As darkness falls over Los Angeles, join us at 8pm in the neon glow

Gentle reader,

Greetings from your friendly historic Los Angeles sightseeing tour company, now offering digital programming until we can again organize groups to gather and explore the city we love.

It’s time for another immersive Los Angeles history webinar, airing live at 8pm tonight, then available as a recording on-demand.

We hope you’ll join us for Los Angeles: City of Neon Light. One of the topics will be the recent discovery of a massive Adohr Milk Farms neon display sign, hiding in plain sight on a busy Pasadena boulevard, under a nondescript building remodel. The sign’s sudden appearance inspired elation, and some of what we believe was misplaced political criticism, and then vanished from view once again.

Some reasonably feared the beautiful sign would never be seen again. But it’s actually been undergoing restoration by Paul Greenstein, one of our webinar guests, and he’ll share the story of how he’s bringing this time traveler into the 21st century with an inventive new twist.

Also joining us are Dydia DeLyser (with Paul Greenstein the author of Neon, A Light History), J. Eric Lynxwiler (author of Signs of Life: Los Angeles Is the City of Neon) and Nathan Marsak (author of Los Angeles Neon). Tune in and ask these passionate neon lovers all your burning questions about the art, history and preservation of old signs.

But we know how have fun in the daylight, too. Yesterday, we had the pleasure of joining our friend John Bengtson for an afternoon ceremony in the heart of Hollywood to dedicate the silent film shooting location that he rediscovered and has championed for years as CHAPLIN - KEATON - LLOYD ALLEY.

We captured the scene in photos and a snippet of video, which you can find on our Facebook page. And organizers Hollywood Heritage streamed the ceremony on Facebook, too.

The giants of early film all used this versatile space to tell complex and moving stories that still astonish and delight. We can’t wait to bring our first Esotouric tour group to explore the alley with the man who realized it needed a name, and didn’t rest until it got one. Until then you can take a virtual tour with John’s on-demand Esotouric webinar, highlighting Westlake silent cinema locations then and now.

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

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In the latest subscriber's edition of this newsletter—$10/month, cheap!—Visiting time capsule mansions of Redlands, in the footsteps of Leo Politi—a beautiful book inspires an architectural treasure hunt, and brings one of our favorite Southern California artists into view.