Lost Los Angeles Trademarks, Found
Gentle reader...
Is there anything more enticing than a dusty old archive newly brought into the light? We're so grateful to the progressive librarians who use the web to share their holdings with the wider world beyond their walls.
The California State Archives has recently digitized its incredible collection of 19th century trademark filings, and it's a treasure trove for anyone who digs local history, weird commercial ventures and neat graphic design. Visit our blog to see a few of the more intriguing Los Angeles marks (like the plucked chicks below) and the archive's trademarks page for much more lost lore.
We're back on the bus on Saturday with the most unhinged crime bus tour in our repertoire, Eastside Babylon. Our very special guest on this excursion, and also on our newest podcast episode, is Don Swickard. Don's family ran The Strand Theatre on Whittier Boulevard, which was for many years the hottest ticket for lively kiddie matinees and post-war Vaudeville follies. Join us, do!
RECENTLY TOURED
Sixth Street Bridge death watch, with an apocalyptic sky.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 6/5
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 Rituals: Sacred & Profane benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. For more info, click here.
RECOMMENDED READING
In 1973, 11-year-old Jonathan Kushner was kidnapped and murdered by a couple of deranged Florida swamp rats. The crime and its aftermath left deep scars in the Kushner family and the wider community, but remained a shadowy subject for the victim's baby brother. With this brave memoir, the grown up David Kushner unpacks the mysteries of a senseless action and its long term impact and paints a picture of an extraordinary family who turned their private agony into a public good.
COMING SOON
EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 5/7... Go East, young ghoul, to Boyle Heights, where the Night Stalker was captured and to Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery. To East L.A., where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, for scrumptious milk and cookies at Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 5/14... 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.)
SPECIAL EVENT: CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' L.A. - SAT. 5/21... In our very occasional guest tour series, a delightful excursion that only comes around once a year, the Tom Waits bus adventure hosted by acclaimed rock critic David Smay (Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Swordfishtrombones). This voyage through the city that shaped one of our most eclectic musical visionaries starts in Skid Row and rolls through Hollywood and Echo Park, spotlighting the sites where Waits was transformed through the redemptive powers of love and other lures: the Tropicana Motel, Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Studios, the raunchy Ivar Theatre and so much more. Join us for a great day out in 1970s Los Angeles celebrating the music, the culture and the passions of Tom Waits. (Buy tickets here.)
LAVA SUNDAY SALON - SUN. 5/29... The return of our free cultural lecture series, now located on the basement level of Grand Central Market. For the May Sunday Salon, LAVA Visionary Nathan Marsak presents on old Bunker Hill and Angels Flight. The Sunday Salon is now full, with a waiting list, so do sign up in case of cancelations. Reservations are still being taken for the Broadway on My Mind walking tour of Hill Street after the talk. Due to limited space, reservations are required for both of these free events.
LAVA's FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 6/5... "Rituals: Sacred and Profane," a four-hour presentation held at the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles. (For more info, click here.)
HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 6/11... 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.)
BLOOD & DUMPLINGS - SAT. 6/18... 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. Special on this tour: the secret diary of Vilma, El Monte's sassy Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl. Not frequently offered, you won't want to miss this ride. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Weird West Adams (6/25), Pasadena Confidential (7/9), The Real Black Dahlia (7/16), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (7/23), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (7/30), South L.A. Road Trip (8/7), Boyle Heights & the San Gabriel Valley(8/13), The Lowdown on Downtown (8/20).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In episode #110, we visit with Jean Bruce Poole, historic museum director of El Pueblo from 1977-2001 and with Don Swickard, whose family ran the Strand Theatre, a popular vaudeville and motion picture house in East Los Angeles from 1930-1952. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to privatize public parks.
Event space or sylvan oasis? KCRW's DNA surveys the problem space that is the Pershing Square redesign competition. (See our thoughts on the park design proposals here.)
Why is Mayor Garcetti, whose mid-century home was featured in Dwell magazine, guttng L.A.'s preservation office?
Rising from the ashes, our cathedral, LAPL Central.
Why the great voice of the Sixth Street Bridge didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
If this is a publicity stunt, it's a pip.
Some of us would prefer to say "I do" in a Roland Coate Spanish Colonial Revival house. Still, what a shame about Yamashiro.
Amazing! Huell Howser raises consciousness about an endangered Los Angeles landmark from beyond the grave.
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. You can also click here before shopping on Amazon. Your contributions are never obligatory, but always appreciated.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric