Raymond Chandler slept here (probably)

Gentle reader...

If you want to get our attention, just be an historic Los Angeles landmark that we cannot, no matter how hard we try, get inside!

Like for instance, the old Bank of Italy at the northwest corner of 7th and Olive Streets, with its wide upstairs windows open to the elements, its magnificent bronze doors oxidized and reeking, its cloudy windows through which the hint of 1920s grandeur can be seen.

Unable to access the building where the young Raymond Chandler worked as an oil company executive, Kim turned to her imagination when she made it a central location in her fact-based mystery novel, The Kept Girl.

But soon, this inaccessible place will serve the public again, as a hotel and restaurant. Sneak a peek and marvel. For the famous ceiling, at least, survives.

We're back on the bus on Saturday with a noir-themed tour that celebrates all things Raymond Chandler, from his corporate education in that Olive Street high rise to the Hollywood deals that nearly killed him, with a stop for boozy Chandler-inspired Scoops gelato mid-tour. Join us, do!

RECENTLY TOURED

From our Mississippi River road trip blog, East Saint Louis, post-industrial ghost town.

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

The great Central Library has long deserved a book of her own, and now Stephen Gee, that scholarly Englishman who really digs L.A.'s iconic architecture, has done the honors. It's beautifully illustrated and packed with fascinating lore about the 1920s landmark and the 1990s restoration and expansion. Library lovers: prepare to be ensorceled.

COMING SOON

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.)

WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 6/25... On this guided tour through the Beverly Hills of the early 20th Century, Crime Bus passengers thrill as Jazz Age bootleggers run amok, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family's litany of murder-suicides, attempted husband slayings, Byzantine estate battles and mad bombings, visit the shortest street in Los Angeles (15' long Powers Place, with its magnificent views of the mansions of Alvarado Terrace), discover which fabulous mansion was once transformed into a functioning whiskey factory using every room in the house, and stroll the haunted paths of Rosedale Cemetery, site of notable burials (May K. Rindge, the mother of Malibu) and odd graveside crimes. Featured players include the most famous dwarf in Hollywood, mass suicide ringleader Reverend Jim Jones, wacky millionaires who can't control their automobiles, human mole bank robbers, comically inept fumigators, kids trapped in tar pits, and dozens of other unusual and fascinating denizens of early Los Angeles. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: 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

Ray Bradbury honored with a mural and library at L.A. High (we're not holding our breath for fellow alum Charles Bukowski to be so recognized)

Judge rules City Council illegally ignored Angelenos challenging small lot subdivisions in their historic neighborhood.

Julia Morgan wept.

Starbucks to replace historic Santa Monica Pier retail?

From the new journal of the Los Angeles Archivists Collective: Did Eric Garcetti order the historic Port of LA Archives shuttered because lawyers were finding evidence against the city?

The Pershing Square Restoration Society picked its favorite park redesign proposal, but the competition jury went with the only plan that didn't reference the historic design of this great, troubled Los Angeles park.

Kim is quoted in the Los Angeles Times, talking about the stigma surrounding "murder houses."

SUPPORT OUR WORK

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yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric