The 1979 Oil Crisis was an energy crisis characterized by a huge drop in oil production for the second time in the 1970’s, the first being in 1973. In the wake of the Iranian Revolution, Iranian oil refinery employees went on strike in 1978. Iran’s oil refineries went from producing 6 million barrels per day…
In December of 1964, ground was broken on a magical “Land of Oz” playground in the San Fernando Valley. It was a joint venture between the Van Nuys Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department, and the Valley Children’s Play Park Association. The $250,000 park was supposed to recreate areas described…
A singing lark and a speeding Lark, both are creatures of the dawn. From 1941 until April 8, 1968, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company operated the Lark overnight passenger train on the 470-mile run between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Lark was train #75 (northbound) and #76 (southbound). It was the only all-room/roomette sleeping…
So much stuff is already out there about Walt Disney’s original Magic Kingdom, that I always hesitate. But this is one that I honestly don’t remember. Maybe because it didn’t last long as a “futuristic” feature at the entrance to Tomorrowland. (But most likely because I was one of those crazed kids rushing pell mell…
“Novelty,” “mimetic,” “programmatic,” “vernacular”—all are terms used to define the same crazy kind of “art imitates life” architecture that once dotted the L.A. cityscape (and much of the rest of the country, for that matter) starting in the 1920’s. You knew it when you saw it (and that was the point, of course). Puppies, chickens,…
