Hollywoodphotographs.com is one of the largest photographic and reference collections about Hollywood. Covering 110 subjects from 1880-2012, it chronicles Hollywood's evolution from a dusty outpost to a global legend. The collection contains over 12,000 photos, of which 9,000 are available for sale, either in digital or print format. While a photo may be "worth a thousand words", we think the history behind each image is pretty fascinating too - not to mention an integral part of who we are, what we do, and our legacy - so we created this blog as a dedicated space where their stories can be preserved and shared for the enjoyment of history buffs, film lovers, students, educators, researchers, and the public at large.
Premiere night of The Heiress at Fox Carthay Circle Theater in 1949. Directed by William Wyler, starring Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift. The movie was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and de Havilland won for Best Actress. Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won for Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Score.
It’s beginning to look like Awards Season in Hollywood so in the coming weeks, we’ll highlight some favorites from our archive, starting with this one, of the first ever Academy Awards banquet in the Blossom Room at The Hollywood Roosevelt in 1929. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was founded in 1927, but the first private dinner and ceremony wasn’t held until 1929, hence the caption that reads “Second Anniversary and Awards Banquet”.
Want to see more historic photographs of Christmases past? Check out our Hollywood Blvd., Vine Street, and Parades galleries or type “Christmas” into our handy search tool to view all the festive images in our Historic Hollywood Photographs collection. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Parades were a popular form of entertainment in early 20th century California, marking the community’s favorite holidays and special events. Hollywood’s first such celebration in 1907 was a smaller version of Pasadena’s now famous Rose Parade, known as the Tilting Tournament and Floral Parade in which early automobiles and wagons, decorated with flowers and banners, traversed the Boulevard between Highland and Cahuenga. There was also an Old Settlers Parade to commemorate the contributions of Hollywood’s pioneer families.
By the late 1920s, Hollywood Boulevard was a nationally famous shopping destination, home to the finest retailers in Southern California, made even more popular by movie star visits. In 1924, the merchants began to decorate their windows; lighted trees and other decorations were added to the sidewalk décor; and lights were strung across the thoroughfare. These property owners “initiated a new Christmas activity (in 1928), which was destined to become one of the outstanding features of the Christmas season”, notes historian Bruce Torrence.
Santa Claus along with various celebrities made their way down the Boulevard in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Later, the reindeer caught a break as a truck replaced them and the float was motorized. For every decade since, the parade has maintained tradition with sprays of artificial snow, klieg lights, marching bands, cowboys on horseback, stars in convertibles, and floats sponsored by community businesses and organizations. Thousands lined the street to watch. Every year since the 1950s, it has been televised on local television stations, with celebrity hosts giving audiences the play by play, while cameramen risk their safety to deliver up close and personal shots.
Like most everything else in 2020, this Hollywood tradition will take a necessary breather this year. The Hollywood Christmas Parade, originally known as the Santa Claus Lane Parade when it debuted in 1928, will instead be replaced by a television special (“Hollywood Christmas Parade: Greatest Moments” airing on the CW tonight, Friday December 4). The parade, which historically signaled the start of the Christmas shopping season on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, was the brainchild of the Hollywood Merchants Association, the precursor of today’s Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Luckily, you can also take a trip down memory lane of Christmases past by visiting our collection of historic parade photographs, which capture all the glitz and glamour of these events from the 1920s-70s. The landmark buildings and marquees of the movie palaces along the boulevard are prominently featured, and the night shots of neon and klieg lights remain spectacular. My particular favorites: intimate portraits of Jayne Mansfield and Ronald Reagan (1959), and Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner as grand marshals in 1979. Any parade that celebrates Lassie is a winner in my book!
Danny Kaye entertains servicemen at Hollywood Canteen (1943)
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, actress Bette Davis approached fellow actor John Garfield and Dr. Jules Stein about starting a canteen for servicemen in Hollywood, similar to the Stage Door Canteen in New York. The three approached all the entertainment unions, guilds, movie studios and radio stations for support. They found a dilapidated barn located at 1451 N. Cahuenga Boulevard and leased it for $100 a month for the duration of the war. Hollywood’s motion picture craftsmen volunteered their services to do the renovation and transformed the place.
Fay McKenzie dancing the Jitterbug with a serviceman at the Hollywood Canteen (1943)
It was unanimously agreed that the Hollywood Canteen would be exclusively for enlisted servicemen, no officers allowed. The servicemen’s uniform was his admission ticket. The only people allowed to volunteer were those who worked in some facet of the entertainment business.
Betty Davis points to the Canteen’s Hall of Honor while Bob Hope and Marlene Dietrich look on (1943)
The Canteen had its grand opening on October 3rd, 1942 with Eddie Cantor as MC. The forecourt was filled with thousands of servicemen, dignitaries and civic leaders. All food, beverages, and cigarettes were free. Each night, two bands played to packed dance floors. Entertainers included: Red Skelton, Spencer Tracy, Rosemary Clooney, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and many more. Hostesses included: Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Crawford, to name just a few.
Rita Hayworth cutting pies at the Hollywood Canteen (1943)
Buster Keaton pours punch at the Hollywood Canteen (1944)
When the war ended in 1945, fewer servicemen visited and the canteen ultimately closed by November. Over the course of its 3 year existence, the Hollywood Canteen had over 3 million servicemen come through its doors. It was truly Hollywood’s finest home-front contribution to the war.
On this Veteran’s Day, we welcome you to take a trip inside the canteen by visiting our collection of over 430 images taken in its heyday between 1942-45. You may also enjoy our gallery of VJ Day photographs capturing the big celebrations in the streets, particularly on Hollywood Boulevard, the day the end of the war was announced on August 14, 1945.
Woman sips a soda in front of Barkie’s Sandwich Shop at 3649 Beverly Boulevard in 1928
Gwen Lee in front to the Sphinx Realty office at 537 N. Fairfax Avenue in 1929
These two photographs are examples of “programmatic” or “mimetic” architecture from our archive. Designed to attract the attention of passing motorists, these humorous buildings were quite popular in Southern California in the 1920s and 30s. For the most part, they were very small structures usually designed to highlight the type of business, particularly local restaurants. Famous landmarks, animals, fruits, vegetables, donuts, hot dogs, and articles of clothing all received this super-sized treatment on the Southland’s thoroughfares.
We’re not quite sure why this realtor chose the Sphinx for his office, other than the fact that Egyptian-themed architecture was very popular in the early 1920s due to discoveries of artifacts and tombs in Egypt. A giant dog is, of course, always an attraction, although the connection to sandwiches is somewhat obscure. Nevertheless, these miscellaneous favorites of mine are fun stand outs from our collection worth highlighting.
In 1899, F.W. Samuelson purchased 100 acres bounded by Santa Monica Boulevard on the north, Melrose Avenue on the south, Gower Street on the west, and Van Ness Avenue to the east, from the Gower family. The Gower’s holdings stretched from Melrose Avenue to Sunset Boulevard, right in the heart of Hollywood. Samuelson incorporated the Hollywood Cemetery Association and proceeded to lay out the grounds for a memorial park. Entrance gates, an administration building, and a chapel were erected. The first interment took place in 1901. During its first two decades, the cemetery became the final resting place for Hollywood’s pioneer families: Wilcox and Beveridge, Griffith W. Griffith, Cornelius Cole, Charles Toberman, H.J. Whitley, and the Gower family itself.
In 1917, the cemetery sold nearly half of its southern acreage to Peralta Studios, an early motion picture facility. That land that later became the home of Paramount Pictures and RKO Studios. At the same time, development of the northern acreage began in earnest. The first phase of the Cathedral mausoleum was designed and built in 1919 by the prominent Los Angeles architecture firm of Marston and Van Pelt, eventually housing 1400 crypts and making it one of the largest mausoleums in the world at the time. Other elaborate private mausoleums, many designed by other prominent architects, also inhabit the grounds. A particularly notable one being that of William Andrews Clark Jr. and family, designed by Robert D. Farquahar in 1921. The Jewish section of the cemetery, Beth Olam, was created in the southwest portion of the grounds in the 1920s and remains one of the oldest active Jewish cemeteries in California. As the complex developed, manicured grounds were laid out in sections with curvilinear pathways connecting them. Major structures for administration, worship, and burial were located on the periphery. A series of water features in the Garden of Legends and near the Fairbanks Lawn added to the ambience.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery under construction in 1932
Morgan, Walls, and Clements created the current administration building at the northern entrance in 1931. The signature building had multiple uses and is acclaimed for its vast employment of travertine and grand meeting spaces utilized by the Masons and Order of the Eastern Star. “Scores of actors, directors, producers, writers, cinematographers and composers rest within its walls”, says the site’s official walking guide, most notably: Judy Garland, Cecil B DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Charles Chaplin Jr, Al and Charles Christie, Bebe Daniels, Marian Davies, Janet Gaynor, David Horsley, Jesse Lasky, Barbara LaMarr, Tyrone Power, Fay Wray, and the Talmadge sisters Norma, Natalie and Constance. Other prominent citizens included Los Angeles Times’ owners and publishers Harrison Gray Otis and Harry Chandler. There is also a memorial to Oscar winning Black actress Hattie McDaniel, though she was not allowed to be interred there when she died.
Rudolph Valentino’s casket being carried into the Grand Mausoleum
One of Hollywood’s most persistent legends surrounds the death of silent film star Rudolph Valentino in 1926. Valentino’s sudden death triggered a national outpouring of grief from his overwrought fans. After his funeral in New York City, he was interred in crypt 1205 in Hollywood Cemetery’s Grand Mausoleum. Each anniversary of his death was acknowledged in a ceremony and attendees soon began to note the presence of a mysterious “Lady in Black”. Several actresses claimed the title and fabricated versions of their relationship to the star. The tradition and its fantasies continue to this day.
The cemetery became run down by the latter part of the century. There were allegations of mismanagement and the State halted the sale of plots. In 1998, Tyler Cassidy of Forever Enterprises purchased the 60-acre site and began a rehabilitation, changing the name to Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The management introduced new uses with concerts, outdoor movie screenings, Dia de Los Muertos celebrations and more, soon creating a wildly popular new social destination and cultural scene for a new generation of Los Angelinos. An ongoing restoration and development plan ensure the cemetery will be utilized well into the 21st century, and hopefully beyond, as Andy Warhol famously quipped, “The idea is not to live forever, it is to create something that will.“
Mercury Aviation at DeMille Field #2 Wilshire Blvd. & Fairfax Ave. in 1921
Recreational flying was all the rage in 1920s Hollywood and airshows were a popular form of entertainment. Cecil B. DeMille, Charlie Chaplin, and other movie luminaries owned planes as well as the airfields where they kept them. This one, at Wilshire and Fairfax, is just about where the new museum of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is located. The intersection today is a far cry from the open space depicted in this photo, also featuring oil derricks, a blimp, the latest automobiles, and an assortment of planes. I chose it as my Photo of the Week because I love all the different modes of transportation captured in one single shot. The images from our collection that show Hollywood in a way we’ll never see it again, illustrating just how much the city has changed in 100 years, are some of my very favorites.
~ Christy McAvoy
Bathing Beauties at Rogers Field at Wilshire & Fairfax Blvd. in 1921
The Bathing Beauties were a group of pretty, charming, photogenic women originally assembled by film producer, Mack Sennett. Dressed in bathing costumes, they’d appear in early short comedies and the studios’ promotional materials or events to attract extra attention. While there were hundreds about town seeking their big break, most remained nameless. Mabel Normand and Gloria Swanson were two early beauties who would later distance themselves from the moniker, even denying they’d ever been one, once their movie careers took off. Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties were so popular well into the late 1920s that they inspired imitations at Fox Film Corp. and Christie Studios.
When selecting transportation and airfields as our next themes of focus, this image immediately jumped out as one of those quintessential Hollywood photographs, juxtaposing beautiful women in a typically male, mechanical setting. The airfields gallery on our Historic Hollywood Photographs website contains many such smile-inducing photos with a variety of actors, pilots, crew, even grandmas and pets, posing with planes and mugging for the camera. The aerial landscape shots, with oil derricks and transportation that you just don’t see in modern day Hollywood, make it a fun highlight of the collection.
Vern Farquhar inside his Hollywood Tire Shop on Hollywood Blvd. in 1923
Road trips became a significant part of American life in the 1920s, but the roads were far from hazard free and good tires were essential. Vernon Farquhar made a comfortable living and developed a trusted reputation with his well-regarded tire shop. Originally located at 6262 Hollywood Boulevard, it moved a few years later to 6472 Sunset Boulevard. Farquhar was very active in his community - a founding member of the Lions Club (which provided services to the blind when it formed in 1923), as well as president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Vern (kneeling) at his Hollywood Tire Shop on Sunset Blvd. in 1930
I singled out these photos this week because I wanted to give Vern a shoutout in contrast to some the other big Hollywood players we’ve repeatedly highlighted here and he occupied a special place in my own career trajectory having contributed to my graduate thesis with an extensive oral history.
I particularly like this “miscellaneous” photo from our archive of him outside his shop consulting with a couple of water truck drivers as it reminds me of my father, Forrest Robert Tucker, who proudly worked at Sparklett’s Water in Eagle Rock for over 40 years and had a lifelong passion for cars, trucks, and Southern California motor clubs.
