Legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt visited Los Angeles in the middle of April, 1911 as part of a tour that included a four day engagement at the Mason Opera House, one of Downtown’s most majestic theaters. This was Sarah’s third visit to Los Angeles but only the second time she appeared Downtown and, at the time, was Bernhardt’s longest engagement in our city. Sarah’s first two visits to L.A. were shaped by time constraints and exterior stressors that were well beyond her control.
The Los Angeles City Historical Society invites you to watch a previously recorded webinar Britton Gustafson, UCLA History PhD student, who will discuss how the Los Angeles Pneumonic Plague Epidemic of 1924 served as the final urban plague outbreak in the U.S., and how a robust public health intervention prevented the outbreak from engulfing the entire city.
by Pebbla Wallace, LACHS Board Member
Many of you may have heard the name Clara Shortridge Foltz as the name of the Criminal Courthouse building located downtown on Temple and Spring. Or maybe you have heard her name as the first female lawyer in California. But many may not know her importance as a barrier breaker for women and her fight for Women’s Rights in California and the United States.
by Pebbla Wallace, LACHS Board Member
Although Biddy Mason may have died in 1891, many Angeleno’s may only recognize her name as one of the first African American pioneers to own land and real estate in downtown Los Angeles. Or they may only recognize the name as the founder of Los Angeles’ First African Methodist Episcopal Church (First A.M.E.), the oldest African American congregation in Los Angeles. But what many may not be aware of - is that none of this would have been possible if not for an important court case in 1856 in which Biddy set a legal precedent in California courts for future enslaved African Americans in California.
Watch the recorded presentations with two of our 2021 LACHS Scholarship recipients:
A Municipal Tail: The Rise of Animal Control in Los Angeles, 1880-1909
Sean McCaskill, CSU Northridge
La migra in 1980s Los Angeles: Exploitation, unemployment, and the legality of the INS raids
Arnoldo Toral, CSU Northridge
Watch the recorded presentations with two of our 2021 LACHS Scholarship recipients:
Calaveras in the Streets: Chicano Death, Art, and Día de los Muertos in Los Angeles, 1970-1980
Ariel Xochitl Hernandez, CSU Los Angeles
The Most Amazing Chapter in the Southland’s History: Mythmaking and Boosterism in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics
Chris Fennessy, CSU Los Angeles
Watch the recorded presentations with two of our 2021 LACHS Scholarship recipients:
Sorry Charlie: How a Cartoon Fish Became America’s most Enduring Icon of Counterculture Capitalism
Angela Romero, CSU Long Beach
The Formula for a Massacre: Growing Stereotypes and Rising Tensions Towards the Chinese Community in the Late 1800s
Valeria Martinez, CSU Long Beach
George Rodriguez has been a professional photographer since the 1960s. During those five decades, he has photographed some of the most famous movie and television celebrities of our time as well as rock stars and sports heroes. But Rodriguez has also documented the culture and political events of the Mexican-American community in Los Angeles. The result is a compelling body of work that reveals two very distinct views of Los Angeles: life on the red carpet and life on the streets. His work is a visual record of some of the seminal episodes in the city’s history: the Sunset Strip riots of the 60s, the Chicano movement of the early 70s, the United Farm Workers movement and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
