Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Historical Notes

The eight-story Christie Hotel was considered Hollywood's first skyscraper when it opened in 1922.

Historical Notes

The Hollywood Public Market catered to automobile-driving customers when it opened in 1920. Located on Hollywood Boulevard (foreground) at Wilcox Street, it had eight departments and 5,000 square feet, which was large for the time. Soon, however, larger markets were built nearby.*

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Will H. Hays left President Harding's cabinet to clean up movie morals in the roaring '20s and in the film industry itself.

He was best known as the author of Hollywood self-censorship with the Hays Code. While some industry heavyweights objected to Hays as the moral arbiter, he was recognized for guarding filmmakers' right to self-regulate at a time when seven states already had provisions for government censorship.

Hays became president of the newly formed Motion Picture Assn. at a time when scandals in Hollywood had brought sharp public reactions. He retired in 1945, with his Hays Office the recognized arbiter of good taste in an industry that had accepted the principle of self- regulation.^^#

Historical Notes

“Hollywood & Vine” became famous because of the 4 buildings that were built at that intersection between 1923 and 1930, the biggest ones in town at the time. Before that, real estate developer Jacob Stern owned a lot of the land around it, with his estate taking up the entire BLOCK from Hollywood to Selma!  In 1913 he rented the Barn (on the SE corner of Vine/Selma) to Cecil B. DeMille which evolved into Paramount.

The Taft building was first up, built in 1923 (they dismantled the church on the SE corner and reconstructed it down Vine below Santa Monica Blvd., then the Plaza Hotel (1925), with Dyas Dept Store (1927) which later became the Hollywood-Broadway Store on the SW corner, and finally the Equitable Building in 1930 (same time as The Pantages Theatre) on the NE corner.

Historical Notes

German-born Jacob Stern was one of the most powerful movers and shakers in the village of Hollywood. In the early 1900s, Stern bought a five-acre tract at Hollywood and Vine for $30,000. Confident in Hollywood’s future, he told friends that his land would one day be worth $1 million. The Sterns lived in a grand home at Selma and Vine, and grew citrus trees and planted gardens on the remaining acres.

Stern leased an old horse Barn (now the Hollywood Heritage Museum) to Jesse Lasky, the future founder of Paramount Pictures, officially bringing the movie industry to Hollywood. The Sterns were active in Hollywood’s genteel social life (in 1913 Mrs. Stern won first prize at the Hollywood Chrysanthemum Show for best display). When Stern sold his estate in the 1920s, it was worth not $1 million—but $3 million.^

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The 12-story Guaranty Building is a Beaux Arts office building built in 1923. It's currently owned by the Church of Scientology.*^

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Down the street is Western Union, Dairy Lunch and John's Café one of the first (if not 'the' first) celebrity restaurants. This corner building was Wilcox Hall and housed the early Hollywood Civic Center (municipal offices). It was be torn down in 1934.^##*

Historical Notes

The original Hollywood library, a project of the Women’s Club of Hollywood, opened on Feb. 3, 1906, in two rented rooms in the Van Scycle Building on Prospect Avenue (now Hollywood Boulevard).

The library’s first permanent home was a structure built in 1907 by Andrew Carnegie at Ivar and Prospect avenues. When Hollywood was annexed to Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 1910, it became a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

By 1923, Hollywood’s library had outgrown its Carnegie quarters and a new building was constructed at 6357 Hollywood Blvd. Seventeen years later, the Hollywood library moved to its present location at 1623 Ivar Ave.

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*Ivar Avenue was named after Ivar Weid, owner of Weid Ranch.

Historical Notes

In 1939, this Spanish style building was cut into two sections and moved to a new location at Ivar near Selma Avenues. The building would be destroyed by an arson fire in 1982.

In 1986, a new Frank Gehry-design library was built at 1623 N. Ivar Ave which still stands today. The new building was 100% funded by the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation. Click HERE to see the current Hollywood Branch Library.

Historical Notes

The Fox Film Corporation was formed in 1915 by the theater chain pioneer William Fox, who merged two companies he had established just two years earlier in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office Attractions Company, a production company.

Fox concentrated on acquiring and building theaters; pictures were secondary. The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey where it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century. William Fox sent Sol M. Wurtzel to Hollywood to oversee the studio's West Coast production facilities where a more hospitable and cost-effective climate existed for filmmaking. Fox had purchased the Edendale studio of the failing Selig Polyscope Company, which had been making films in Los Angeles since 1909 and was the first motion picture studio in Los Angeles.

20th Century Fox was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.*^

Historical Notes

When United Artists was formed in 1919 by  Charlie Chaplin,  Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and  D. W. Griffith, the founders never intended the company to be like a regular Hollywood studio. It started solely as a distribution company. Its mission was to release films made by independent producers, therefore it had no studio lot. However, many of the independent producers owned their own property, like the  Charlie Chaplin Studio on Sunset Boulevard.  The closest thing to a studio lot was the property owned by Pickford and Fairbanks on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue in Hollywood. The studio lot's address is now 1041 North Formosa Avenue.

Historical Notes

The 18-acre property on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Formosa Avenue was originally owned by Jesse Durham Hampton, and then became known as the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio. As United Artists began to lure independent producers away from the major studios, many of the producers like Samuel Goldwyn and Joseph Schenck rented offices and stages on the property. In the early 1920s, the lot was renamed the United Artists Studio, though it was operated as a separate entity from United Artists the distribution company.*

Historical Notes

Goldwyn and Schenck financed the expansion of the studio, creating an awkward ownership structure. Pickford and Fairbanks controlled the deed to the land, but Goldwyn and Schenck owned the actual facilities on the lot. In 1935 when Scheck left United Artists, Goldwyn took over his share.

After Douglas Fairbanks died in 1939, leaving his share of the deed to Mary Pickford, Goldwyn sought to rename the lot "Samuel Goldwyn Studio." Pickford and Goldwyn fought over the name and ownership of the property until a court ordered that the lot be auctioned in 1955.

James Mulvey, Goldwyn's most trusted business confidant and president of Samuel Goldwyn Inc., outbid Pickford for the property. The lot officially became Samuel Goldwyn Studio and remained so until Warner Brothers purchased the site in 1980.^

Historical Notes

Warner Bros. sold the studio lot in 1999 and the name of this studio lot was changed to "The Lot."

Across the street is the Formosa Cafe, a legendary Hollywood hangout.

Historical Notes

The Egyptian Theatre was built by showman Sid Grauman and real estate developer Charles E. Toberman, who subsequently built the nearby El Capitan Theatre and Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Grauman had previously opened one of the United States' first movie palaces, the Million Dollar Theatre, on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles in 1918. The Egyptian Theatre cost $800,000 to build and took eighteen months to construct.*

McCadden Place was named after developer and subdivider W. C. McCadden.

Historical Notes

The Egyptian Theatre was the venue for the first-ever Hollywood premiere, Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks, on Wednesday, October 18, 1922. As the film reportedly cost over $1 million to produce, the admission price to the premiere was $5.00. One could reserve a seat up to two weeks in advance for the daily performances. Evening admission was 75¢, $1.00 or $1.50. The film was not shown in any other Los Angeles theater during that year.*

The address 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, now the site of the Egyptian Theatre, was once the address of Gilbert F. Stevenson and his wife. In 1903, Stevenson, the Secretary and General Manager of the Western Masons Mutual Life Insurance Association, moved from downtown Los Angeles to a five acre lemon ranch on the corner of Prospect (now Hollywood Boulevard) and Dakota (now McCadden Place) Avenues.^#**

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King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt on November 26, 1922 and an Egyptian craze swept the nation.

Historical Notes

Architects Meyer & Holler designed the Egyptian Theatre. The Milwaukee Building Company built it.

Historical Notes

The original seating capacity of the theatre was close to 2,071 in a 115 by 125 foot auditorium.

Historical Notes

The courtyard of the Egyptian is 45 feet wide and 150 feet long. The store fronts along the east side of the courtyard were described as having an "Oriental motif" and apparently sold imports. On the west side, the Pig ‘n Whistle restaurant, which opened on July 22, 1927 and operated until the late 1940s, had a side entrance onto the Egyptian Theatre courtyard. A small tiled area featuring the "pig ‘n whistle" motif still exists in the courtyard on the west wall near the fountain.^#**

Historical Notes

In 1927, Grauman would open a second movie theater further west on Hollywood Boulevard. In keeping with the public fascination in that era with international themes, he named his new theater the Chinese Theatre. Its popularity eventually rivaled and surpassed the Egyptian because of its numerous celebrity handprints, footprints and signatures in the cement of its forecourt.*

Historical Notes

The Pig 'n Whistle was originally a chain of restaurants and candy shops, founded by John Gage in 1908.  He opened his first location in Downtown Los Angeles, next to the now-demolished third city hall in the 200 block of South Broadway.

Historical Notes

Pig ‘N Whistle Café was frequented by such celebrities as Spencer Tracy, Shirley Temple and Howard Hughes. 

By 1929, there were two other Pig ‘N Whistles in Hollywood, a tea and pastry shop near Highland and a restaurant in the Plaza Hotel known as the Plaza Pig.  The corporate general manager, Sidney Hoedemaker, remained one of Los Angele’s top restaurateurs for the next three decades.^

Historical Notes

The original Hollywood location of Pig "N Whistle closed down after World War II and its distinctive wooden furniture, decorated with hand-carved whistle-playing pigs, was sold to Miceli's Italian Restaurant, located around the corner at 1646 Las Palmas Avenue, where it remains to the present day.^ 

Historical Notes

The restaurant name originates from two Old English words, piggin, a lead mug, and wassail, a wine drunk during yuletide.^ 

Historical Notes

After the famous impresario Sid Grauman opened the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in 1922, there appeared several movie palaces done in the Egyptian Revival Style in Los Angeles, Bard's Hollywood being one of the first; this wave of interest in Egyptian antiquities corresponded with the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen in November 1922 by Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon in the Valley of the Tombs near Luxor; their expedition electrified the world having recovered over 5000 relics, many composed of gold and alabaster; the theatre's exterior, done in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style, clashed notably with its Egyptian interior.**^*^

Historical Notes

By the late 1920s, Bard's Hollywood Theatre became known as the "Vista."

Historical Notes

The Vista also features a variety of hand and foot prints in cement that commemorate some of the cast and crew members of films screened at the theatre. 

Historical Notes

Built in 1917, the Garden Court Apartments were designed by architect Frank S. Meline in Beaux Arts style. They were built to accommodate the movie industry. Among its residents were Louis B. Mayer, Mae Murray, and John Gilbert.*

Historical Notes

This 1914 hilltop estate was built to house the Bernheimers' priceless collection of Asian treasures. In order to have an authentic Japanese design, hundreds of skilled craftsmen were brought from Asia to recreate an exact replica of a palace located in the Yamashiro mountains near Kyoto, Japan. The original Bernheimer structure included a 10-room teak and cedar mansion, where carved rafters were lacquered in gold and tipped with bronze dragons.*

Also seen in photo are two other famous early Hollywood buildings. The Lane Mansion (now Magic Castle) is directly below the Bermheimer Estate at the T-intersection of Orange and Franklin. Also, the white building at lower-left is the Garden Court Apartments.

Historical Notes

In an act of bad timing, Adolph Bernheimer, a multi-millionaire silk importer, and his brother built a replica of a Japanese palace and garden on a hill overlooking Hollywood.  Not only was the Bernheimer’s Teutonic name very suspicious, but so was their fluency in foreign languages.  The new home’s large concrete retaining walls led some locals to suspect an armory or wireless station in the bowels.  Under constant observation from a group of patriotic citizens, the brothers pacified neighbors by buying a $5,000 war bond.  They spent little time in Hollywood after that.***

Historical Notes

After the death of one of the brothers in 1922, the art collections were auctioned off. A few years later, the estate served as headquarters for the exclusive Hollywood "400 Club," an organization for the elite of the motion picture industry.*

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The hillside terraces included 30,000 varieties of trees, shrubs, waterfalls, hundreds of goldfish, and even exotic birds and monkeys.*

Historical Notes

Surrounding the village are canals, in which small bronze houseboats float. Below the miniature village are a small lake and a 600 year old pagoda from Japan.*

Historical Notes

The Bernheimer Mansion was accessed by 300 steps that led up the hillside through landscaped Japanese gardens. Inside the 10-room teak and cedar mansion, carved rafters were lacquered in gold and tipped with bronze dragons. The walls were covered with lustrous silks and antique tapestries.

Historical Notes

After WWII, the Bernheimer home was remodeled and converted into apartments. Soon thereafter, Thomas O. Glover purchased the property and began the restoration of what was to become the Yamashiro Restaurant.*

Historical Notes

In 2012, the Yamashiro Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places. According to the National Park Service, the Yamashiro Historic District includes "nine contributing buildings, sites, and structures on the estate property."

Historical Notes

The ceremonial Summer House was placed just below the top of the hill as a resting place for guests who were climbing the stairs. The antique Buddha seated there became so popular with guests, a sign hangs from a post to warn visitors, "Do Not Climb On Buddha." The Yamashiro Buddha now faces west as a sign of good luck and prosperity.

Historical Notes

In 2016, the property that contains Yamashiro was sold to JE Group, a Beijing-based hotel operator.  The restaurant is operated by the BNG Group and Sugar Factory.

Historical Notes

This would be the site of the iconic 13-story Hollywood First National Bank Building, built in 1927.

Historical Notes

In 1936 the Hollywood Theatre got a renovation and redesign by S. Charles Lee where the original white brick façade was replaced with a deco version (Click HERE to see more).

Note the beautiful two-lamp ornate streetlight in front of the theater.  These were, and still are, called ‘Metropolitan’ streetlights.  They were developed especially for Hollywood, but ultimately found their way onto the "best" streets of surrounding communities.  The ‘Metropolitan’ is still quite common in Hollywood almost a century after they first appeared (Click HERE to see more).

Historical Notes

Originally a four-story apartment building, in 1935 the owner removed the top three stories in order to rid the building of shabby apartments with struggling tenants.  After the remodel, Bank of America became the building’s sole tenant.  The exterior of today’s building appears much as it did following the remodel.^

Click HERE for contemporary view.

Historical Notes

*Hudson Avenue was named for Thomas Hudson, a rancher in the 1880s.

Historical Notes

Earl Bell Gilmore (1887-1964), whose family had owned the land surrounding the corner of Third and Fairfax in Los Angeles since 1880, was a legendary entrepreneur who with his father (Arthur F. Gilmore) built Gilmore Oil Company, the largest distributor of petroleum products in the Western U.S. He is noted with having invented the self-serve gas station, the "gas-a-teria", where customers saved .05 cents per gallon by filling their own tanks. Gilmore also built Gilmore Field, and Gilmore Stadium, as well as turning the family dairy farm into one of the world's most beloved destinations, the original Farmers Market. In 1944, Gilmore's 1,200 filling stations became Mobil stations.*

Click HERE to see Gilmore's Self-Serving Gas Station.

Historical Notes

The home, located on the west side of Cahuenga Blvd. at Hollywood Blvd., is on property Longpré obtained from Mrs. Wilcox Beveridge after he moved to Los Angeles in 1889. The once open areas and gardens around the residence were gradually filled in with homes and apartment buildings, as indicated by this photo. The residence was a popular tourist destination between the late 1890s and the late 1910s. It was demolished in 1927.*

Click HERE to see more of the Paul de Longpre Residence.

Historical Notes

The Famous Players Lasky Studio is most reknowned for its entanglement in antitrust investigations during the twenties, which scrutinized the studio for involvement in a monopoly involving domestic film distribution.^^

Historical Notes

The building on the left is the old Lasky Barn (aka "The Old Barn"), once situated in a lemon and orange grove on Vine Street and Selma Avenue.

Click HERE to see the above photo with almost every actor identified.  DeMille had annotated it for his biographer on 5/21/1957.

Historical Notes

The "Old Barn" occupied a place of honor on the new studio lot and is now open to the public at its new location on Highland Avenue across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. It has been converted into the Hollywood Heritage Museum..

Historical Notes

The barn was built in about 1895 on the Hollywood citrus ranch of Robert Northam. It housed horses, carriages, hay, and other farm supplies. It was sold in 1904 to Jacob Stern.

The barn was at the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets. In March 1913, the Burns and Revier Studio and Laboratory was established in the barn. In December of that year, Cecil B. DeMille, in association with Jesse Lasky, leased the barn and studio facilities for $250.00 a month establishing the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company and began production of The Squaw Man (1914), the first feature film to be produced in the Hollywood area.*^

Historical Notes

Cecil B. DeMille rented half of this structure, then used as a barn, as the studio in which was made the first feature-length motion picture in Hollywood-The Squaw Man-in 1913. Associated with Mr. DeMille in making The Squaw Man were Samuel Goldwyn and Jesse Lasky, Sr. Originally located at the corner of Selma and Vine Streets, in 1927 the barn was transferred to Paramount Studios.*

Historical Notes

In a ceremony attended by its founders, the Lasky-DeMille Barn was dedicated on December 27, 1956, as "Hollywood's First Major Film Company Studio" and designated California State Historic Landmark No. 554, representing the birth of the Hollywood motion picture industry and becoming the first landmark associated with it.*^

(Click HERE to see more California Historical Landmarks in Los Angeles).

Historical Notes

In October 1979, the barn was moved off the Paramount lot to a vacant lot in Hollywood. It was then moved by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to the parking lot of The Hollywood Palace theater (aka Hollywood Playhouse), where it was boarded up and fenced in until a permanent site could be found.*^

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The Lasky-DeMille Barn was acquired by Hollywood Heritage, Inc., in February 1983. It was then moved to its present site at the southern end of the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl, where it was restored and made into the Hollywood Heritage Museum.*^

Historical Notes

Rossmore turns into Vine Street north of Melrose Ave in Hollywood.

Vine Street is so named because it went through the vineyard of 1880s US Senator Cornelius Cole. Rossmore was named after Miracle Mile's developer, A.W. Ross.

Historical Notes

The Mulholland Dam, built in 1924, can be seen at left-center. The dam still exists today but can no longer be seen from this view or from just about anywhere in Hollywood. Click HERE to see more in Mulholland Dam and Hollywood Reservoir.

Historical Notes

*Barton Avenue was named for Barton Jones, grandson of Cornelius Cole.

Cornelius Cole owned one of the original Spanish/Mexican landgrants, what is now known as Hollywood, then was dubbed Colegrove after his wife, Olive Colegrove. There are several streets now named after the family; Cole St., Willoughby Ave., Eleanor St. and Seward St.*^

Historical Notes

The Filmarte Theatre has a long wonderful Hollywood history. The building opened in 1906 as the La Mirada Theatre. In 1929, as the Filmarte Theatre, it was a movie house showing only non-American films, catering to the "various foreign colonies in east Los Angeles. Russians from Boyle Heights were among its best customers." It is the theater where Bob Hope performed his first stand-up act. The People Are Funny television program starring Art Linkletter was filmed there in the 1950s.

From 1962 to 1964 it was known as the Steve Allen Playhouse. Allen, in recreating what he invariably referred to as "The Old Tonight Show"—his 1954-57 stint as the first host of what NBC then referred to as Tonight! Starring Steve Allen—routinely used the street immediately to the north (La Mirada) and the adjacent Hollywood Ranch Market as extensions of the studio, and program, much in the way that David Letterman would later use various businesses around his CBS Late Night studio for comedic routines. When Allen and Westinghouse Broadcasting came to a sudden parting of the ways in 1964, the studio was used by the short-lived successor program, That Regis Philbin Show, Philbin's first national program.

During a renovation in 1990 the entire interior of the building burned, and it was later demolished. The site is now occupied by a mental health clinic.^

Historical Notes

THE WHITE DOT - Contrary to what has been written before, the white dot, located below the Hollywoodland sign was not installed as an “eye catcher.”  How that story got started is anyone’s guess.  But it’s absurd!  Why would an eye catcher be installed when there is a 543 foot long, 45 foot high white sign just above the dot?  The real story is a bit more complicated.

In 1920-21, the US Chamber of Commerce produced maps illustrating business conditions in areas of the country. Those shaded black were poor, white with black stripes (grey) were fair and white was good.  Los Angeles was a “white spot” in a sea of black and grey on the map in the early 1920s. Los Angeles Times publisher, Harry Chandler adopted the catchprase, “White Spot Of America” as being a city free of crime, corruption and communism. Chandler, who was vehemently anti-union, was an influential proponent of developing a strong economic base in Los Angeles.  It wasn’t long before the phrase  “keep the white spot white” was being commonly used. The term “white spot” typically referred to LA”s relative prosperity and low unemployment, and was not intended to have racial overtones.  So, for Los Angeles, the term, “keep the white spot white” meant keep L.A. prosperous.

In late 1924, in order to demonstrate support for the “keep the white spot white”, campaign, Hollywoodland  erected a 35 foot diameter “white dot” on the hillside, several feet below the Hollywoodland sign. The cost to erect the dot was $936.16. Contrary to popular belief, the white dot was not illuminated.*

Historical Notes

At night the Sign blinked into the Hollywood night: first “Holly” then “wood” and finally “land,” punctuated by a giant period. The effect was truly spectacular.^

Historical Notes

The First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood was found in 1903.  A large brick gothic sanctuary was built in 1923.  “Hollywood Pres," as it is informally known, grew to be the largest Presbyterian Church in the world during the 1950s. *^

Click HERE to see more on the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

Historical Notes

The Hotel Iris is where Judy Garland (back then her name was still Frances Gumm) and her family stayed on vacation in 1926. Judy’s very first performance in Los Angeles was at the Earlanger’s Mason Theatre on July 10, 1926 during an afternoon kidee’s matinee of Topsy and Eva with the Duncan sisters. It was during this trip that the Gumms decided to move to California, soon after settling in the town of Lancaster, north of Los Angeles.**##

Historical Notes

The St. Moritz Hotel is located on Sunset Boulevard, across from the former Warner Bros West Coast Studios, site of the filming of the first talking film.

Historical Notes

In 1918, the Brothers Warner (Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack) bought 10.2-acres of land in Hollywood from the Beesmyer family at a cost of $25,000. In 1919 they built a giant stage nicknamed The Barn, which measured 50-feet wide by 100- feet long. This stage was torn down in 1923 and was replaced by a collection of smaller stages and buildings.*

Historical Notes

The studio was the site where the first talking feature film, The Jazz Singer, was filmed in 1927.*

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In 1925, Sam Warner started KFWB radio station on the lot. Note the station’s two 150-foot towers in the above photo.*

Historical Notes

Warner Bros bought a majority interest in First National Pictures in 1928, consolidating its executive offices into that company’s 1926 Burbank lot after a $500,000 building program was completed in January 1930. Production followed over the hills shortly thereafter. While filming primarily occurred at the Burbank location, some shooting and phonograph recording continued at the Hollywood lot.  

In the 1930s, Termite Terrace, the animation production unit behind the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoons operated out of the Warner Bros Hollywood studio.

By the end of 1937, the Warner Bros had vacated their Hollywood home.***#

Historical Notes

In 1937, Sam Warner's brother-in-law, Harry Charnas, opened Sunset Bowling Center behind the old executive offices of Warner Bros. Studios. The Sunset Bowling Center was part of a "sports palace" that also contained badminton courts and a skating rink.*

Historical Notes

With 52 bowling lanes, the Sunset Bowling Center was the largest in the world at that time. Pin boys lived in the loft of the building. The bowling center operated for ten years.*

Historical Notes

In 1954, Paramount bought the site to provide television production facilities for KTLA, which moved to the site in 1958. Gene Autry bought KTLA in 1964, and leased the space from Paramount for three years, after which he bought the property for a whopping $5 million dollars.*

In June 1968, radio station KMPC, of which Autry was a principal owner since 1952, also moved to the site.***#

Historical Notes

In 1982, an investment-banking firm bought the lot and KTLA, and three years later, sold out to the Tribune Company. In January of 2008, Hudson Capital purchased the landmark 1920s Warner Bros. Studio for an astounding $130 million dollars.*

Historical Notes

This beautiful building of classical design, which boasts of a big colonnade of Doric columns, was declared Historic-Cultural Monument No. 180 in 1977 by the city of Los Angeles (Click HERE to see complete listing).

Being the "Site of the Filming of the First Talking Film”, the facilities were also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.^*

Historical Notes

To get from Hollywood and La Brea to Santa Monica and Fairfax the PE ran on a private way diagonal to the street grid as seen in map below.

Historical Notes

Gardner Junction was so named because of its location at Gardner Street and Sunset Boulevard. Click HERE to see more Early Views of Gardner Junction. 

Historical Notes

Within a year of when the above photo was taken, the bank building on the northeast corner of Hollywood and Highland would be demolished to make room for the new thirteen story Art Deco First National Bank Building.*

Historical Notes

Built in 1927, the First National Bank building located at 6777 Hollywood Boulevard was designed/constructed by architects Meyer and Holler who are also known for having built Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, and Culver Studios. The same firm served as engineers and also did the construction.*

Historical Notes

The thirteen story building with Gothic/Renaissance elements a la Art Deco is one of a handful of structures in the city that is adorned with gargoyles.  It was the tallest building in Los Angeles from 1927 to 1932.*

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The building was occupied by Security Pacific Bank until 2008 and has been vacant since.

Historical Notes

Designed by architects Walker & Eisen in 1924, this building was one of four major hotels built in Hollywood in the 1920s and once housed one of the most glamorous nightspots, Clara Bow's "It" Cafe named for and operated by the silent film star.*#^#

Historical Notes

Clara Bow and her husband and Rex Bell opened the 'It' Cafe on the ground floor of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel on October 14, 1937; it closed sometime in 1943.*

Clara Gordon Bow rose to stardom in silent film during the 1920s. It was her appearance as a plucky shop girl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

She appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927) and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a "safe return". At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929).*^

(ca. 1937)*# - View of the front entrance to Clara Bow and Rex Bell's "It" Cafe located on the ground floor of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel at 1637 N. Vine Street.

Historical Notes

In the 1940s and 1950s when many broadcast studios were located on or near Vine Street the Hollywood Plaza Hotel became popular with radio people. George Burns even had offices at the top of the hotel. The popular radio DJ Johnny Grant did his show from the Hollywood Plaza Bar. Grant also did a radio show from midnight - 4:00 a.m. in the nearby Ham and Eggers Restaurant.

Historical Notes

The Hollywood Plaza Hotel and its neon sign were designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 665 in 1999 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

Historical Notes

In the 1920s, as the automobile was becoming the default way to get around Los Angeles, buildings and structures in the area became more unique, often resembling the merchandise or services they hawked.  These “hey-you-can’t miss-me!” buildings (referred to as Novelty or Programmatic Architecture) were made to pull automobile drivers right off the road.

Click HERE to see more examples of Programmatic Architecture.

Historical Notes

The B.H. Dyas Co. celebrated its 34th anniversary in 1927. It owned the store in Hollywood at Hollywood and Vine that was later purchased by The Broadway, as well as other stores and restaurants. At one time it owned the largest sporting goods establishment in the United States. Bernal H. Dyas was the owner.*

Historical Notes

The ten-story B. H. Dyas Building's (later the Broadway-Hollywood Building) construction in 1928 helped to usher in a spatial shift that opened the doors for large-scale retail development outside of downtown Los Angeles. It also was the first department store to introduce women’s slacks.^#*

Historical Notes

Built by local businessman Frank R. Strong and designed in the Classical Revival Style by architect Frederick Rice Dorn, the building initially housed the B. H. Dyas Company Department Store. The move by B. H. Dyas to Hollywood was the first case of a department store developing a branch outside of the downtown core and helped to cement the idea of Hollywood as a retail destination. The store prospered for just a few short years until the Depression did the B. H. Dyas Company in and Broadway jumped in to take it over. ^#*

Historical Notes

In 1931-32, Dyas Department Store became the Broadway-Hollywood.

Historical Notes

In the early 1870s, Dutch-born Mary Ann Magnin and her husband Isaac Magnin left England and settled in San Francisco. Mary Ann opened a shop in 1876 selling lotions and high-end clothing for infants. Later, she expanded into bridal wear. As her business grew, her exclusive clientele relied on her for the newest fashions from Paris. I. Magnin imported clothing by major designers including Jeanne Lanvin, Hattie Carnegie, and Christian Dior.

At the turn of the century, Mary Ann’s four sons entered the business. While John Magnin, Grover Magnin, and Sam Magnin became associated with the I. Magnin store, the fourth son, Joseph Magnin, became known for his own store (Joseph Magnin Co.).

Daughter Flora married Myer Siegel, who launched a namesake department store in Los Angeles, which would later become a chain.

In Los Angeles in 1897 and 1898, I. Magnin & Co. advertised its wares for retail sale at 237 S. Spring St., noting that Mr. Myer Siegel was the manager. The I. Magnin store that Siegel managed moved to 251 S. Broadway on January 2, 1899; on June 19, 1904, I. Magnin announced that the Los Angeles store would henceforth be known as "Myer Siegel".   I. Magnin would return with its own Los Angeles-area retail store later when it opened boutiques in the Maryland Hotel in Pasadena and the Ambassador Hotel in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, and in Hollywood (seen above).

In 1939, I. Magnin left Hollywood and moved to a landmark store at 3240 Wilshire Boulevard near Bullocks Wilshire, designed by Myron Hunt, architect of the Ambassador Hotel.)^

Historical Notes

In 1932, the building became the keystone to the Broadway Department Store chain. In 1938, fueled by increased revenues, The Broadway Department Store constructed a seven-story addition to the building’s south side providing 52,000 square feet of additional retail space. ^#*

Historical Notes

In 1939, an eight-story modern annex designed by Parkinson and Parkinson was built immediately to the west. The Broadway Department Store served as a tenant until the 1970s. In the 1980s, the building was reconfigured for office use. By 1987 the building was abandoned.*^

Historical Notes

More recently, the building has been converted to condominiums on the top eight floors and is now called The Broadway-Hollywood. Atop the main building is the large, metal-formed, neon sign reading: “The Broadway Hollywood". ^#*

Historical Notes

In 1999, the Broadway Department Store Building and Neon Sign were designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 664 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

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