Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: November 25, 1944

Views of the late and lamented Bullock's downtown department store from 1942, 1940 and 1951, respectively. The 1906 building as it is today can be seen here.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: October 29, 1944

Most likely the museum referred to here is the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.



The creature may have been part of the bird hall exhibit on the second floor. Maybe he's the bony guy on the right.




And, to bring this all back to the topic of animation, the museum also has an early Disney camera stand on display.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: October 7, 1944

The game was USC vs. Berkeley, and ended in a tie.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in the '30s.

USC and the Coliseum. Photo is undated, but seems to be from the '20s or '30s.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: September 15, 1944

Based on previous drawings, and a couple of wild guesses, I think that the people seated around the table are, clockwise from Spence: Leo Harris, Carmen Maxwell, Joe Barbera, Michael Lah, a generous Bill Hanna (maybe) and Harvey Eisenberg.

A matchbook from Edwards' restaurant, currently available on ebay.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: August 29, 1944

A history of the Ocean Park Pier can be found here. There's also a map with links to pictures of the pier's attractions.

The photo below is of the Ocean Park pier fire of 1912.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: August 10, 1944

A view of The Hitching Post in 1943.

The site in its current state as the W Hotel. It could be worse.

The Hitching Post was a movie theater, located at 6262 Hollywood Blvd. just east of Vine, that only showed westerns.

The Hitching Post, 1941 via www.storyofhollywood.com

The Hitching Post in 1948.

Going by the faded sign in the drawing, it looks like that day's double bill was The Yellow Rose of Texas and possibly either Texas Terrors or Texas Terror.

A 1946 postcard view of Hollywood Boulevard looking west toward Vine. From hollywoodphotographs.com

The same view today with, oddly, less traffic.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: April 13, 1944

Neither of these films received an opening day review from the L.A. Times, but they were included in a column of anonymous capsule reviews later the following week.

Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1944

Instead, the Times' of the 13th used the occasion of Buffalo Bill's release to run a profile of the film's co-star Linda Darnell by drama editor Edwin Schallert, or maybe the Fox publicity department, with some mildly kinky overtones.

More on Buffalo Bill...

...The Memphis Belle...





...and the Carthay.

Interior of the Fox Carthay Circle Theater, ca. 1920s, via Decaying Hollywood Mansions

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: January 27, 1944

Big Cartoon Data Base notes that "Irv Spence worked mainly on the jitterbugging sequence, according to animator Mark Kausler."

  Tom and Jerry: The ''Zoot Cat'' with Restored Original Titles (except for the end titles) - Video Dailymotion

On December 23, 1952  The Fox Wilshire Theater was the site of the premiere of Moulin Rouge, and an American Legion picket aimed at director John Huston.

Irv Spence's Cartoon Diary: January 10, 1944

"Pvt. Higgins" may be Bill Higgins; "Abrams" is most likely Ray Abrams, an animator with Tex Avery's unit.

Melody Lane menu cover ca.1940's

Inside page from the menu

Melody Lane ashtray, from this excellent Flickr set

My guess is this dinner meeting took place at the Melody Ranch of Wilshire, if only because its location at 5351 Wilshire Blvd., and Detroit, was a bit more convenient to the MGM studios.

The Melody Lane of Hollywood restaurant 1n 1949.

The Hollywood Melody Lane, previously the Coco Tree Cafe, sometime
prior to remodeling.

The Melody Lane of Hollywood was located at 6301 Hollywood Blvd., the NW corner of Hollywood and Vine. In the 50s and 60s, with minor alterations, it was the location of another restaurant, Hody's Coffee Shop. It's now a parking lot.

A composite night view of Hody's in this postcard mislocates the Captiol
Records building, but gives us a great beach ball-nosed clown billboard.

Clownless, but geographically accurate in the daylight.

Melody Lane Downtown was located at 744-46 S. Hill Street. This section of the street has also been replaced with some ugly buildings and a parking lot.

The Melody Lane Downtown, 1930s.

A closer look at the Melody Lane Downtown
door, 1930s.

 The best Melody Lane, one that isn't listed in the 1942 City Directory but could have been around in 1944, is the drive-in at Wilshire and Western. My guess is this is the NE corner, looking north from Wilshire. The corner now holds shops and condos and the last stop on the Purple Line. South across Wilshire would be the Warner's Wiltern Theater which is still there.