Celebrating 90 Years of Bullock's Wilshire with a thrilling announcement, especially for fans of Raymond Chandler
Gentle reader...
If you happened to tune in to our social media accounts today, you might have thought we had fallen into a wormhole in time. We spent the morning at the historic Bullock's Wilshire department store (now home of Southwestern Law School), participating in an impromptu reenactment of the moment, 90 years ago, when the Art Deco landmark first opened for trade.
Because school was in session, the event was quite low-key, and not open to the public. A large percentage of attendees were vintage-styled members of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, presenting a check to the school to assist in ongoing restoration of the structure.
Although we couldn't invite you to be there, we did capture the very moment the doors were thrown open, and stepped inside first, so that you can share in the experience. Come on in!
But don't feel too left out. This morning's program was just the first in a series of Bullock's Wilshire 90th Anniversary festivities running through August 2020, and most of them will welcome the public.
Next on the calendar, on November 16, is an event we knew was coming, and have been eager to share. For the first time in many years, the brilliant beacon at the top of John Parkinson's gorgeous tower will be illuminated. While the announcement above calls its color Lavender, in Raymond Chandler's debut novel, The Big Sleep (1939), detective Philip Marlowe describes "the Violet light at the top of Bullock's green-tinged tower... far above us, serene and withdrawn from the dark, dripping city."
Many times on our Raymond Chandler tours, we've gestured up at Bullock's tower and read the intense scene in which cold-blooded Agnes shakes Marlowe down for a roll of cash in exchange for information.
When we met LEGO artisan Bruce Heller, we urged him to add that Violet glow to the top of his model of Bullocks Wilshire and recently, he did! And now the real thing is just weeks away from re-illumination. It leaves us giddy to think of it.
We hope November 16 is a rainy day, all the better to evoke the timeless spirit of Raymond Chandler as the beacon—Lavender, Violet, Purple, Lilac, Amethyst, Mauve, Whatever!—casts its moody light over Wilshire Boulevard once again. So save the date, and stay tuned for details as we have them.
Digging into history can be rewarding, but sometimes it chills the blood. Last week, Kim accidentally stumbled onto some secret documents related to the partial-meltdown and toxic-radioactive aftermath at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley. This material was better suited for our favorite government transparency blog than our own, so you can read all about it in a guest post at MichaelKohlhaas.org.
Mike also helped reveal some fascinating hints about the non-profit stewardship crisis at the American Cinematheque: Sleuth The Cinecon Caper as revealed in emails between Hollywood Heritage, Netflix and Councilman Mitch O’Farrell’s office, featuring a beloved film fest threatened by corporate whims.
Tickets are selling briskly for Richard's Birthday Tour on November 30, and we expect it to sell out soon. So don't wait too long if you'd like to spend the day exploring the secrets of Southern California with birthday cake, an Indian feast and good company.
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AND WHAT'S THE NEXT TOUR? Saturday's excursion is Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged true crime tour, packed with weird architecture, strange burials, dark impulses and beautiful landmarks, uncovered in the rich cultural territories east of the L.A. River. From the Night Stalker's capture to the mysteries of Evergreen Cemetery, these tales will haunt you. Join us, do!
UPCOMING TOURS & SPECIAL EVENTS
EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 9/28... Go East, young ghoul, to Boyle Heights, where the Night Stalker was captured and to Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery where we'll share newly unearthed tales of secret burials. 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 true crime tour. (Buy tickets here.)
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 10/5... 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 visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop, the last survivor of a once-great Hollywood literary district. (Buy tickets here.)
ECHO PARK BOOK OF THE DEAD - SAT. 10/12... 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 - 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.)
CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 10/19... 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, the library where he found his "god" John Fante, a rare chance to tour one of Hank & Jane's pads and a mid-tour provisions stop at Pink Elephant Liquor. (Buy tickets here.) Additional upcoming tours: The Real Black Dahlia (10/26), Weird West Adams (11/2), Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (11/16), Richard's Birthday Tour (11/30), Pasadena Confidential (11/23), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (12/7) and The Real Black Dahlia (1/4).
Eastside Babylon (9/28)
$64.00
Echo Park Book of the Dead (10/12)
$64.00
Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (11/16)
$64.00
RECOMMENDED READING
Up from the ashes of the terrible 1986 arson fire and into the archives: in The Library Book, recent Angeleno Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief) paints an engaging pen portrait of the colorful characters who built up the Los Angeles Public Library, the peculiar dude who maybe tried to destroy it, and the preservationists, architects and policy wonks who saved the grand old gal from demolition. And now the book has helped to solve an historic preservation mystery with the recent discovery of a piece of the library garden's missing Well of Scribes.
AND FINALLY, LINKS
Some happy news for fans of art deco dining: Traxx at Union Station is coming back!
Downey’s bedraggled Rives Mansion to be converted to office use (not the end of the world) with a coffee shop on the lawn (good grief, no!).
Unhappily surprised to see Hollywood High School has a huge mural painted on its National Register facade. There’s a place for such public art, and this is not it. It's especially troubling as we thought the buildings were safe after a digital billboard scheme was rejected as unlawful.
The Happy Foot / Sad Foot sign is safe and loved in its new home at Y-Que Trading Post. But beware the sign thieves, who are afoot in our city!
C.C. de Vere scoop: the missing Jeanne d’Arc statue that vanished from its home at the old French Hospital in Chinatown has been found. And her new address is... As for the hospital: good news there, too—but why did the statue have to go away?
The lovely and vulnerable Tokio Florist mansion, on a valuable commercial lot with deep Japanese-American horticultural roots, is up for landmarking. Perfect site for a garden restaurant!
On the roof of the King Edward Hotel, we discovered a cool piece of cutting edge infrastructure circa 1906, courtesy of owner-architect John Parkinson. Have you ever seen one of these before? It spins!
New on the RIP Los Angeles blog, the feel-bad blog this city deserves: Let’s Talk About Taix... demolition fears for House of Spirits and its astonishing neon sign... say hello, and goodbye, to the doomed 950 S. Wilton Place... the bell tolls for 1922 courtyard apartment complex 1723 N. Wilcox. Featuring bonus slumlord child-maiming horror... The face of the Ellis Act in Echo Park... 2642 Brighton: the platonic ideal of an attractive nuisance.
Before anyone had heard of “840 Fairfax, LLC,” L.A. City Council made a sweet deal for the shadowy developers behind a vast project that would demolish two rent controlled apartment buildings by the newly landmarked Tom Bergin's.
Robert Kennedy Jr. announces the death of Thane Cesar. We share his conviction that it was likely Cesar, and not Sirhan Sirhan, who murdered RFK in the Ambassador Hotel pantry. Sirhan, facing the candidate, could not have fired into the back of his head.
In soon-to-be-less-beautiful Downtown Burbank, Formosa Cafe proprietor Bobby Green announces pending demolition of the art deco storefront that's been home to Old Crow Speed Shop, and the entire neighborhood.
Do you love the endangered Alpine Village and old world culture? Then save the date for The Krampus Ball, L.A.'s weirdest holiday tradition.
In gentrifying Koreatown, it's not just renters getting forced out. Chong's Sesame Oil is a community culinary treasure desperately looking for an affordable storefront.
Stiles O. Clements-designed Pasadena AVON building up for landmark status. Could this end up as the only architecturally distinguished Home Depot in the Southland? And can the sign be saved?
Court rejects preservationists' plea to step in and halt the demolition by neglect of the Lake Norconian Club. This jazz age gem doesn’t have too many more rainy winters until she’s unsalvageable. Learn more on our podcast #12: The Maltese Falcon & A Landmark In Chains.
Illegal demolition underway, then halted, at Eva Gabor's home, a Paul R. Williams-designed mansion that is supposed to be protected while under landmark consideration.
The Earl Carroll is the rare historic Los Angeles theater that a developer has landmarked and leased to tenants who plan to reactivate it as an entertainment venue. More of this kind of thing, please!
yrs for Los Angeles,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric