Happy (almost) Hallowe'en

Gentle reader,

This is just a brief note to remind you that this weekend includes two opportunities to partake in uncanny communal cheer à la Esotouric.

On Saturday, it’s our flagship Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour, a history-centered take on the most notorious unsolved murder in Los Angeles history.

Instead of diving into the recent, well publicized theories of who might have killed Beth Short, we instead tackle the case through the eyes and worn shoe leather of the dogged detectives and reporters who sought to solve the crime and tell the victim’s story in 1947. In this way, a lost world is revealed to us, and all the players start to feel like people that we know, and who we care about. Our special guest host is Joan “Red” Renner, whose Deranged L.A. Crimes blog is packed with freaky tales. The bus is filling up, but we still some seats left, so join us, do!

And for the Hallowe’en season we’ve added a rare Sunday stroll through Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights, to visit monuments that honor some colorful and strange characters from early Los Angeles through the present, and to trace the fascinating history of our largest and most welcoming urban graveyard. From cult leaders to bold aviators, assassins to cat whisperers, this tour brings the city’s ghosts into focus, while revealing lost landscapes and innovative mortuary methods.

In our outings to check in on historic buildings in peril, we’ve seen a lot of terrific Hallowe’en decorations this year, including this charming tableau in the Hollywood Dell of eternal love howling at the moon.

And this East Los Angeles lawn with its giddy blend of ghoulish and clownish horror conventions. (Do you think these creatures live inside the bungalow the rest of the year?)

But of all the decorated properties we’ve seen, the one that truly touched our hearts was this temporary graveyard installed on the lawn of the historic Evergreen Hostel, just up the street from the real cemetery where we’ll be leading Sunday’s tour.

This Mission Revival former boarding school was where single members of L.A.’s Japanese-American community found their footing in the aftermath of Executive Order 9066 and wartime internment. It was a neglected SRO hotel for a long time, then vacant for years and subject to a renovation that dragged on interminably. So to see it all cleaned up and cared for, now home to students who might otherwise be homeless, makes us very happy.

Because this terrible scene above was how around Hallowe’en 2019, when the person who slept in a hovel pressed between the alley dumpster and the chain link fence next to the gutted hostel decorated a pile of trash for the season. We stopped to document their grim message then, and wished hard that this huge, useful building could again be affordable housing for those in need.

And it is!

Here’s hoping your Hallowe’en is sweet, and that all the ghosts you encounter are friendly ones.

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

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Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.

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UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS

• The Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 10/28) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 Walking Tour (Sun. 10/29) • The Run: Gay Downtown History Walking Tour (Sat. 11/4) • Downtown L.A. is for Book Lovers Walking Tour (Sat. 11/11) • Special Event: Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles Bus Tour (11/18) • Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Walking Tour (Sat. 11/25) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop Walking Tour (Sat. 12/2) • Highland Park Arroyo Walking Tour (Sat. 12/9) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness Walking Tour (Sun. 12/17) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Walking Tour (Tues. 12/26)