A Solstice Cup of Cheer filled with a gift certificate sale, March crime lab announcement and a lifeline to save LACMA
Gentle reader...
In the quiet lull before the holidays, here's a little note to say we're wishing you a sweet and peaceful season in good company, good health and good spirits. We are so grateful to be able to share our love of Los Angeles history and landmarks with you interesting people, and look forward to seeing many of you on tours and at talks in the new year.
Should the approaching celebrations have you fretting over what to get that difficult somebody on your list, remember that our gift certificates are still on sale through Christmas Eve, and the Esotouric elves can email them to you right up until the fat fellow wriggles down the chimney. Or be a little impulsive, and book us for a private holiday tour. We still have some slots available for Downtown walking tours or for larger groups to explore wider L.A. on a coach class bus.
Delighted to announce that the astonishing The Dutch Chocolate Shop, which was struck off our tour stop list for The Lowdown on Downtown due to uncertainty over access since its recent sale listing, will be opened up for us on January 18 after all! So with the Roebling Wire Works offices, you'll now have a chance to explore two seldom-seen Ernest Batchelder tile installations on the tour, a rare opportunity not to be missed.
Our newest forensic science seminar was just announced and it's going to a be a wild one. Save the date (March 8) for The Blonde Rattlesnake, The Black Dahlia & The Future of Forensic Science with true crime author Julia Bricklin and the incomparable Dr. David Raymond. For more information or to book your ticket, click here.
And new true crime tours have been posted into early April, including Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (3/14), Mansonland (3/21) and Blood & Dumplings (4/4).
WANT TO 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. Or you can join us for a tour... & tell your friends.
AND WHAT'S THE NEXT TOUR? We always start the year with our flagship true crime tour The Real Black Dahlia, traveling in the footsteps of the mysterious Beth Short around the anniversary of her kidnapping and unsolved murder. There are just a handful of tickets left. Join us, do!
UPCOMING TOURS & SPECIAL EVENTS
THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 1/4... 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. (Buy tickets here.)
FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 1/5... 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. Detective Story: The Hillside Strangler takes us deep inside a major serial killer investigation with Retired Sergeant Frank Salerno, who worked the case. Your ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (Sold out with waiting list. More info here.)
THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 1/18... 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 by public agencies and private developers. Features a visit to the Roebling Wire Works office and a stop at the Dutch Chocolate Shop, two Batchelder tile landmarks not usually open to the public. (Buy tickets here.)
SOUTH L.A. ROAD TRIP: HOT RODS, ADOBES, GOOGIE & AEROSPACE - SAT. 1/25... Back from hiatus with some new locations, this California Culture series tour rolls through Maywood, Bell Gardens and Downey, and the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s most seldom-seen and compelling structures. Turning the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head, we visit areas not traditionally considered significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse, hot rod kar kulture and the evolution of the city. (Buy tickets here.)
SPECIAL EVENT: THE VISIONARY WORLD OF MILLARD SHEETS: LANDMARKS & LORE OF CLAREMONT AND POMONA - SUN. 1/26... More than any other artist, Millard Sheets shaped the look and feel of Mid-Century Modern art and architecture in California. Join Adam Arenson (author of Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California) for a thrilling full day out (including a buffet lunch) exploring a wide variety of Sheets Studio commissions, and other Mid-Century Modernist gems, in and around the community the artist called home. (Buy tickets here.)
FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 3/8... 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 Blonde Rattlesnake, The Black Dahlia & The Future of Forensic Science is a mix of historic storytelling and cutting edge lab innovations, with true crime author Julia Bricklin and Dr. David Raymond, with a cameo from our own Real Black Dahlia tour host, Kim Cooper. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: The Birth of Noir (2/1)... Boyle Heights & Monterey Park (2/15)... Raymond Chandler’s L.A. (2/22), Route 66 Road Trip (2/29), Wilshire Boulevard Death Trip (3/14), Mansonland (3/21) and Blood & Dumplings (4/4).
MORE THAN SATURDAY AFTERNOON TOURS We offer private versions of most of our tours (up to 54 people), and Downtown L.A. walking tours for smaller groups. Does your L.A.-area library, club or historical society host guest speakers? Ask them to book us.
The Real Black Dahlia (1/4)
$64.00
The Lowdown on Downtown (1/18)
$64.00
Special Event: The Visionary World of Millard Sheets (1/26)
$105.00
Holiday Sale Gift Certificate (set of 3)
$150.00
AND FINALLY, LINKS
New on the Esotouric blog: Explore the original Bob Baker Marionette Theater in 3-D.
Recommended Reading: Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los Angeles, featured presentation at the March 8 forensic science seminar. Find more L.A. book recommendations.
In LACMA News: Beck goes home again, finds his old neighborhood and beloved museum boarded up and waiting for the bulldozer. The Bing is memorialized. At City Hall, architect and preservationist Barton Phelps tells LACMA director Michael Govan all the reasons Zumthor's building is a flop. Unlike elitist LACMA, the Natural History Museum asks Angelenos what they want in a Tar Pits upgrade. And the Save LACMA nonprofit (we're on the board) announces its intention to file a ballot measure to hold the museum accountable to the community. You can help.
Dion Neutra, architect and preservationist and chronicler of the cool old creative Los Angeles has died. We were so surprised and grateful when he joined us for a LAVA walking tour of his father's Hall of Records.
New life for the recently shuttered Music Hall Theatre as three ex-Laemmle employees launch Lumiere Cinema to continue the tradition of independent film on the silver screen.
With its flagship Fairfax location threatened by redevelopment, old school Italian cafeteria Andre's, a favorite of L.A. preservationists, expanded to Canoga Park. Business has been slow, so they sent an SOS.
New on RIP Los Angeles: a charming row of five 99-year-old flats developed by the Vista Theatre's builders, feared doomed for a sneaky holiday season upzoning by City Council's PLUM Committee.
Days before we visited the no-longer-in-peril Pereira-designed Hunt Library on Richard's birthday tour, Fullerton puts out a call for a new tenant. Hoping that Norton Simon's gift becomes a new O.C. cultural hub.
Celebrating Ramiro Ramirez Pinedo and his fifty years of keeping the Huntington Gardens looking effortlessly lovely.
Eva Gabor's ruined Paul R. Williams house makes it painfully clear that Los Angeles’ historic preservation ordinance is toothless. Shame on City Hall for doing nothing to protect our architectural treasures from scofflaw owners like Philip Rahimzadeh.
A deep dive into the work of one of L.A.'s most misunderstood social justice warriors, Michael Weinstein, with a spotlight on adapting architecturally significant SROs into affordable housing.
Beloved San Fernando Valley diner and watering hole Corky's shutters, with a landmark nomination waiting in the wings. We're not too worried about demolition, but sad to see a small business evicted.
The Tom Bergin's development project seeks to demolish 40 rent stabilized apartments. Where are these longtime Angelenos supposed to go?
Development threatens XOTX Tropico Nursery, a magical oasis in the Fairfax district.
Good news for fans of the historic 1915 Ridge Route: volunteers will soon have keys to the gates that secure the road, so a survey, preservation work and public visits can begin.
Scott Timberg (RIP) was a wonderful chronicler of Los Angeles culture and creativity. In June 2007, when Esotouric was all of a month old, he wrote this lovely piece about our John Fante tour. It was a memorable day wandering around Downtown with a good listener, and he helped us see what we could be in this town.
Dorset Village should be landmarked, not destroyed to make a Florida billionaire a bit richer.
Southern California has lost one of its most passionate historians and storytellers, and the history nerds' Xmas party will be sad this year. Farewell, Phil Brigandi. May your questing spirit march peacefully in the footsteps of the Portolá Expedition forever.
Gentrification Is pushing Dogtown’s oldest skate shop elsewhere. (And while the business owner opposes landmarking because he fears angering the landlord, the decision isn't theirs to make. Cultural heritage is more important than business ties.)
A wonderful memorial website for our UC Santa Cruz professor Jasper Rose, who knew we were soulmates when we loathed each other. The end of this lecture on the Pre-Raphaelites is Jasper in a nutshell, and the philosophy in which we approach public history and activism today.
After decades of neglect from the state, Malibu's magnificent Adamson House needs an estimated $3 Million in repairs. So take a tour!
The Cinefamily folks, having crashed and burned their nonprofit, announced a high profile shift to for-profit programming at the Silent Movie Theater. It didn’t go as planned.
yrs for Los Angeles,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric