Dig this nifty video showing filmed driving footage of Sunset Blvd. in 1952 contrasted with a still image of the same street corner today whenever the car in the earlier footage stops at a light. We can date the old footage from early May, 1952–‘Singin’ in the Rain’ & ‘The Pride of St. Louis’ are playing at The Oriental Theatre at 7:54 (assuming the pictures were on their first run). The today footage presumably comes from when this video was posted, which was in November 2022.  We begin at Sunset and Cahuenga in Hollywood and cruise west on Sunset to Queens Road,  the heart of the Sunset Strip. The Hollywood stuff is fun but its at around 11 minutes in that we get to the Strip and things get truly interesting. There were no sickly palm trees on the strip then as there are now–they stop lining Sunset roughly after we cross Crescent Heights and pass the Chateau Marmont. I find it interesting that not only do so many of the old buildings still stand but in several instances gas stations still exist in the same locations. Even though the earlier L.A. is of course less congested and ugly than today’s L.A., it still gives off the same vibe…the unshakably depressing quasi-tropical torpor that defines the Southern California experience.