This scene on Colorado St. in Pasadena, looking east from Garfield Ave. toward Euclid Ave. and beyond, is my old neighborhood when I was in Elementary and Jr. Hi School; as we lived just a couple of blocks south from this classic scene.
It is a shame, as in other parts of L.A. County, the changes (at least in this scene) have not been good at all. When I was a kid, I would go shopping with my mom at all of these shops and stores, including the landmark Broadway Department store, at Los Robles Ave; which was the site of the grand Maryland Hotel (another favorite of mine) which was torn down in 1938/39 to make way for the new Broadway store.
When I was 12, I had a paper route for the Star-News on Colorado St. from just w/o Fairoaks Ave. all the way east to Los Robles, wherein I delivered to most of these businesses; including, all of what is today--Old Town Pasadena, then mostly a skid-row, excepting the banks and some remaining long established businesses.
I [own] this 'pristine' Curt Teich card, which I actually purchased at the Thrifty Drug store in the photo, and have maintined in a plastic sleeve all the many years. I verified the date (1949) by the code:
9B-H301, and also (approximately) by the vehicle types; but also, interestingly, by the movie theatre.
The historic Strand Theatre, which BTW, I saw my first movie at, had some of the letters of the current film on the large marquee--ONE AF... I did some film archive research for the era and found the film--
One Sunday Afternoon, starring Dennis Morgan and Janis Paige, with a release date of January 1949.
I then went to the main Pasadena Public Library, and as I have done many times for other searches, looked through the Pasdena Star-News micro-film for close dates,
and found the movie page ads which showed that film being screened at the Strand in early February 1949 (I forget the exact dates now) wherein I could date this photo to a certain week in early Feb. 1949...and thus also the low sequence # of 301; i.e., early in the production year. Note: I am on
Flickr too, under a different member name, wherein I have posted this same info a few years ago.
In the distance you can see the twin radio towers on top of the old Star-News building, used to transmit/receive wire-photos and teletypes. William Pitt Jewelers (with the large clock 11:25) was the corner across from Thrifty's; and two doors down, closest to the Broadway, with the reddish awning was the Woolworth store. From the corner of Euclid back west and past the Strand, is the
current location of the Paseo de Colorado mall. Interestingly too, for many years, there was a one-armed/one-legged man who sold newspapers and magazines at a small news-stand in front of Thrifty's; I am sure he is the person you can just make out with the gray hoodie, just behind that green 1940's sedan at the left of the photo.
