Gentle reader,
A quick note leading into the holiday to let you that we’ve just posted tours into November—see the full list at the bottom of this newsletter—and by popular demand have added an additional Know Your Downtown L.A. tour on Sunday, July 28 to supplement Saturday’s sold out date.
If you’ve been yearning to visit the landmark Dutch Chocolate Shop to see Ernest Batchelder’s Arts & Crafts tile interior for yourself, and to get into a real Prohibition-era speakeasy tunnel beneath the King Eddy Saloon, this is your chance. Sign up quick, as we expect this tour to sell out, too.
And this Saturday morning, we’re debuting a new take on our flagship Real Black Dahlia tour— not on a bus, but as a walk through Downtown. Join us and crime buddy Joan “Red” Renner to follow the actual footsteps of the hard boiled mid-century Los Angeles detectives and reporters who investigated the case, seeking to understand the mysterious victim, Beth Short, and who might have wished to kill her.
The route will take us down Main Street past the Hotel Cecil, a troubled building with a rich history. We’ll be met by the Cecil’s volunteer chaplain Rev. Dylan Littlefield, who will share a bit about what goes on in there, a modern interlude in our search for myth and scraps of truth about Beth Short’s time in the neighborhood.
Come discover how the last weeks in the life of a lonely, deliberately deceptive stranger help us to understand the city and its culture. To immerse yourself in her tragic story is to fall a bit in love.
The short slideshow at the top of this newsletter memorializes the loss of a great Wilmington dive bar, The Foc’sle, which we visited on Richard’s birthday bus tour in 2016. We’re hopeful that the gorgeous murals by Frank Bowers were saved and will turn up someday. His work is worth seeking out in places sacred and profane around the southland.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. You can share this post to win subscriber perks. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 7/6) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels and Madness (Sun. 7/21) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 7/27 - sorry, sold out) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sun. 7/28) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 8/4) • West Adams Sugar Hill and Angelus Rosedale Cemetery (Sat. 8/10) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sun. 8/25) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 8/31)• Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (Sat. 9/7) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 9/21) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 9/29) • The Run: Gay Downtown L.A. History (Sun. 10/13) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 10/27) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (Sun. 11/3)
Summer / Fall tours announced, including another chance to see the Dutch Chocolate Shop