in the 1920s, my grandparents (a dashing young Englishman and a California fruit rancher's daughter, both now long dead) moved into a house on a street just off Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood
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I'm surprised how ordinary-residential Hollywood can be, just a couple of blocks off the big glitzy tourist areas. Not even fancy houses, just... ordinary. I mean, I have no idea if those houses are considered slummy or a super-cool place to live, these days, because I am not a native, but they look okay to me!
You just made me realize: if I were to look up the exact address, I could Google Street View it! See if it's still there, or a Walgreen's, or something.
Well at the time all the movies were being made in the Valley: Granada Hills, Studio City, Universal City. Hollywood (as my dad used to say) is a zip code (or couple) not a city. (Which is true for much the San Fernando Valley as well.) LA is a scary, sprawly place and many of the cities you hear about are "communities" and not incorporated places. So what truly encompasses "Hollywood" can be a matter of opinion.
At the start of the 20s it would have been comparatively small and rural in some respects and probably still had a fair number of orchards around. (In 1907 the pop of CA as a whole was around 2 million total.) It was a fast growth time though and many of the landmarks associated with Hollywood were built in that decade. It would have been an interesting place undergoing a huge transition. (And moreover land was cheap back then!)
My grandmother's album goes back to her girlhood and includes many photos from her time at the University of Nevada. She must have been unusual for her time, to want to go to college. (Or perhaps not so unusual? But to be given the opportunity was probably unusual.)
People in the past always seem so unselfconscious in photographs, unaware that we in the present are peering back at them, wondering.
I was told once that the fruit ranch is still in the family, operated now by my third cousins, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's all housing developments now.
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At the start of the 20s it would have been comparatively small and rural in some respects and probably still had a fair number of orchards around. (In 1907 the pop of CA as a whole was around 2 million total.) It was a fast growth time though and many of the landmarks associated with Hollywood were built in that decade. It would have been an interesting place undergoing a huge transition. (And moreover land was cheap back then!)
Here's an awesome gallery.
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My grandmother's album goes back to her girlhood and includes many photos from her time at the University of Nevada. She must have been unusual for her time, to want to go to college. (Or perhaps not so unusual? But to be given the opportunity was probably unusual.)
People in the past always seem so unselfconscious in photographs, unaware that we in the present are peering back at them, wondering.
I was told once that the fruit ranch is still in the family, operated now by my third cousins, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it's all housing developments now.
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