Thursday, November 8, 2007 – Painting the Town

It was one of those days Hollywood just got darker and darker, fog at dawn and then sinister low clouds streaming in off the Pacific.  Think Raymond Chandler and noir films and choose a setting, in this case, Hollywood Boulevard and El Centro, at the old Carter DeHaven Music Box that opened in 1926 as a live stage theater featuring Broadway-style musical comedies. In the forties it was a movie theatre, Hollywood Pix, but closed in the seventies.  In the eighties it was restored to its original condition as the Henry Fonda Theatre. Now it's the Music Box @ Fonda – very hip, even if still a bit seedy.  There seems to be an ominous dragon on the west wall – very noir.

The residue of hip – El Centro at Hollywood Boulevard –

Hollywood, backwards –

The stop signs on each end of the block –

Other messages –

And above –

Down where El Centro meets Sunset, at Columbia Square, built back in 1938, the soon to be demolished former home to the Jack Benny Show, the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, the Edgar Bergen Show (with Charlie McCarthy), Gene Autry's "Melody Ranch" and the Bing Crosby Show, the pigeons have assessed Doctor Phil.

Doctor Phil is grinning at the Streamline Moderne Hollywood Palladium, on the other corner of El Centro and Sunset, the dance hall that opened on September 23, 1940 – with a concert by Frank Sinatra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.  That was followed over the years by the Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, the Oscars, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Barbra Streisand and who knows what.  In the sixties Lawrence Welk broadcast his show from the here. It was built by film producer Maurice M. Cohen on the site of the original Paramount Pictures and designed by George B. Kaufman, architect of the Greystone Mansion the Los Angeles Times Building.  Live Nation just agreed to restore the thing. It needs it.

As seen from Hollywood Boulevard and El Centro, an homage to Raymond Chandler, painting the east wall of the Equitable Building at the Pantages – good scotch.

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik