The Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, 1948
A bus heads east, a motorcycle heads west and a cop sits waiting to pull someone over. Pedestrians stand at the crosswalk. Behind them an American catches the breeze.
Named for the intersection that it sits cockeyed on, WIL-shire and Wes-TERN, the Wiltern is one of the greatest art deco buildings on the planet. The bright aqua ceramic tiles make the spectacular structure seem like it was designed to be built in the Emerald City. The grand opening was in 1931. In 1973, the Wiltern was designated City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument 118. But that didn’t keep the theater from closing its doors in 1979. Threatened with demolition, the Los Angeles Conservancy came to its rescue. Together with the efforts of a passionate army of supporters the Conservancy saw to it that the art deco monument was spared. Thank you
In the twenty-five years that have since passed the Los Angeles Conservancy has promoted and preserved many of LA’s great historic buildings and saved them from the wrecking ball. But that’s not all they do, and do well. Among other things is their LAST REMAINING SEATS film series held downtown each summer in the different historic movie palaces on Broadway. If you have never attended one of these memorable events I URGE you to do so. The experience is a great natural high.
Here’s to the LA CONSERVACNY and YOU
Absolutely LOVE this. I grew up in LA in the early forties and remember this so well. Thank you!
The Wiltern use to have this giant oblong digital clock the first of it’s kind on top of the highest point of the building. It would rotate for all to see and light up the sky with this beautiful blue and gold numbers. I would never change growing up in the Wilshire Dist. for all the OZ or yellow brick roads, of the world. Theres no place like home and fortunately for me it was Mac Arthur Park, Pacific Ocean Park, The Observatory, Mt Wilson and the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Park and all that LA had to offer us back then, I’m real grateful for having had the experiences I did. My Neighbors Japenese, Jewish, Polish, Black, Chinese and the rest.
That might be a Los Angeles Transit Lines bus, or perhaps some other operator like Motor Transit Stages. If you were standing on almost any other major boulevard at this moment in Los Angeles, you would be very likely to see a streetcar rather than a bus. Ironically, there never was streetcar service along Wilshire Boulevard, by either Pacific Electric or the Los Angeles Railway. Ironic as now there is a subway going down this “Main Street of Los Angeles,” at least to this corner, and there is talk about of extending it the remainder of the street, to the Pacific Ocean.
O to have that subway!