[jg6544]

A bit of LA high-end retail history. The iconic Bullocks-Wilshire store on Wilshire Blvd. (now the Southwestern Law School), was the first major retail establishment outside of downtown. It was also the first in LA designed to be approached on foot from Wilshire or by car on the parking lot side of the store. It opened in the 1920s sometime. I. Magnin was based in San Francisco and had operated a smaller store in Hollywood plus boutiques in a couple of hotels. They decided in the mid-30s to open a major store in LA. At the time, Hancock Park was "old" money on the west side of town, so they located the store close to that neighborhood. They copied Bullocks-Wilshire's approach of having two "front doors", as it were. At some later date, they opened a smaller store in Beverly Hills. It, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman-Marcus all have auto entrances at the rear. I suspect that's how most of their customers arrive at the store now.

Bullocks-Wilshire and I. Magnin merged sometime in the early 1990s, with Magnin closing their store and "rebranding" the B-W store. It was badly damaged in the riots and eventually closed too. The whole Magnin chain went out of business (sadly) later in the 90s.

At the time your picture was taken, I. Magnin and Bullocks-Wilshire were probably the two most opulent, exclusive stores in the U. S. aside from Bergdorf Goodman in New York.