Category Archives: Downtown

Nov. 28, 1907: Drunk Civil War Veterans Spur Liquor Ban; Noisy Rooster Starts War on Olive Street

Posted on November 28, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Nov. 28, 1907 Los Angeles Ocean Park banned serving alcohol to soldiers in uniform because drunk Civil War veterans from the soldiers home in Sawtelle “were seen reeling about the saloons.” A … Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, Animals, Downtown, LAPD, Olive, Streetcars | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Nov. 24, 1907: Roving to Monrovia

Posted on November 25, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Nov. 24, 1907 Monrovia The Times real estate section takes a look at what was then the distant suburb of Monrovia, 22 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The writer notes the increasing … Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1908, 1911, Architecture, Downtown, Education, Film, Freeways, Hollywood, Real Estate | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Roosevelt Declares Early Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2011. Nov. 9, 1941: Amid the gathering clouds of World War II, President Roosevelt declares what will be the last peacetime Thanksgiving. Noting American aid to nations fighting the Axis, Roosevelt says: “Let … Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Columnists, Crime and Courts, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Religion, World War II | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Roosevelt Declares Early Thanksgiving

Nov. 15, 1907: Charles Mulford Robinson Drafts a Los Angeles of the Future

Posted on November 15, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Nov. 15, 1907 Los Angeles Architect Charles Mulford Robinson has drafted a proposal for downtown Los Angeles that is stunning in its ambition. One portion calls for broad boulevard leading from a … Continue reading →

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Nov. 7, 1947: Santa Makes Second Appearance in Downtown L.A.

Posted on November 7, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.. You might want to clip and save this for the next time someone complains that the Christmas season comes earlier every year. Santa was a well-traveled … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Comics, Downtown | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Location Sleuth: ‘Double Indemnity’

Posted on November 3, 2018 by lmharnisch

Update: This is a post from 2006. The location was identified by Crime Buddy Nathan Marsak as Olive Street, with Philharmonic Auditorium and Pershing Square in the background. Here’s a frame grab from the opening shots of “Double Indemnity.” According … Continue reading →

Posted in 1944, Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood, Location Sleuth, Olive, Parks | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Oct. 31, 1907: Streetcar Crash at Spring and 2nd Kills 1, Injures 7

Posted on October 31, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Oct. 31, 1907 Los Angeles John J. Mooney, 23, a Southern Pacific machinist who recently arrived from Butte, Mont., was aboard the West 2nd Street car on his way to be initiated … Continue reading →

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October 15, 1907: Fire Threatens Orpheum

Posted on October 15, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. October 15, 1907 Los Angeles On a rainy night in Los Angeles, a fire broke out in the four-story brick office building at 235 S. Spring St. housing the Orpheum Theater and … Continue reading →

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Richfield Building Jazzes Up Los Angeles’ Skyline

Posted on October 1, 2018 by lmharnisch

The Richfield Building in an undated postcard. Note: This is an encore post from 2013. After years of deprivation, darkness and worry during World War I and its aftermath, America was ready to look toward a shining future of prosperity … Continue reading →

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Sept. 20, 1907: Suicide Note — ‘Everything Is Boiling’

Posted on September 20, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Sept. 20, 1907 Los Angeles For weeks, Colorado mining investor John Geisel, 57, had confided in his diary as he felt his mind and his life coming unraveled “Good God,” he wrote, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1883, 1907, 1950, Architecture, Downtown, Suicide | 2 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights – Hamburger’s Department Store, Arrow Movie Theater

Posted on September 17, 2018 by lmharnisch

A postcard of Hamburger’s Department Store is listed on EBay as Buy It Now for $2.99. Note: This is an encore post from 2013. The classy, oversize May Co. Department Store located at 801 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles … Continue reading →

Posted in 1908, Architecture, Broadway, Downtown, Hollywood, Hollywood Heights, Mary Mallory, Theaters | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sept. 15, 1947: On Rosh Hashana, a Call to Mobilize for Peace

Posted on September 15, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. The ram’s horn, once a trumpet of war but now a symbol of faith, sounded at sundown yesterday in Los Angeles synagogues to mark the dawn … Continue reading →

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On Location in Los Angeles: ‘The Unfaithful’ (1947)

Posted on September 11, 2018 by lmharnisch

Here’s the sequence of shots in “The Unfaithful” showing Angels Flight, photographed by Ernest Haller, edited by Alan Crosland Jr. In image No. 1, we have a news vendor and the upper entrance to the funicular.

Posted in 1947, Architecture, Downtown, Film, Hollywood | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Black L.A. 1947: Drag Ball Planned for the Avodon Ballroom in DTLA

Posted on August 16, 2018 by lmharnisch

The site of the Avodon Ballroom at 843 S. Spring St., via Google Street View.  Aug. 14, 1947: A drag ball is planned for the Avodon Ballroom, 843 S. Spring St. Although the Sentinel didn’t follow up on the event, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, African Americans, Black Dahlia, Dance, Downtown, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Nightclubs | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Aug. 12-13, 1907: Bucket of Blood Is a Den of Drunken Debauchery

Posted on August 13, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Aug. 12-13, 1907 Los Angeles Despite the name Bismarck Cafe, police call the saloon at Main and Winston Streets the Bucket of Blood because it’s a continual source of crime and violence. … Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1908, Crime and Courts, Food and Drink, LAPD, Main Street, Music, Streetcars | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Aug. 12-13, 1907: Bucket of Blood Is a Den of Drunken Debauchery

July 30, 1947: Peaches Strange at the Follies Burlesque

Posted on July 30, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project. She was born Mildred Strange in Oklahoma in 1910. Raised by her uncle, a Methodist minister, she taught Sunday school in Shawnee, east of Oklahoma City. … Continue reading →

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A Theater Rises on Broadway

Posted on June 2, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. June 2, 1907 Los Angeles The Hamburger Department Store announces plans for a theater just south of its new building on South Broadway at 8th Street, designed by the architecture firm of … Continue reading →

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Black L.A. 1947: Racism on the Menu as Bullock’s Tea Room Refuses to Serve Blacks

Posted on May 22, 2018 by lmharnisch

The former Bullock’s downtown store at 7th and Hill Streets, via Google Street View. May 22, 1947: The campaign to integrate the tea room of Bullock’s downtown store apparently began with Edith Cotterell, who had an account at the department … Continue reading →

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May 7, 1907: A Poem for La Fiesta de los Flores

Posted on May 7, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. John Steven McGroarty, The Times columnist and staff poet, offered this tribute to the annual La Fiesta de los Flores, which coincided with the national Shriners convention. The fiesta featured four parades … Continue reading →

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April 26, 1907: Runaway Rail Cars Make Fast Trip to L.A. Train Yard

Posted on April 26, 2018 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Water is not the only thing that flows downhill, as switchmen at the downtown Southern Pacific freight yard discovered when two runaway flatcars made a 13-mile trip from the San Fernando Valley … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, Downtown, LAPD, San Fernando Valley, Streetcars | 1 Comment