Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930
Just another cool winter's day. They've come down from the rooming houses, or in on the red cars, or they've parked the Buick on the dirt lot above First Street, they've had their coffee, their hash, their bacon and eggs, their sweet roll and now they're crossing a busy sidewalk to their jobs, a jeweler, a pawnbroker, a salesgirl at Boos Brothers, an usher at Talley's...
Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930 (2)
They're thinking about hot prospects, or about that new salesgirl with the red hair or about the way the kids had laughed at breakfast...they're thinking about a lunch date or another cup of coffee or stealing an hour or two to...well, you know...
Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930 (3)
They listen to Sister Aimee, Father Coughlin and Fighting Bob Shuler and mostly they believe in miracles. Didn't Sister Aimee drown at Venice Beach and come ashore in Bisbee, Arizona? Yes she did. Ah, miracles. A touch of the hand, a voice raised in song and the blind shall see, the cripple will rise up out of his chair and dance a jig. Miracles. Except at work. At work they believe in being on time and not making waves. The stock market has crashed but the ripples have yet to sweep across this particular sidewalk...but they've heard and they know hard times are coming...
Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930 (4)
They're trying to recall Mayor Porter because he's a man not to be trusted but they're going to come up short. He'll serve out his term. In a couple of years, they're going to elect Frank Shaw. He'll teach them to look back on the John C. Porter recall as the good old days.
Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930 (5)
A young man hurrying to an appointment wishing he had a hat to wear and maybe if he talks fast enough they won't notice his bare head, kids on a shopping trip, maybe to Hamburger's, the older brother feeling the responsibility and fingering the loose change in his pocket, a couple of fast operators pleased with themselves and their good fortune...
Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930 (6)
And on they come, a veritable tide, each with their private hopes, their private dreams and their private demons as well, each moving inexorably toward an unseeable future...the Great Depression is waiting and another world war...