A new colorized video of Los Angeles’ bustling streets from the 1930s is shown, with the added bonus of post-production crowd noises.
Los Angeles streets from 1990 remind us that we are seeing scenes of Depression-era Los Angeles. These sights include the streetcars on the pavements as well as the new-electrified streetcars on the streets.
Aerial shots of streetgoers in stunning poses show them traversing the famous intersections of the City of Angels. They can be seen wearing almost all hats from the intersection of Vine Street Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard to the thoroughfare of South Broadway and to the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard outside The Wiltern Theater. This venue was built just a few years ago and is still there today.
YouTuber NASS colored the video using AI neural network colorizations. The footage shows Hollywood Boulevard in the years before the first eight Stars of the Walk of Fame were placed.
Electric street cars were introduced to Los Angeles at the beginning of 1885. They share the road with cars that have been popular since the 1930s.
Another shot of Hollywood Boulevard shows a police officer directing traffic, while pedestrians obey the signs at the edge.
The now closed Kress Night Club is another angle from Hollywood Boulevard
One officer supervises pedestrians as they cross the street in front of what looks like an intersection at Hollywood Boulevard.
Here’s another view of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street at the intersection in today’s modern-day.
In 1931, municipal swimming pools in the city were desegregated in LA, and in 1932, the boom town hosted the Summer Olympics at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The city, just taking life as the cinematic heart of the United States due to its year-round temperate weather, had a population in 1930 of approximately 1.2 million. The U.S. Census now shows that the city has grown to 3.9 millions people.
One shot shows the façade of Broadway’s Spring Arcade Building alongside an aerial view of South Broadway.
Below is an image of South Broadway taken next to the Broadway-Spring Arcade Building. This building was just built in 1924.
This is South Broadway in its opposite direction as seen from the Hoxton Hotel Roof, September 2020.
The landmark in Los Angeles was not built more than ten years before the shooting. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy.
This three-level, glass-roofed shopping mall connects to two 12-story office buildings on Broadway facing each other and Spring Street facing the other.
The Wiltern was also built in close proximity to filming as the Warner Brothers Theater’s flagship.
The art-deco monument was initially a theater for vaudeville. The building is located at the intersection Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. Its name refers to the combination of these two streets.
The exterior of The Wiltern Theater is shown in this aerial photo. It’s an art deco landmark situated at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard (West Avenue) and Wilshire Boulevard.
As classic cars go by, pedestrians wait for the chance to cross.