It's always interesting to look at a picture like this and recall how all those vehicles were once everywhere in my life. Some of them I never see anymore, even at an antique auto show.

You asked if the view would be the same today. I don't know, but I do know that the view would have been different a few years earlier - say in 1956 - because Television City wouldn't have been there. Instead you would have seen Gilmore Field, home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League and Gilmore Stadium, an oval football and auto racing venue that hosted the NFL Pro-Bowl game in 1939 and 1940.

In the same era but a world away from California in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I recall seeing those very same trucks as a kid. No doubt they dealt with bed linens, hotel towels and uniforms, but what I noticed them delivering were those rolls of cloth towels used in public washrooms. Extremely few of those are left nowadays, although I know one place that still uses them. Remember when the towel came to the end of the roll and you'd be left with the gross, damp, filthy end hanging from the spool?