A little dose of time travel is just what the doctor ordered!
Gentle reader...
We just got back from Santa Cruz Island, which might be the best place in all of Southern California to escape the modern world. With tame native foxes, gorgeous vistas, 19th century buildings and relics and hardly any people, the island captured our hearts. Visit the Esotouric blog to learn more about this incredible place, and see video of some of the cool creatures who call it home.
Our calendar is updated through September, and includes something extra special: an all new bus adventure hosted by bomb detective Mike Digby that takes us back to 1910 Los Angeles, when the war between organized labor and the Los Angeles Times erupted into a deadly flash point that would shake the city, send investigators all across the country and cast cultural ripples that are still being felt. It all comes alive on 9/23, with The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times, only on the Esotouric bus!
Things are hopping over on our "other" newsletter, where the hottest ticket in town might be the waiting list for the June LAVA Sunday Salon, which descends into the historic Subway Terminal Tunnel. We can't guarantee waiting listers will get to follow us underground... but we still have room for you to join us for the free (with RSVP) May Salon, featuring S.A. Griffin on his creative relationship with underground icon Charles Bukowski!
We're on the bus on Saturday with the Weird West Adams crime bus tour, a jaunt that mixes terror with wonder, and stops at some of the most beguiling buildings in all of the Southland. Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
Richard will always remember where he was when he heard the Special Counsel had been appointed: visiting the Lovell Beach House for the first time in 30 years.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 8/13
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. On August 13, 2017, join us for Bombs & Decomp, an afternoon of insights into historic investigations and how a body changes after death. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Click here for more info, or to reserve your seat.
RECOMMENDED READING
For the warts and all history of post-Chumash life, love, conservation and business battles in the Channel Islands, pick up Santa Cruz Island: A History of Conflict and Diversity by John Gherini, a member of one of the last families to own a piece of that contentious rock. If you'd like to hike in our footsteps, archeologist Don Morris' guidebook to the park side of the island is a fine pocket companion.
COMING SOON
WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 5/20... 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.)
THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 5/28... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. May's Salon: S.A. Griffin celebrates Charles Bukowski. Free, reservation required.
SPECIAL EVENT: CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' L.A. - SAT. 6/3... 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 (co-editor with our Kim Cooper of Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, author of 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.)
SIEGE AT FORT ANTHONY - THURS. 6/8... Join us at Central Library for a program illuminating the greatest eminent domain battle in Hollywood history, when one idealistic ex-Marine took an incredible stand against the motion picture industry and Board of Supervisors, protecting his storybook hillside home and neighborhood from being leveled to build a motion picture museum with gun in hand. Don't miss this a once-in-a-lifetime event, years in the works. (Free, with RSVP.)
HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 6/10... 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.)
SPECIAL EVENT: DESERT VISIONARIES: LLAN0 DEL RIO, ANTELOPE VALLEY INDIAN MUSEUM & ALDOUS HUXLEY'S PEARBLOSSOM RANCH - SAT. 6/17... Just one of the the unique events marking our tenth anniversary as a tour company, this day-long excursion celebrates the dreamers who have reinvented themselves against the particular landscape of the high desert through visits to places where their dreams crossed over into waking life. Featuring folk art, utopian colonies and literary retreats, it's sure to be a delightful day's adventuring. (For more info, or to reserve your seat, click here.)
EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 6/24... 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 in the shadow of the world's biggest tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, scene of a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)
THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 6/25... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. June's Salon: A visit to the Subway Terminal Station and Tunnel. Free, sold out with waiting list, reservation required.
PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 7/8... 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 confidential files 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. 7/15... 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 usually sells out, so don't wait to reserve. (Buy tickets here.)
FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 8/13... Professor Donald Johnson hosts "Bombs & Decomp," featuring Mike Digby on historic bomb cases and Dr. Elizabeth Miller on decomposition of the human body. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (For more info, or to reserve your seat, click here.)
SPECIAL EVENT: THE 1910 BOMBING OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES WITH DETECTIVE MIKE DIGBY - Sat. 9/23... An all new bus adventure follows in the shadowy footstep of the labor activists who plotted the dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times Building, part of a nationwide plot that played out some of its most dramatic scenes in the heart of historic Los Angeles. Included in the ticket price is a copy of guest host Mike Digby's new book on the Southland's most fascinating bombers. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Charles Bukowski's L.A. (7/22), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (7/29), South L.A. Road Trip: Hot Rods, Adobes, Googie & Early Modernism (8/6), Weird West Adams (8/12), The Lowdown on Downtown (8/19), Boyle Heights & Monterey Park: The Hidden Histories of L.A.'s Melting Pot (8/26), The Birth of Noir (9/9), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (9/16), Hollywood! (9/30).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
Back from hiatus! In Episode #119: Secrets of Llano del Rio and Utopian Los Angeles, we preview the June 17 Desert Visionaries tour with guest hosts Paul Greenstein & Karyl Newman, plus Lummis House, Lytton Savings and Sinatra Bungalow news. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
Something good came from busting the seal on baby's casket.
Faces, and stories, of our Hollywood neighbors in need.
The preservation plot thickens: L.A. Burger, which Councilman Paul Koretz seeks to landmark, halting a large development, is actually an Orange Julius by Googie greats Armet & Davis! PDF Link.
So tone deaf. The community loved The Cat & the Fiddle. (Reminder: the property owner forced a beloved local business out, destroyed a charming space.)
El Monte doesn’t realize it already has a an urbanist’s dream in walkable, historic Valley Mall. We hope redevelopment plans spare this cool street!
Save the Star, the second coolest building in La Puente! (It’s hard to top a drive-thru donut.)
RIP to Ed Kolpin's Tinder Box (since 1928) in Santa Monica. Closed this week, its grand neon sign is headed to the Museum of Neon Art. The building is almost certainly threatened with demolition.
The wait is long, but we’re going to have a magnificent Union Station Harvey House again some day.
Crossroads of the World is going to be fine, but you might not recognize anything around it. Some fine buildings, and many homes, are threatened.
We hope that this spectacular early Ernest Batchelder peacock lamp comes home to Southern California.
Farewell to Powers Boothe, who loved playing Philip Marlowe and memorialized Raymond Chandler at Cissy's belated burial service. Video link.
In the New York Times, new Angeleno Lesley M.M. Blume takes the lay of vintage bookland, including our fave, Caravan.
Three cheers for the preservationist tenant who got her lovely home, one of Echo Park’s rare surviving bungalow court apartment compounds, declared a landmark.
First they throw our neighbors out onto the street. Then they demolish our historic housing stock. Ellis Act Reform Now!
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric