Angelenos will often tell you that that Halloween brings the hot, gusty Santa Ana winds. Whistling and powerful, they blow trick-or-treating witches and goblins down the streets, send ghost costumes madly flying, and raise the hair on your head, crackling with electricity. The air even smells charged and different. Branches, leaves and other untethered objects…
Back in the 1880’s, West Coast citrus growers began to seriously compete with each other for both local markets and East Coast distribution. With the development of the trans-Continental rail network, farmers were able to ship fruits (and veggies, once refrigerated rail cars were invented) in wooden crates clear across the country. So, how could…
It was California’s first, as well as the fourth in the entire USA. The Pico Drive-in theater . . . seen in the photo below . . . opened on September 9, 1934, at 10850 Pico Boulevard and Westwood Blvd. It was demolished in 1943. Today, the Westside Pavilion Mall near UCLA occupies the original…
It was a veritable juggernaut—the number and variety of roadside novelty (“vernacular,” “programmatic,” or “mimetic”) buildings that once dotted the urban landscape in Los Angeles. Like the examples featured in an related earlier post, these “hey-you-can’t miss-me!” buildings were made to pull automobile drivers right off the road—to eat, shop, or stay the night. Quirky,…
I once worked in El Segundo, a small city bordered to the north by Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and to the west by remnants of the demolished Playa Del Rey/Surfridge neighborhood, perched on the cliffs above Vista Del Mar (Pacific Coast Highway, aka PCH). Sometimes on my lunch hour, I would make the short…
