50's era SoCal photos

Hey all,

I'm not quite sure this is the place to post this thread but, I'm looking for online resources for 50's era photos. Namely Southern California and it's look and architecture during that time period. Any site links, photos or misc. things you may have would be greatly appreciated!

 

When I was in high school , there was a book in the library there called " Youth At The Wheel". It was For young people about to embark on learning to drive. It was fuill of pictures and showed street scenes in Los Angeles & other places, from the early-mid 50's. The cover was a color art rendering of some folks cruising a '57 or '58 Plymouth convertible if my memory serves right. If you could find the book you'd be in for a treat.

 

I'm from Orange County, and in Philly for the week. Funny, but a shame, I was about to recommend the old court house in Santa Ana, they've got a nice, but small, photo exhibit right now. See if you can't find mention of the old court house exhibits online, they should have some pictures of the pictures or something. It's all early Orange County and some cool stuff in there.

 

maybe the time life archives...

http://www.timelifepictures.com/source/search/product.aspx?p=9&e=0&pg=1&am=-1

or look up charles phoenix also. Hes written several books

Or there was another post on the Jalopy Journal main page that Ryan posted. It must have been over a year ago, but it was a site with tons of old pics. Maybe someone remembers it, or just go and look for it.

 

Have a ball:

http://catalog1.lapl.org/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?getLimitedTerms+15009

dan

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the help so far!

Erwin: Awesome! I'll keep a look out for that book.

Ollin: Glad you mentioned Charles Phoenix. I have a few of his books and they rock! I'll check out the Time Life archive.

Foul: Was the link you posted meant to redirect back to this thread? I think it may not be loading properly on my computer.

 

My bad, wrong URL. It's the LA Public Library's photo archive. One would think they'd realize the importance of static rather than dynamic URLs that expire after a set time. Go to:

http://www.lapl.org/catalog/photo_collection_overview.html

and then click on "Photo Collection" on the left side.

dan

 

Don't forget to look at large public buildings of the era -- libraries, university, county administration. They have a distict flavor that's not like the private buildings, more of a neo-retro-post-fascist feeling.

While homes have the California dreamin' esthetic, the large public buildings give an indication of what was to come - huge, expansive and overbearing government.

Not to bum you out, or anything....

 

I like this site:
http://www.roadsidepeek.com/

-Jeremy

 

i collect postcards from the 40-50's of street scenes for the same thing (cars, people, buildings, signs.....), most are from so cal.

 

Thanks again for all the great posts!

 

Another great one is the UCLA library photo archive. Don't expect do get anything done in the next few hours if you go on their site. It's incredible.

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/

 

You weren't kidding! That site is awesome.

 

Does anyone have pictures of downtown L.A. from the hills during the late 50's?