A stunning return to the skies of Los Angeles: the lost Hotel Californian neon roof sign is found!

Gentle reader...

In historic preservation circles, one has to fight like a wildcat to keep an endangered landmark open to the public, or an important artifact in place. All too often, a closed building will deteriorate until, through "demolition by neglect," there's no hope to save it. And once an artifact goes on walkabout, good luck ever tracking it down again!

But there are times when something miraculous happens. And that was the case this week, when a little birdie told us that strange things were afoot high in the air above Sixth and Bonnie Brae.

There, on the roof of the new low-income apartment house that is replacing the demolished Hotel Californian (1925-1995), we found our tube-bending pal Paul Greenstein putting the final tweaks to the hotel's fully restored neon roof sign, an MIA landmark that we'd long since given up for lost.

So come with us, to the heights of Westlake, where something wonderfully old is shining like brand new!

We're back on the bus on Saturday with our once-a-year tour of singer-songwriter Tom Waits' haunts. From old Skid Row ("On the Nickel") to the Hollywood Walk of Fame ("Heart Attack and Vine"), it's a musical journey across 1970s Los Angeles, a gritty and most surprising place. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

As viewed from our Raymond Chandler tour bus window, the endangered RKO Globe atop Paramount Studios. From now until Monday, you can send an email to help save it.

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 book that was adapted into Saturday's Tom Waits bus tour is David Smay's wee chronicle of the making of the album Swordfishtrombones. His co-host Kim also wrote a book in the 33 1/3 series of little books about great albums, hers on Neutral Milk Hotel. Together, they edited the anthologies Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth and Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed. So if offbeat music history is your jam, turn up the volume and let David and Kim be your guides.

COMING SOON

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.)

PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 7/9... 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 confidentialfiles 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.)

Additional upcoming tours: 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

A vanishing breed of decorative L.A. roof celebrated by the photographer who, decades earlier, captured this astonishing image.

File under: it's still Raymond Chandler's world… the Urban Logic consulting firm took over Beaumont city management. 43 Million missing dollars later, the Feds arrived.

If you need to spin flaming steel wool to get a decent photo, just get a new hobby. RIP Monroe Station.

Harper opened doors that would have slammed on Truman. And now we know more.

Time capsules for the taking, but nobody's asking.

You know what they say about people who live in glass houses…

What does the future hold for the just-flipped Hotel Cecil? (Suggestion: something to mark the site's iconic role in Alcoholics Anonymous history.)

Hoping for better days for St. Louis' lovely, troubled Oak Grove Cemetery. (See our road trip photos here.)

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric