The Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co. - The "SeeandBee"

The Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co. (C&B), a popular steamship line and later a trucking firm, was established by Morris A. Bradley in 1885 and incorporated in 1892, with Bradley as president. Passenger and freight service was initiated between Cleveland and Buffalo on the "State of Ohio" and the "State of New York," leaving Cleveland from the foot of St. Clair Ave, and in 1896, the "City of Buffalo" was added. The "City of Erie" replaced the "State of Ohio" in 1898, providing night service from Cleveland to Toledo. In 1914 Cedar Point and Put-in-Bay were added to the C&B route. 

As passenger service became increasingly popular, the luxurious "SEEANDBEE," a costly sidewheel passenger steamer, began regular trips between Cleveland and Buffalo in 1913. At that time, the C&B and the Detroit & Cleveland (D&C) line obtained a 50-year lease from Cleveland for the property at the foot of 9th St. for $55,000. There the two companies built the E. 9th St. Pier and a new lake terminal, dedicated in 1915; in exchange, the city built a bridge over the E. 9th St. railroad tracks, paved the E. 9th St. approach, and provided a street railway to the pier.

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!

The Denver Zephyrs

The Denver Zephyr was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad between Chicago and Denver. It operated from 1936 to 1973. The Denver Zephyr continued operating after the Burlington Northern Railroad merger in 1970. BN conveyed the train to Amtrak in 1971; Amtrak would merge it with the Chicago–Oakland San Francisco Zephyr and drop the name in 1973.

**UPDATE** The photo below (not a postcard) was sent to me by reader inquiring about another post and saw the Denver Zephyr card. She was kind enough to send me a scan of a great family photo taken sometime between 1934 and 1936 next to the Mark Twain Zephyr. On the back of the photo is written "Maiden Zephyr". From what I could find out, the first service trip from Hannibal to St. Louis was on Sunday October 27th, 1935. There was a ceremonial event on October 25th and normal service on October 28th. So somewhere in that timeline is when the picture was taken...BTW, the Mark Twain Zephyr is for sale!

More on the Mark Twain Zephyr here:  http://www.railmerchants.net/mt-zephyr.htm

Santa Catalina Island, California - North End of Avalon Bay

This unused Mitchell postcard above, shows the untarnished Avalon Bay in the late teens or early twenties. It is at this location that the famous Casino Ballroom was built in 1929.