Friday, February 26, 2010

Los Angeles in 1935

Click here to enjoy, in glorious Technicolor, 8 and 1/2 minute movie of Los Angeles in 1935--full of "architectural oddities" and "colorful oddities" and garden gnomes--garden gnomes in 1935!

The Hidden Los Angeles website has the complete MGM/YouTube video, titled "Wonder City of the West." According to their blurb, this was the 14th in a series of travelogues filmed for movie theaters by one James A. FitzPatrick, starting in 1930. He traveled the world making these short films, until 1954. FitzPatrick died in 1980.

The producer roams from Olvera Street to Wilshire Blvd., marvels at the Brown Derby and other pre-Googie whimsical buildings, then visits the Hollywood studies and backlots--including Disney Studios (where the girls in their summer dresses emerge after a day of work, followed by men in shirtsleeves and ties). He shakes hands with a young Walt Disney in front of his home. The travelogue winds up at the Hollywood Bowl, with half-naked dancers cavorting on a raised stage.

OK, here's the YouTube link. But if you like LA History, visit the Hidden Los Angeles website too--there's some amazing stuff there. Makes me wish I worked for them., or vice versa.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Excellent post!

Unknown said...

Thanks for linking to HLA... I'm so glad you enjoy my site! (And truth be told, I wish *someone* worked for me right about now... I really need a nap!) :)

Judy Herman said...

Great discovery. I'm reading Shanghai Girls and I'll have to reimagine them with longer skirts than I pictured.