On Old Route 66, Mitchell Caverns was the Mojave Desert's Best Detour... SEE IT in lifelike 3-D! Plus L.A. Times Landmarking News
Gentle reader...
We're delighted to report that, at the Cultural Heritage Commission last month, the commissioners rejected the wishy washy staff report to more strongly designate Times Mirror Square as a landmark of both historical and architectural merit. Despite a bizarre attempt by the property owner's historic consultant to claim William Pereira didn't actually design the 1973 addition, new language was added to recognize Pereira's Chandler Wing as the work of a Master Architect. Video is here. The next step is a hearing before City Council's PLUM Committee, where we hope they will accept the landmarking and send it on to full council. Stay tuned!
And tonight at 9pm, we're hosting a virtual viewing party of Inventing L.A. - The Chandlers and Their Times, the Emmy Award-winning documentary. Watch it online or on TV to learn why this vacant newspaper HQ is a landmark of Southern California and how the physical plant tells a story worth preserving.
For the tenth in our series of explorable digital tours of offbeat Southern California landmarks, 3-D photographer Craig Sauer assembled a crack team to document the astonishingly beautiful Mitchell Caverns, one of California's only limestone show caves and a place with layers of fascinating history, modern to prehistoric. Due to the remote location and limited tour capacity, Mitchell Caverns is one of the more lonesome State Park sites. But now you can discover its secrets and beauty without even leaving the house. We hope you'll take a trip back in time... and pass it on!
If you visit our website, you'll find new tours listed into February 2019 and an arson-themed forensic science seminar in January. We're back on the bus on Saturday with Echo Park Book of the Dead, celebrating the strange lore of the streetcar suburbs that coil around Sunset Boulevard. Join us, do!
SUPPORT OUR WORK
If you enjoy all we do to celebrate and preserve Los Angeles history and would like to say thank you, please consider putting a little something into our digital tip jar. You can also click here before shopping on Amazon. Your contributions are never obligatory, but always appreciated.
LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 1/27
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 January 27, join us for an inquiry into Arson and After, from cold case clearance to the impact on an arsonist's family. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.
RECOMMENDED READING
If our virtual tour of Mitchell Caverns captivates and leaves you wanting more, you'll want to pick up a copy of Keepers of the Caves: A True Account of Twenty Years of Modern Pioneering by Jack Mitchell, a weird and wonderful tale of an iconoclast, his very tolerant wife and their home-grown Route 66 roadside attraction in Depression-era Southern California.
COMING SOON
ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 10/13... 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. 10/20... 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.)
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA (HALLOWE'EN EDITION) - SAT. 10/27... 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.)
SPECIAL EVENT: ELMORE LEONARD IN HOLLYWOOD - SAT. 11/10... A new bus adventure hosted by Gregg Sutter, the writer’s loyal assistant and researcher of 33 years. You’ll get the skinny on Elmore’s great Hollywood novel turned film Get Shorty, meet the real life inspiration for Chili Palmer, trace Elmore’s evolution as a commuting screenwriter and visit the locations that inspired some of his most memorable scenes. (Buy tickets here.)
NEW! WILSHIRE BOULEVARD DEATH TRIP - SAT. 11/17... 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.)
RICHARD'S 50th BIRTHDAY BUS ADVENTURE - SAT. 11/24... In partnership with the Huntington Library and the new Architects of a Golden Age exhibition. (Sold out with a waiting list.)
Additional upcoming tours: Pasadena Confidential (12/1), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/8), The Real Black Dahlia (1/5), Weird West Adams (1/12), Echo Park Book of the Dead (1/19), Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles (2/2) and Boyle Heights & Monterey Park (2/16).
OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST
Episode #131 is Happening at The Huntington: From Architectural Artifacts to Zen Buddhism. Meet curator Erin Chase, whose new exhibit celebrates iconic L.A. buildings, and 86th generation musical Zen Master Tsuha Roshi. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!
AND FINALLY, LINKS
We've joined 800+ writers who care about L.A.'s literary community in signing the petition in support of the ALOUD series at L.A. Public Library. You can, too.
Incongruous Little Italy "historic district" springs up in San Pedro, to the confusion of local historians and preservationists.
Tom Bergin's, a Miracle Mile gem that's fallen on hard times, has many friends seeking to make its landmark status official.
An historical Southern California corporate mystery: what happened to the French Benevolent Society and its $33 Million?! (Part 2).
Lawrence Osborne wonders if the descendants of Graham Greene have any of Raymond Chandler's PJs. As you'll learn on our Chandler tour, personal possessions went to his beloved secretary.
To celebrate its centennial, Fosselman's ice cream parlor is abandoning its 1970s-era Victorian drag.
The wonderful Venice Room changes hands, but little else... so far.
It sounds like old time radio, but it's actually a recent recording from The Annotated Big Sleep book launch, featuring Judith Freeman, David Ulin, Steph Cha, Gary Phillips and our own Kim Cooper (at 0:36:25).
David Kipen previews Dear Los Angeles, his new anthology portrait of this weird, sweet city.
Long Live The Bob Baker Marionette Theater as it departs its historic home in Crown Hill.
A "tree" grows on Western, and for once, it's worth reading the comments as readers roundly reject cutsy-pie new urbanist street furniture.
Remember all the free publicity when Taco Bell corporate "saved" the very first TB by moving it off a development site with promises to do something cool with the building? Three years later.
The real estate pros on the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council didn't tell the community Forrest J. Ackerman's home was threatened with demolition until it was too late.
A developer wanted to knock down one of our best Streamline Moderne houses. Community members gave their nights and weekends to write a successful landmark nomination. Will City Council make it official?
The Pereira in Peril campaign spreads to Fullerton, where Alan Hess advocates for preserving and reactivating the lovely Hunt Library.
yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric