Enter to win a seat on our time travel trip through Raymond Chandler's noir Los Angeles
Gentle reader...
Our spring tours have been filling up, which is a nice problem to have, though it means we can't invite you to join us on this Saturday's SRO edition of The Lowdown on Downtown.
But there's still some room on the repeat engagement on May 19. This might be your last chance to see the landmark Dutch Chocolate Shop before work begins to bring this derelict gem back to regular public use, so if you'd got a yen to explore, sign up!
Also available for your consideration are several newly posted crime bus excursions: Eastside Babylon (6/16), Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (6/23), Pasadena Confidential (6/30) and The Real Black Dahlia (7/14).
And to keep things lively, we're raffling off a ticket on the May 5 Raymond Chandler tour and a copy of Kim's mystery novel The Kept Girl to one person who emails us filling in the blank in this sentence: "I love reading Raymond Chandler because _________". (If you need two sentences, we won't penalize you for enthusiasm.) Winner selected on April 11. Good luck!
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RECENTLY TOURED
Seen on last Saturday's Real Black Dahlia tour: this cool green sled in front of the Biltmore Hotel, ready to take the ghost of Beth Short on a ride.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 5/20
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 May 20, join us for an inquiry into the Grim Sleeper serial killer investigation. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.
COMING SOON
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. Tour repeats May 19.)
GROWING UP WITH RAY BRADBURY TALK - 4/19... In association with the new exhibition Dreaming the Universe: The Intersection of Science, Fiction, & Southern California at the Pasadena Museum of History, come join our Richard Schave in conversation with Ramona Bradbury, talking about life at home with her famous writer father Ray Bradbury. You'll have a chance to ask questions, and see the exhibition. Space is limited for this special event. (Buy tickets here.)
BLOOD & DUMPLINGS - SAT. 4/21... 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.)
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 4/28... 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. (Buy tickets here.)
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 5/5... 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.)
SPECIAL EVENT: CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' L.A. - SAT. 5/12... 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 (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.)
Additional upcoming tours: The Lowdown on Downtown (5/19), Weird West Adams (6/2), Eastside Babylon (6/16), Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (6/23), Pasadena Confidential (6/30) and The Real Black Dahlia (7/14).
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
New in books: Jim Heimann's Dark City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, packed with moody pics you won't soon forget.
The Spanish Colonial Revival, a moment of charm and romance in L.A.'s architectural history, reads differently when exported into Mexico.
There’s one less old west character in the deep San Fernando Valley, as Tom Corrigan, scion of Corriganville, passes.
Raymond Chandler lovers, save the date (7/17) to celebrate the release of The Annotated Big Sleep with our Kim Cooper and pals.
Realtor fraud claims in the case of Richard Neutra's exquisite Chuey House, which in January was taken off the Cultural Heritage Commission docket for landmark consideration by the nominator, the Los Angeles Conservancy.
Paging Route 66 enthusiasts with a talent for hospitality: the bank has seized the historic Hill Top Motel in Kingman, AZ. Are you the one to save this cultural (and criminal—Timothy McVeigh slept here!) landmark?
It would be easier to swallow the L.A. Weekly’s defense against the boycott if the paper hadn’t essentially stopped producing timely news and cultural content.
Should you stay in New York’s refurbished Chelsea Hotel, you won’t pass through the doors that provided privacy to its legendary tenants—those were tossed out with the trash and salvaged by a homeless ex-resident. Auction is April 12.
Video Vault: Digging this Los Angeles Chinatown time capsule footage by You Chung Hong from 1942, including cool views of the original Golden Pagoda neon signage.
Why did Brookfield stealthily demolish landscape architect Lawrence Halprin’s only atrium design? To clear space for “Halo,” a $60 Million corporate hang-out space featuring yoga, showers and bike lockers. The Cranky Preservationist laments the loss.
Neat story about a landlord restoring tiny houses in Orange's Old Towne Historic District.
The Channel Islands earthquake knocked the nesting Bald Eagles on Santa Cruz Island for a loop. The nest-cam caught the jolt.
Backstage at the restoration of A.C. Martin’s May Company Building (1939), soon to be the Academy Museum.
Hurray for The Bryson, as fascinating when down on its luck as in its gilded age prime. Raymond Chandler made it immortal.
In San Francisco, the Planning Department is making a mockery of the historic landmarking process. Michelle Polzine's 20th Century Cafe facade is adorable, but it's not original. Now she can't change it.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric