the Los Angeles Riding Academy, where Angelenos learned how to ride horses, and—I assume—where they stabled them. It looks like it covered quite a few acres, but it’s hard for me to imagine riding horses around L.A., especially as that same plot of land is now home to the sprawling Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. 
From the always-interesting Davelandweb site comes this color photo of Union Station at the edge of downtown in 1950. What I like about this photo is that the railway station looks practically the same now as it did back then. The main difference is that the palm trees are taller. I also like that car on the right. It’s not all sparkling and shiny new like in a 2022 movie set in 1950, but looks like it had a lot of miles on it and has gathered some rust along the way.