18 Photos Of LA Decorated For Xmas In the '30s, '40s, & '50s

    

• November 24, 1945: Santa Claus Lane parade at Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas

18 images

Didn't all the Christmas light displays look so much quainter in the olden days, juxtaposed with Studebakers and GIs? Maybe it's just that a place could be known far and wide back then as the Christmas House with not much more than some fake snow, a few lights, and a cut-out Santa. Maybe it's that Claudette Colbert was around to get in on the action. Whatever it was, it sure is nice to look at. Enjoy these photos of Los Angeles dressed up for Christmas in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, and Merry Christmas, if that's your thing!

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  Ca. 1950: Hollywood Boulevard
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  Decmeber 20, 1937: Boyle Heights Christmas House, dreamed up and decorated by 22-year-old George C. Skinner, who got mail addressed to just "Christmas House"
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  December 16, 1938: Kids playing at Boyle Heights's Christmas House
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  1940-something: Sunset Boulevard and Sunset Plaza Drive
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  1959: "Stanley Russell, chauffeur for late Cecil B. De Mille and now free-lance chauffeur, decorates his lawn at 7736 Paso Robles Ave., Van Nuys, with mechanized display to delight neighborhood children. Passers-by believe display which Russell built himself to be operated by 'electric eye.'"
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  December 18, 1954: Looking west on Compton Boulevard from Alameda Street in Compton
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  Ca. 1953: Grauman's Chinese Theatr
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  December 11, 1937: Brand Boulevard in Glendale
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  1935: Main and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach
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  1948: Probably Van Nuys Boulevard
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  Ca. 1950: Hollywood Boulevard
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  No date: Somewhere in Hollywood
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  No date: Hollywood
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  No date: Hollywood Boulevard the night before the Santa Claus Lane Parade
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  1932: Claudette Colbert inspecting a wreath with her face in it at Hollywood and Vine
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  November 21, 1940: Christmas parade at Broadway and Seventh Street Downtown
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  July 29, 1960: A prank in Granada Hills