Port of Los Angeles Archives in Peril edition

Gentle reader...

Another day, another historic preservation crisis!

It sure feels that way, and all too frequently, around the old Esotouric homestead. This time, it's at the Port of Los Angeles, which after announcing its new climate-controlled archives building with much fanfare a couple of years back, secretly trucked thousands of irreplaceable photos, maps and documents to open dock-side warehouses, where feral kitty cats, silverfish and high humidity are currently competing to destroy them forever.

When archivist Nicholas Beyelia came to us with the story of how this important Southland collection has been dismantled and left to rot, we were naturally horrified, and promised to do everything we could to help. And last night, we launched the Save the Port of Los Angeles Archives campaign with a webpage and petition.

Won't you please join us, several esteemed curators and historians, and dozens of aghast Angelenos in calling on the Harbor Commission to act immediately to protect, preserve and again make accessible these unique Los Angeles treasures?

But wait, there's more! The RKO Globe atop Studio 21 at Paramount Pictures is also in peril, and an email from you sent by the end of business on Monday could make the difference for this groovy piece of old Hollywood signage.

We're not touring this weekend—probably just as well, when so much of the city needs saving—but will be back on the bus next Saturday, with a sold out Hallowe'en day Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour. And on November 7, it's Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, a dark city with a rich vein of beauty. Join us, do!

RECOMMENDED READING

Since the current crisis with the Port of Los Angeles Archives makes it impossible to know if any new research will be done in this material, this week we recommend an older title: coastal California maven Ernest Marquez' 2008 illustrated history of the port and its people. (We'd like to recommend the book the port put out this year, just before the archives were shut down, but it doesn't appear to be available anywhere online.)

COMING SOON

HALLOWE'EN HORRORS: DARK SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LORE FROM THE NOTEBOOKS OF KIM COOPER - FRI, 10/30... This illustrated true crime lecture and catered dinner, featuring our Kim Cooper, is presented by the Beverly Hills Women's Club. ($60 for non-members, reservations required. For info click here.)

THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 10/31... Join us on this iconic, unsolved Los Angeles murder mystery tour, from the throbbing boulevards of a postwar Downtown to the quiet suburban avenue where horror came calling. After multiple revisions, this is less a true crime tour than a social history of 1940s Hollywood female culture, mass media and madness, and we welcome you to join us for the ride. (Sold out, repeats 1/9/2016. Sign up for the waiting list here.)

SHADOWS OF ANGELES: LOCAL WRITERS ON THE DARK SIDE OF LOS ANGELES - TUES. 11/3... Our Kim Cooper joins Steph Cha, Richard Lange and Mary McCoy for a free talk at Central Library.

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S L.A. - SAT. 11/7... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (Buy tickets here.)

BLOOD & DUMPLINGS - SAT. 11/14... Forget Hollywood, babe, 'cause the quintessential L.A. town is definitely El Monte, its history packed with noirish murders, brilliant thespians, loony Nazis, James Ellroy's naked lunch and the lion farm that MGM's celebrated kitty called home. See all this and so much more, including the Man from Mars Bandit's Waterloo, when you climb aboard the daffiest crime tour in our arsenal, and the only one that includes a dumpling picnic at a landmark playground populated with fantastical giant sea creatures. (Buy tickets here.)

ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 11/21... New on our calendar, a crime bus tour meant to honor the lost souls who wander the hills and byways of the "streetcar suburbs" that hug Sunset Boulevard. See seemingly ordinary houses, streets and commercial buildings revealed as the scenes of chilling crimes and mysteries, populated by some of the most fascinating people you'd never want to meet. Plus a visit to Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's exquisite Parsonage, now a museum. (Buy tickets here.)

RICHARD'S 47th BIRTHDAY BUS TOUR OF THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA - SAT. 11/28... Pack a picnic lunch (we’ll supply the birthday cake and coffee) and join us for an all-day outing exploring the history, landscape and built environment of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. This is a one-time only special event bus adventure that will never be repeated. (Get more info and buy tickets here.)

PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 12/5...The Crown City masquerades as a calm and refined retreat, where well-bred ladies glide around their perfect bungalows and everyone knows what fork to use first. But don't be fooled by appearances. Dip into the confidential files of old Pasadena and meet assassins and oddballs, kidnappers and slashers, black magicians and all manner of maniac in a delightful little tour you won't find recommended by the better class of people. (Buy tickets here.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 12/12... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)

2016 tours include: The Real Black Dahlia (1/9), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (1/16), The Lowdown on Downtown (1/23) and Eastside Babylon (1/30).

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 1/17

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles under the direction of Professor Donald Johnson to explore the history and future of American forensic science. Your $36.50 ticket to Detective's Casebook: L.A. Bombing & The Making of A Serial Killer benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. For more info, click here.

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

In the latest edition of You Can't Eat the Sunshine, we're back from hiatus with a bang as we talk shop with restoration architect Brian Kite and peep inside the wild 1950s diary of Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl Vilma. Click here to tune in.

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Tim Richards digs our Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour. It rolls next on December 12.

Pub preservation, or, you can't lose them all.

Three cheers to the Hollywood bloggers who blew the lid off the false "kids' only park" arrests by private BID security.

He was a man.

Don't be a Jeff or a Debbie: know your tsunami early warning signs.

Nixon tweets.

Encouraging news about new housing for homeless vets at Westwood VA, with the historic Sawtelle Old Soldiers Home campus preserved (see F1).

Halloween massacre at the Los Angeles Times. Can a much smaller, younger staff do the work the community deserves?

SUPPORT OUR WORK

If you enjoy all we do to celebrate and preserve Los Angeles history and would like to say thank you, please consider putting a little something into our digital tip jar. Your contributions are never obligatory, but always appreciated.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric