There is a particular kind of civic devotion that asks nothing in return—only the quiet conviction that a city’s story is worth preserving. In 1976, three men—a Marine-turned-historian, a Deputy Sheriff, and a dedicated friend—set out to ensure the multiethnic heart of Los Angeles was never forgotten. As the Los Angeles City Historical Society marks its 50th anniversary, we go back to the beginning to meet the 'Guardians of the Pueblo' who built a legacy that still shapes how the city understands itself today.
The Los Angeles Pride Parade and Festival, known as LA Pride, began on June 28, 1970, in Hollywood to mark the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Organized by the Christopher Street West Association (CSW)—founded by Rev. Bob Humphries, Rev. Troy Perry, and Morris Knight—it was one of the first Pride parades in the world and the first to receive a government permit after a legal battle with city officials.
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.
Watch the recorded presentations with two of our 2022 LACHS Scholarship recipients:
It’s Complicated: Cross Purpose Politics and Reassessing Community in New Deal Era Whittier
Christopher Empett
Shared Experiences and Regional Kinship Webs: Mid-Twentieth Century New Mexico, México, and Los Angeles
Jerry Sisneros
It was around 10 a.m. on January 14, 1938, when Harry Raymond went out to his garage in Boyle Heights, turned the key on the ignition of his car and his engine bolted out of the hood of his car, filling Harry’s body with 186 pieces of shrapnel. The explosion was loud enough to hear throughout the neighborhood. Harry was rushed to the hospital where he received 100 stitches and was treated for multiple fractures and chest punctures.
On July 14, 1930, Frank Keaton entered Department 39 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for a civil case between The First National Bank, and Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick. On the stand was banker Motley Flint. Keaton listened in the spectator’s section to Motley’s testimony, and once he finished and stepped down from the witness stand, Keaton shot him three times with his .38 Smith & Wesson – Flint fell dead! What angered Mr. Keaton, and brought him so far to the edge that he would shoot Motley Flint dead? The Answer is “The Julian Pete Swindle”.
by Pebbla Wallace, LACHS Board Member
The most famous courtroom television drama in the history of courtroom dramas will always remain, in the opinion of this writer, the series Perry Mason, which starred Raymond Burr from 1957-1974. Although the drama depicted a fictional criminal defense attorney who won almost every case, what you may not know is that the character was based on a real-life criminal defense attorney name Earl Rogers who practiced in Los Angeles from 1897 to 1918.
