We have to wait until the summer of 2028 for Los Angeles to host the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, but when we do, we will join Paris and London as only the third city to host the Summer Games three…
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835 and immigrated to the United States in 1848. Landing in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, 13-year-old Andrew Carnegie started working as a bobbin boy…
Ready for the holidays? Hungry?Wherever there are festivities, there will be food. In all cultures, eating and feasting is part of a proper celebration for any occasion. With the December holidays in…
For someone who only spent about 25 years in Los Angeles, Edwin Cawston made a lasting impression on the cultural history of our great city and he did so through, of all things, a farm. Dubbed by the…
November is Native American Heritage Month. The land that now constitutes California once housed the most diverse population of indigenous people in the Western hemisphere, with 150 different Native…
Southern Californians have panache. From the clothes they wear to the dishes they cook to the homes they make, they create their own style—often a mixture of tradition and innovation—and show it…
National Latino Heritage Month is a month dedicated to highlighting the culture and contributions of Americans whose origins can be traced to Mexico plus Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and other…
Once upon a time in Hollywoodland, 80 years ago today, The Wizard of Oz had its Hollywood Premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The Wizard of Oz lobby card, [1939] On August 15, 1939, the blockbuster…
1969 was a tumultuous year. The US Apollo 11 mission brought men to the moon, and the Beatles gave their final live performance. Richard Nixon was sworn in as President, the war raged on in Vietnam…
The Los Angeles basin cannot escape the fact that its climate tends to extremes, particularly of the hot variety. Global warming and galloping urbanization have exacerbated the situation Temperatures…
Before Mickey and his Magic Kingdom, there was Billie the Alligator and his reptilian pals at the California Alligator Farm. Opened in 1907 and conveniently located opposite Lincoln Park, the farm…
Independence Day aka the Fourth of July commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen (American)…
We have written before about Herman Schultheis, the German-born photographer and jack of all film-related trades. With his wife, Ethel, Herman arrived in Los Angeles in 1937 with high hopes of a…
William Willmore had a brilliant idea. He was going to create a farming community on the coast of Southern California. He bought 4,000 acres of Rancho Los Cerritos and subdivided the land into plots…
![Color postcard of California Alligator Farm, in Los Angeles [ca.1911]](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_1536x864/public/blogs/2019-07/gatorbabyfarmheader.jpg.webp?itok=2_-b-OKG)
