Pictures Of Hollywood Past

Wendy Horowitz, a photo archivist at the Los Angles Public Library, has curated a new exhibit, "The Industry in Our Backyard" a collection of 31 black and white prints (and over 100 more in a companion book) of Hollywood culture that hasn't been seen since they ran in the local newspapers...like the one above that was used to promote the 1965 CBS lineup when the network brought together (from left) Clint Eastwood and Paul Brinegar of Rawhide, Tina Louise of Gilligan’s Island and Robert Conrad and Ross Martin of The Wild, Wild West, all dressed as their TV personas.

A 1986 promotional photo from ALF, showing the alien star demanding a rewrite from the co-creators Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett

"This is the story of all these people employed by the TV industry who are punching their time clock and doing their eight hours and going home, says Horowitz who also wrote the book of the same name that goes along with the exhibit.

Andy Warhol — playing himself in a guest role — is flanked by actresses Vera Perez (left) and Laura Dean during a break on the set of ABC’s The Love Boat. The episode aired in October 1985, 16 months before Warhol’s death.

From Lucy to ALF, from game shows to talk shows, from local news to the made-for-TV movie, "The Industry In Our Backyard: Television Production In Los Angeles 1940s-1980s" showcases four decades in the life of the medium that dominated American culture, yet for Angelenos, was just another part of daily life. The images displayed in the exhibit were largely taken by photographers from the Herald Examiner and the Valley Times newspapers, who were granted exclusive access to back lots, sound stages and location shoots around town for their TV sections. These photos, which have not been seen in as many as sixty-five years when they first ran in the papers, provide rare glimpses of the earliest L.A. stations, the crews at work and the stars in action.

L.A.’s first commercial TV station, KTLA, began as experimental station W6XYZ in the early 1930s

"The Industry in Our Backyard: Television Production in Los Angeles 1940s– 1980s" evokes a time when television was seen as a more friendly and almost folksy cousin of Hollywood's glamorous movie biz," says Wendy.

County employees wait for the signal to proceed to the elevators of the L.A. County courthouse while Raymond Burr (hand to chin), star of Perry Mason, prepares to film a scene for the legal series.

The exhibit is now open at the LA Central Library at 630 W. 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071 and runs through July 15, 2018.

Lucille Ball (seated) and Desi Arnaz (watching at right) rehearse a scene for an episode of CBS’s I Love Lucy during its first year of production. The show debuted in October 1951.

Filling in for vacationing Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra shares a laugh with Tonight Show guests (from left) George Burns, Angie Dickinson, Carroll O’Connor and Don Rickles

"The Industry in Our Backyard: Television Production in Los Angeles 1940s– 1980s"...we ❤️you!!