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ANOTHER SANTA!
Looking around the internet at other Hawaii Theatre information because of
Tourmaline's post,
I happened upon another personal photograph taken of one of the Hollywood Blvd. Santa Claus decorations!
This one is facing east at the Admiral Theater on Hollywood Blvd., right before Vine Street.
Johnny Wareham
This was on a Facebook posting by Johnny Wareham. He writes:
From my mom's (Priscilla) old photo album. Written on back: "The little (green)
arrow is pointing to where I worked during Xmas. [MP: The Broadway Department Store, I'm guessing.]
Just up the street a little ways from the Taft building, still on Hollywood Blvd., is the 'Hitching Post.' Straight up from the Admiral theater, about 3 doors is 'Melody Lane' a quite well known restaurant."
The Admiral is showing "You Can't Get Away with Murder (released May 20, 1939) and "The Three Musketeers" (released February 17, 1939). The theatre showed double bills of second run films, so it's not entirely certain when this might be dated, but the earliest this photo could be dated is the holiday season of 1940 as the Admiral opened on May 16, 1940. [see next paragraph]
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The Los Angeles Theatres website, link
HERE, has this to say about the Hitching Post location:
"In late 1940 they weren't running newsreels but rather foreign films and advertising the theatre as the Tele View Revival. In 1941 it was renamed the Hitching Post." So perhaps the earliest the above photo could be dated is the holiday season of 1941. Anyone have access to L.A. Times or Examiner movie listings for the holidays in 1941? [see next paragraph]
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I found a color postcard and a Getty photo, link
HERE, that have 1941 dated photos of Hollywood Blvd. with the lighted Christmas Trees, so we're narrowing down the "Santa Claus years" to what
Acorn has surmised, they were installed during the blackout years of 1942, 1943 and 1944.