Showing the way things were in 1939
Category: Restaurant
Images: May I Take Your Order? American Menu Design 1920-1960 edited by Jim Heimann.
Giant menu from Earl Carroll’s Theatre Restaurant, Hollywood, circa 1939 and a regular menu from Carolina Pines, Hollywood, 1939. Relative sizes are estimates.
Image: “Dick” Whittington Collection/USC Digital Library photo via https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2013/03/15/los-angeles-1939/#comments-block .
Location may be Flower Street at Figueroa in Los Angeles.
“I see that one car owner still has his 1938 plate (3C 17 70), perhaps dating the photo in early 1939. And there’s a 39 Arizona plate on the coupe three cars to the right of the carhop.
“It’s hard for me to ID the cars here too, but I see two 36 Ford sedans, one right by the building and one between the drive-in sign and the carhop; a 36 Ford coupe by the building, a light-colored 38 or 39 Ford coupe at the left by the building, a light-colored 39 Pontiac at lower left, a 37 or 38 Ford slantback 2-door in front of it, a 37 or 38 Chevy coupe two cars to the right, and a 39 Ford convertible with whitewalls clear to the right. Those are the only ID’s I have any confidence in.”
Excerpt: Comment from reader Pete Madsen on the Hemming’s post of this photo at the image link above.
Image: 1939 postcard from link below.
Here’s a story of luck during the Great Depression that worked out well:
“Joseph Yjidy Viery (1886-1952) came to America from the Azores Islands off Portugal. To this self-described ‘peasant lad’ in 1908, the United States seemed like a ‘fantastic dream.’ He met and married Emily Dina Pereira, had three boys, and found employment in banking. Fluently speaking Spanish and Portuguese helped in his twenty-year career in Alameda County, California. But somehow, he lost everything, home, savings. In 1935 he found himself on the San Diego waterfront with $4 to his name.
“’I was trying to get a job on a tuna boat, but I didn’t get it,’ Viery recalled.
“’I couldn’t spend much for food, so I went into a hamburger stand down there on the waterfront. I guess it was fate that sent me there. Just as it was fate that brought me to San Diego.’
The fleet had come in that day and the Portuguese man running the place couldn’t keep up. His partner had walked out on him. Viery offered his services, and that day in 1935 they brought in $80! He had a job. In a few days the owner asked if Viery wanted to be his partner in the business.
“’But I only have $4,’ replied Viery.
“’That’s all right. You give me your IOU for $290, and the place is yours!’
“They had sailor witness the document. He borrowed $6 so he’d have enough change for the next day’s business. His hamburger place made money and he saved. One thing led to another and Joe, his wife and son opened up The Red Sails Inn at the foot of G Street on Fisherman’s Wharf.”
Excerpt and images from http://classicsandiego.com/restaurants/red-sails-inn/ .
Circa 1939 postcard.
1939 Southern California 