Los Angeles: Snapshots of the 1940s

Los Angeles: Snapshots of the 1940s.

Above photo: An aerial view of city hall in 1940.

 

Another view of City Hall, circa 1940.

Photographer: Ansel Adams/ LAPL 00085775

 

The Westjoy Dance Studios at 8844 Wilshire Blvd. in 1940.

Photographer: Ansel Adams/ LAPL 00085728)

 

A section of Sunset Boulevard (renamed Cesar Chavez in 1994) in downtown Los Angeles. To the right is N. Spring Street. Date: 1940 (LAPL)

 

Night view of Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory, circa 1940.

 

Photo was taken by Ansel Adams in 1940. To the left is the Hotel Broadway at 205 S. Broadway. (LAPL 00085773)

To read about Court Flight‘s history, click here:http://onbunkerhill.org/court_flight#.VCLj9_ldXgs

 

 

Sunset Boulevard facing west from Palm Ave., circa July of 1940. (LAPL 00039538)

 

A man walks past the entrance to Schaber’s Cafeteria. Behind him is the May Diamond Co. “The Store of Happiness” at 618 S. Broadway. Behind the May Diamond Co. is Desmond’s (now a Payless Shoes Store). I’m guessing this photo was taken around 1940.

 

Photo was taken outside of the former Silver Lion Café located at 507 S. Front Street (now Harbor Blvd) in San Pedro. The Greek-owned restaurant was originally named the Gold Lion when it opened in 1918 and the original owner was Peter Kyriax. The Silver Lion suffered extensive damage in 1933 from the Long Beach earthquake. Judging from this 1940 photo, business was alive and well; however, don’t expect to eat at the Silver Lion today. The cafe is long gone.

 

The Cole Bros. Circus arriving for a week-long engagement in late September of 1940.

 

The Trailer Garden at Mission Village, a trailer park once located at 5675 W. Washington Blvd. Photo, circa 1940.

 

The intersection of 12th and Main Streets in December 1940. (LAPL 00043346)

 

Pounding waves wreaking havoc on oceanfront properties along Redondo Beach in December of 1940. (LAPL 00043322)

 

A stalled car on Venice Blvd. at Greenfield Street near Culver City. Heavy rains flooded that section around Christmas 1940. (LAPL 00043325)

 

 

The intersection of Beverly Blvd. and Bonner Drive in 1941. (LAPL: 00104367)

 

A Palco hat display at Bullock’s Wilshire (3050 Wilshire Boulevard) in 1941. Photo: California State Library

 

The Ben-Hur Delicious Drip Coffee Cafe in Alhambra gets an unwelcome surprise after a vehicle loses control and crashes into it in 1941. Four people were injured. The coffee shop’s address was 2969 Valley Boulevard. (LAPL: 00073540)

 

A 1941 view of an old eatery called McDonnell’s Fairfax (near the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax), featuring “Chicken in the Rough.”

 

Construction on the Arroyo Seco Freeway through Elysian Park in 1941. Seen are the Figueroa Street Tunnel and the Park Lane Bridge (in the background). LAPL 00075981

 

 

 

A busy day in downtown Los Angeles circa 1942. The Cutts Building (now the Great Western Building) is at 706 South Hill Street. Simon’s Restaurant (now a Chinese eatery called Wow Bowl) is at 712 S. Hill. The wording on the far right reads “Spreckels Building 714 South Hill.”

 

A chance meeting in front of the Dotty Dunn Store at 716 S. Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles in 1942.

 

Wilshire and Vermont in April of 1942 (LAPL)

 

Two women were probably crossing Wilshire and Western when this photo was taken. Keller and Grant Real Estate were on the northwest corner of the intersection.

 

Shoppers at the downtown May Co. department store (8th and Hill Streets) in 1942. (LAPL 00064407)

 

A new housing tract in Westchester, circa 1942 (Huntington Library)

 

High school girls in the Victory Corp. practice their marksmanship in a Roosevelt High School hallway. Photo: August 1942.

 

Berger’s Cafe at 101 W. 6th Street. It was in business in 1942.

 

A novelty photo was taken in New Chinatown, circa 1943.

 

A couple of nice tomatoes at the Farmers Market, located on the corner of 3rd and Fairfax in Los Angeles.

 

A newspaper boy in Los Angeles. Taken in 1943. Photo by Edmund Teske.

 

Armed forces celebrating Thanksgiving somewhere in Los Angeles, circa 1943. (LAPL 00044070)

 

The Vermont Drive-In opened in 1944 and was demolished decades later in 1999. Its address was 17737 S. Vermont Ave. in the City of Gardena. (LAPL: 00015503)

 

Snow in Eagle Rock, circa January of 1945. The photo was taken on the 1800 block of Chickasaw Avenue. (LAPL 00049771)

 

Oh, if only it were that “Easy”…but the street is actually located between Highland Park and South Pasadena.

 

Orlando Ave looking at Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. Photo from the 1940s.

 

Photo taken from the rearview window of an automobile in the 1940s. The street block is an unidentified section of Los Angeles.

 

 

 

A Los Angeles streetcar, circa mid-1940s. The sign reads “W. 6th & Larchmont to Melrose.”

 

Lucas Kiddieland (also known as Beverly Park) in 1945, the year it opened.

The land used to be part of an oil field at La Cienega and Beverly Blvd. until it was leased for development.

The amusement park closed in 1974. Beverly Center now occupies the site.

 

Celebrating V-J Day on August 14, 1945, in downtown Los Angeles.

 

From April of 1946: “Another marvel of modern science, the radio-telephone, is shown when it was demonstrated on the roof of the Southern California Telephone Co.’s main office. The new device will augment the telephonic facilities between Los Angeles and Catalina Island. Seen at demonstration, are, left to right, L. R. Montfort, C. T. Koerner and N. Lund.” Quote and picture courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.

 

Broadway Street around 9:00 p.m. during a transit strike in 1946. (LAPL 00022471)

 

Taken at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1946. Los Angeles Dons fullback Bus Mertes flubs a catch at the goal line against the Chicago Rockets. The game ended in a 17-17 tie.

The Los Angeles Dons was the city’s first professional football team. It was organized in 1946, two weeks before the formation of its rival, the Los Angeles Rams. While the Rams were part of the National Football League (NFL), the Dons were part of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), which included the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts, and the San Francisco 49ers. The AAFC, however, didn’t last long. In 1949, the Dons played their final season before the AAFC merged with the NFL. The Dons then merged with the Rams.

 

 

The art deco Coty Paris Salon at 3150 Wilshire Blvd., circa 1947.

 

The Packard-Bell Building in the late 1940s. According to IMDb, its address was 3457 Wilshire Blvd. It was located in close proximity to the Zephyr Room and the Chapman Park Hotel and Bungalows (both no longer around).

 

Couples partying at a jazz club known as The Last Word in the 1940s (my guess). Its address was 4206 S. Central Ave., close to the historic Dunbar Hotel. The building no longer stands.

 

 

Farmers Market, c. 1947.

 

Sunset Boulevard near Doheny Road in West Hollywood. Up ahead, where the white building stands, is 9169 Sunset Boulevard. Photo was taken in 1947. (LAPL)

 

City Hall during the Christmas season, c. 1947.

 

Crenshaw Boulevard, south of Stocker Street, circa 1948. (LAPL 00104399)

 

Sunset and Figueroa in 1948. (LAPL: 00046355)

 

The intersection where 9th, Main, and Spring Streets converge. The photo was taken in 1948.

 

Looking north on the 110 (Arroyo Seco Parkway) in 1948. LAPL 00043593

 

Lindy’s, a restaurant and cocktail bar, at 3656 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. It went bankrupt in 1958. Postcard, circa 1940s.

 

A rebel with a dog. Mrs. Bialac and Patsy observe the “No Smoking” signs in a Los Angeles fire area (probably Griffith Park). Photo was taken in 1948. (LAPL: 00039028)

 

Washington Boulevard, facing east as it approaches Hoover (center) and Bonnie Brae streets on February 21, 1949. (LAPL 00104415)

 

Officer Roy E. Armstrong issues a parking ticket in Glendale, circa 1949. (California State University, Northridge) Bizarre Los Angeles

 

Did you know that Los Angeles once had the largest motorcycle police force in the world? According to Life Magazine in March of 1949, it did. Here they are at the Los Angeles Coliseum — over 200 of them. Photographer: Loomis Dean

 

Heading south along Figueroa Street (near 7th) in June of 1949. (LAPL: 00104234)

 

The Chicago Bears played the Los Angeles Rams at the Coliseum, October 30, 1949. The Rams won 27-24. (LAPL 00096229)

 

How ’bout them apples? Diane Smith bobbing at the Cock’n Bull, a former restaurant on the Sunset Strip at Sunset and Doheny. Photo circa 1949. (Photographer: Lee Weber / LAPL 00057037)

 

A vintage dashboard view of Wilshire Boulevard’s “Miracle Mile.” Undated.

 

Lights of Los Angeles from Mount Wilson Hotel

 

Believed to be the ramp to the roof parking deck of the Broadway Department Store in Westchester, which was once located on the corner of Sepulveda and LaTijera. Photo was taken in 1949.

 

Sanderson’s Stockings was formerly located at 11711 West Olympic Boulevard. This noirish 1949 photo of the 30-foot leg was taken by Max Yavno, a year after the business opened. Today, there appears to be a Ralph’s Supermarket near the original address.