Los Angeles in the 1940s. "Vintage Los Angeles" Hollywood

A haunting and fascinating time capsule of Los Angeles in 1946
I added an evocative soundtrack and slowed down the footage (supplied by Getty). This was actually process footage that was filmed for “Down to Earth.” in April, 1946 and was captured by a train or a bus moving very rapidly. But now with the images slowed down you can now see the movie "Gilda" playing at the RKO theater (01:30) a shot of The Pacific Seas Clifton's Cafeteria (03:34), on S. Olive. , "The Outlaw" playing at Music Hall theater (07:51), and The Nat King Cole trio playing (09:00) at some theater. I also believe that's Westlake Park (MacArthur Park) at 03:22.
I wanted to create a dream like sequence and ethereal tone for this clip, rather then the big band music I've used in the past. I believe the result is quite chilling - especially knowing that so many of these people and businesses no longer exist.
Music: The Molten Core (Long Edit) by Aalborg Ambient Soundtrack
Footage: Getty Images
Edited by: Alison Martino (Vintage Los Angeles on Facebook)

[@shaunesteele7813]

Sure do enjoy it, Alison! What a place and time this was! This was when my husband was a little boy, living in Hollywood. He was a native Hollywood boy and always talked about how it was and how glamorous the Strip was and lots of stories, etc.

[@cypher1333]

I keep coming back to this film. At 9:29, clearly we are on South Broadway, in front of a newsreel theater, where you see the words "Rail Disaster." This must refer to the incident that occurred in Naperville, Illinois on 26 April 1946 - which is why we don't have bullet trains in the United States. So, allowing a few days to get the newsreel footage out there, figure on the first week of May 1946.

[@mmag1120]

Thank you for sharing this with us. March 8,1946. You can see the movie Gilda playing at the RKO theater(01:30). Nice shot of Pacific Seas Clifton's Cafeteria (03:34), on S. Olive. The Outlaw is playing at Music Hall theater. (07:51) Movie was three years old by this time.You can also see The Nat King Cole trio playing(09:00) at some theater. That was not a boring night in L.A.!

[@Ripplebip]

Love the footage! Love the music, and have heard it once before on another video, and just like this one, it lent the video a kind of sad loneliness, a bleak emptiness, an odd dream like feeling, as if I am seeing into someone else's past life, which I am, thanks to this stock footage.

[@jorgeh1680]

I'm surprised no one mentioned how dirty DTLA was.

[@hottotty13]

Was?

[@degreco4199]

Ah! Yes the fond memories of years past. Left Los Angeles in 1992. Before we left I took my son (12 at the time) to Clifton's for lunch. He still remembers it till this day. Now spending my later years in the pueblo San Luis Obispo. Adios amigos.

[@mistersurrealist]

Are you still alive?

[@joeguzman3558]

If i had a time machine i would love to go there in the 1940s

[@CompetitiveAudio]

Nice work Alison. Hauntingly beautiful, basic and simple. It's amazing what can be done with stock footage and the appropriate soundtrack..Great job. Thank you for sharing.

[@marti-mar8974]

I showed this to my pop (who would have been 16 at the time this was filmed) and started reminiscing happily-he didnt care for the music. For him it was a happy time, WWII was over and all was well! He suggested a Perry Como, Harry James, Frank Sinatra or Doris Day soundtrack would not leave the viewers with the creepy haunting feelings this music seems to be prompting!

[@DouglasUrantia]

Keep in mind that all of those lighted signs and the neon was buzzing, and sparking very loudly. It was an earful as I walked along those same streets as a child.!!!

[@nancyhulbert1933]

I enjoy this type of film, it's taken before I was born so it gives me a look into the past, people doing things walking it just fascinates me, life!

[@LeChatonAvecUnFouet]

It's not MacArthur Park, it's the 6th & Olive corner of Pershing Square. Clifton's Pacific Seas cafeteria a few doors down gives it away.

[@LeChatonAvecUnFouet]

That's for Sudaev but I can't connect the reply and the original post for whatever reason.

[@stevers62]

This is FASCINATING!!! So haunting. Like time traveling. Thanks for posting this treasure!!! Three of us watched it twice late last night. Very cool!!

[@dantanasgirl]

Notice a man pointing a gun at someone at 5:15!!unbelievable!

[@babygretz5]

+cinnamongirl3121 ...yeah I think your right.. looks like a cops motorcycle very near to the man too..

[@melgibson202]

It's a traffic cop.

[@charlesg1150]

Yes it was.

[@nukepity9266]

she disappeared 70 years ago today, but no one seemed to notice. hopefully she gets a mention on the 15th, anniversary of her body's discovery...

[@james5460]

Alison has a great feel for Hollywood history. So many people around but looks so lonely.

[@cypher1333]

Simultaneously fascinating and creepy - the exact word that popped into my mind even before I read the comments posted below. The thought that so many of these people and businesses no longer exist. Truly a slice of time on film. Thank you for posting this.

[@elizabethharris6050]

Thanks so much for showing this...I grew up in that Hollywood, we lived only three blocks up the hill from the Boulevard, with Grauman's Chinese Theater being the corner where we got off the 'red cars' trolley to walk home. I remembered most all of the theaters and shops the film showed us. One of the movies on a marquee was "The Outlaw", hot stuff in those days with Jane Russell in her amazing blouse. The Sister Superior up at Immaculate Heart High told us we would/could go to hell if we went to that movie. Needless to say, my little gang and I got into the early show disguised as mature women (18 at least?) and sat thru it twice.

[@tonychuter4830]

WOW 80 years ago looking at this I feel like a time traveller...

[@MrBothandNether]

I'm going with 1946 although The Outlaw was completed in 43, it was not widely released until 1946, it is shown here in it's "6th sensational week" and the characters on the clapboard cleaned up to resemble 09 0 something '46 or 48. Butterflies trapped in amber, forever.

[@ScottFrein]

It's amazing that some people have the foresight to capture the now so that others can view it as "Back then". Very cool

[@shaunesteele7813]

And the music really sets the tone, Alison! I, too, was transfixed and a little teary-eyed seeing the people in this video and thinking how they were alive and real and had lives and now are no longer here. The music really emphasizes that view of this footage, IMO.

[@mohansen11]

FWIW, I have discovered that there is actually a color version of portions of this same footage posted in various places around the internet. However, I haven't yet found anything as complete as this B&W version. So, THANK YOU Alison!

[@mohansen11]

As indicated by others, it was filmed in March-April 1946. Gilda was released on March 15, 1946.

[@dompy1]

I love these. Thank you for posting! It's fascinating because I know exactly where this vehicle is going. It would be fun to see a side by side comparison: Then and now, as heartbreaking as that would be.

[@Porsche996driver]

3:34 the world famous Clifton’s Cafeteria, a hugely popular place for many decades.

[@DharmaDharma11]

I was born in Westchester (LA) in 1959, my father grew up at Figueroa and Slauson in the 1920's. Given my background, this footage and music is somehow fascinating... not sure what it is but has an ethereal tone to it. The time of night, all the people, the music...

[@CompetitiveAudio]

The "creepiness" is what makes the production. Especially when you consider most of the adult people you saw, as well as their possessions are now dust metaphorically speaking...

[@fixcarnowla]

This is so cool, neat to see how things have changed.

[@GhostFacee101]

If only time travel was a thing....I’d be touring these streets, fascinated by how far we have come. The music is dreamy btw👌🏼

[@joeguzman3558]

It's winter time and gets dark earlier probably around 7 pm

[@yoli5779]

Kind of cozy, more so in those days!

[@simonegad]

xo love-have watched this numerous times.

[@opheliarises]

Agreed, I think the reason is, we've seen so many still photo's of this era. But to move through the space, in real time...it has a sort of time travel feel. Like, "Hey, I'm not suppose to be here" But I love it. My mother moved from rural Oklahoma, to San Francisco in 39, then down to Hollywood, in 40. I keep freezing the frames, when I see a tall brunette, wondering.."Is that her?"

[@Mytube777]

This was process footage that was filmed about April 1946 for the Columbia feature “Down to Earth.”

[@joeylewis8615]

A bygone era, makes me yearn for a simpler time, but I'm sure they had many problems like people in every generation do. It is truly haunting to see people from 80 years ago walking the streets like it was yesterday. Love the music, fits perfectly.

[@lauraauldable]

Vintage Los Angeles, so amazing.

[@chriss187]

At 4:44 you can clearly see the Olympic Theater at 313 West 8th St. in downtown LA. Has a different marquee now.

[@miltsar]

thank you so much

[@ObviousArtists]

Love the sound to this.... very Cliff Martinez. it certainly is a leaving-type song. Or where someone was betrayed into surrendering something as meaningful as breath-of-air..and the cityscape scrolls by as this meaningful 'thing' --packed onto a truck gazes out as it leaves town, unknown to anyone until some time later..

[@dancespinner]

Lovely music Alison!

[@Cordelia4219]

This is fantastic! I love the music, it's sort of dream-like. Who filmed this?? Did you notice the movie theater with GILDA playing?

[@mistersurrealist]

So this was shot in 1946.

[@sometetmusic8596]

This is so great! Thanks!

[@erlstone]

this works so well...very good indeed.

[@mohansen11]

Interesting to see so many fur stores. I knew furs were big in the 30's and 40's, but never appreciated how many "fur" (only) stores there were.

[@Airbaja]

1943, 'The Outlaw' (1943) on the Theatre Marquee and the cars..my two cents, love your work.

[@mistersurrealist]

"Gilda" was playing at the RKO theater, so this is 1946.

[@TheHeraclion]

I don't know if it's the monochrome or the haunting music but hollywood doesn't look how I imagined it to be then in it's golden years - quite scary really. Though I was in Hollywood for a day a couple of years ago and wasn't very impressed then either and I find that rather sad since I always loved the whole Hollywood history.

[@shaunesteele7813]

Check out some of the other videos posted by Alison Martino. This is just another view of Hollywood and is nice for us folks who live here to see it along with the haunting music. But there are many others that show the beauty and glamor and they are so wonderful to see. Look at Alison's other stuff. I'll bet you enjoy them! xo

[@TheForeverFamily]

Wow. Even Hollywood didn't know how truly small town it was then.

[@enriquefau8974]

Oh. My. God. Thank you.

[@almanook3005]

Besides "Gilda", there were several other popular movies, and some older ones on double bill. Interesting that "The Outlaw", completed in 1943, was doing so well in LA three years, later. And to see Nat "King" Cole headlining a concert. And Johnny Otis in support. The streets look so clean!

[@samjones4451]

Such beauty. Destroyed by the invasion pf people.

[@TheWaltrgomez]

Who ever took this footage knew that we would see it in the future via internet. This is fascinating and creepy at the same time. Awesomeness at it's finest.

[@rbolo29]

I think this video is to remind us that our time will pass also and only in heaven will we be timeless...if such a thing exists of course.

[@TogaManGuitarViols]

Actually, the at 1:32 there is the RKO "Hayworth/Gilda" marquee and Google has an ad that suggests 1946

[@NYC1927]

This footage was actually shot in color. Not fake color but real technicolor. I've seen it before. You can find it on KZbin but you have to search. Sorry, I cannot remember the original clips title. =(

[@mistervacation23]

Was this Hollywood Boulevard or Wilshire Boulevard?

[@davidkeeler1639]

Thanks,,, very cool

[@Cordelia4219]

This would be 1946 because that's when GILDA was released with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford (which you can see playing in one of the movie theaters here.) I love the cars. I wonder what the crime rate was back then.

[@LJFZR]

Cordelia Brown RKO Theater

[@jarretthedborg852]

Two things, Whenever I see movies set in this period they show all the cars with white wall tires and, as you can see, maybe 10% of cars back then had white walls. Second, amazing how many fur stores you can see.

[@sudaev]

Is that Westlake Park (MacArthur Park) at 03:22?

[@wecanthandletruths]

Was WWII on then? Scary music.

[@tonyanselmo9234]

I want to go there!

[@rubyflores92]

We took a long ride, but where to? Any idea the street, towns or railroads we saw? Yikes!

[@pomerodia1806]

The soundtrack is creepy, along with the footage

[@rbolo29]

That's what I was thinking, sure feels that way.

[@VERDUGOSV1]

It reminds me of I love lucy. wow two years later my father was born.

[@wenaolong]

Let that be true for YOU.

[@natsetung]

Utopia? No. But the closest LA will ever see in this time-space dimensional paradigm. Life is out of balance there now and will continue until oblivion but for a miracle...

[@edmalateddie8161]

1.30...GILDA !!!!! ambiance "série noire," Elisabeth Short inconnue deviendra aussi célèbre malgré elle dans un an, c'est vrai on marche pour aller ou ? nous sommes des milliards à passer dans la rue incognito et à disparaître inconnu à tout jamais et tout ça pour finir au même endroit dans l'inconnu. Magnifique témoignage de l'instantané d'une vie et d'une ville..

[@bumcheek7]

GILDA! (Rita Hayworth film)

[@JohnMacLeanPhotography]

The Outlaw movie was on a marquee, so I'm assuming this footage is 1943.

[@BobMori]

Golden Gopher, 417 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90014 @ 4:26 mark

[@inthepurelight]

so... you admit to the music

[@joeguzman3558]

I mean its probably around 7 pm this video it gets dark around 5 pm

[@mohansen11]

Has anyone answered you? I'm wondering about that location too . . .

[@antigen4]

great music - i'd love to hear more - hook us up!

[@jerehaw]

What is the music?

[@SandraCrockett]

It is spooky watching it.

[@RichardCockerill]

i was born...1949.. and raised in Whittier,California

[@jimking7094]

Spring 1946.

[@pedrojimenez5387]

I loved it, but it moves too fast.

[@TheIntruders]

The street cops had to park their Harley Davidson Servi-Car's at the intersections and direct traffic using only a small flashlight.

[@caiquefrancisco6799]

Se eu pudesse voltava ao tempo nos anos 40, amo essa epoca, se eu acreditasse em reencarnação, ia dizer q eu era dessa epoca .Sou a Claudia Regina...

[@DavidZaitz]

Google Street View 1.0?

[@robertromero8692]

LA looks dirtier in this than I expected.

[@hudentdw2]

whoever filmed this was using a spot light as light medium otherwise i'll be very dark cause street lighting was very poor in the 40's still LA looks weird at night the people look like ghosts thinking they maybe all dead now!

[@mikeg4972]

Say! Why I otta'!

[@stevostoys]

This is called B Roll, when filming a movie on a set the director will get hours of real life street shots to sync up to the film to give it a more real feel... its just filler.

[@joeguzman3558]

5:16 there's a police shooting

[@Bambambicbic]

When cars were cars...

[@frankwhelan1715]

When cars were unrelible.

[@markupton8754]

All those people are now dead as ned....

[@DinoJCione]

don't get it

[@rjhjcbaca]

creepy for some reason

[@erikherrera10812]

@ 5:41 cops beating up black man about the face

[@angelj0525]

Don't see what solo cool about this specific time

[@dave4854]

lots of stores and gas was .25 a gal, Walmart and big oil go home.

[@Veaseify]

If this is 1946 a dollar was worth $12.80 in today's money so its about $3.20 a gallon, still a bit cheaper but not by that much, inflation is a bitch..No foreign cars and parking seems to vary between a dime and 50 cents, maybe depended on the amount of security or something? The amount of mom and pop stores IS incredible, so many people owned their own businesses back then..

[@MrShobar]

If this was wartime, you'd better have a ration stamp for gas.

[@charlesg1150]

A cop yea.

[@TheMPOEye]

Too much of L.A.'s seedy side for me.

[@alisonmartino9408]

I agree!