History The History Of Los Angeles

Awesome pics... but I'm pretty sure that last pic is NOT Culver City as I have seen it marked as Santa Monica in pencil on the back of a very old print. Because of the print I always assumed it was San Vicente Blvd. I think the AAA has a pic with the same light posts listed as Santa Monica as well... but I'll have to try and dig it up with my 'free' time.

And YES 50Fraud - Breer really was a boot strap kinda guy.

 

Man I just heard on the radio that they are trying to close down the Culver City ice skating rink. It's been there since the 50's. There's a last ditch effort to try and save it. I hope they are able to!!!

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It has been saved at least once before. I remember it almost closed down a few years ago right about the time the Pep Boys across the street first opened.

 

Guess everyday is Throwback Thursday on this thread... Nice comment about what is arguably the 1st strip mall in America...

https://vimeo.com/86644560

Not sure why this does not show up?

 

Chevy production, Los Angeles plant, closed around 1993, I think



Hollywood Freeway, 1955



Arroyo Seco Parkway, now the Pasadena Freeway, 1950



Huntington Drive, El Sereno, 1937


Oil field, Venice, 1937



Santa Monica Blvd, 1936...that 3-window is almost new!



"Traffic violator" sticker, 1936...if you agreed to have one of these put on your car, you avoided jail, some local judge's idea...this looks like an early hot rod with the cut-down windshield...

 

Hijo !

 

Grand Poobah, I was waiting for a shot of your ride. Beautiful '34.

 

Hey, Doc Watson, did down under have an era similar to what the West Coast experienced? I couldn't live in CA today for all the tea in China because of its political posture, but it would have been tooooo much fun to have lived there in the late '40s and the '50s. I just never thought of anywhere else in the world that might have had the exposure that the young ones in CA lived.

 

Mazooma 1, isn't it sad to see the burglar bars on windows, a high security fence with concertina type wire on its top ? That is a fucking shame.

 

Mobil Gas station - Los Angeles, 1934, remember lube guns, look at the collection on the board.



Same gas station, 1934, no location given except Los Angeles


Muller's Service Station, Los Angeles, 1928. Is that a Franklin?



Gas Station on Vermont, no date given, 1920's likely

 

[/URL][/IMG]Acme Signal, Auto Club Lighted Stop Sign, Newspaper Rack and the Traffic Control Tower. All replaced by modern developments. The reason the Stop Sign is o n the Signal is that the Signal shut down late at night and the flashing light on the Stop Sign was then the traffic control. The Newspaper Rack was the honor system where you took your paper and put a coin in the bank on the Rack. Now you have to put a coin in before the enclosed Rack opens. The Traffic Control Tower in this case was used to control traffic where Street Cars had to make turns in front of oncoming traffic. The man in the tower was not a copper but an employee of the Street Car co. I have been told the tower is in someones back yard but where I do not know. There were several in L.A.

 

The 1948, "Freedom Train" traveling right down the middle of a blvd. I remember back in the 1950's and m dad having to share the road with slow moving freight trains. "Little Santa Monica Blvd." had a freight run down the middle up through the 1970.
In downtown Los Angeles just west of the L.A. River in the old industrial areas there are still railroad tracks that appear, then disappear into the new pavement. I see it all the time. It's a remind when the trains and trolleys went right down the middle of a street.

 

Reseda Drive-In. At Reseda & Vanowen Opened 1949



Original location of Val Surf. Riverside at Whitsett?

 

That photograph reminds me of the day "Engineer Bill" of Saturday morning TV cartoons in Los Angeles during the early 1960s made an appearance in Redondo Beach aboard a ultra glossy painted diesel train. There was thousands of young kids everywhere and "Engineer Bill" was waving from the window of the diesel. A moment frozen in time.

 

Some discussion of exactly where this was, but according to one fellow who knows the area & history:

"Star oil works #1 is on Pine street, by William S Hart Park (Newhall area). This is the street at the end of the park by the Steam Engine donated by Gene Autry's Melody Ranch.

Frenchie Lagasse and his family lived in MentryVille at the end of Pico Canyon after the 71 earthquake. He was an employee of Chevron Oil. Charles Alexander Mentry founded the town of Mentryville to house the oilfield workers and their families. There is a school house back behind the gates that Frenchie and his wife restored. The workers lived in clapboard shelters and tents in a clearing on the other side of the crik."

Photography by I. W. Taber. (Valley Relics Collection)

 

Oh cool to see the van Nuys drive in in its heyday! I remember it got pretty shady there just before it closed down.

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As the pic says: Hwy 101 (Now PCH) looking south at the Malibu Colony- Surfrider beach is the point in the background.

 

Lot of L.A. History in WHERE THEY RACED: Speed Demons in the City of Angels. Check out the Jay Leno review / interview:

 

Thanks, Harry…..

 

I remember the traffic signals flashing the red light and becoming a 4 way stop and this was in the 70s.

 

Some epic shots in here. Still having a blast looking through them. A few I wouldn't mind getting on a canvas for the house!

 

Very cool Harry, nice review!

 

1955 drag racing in the paved L.A. River bottom was not uncommon but illegal. Bad part is there were not many ways to escape if the police come. [/URL][/IMG]

 

Caught again in 1958 in the L.A. River bottom in 1958.[/URL][/IMG]

 

Stumbled upon this clip this morning. May have already been posted, if so, sorry, here it is again. Brings some of these old still photos to life.

 

Another one. You'll want to put it on "full screen".

 

One more, sans audio.