Wed 29 Sep 2010
Those Were The Days, My Friend
Posted by Will under flashback, history, photography
[2] Comments
Click image for the bigger picture
Next in my occasional trippings down memory lane through the Los Angeles Public Library’s digital archives, I share with you this blast from the past. Undated, but if the visible vehicles are any indication probably taken somewhere around the late 1920s to early ’30s, we find Carpenter’s Drive-In that once stood at 6285 Sunset Boulevard between Vine Street and Argyle in Hollywood.
As one carhop serves a customer at the right of the image, a pair waits for arrivals at this prime example of a city catering to the automobile where one could order up ”A Real Hamburger Sandwich” for 15 cents and wash it down from behind the wheel with a few draught beers (see the sign above the heads of the two carhops) before hitting the [*hic*] road.
Can you imagine?
Both the then-acceptable behavior of drinking and driving and Carpenter’s were long gone by the time I came around. But I’m old enough not only to have childhood memories of the eating at the similarly circular Delores’ drive-In that stood on Wilshire, just west of La Cienega, but also to have teenage recollections of when it was torn down in the early 1980s to make way for the office building that occupies the real estate now.
much like you and the 1950s hollywood and vine picture, i’ve been looking at this picture for weeks. harry carpenter had at least 6 locations around the city. the sunset/vine location was right on the southeast corner of the intersection. i have two photo of this location. all the locations looked sort of the same but i don’t think this is the vine location and here is why. the “carpenter sandwiches” sign ran east to west, parallel to sunset blvd, so we are either looking north or south. the mountains in the background on the right would seem to be the hollywood hills, the auto repair sign just to the right says “hollywo”. both seem to be some good indicators, but if we are looking north at the hills then the auto repair shop would be in middle of sunset blvd. not to mention that the hills don’t really look like right. we should be seeing mt. lee and that’s not it. and the north side of sunset was a vacant lot in the period in question and there are a bunch of building back there.
the other locations that i ruled out are wilshire & western, wilshire & vermont, pico & vermont, silverlake & glendale. the last location that i have was sunset & virgil. this is also the intersection of hollywood and sunset, which would explain the auto repair sign. i think we are standing on sunset blvd looking northwest, following hollywood blvd. the mountain in question is mount hollywood, the one behind griffith observatory. the power lines and the buildings underneath the mountain were on hollywood blvd. this is that little spit of land that has been a used car lot for years. the good luck bar will someday be just across the intersection to the right of the frame.
by the way, this photo had to have been taken after prohibition was repealed on dec 5, 1933. if we could lean a little to the right griffith observatory would be up on the hill shining like a penny.
Awesome examination, Craig. I name you Chief Historic Photo Inspector!