The Making of an L.A. Preservationist... and the mysteries of America's strangest cults revealed!

Gentle reader...

Normal people don't just wake up one morning start battling developers and City Hall to save historic places from the wrecking ball. No, when you scratch the surface of anyone who does this kind of thing, you'll find a compelling origin story. We believe that preservationists are born when something they love deeply is taken away from them, and they stick around once they realize that they can make a difference.

When our friend Steve Luftman was forced out of his beloved home in the Mendel and Mabel Meyer Courtyard Apartments, he responded by writing a successful landmark nomination which stopped the owners from demolishing the building. Now the former rent-stabilized apartments are on the market as million dollar condos, not quite as cute as they were before the decorators ran amok. (See this PDF link for what used to be.)

Luftman, meanwhile, has become one of L.A.'s most active citizen preservationists, his campaigns stretching from the mid-century Lytton Savings on Sunset to troubled tavern Tom Bergin's on Fairfax. Every preservation battle deepens his passion for and understanding of this singular city, and we salute him.

You can learn all about how Steve Luftman tells the stories of threatened Southland landmarks and manages to save quite a few of them, explore the historic birthplace of the local preservation movement, and socialize with folks who love the city, next Sunday, August 11 at our debut historic preservation salon at Lummis House. We've added a discounted group rate ($10/off), so do come make a day of it with your history loving pals.

Here's something new, and weird, under the sun. Cults! Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know is the latest historic map written by our Kim Cooper and published by Herb Lester, with art by Brian Rau. The package offers a lively tour of North America's darkest spiritual communities, with a special focus on Southern California's uniquely odd esoteric organizations. Learn more or get your copy here or on our tours.

This Saturday, our touring course is set for The Lowdown on Downtown, from the lost world of Victorian Bunker Hill to the exquisite Arts & Crafts landmark Dutch Chocolate Shop, The Bradbury Building to the Arts District, with some very special guests along for the ride to share the history of L.A.'s most fascinating and misunderstood neighborhood. Join us, do!

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COMING SOON

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 8/3... 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. (Buy tickets here.)

CURSE OF THE SHE-DEVIL: A TRUE STORY OF REVENGE, BETRAYAL, BOMBS AND REAL ESTATE IN 1919 LOS ANGELES - SAT. 8/10... In this sequel to his popular tour about the 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times, arson and bomb detective Mike Digby takes us on a scrupulously researched journey through early Los Angeles, exposing a brazen conspiracy to kill, maim or terrorize anyone who stood in the way of a beautiful young woman inheriting the fortune of her estranged husband. While following the forensic leads of the unfolding case on a route rich in time capsule crime scenes, Mike will compare and contrast the historical investigation to the modern crime analysis methods he has used in his law enforcement career. And every passenger gets a copy of Mike's new book about the case. (Special event, buy tickets here.)

PRESERVING THE SOUL OF LOS ANGELES SALON AT LUMMIS HOUSE - SUN. 8/11... Join us at the birthplace of the Southern California historic preservation movement for a very special afternoon, touring the landmark stone castle, learning about Charles Fletcher Lummis' passionate advocacy for keeping old stories, folkways, recipes and sacred places alive, then getting to know contemporary preservation activist Steven Luftman, who shares lively tales of his efforts to save Tom Bergin's, Lytton Savings, bungalow court apartments and miniature fairy castles from the wrecking ball. (For more info or tickets, click here.)

THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - SAT. 8/17... This tour digs deep into the literature, film and real life vices that inform that most murderous genre, film noir, rolling through Hollywood, Glendale and old Skid Row, lost lion farms, murderous sopranos, fascist film censors, offbeat cemeteries—all in a quest to reveal the delicious, and deeply influential, nightmares that are author Cain's gift to the world. (Buy tickets here.)

BOYLE HEIGHTS & MONTEREY PARK: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 8/24... Come on a century's social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the varied cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings--all are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. This whirlwind social history tour will include: The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, El Encanto, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here.)

MANSONLAND - SAT. 8/31... A journey through the 1960s counterculture, organized crime and Hollywood hustlers, with author Brad Schreiber illuminating the mysteries and connections informing the crimes of Charles Manson's family. (Sold out with waiting list, more info here.)

SAVING LOS ANGELES LANDMARKS - SAT. 9/7... A new tour, a little different every time, celebrates the passionate citizen preservationists who adopt a threatened building or artifact and bend heaven and earth to bring its story into the light. From the progressive bank as arts center Lytton Savings to L.A. Riots memorial light sculpture Vermonica, William Pereira's woefully remuddled MWD to mysteries revealed by Chinatown's vanishing Joan of Arc sculpture, it's a wild day out in the preservation trenches, telling offbeat Los Angeles stories that will have you rooting for these cool landmarks, and the preservationists who love them. (Buy tickets here.)

LOS ANGELES BOOK LAND, 1939: CHANDLER, FANTE, HUXLEY, ISHERWOOD, WEST - SAT. 9/14... There must have been something special in the air that year, as the great Los Angeles novels tumbled onto the library shelves like sweet summer peaches. Join us on a new excursion through Downtown and Hollywood, celebrating the literary and cultural history of an incredible literary year, with visits to time capsule places that figure in the lives of the authors and in their books. From the new Union Station to a scandal-wracked City Hall, from forgotten speakeasies of old Skid Row to fantastical castles in the sky, from star-studded opening nights to mornings after in the gutter, to Larry Edmunds, the last great Hollywood bookstore standing, we’ll go out in search of the ghosts of that magical year. (Buy tickets here.)

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 10/13... 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. The Lazarus Files is a cold case with a chilling twist: the killer was an LAPD detective! Your ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (More info here.) Additional upcoming tours: Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (9/21), Eastside Babylon (9/28), Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (10/5), Echo Park Book of the Dead (10/12), Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (10/19), The Real Black Dahlia (10/26) and Weird West Adams (11/2).

The Lowdown on Downtown - Saturday, August 3rd
$64.00

The Birth of Noir (James M. Cain tour)-August 17th
$64.00

Preserving The Soul of L.A. Salon at Lummis House - August 11th
$36.50

RECOMMENDED READING

You don't have to read every book by the authors featured on our newest literary tour Los Angeles Book Land, 1939, but the experience will be richer if you crack a spine or two before you board. Choose from Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, John Fante's Ask the Dust, Aldous Huxley's After Many A Summer and the wonderfully unhinged The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West.

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Episode #132 is Illuminating Los Angeles: Elmore Leonard & The Triforium. Meet Gregg Sutter, who is hosting a new tour about the screenwriter he aided for 33 colorful years, then get the skinny on reactivating Joseph Young's 1975 musical phantasmagoria. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

New on the Esotouric blog: Elegy for 1326 South Mariposa. Fine Victorian houses poised to fall like dominoes on the charming side streets off Pico's commercial spine.

One family's love affair with the nearly lost Walter S. White "Wave House" in Palm Desert.

A charming ballyhoo press book for Mary Pickford's first talkie, Coquette.

Nitt Witt Ridge, one of our favorite California folk art environments, is for sale (with an offer pending). Uptight Cambria won't make it easy to turn this designated State landmark into a tourist attraction, but we hope it finds someone to love it.

Some of Paul Rogers' stunning spot illustrations from our Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles are now available direct from Herb Lester as large format art prints.

Finally! After pounding the bushes for weeks trying to find a journalist with the nerve to question Netflix and report on our petition, the Los Angeles Business Journal covers serious questions surrounding the rumored Egyptian Theatre sale. (Also on the radio, starting at 16:10.)

The final disappointment from beloved, dysfunctional Broguiere's Sanitary Dairy: it’s closed, with workers let go with no notice. The Montebello Facebook community is rallying with suggestions of places that are hiring.

Mystery novelist Denise Hamilton joins us on the Mansonland tour, just one stop on a deep dive into the Charles Manson Industry.

Fosselman's fans: the old school Alhambra ice cream brand is expanding. We’re holding out for hot fudge sundaes at the new Twohey’s in South Pasadena.

Feeling blue over the prospect of L.A. without its spinning Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign? Join the campaign to have it declared a protected cultural landmark. Weirder things have been saved, and preservation in place is always better than in a museum!

Friends of the Fonda Theatre hope you’ll sign the petition to help grandfather in its backstage loading access, so the venue isn't killed by yet another huge Hollywood development project.

Villa Carlotta was the most congenial rent stabilized apartment building in Hollywood, until City Council let new owners turn it into an illegal hotel. And of course every illegal hotel needs a bar on the ground floor. The shameful desecration continues.

After many decades trapped in exquisitely decaying amber, the Barclay Hotel will be returned to its original 19th Century form, as the fanciest hotel on Main Street. We’ll be watching with great interest. Until then, explore its secrets in 3-D.

Happy 75th anniversary to Double Indemnity.

Looking under the hood of LACMA's risky use of bonds to fund the unpopular Zumthor building. We're against it.

Downey's Rives Mansion, a gorgeous time capsule with a weird Black Dahlia connection, has fallen onto hard times. Rezoning might be the best option for this sad old gal.

Facing redevelopment, Alpine Village needs its friends more than ever.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric