Vintage Los Angeles Postcards, Part 1
Railroad expert and GDB friend Steve DeGaetano scanned some postcards that he purchased at Disneyland's 'One of a Kind Shop" in New Orleans Square after I expressed an interest in seeing some of them. The postcards feature views of Los Angeles, some over 100 years old; I'm fascinated by the history of the city of Los Angeles and remember stories that my grandmother told me about moving here from Illinois after marrying my grandfather (an LA native). Also, I was friends with an older couple who had so many stories about going to see great big bands and jazz artists in the city, it sounded amazing. For those of you who don't live in SoCal, I hope that you find these old postcards to be as fun as I do! Here's Steve:
After watching the 1992 Los Angeles riots from the comfort of my suburban home in Agoura, CA, I started taking a real interest in the history of the city where I was born, reading loads of books on Los Angeles and taking self-guided walking tours of downtown LA streets and sights. Around the same time, I got my first Disneyland Annual Pass, and started visiting the Park regularly.
The One of a Kind shop in New Orleans Square was a favorite evening-time destination, probably from the warm glow that emanated from the doors and windows, beckoning one to come in and examine all the interesting antiques inside. Most of these cards were purchased from the shop, a few at a time over the course of several visits. The imagery of these early postcards was both charming and fascinating, bringing Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles to life for me “in living color.” Sadly, the One of a Kind shop closed in May of 1996.
The cards were sold with their corners inserted into simplified cardstock “frames,” with the back side giving a little background on old postcards. The frames were double-sided and could be opened to free stand, sandwich-board style, displaying your cards. I don’t recall what I paid for these—they were probably only a couple bucks each.
I’m definitely no expert on postcards, but many of them are “Linen” finished, with an almost canvas-like texture to them. Many of these were taken before the advent of color film, and so were hand-tinted with colored pigments to give the illusion of being color photographs. If you like these, and want to see many, many more, I suggest picking up a copy of “Greetings from Southern California,” by Monica Highland, which features color images of hundreds more.
I will share the postcard's original caption in orange, and any of Steve's comments in blue!
4 comments:
Major-
Back in the days when I was actively building-up my Disneyland postcard collection, I flipped through hundreds and hundreds of cards just like these. I'm certain I have [at least] the one of McArthur Park.
Thanks, Steve, for sharing these. Thank you too, Major.
It's interesting how these, and other, old postcards are more like illustrations than photos. I take it that coloring the photos also included going over various features with a pen or pencil to make then stand out more?
I think my favorite, in this batch, is the "nighttime" postcard. It looks like an animation cel. They all have their interesting and attractive features. Like the perspective in the Spring Street image.
It was fortunate that you snatched these up while the One of a Kind shop still existed, Steve. And thank you for sharing them with us!
And thanks, Major, for the usual yadda, yadda, yadda. ;-p
I love these! I also have a small collection of "linen" L.A./Hollywood cards of this vintage. I don't think I have any of these specific cards, even though a couple of them look familiar. I will wait until you publish "Part 3" and then I can scan any of the ones that I have, which aren't duplicates......if you are interested!
The water on one side of McArthur park is now gone, even though the park still still exists on both sides of Wilshire Blvd. I've never walked around McArthur Park, but I do know that it's melting. Donna Summer told me so. Or maybe I heard it on the radio? Heaven knows!?!?
That looks like a monorail beam running through the Ambassador Hotel property! But I suppose it was just a covered walkway through the gardens. The Coconut Grove remained standing for another two years after the hotel was torn down. I think they were trying to save it and use it as an auditorium for the new high school that was going to be built on the property. But of course, those plans fell through and it was torn down. Why? Because they ruin EVERYTHING! The Wilshire Boulevard Brown Derby Restaurant with the "derby" shaped entrance was located across the street. The developer of that property stuck the "hat" on the second floor of the 1980s mini mall the replaced the restaurant, but unless you knew it was up there, you would would never recognize it.
Thank you, Steve and Major!
I have a feeling the postcard “NITETIME ON BROADWAY” is actually a Daytime photograph that an artist had toutch up to make it an exciting NITETIME view. The amount of traffic , the street sweeper , the way some of the pedestrians are dressed , men wearing straw boaters ( a daytime hat) …. Lots of lights on in the office buildings …
I’m naturally a suspicious person.
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