Here’s a 1945 photo portfolio issued by National Color Press, which — like others from that publisher — means the photos are really black-and-white and colored by hand. The colors are ghastly, with too much purple and yellow on many of the pictures.

Click image to download a 16.1-MB PDF of this portfolio.

The photo below showing Olvera Street, a “bit of old Mexico” a short distance from Los Angeles Union Station, illustrates the problems. Enough of the picture is black-and-white to reveal that the underlying photo wasn’t in color, and too much of the rest is either yellow or purple.

This set of 16 photos has five photos in common with other portfolios issued by National Color Press: Los Angeles Union Station, Hollywood Boulevard, Macarthur Park, movie studios, and oil wells. The others appear to be unique to this portfolio. I have no idea if Alex Dulfer Lithography, which issued a similar (but much superior) series of portfolios a few years later, did one for Los Angeles, but I’ll keep my eye out.