OLD SCHOOL L.A. • photos & films

2010-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

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Los Angeles 1984 Premiere
St Patrick's Day Parade
I Filmed The Premiere St Patrick's Day Parade in DownTown L.A. March 17, 1984

Our Lady Queen of the Angels

Sunland Tujunga and North Hollywood
are the City of Los Angeles. I grew up
in North Hollywood and lived for years
in Sunland Tujunga. The 1939 L.A. map
shows these distinct cities that are L.A.

________________________________

Tujunga Car Lot 1920

car lot in Tujunga of 1920
near Foothill & Commerce

PAN PACIFIC AUDITORIUM
AUTO SHOW 1939

The Pan Pacific Auditorium stood on the Gilmore
Oil Land occupied also by the CBS Fairfax Studios
and the Grove. Gilmore Stadium was part of this
vast area with AA baseball and midget car races.
The main element was the
Auditorium with its
art deco spans rising
in the front of its center.
Tragically ended in a fire in 1989.
It is now a park.

HOLLYWOOD & VINE
CHRISTMAS 1959

With the supposed END of the Hollywood Christmas Parade

here in the future L.A., let's look back at the boulevard in

1959 with the marching bands, the Broadway Department

store on the corner, the Pantages Theater down a block

and those FAMOUS Metal Xmas Trees that adorned every

light pole on the Street of the Stars.

Los Angeles "1933"

" Imagine, had this 1933 proposal for the
Civic Center been implemented, what a
difference the area would be today.

A Civic Center with tons of green space,
a gathering circle, and a lot more.
It's just one of several L.A. plans that never
made it past the development stage.
Pic found inside the Los Angeles Public Library collection. "

TRAINS 40's & NOW

Lockheed Airport in the 1940's Rail Line with the
now Bob Hope Airport in the background. The train
route parallels Vanowen St. here in Burbank just east
of NoHo. A great steam train goes west and below we
see the same right of way with a MetroLink Train 2007.

L.A. City Hall 1940's

Van De Camps Bakery

This is a Southern
California favorite
that blanketed the
area in markets, as
here in a Von's, and
they had their own
restaurants "under
the windmill". The
company still sells
in stores.

ANGEL'S FLIGHT 1901

1901
Colonel
J.W. Eddy
was the
builder of
Angels Flight
Funicular Railroad
2007

Los Angeles rapid transit in 1901.
This ran up the 3rd St. Hill right
next to the tunnel that still exists.
Perfect service until one hundred years
later when it was relocated
and 'renovated' and now in limbo
after a tragic accident about six years
ago in 2001 just after they re-opened it.

S.S. CATALINA

Twenty-Six miles across the Sea. ∆ clic info ∆

RED CAR NoHo 1950's
NOHO RAILROAD STATION

This view of historical Lankershim Train Depot
in North Hollywood, California, is a very old pic.
Built in 1896 by Southern Pacific Railroad
at the corner of Lankershim Boulevard
and Chandler Street. There is a restoration
project starting in conjunction
with the Metro Transit.
∆more info clic here∆

Cars 5120 and 1299
hang out at NoHo
Red Car Station
and railyard.

The Pacific Electric Red Car service to the
San Fernando Valley. This Car 5170 is
traveling over the Tujunga Wash which
is now the 170 FWY @ Chandler in NoHo.

THRIFTIMART NoHo
LANKERSHIM & OXNARD

-ancient Polaroid by Richard Sapiro -looking NORTH

Above Thriftmart, " Open 24 Hours"
across from Bekin's Moving and Storage
which now is a Leed's Mattress store
and in the same shopping center as a
Baskin Robbins Ice Cream store, one of the
first stores for that then Glendale company.
I went to NHHS with
Steve Baskin who's
family were part owners
of this unique
SoCal ice cream store.

A long gone supermarket chain of the 1950's
to 60's absorbed by Smart & Final.
There was one near Oxnard on
Lankershim in North Hollywood
with it's tall " T " icon.
There was another in the Valley Plaza that
was a small shopping center with small shops
on one side of the market and also a shoe repair
and Chef's chicken bbq.

EVERY DAYS A SPECIAL DAY AT THRIFTIMART
EVERY DAYS A SPECIAL DAY FOR YOU
WHAT EVER YOU PUT IN YOUR SHOPPING CART
YOU'LL SAVE AND SAVE AT THRIFTIMART...

HODY'S RESTAURANT NoHo
LANKERSHIM & OXNARD

-ancient Polaroid by Richard Sapiro -looking SOUTH

Oxnard & Lankershim in North Hollywood
during the late 50's. A major L.A. restaurant
chain called Hody's. There was one at Hollywood
& Vine, and two at La Brea & Rodeo. They had a
clown mask menu for kids. There was a coffee
shop and dining room including a bakery.
There was a major fire and it was never rebuilt.
PHOTO by Richard Sapiro

O.g.-OBSERVATORY

"The steel skeleton frame of the Griffith
Observatory's main dome takes shape
in this December 1933 photo.
The building opened 17 months later."

BOLTON HALL TUJUNGA

THIS ROCK STRUCTURE WAS BUILT IN
1913. THIS AREA WAS CALLED

"Little Lands (Los Terrenitos]".

George Harris Built this early

area monument with the ROCKS from

this area, we call, "THE ROCK".

Bolton Hall is full of this area's

'pioneer' & Indian SPIRIT &

ARTIFACTS.

PHIL'S DINER NOHO

From a 1920's design by Charles Amend
Phil's Diner served the railroad business
area of 1900's North Hollywood. Located
on Chandler just off Lankershim many
blue collars workers came to this modest
diner.

LOS ANGELES
ABOUT 1902

This small section of L.A. shows some
familiar locations as well as maybe not
so remembered. Clic to enlarge to see
the Tujunga wash going Se to Nw whre
the 170 fwy is now. also is Toluca sans
'lake'. Edgemont and Ivanhoe then cities
now streets as memory. Or, how about
Calgrove just south of Hollywood.
Things change in L.A. and always
remain the same.

OUR TOWN
L.A. 1853

Not too many cameras in the world around then,
here an artist's rendering of the early Los Angeles

CALIFORNIA
1895

California map 1895
clic to see larger view
to see our Los Angeles areas.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
WILD WILD WEST 1950's

Above we see the Wild West
visiting Victory Boulevard
Elementary with a special show
by Montie Montana
who rode his horse
and performed rope tricks,
he also rode in many
parades for years

L.A. 'OIL CARTEL'
1890

Los Angeles was only a few decades old as part
of the United States. Oil's discovery on the
East coast spread to our West like the Gold Rush.

LOS ANGELES, CA.
1929

1929 Los Angeles, no freeways and the tallest
building is the L.A. City Hall the pointed
edifice in the upper right, built in 1927.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

WTC Memorial at Los Angeles
Fire Department Academy
Chavez Ravine.

NOHO
IN 1898

San Fernando Valley Farming
this is what started North Hollywood
Lankershim Ranch fields being plowed and sowed.

RAILWAYS OF LOS ANGELES

Forget the Aqua, Blue, Orange, Green ETCETERA
rail lines we now have in L.A. In the old days we
had the RED CARS and the STREETCARS.
The Trollies ran the City streets from Downtown
to Hollywood and East L.A. Streetcars were the
earliest public transport starting just after electricity
came to the area about the 1880's. Anywhere
someone was funding a track of land, the rails
would follow. Temple St. and the Temple Rail Line
ran from Downtown north to the area Mr. Temple
had to sell lots for homes. As things progressed
by the early 1900's the increasing population
needs made for places like Long Beach with its
port to grow and a new greater rail train affair
came about the Pacific Electric Red Cars running
from L.A. now to the new Long Beach. Alike,
the San Fernando Valley grew and the Red Car
came through the Cahuenga Pass to North Hollywood,
where now the Orange Line starts, and continued
out to Canoga Park. Yes, folks the future already
happened and ended in the 1950's,
you know that story BEEP BEEP.

LABOR IN LOS ANGELES 1904

The L.A.P.D. riding down Broadway between
4th and 5th Streets in 1904. These are
REAL OFFICERS, not the Mack Sennet
movie 'kops' as seen below with trollies

HOLLYWOOD's kEYSTONE kOPS
and LOS ANGELES TROLLIES

Mack Sennet's Keystone Kops fake officers of the
Silent Movie Era in Hollywood. As you ALWAYS
SEE in movies and advertising L.A. streets and
facilities were used as they still are in various
productions. This photo was taken in some
neighborhood probably near Downtown.

MAY CO Wilshire Fairfax
(now an art museum)

1940's

MAY CO Lakewood 1950's

May Co started here in Southern California in
Los Angeles with stores in Downtown and the
Miracle Mile shown above and one of their
expansions to the new malls in the suburbs
like Lakewood.

HOLLYWOOD FWY or RAILWAY ?

Take a good look, if you ever drove from Hollywood
to the San Fernando Valley, Universal Studios,
North Hollywood, you first have to climb over the
Cahuenga Pass. Here we see the Barham Bridge
which is at the top of the grade and this is what see
here in this old pic when the middle portion was
given to the Red Car system which was started
in the cearly 1900's and ended in the 1950's and
eventually filled with freeway lanes which were
originally just a highway on the outside of the railway,
see way to the right. This view is looking towards
North Hollywood N.W. You can see the LOCKHEED
AIRCRAFT billbord on the right.

ALIEN VISITORS TO ST-NOHO ???

1955 by Charles Phoenix
The LUER FRANKS company sent this rocket advertisement
out to various market openings. Children could go inside and
sit in the spaceship and watch a commercial laden cartoon.
Here it is in Sunland and I saw it myself as a child in the
Valley Plaza Shopping Center at Alexanders Market

The same rocket in
'mothballs' somewhere
in Arizona.

ART DECO TUJUNGA THEATER

S. Charles Lee built this 878 seat theater in 1938

read our effort to
Save The Theater
from 1998 to 2002
when it failed

FUTURISTIC L.A. (1912 VERSION)

"Advanced Plan for Relief of Overcrowded Streets"

In 1912 L.A. had mass traffic tie-ups
the drawing shows pedestrian ways,
cars going through buildings and
monorail type transit...

PLEASE NOTE:
click:enlarge
NEW Old L.A. PHOTOS
introduced every
Monday & Friday
at St. Noho.

Toshiba Notebook Computer

LOS ANGELES CITY HISTORY

OLD SCHOOL L.A. • photos & films

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

RAILWAYS OF LOS ANGELES