How Ray Bradbury's eyeglasses took a detour from our tour bus to the Pasadena Museum of History
Gentle reader...
This Saturday is the opening day for the Pasadena Museum of History's exhibition Dreaming the Universe: The Intersection of Science, Fiction, & Southern California. It runs through September 2.
We were honored to serve on the show's advisory committee, and help bring some local cultural history into the fantastical mix (look for the Clifton's Cafeteria artifacts).
One object we're especially excited about is a modest pair of horn-rimmed spectacles: through these panes, writer Ray Bradbury looked at mid-century Los Angeles and saw countless new and magical worlds.
The path to the museum's borrowing Ray's signature specs began several years ago, as we crossed the Los Angeles River at the start of one of our Boyle Heights & Monterey Park tours. Richard was showing some topical slides to explain the concept of affective ownership, the deep feeling that citizens have that landmarks belong to them personally.
"For instance," said Richard, showing a photo of Ray Bradbury's pretty yellow ranch-style home, "I feel a sense of affective ownership for this house near where I grew up in Cheviot Hills. Ray Bradbury lived there." In the seat behind him, a strange woman started to cry.
Richard advanced his slides, and went on, "So when Thom Mayne demolished Ray Bradbury's house a couple of weeks ago, I was hurt." The strange woman began to sob. Not knowing what else to do, Richard made his point and moved on, while Kim leaned in close and learned that the passenger's name was Ramona Bradbury, and she had been understandably shocked to see the very thing she'd gotten on the bus to forget, the destruction of her father's house, projected on the video monitor overhead.
But sharing the pain over a loss can be cathartic, and by the end of tour, Ramona was feeling better. She became a frequent tour guest, and on one memorable occasion, pulled her father's unmistakable eyeglasses out of her handbag and let people admire them. So when we sat down with the other exhibition advisors and curators, we pitched the idea of putting the glasses in the show. Happily, Ramona thought it was a good idea, too.
And now all of Southern California can gaze upon the frames that helped our town's greatest fantasy writer focus, along with many other significant objects, artwork, costumes, publications and props. And save the date for Thursday, April 19, when Richard and Ramona will be in conversation at the museum, on the theme of Life at Home with Ray Bradbury.
We're back on the bus on Saturday with Echo Park Book of the Dead, a time travel trip through the dark side of the streetcar suburbs. And there are still a few seats left for Sunday's forensic science seminar on Wrongful Convictions. Next week, it's Eastside Babylon. Join us, do!
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RECENTLY TOURED
A car crashed into the El Pollo Loco at Third and Broadway, exposing a 19th century column. Jack Feldman pulls up a vintage photo on his waterandpower.org website to show how the building used to look.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 3/4
Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On March 4, join us for Wrongful Convictions: Investigatory Case Studies from the California Innocence Project. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. Next: the Grim Sleeper serial killer investigation (5/20).
COMING SOON
ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 3/3... 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.)
FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 3/4... Professor Donald Johnson hosts a very special program, "Wrongful Convictions: Investigatory Case Studies from the California Innocence Project." Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (For more info, or to reserve your seat, click here.)
EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 3/10... 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.)
39TH ANNUAL VINTAGE PAPERBACK SHOW - SUN. 3/18... Our Kim Cooper will be signing copies of her acclaimed mystery novel The Kept Girl, based on a real 1920s Los Angeles cult murder investigation. She'll also have copies of the new Raymond Chandler map, and How To Find Old Los Angeles. And the show is simply packed with dealers peddling the most depraved and delightful exploitation fiction, artwork and magazines. For more info, click here.
PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 3/24... 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 LAVA SUNDAY SALON - SUN. 3/25... Our free cultural lecture and walking tour series returns to the basement level of Grand Central Market. The theme is The Los Angeles Mall Reconsidered, a deep dive into an endangered mid-century landscape packed with art and history. Free, reservation required. (To RSVP, click here.)
HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 3/31... 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.)
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 4/7... 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.)
THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 4/14... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings—although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Features a visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop, a tiled wonderland not open to the public. (Sorry, tour is sold out with waiting list. Stay tuned for the next date.)
Additional upcoming tours: Blood & Dumplings (4/21), Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles (4/28), Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles (5/5), Special event: Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits’ L.A. (5/12), Hollywood! (5/19), Weird West Adams (6/2).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
In Episode #125: a last visit to the Caravan Book Store to talk with second generation bookman Leonard Bernstein, plus public policy maven Donald Spivack on the two biggest challenges facing Los Angeles. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
Raymond Chandler's life in La Jolla recalled by Sybil Davis, probably the last person alive who remembers the sound of his laughter. (Sybil also knows that Helga Greene was only 42 when her dad shot Ray down.)
Silent film sleuths don't mess around!
Encouraging news about LAist. But is it getting an entirely fresh reboot from KPCC, or can we expect Julia Wick & her team back covering the city?
The Central Valley's giant orange to get a new life as a fossil museum snack stand. Can our local derelict giant orange, Bono's of Fontana, be so lucky? See all the giant oranges in California here.
Recommended Reading from the Esotouric Emporium of LA Lore: Los Angeles Documentary and the Production of Public History, 1958-1977. Joshua Glick's film research reveals many lost worlds.
New on the Esotouric blog: take a 3-D tour of the DREAMERS in Long Beach DACA-inspired mural collaboration from Street Artist in Residence and Craig Sauer's magic camera.
Phony folk art fools everyone save competing dealers.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric