Old Los Angeles TV Special

A QUICK NOTE for anyone interested in seeing the Los Angeles of the past: KCET has a re-occurring documentary special narrated by veteran broadcaster (now deceased) Ralph Story, called "Things That Aren't Here Anymore"- Los Angeles edition. There is also a second part which is fittingly titled, "More Things That Aren't Here Anymore". I haven't seen either yet, but my Grandparents were overly enthusiastic about how it made them feel and wouldn't stop ranting about the memories that it inspired of times past. The T.V. schedule can be found on KCET's website. I couldn't find the DVD anywhere but the networks website (even on Amazon), where it is quite expensive, but here is a description of the film:

"Los Angeles’ golden past: couples crowding the dance floor at the Cocoanut Grove…the sounds of Jazz and Rhythm and Blues filling the nights on Central Avenue…a romantic glice aboard an Angel’s Flight. In those early years, you could wake up to the mouth-watering aroma of fresh baked bread delivered by the Helms Bakeries…have countless thrills at Pacific Ocean Park and bask in the glories of Hollywood at Schwab’s. From the 1920s to the 60s, these well-loved icons helped define the colorful character of Los Angeles. Although many of these relics of the past are no longer with us, they’re certainly not forgotten. "Things That Aren’t Here Anymore" brings it all back in this memorable video scrapbook filled with personal photographs, film clips, home movies and reminiscences gathered from the attics and collective memories of Angelenos who shared their personal experiences of the things they saw and the places they enjoyed. Veteran broadcaster Ralph Story is your guide on this remarkable journey!"

I'm working on appropriating the funds for the set and possibly bringing it to class?

-- Greg Boss

Blue, Blue Easter

EASTER SUNDAY GROWING up in my family always meant the same thing- egg hunts and fresh Southern California, welcome to the Spring time and 80 degrees, melted chocolate. Those were the two certainties of waking up knowing that we were going to spend that day trudging around the Grandparents outdated, hydrangea drenched backyard. Having grown older (and undoubtedly wiser?) I've come to realize that the routine of Richard and Lillian Boss on Easter Sunday goes somewhat as follows:

• Wake up, as every morning, at 6 am. Hiding the eggs today is priority number one, the earlier the better in order to avoid a long concentration of direct sun.
  
• Grandpa brews the coffee, while Grandma peruses the yard hiding plastic eggs that, if in human form, would be classified as dull or depressed due to a lack of vibrant color.
  
• The 7 baskets (one for each kid in the family) are placed on the 40 year old un-weathered patio furniture next to the backdoor. 5 dollars in each basket and job done. Breakfast time, 7 am.
  
• The family arrive always with a lack of promptness around noon (1pm)
• Needless to say, the eggs have been left in the sun for half a day, the chocolate is syrup in a foil wrapper. I wouldn't be surprised if they put raw eggs out in the morning, knowing that they would cook and become "hardboiled" by the time we arrived.

Living North of Los Angeles, by the San Gabriel Mountains, in an area that many consider to be an extension of the valley, the heat kicks in at the end of March and grows progressively stronger until mid September. For this reason, Easter in my mind is characterized by extraordinary blue skies, a re-emerging heat and melted chocolate. As a result, I felt lost spending the Easter of 2010 in the snow of Park City, Utah, having lobster and remote control car races on the hard wood floors of their overly sprawling, "we spend too much time indoors", mountain getaway.

-- Greg Boss

Vanished L.A.: "The Great Room"

"The great room, over one hundred feet in length and seventy-five feet in width, was a sunburst of light. Great crystal chandeliers blazed from a dozen vantage points, while softer and smaller lights were placed along the four sides of the room. ... The perfection and symphony of the great room held the guests spellbound upon their arrival. As the stately ladies and gentlemen entered the salon the pause each made at the threshold as with intense interest they swept the salon with their gaze was noticeable.” (LA Times, October 1911. Grand Opening- Alexandria Hotel)

LIKE MOST people today, I’d be lying if I said that I had had ever heard of the Alexandria Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, prior to last weekend. Somehow, I had managed to find myself walking past transients, through dark glass doors that opened into the marble lobby of a century’s old Los Angeles hotel. Built in 1906 in its current location, the corner of 5th and Spring St., the hotel, much like the Titanic on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, is a mere ruin of the elegance that it once beheld. There is no flowing red carpet to greet an entrance, no butler to take your bags (or trunks), no shoeshine boy to polish your shoes and there are no Hollywood starlets cascading down wooden stairs.

Today, there are only mere remembrances of the golden age; signed photos of silent movie stars the likes of Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin and Humphrey Bogart line faded walls. In 1912, a story in the L.A. Times stated that, “What Union Square was to old New York, what Forty-second street is to the present metropolis, and what the vicinity of the Cort Theater is to San Francisco, the Alexandria mezzanine seems to be to theatrical Los Angeles... Hardly ever does the day pass in which some nationally-known actor or actress does not linger in the low settees or pause at the golden rail, looking down into the lobby below”. During its heyday between 1911 and 1922 the Hotel was the grandest location in all of Los Angeles. It housed a million dollar carpet in the lobby, a world famous stained glass Tiffany Skylight, and the premier Ballroom in the western United States. The ballroom, which came to be known as “The Palm Court”, “The Grand Ballroom” and The “Franco-Italian Dining Room” saw speeches by Presidents William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. It was this room where Paul Whiteman, later to be known as the “Jazz King” got his start in 1919. Charlie Chapman, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks formed United Artists Pictures there in 1919 also. The staircase of the hotel is rumored to be the staircase famously used in “Gone with the Wind”. Sadly though, with the introduction of the Millennium Biltmore hotel in 1923 the hotel slowly lost its grandeur and faded into memories now since lost. Today the hotel is a near ruin, rooms are boarded closed, nailed shut; the deep red staircase is tattered, the carpets and ornaments long since sold, and the grand ballroom is empty. The rooms that are today available, are rented as low-income apartments. If you’ve any imagination or appreciation for times past and old architecture, I strongly suggest wandering down Spring Street, through glass doors and into the Alexandria. The clash between new and old, while sad, is amazingly beautiful.

-- Greg Boss

(photo credit: Greg Boss)