A Travel Guide to the Past

YOU might just want to check out this little time-machine jaunt: University of California Press recently republished Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of the Angeles.

On his blog, L.A. Observed, Kevin Roderick reports:

My favorite new Los Angeles book — the one I took driving with me on Saturday — is a guidebook from the distant past . . . [the] guide . . . works 70 years later as historical snapshot of Los Angeles the way it was at the cusp of World War II — neighborhoods, places of interest (the ostrich and alligator farms on Mission Road), recreation (45 bowling alleys), literature and familiar restaurants like Musso & Frank and El Cholo.

For those of you who are interested in spending a little bit more time in L.A.'s booster past you'll find some of that atmosphere, no doubt, but as well, the book does more than glance on many of the themes we've already explored in class -- boosterism, vanished L.A., the nascent film industry, Julius Schulman and Raymond Chandler, just for starters.

For more of Kevin's post and a great photo tour of Downtown L.A. and its built history -- go here.

I've already ordered mine, I'll let you know what I think in the weeks to come.

-- L.G.