All aboard! Take a (virtual) ride on Angels Flight Railway
Gentle reader...
Sunday evening, if you happened to be on Hill Street, you might have seen the long-stalled Angels Flight cars take a couple of trips down Bunker Hill.
We were there with our photographer friend Craig Sauer, capturing the timeless charm of L.A.'s landmark funicular in a series of 3-dimensional scans that you can explore on any modern computer.
Visit the Esotouric blog for the virtual tour and the story of our visit, which drives home how important it is that Angels Flight get running again as soon as possible. And until she is, let's all pull together to keep an eye on things, since we're very sorry to report that strangers have been climbing the tracks and making messes inside the cars. For another perspective on Sunday night's excursion, Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison weighs in here.
We're back on the bus on Saturday, with Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice, a wild journey through the weird, gorgeous and sometimes deadly Downtown that we love. Next week, it's the Blood & Dumplings crime bus featuring some special guests illuminating the teenaged scene in 1950s El Monte. Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
On our free Broadway on My Mind walking tour, Nathan Marsak showed off his favorite relic of lost Bunker Hill: the Fremont Hotel retaining wall.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 11/6
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. Save the date of November 6, 2016 for our next program, with details to be announced very soon. See photos and video from last Sunday's Rituals: Sacred and Profane program here.
RECOMMENDED READING
The large format catalog to the new retrospective exhibition at Michael Kohn Gallery, subject of our latest podcast, celebrates the many sides of Los Angeles artist Wallace Berman: filmmaker, curator, jazz record jacket designer, photographer, collagist, conceptualist, mystic, zinester and host of swinging shindigs. Includes an essay by the artist's son Tosh, a writer-publisher-bookseller who proudly carries on the family tradition.
COMING SOON
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.)
LAVA SUNDAY SALON / WALKING TOUR - SUN. 6/26... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market. For the June Sunday Salon, Miriam Caldwell presents on her mother Vilma's secret 1950s diaries, documenting glamorous, opinionated adventures as a Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl and nightclub hopper. Following the Salon, a free Broadway on My Mind walking tour explores Hill Street. Due to limited space, reservations are required for both of these free events.
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.)
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 7/16... 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 L.A. - SAT. 7/23... 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. New: souvenir Bukowski's L.A. booklet available. (Buy tickets here).
Additional upcoming tours: 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), The Birth of Noir (9/10), Blood & Dumplings (9/24).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In episode #111, our focus is the artist Wallace Berman, the center of a vibrant scene in mid-century Los Angeles. Hollywood gallerist Michael Kohn walks us through the new retrospective (up through June 25) and the artist's son Tosh shares insights into his father's craft and character. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
Death of East Hollywood's last great XXX theater sign.
Snapchat users: you can find us there, account name esotouric.
When it was a crime to be gay, Pershing Square was gay L.A.'s green, beating heart.
Gordon Pattison, native son of Bunker Hill, is blogging his lost Victorian neighborhood and debunking nasty myths.
Video vault: Not Bunker Hill, but just next door and nearly as doomed. Temple Urban Renewal Project, 1963
Out of state developer proposes gutting the 1924 Cecil Hotel.
Property owner claims historic Main Street storefront demolition notices all a misunderstanding.
With Boyle Heights in the redevelopment crosshairs, the time is nigh to nominate landmarks. Viva the Japanese Hospital!
To renew Pershing Square, we mustn't lose the old: Save the Monuments.
Our Kim Cooper tells the story of an ill-timed carjacking set against the backdrop of the 1947 Black Dahlia hysteria, in Angie Vorhies' mini radio drama.
UCLA, a lousy steward of a gracious gift, sells off the magnificent Hannah Carter Japanese Garden to a real estate developer. If you never saw it, it's too late now.
We're with D.W. Griffith, and it sounds like the kids are, too.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric