As history loving Angelenos enter our sixth trying month of shuttered archives and libraries, the Getty Research Institute just dropped a thrilling bombshell with the release of the Research Collections Viewer, an online access tool to high resolution scans of thousands of texts and images in its reference collection.
We clicked the link so fast, it hurt. Were Ed Ruscha’s streetscapes included? They were!
Starting in 1966, and at regular intervals into the 2000s, Ruscha has used his camera (first manual, then motorized) to document the built environment along some of Los Angeles’ most important commercial corridors. He didn’t just shoot beautiful buildings or remarkable vistas, he shot everything, from the same neutral angle. And that means he captured the mundane, the weird, the forgotten, the lost, the everyday magic of the city.
Los Angeles is enormous, and most natives will never see a large body of historic photographs documenting the section of the city that they consider home. But by focusing on Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, Ed Ruscha picked landscapes that are a familiar second home.
Music fans know the Sunset Strip from shows at the Whisky or shopping at Tower, readers haunted Hollywood’s Book Row, barflies got sloppy around Hollywood and Western, and if you ever went Downtown or to UCLA, you probably took the Number 2 RTD bus the length of Sunset. You don’t even have to be an Angeleno to know these streets, since they figure so prominently in film and television location shots.
The first publication to come out of this project was Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), an accordion-style artist’s book that is a landmark in minimalist and conceptual art. It also has the distinction of including a photograph of a tiny, nautical-themed nightclub called the Sea Witch, one of our minor obsessions.
We’ve never been able to find another image of the Strip’s first rock and roll club, where Eddie Cochran hung out with his songwriter fiancé Sharon Sheeley in the mid 1950s, where The Doors, the Seeds, Them and The Yardbirds performed, and which is rumored to have inspired Donovan to write “Season of the Witch.” The club was a casualty of the 1966 law enforcement crackdown on youth culture: the County revoked its teen dance permit, and the FBI busted club manager Donald C. Ward, 20, for failing to report for draft induction.
Ed Ruscha’s camera caught the Sea Witch just before it vanished forever.
But that photograph, rendered postage stamp sized in the artist’s book, was as frustrating as it was revealing. Use a magnifying glass, and the finer details are lost in the halftone printing process. The Getty has digitized two frames showing the Sea Witch, and the scans are wonderfully crisp. Now we can see that blues revivalists Canned Heat were on the bill, the club welcomed patrons from 18 to 80, and the wooden slat façade could have been salvaged from a sunken ship. Zoom in here to see for yourself.
We expect to spend many hours exploring lost Los Angeles through Ed Ruscha’s lens. Just dipping our toes in, these gems splashed into view.
At 5901 Sunset, current Netflix HQ and long a vacant lot, a Streamline Moderne palace of auto insurance once stood. The E. Broox Randall firm survives under new ownership, with a gorgeous night view of the lost building on its website. (Zoom in here.)
North side, 6700 block of Hollywood Boulevard. The buildings survive, but the incredible Hal’s Nest neon dive bar sign with its monocled mascot is long gone. Johnny Weissmuller’s American Natural Foods stores helped to popularize healthy eating in Los Angeles and beyond. (Zoom in here.)
North side, 5100 block of Hollywood Boulevard. Beloved burlesque house Jumbo’s Clown Room is flanked by Aroon and Sankutala Seeboonruang’s Tepparod, one of the first family-run restaurants to serve Thai cuisine in the neighborhood that in 1999 was designated Thai Town. “Thai” is actually in quotes on the sign, and more familiar Chinese fare is also available. (Zoom in here.)
East side, 1700 North block of Western at Hollywood Boulevard. Detail of the layers of exuberant and discordant signage that has all been lost: Pioneer Chicken, Time To Shop, Jason’s Adult Books. (Zoom in here.)
South side, 7200 block of Sunset. A rare view of a Pioneer Chicken restaurant under construction, with custom fencing acting as a free billboard. Fun fact: Kim grew up down the block; The Oriental was her local movie theater. (Zoom in here, and dig those Cuban heels.)
South side, 6700 Hollywood Boulevard. The handsome Art Deco building from 1930 survives as part of the Musicians Institute campus, but without Miller’s Books and Stationary’s striking oversized STATIONERS lettering or its fluted underscores. The building looks sad without it. (Zoom in here.)
North side, 8500 block of Sunset, where literary agent H.N. “Swanie” Swanson made life changing motion picture and television deals for clients like Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Zoom in here.)
In front of Hollywood High, a chilly trio of Ronettes fans demonstrate their mile-high hairspray technique. (Zoom in here.)
And so much more! The Star Theatre at 5546 Hollywood is screening Performance (the building burned in 1976)… Ants ‘N Pants boutique at the Hollywood Roosevelt hopes Robert Crumb isn’t feeling litigious… Residents of the Angelina Hotel never lack for entertainment, nor residents of the Hastings for company… The Gap is an exclusive distributor of Levi’s products… a barfly leaves Dante’s and grimaces at the unforgiving sun… Beach bums gape at a cowpoke at the Continental riot house… Al the Tin Man hustles ducts… and Rodney’s English Disco shakes off another night’s glitter tornado.
The Getty invites you to take your own time travel trip with this remarkable new contribution to the study of Los Angeles. There are more than 71,000 images, and unimaginable discoveries to be made. Below you’ll find links to that point to specific streets. Once you’ve picked your year and destination, scroll down the page to find the useful “Previous Object” and “Next Object” buttons and the map. As you explore, we hope you’ll share the things that blow your mind in the comments below.
Hop in, Angelenos. Ed’s driving. Let’s go home!
• Sunset Boulevard, 1965-2010, undated (58,167 digitized items)
• Hollywood Boulevard, 1973-2005, undated (4,292 digitized items)
• Santa Monica Boulevard, 1974 (4,956 digitized items)
• Melrose Avenue, 1975 (3,724 digitized items)
• Pacific Coast Highway, 1974 (not yet digitized, check back later)
Update 9/22/2021: If you’ve been reading the comments on this blog post, you may have run across some from Marguerite Guineheux, who was living with her family on Sunset Boulevard at Hobart in the 1960s, when Ed Ruscha cruised by with his custom camera set up. You can scroll down to read her comments.
Now take a moment to marvel, as the flat, anonymous streetscape that the artist captured on his way to the next block comes alive, in rich retro color, and 11-year-old Marguerite strikes a pose with her poodle Bijou and the family’s 1957 Ford Fairlane in the snapshot below.
I asked if there was anything else she wanted to share with others who are clicking around Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, but maybe don’t have her intimate relationship with the landscape.
Marguerite says, “finding Ed Ruscha’s shoot of Sunset Blvd. is like a visual post script. I don’t have personal photos of all those places that were childhood landmarks of the mind, but here these shots of the 1960s along Sunset Blvd. sit online, in plain view, after all these years! The area looks great, life looks easier and everything has so much style! It’s almost like a Google Maps streetview type of thing, though very limited of course. Almost everything from those images is long gone, being that it’s Sunset Blvd and a major thoroughfare. It was bound to be. This happened all over Los Angeles.”
She’s right: you can use the real 2021 Google Maps streetview to see the generic mini mall that replaced her handsome apartment house here. What was once just called Hollywood is now the borderline of Thai Town and Little Armenia. The palm tree, at least, is still the same!
We’re thrilled that Marguerite was able to book a ticket in her own personal time machine after reading this blog post, and honored that she shared such a wonderful photograph. It would be a cool picture under any circumstances, but placed alongside Ed Ruscha’s view of the same car in its regular parking spot, it somehow makes every frame of film in his enormous project feel as if it might at any moment come to life, or as if we might click a little harder, and fall right into the past. And that’s a piece of Hollywood magic better than anything the studios can dream up.
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Thank you! It’s becoming clear that I won’t be falling asleep anytime soon….
Love this so much! Doing some time trippin’!
Fascinating stuff but one thing about these pics leaves me a bit confused. Almost every shot has a mix of subjects that are blurred while others are relatively sharp. I wonder if these were all shot from a moving vehicle, or if he used a very slow film and shutter speed, or some combination of both. Or perhaps it is a by-product of the digital transfer from the negatives. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find any details on that info. The blurriness unfortunately detracts from many of the images.
How about Hollywood in the 50’s?
You want our George Mann 3-D restaurant photo posts on the On Bunker Hill blog! They’re all linked from the last post in the series: https://www.onbunkerhill.org/manneats4/
Just looking at some of the shots along Sunset and noticed that a lot of the captions and descriptions are not very precise in regards to cross streets.
Amazing stuff. Kim. Thanks so much for the links. Melrose was a lot more sleepy in the mid-1970s than I’d expected it would be.
Thank you
I stumbled across a photo of our old apartment building on Sunset Blvd. Our car is parked in front. I am stunned! It’s a 1965 shot. We probably had not lived there for very long when the shot was taken. I’m also seeing that three shots were taken. It was so beautiful in those days too. Major nostalgic feelings for me.
How magical! We’d love to know the address if you’re inclined to share, either in a reply to the comment, or privately via email. (We once found ourselves on Google Streetview giving a Black Dahlia tour, which was neat, but hardly compares.)
Oh getting on Google Street view is pretty neat! It’s 5305 Sunset Blvd. Hobart was the side street. It’s hideous today.
Almost everything is gone now as I see on Google Street View. I have looked online for years to see if I would ever see that apartment building again. I have old family photos but they are close ups and not a distant view. Big difference. Gypsies once upon a time were on the front lawn while two of their menfolk were coming to blows. The Gypsies lived on the other side of the Motel in a house. It’s a funny memory for me. Gypsies like you would see in an old movie after all.
On Western and Sunset only a couple of blocks away I once saw extras in costumes there on lunch probably. Cowboy
and saloon girl. Area drastically changed by the early 70s and erased by what decade I’m not sure. Post mid 80s. I left
in 1970 and live in Montreal since then.
Thanks for sharing your only-in-Hollywood memories (I lived at Sunset and Vista a decade later and have some weird tales of my own). It really is an unrecognizable landscape along Sunset, and it’s wonderful that Ruscha captured the holy grail image you were seeking. Is this the direct link?
I have got to figure out how to attain some images or permission to use. I am finding more images such as
the miniature golf course that was just up the street on Hwd Blvd and Hobart. Plus more. It feels like I’m google
mapping the past! Vista, huh? Nice area I see. Wish I can say the same today of my old neck of the woods. A big
loss of green and space everywhere in comparison to the mid 60s. Here’s a laugh. Our rent was $75 per month in those
days.
We don’t think The Getty minds you downloading individual images for personal use, but if you want to buy a print, you can find contact info here. (Be aware that the company Getty Images is not The Getty, even though they often come up in web searches for the art institution.) Vista was a bit heavy due to the street prostitution, but it was a lively, walkable neighborhood with a lot of eccentric old industry people in the apartments around ours. You can almost see our building behind the motel here. Glad to help facilitate your time travel trip. Maybe you’ll see somebody you know!
I bet that area you lived in was nice. I think it was the 70s? Again, it’s odd the way 70s still holds so much from earlier decades. Well, every decade does for a while. I notice that the images are on one side of the street. I will keep looking around to see if there is the other side of the street. Sunset Blvd that is. I’m getting lost in there. It was a beautiful time in Hollywood. I would try and remember how it looked but to see it in these images has been really wonderful, sad and mind boggling too. I think the images were taken at the crack of dawn. Sunset blvd and some of Hwd blvd too was vulnerable to great but not better changes being like a highway.
The blvd on Hobart became dense with too much traffic before too long. Sirens all the time and even long runs of Hell’s Angels. You could hear them coming and going for miles. The building was very well built though and comfortable. The sunsets were intense. We faced West.
I did spend time as a young teen in that area off and on. I was going back and forth from Montreal and would stay for a couple of months. Stay at my Mom’s. I saw the changes. All legit businesses were slowly turning to massage parlours. There were too many. There are photos at “Water and Power.” One day while I was away my friend’s Mom got punched in the face for not letting go of her purse. Around the late 77 perhaps near Grauman’s. Everybody in that family moved and my Mom did too because of too many break-ins where she lived. (every thing was going to pot) Everyone went to the Inland Empire and I lost touch with LA. Except I do write to a school friend that lives in West Hwd so I hear a lot about what’s happening around there.
I also lived across the street from the Hwd DMV. A fantastic view of Hwd n Vine with all it’s neon. We were on the second floor. Early 60s. I see the view on I Love Lucy when the gang goes to Hwd. Plus the net has many views. What a shame so much of it is gone. Hwd 24 Ranch Market too. Now when I google map it it’s pretty much a train wreck around there.
Thanks for your suggestions. You can Facebook me. I have some 60s photos, when I’m up to it, will scan and upload. Or on Instagram. I’ll look. Though I still see beauty in Hwd and other areas too.
Ruscha shot both sides of the street! When you’re on the page that shows the row of small photos (not with one image selected and bigger on your screen) look at lower right and you’ll see a red button that says FLIP, and turns yellow when you roll over it. Clicking that takes you to the opposite side of the street. I moved to Hollywood in 1978. Would like to see your photos–and we’re on Facebook and Instagram as Esotouric. Thanks for still holding Los Angeles in your heart after so many years. We’ve also visited Montreal, to give a talk about our South Los Angeles tour at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Beautiful town!
I’ll get those photos onto instagram when I can. I think my Daughter has some of my pics. I stumbled on your old
neck of the woods and I like that area very much a la 1973. Very nice. I see a very unusual restaurant in that neighborhood. The architecture is very interesting and quirky. Abuzzi or something like that. Could not find much on it online. Probably built around 1910.
The Getty site has a photo of my old 5305 Sunset and Hobart building post 65. Could be post 73. . The landscape has been clear cut to some degree. There was a tea room or something of that nature. A patio was built too. Wonder what that was about. It’s funny to see that because it tells another story pictorially but leaves out so much too.
I saw some interesting things on your links/sites about the Black Dahlia. I read the Gilmore book on that horrible but fascinating story. First heard about it in the early 90s. Plus am a big fan of Raymond Chandler. I know he didn’t like LA very much by the late 40s as density vastly increased. I think he would just keel over today to see his old stomping grounds.
Thanks for digging into your archives. There’s quite a hunger for unseen images of Los Angeles, as you know from personal experience! Most of the Ed Ruscha Hollywood photos are organized under the date they were shot, and you might find it easier to start at the main page. Oh, Chandler would definitely plotz to see the city now!
Thanks! I’d love to do a small blog of those days with a few pictures. Will see. Easier said then done. But thank goodness for the internet and those great photo shoots so long ago.
Please do so! If you get hung up on the blog hosting, we’d be happy to host that for you here.