Sunday Reading: Jacarandas, POLA, Reagan vs. Berkeley, and Coyotes

Love 'em or hate 'em? Jacaranda Trees are enchanting and messy, and Julia Weck goes into great depth on them in this LAist article.

I knew that one 19th century gardener in San Diego had been responsible for planting hundreds of the trees, but I did not know there were 49 species, that there were 148,530 in 2010 (oh, come on! Someone counted them?) and that no two trees flower on exactly the same schedule.

Weck goes through the entire history of jacarandas in Southern California. Read this and astound your friends the next time someone starts whining about "those damn purple flowers" that stick to your car. You will be a fountain of knowledge about jacarandas. The only thing that Weck fails to mention is the fact that the seed pods make great pretend hand grenades for 10-year-olds. Trust me on that.

The Port of Los Angeles is in the Smithsonian. Yup, my favorite magazine wants to know if we can really meet our goal of having a zero-emission freight service by 2050. Did you know that POLA has decreased particulate emissions by 83% since 2005? The article lists the ways we accomplished that, then goes into future plans. We are pretty impressive.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's rise to power as California's governor, since it was 50 years ago on June 7th that he clinched the Republican nomination for that office. He went on to defeat Pat Brown, the father of Jerry Brown. Those were turbulent times.

The UC Berkeley News published a retrospective back in 2004, on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's death. It is interesting to read, even now, 12 years later. The article looked at Reagan and how he targeted that University and its student protesters to present himself as the defender of law and order. This was the very beginning of student demonstrations against the Viet Nam War, and those actions horrified most folks back then. Demonstrate against our own government? Were those kids crazy?

Those were emotional times, too, with right and left as polarized as they are today--though along different lines. Reading about it with an added 40 years of perspective was enlightening.

Tracking coyotes through the number of sightings in city neighborhoods. You'd think there would be a database somewhere, right? Depends. I think the city of Claremont was doing that a dozen years ago, but Los Angeles and the South Bay are just now getting on the bandwagon. In this Daily Breeze article, one expert scolds, "This needed to be done five years ago, not now."

According to the Breeze, no one knows how big the coyote population was in 2000, or 2008, or now. There's no data, just dozens of sightings. We didn't even keep records on coyote attacks on humans till 2011.

I live next to a canyon, where the first lone coyote was spotted over a year ago. Predictably (in retrospect), he invited his friends and now we have families of coyotes prowling our parking lots at night. Cats have gone missing. Those of us with dogs thing twice before walking them after dark.

The article is mostly based on information from one expert, Niamh Quinn. Coyote behavior, city responses (or lack thereof) and what we can expect in future are topics covered.

However, LACurbed points to a map from KCET showing that someone HAS been keeping track of coyote reports. KCET's map is from the Urban Wildlands Group, color-coded by year. I clicked on some dots that went back to 2003. There are NO sightings listed in Torrance, only a few in San Pedro, so I have to assume the data is rather randomly collected, or favors certain areas (the north) over others. And, when I went to Urban Wildland's website, the latest news on the home page was dated 2015. (Did not see a date on the KCET story).

KCET also has a 10 minute video about what is being done to track coyote in Los Angeles. And surprise! The first thing we learn is that we don't know very much about urban coyotes.

Mosaics on Broadway!

Ta da! She's out of San Pedro! Well, virtually, anyway.

This picture is from the Piece by Piece Facebook page, and I hope they don't mind me displaying it. It shows the beautiful mosaic wall at Broadway Village II, 5101 South Broadway in Los Angeles. Title: Broadway Blooming. The 40-foot-wide mosaic was built by the community in 2015. as you can see in this picture from the Piece by Piece website:

Financial support came from the California Arts Council and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. That funded local workshops so that over last summer, residents could come together to create the mural--making flowers bloom on mesh during Open Studio Fridays.

Artists both experienced and un used recycled tiles and materials for the blossoms, But that's not all--there were workshops on Skid Row and other locations, and artists from around the world assembled and mailed more mosaic flowers for the wall, including Chris Piloto and his band of street children in Rio de Janeiro.

500 flowers. Those were mounted on the garden wall as you can see here.

Piece by Piece has been working with Broadway Village II since 2008 on many projects, and this wall, completed last October is just one of them. From their website and press releases:

Piece by Piece is a non-profit organization operating in South Los Angeles and Skid Row to fulfill its mission to provide low-income and formerly homeless people free mosaic art workshops using recycled materials to develop marketable skills, self-confidence, earned income and an improved quality of life. 

You can view and buy smaller art pieces by the mosaic artists of Piece by Piece here.  They've also opened their own gallery space at Mercado La Paloma, at 3655 E. Grand.

Los Angeles' Colorful History: Movies, Zoot Suits, Dam Collapse, Concrete Beauty

I've come across such nifty things lately.

On February 25th, Zocalo Public Square and Metro Art screen The Third Man, Orson Welles' 1949 noir film, at the Historic Ticketing Hall at Union Station. That's right, movie night at Union Station! I've looked all over the announcement, and I'm pretty sure the event is free, though they ask for RSVPs.

Did you know that LACMA has scored a genuine Zoot Suit? For reals? Not an electric blue movie imitation, or a neon yellow snappy ensemble with a feathered hat. No, this Zoot Suit has stripes and the color is actually rather tame: beige. Beige does not fly in the face of authority, you might think, but when you see the cut, the miles of extra baggy material, you will be convinced. Beige makes a killer Zoot Suit.

The story of how LACMA acquired the suit, which will be part of its Reigning Men exhibit (300 years of men's fashion) starting April 10, is told with pictures, and I can't wait to see the real thing.

If you love L.A.'s history, you probably know all about the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, right? It killed over 400 people and destroyed William Mulholland, who'd built the dam. And if you don't know about it or want to learn more, you can take advantage of a couple of programs:

• First, the free one: on February 27 at 2 PM, the Old Town Newhall Library hosts a talk with John Wilkman, who's written a book titled Floodpath about the St. Francis Dam collapse. Wilkman is a documentarian as well, and you can watch his 4-minute video describing the catastrophe here.

• How about a talk and a TOUR? The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society offers that on March 12: a lecture and a guided tour of the dam site. It starts with a talk at the Saugus Train Station in Heritage Junction at 11 AM, followed by a bus trip and hike in San Francisquito Canyon. The cost is $35. This is an annual event, and March 12 is the 88th anniversary of the disaster that sent a 180-foot wall of water into the Santa Clarita Valley, sweeping away everything in its path.

LACMA is also in the news for being gifted with an amazing house, the John Lautner-designed Sheats-Goldstein home, recognizable as the not-very-humble abode of Jackie Treehorn in The Great Lebowski.  Read about it in Christopher Hawthorne's article for the Los Angeles Times, which has links to more photos (big, beautiful photos!) of John Lautner's work.

You can also enjoy this 2013 Forbes article on the place, written by the friend-of-all-writers (through  his site UPOD), David Hochman. (If you write articles, you should know the man and UPOD; trust me.)

Or . . . . visit the CurbedLA page on the house, for more facts, pictures, and an interview with James Goldstein, who has owned the house since 1972 and is now donating it to LACMA.

Photographing Disneyland for 40 Years

Whilin' away the holiday weekend? Here's some fun, nostalgic pictures to pass the time.

Technically, Disneyland is not in Los Angeles. But I don't care; it's only as far as Anaheim. Angelenos go there regularly and love it as if it were our own home town.

Renie Bardeau was at Disneyland for 40 years, taking beautiful shots of the park's rides, fireworks, and scenery, as well as of celebrity guests who posed with Mickey and Minnie. There are photos of Walt Disney as well, including one that I read is truly iconic: a black and white image of Sleeping Beauty's castle in the early hours before Disneyland opens for the day, its pathways slick with water. Right in the middle is Walt Disney, hands in pockets, taking a stroll through his quiet domain. It's titled "Footsteps" and you can see it here.

And for your visual enjoyment, a hundred of Bardeau's photos are gathered together in a slide show presented by the Orange County Register. Enjoy!

Bardeau was a college student when he first started working for Disneyland in the late 50s. This photo of VP Richard Nixon and his family in a Monorail is an early one in his career. That's Art Linkletter, up there in the bubble top ready to play pilot, as Walt Disney himself poses outside. The occasion--and Bardeau's first big assignment--was the dedication of the Disneyland Monorail System.

I will understand if you want to go straight to Annette's picture--she's number 55. You'll also find photos of Michael Jackson, Jim Carrey, Nat King Cole and other celebs, athletes from Joe DiMaggio to Kobe Bryant, presidents and heads of state, performers like Artie Shaw in concert, and much more. Then there are the shots of the park itself, of rides in motion, flowers surrounding the castle,fireworks exploding, and the attractions that have never changed as well as some that have disappeared.

Bardeau, btw, started with a summer job and became a staff photographer, enjoying a warm relationship with Walt Disney himself. For the last 23 years before he retired in 1998, he was chief photographer. As the OC Register says, he has some stories. He now lives in Arizona.

A Collection of Articles on LA History

My poor, neglected blog . . .

I'm afraid things aren't going to get much more active here, at least until 2015--unless guest bloggers wish to volunteer.

Prospective guest bloggers: I will absolutely upload Los Angeles history-related posts and pictures that are appropriate. If you'd like to contribute, start the ball rolling with a comment, or go to my website, VickeyKall.com, and use the contact form there.

Otherwise, I am gainfully busy, promoting The Boomer Book of Christmas Memories, available as an ebook and soon--any day now--in print at a new price of $25, an incredible savings! (That's how fast technology moves now--last year, my price as author was $28--now, with a new color printing method, the list price is only $25!)

It makes a great Christmas gift, and my website lists the places where I'll be talking about it. I'm also working on a new book for the new year, so this blog is sitting fallow.

But please allow me to list some of the wonderful stories about Los Angeles History that people have sent me lately. Just because I don't have time to write about them doesn't mean you can't enjoy reading these articles:

• From CurbedLA, a long, detailed, picture-laden story about Batchelder tiles and The Chocolate Factory on 6th Street between Broadway and Spring. This piece was posted last sumner and is written by Liz Arnold.

• From LA Observed, an article  by Karen Wada (also with pictures) about a Millard Sheets mural that has been moved from a private home in the Hollywood Hills to the Huntington. Taken down and put on big rollers, because the mural was done on a woven fabric called Sanitas. In future, it will ornament a new boardroom at the Huntington's Visitors Center.

• Also on LA Observed: Cute pictures and video of a model of the legendary Garden of Allah apartments. This and the Batchelder tile article were sent by Flo Selfman--Thanks!

• Missing Mosaic Monday? (Me too). Here's a link to the Adamson House and Malibu Lagoon Museum in Malibu, thanks to Lee Gale Gruen who has posted here before. 

• Do you listen to You Can't Eat the Sunshine, the podcast of Esotouric Tours? Just glance at the list of subjects on the left--Felix the Cat in Hollywood? How could you not want to listen to that?

That's it for now, boys and girls. Let me know if you'd like to do a guest stint here, and I'll try to post more interesting things to read every once in a while!

Sea Life Embedded in Long Beach Sidewalks

One of these days, I will realize that I should never ever leave my camera at home.

Ever.

Even while serving jury duty.

I walked around downtown Long Beach at lunch time (potential jurors get very long lunches) and found wonderful mosaics in the sidewalk along 1st Street between Long Beach Blvd. and Pacific, and along Long Beach Blvd. between Ocean and 3rd Street. The stretch along Long Beach Blvd. is the Transit Mall, from what I understand.

And maybe there's more . . . I didn't walk every block downtown by any means.

I saw crabs, jelly fish, snails, barnacles (right), anemones, and all sorts of sea creatures--and some land creatures too, like gulls.

Looking for information on the mosaics, I found this explanation of how they were made, along with the artist's name, at LandscapeOnline.com:

Shoreline-themed mosaic art by Robin Brailsford showcases coastal plants and animals. The sidewalk mosaic designs are keyed to the lettered bus shelters, e.g., the barnacle at Shelter B, and the crab at Shelter C. Brailsford, along with Lee and Ron Shaw, is a co-inventor of “LithoMosaic.” Her artistic tiles are white-glued to paper, then set on hardibacker board with thinset. The art is then set by the mason into a monolithic concrete pour à la Lithocrete technique.

Artist Robin Brailsford invented and patented the LithoMosaic process, by the way.Her website shows pictures of an installation in San Diego. (other options at the website don't seem to be working, though...)

Since I didn't have my camera, I'm using LandscapeOnline's pictures--I hope they don't mind. I suspect their pictures may actually have come from the city of Long Beach or whatever PR firm is used by them. Because these pictures look exceptionally professional., don't they?

Some of the money to fund this came from the Long Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, a function now taken over by the city itself. The rest came from cooperative efforts between the city's Public Works Dept., the Metropolitan Transit Authority (a lot of this art is at the southern terminus of the Blue Line), and federal funding through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

The project that brought us the mosaics also created new shelters and bus stops,like the one at left.

The article at Landscape Online discusses some of the particular challenges of the Transit Gallery project, like basement areas, lighting, and uneven curb heights and sidewalk slopes. 

The mosaics are actually coded to match the letter of each shelter/stop--so, anemones at Shelter A, the Barnacle at Shelter B, and Crabs at Shelter C.

There are eight canopied shelters, built by Birdair, but I'm not sure how many have mosaics.

This Facebook photo page is the motherlode of pictures showing the construction and artwork along the sidewalks.  It's called "Ah, ha! Shoreline Stroll." It shows that the mosaics include lizards, pelicans, and bees.

Bees!

Giant bees! If you're squeamish, these will give you nightmares.

More pictures--really beautiful shots that show the mosaics in the concrete--are here at Shaw & Sons Concrete website, who collaborated with Brailsford on the project.

Brailsford is now working on the Irwindale Station of the Gold Line--you can see an video of her talking about the history of that community here, on YouTube. Her artwork will be both built into the pavement, and set into a trellis overhead.

CBS Studio Center

So, Studio City . . . besides mosaics, what else you got?

Duh. The name is Studio City. So here are some pictures of CBS Studio Center.

This is part of New York Street. Every studio has a NY Street, right? But I am assured by someone who knows--well, actually, someone who knows someone who met someone who knows--that one of these two fire escapes was in the final scene of Pretty Woman. Yup, one of these two is is the one Richard Gere climbed up to get to Julia Roberts.

I'm told.

CBS Studio Center, btw, was founded in 1928 by Mack Sennett of Keystone Kops fame. He'd been making movies for 15 years and needed a bigger studio, so he bought this former lettuce ranch bounded by the LA River.

Sadly, Sennett declared bankruptcy during the Depression and other companies rented, then bought the studio complex--an outfit made up of about five different film companies, which collectively called itself Republic Pictures.

The picture to the left is there simply because I like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I have no idea what the big LIPS were used for at the CBS Studio Center.

Republic Pictures made lots and lots of Westerns, then they wound down in the late 1950s and the studios became rental property again.

In 1962, CBS was looking for a studio lot on which to film about four hours a day of local programming. They rented the center for five years and put a CBS sign up, then in 1967 they bought the place outright.

One TV show filmed there (among many dozens, maybe hundreds) was Gilligan's Island, and this is the Gilligan's Island lagoon. It was built in 1964, after filming a couple of episodes of the series at Malibu and Zuma beach proved problematic, because of fog.

According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, the lagoon was paved over in 1995--thirty years after the series. Bob Denver recalled that they couldn't shoot in the lagoon until after 9 am, because of the noise of rush hour traffic from the nearby freeway. The huts and other parts f the island were constructed on sound stages.

You cannot tour CBS Studio Center outright, the way you can some other studios. You might get in as an audience member, if you want to see The Talk or a few other shows filmed. You might also be lucky enough to be invited as a guest to a wedding or luncheon or meeting there. Carla's Cafe, the on-site commissary and caterer, does special events and has fabulous food so you'll be lucky on two counts.

Back to Studio City and Chase Bank Mosaics

The San Fernando Valley has its share of former Home Savings and Loan buildings, most of them now Chase Banks. And this one, in Studio City at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura Blvd., designed by Millard Sheets, selects particular images leading to the city's existance: a Franciscan preaches to California's original inhabitants, Vaqueros work the ranches in the area, the Gold Rush brings Americans and statehood, and the movie industry gives the city its name.

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CBS, once Max Sennett Studios, is only a few blocks away, after all. It was established in 1928, when Sennett was already a major producer and Chaplin a megastar. Sennett went bk in the Depression, and the place became Republic Studios. . .I'm digressing, I know. The point is, when this bank was erected in 1970, the nearby studio would  have been Mary Tyler Moore Studios.

Technically, I've blogged about this branch before--but it's been two years, and this is a new pictures that I took myself.

Along with the second photo, a mosaic marker, again a couple of blocks away but in the other direction, on Ventura Place. I believe this marker was put up in 2012 by the Studio City Beautification Committee, which also landscaped the triangle of ground around it.

As you can see on their website, the SCBC is also working to improve several parks, establish pocket parks, beautify the L.A. River bank that cuts through the town, plant trees, and all sorts of stuff--all with money raised themselves.

My Poor, Neglected Blog...

Running down stories and events about Los Angeles history used to be a nice respite from other activities--but lately, I've been planted in front of the computer doing research all day, so more research no longer qualifies as a break.

Instead, today my break was a walk at Peck Park with the dog, where I listened to a few lonely crows (at least, they sounded lonely), took pictures of lizards that didn't turn out, and one of the port that did.

I can, however, point to some new accomplishments:

• Best review ever (well, the sort I dream of) from the Historical Novel Society for my novel, Death Speaker

• A new Chicken Soup book with one of my stories, coming out May 21: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for Writers: 101 Motivational Stories for Writers - Budding or Bestselling - from Books to Blogs

• Entering the design / layout / feverishly-rewrite-and-fill-in-gaps phase of my new book, The Boomers Book of Christmas Memories. That is what's keeping me glued to the internet, running down facts and dates and looking for pictures. 

The release date for the Boomer Book will be in September. And if anyone has a pictures of their bicycle from the 1950s or 1960s--with or without you in it, as long as the pictures is yours to control--I will give you a free book if you let me use it (with thanks and attribution, of course!)

If you're interested in Boomer trivia, check out my newish blog at Boomer Book of Christmas.

Parking Garage Mosaics, DPSS

The three mosaic panels on the parking garage of the Department of Public Social Services Building at 813 E. 4th Place represents a community effort. Daniel Dodd, the designer, chief mosaicist, and  the director of Art Share LA (a gallery and artistic space right across the street), worked with students from Roosevelt High School and other volunteers in the area. They created the first mural, shown at left, in 2002.

All these pictures come from the LA County Arts website. So did the following description: 

"Their first mural depicts the City’s diversity by setting the skyline of Los Angeles above an image of the globe which is crisscrossed by LA’s freeways.  Below the globe are the faces of four children, all of different ethnicities."

The second mosaic  is inspired by a Buddhist mandala. The third--below--looks like an Aztec calendar. Both the second and third artworks are nine feet across.

The same group is working on a fourth mosaic based on Japanese designs.

Art Share LA donates time and expertise, and the high school students get involved by studying the design concepts and making choices about how the mosaic will be made and what materials will be used--and Art Share LA donates those as well.

Other examples of Dodd's artwork are the mosaic tile palm trees and other figures on the pillars supporting the pedestrian overpass over Long Beach Blvd. at 53rd Street.

All of the above is just a regurgitation of the data presented on the LA County Art page, but I cannot find out more! Daniel Dodd seems to be the only artist around who does not have his own web page . . or facebook page . . .(actually, there are dozens of Daniel Dodds on FB, but none in California), and there are no mentions of him in the Los Angeles Times.

So this is all I got, but at least it is posted while there are still 40 minutes left on Mosaic Monday!