Gentle reader,
Once a year, around his birthday, we host a special tour honoring the great Italian American novelist and screenwriter John Fante, on a time travel trip to time capsule places he’d recognize and others that have been completely transformed by redevelopment. We’re always joined by members of the writer’s family, and serve birthday cake at the tour’s end.
Because Fante lived on and wrote about Bunker Hill several decades before redevelopment, his work paints a priceless picture of the dense, affordable, multi-ethnic mixed-use community before residents became self conscious that their time was running out.
Fante knew Bunker Hill in its pure state—and what a hill it was!
He had a special talent for listening, hungry to absorb the life stories of the odd characters who ended up living in Bunker Hill boarding houses and the cheap residency hotels down in the flats. This nice young man’s deep interest made lonely people feel important, and some of them are now immortalized in his fiction.
And he slummed like nobody else. In his breakthrough novel Ask the Dust (1939), Fante’s alter ego Arturo Bandini gets his first royalty check and takes us to the King Eddy Cellar, the sleazy speakeasy under the King Edward Hotel, where he gets drunk as a lord and surrenders body and purse to the hustlers who live off lonely men. When you read it, you feel like it’s happening to you, and the experience is both thrilling and sickening.
Incredibly, that speakeasy still exists as a dusty basement storage area, its storybook murals faded and scratched by beer kegs, the ghosts of the grasping b-girls always just out of reach. And those wild women left an astonishingly weird relic of their work under Los Angeles Street. We’d love to show that relic to you.
Join us on Saturday for a very occasional time travel trip in the footsteps of John Fante and Arturo Bandini, to discover the vibrant neighborhood that was this Colorado kid’s chosen home in California, and the landmarks he treasured enough to share with his own kids after he made it big as a script doctor in Malibu.
We’ll be joined by Fante’s daughter Vickie Fante Cohen sharing intimate family stories, the cake is strawberry cream and you can’t beat the company. All we need to make it a perfect day is YOU!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
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Our work—leading tours and historic preservation and cultural landmark advocacy—is about building a bridge between Los Angeles' past and its future, and not allowing the corrupt, greedy, inept and misguided players who hold present power to destroy the city's soul and body. If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar, 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 tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING WALKING TOURS
• John Fante’s Downtown L.A. (Sat. 4/5) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 4/12) • Elmer McCurdy’s Main Street Revival (4/15) • Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles (Sat. 4/19) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/26) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (5/3) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (5/10) • Highland Park Arroyo Time Travel Trip (5/17) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (5/24) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (5/31) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (6/7) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (6/14) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness (6/22) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip (6/28) • Film Noir / Real Noir (7/12) • The Real Black Dahlia (7/19) • Broadway (7/26)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
We published this scoop on Sunday: Gulp! The land on which beloved Greek restaurant and import market Papa Cristo's (established 1948) sits is listed for sale as a $5M development opportunity. They catered our wedding, and the thought of L.A. without this holy haven is hard to take.
After we posted about it on social media, many people asked if Papa Cristo's owns their building. It appears they do not, but the Lannie Julius Trust does, or did until recently. Lannie Julius, a noted football recruiter, died of Covid in 2021. We do not know who presently is making decisions about the real estate held in the trust.
The story has since been picked up by LAist and Eater LA, with confirmation from owner Chrys Chrys that due to rent increases, he plans to close on May 4. Also included: our suggestions for a way Papa Cristo’s could be saved by the faith community, using the new California housing development law SB4. St. Sophia across Pico has already taken note, telling Eater “that its involvement in any proposed sale is just a ‘rumor’ and cannot be ‘substantiated.’”
And Chrys Chrys himself says goodbye, but leaves the door open: "P.S. The story of Papa Cristo's doesn't end here—exciting things are coming." We sure hope so.
We had noticed that three parcels just north of Papa Cristo’s have been cleared for dense proposed redevelopment, with several Victorian rental houses demolished. But don’t get excited about moving in: turns out the land was owned by Shangri-La Construction, accused of running a Ponzi scheme with Project Homekey funds. They withdrew their previously announced modular affordable housing project, demolished the historic buildings, then defaulted on loans, leaving a huge dirt lot.
And just up the street, in a video published in January 2020, Cranky Preservationist Nathan Marsak already mourned the loss of other period houses—but the planned demolitions in the 1100 block of Normandie never happened. Now we wish he’d made a video about their pretty neighbors to the south, demolished for nothing by Ponzi punks. Too late!
Nathan Marsak was just on KCRW with Steve Chiotakis, talking about his efforts to republish Arnold Hylen's pre-redevelopment photos, and calling out LADBS for being too generous with demo permits today. "We should all feel collective shame."
Feeling blue after watching the Pacific Dining Car's demolition, we went in search of a new discovery: the Fairy Castle of Rampart Village, drawn by preservation legend Robert Miles Parker for his book L.A. (1984). So lovely, it healed our hearts, and we hope it does yours too.
Bookman James Pepper has donated a massive trove of Orson Welles-iana to the Academy Library.
Yet more crankiness: To honor our preservation pal Nathan Marsak on the occasion of the publication of his new Los Angeles Before the Freeways, we dug up this unpublished 2020 Cranky Preservationist video, a love letter to the then-perfect time capsule 900 S. Park View block in Westlake. The featured houses are just rubble now, but Nathan continues to preach the gospel of saving old L.A. with wit and fire.
The 1900 block of N. Argyle is an early Hollywood multifamily time capsule, with this sweet Spanish castle in the middle. It was the first place Bertolt Brecht lived in Los Angeles after fleeing Nazi Germany. New owner (with a record for car wash wage theft) seeks to tear it and 17 trees down for a giant TOC project. L.A. is full of vacant lots. Build there!
The Mills Act is a powerful tool enabling preservation minded property owners to care for our shared cultural heritage—but Los Angeles hit the pause button in 2020. Will it resume and will Angelenos with contracts get screwed?
reports.The Art Deco style is turning 100, and if you can't celebrate in Paris, the next best place is the Oviatt Penthouse, in the charming company of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles. There will be show and tell and fizzy libations.
Missing—have you seen me? The spectacular art deco garage gate from the Walter P. Story Building at 6th & Broadway, likely installed for Mullen & Bluett's ultramodern 1935 remodel, was shot by Marvin Rand for HABS at an unknown date. The metal scalloped frame survives. If you’ve ever visited the landmark Dutch Chocolate Shop on one of our Know Your Downtown L.A. tours, this is right across the street.
Here's to the weirdos who are stuck like glue to this crazy town. Clayton Farris's "I Could Never Leave You LA" is the yacht rock anthem we need for 2025.
Historic buildings survive fires—but then heavy equipment is called to tear them down. At the end of March, Atlantic Sales & Service / Door of Hope (1946) burned at 1414 S Atlantic, East L.A. debonair_stray passed by a day later, to find nothing but rubble. A beautiful facade, all gone.
This is weird: there are multiple public comments (many in the same unique font, others form letters) that pre-date the 3/21 motion to ban gadflies using the "n" and "c" words in L.A. City Council. Who is actually behind this coordinated City Hall censorship effort?
The 2025 Dr. Robert Winter Memorial Lecture and Reception features the Save the Tiles project. Our friend Bob would be so tickled by how his life's work celebrating Ernest Batchelder has empowered Altadenans to preserve their shared cultural heritage.
Meet Elmer McCurdy on April 15! Thanks to columnist Jo Murray at the Long Beach Press Telegram for this wonderful preview of his belated funeral procession and free Main Street walking tour—and to Al Guerrero for manifesting the mummy himself!
New from Rev. Dylan Littlefield, who will be conducting Elmer’s decades late funeral service: reflections on what this weird sideshow attraction has to teach us about the folks who find refuge at the Hotel Cecil.
Fabulous sign and a rich history: Studio City's Ringside Liquor (established 1952) was owned by pro wrestler Don "Ivan the Terrible" Lee, seen flying through the ropes in this 1950 Long Beach match.
Only a small number of the dedicated volunteers racing to save Altadena's Arts and Crafts tile heritage from the bulldozers are trained masons. Here's a glimpse of a recent wrapping party, ensuring tile quickly removed from the burn zone is neatly boxed for the owners to reclaim, when they're ready. Save the Tiles! You can join them, or just kick in a few bucks here.
Clifford Clinton's house is back on the market, after selling for $4.9M in 2023. New owner Halsey soon was caught doing unpermitted work, always a danger in a city with no policy of schooling people who buy protected landmarks.
Solved! The missing HOTEL CALIFORNIAN neon sign, which should be on a Westlake rooftop, is being used to stage Diane Keaton's $28M Sullivan Canyon compound. Our taxes paid to save it—give it back to the City art collection! We will see the restored sign, and talk about how it was reinstalled on a new building in the original location, on our Charles Bukowski tour on May 10.
First time on the market since 1998: Wallace Neff's modernist marvel Airform bubble house. Yes, it's basically an upside down swimming pool, but we dig it.
Settlement discussions with Elizabeth Greenwood, the Deputy City Attorney who claims she contracted typhus while working in City Hall East. Rats poured into city buildings in 2018 after confessed racketeer Jose Huizar caused Parker Center to be demolished for no reason.
Delayed by the fires, Mount Saint Mary's has finally announced the 2025 Doheny Mansion tours for 2025. Access to the gated Chester Place historic district is restricted, so this is a rare chance to see some terrific houses and old plantings.
When Bertolt Brecht came to Los Angeles his first stop was this charming Spanish castle apartment house at 1954 N. Argyle. A developer wants to knock it down for an ugly filing cabinet, displacing tenants & wrecking a time capsule block. Build on vacant lots; save old Hollywood!
Charming 1909 Craftsman bungalow with fruit trees at 130 N. Carondelet sold as a teardown for $975K, demolished by Irvine developers for towering "duplex." Then the construction framing set neighboring homes on fire. When Los Angeles City Planning rubber stamps new "duplexes" taller than anything around them, whole blocks are at the mercy of arsonists during construction. A brave neighbor saved lives just after midnight.
Pathological: three multifamily buildings (1904-05) with 12 rent stabilized units emptied via the Ellis Act in 2019, now marketed for conversion to 22 micro units with 18 more in back. Why not demolished? They're inside the HPOZ. It's a housing use / speculation crisis.
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