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!

LA-01: “Spring Street is the ‘Wall Street’ of Los Angeles. It runs through the business section of the city, and ends by the old Plaza church, where the city of Los Angeles was first founded.”

LA-02: “The celebrated street of gala Premiers, world fashions, movie starts and extras, famous shops, hotels and theatres, where beauty, gaiety and glamour reign supreme in a setting seen only in California.”

This of course is Hollywood Boulevard. Grauman’s Chinese Theater can be seen in the lower left, and the white tower on the right belongs to the Hollywood First National Bank Building.

LA-03: “On the Road of a Thousand Wonders.”

Obviously a daytime picture that was hand tinted to resemble nighttime. Still a fun image showing automobiles, trolleys and even horse-drawn vehicles sharing the road.

LA-04: “General Douglas McArthur Park is an interesting 20 acre sunken park containing a large lake with boating facilities. Many varieties of tropical trees and flowers surround the lake. Wilshire Boulevard, one of the principal thoroughfares of the Metropolitan area, passes thru the park, a direct route to Beverly Hills and the beaches west of Los Angeles.”

This one was postmarked July 1954, and the writer literally wrote “Wish you were here” on the back!

LA-05: "The Ambassador Hotel, surrounded by colorful gardens of subtropical beauty, is the home of the famous Cocoanut Grove."

The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom is featured in another postcard (LA-18). Aside from the famed ballroom, the Ambassador is probably best known as the location where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. The Ambassador was demolished in 2006.

OK, that's it for Part 1! There will be three more installments of these great vintage Los Angeles postcards. MANY THANKS to Steve DeGaetano for scanning the cards and for all of his work dealing with the card captions and adding his own commentary!