How would one get to the sidewalk from the lower fire escape platform ?

Most I've seen have a vertical ladder which slides down or a stairway which pivots down, both with counterweights to hold them in the up position.

John Ruth

Why are all three of these vehicles right-hand drive? Are they, or were they, part of an export order to New Zealand or Australia, where big custom-bodied American limousines were favored for use on sparsely populated and largely unpaved rural routes? The rear two cars, at least, seem to have more than the normal amount of ground clearance, which suggests that they might be, or have been, intended for export to Down Under.

The photos are not reversed; the signage on the building and the license plates read normally, and the car in the background is (as one would expect in the USA) left-hand drive.

Photoplay does not think much of the films at the Royal:

Single Wives -- Once again the wife-neglected-by-her-business-mad-husband theme reappears...Reminiscent of a thousand films and has as its only interest the orchidaceous Corrine Griffith. Considerable bad acting surrounds her. (Photoplay, October 1924)

For Sale -- Stock Plot 2A: the girl who is put upon the matrimonial auction block to save her bankrupt father....Obvious tale with artificial "big scenes". (Photoplay, September 1924)

If you rode a school bus in the last 40 years on the West Coast, it was either one or the other.

Still in business, but vehicle is a bit larger!

You can always spot a Pierce-Arrow by the headlamps built into the front fenders. Definitely a car for the well-to-do, even if they were regular factory models.

[The ones here seem to have been stretched, with an extra row of seats. - Dave]

They later moved out to Hayward. I rode on many of their school buses back in the day.