COLLECTION #210: Vintage 1941 Los Angeles City Directory

It's "Orphan Wednesday" again! That memorable day every week, when I feature one singular item from my vast collection archives! Today's fabulously fascinating item is a copy of the 1941 Los Angeles City Directory. Not a phone book, the city directory was a like a phone book, except for one thing. I did not contain phone numbers. Well, except for business phone numbers, which were included in the yellow pages and advertising sections. I acquired this a few years ago at a book sale at the South Pasadena Public Library. I've loved it ever since!

Very recently, the 1940 US census was released, which is a very exciting event for family historians and genealogists. Unfortunately, it is not yet indexed, which means you can search for relatives or others based on street addresses and enumeration districts, but not yet by name. (This will be rolled out in the coming months as indexers complete the lengthy process). So, for those looking for their Los Angeles relatives in 1940, this would be an awesome tool, giving names, addresses and occupation, and even home ownership.  This book came out in late 1940, so would have been the first city directory after the 1940 census.

But of course, living in Los Angeles means searching for more than relatives. (My own grandparents moved to Los Angeles in 1941, but obviously after this directory was compiled, as they aren't found here).  It's fun to search for celebrities, movie stars and moguls, and other interesting people. I've found a few today that I will share with you! How fun!

By the way, if any of my readers have family that lived in Los Angeles (not the suburbs), and would like me to check the book for a listing, please leave me a message, and I'll be happy to look them up.

 I hope you enjoy!

In the center of the page you can see the residence and business for Cecil B. DeMille

Listing for Charlie Chaplin & his studio

The famous movie star Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino. She learned to dance from her father, who taught latin dance. Here's a listing for her dad, Eduardo Cansino, and other
family members who taught dance in Los Angeles.

In the center left, you can find famous actor Jimmy Durante and his wife.

Famous actor William Holden was born William (Bill) Beedle, Jr. Here's a listing for his father, William F. Beedle

Two important businesses in Los Angeles, dear to my family's heart. The Globe A-1 Globe Mills is one of my Dad's major customers in his career as a grain broker. The Automobile Club of Southern California is the father of the modern AAA.

Don't you love the name of this business? 

COLLECTION #166: Vintage Road Maps

I love old maps of every type: globes, atlases, and of course, road maps! There's just something so fun about looking at old maps to see the highways, cities, streets, and points of interest of long ago- and not-so-long-ago. 

I've discovered young people today barely know how to read maps. Perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I don't think a GPS has quite the charm of a road map or atlas. In my humble opinion, learning how to read maps helps develop spatial relationships, logic, and a sense of direction. Although I do love my iPhone GPS, and rely on it often, I just have to 'see the whole picture' when I visit a new area, or travel out of my local comfort zone.

I love the graphics and info on this map... look at the architecture & cars! And a radio log too!

This map of Los Angeles, shows an area that's completely changed today. (North of LAX) The big blank area on the left side is now Marina Del Rey, and there is no such place as Barnes City District. Today it's parts of Marina Del Rey, Playa Vista and Westchester.

These road maps are from the Western US (since that's my home turf, I tend to collect things that I'm familiar with), and date from the late '30s, to the early 80s. I love the maps of Los Angeles, and California. The California one was published in 1939, and the LA map is from the early '40s, although it has no copyright date. It's fun to see that there are no freeways at all on the California map, and the LA one only has the 'Arroyo Seco Parkway' (Pasadena Freeway), and a small section of the Hollywood Freeway.  All of the other highways were regular streets and boulevards.  These maps were all given away by gas stations. That was how we got our maps back in the day. (Back when gas stations were called 'service stations', because you actually got service!)

The Colorado map was published in 1952, and is almost like a book... full of fun, stylized illustrations, and information about points of interest, in addition to the maps.

COLLECTION #109: Souvenir Books from California

 
Some fun items from my ephemera collection, these are all from California.

The oldest is the brochure from San Francisco, published in 1914. It's hard to believe from seeing all of the beautiful buildings, that this was only 8 years after the devistating earthquake of 1906.

I have two booklets from Knotts Berry Farm. The older of the two was published in the 1940s, and the later one is from the late '50s. The funny thing about Knotts, is that I never visited there until I was married. The reason for that was because I was such a Disneyland loyalist, I refused to "waste" my time at Knotts. Actually, Knott's Berry Farm is a lot of fun and I've enjoyed my few visits.

The Los Angeles Farmer's Market is an LA institution. It was establishes as a real farmers market in 1933, and has morphed into a wonderful place to eat, shop, sightsee and just browse. It hasn't lost any of its charm or ambiance.

My souvenir from Farmer's Market was published in the mid-'40s.

 My book from Disneyland was published in the mid-60s. It's fun to read about the 'new' rides near completion- Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion.

COLLECTION #99: Old School Yearbooks

I have a little collection of school yearbooks- high school and college. Most of them are family yearbooks. I have 4 of my Dad's- one from high school, (Box Elder High School-1933), one from junior college (Weber State College- 1935) and 2 from university (Brigham Young University- 1936 and 1937). These schools are all in Utah. I have my Mother-in-law's senior yearbook from South Pasadena (California) High School (1949), and my Father-in-law's sophomore yearbook from Belmont High School in Los Angeles in 1939.  I also have a 1926 yearbook from North Cache High School in Northern Utah- I acquired it years ago when an elderly lady passed away in our church, and discovered it was full of my relatives, including my grandma's younger sister Aunt Beth.

1926 North Cache High School

My Dad's senior year of high school, he was on the staff of the yearbook. (He's Eugene Clark, and is in both photos)

My Dad in his senior year at BYU, a member of Alpha Kappa Psi

There is a huge difference between the white-bread yearbooks of Utah and South Pasadena, and the one from the inner city of Los Angeles just before World War II. What a fun way to while away a few hours, checking out the activities, fashions, and popular culture of the day in these wonderful little time capsules.

The ethnic make-up of Belmont High School in LA in 1939 was ethnically diverse.

I love that they had cooking classes for boys. Future chefs for the stars, I'm sure!

Bruce's dad Henry was in the 4th row from the bottom, 5th from right. Looks like a little toughie.

Bruce's Mom Betty Gore is on the bottom center right. 1949.

I wish I'd scanned the books instead of photographing them.. the photos aren't really the best quality. But here you go! Enjoy them anyway!