1964, Carpenter Bill Crawford works on the framing of Dairy Valley’s (Cerritos) new Richard Gahr High School at 11111 Artesia Blvd. between Studebaker and Gridley roads, 1964. Thank you to Bruce Dunseth.
1955, Opening day at Frontierland's Golden Horseshoe, Disneyland, CA, 7/18/1955. Thank you to Anika Tabbasum. Was here one year with Dad, Joe, and Marilyn D.
1954, A lone picket parades across the entrance of the Pabst Brewing Co. plant at 1920 North Main street as workers went on a strike in wage dispute. More than 1100 men were idled when picket lines were set up around this brewery and another in Van Nuys by AFL International Union of Operating Engineers. The brewery, located at 1920-2026 N. Main Street, was designed by architect John C. Austin and built between 1898 and 1908. The facility was originally occupied by the Los Angeles Brewing Co., then by Eastside Brewery, and lastly Pabst Brewing Company. (Herald Examiner Collection). Thank you to LAPL.
It's funny how much I think of my dad as drive 101 from Ventura to Monterey under the sun and occasional canopy of eucalyptus and cedars. He used to take me, Tom, and Joe to Solvang for a pancake breakfast (I often got pigs in a blanket), air hockey they had in the motel Rec Room, and he'd always make a stop at Santa Inez Mission. One year I bought a triptych and a tiny plaque of St. Michael driving Satan into Hell. He loved stopping at Catholic churches in every new city he'd visit. I drove him to Monterey in 1985, three years before he passed, and he loved it and I loved the exclusive hours with him. A great memory from that trip was him unscrewing the cup of a thermos and pouring me a cup of hot coffee that infused the car as I'm driving my green 1980 VW bug on the 101 at 5am outside of Thousand Oaks.
Panoramic shot, the city of Los Angeles is visible stretching west from downtown, bathed in sunlight on a clear day. The view captures the expansive nature of Los Angeles, where the skyline begins to emerge against the backdrop of the surrounding hills and valleys. During this time, the city was rapidly developing, with residential and commercial areas expanding beyond the city center. The clarity of the skies and the bustling streets highlight the optimism and promise of the post-war era. This image offers a rare opportunity to see Los Angeles before the density of the modern metropolis fully took shape.
Jim Dawson points out,
The single two-story house halfway up the photo, toward the left side, was 215 N. Hill Street, just above the northern termini of the Hill Street tunnels. It was Burt Lancaster's house in the 1949 film noir, Criss Cross. Here's a close-up shot:
In 1933, the intersection of 7th and Hope Streets offered a glimpse into a bustling downtown Los Angeles. Streetcars and automobiles competed for space while pedestrians filled the sidewalks, heading into offices, shops, and cafes. This corner was part of a growing financial and retail hub, where Art Deco architecture rose alongside older brick buildings. The Great Depression was still gripping the nation, but the city’s rhythm carried on with resilience. Downtown LA in the early '30s was a mix of commerce, ambition, and changing times.
1940, Union Oil Building, 7th and Hope Street, Los Angeles, CA. Thank you to Getty Images.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Nalbandian became a minor celebrity, making frequent appearances in (often live-streamed) commercials for his store and even on talk shows such as The Tom Duggan Show. In most of these commercials he would repeat variations on statements such as "Come on down to 5-4-6-7 Wilshire Boulevard" and that the suits at his store came in "cadet, extra short, regular, long, extra long and portlies". In one commercial, Nalbandian said of his low prices, "My friends all ask me, 'Eddie, are you kidding?' And I tell them no, my friend, I am not kidding." This inspired the Frank Zappa song Eddie, Are You Kidding? from the album Just Another Band from L.A. (1972), as well as Mark Volman's monologue to the audience in the track Once Upon a Time from the album You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 1 (1988).
1950s, This early photo of Hollywood offers a lot to see. The view looks northeast at the intersection of Cahuenga Boulevard and Yucca Street, where the Halifax Hotel stands on the corner. In the distance, the Capitol Records building is clearly visible. Several large signs stand out, including one for the Hotel Knickerbocker. At the lower left, a sign for Biff’s Coffee Shop points toward a lot adjacent to the corner Union 76 station. Interesting note: Although Tiny Naylor was best known for his Tiny Naylor’s restaurant chain, his first restaurant in the area was Biff’s—named after his son. Thank you to Jack Feldman.
Halifax was known for its gangster clientele in the 1930s and 1940s. Across the street, on the north side of Yucca (next to the Richfield station) was the apartment building where Ed Wood lived when he filmed most of his movies.
The cool Googie restaurant on the north side of Yucca Street was across from the Green Apartments, where Carol Burnett lived with her grandmother while attending Hollywood High School in the 1950s.
The title comes from a line of dialogue spoken by the character Colonel Kilgore, a US cavalry officer obsessed with surfing played by Robert Duvall in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. His most famous quote from that film - "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" - perhaps also inspired the lyric "Charlie's gonna be a napalm star."
1978, "Lotta Love," Nicolette Larson. She's terrific in this 1980 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song, "Make a Little Magic," 1980.
1980, Recorded in 1979, and released in 1980, Squeeze had a hit in the early 80s titled "Pulling Muscles from a Shell." We thought it was one of the coolest songs. Obviously, there was the British invasion of the 1960s, but there was also the psychedelic rock invasion of the British, too, with Led Zepellin and Hoco Param, but there was also the British invasion of the early 1980s with all of the new wave and Mod songs. Will never forget the concerts I attended with Roy Parker, Lance, Chris, Sally, and others to see the English Beat and then The Specials on Halloween night. Fantastic memory.
1981, Men at Work, "Down Under," 1981. I enjoyed taking Debbie Jordan from San Diego, who attended SDSU, home of the Aztecs. We attended a football game against Brigham Young. I was mildly impressed with that. I met her in a bar down in Solana Beach in 1983. Joe and Mike L. were with. We danced. We drank 1 or 2, then asked the gals if they wanted to walk on the beach. They did. We walked and talked. Joe went off with his date and kissed. I wasn't so lucky. But I did get Debbie's phone number and we went out on a date. It was nice. I met her mother. Later that summer I took her to a Men at Work concert at the Greek and had a blast. I also invited her to a Halloween party out at Sally's. Debbie's brother worked and lived in Pasadena, so she stayed with him.
1981, Will never forget how this Men at Work song, "Who Can It Be Now?," 1981, played on the radio frequently through the night at the Baldwin Park UPS hub where I worked from 1980 to 1983.
1982, Psychedelic Furs, "Love My Way." I was working at at UPS as a loader from 12am to 7am at the Baldwin Park facility, biding my time until my name on the list for drivers got called up. I'd get off at 7am, go home and shower then run over to Citrus for one to two classes. I think I took archery and golf. Anyway, this Psychedelic Furs song played all the time on the radio, like KROQ.
1985, "After the Fire," written by Pete Townsend. This analysis is pretty general but decent. The song is basically about growing up without surrendering the creative fires. The Matt Dillon line,"I saw Matt Dillon in black and white; there ain't no color in memories / He rode his brother's Harley across the TV while I was laughing at Dom DeLuise," is a reference to the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola movie, Rumble Fish, starring Matt Dillon.
1986, Eddie Money's, 1949-2019, song "Take Me Home Tonight," 1986, is great because of Ronnie Spector, 1943-2022, of the Ronettes, who sings that beautiful but powerful refrain, "Be My [Little] Baby," which is a tribute to her 1963 song of the same name. "Just like Ronnie sang, Be My Little Baby."
1988, Edie Bricknell's "What I Am" got good airplay too. She's the wife of Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel. I can't recall too many experiences with regard to this song, although it kind of made me think of
1998, "Iris," Goo Goo Dolls, 1998, sung by lead singer, John Rzeznik, who reminds me of Keith Urban. The first time I saw this music video was in 2011 or 2012, close to my time ending with the murderous mobs of LAUSD. And the singer and song made an impression on me that love seemed like everything, and it must because it's when we lose love that we feel isolated and broken.
2001, "In the End" by Linkin Park. Like most songs of those years, I'd heard on the radio once or twice, couldn't identify the band, lead singer, or the title of the piece. Then when I was out on a date with Joanne to Musso and Frank's in Hollywood, Joanne and I were sitting in my parked car and this Linkin Park played, and I said "Let me just sit here and listen to this." And I couldn't believe the shattering voice of Chester Pennington, screaming for love, recognition, and gratitude for his sacrifices in his work. I miss you, Joanne.
2010, Foster the People--Pumped Up Kicks, 2010. My memory of this song makes me laugh because although it played regularly on the radio, I didn't quite hear the lyrics. So when I first heard that "you better run, better run faster than my bullet," it shocked me. LOL Made me think again how degraded our culture was becoming. The culture wasn't getting degraded. I was.
2011, "Somebody That I Used to Know," a duet by Gotye [that's the guy's name] and Kimbra. I was teaching at Jefferson New Tech, a small learning community, SLC, handed over to a pilot program under the helm of the incompetent gangbanging principal, Brenda Pensamiento
1927, Los Angeles River flooded by torrential rain seen from the Compton Bridge, Compton, CA, 1927.
Flooding in Compton in 1927 (…and also in the 1930s, see update below).
Likely taken the same day as the Atwater flood photos that I posted last month, these 98-year-old images show Compton after heavy storms in February 1927 that affected not only LA but much of the Southwest. But this was not new for Compton. With Compton Creek being a major tributary of the Los Angeles River, the town often flooded during heavy storms, going all the way back to the 1890s.
Things got much worse in 1924, when the Los Angeles Board of Public Works announced its own new flood control plans, which involved directing LA’s drainage into the flood-prone Compton Creek. Newspapers at the time reported it as “a death-blow to Compton,” with the Long Beach Press Telegram calling it: “the latest effort of Los Angeles to wipe [Compton] off the map.”
After two years of being ignored, Compton managed to get themselves invited to the table in 1926 to discuss the installation of a drainage system under its streets (to save face, a Board representative asked reporters, “Why didn’t Compton come to us about this two or three years ago?”).
Now, I don’t know whether the 1927 plan was ever implemented. While I’ve found hundreds of newspaper articles discussing and debating that plan from 1927 through 1936, I can’t find any on its construction. What I do know is that, following the great flood of 1938, the creek was encased in concrete as part of the first phase of channelizing the Los Angeles River, finally providing relief to the area.
Slide 2 is the old Compton City Hall - one of my favorite historical buildings, often hit by floods but finally killed by the Long Beach earthquake of 1933.
Slide 3 shows a Security Savings & Trust Bank branch, while Slide 7 shows Star Cafe. Both were on Compton’s Main Street, which was later renamed Compton Boulevard.
All photos except Slide 2 from @uclalibraryare from Cal State Dominguez Hills. 3,7,10-14 by George R. Watson for the LA Times.
**UPDATE** Since writing this caption, I’ve realized that these show at least two floods. Slides 2,3,7,10-14 are 1927, while Slides 1,4-6,8,9 were taken between 1936 and 1938.
If anybody is wondering about that 1926 label on Slide 2, it has been applied to the physical copy that is archived with Cal State Dominguez Hills. I'm including it here as I believe it might be wrong. Los Angeles Public Library has this same photo dated as 1928, which I think is also wrong (it's in their Security Pacific National Bank Collection, which librarians have told me contained many errors and left much to be desired when they took custody of that archive and they've been making corrections wherever they can). And, while i don't mean to doubt the records of Cal State Dominguez Hills, their collection contains another photo of this same building submerged by this same flood and that one is labeled as the flood of 1938, which would have been five years after it came down, so I just don't trust the 1926 label. I do see that there was some flooding in 1926, but the flood photographed in the rest of these images is more consistent with that in photo 2. Just a feeling. If I'm wrong and it was indeed taken in 1926 during a lesser flood, then on this day, it would likely have looked just like it does here or worse.
1935, Looking South on Broadway at 8th Street, Los Angeles (1935). Posted Saturday, March 15, 2025.
By 1935, Broadway and 8th Street had become a thriving commercial hub in downtown Los Angeles, lined with department stores, theaters, and bustling street activity. This southward view captures the energy of the era, with pedestrians filling the sidewalks and streetcars weaving through rows of automobiles. The tall buildings flanking the street housed a mix of businesses, reflecting the city’s rapid economic growth despite the lingering effects of the Great Depression. This intersection remained one of the busiest in Los Angeles, a testament to the city's expanding urban landscape. Thank you to Historical Los Angeles, USA.
1937, This view looking north up Broadway from 8th includes pedestrians, cars, streetcars, and a long vista of buildings. The President Theater on the right shows Stella Dallas, also known as the Globe Theater. Further up, a blade sign for the Pig 'n' Whistle (712 South Broadway), across the street Mode o' Day and the Loews State theater (707 South Broadway) signs are also visible. (Herman J Schultheis Collection) https://buff.ly/550vmLc. Thank you to LAPL. Posted Thursday, March 13, 2025.
1950s, 8th and Broadway, Home Savings Bank building. (Albert L. Bresnik - Herald Examiner Collection) https://buff.ly/3YowSXF. Thank you to LAPL. Reposted here on Thursday, March 13, 2025, from an October 22, 2024, post.
%20new%20Richard%20Gahr%20High%20School%20at%2011111%20Artesia%20Blvd.%20between%20Studebaker%20and%20Gridley%20roads,%201964.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=spacer}
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
