Explore Esotouric's secret Los Angeles

Gentle reader...

Thank you to everyone who has ordered discounted gift certificates for their loved ones. We're delighted to be in your stockings and under your trees.

This Saturday we roll with Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice, our last bus adventure of 2015. We still have a few seats left if you'd like to join us on a time travel trip into a lost and lovely world where terrible things happened to some of the most interesting people.

Newly added to the tour is the grim tale of the five Israeli coke dealers who walked into the Bonaventure in 1979, and the three who walked out... carrying large suitcases. Also back on our route is a snack stop at Clifton's Cafeteria, finally reopened after four years of restoration work and specially decorated for the season.

So join us, do, on a tour that illuminates so many of the things that fascinate us about Downtown Los Angeles, from beautiful time capsule interiors to the lost souls whose secrets still cling to the fixtures, if you know where to look.

We'll return in the new year with The Real Black Dahlia on January 9, the 69th anniversary of Beth Short's disappearance and an especially haunting date to walk in the footsteps of this fascinating and mysterious lady. This tour is filling up, so reserve soon if you'd like to ride.

GIVE THE GIFT OF... US!

The holidays are upon us, and with them the obligation to come up with something agreeable for all kinds of people. We'd like to make gift shopping easy on you, with the gentle suggestion that an Esotouric gift certificate is always the right size and color. The recipient can chose from something naughty or nice from our wide range of bus adventures, and you'll save on our regular ticket prices when you buy three or more before 12/24. For more info or to reserve, click here. Too dear?We can also recommend some great L.A. books.

RECOMMENDED READING

What's just the right size to slip inside a holiday card or into a copy of The Long Goodbye and packed with tidbits of lost Los Angeles lore delivered in the loveliest of packages? Why, it's the new art deco Raymond Chandler Map, designed by acclaimed illustrator Paul Rogers with text by our own Kim Cooper and available from Amazon, or directly from us by mail and on tour days. You'll find it's just the ticket for armchair tourists, or to get in the mood for our next Raymond Chandler tour on February 13.

COMING SOON

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.)

THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 1/9... 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. This tour always sells out, so don't wait to reserve. (Buy tickets here.)

CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 1/16... Come explore Charles Bukowski's lost Los Angeles and the fascinating contradictions that make this great local writer such a hoot to explore. Haunts of a Dirty Old Man is a raucous day out celebrating liquor, ladies, pimps and poets. The tour includes a visit to Buk's DeLongpre bungalow, where you'll see the Cultural-Historic Monument sign that we helped to get approved, and a mid-tour provisions stop at Pink Elephant Liquor. (Buy tickets here.)

LAVA's FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 1/17... Detective's Casebook: L.A. Bombing & The Making of a Serial Killer. (For more info, click here.)

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 1/23... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings--although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Features a visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop, a tiled wonderland not open to the public. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional 2016 tours include: Eastside Babylon (1/30), South Los Angeles (2/7), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (2/13), Weird West Adams (2/20), Boyle Heights & the San Gabriel Valley (2/27), Wild Wild Westside (3/12), The Birth of Noir (3/19) and Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (3/26).

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 get the inside scoop on Barlow Sanitarium's legendary gift shop from 99 year-old Margaret Freed, shopkeeper. Plus, a visit with performance artist Elisha Shapiro maestro of Downtown L.A.'s 1984 Nihilist Olympics. Click here to tune in.

AND FINALLY, LINKS

By reader request, video of the Charles Bukowski memorial reading at the King Eddy Saloon, featuring Dan Fante.

A new bridge for who, exactly? (With quotes from our Arts District friends Terry Ellsworth and Dave Hollen.)

The hills are alive with the sound of Krampus.

Wyvernwood is worth preserving.

From the LA City Archives, listen to LAPD crime prevention advice from Christmastime 1950.

RIP Yorkshire Grill (1947-2015), an old school DTLA lunch counter with sweet staff, good fare and fair prices. We're heartbroken!

Welcome to the 21st century, our time traveling pal Roger "Waldo" Kislingbury and his new book of pre-Prohibition saloon photos.

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