Inside LA
The Los Angeles Lowdown
LA History
Current affairs inspired articles, with new and different perspectives, on Los Angeles’ fascinating history.
Film Noir: A Dark Side Of The City Of Angels
There’s something so LA about Film Noir. In a similar way to how the novels of Charles Dickens recreate the world of Victorian London, Film Noir perfectly captures the aesthetic and atmosphere of 1940’s and 50’s Los Angeles. The different aspects of the city: its sunny beaches, neat clean suburbs and downtown concrete jungle, make a perfect setting for these…
The Old Los Angeles Chinatown
With this month marking the date of the Lunar New Year (as celebrated in China and much of Asia) we wanted to take a look at the birth of Chinese-American culture in Los Angeles and, specifically, the history of LA’s Chinatown. Although San Francisco’s Chinatown is more famous, Los Angeles has been home to a…
Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason: LA Pioneer
In honor of Black History Month (this month) and Women’s History Month (in March) we’re celebrating the life and achievements of Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason. An African American woman who was born into slavery in the old South, Biddy was brought to Los Angeles in the 1850’s (much against her will), only to become a free…
Crime Seen: Prohibition In LA
America is almost unique among developed countries for its ban on alcohol, beginning in January 1920 (104 years ago this month) with the passage of the Volstead Act, which is known as Prohibition. Although it’s now synonymous with the corruption and organized crime that it later spawned, at the time the intention was to address…
Crime Seen: LA Chinatown Massacre
One of the things we believe in at the Real Los Angeles Tours is talking about the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of history. It’s really the only way of looking at our past, if we ignore the nasty and ugly episodes then we are almost certainly dooming ourselves to continue making the…
Legendary Los Angeles Latinos
People from the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America have had an enormous impact on Los Angeles. Which isn’t at all surprising when you consider nearly fifty per cent of the population of Los Angeles today has a Hispanic background and that, therefore Los Angeles Latinos form the largest ethnic share of the population.…
Historic Preservation in Los Angeles
Historic Preservation in Los Angeles is a much more important thing here than many people realize. Is it important enough, though? That’s another question. It’s such a relevant concern here because so much of the city’s ethos is about reinvention. LA has often been a city that erases, or tries to erase, its past, as…
Angels Flight: LA’s Last Funicular
One of DTLA’s many gems is Angels Flight, a funicular railway that connects Grand Central Market and the Historic Core to the Bunker Hill Financial District. In 2013 it was closed due to safety issues and it felt disappointing explaining to guests on our tours that the neglected, graffiti-covered, trolley cars were two of the most beautiful remaining artifacts of Victorian Los Angeles. Unused, rundown and…
Hollywood Playhouse: Avalon Nightclub
The performing arts building at 1735 Vine Street near the intersection with Sunset Boulevard, now known as the Avalon Hollywood, has been singularly successful over the course of its nearly hundred-year-old life. When the Hollywood Playhouse opened in during the Prohibition era of the 1920’s most theaters being erected in Los Angeles were being designed…
Crime Seen: The Barclay Hotel
The Barclay Hotel is, more or less, right in the navel area of the dark underbelly of downtown Los Angeles.The Hotel Cecil has become famous in the last few years, reaching a peak in 2021 with the Netflix mini-series The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. However the Barclay has just as dark a history as the Cecil,…