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 4662 Los Angeles Tips.6742 Los Angeles Photos.2 Los Angeles Videos. Los Angeles Pages by tpal
| Page Views: 949 Last Visit to Los Angeles: October, 2005 | Where Anything Is Possible by tpal - last update: Jan 2, 2006 |
LA is How You Spell Style It should be the story or the actors...but the thing that makes Chinatown my all time favorite movie is probably the setting and the era. The Roman Polanski masterpiece is set in 1930's Los Angeles. From the opening theme music to the closing credits it's all about style...style...style. The city of Los Angeles in 1937 is as much of a character in the film as Jack Nicholson (J. J. (Jake) Gittes)or Faye Dunaway (Evelyn Cross Mulwray).
I think that's why I always picture Los Angeles not as the sprawling, auto-centric megalopolis that it has become, but rather as that impudent youngster showing the world how to live. Union Station with it's Art Deco-Spanish Mission architecture seems to symbolize a city coming of age. Not as grand as Grand Central or as deco as Radio City...but then neither of them have palm trees!
I would have loved to have seen Los Angeles in 1930, just shortly after it had declare itself a Metropolitan City, when the solution to the traffic problem was thought to be banning parking on the major arteries and the first "freeway" was still a decade away. Today, of course, it is impossible to imagine L.A. without it's curling ribbons of concrete highway but if you search you can still find glimpses of a time when even Los Angeles moved at a slower pace.
Union Station is a good place to start. Along the way we'll see things older and certainly many things newer. |
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tpal's Los Angeles Travel Tips
| Overview | Things to Do
Tips: 7 - Photos: 31 | | | Restaurants
Tips: 3 - Photos: 9 | Hotels & Accommodations | | | | Nightlife | Off The Beaten Path
Tips: 2 - Photos: 10 | | | | Tourist Traps | Warnings Or Dangers | | | | Transportation | Local Customs | | | | Packing Lists | Shopping | | | | Sports Travel | General Tips
Tips: 1 - Photos: 1 |
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 Comments for tpal about Los Angeles | | | | |
starship Wed Mar 15, 2006 17:48 UTC
Your page is art! Great writing & pictures--I am mesmerized by Calif. of earlier days. Your opening page captures it very well! | Nemorino Thu Jan 5, 2006 19:55 UTC
Several fine new tips since I last looked at this page! Never realized Union Station was built so late. RM Schindler's House reminds me in a way of the Gropius Masters' Houses (1925-26) in Dessau -- not so remarkable now, but very innovative at the time. | gilabrand Tue Jan 3, 2006 14:41 UTC
Do you mean "French Toast" (aka "Freedom Toast"), by any chance? And by the way, does having a floor full of peanut shells add to the atmosphere? LOL | planxty Mon Jan 2, 2006 05:53 UTC
Sounds delightful. Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is a French Dipped Sandwich - never heard of one? fergy. |
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