City gets Griffith Observatory

May 14, 1935: “They have brought the universe to Los Angeles,” The Times announced, as the Griffith Observatory opened atop Mt. Hollywood. The late Col. Griffith J. Griffith had offered funds for its construction as a Christmas present to the city in 1912.

With the opening, The Times said, Los Angeles became “the third city in the U.S., after Chicago and Philadelphia, to possess a planetarium, one of the most useful and attractive devices by which the layman may learn some of the most important details of the mighty universe surrounding this little earth planet.”

At the opening ceremony, Philip Fox, guest director of the new planetarium, dimmed the lights for the 500 invited guests. “The crowd gasped when the stars began to appear.”