The Los Angeles Steamship Company - "Yale" & "Harvard"

The Los Angeles Steamship Company was a passenger and freight shipping company based in Los Angeles, California. The company, formed in 1920, initially provided fast passenger service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1921, LASSCO added service to Hawaii in competition with the San Francisco-based Matson Navigation Company using two former North German Lloyd ocean liners that had been in U.S. Navy service during World War I. Despite the sinking of one of the former German liners on her maiden voyage for the company, business in the booming 1920s thrived, and the company continued to add ships and services. In 1922, the City of Los Angeles, a renamed and refitted liner was one of the largest American ships sailing in Pacific waters.

More info on the Harvard and the Yale here:

https://jhgraham.com/2015/08/27/the-los-angeles-steamship-co-harvard-yale/

Sunset Bowling Center - "Home of the famous 52 Lanes in a Row"

"Situated on the Warner Brothers Sunset Lot where the first talking picture in Hollywood was made." 

Due to its role in the history of the motion picture business, the site was designated as a Historic Cultural Landmark in LAHCM 1977. The distinctive Executive Office Building, part of Warner Brothers original studio lot, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

King’s Tropical Inn

King’s Tropical Inn stood at 5935 Washington Blvd in the 1920s and 1930s. It was known for its chicken dinners but, as you can see on this promotional postcard, they also served squab. The squab was a dish that I regularly came across when researching menus of the era so eventually, I looked it up. Ugh! No wonder we don’t see it much anymore. Squab is the meat from young domestic pigeon and is widely described as tasting like dark chicken

Mike Lyman's Grill - Los Angeles, California

Mike Lyman's Grill (there were two locations, in Hollywood and Downtown, and Lyman also ran the Flight Deck restaurant at what was then the Los Angeles Municipal Airport), but a menu from the place, also dating from 1935, proves an astonishing document. To begin with, some 25 varieties of fish and shellfish were offered, including Coos Bay, Blue Point and Olympia oysters, English sole, striped bass, Catalina sand dabs, imported Irish salt mackerel and a dish called fried barracuda Maitre d'Hotel. 

UPDATE: Turns out I own a Mike Lyman's ashtray!

Hollenbeck Hotel, Los Angeles

The Hollenbeck Hotel circa 1912

John Edward Hollenbeck (June 5, 1829 - September 2, 1885) was an American businessman and investor who was involved in the 19th century development of the city of Los Angeles, California.

Ted Larsen Oldsmobile Dealership - Alhambra, California

Shown are 3 RPPCs from the Oldsmobile Dealership of Ted Larsen, I believe that these are from the early to mid 1950's. Alhambra is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, which is approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles.

Bible Institute of Los Angeles

The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) was founded in 1908 by Lyman Stewart, president of the Union Oil Company. The building shown was demolished in 1989.

The back of the card is printed with an invitation to a lecture by Dr. A.C. Dixon. Dr. Dixon was a noted Baptist pastor, Bible expositor and evangelist popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Los Angeles Trust and Saving Bank

A particularity well designed and attractive postcard showing the interior and exterior of the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank circa 1920. LAT&SB was built in 1911 and still stands today as high-priced condos.

Bekins Van and Storage - 1911

Bekins Van Lines was founded in 1891 in Sioux City, Iowa, by two young Dutch immigrant brothers, Martin and John Bekins. Martin moved west four years later, first to Omaha, Neb., and then Los Angeles.

In its heyday the Bekins Co. owned more than 100 storage buildings in 14 states. In an attempt to streamline its operations in the face of stiff competition, Bekins began selling off its real estate in the early 1980s. By 1983, when purchased by Minstar Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn., Bekins' stock of warehouses had been reduced to 55.

Auditorium - Largest Concrete Building in the World - Los Angeles, California

After doing a little research I discovered that the building was just known as the "Auditorium" until the Los Angeles Philharmonic moved there in the early 1920's. As it pertained to buildings, the title of "World's Largest" or "World's Tallest" was a moving target through the early part of the century. In typical Los Angeles style, there is a parking lot now in the Auditoriums former location.

If you're interested in the history of concrete, and who isn't?  👀  You can go here:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/architecture/bsc/classes/bsc314/timeline/timeline.htm

RPPCs with A Musical Theme

All 3 of the cards shown below were 

published in the 50's by the Los Angeles Photo Post Card Company.

Toenniges Instrument Repair was established in 1953 by instrument maker Paul Toenniges. The shop, now called Benning Violin, houses the talents of three recognized master violin makers: Toenniges' daughter, Nancy Benning, her husband Hans Benning and Eric Benning, a preeminent third-generation violinmaker and luthier who has become widely known for his antiqued reproductions of famous Italian-made master violins from the 16th century.

Founded in 1946 by Lowell C. Kiesel, as the L. C. Kiesel Company (now the Carvin Musical Instrument Co.).  He started by manufacturing aftermarket pickups for steel guitars, then began making a few models of basic lap steel guitars.  In 1949, the name was changed to Carvin (from his two eldest sons, Carson and Gavin; coincidentally, Carson Kiesel was born June 4, 1946 - the same year the Kiesel Company was founded).  Therefore, any instrument or amplifier with a Kiesel badge on it can be dated from 1946-1949; unfortunately, more specific dating is nearly impossible, although there are some clues based on the logos.

Here is a link to the Carvin Museum which houses some of Kiesel's works of art:

www.carvinmuseum.com/playersgallery/kiesel.html

The Pennino Music Co. was founded by Jeanette Pennino Banoczi and husband Jack Banoczi in Los Angeles some time after the end of WWII; It later moved to Westminster California. The were primarily a distributor but they did register their own brands and distribute them. On the back of this card is "special" on Circus Band Harmonicas...10 cents each! I'll take a dollars worth!

Los Angeles City Hall - circa 1928

A RPPC of an artists rendering of the "New Los Angeles City Hall". The card is not postally marked, but the building was completed in 1928, so this card predates that. The description below is from the back of the card.

The RPPC card below shows how the building "towered" over the City of Angels. The building was in fact the tallest building in Los Angeles from 1928 until 1964.  A little bit of trivia...the Los Angeles City Hall's concrete structure used sand collected from California's 21 historic Missions.

1950's RPPC of Tourist

The stamp boxes (SELLO-Papel Kodak) on these real photo "tarjeta postales" identify them to be of Mexican origin, circa 1950...as if the sunglasses weren't proof enough of the date! The interesting part to me, are the ornate iron doors she's looking through. With a little research, I found that they happen to be the entrance doors to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. The card below gives me the impression that they may have visited the iconic L.A. landmark when it was closed. 

Sing Fat Company, Los Angeles

The main store for Sing Fat Co. was in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

This branch was located in downtown Los Angeles. 

The logo above is from the back of the card.

Hill's Barber Shop, Los Angeles

Looking more like "Sweeney Todd" than your average barber, owner Jeff T. Hill poses for his RPPC advertising his trade! I'm guessing late 40's, early 50's. The only RPPC I've run across with the photographer in the picture...do you see him in the mirror?

Angels Flight, Los Angeles, California

The original Angels Flight Railway location, with tracks connecting Hill Street and Olive Street in downtown Los Angeles, operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment. The entire railway was dismantled and put into storage (SEE!, we don't destroy all that is old in L.A!) The second Angels Flight location opened nearby to the south in 1996. It was re-closed in 2001, after a fatal accident, and took nine years to commence operations again, on March 15, 2010. Some more info and nice pictures at: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/23044083

Found these original tickets in a shoe-box at a postcard show.

This linen is postmarked July 16, 1951

The photo below is NOT a postcard, but it is a neat perspective of what was then and what is now. Photo is from the L.A.Times photo archieve, "Framework"

http://framework.latimes.com/2011/01/07/angels-flights-first-opening/#/0

Greetings from Los Angeles

I'm going to date this postally unused card circa1935-1937. Reason being, the observatory shown is the Mount Wilson Observatory. The iconic Griffith Observatory (think Rebel Without a Cause, and many other movie and TV appearances) was being completed at the time and surely have been on this card had it been around. What else we see here (clockwise-ish from the top left) is City hall, Chinatown, Union Station, the new Federal Courthouse, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum (built for the 1932 Olympics), Pershing Square, a "typical" California bungalow, Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica beach and the famous Biltmore Hotel. All looking like a collage of other postcards this publisher could get his hands on!