Many of his photographs focused on the lunchtime rituals of factory workers along with everyday street scenes he encountered as he ambled about the rapidly developing region. Adams visited a bowling alley, a forest of oil derricks, and a trailer park, one of many that popped up to meet a fierce demand among the workers for temporary housing. But only a handful of Adams’ images were published by Fortune magazine. Historian Carey McWilliams wrote that Los Angeles’s growth is “one continuous boom punctuated at intervals by major explosions.” By 1920 southern California’s population had surpassed that of northern California, and in the next several years Los Angeles experienced “the largest internal migration in the history of the American people.” Hundreds of thousands of people arrived by automobile. It was a frenzied period of wildcat oil drilling, intense business speculation, religious excitement, extensive suburban development, the birth of the aircraft and film industries, and civic corruption. The charismatic Pentecostal minister Aimee Semple McPherson captivated audiences with her dramatic preaching. Droves of starry-eyed young people arrived hoping to follow in the footsteps of such movie actors as Mary Pickford, “America’s Sweetheart,” and her daredevil husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Los Angeles was very much a white-dominated town in the 1930s. Housing and public facilities were segregated, and job discrimination was widespread. The Great Depression caused high unemployment in the region and exhausted the resources of private and public assistance. To slash welfare lists, public officials repatriated thousands of Mexicans—and their U.S.-born children. Amid this dire situation, Los Angeles built facilities for and hosted the 1932 Olympic Summer Games as planned. The city’s remoteness from Europe and from much of the rest of the world contributed to reduced international participation. Nevertheless, the Games were a great success and showcased Los Angeles to the world. Meanwhile, the corruption in City Hall led to a recall movement against Mayor Frank L. Shaw and his close associates. Police misconduct and the mayor’s mishandling of public funds forced Shaw from office and led to the election of reform mayor Fletcher Bowron in 1938. Economic recovery was relatively swift in the late 1930s owing to the prosperity of the film industry, the tapping of electrical energy from Hoover Dam, and the production of airplanes for Britain and France at the outset of World War II. (Photo credit: Ansel Adams / Los Angeles Public Library, via The California Sun / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons / Flicr / Pinterest). Notify me of new posts by email.

Δ Subscribe

Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 71Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 13Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 21Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 90Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 80Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 63Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 88Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 48Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 91Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 1Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 44Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 31Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 36Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 5Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 9Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 64Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 79Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 16Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 2Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 32Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 40Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 27Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 93Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 86Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 9Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 9Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 87Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 18Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 26Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 34Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 48Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 96Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 28Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 51Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 97Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 35Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 59Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 99Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 34Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 47Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 30Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 55Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 66Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 19Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 55Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 84Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 30Stunning Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Los Angeles in the 1930s - 28