Life in the South Bay

Last month Google began making available the Life magazine archive of some 10 million images, the vast majority never before published.

One of the largest photography collections on the Web, the archive provides a slice of  everyday life in the 20th Century. It's also a lot of fun.

So we thought we'd take a look at some of the South Bay images contained in the archive.

Indeed, while we can't publish them here for copyright reasons, the images do provide a snapshot of an earlier, more innocent time.

Here are links to a few that caught our fancy:

Here's a swinging singles party in Torrance in 1967. (Is this Anza Avenue?)

The Cold War (and paranoia) comes to Hermosa Beach in this 1951 shot.

Here's a 1949 scene of the Palos Verdes Peninsula when it really was rural.

This is a 1954 picture of pious Gardena citizens praying for the abolition of gambling in their city (that didn't work out so well, did it?).

Actress Myrna Loy showed up in San Pedro in 1942 to rally the troops. (The shot was taken at the Bundles for Bluejackets Canteen).

There's much more including Redondo Beach storm shots and pictures of the Encounter Restaurant at LAX.

You can check it out here.