Visiting downtown Los Angeles in the 1940s


I never saw the downtown Los Angeles of the 1940s, having been born much too late. By the time I saw it, in the 1980s, it was a frightening-looking place in my opinion, well on its way to the images of the movie "Bladerunner". Nowadays, of course, it's been revitalized, but I've never seen that, either. So I'm going to visit in my imagination. Come with me. Let's go to the 1940s.


We're driving past the Purity Market, which was at 711 W. 8th Street. That's Hope Street up there. By the way, the building behind the billboard, the parking garage, is still there, although everything else has changed.

From what I've read of Los Angeles when they had just started building freeways, in the 1940s, is that it was a mess. Somewhere along the line, the freeways have taken the blame for the traffic jams of LA, but the traffic was jammed long before the first freeway was built. It all seems so idyllic now, but it had to be awful, just inching along with gridlocked traffic - the freeways must have seemed like a dream when they were new!

Another thing that we think of as fairly recent is smog, but I've often heard to it referred to (usually by Larry) in Three Stooges shorts of the time. Oh yeah, and the cost of living was pretty high, and that was also something of a running joke for the Stooges. Smog, traffic jams, high cost of living, sounds pretty familiar - it was my LA in the '80s, and it was true in the '40s, and definitely nowadays.


Anyway, let's walk into the Purity Market - I need some milk, and sell fresh Knudsen's. What? almond milk? Lactose intolerant? Hmm... I think I know a place where you can buy some whiskey!

Thank you for visiting downtown LA in the '40s with me!





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