New: On Saturday's Hollywood! Tour - Hear the Weirdest Suicide Story Ever Told!
Gentle reader...
This Saturday, we roll with one of our newer crime bus tours, Hollywood! Or maybe that should be "Hollywood! 2.0," because there are a slew of new additions to the day, including...
Some fascinating tales that unfolded in the sleepy residential flats on Hollywood's east side, where you'll meet such colorful characters as the Amnesiac Bride, her Tolerant Groom and the Strange Young Man whose suicide might be the weirdest ever planned or perpetrated in this peculiar town.
A visit to the Afton Square District, a charming pocket of early 20th century residences, apartment hotels and spiritual sites threatened by a massive, Las Vegas-style redevelopment project. We'll meet neighbors who are working to preserve their block in the face of powerful opposition, and learn why the place is worth fighting for.
A stroll through Hollywood Forever Cemetery to visit several fascinating Southern California characters who had no connection in life, but who fate has brought together to spend all eternity in the same patch of earth. And if you look sharp, there are baby peacocks to admire!
One place we won't be exploring, at least not on foot: Crossroads of the World. The National Register landmark, which had been an off-the-bus stop on past editions of the tour, is pending some major redevelopment decisions, and no longer accessible to our group. But you can see a lot from the sidewalk, and its fascinating history is still a part of our bus adventure.
Well, what are you waiting for? Hollywood! rolls at noon this Saturday, bound for the nightmarish side of the dream factory. Plus we have two free library talks on Raymond Chandler coming up - Whittier (10/5) and Sunland-Tujunga (10/10). Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
In Hollywood, these redevelopment mad days, it's all about the details.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 11/5
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. On November 5, 2017, join us for From the SLA to DNA, an afternoon of insights into historic investigations and new crime science. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Sold out with waiting list. Click here for more info.
RECOMMENDED READING
Ahead of the Hollywood! tour, our thoughts turn to that greatest of all apocalyptic L.A. visions, Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust. When Raymond Chandler finally read it, in 1949, he first found it "boring. Excellent in detail but nothing to draw one on." A few days later: "The whole book, excellent as it is in many ways, is a suicide note. I feel absolutely convinced that this man would have killed himself—and perhaps did—although he is supposed to have been killed in an auto accident... It is not tragic, not bitter, not even pessimistic. It simply washes its hands of life."
COMING SOON
HOLLYWOOD! - SAT. 9/30... This tour reveals the unwritten history of the sleepy suburb that birthed the American dream factory, a neighborhood packed with fascinating lore and architectural marvels. You won’t see the stars’ homes or hear about their latest real estate deals, but we’ll show you where some colorful characters breathed their last, got into trouble that defined the rest of their lives and came up with ideas that the world is still talking about. Plus, learn about the challenges of historic preservation in a hot redevelopment zone. So for unforgettable stories you won’t hear on any other Hollywood tour, and to see some gorgeous places, climb aboard. (Buy tickets here.)
FREE TALK ON RAYMOND CHANDLER #1 - THURS. 10/5... Join us at Whittier Public Library for an evening celebrating legendary mystery writer, Raymond Chandler, and the real-life cases, characters, and places that inspired his work. After the talk and q&a, Kim signs copies of her fact-based mystery novel The Kept Girl, Raymond Chandler Map and the new guidebook How To Find Old Los Angeles. (More info here.)
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 10/7... 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.)
FREE TALK ON RAYMOND CHANDLER #2 - TUES., 10/10... Join us at Sunland-Tujunga Public Library for an evening celebrating legendary mystery writer, Raymond Chandler, followed by a book signing. See 10/5 event for description. (More info here.)
ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 10/14... On a crime bus tour honoring the lost souls who wander the hills and byways of the "streetcar suburbs" that hug Sunset Boulevard, see seemingly ordinary houses revealed as the scenes of chilling crimes and mysteries, populated by some of the most fascinating people you'd never want to meet. Featuring the Hillside Strangler, the Bat Man's Love Nest and a visit to Sister Aimee Semple McPherson's exquisite Parsonage, now a museum. (Buy tickets here.)
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 10/21... 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.)
NEW! WILSHIRE BOULEVARD DEATH TRIP - SAT. 10/28... Wilshire Boulevard is an iconic Los Angeles thoroughfare—from its prehistoric origins as a path forged by extinct megafauna to the spectacular Art Deco monuments of the Miracle Mile. It’s also ground zero for some deeply strange, only-in-Los Angeles crimes and oddities that played out against the backdrop of the boulevard. The deceptively simple route contains a multitude of mysteries, from cruel plots, divine inspiration, historic preservation, love gone sour, lucky breaks and weird tales, Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip, a dark day’s out among the city’s most glittering architectural gems. (Buy tickets here.)
THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 10/29... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. October's Salon: Mid-Century Art and Architecture of the Civic Center, with Clare Haggarty, the Deputy Director of Collections for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and special guests to be announced. (Free, reservation required.)
FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 11/5... Professor Donald Johnson hosts "From the SLA to DNA," a program on vintage and cutting edge crime investigations. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Weird West Adams (11/4), Eastside Babylon (11/11), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (11/18), Special Event: In Search of Imperial California / Richard’s Birthday Bus (11/25)
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In Episode #121: Once Upon A Time in French-Speaking Los Angeles & Early Days of Angels Flight on Old Bunker Hill, historian C.C. de Vere previews her free LAVA Sunday Salon and Nathan Marsak talks funicular. Plus Neutra trouble, landmark filings, fantasy houses, & more. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
The Cranky Preservationist, who loves Los Angeles and HATES what you’re doing to it, returns! Episode 10: Have You Hugged Your Parker Center Today Blues (on Facebook and YouTube).
File under: You can’t buy taste. Case Study House #18 has had some (shudder) work done.
Fascinating collection of America’s lost funicular railways, including a charmer at Playa del Rey. Meanwhile, restored Angels Flight, while cool, had some trouble this weekend.
Architect and historian Alan Hess, who is our native guide to Irvine on Richard’s upcoming birthday bus adventure, wants YOU to join Orange County’s new preservation advocacy group!
If you’ve ever wondered how the Esotouric crime bus sausage gets made, here’s a typical hour of research.
Talk about a crime scene: that recent Formosa Cafe photo! But just like the working girls in L.A. Confidential, before long you won't be able to tell it from the real thing--especially if it wins the Main Street preservation grant competition.
We used to call Lucy’s El Adobe “the non-scandalous Lucy’s” as compared to the demolished, mob-run Lucey’s across the way. No more.
Burbank’s sleepy Rancho District under rezoning threat as longtime Pickwick Bowl / Viva Cantina owners seek to cash out. Petitioners protest.
In the face of redevelopment, the historic Ports O’ Call shopkeepers are fighting, and suing, to protect their livelihoods. The city can afford to help these little fish.
The City of Orange’s marvelously mod Eichler tracts on the fast track to becoming protected historic districts.
If you ever wondered why Los Angeles needs an interior landmarking ordinance, the ruin of John C. Austin's "protected" 1902 Hiram Higgins house tells the tale.
The Canadian experimental noir theater/film projection production Helen Lawrence comes to UCLA, and select Raymond Chandler papers are on display.
Los Angeles Times feature on last Saturday's tour on the 1910 bombing of the newspaper. See photos here.
Video vault: Fairies are real! Or are they? Can you guess what we saw dancing in the Huntington Gardens citrus orchard? (answer in comments, but don’t peek before you see!)
Tenants raise the alarm over owner's alterations to Rudolph Schindler’s Sachs Apartments, a city landmark.
The Village Voice, no longer a print journal, has archives on its mind.
The gateway to the Pike, late lamented sleazy zone of fun, stands empty, the latest in a long line of Long Beach redevelopment failures.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric