Inside LA
The Los Angeles Lowdown
LA History
Current affairs inspired articles, with new and different perspectives, on Los Angeles’ fascinating history.
Beverly Hills & The Celebrity Homes Tour
The name of Beverly Hills is synonymous with Los Angeles and the movie-star lifestyle. There probably isn’t a single visitor to Southern California who hasn’t heard of this small city, nestled on the slopes of the Santa Monica mountains, in the LA suburbs. It forms one of the four pillars of the city’s praetorian glamor…
Commercial Exchange Building: LA’s Shrinking Tower
The South Park neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles is undergoing enormous change at the moment, as new apartment and condominium blocks sprout upwards and older buildings (such as the beautiful Herald Examiner Building and the Commercial Exchange Building) are renovated and repurposed, often as lofts or ‘creative’ offices. The crypto.com Arena and the many restaurants,…
How LA & SF Became Queer Capitals Of U.S.
When most people think of the birth of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America, they think of Stonewall, 1969 in New York City. But long before that famous uprising, the earliest sparks of organized queer resistance were already burning in California. By the time of the Stonewall Riots Los Angeles and San Francisco were already…
Crime Seen: The Hotel Cecil
Amongst Los Angeles hotels the Hotel Cecil holds a unique place. It’s a marquee name that not only a lot of Angelenos know, but also many visitors too. It’s been the subject of numerous documentaries, articles and, even, a TV horror series, yet you can’t actually rent a room there (at time of publication). In…
The Red Cars: LA’s Lost Trams
Visitors are often surprised to learn that LA had an extensive tram network over the first part of the twentieth century. Many visitors, and even a few Angelenos, don’t even know that we have a metro rail system today, they just assume that “everyone drives in LA”. So it comes as a shock to them…
Crime Seen: The Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel was one of Los Angeles’ most famous hotels, which is no mean feat in a city that boasts the Biltmore, the Beverly Wilshire, the Chateau Marmont and many other famous, and infamous, establishments. The Ambassador’s renown came from its reputation as a place of entertainment and glamor from its opening in 1921 all…
Toypurina: LA Freedom Fighter
For Indigenous People’s Day I want to look at a First American who lived in the Los Angeles area during the city’s earliest years, Toypurina. In many cultures and countries around the world there are legendary historical women, leaders who rallied their people to fight against foreign invaders. Examples include Joan of Arc in fifteenth…
Union Station: LA’s Great Rail Terminus
Los Angeles Union Station is to LA what Grand Central Station is to New York. It’s our major rail terminus, designed and built to reflect the history and feel of the city back at us as we pass through. It opened in May 1939 with much fanfare, ironically just as the US was falling out of…
Hollywood: LA’s Dream Factory
This is the story of how a small farming town outside a mid-range American city became the most famous neighborhood in the entire world. Probably 95% of the world’s population know that there’s a place called Hollywood and that it’s in Los Angeles. How did that happen? Why did that happen? Even if you don’t consider yourself…
Musso & Frank Grill: Hollywood Institution
Musso & Frank Grill opened in September 1919, 105 years ago later this year. In a town that changes so much, and is really almost unrecognizable to when Musso’s first opened, this Hollywood institution has somehow managed to remain the same. The menu and cocktails are exactly how you would want them to be, timeless…