ABOUT THIS EVENT:

LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is pleased to announce a free roof-top screening of a newly-discovered circa 1949 short color film of Main Street and other downtown Los Angeles locations, the Union Rescue Mission-produced Of Scrap & Steel. The screening is in conjunction with a series of downtown stories on the In SRO Land time travel blog, featuring material from the Union Rescue Mission Archives.

ABOUT THE FILM: In mid-1948 the Board of Directors of the Union Rescue Mission approved the expenditure of $5,000 to make the 30-minute film Of Scrap & Steel which portrays the redemption and good works of Arthur Hawkins, an alcoholic executive who ended up on the streets of Los Angeles and whose life was saved when he turned to the URM for help. Porter Hall (Arthur Hawkins) is one of only two actors in a film otherwise populated by real Los Angeles characters. (You may recall Hallâ€s performance as the pesky guy on the train in Double Indemnity.)

Of Scrap & Steel was only shown in screenings organized by the URM or related organizations, and would have been completely lost if Liz Mooradian, URM historian, had not saved a deteriorating 16mm print and had it transferred to video before it was too late. Of Scrap & Steel is just one of the remarkable artifacts discovered in the Union Rescue Mission archives and explored in the In SRO Land blog.

This entertaining and powerful short film is a compelling snapshot of life on Skid Row (Main Street) circa 1949, and a fascinating document of the important work that the URM continues to do with the most needy in the community. Although downtown Los Angeles features in numerous noir films, it is extremely rare to see color images of eastern downtown, and rarer still to see full-color live-action footage of the vibrant street scene that included rescue missions, pawn shops, amusement parlors, bars, restaurants and the ever-patrolling paddy wagon in search of drunkards to haul away to jail or County work crews.

This free rooftop screening is jointly organized by LAVA–The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, the In SRO Land time travel blog and the Union Rescue Mission. Attendees are encouraged to dress warmly for the cool night air. Refreshments will be provided compliments of URM.

This screening is held in conjunction with the Skid Row Walking Tour, a separate free event beginning two hours before the screening. Separate registration for each event is required if you wish to attend both the screening and walking tour.

Nearest Metro station is Little Tokyo.

Limited free parking is available at the URMâ€s underground parking lot. Just tell the attendant you are there for the film. Please carpool: if each guest arrives with one other person in their car, there should be enough parking for all. Those arriving later will have to leave their keys with the parking attendant.

In addition, there will be overflow parking in the San Julian parking lot located just behind the URM, on San Julian Street between 5th & 6th Streets, on the east side of the street, adjacent to URM. Registered attendees will be able to enter the URM from the Womenâ€s entrance on San Julian. There will be ample staff to direct you from the lot to this entrance.

In the event of rain, we will screen the film in the Chapel.

Schedule

6pm – Doors open (reserved guests check in at the main entrance and are sent up to the roof)

7pm-7.30pm – Refreshments served compliments of the URM. Guests can watch the sunset (7:45pm)

7.30pm – 8pm – Rev. Andy Bales (URM), Richard Schave (Esotouric) and Prof. Paul Rood (BIOLA) will introduce the film in the context of the neighborhoodâ€s history, and their work on the In SRO Land time travel blog, and a brief introduction to the life and legacy of the URM‘s founder, Lyman Stewart.

8pm – Film screening

8.30pm – Q & A 

9pm – Event ends

A criminal and gastronomical excursion into the San Gabriel Valley, Blood & Dumplings rolls through Alhambra, Temple City, Monterey Park, Rosemead and El Monte, revealing dozens of weird, forgotten crimes and oddities from the valley’s past. Highlights include the mysterious Man from Mars Bandit, the lesbian couple whose bickering over spending cash resulted in one pumping the other full of downers until she died, the young bride who spent her wedding day buried under her parents’ house, the battling neo-Nazis of El Monte, Phil Spector’s spooky castle and the little bar where James Ellroy’s murdered mother Jean had her last drink. The tour includes a selection of dumplings from one of the San Gabriel Valley’s best Chinese restaurants.(Vegetarian passengers, please let us know your food preference several days before we depart.) If using a gift certificate, please note that this tour has an additional $5 dumpling fee, payable in cash or check at the bus door.

Passenger Feedback “I’ve taken the famous ‘Ghostly New Orleans’ and ‘Mysteries of Venice, Italy’ tours and also enthusiastically enjoyed London’s ‘Jack the Ripper of Whitehall’ tour, and I assure you none surpasses Richard Schave and Kim Cooper’s Esotouric “Blood & Dumplings” bus excursion into the bizarrely memorable but rarely-visited regions of East Los Angeles. As humorous and constantly entertaining as it is thoroughly researched, this lovingly crafted 4-hour tour is essential for any tourist or long-term denizen who wishes to comprehend the many fascinating characters and their dark, odd-ball deeds which have contributed to Los Angeles’ nutty history. Very comfortable, carefully prepared, weirdly funny, and unforgettable.” (F.A.)

Dear friends,

It is with no small amount of regret that we are putting the monthly LAVA Sunday Salon and Broadway on My Mind walking tour series on hiatus, effective immediately. Both events take place at Les Noces du Figaro restaurant, which is closing down for several months of renovations.

We will be working closely with Jonathan Mgaieth of Figaro to determine a relaunch date as soon as the restaurant reopens, hopefully in early 2015. So stay tuned, and we hope to see you at other LAVA events in the meantime.

Please know that your continued thoughts and good will are the rock upon which LAVA builds its house.

With thanks for your understanding, we remain,
Richard Schave and Kim Cooper
LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association

Join LAVA for our revived free monthly Sunday Salon series. We return to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber’s Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria.

Presentation One: Jean Harlow Part 2

The name resonates. Blonde Bombshell. Platinum Blonde. The labels applied by press agents during Jean Harlow’s seven-year career still carry a charge seventy years later. Harlow created the mold: the first blonde sex symbol who captured the attention of a nation, then touched their hearts with her genuine warmth and candor. At a time when Harlow’s star shone its brightest, Los Angeles and the movies gave birth to a district that exists as much in the mind as on the map. Hollywood historian Darrell Rooney is co-author of Harlow In Hollywood. He returns to the LAVA Sunday Salon to pick up where he left off at his January 2014 presentation, with Jean Harlow’s story following the mysterious death of her husband Paul Bern.

Presentation Two: Preserving the Legacy of Wurdman & Beckett’s Animal Hospital in West Hollywood

West Hollywood residents and area historians Kate Eggert and Krisy Gosney of Dead History Project fell into historic preservation activism when two 110-year-old bungalows on their street were threatened with demolition. Everyone said they wouldnâ€t win… until they did. Recently, they went to a West Hollywood Historic Preservation Commission meeting on a whim. The Commission discussed a 1938 Wurdeman & Becket streamline moderne animal hospital and a 1959 Barry Berkus mid-century modern office building, both slated for demolition and the site for redevelopment. They were told these buildings were a lost cause. But as a little research revealed the significance of the site, they knew they would fight. Their grassroots preservation campaign has garnered significant media attention and the support of the Los Angeles Conservancy, Art Deco Society, the family of architect Welton Becket and hundreds of passionate citizens. Responding to the rising community outcry, the developer has begun suggesting ways in which the Wurdeman & Beckett structure can be integrated into a modern building. This LAVA presentation is about the process through which Kate and Krisy are tackling the biggest preservation fight of their careers, the highs and lows, and the delicate dance of politics, ego, money and information that impacts any community when developers seek to build on an historic site.

Dear friends,

It is with no small amount of regret that we are putting the monthly LAVA Sunday Salon and Broadway on My Mind walking tour series on hiatus, effective immediately. Both events take place at Les Noces du Figaro restaurant, which is closing down for several months of renovations.

We will be working closely with Jonathan Mgaieth of Figaro to determine a relaunch date as soon as the restaurant reopens, hopefully in early 2015. So stay tuned, and we hope to see you at other LAVA events in the meantime.

Please know that your continued thoughts and good will are the rock upon which LAVA builds its house.

With thanks for your understanding, we remain,
Richard Schave and Kim Cooper
LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association

Join LAVA for our revived free monthly Sunday Salon series. We return to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber’s Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

LAVA Visionary of the Year Lecture: Forgotten Artists: The Master Tailors of Hollywood’s Golden Age

Who made Clark Gable look the part of a superstar? Who dressed Humphrey Bogart, the Ice Follies, and an entire generation of Filipino migrant workers? Who led Liberace from traditional white tie and tails towards outfits shimmering with Swarovksi crystals? The long-forgotten master tailors of Hollywoodâ€s golden age, thatâ€s who! While Tinseltownâ€s great dress designers — Adrian, Irene — remain well-known, the tailors whose genius rendered Fred Astaire and William Powell impossibly suave have faded into obscurity… until now. Join Los Angeles retail historian, and LAVA Visionary of the Year, Marc Chevalier, as he reveals the marvelous, surprising stories of Hollywoodâ€s top three tailors, whose extraordinary careers rose and fell with the movie industry.

Marc’s presentation will be divided into two sections, each about 45 minutes in length, with a 15 minute break in between.

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #13. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is pleased to announce a free roof-top screening of a newly-discovered circa 1949 short color film of Main Street and other downtown Los Angeles locations, the Union Rescue Mission-produced Of Scrap & Steel. The screening is in conjunction with a series of downtown stories on the In SRO Land time travel blog, featuring material from the Union Rescue Mission Archives.

ABOUT THE FILM: In mid-1948 the Board of Directors of the Union Rescue Mission approved the expenditure of $5,000 to make the 30-minute film Of Scrap & Steel which portrays the redemption and good works of Arthur Hawkins, an alcoholic executive who ended up on the streets of Los Angeles and whose life was saved when he turned to the URM for help. Porter Hall (Arthur Hawkins) is one of only two actors in a film otherwise populated by real Los Angeles characters. (You may recall Hallâ€s performance as the pesky guy on the train in Double Indemnity.)

Of Scrap & Steel was only shown in screenings organized by the URM or related organizations, and would have been completely lost if Liz Mooradian, URM historian, had not saved a deteriorating 16mm print and had it transferred to video before it was too late. Of Scrap & Steel is just one of the remarkable artifacts discovered in the Union Rescue Mission archives and explored in the In SRO Land blog.

This entertaining and powerful short film is a compelling snapshot of life on Skid Row (Main Street) circa 1949, and a fascinating document of the important work that the URM continues to do with the most needy in the community. Although downtown Los Angeles features in numerous noir films, it is extremely rare to see color images of eastern downtown, and rarer still to see full-color live-action footage of the vibrant street scene that included rescue missions, pawn shops, amusement parlors, bars, restaurants and the ever-patrolling paddy wagon in search of drunkards to haul away to jail or County work crews.

This free rooftop screening is jointly organized by LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, the In SRO Land time travel blog and the Union Rescue Mission. Seating will be provided, and attendees are encouraged to dress warmly for the cool night air.

Gourmet box dinners: “Meals with a purpose” will be available for purchase ($5, cash only), with a choice of sandwich (vegetarian, roast beef or turkey), cookie, fruit, or chips. Soft Drinks ($1, cash only). Coffee (decaf), hot tea, cold water, and fresh popcorn compliments of the URM. 100% of proceeds from your meal donation goes to the URM, and the proceeds from each dinner will feed two other people.

This screening is held in conjunction with the Skid Row Walking Tour, a separate free event beginning two hours before the screening. Separate registration for each event is required if you wish to attend both the screening and walking tour.

Nearest Metro station is Little Tokyo.

Limited free parking is available at the URMâ€s underground parking lot. Just tell the attendant you are there for the film. Please carpool: if each guest arrives with one other person in their car, there should be enough parking for all. Those arriving later will have to leave their keys with the parking attendant.

In addition, there will be overflow parking in the San Julian parking lot located just behind the URM, on San Julian Street between 5th & 6th Streets, on the east side of the street, adjacent to URM. Registered attendees will be able to enter the URM from the Womenâ€s entrance on San Julian. There will be ample staff to direct you from the lot to this entrance.

In the event of rain, we will screen the film in the Chapel.

Schedule

6pm – Doors open (reserved guests check in at the main entrance and are sent up to the roof)

7pm-8pm – Box dinners available for purchase, guests can watch the sunset (7:45pm)

8pm – Rev. Andy Bales, CEO of the URM, Nathan Marsak of 1947project, Richard Schave of Esotouric, and Prof. Paul Rood of BIOLA will introduce the film in the context of the neighborhoodâ€s history, and their work on the In SRO Land time travel blog, and a brief introduction to the life and legacy of the URM‘s founder, Lyman Stewart.

8:30pm – Film screening

9pm – Q & A

9:30pm – Event ends

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

A Note On Arriving Downtown on Sunday

The Made In America concert will close off the Civic Center (the area around City Hall) for the whole weekend. Please do not, if you are driving, take the 101 freeway to come downtown, as you will be plagued with festival detours. The Pershing Square Metro Station is the closest transit stop to Cafe Figaro. If you are driving, it is easy to access 7th & Broadway if arriving via the 10 freeway, the 60 or the 5. We recommend taking public transportation, or allowing yourself more time than usual if you are driving.

Presentation One: Charlie Parker’s Central Avenue Jazz 

Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker arrived at Los Angeles’ Union Station in December of 1945 all but tied to his seat. Somewhere in the southwestern desert his heroin withdrawals had caught up with him and the rest of the band knew they were going to be in for a long trip. But none was going to be as long as Parker’s.

The two titans of bebop, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, had booked a winter gig in sunny LA. Six nights a week in a Hollywood nightclub was a nice way to get out of the City and introduce a new audience to their innovative bebop sounds — but Parker’s spiraling drug problem was a liability before the band had even packed their bags.

When the residency finally ended, relationships were in shambles, box office receipts were disappointing and the band was eager to just get home. But Parker didn’t show up for the flight. It took him over a year to finally get out of Los Angeles. During his extended stay, Parker had disastrous recording sessions, transcendent recording sessions, he signed over royalties to his drug dealer, lit his hotel room on fire and eventually served six months in a mental institution.

Author Sean J. O’Connell chronicles Los Angeles’s unique 20th century jazz scene in his newest book, Los Angeles’s Central Avenue Jazz. For his first LAVA presentation, he will chart the journey of jazz’ greatest destructive genius through the nightclubs and back alleys of 1940s Los Angeles.

Presentation Two: Living a Magickal Life

What is magick and how does one live it? From kitchen witchery and crafting to ceremonial magic, join us to examine the core principles underlying magick and discover ways to enrich your life by creating change in accord with Will.

Soror Lilya is an Initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis, a Thelemite and a Crafter who has been working with Magick for over 20 years.

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #12. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Bring a poem, your own or someone else’s, and read in our candlelit 1920’s loft with a dramatic city skyscape in downtown Los Angeles.

Our cheeky and erudite whisky ambassador Johnnie “the Scot” Mundell dispenses top-drawer whisky & education. Light bites will be served.

Performance poet Traci Akemi Kato-kiriyama will be our dynamic finale.

We can’t wait to trade you whisky for your words….

Schaberâ€s Cafeteria

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If youâ€re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Presentation One The Mystique of the Orange.

Cloaked in mystery and available only to the elite until modern times, the orange has been known as the fruit of the gods, the food of emperors, a token of gratitude and a symbol of health, wealth and love. Since it entered history, the dream of California has been that it is a place of plenty, of potential, of personal opportunity. The orange became a glowing symbol of this dream. David Boulé, author of the recently released The Orange and the Dream of California (Angel City Press), will take a lively, literary and extraordinarily visual look at this colorful and captivating history and reveal the tremendous impact of the orange on the culture and development of California, and how these two entities have built on one another to feed the imagination and conjure a compelling fantasy.

A third generation Californian, David has a lifelong fascination with the history, culture, achievements and uniqueness of the region. “The enduring image of California as paradise and the orange as unique among all fruit is because, partially, these things are true. These traits have then been magnified by poets and boosters, artists and hucksters, songwriters and bureaucrats—with both artistic and commercial motivation—to appeal to peopleâ€s continuing desire to believe that such exceptional perfection can really exist,” he says.

Presentation Two Charlie Chaplin & Keystoneâ€s Centennial.

One hundred years ago, Charlie Chaplin made his film debut in Mack Sennettâ€s Keystone Comedies. Within the year, he would become the biggest star in motion pictures, going on to set filmmaking artistic standards that some feel have never be duplicated. During that first year of 1914, Chaplin filmed in various Los Angeles neighborhoods, and—in several cases—used actual events (ranging from the dedication of a Wilmington wharf to various auto races on streets and tracks) as a backdrop for his comedies. Brent E. Walker, author of Mack Sennettâ€s Fun Factory, will take us on a guided tour of Chaplin in 1914, and the Los Angeles history revealed in these early comedies.

PLEASE NOTE: this Sunday Salon will be slightly longer than usual in order to accommodate three talks.

The second presentation will end at 1:45pm. The third presentation runs from 2:00pm-2:30pm, and will serve as an introduction to the Broadway On My Mind Walking Tour which immediately follows.

Presentation Three: Open Street Map & Historical Overlays

Join us as Charlotte Wolter explains how OpenStreetMap is creating an open, free map of the world that anyone can use.

It works by marshaling the energies and knowledge of tens of thousands of volunteers around the globe who contribute their time and local knowledge in a phenomenon known as “crowd-sourcing,” focusing this mass of people in a common effort for the common good.

[OpenStreetMap] is also a sophisticated technical effort, one in which some of the best minds in geographic / mapping science and computing have contributed their abilities to create the storage system that keeps all of OpenStreetMaps†huge data files safe and quick to access.

These programmers also have helped to develop an online mapping interface that make it easy for anyone to contribute to OpenStreetMap. If you have an interest in the history of a place, OpenStreetMap (and its corollary, OpenHistoricalMap) are here to provide a way to put that history, literally, on the map.

If youâ€d like to map historical sites that still exist, youâ€ll use OpenStreetMap. For lost locations, OpenHistoricalMap is the place where contributors can provide reconstructions of places that existed in the past, whether the buildings still exist today or not.

In this presentation, you will have an opportunity to try your hand at contributing to OpenStreetMap, using your knowledge of historic sites in Los Angeles. You can even bring your laptop computer if youâ€d like to learn how to edit Open StreetMap at home. The tools and techniques youâ€ll discover in this presentation will also be useful if youâ€d like to add lost locations to OpenHistoricalMap .

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #11. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Nancy Buchananâ€s recent series continues her investigation of excesses in an age of income disparity, and the juxtaposition of desire vs. repulsion. Nancy will show photographic prints and screenprints of grey cakes and cupcakes.

The Northeast Wellness Center is an LA county dept. serving stakeholders and community partners in providing clinically competent, culturally sensitive, and linguistically appropriate mental health services to clients in the least restrictive manner possible. Their North East LA office is a neighbor of the gallery.

The Depressed Cake Shop is an all-volunteer pop-up concept, conceived by Emma Cakehead in the UK, selling grey-colored cakes and other baked goods with the purpose of raising awareness about mental health issues. More than 30 Depressed Cake Shops have popped up all over the world—from Scotland to San Francisco since the first shop opened in Aug. 2013.

Bring a poem, original or not, and read it in a candle-lit circle of fellow aficionados in the 1920’s B Black Penthouse with its dramatic cityscape views.  You’ll climb six floors to get there but a stop at the Whisky Way Station will send you on your way rejuvenated.

Light bites and more whisky await you in the penthouse! Our cheeky Spirits Ambassador Johnnie “the Scot” Mundell pours fine single malt Scotch throughout the evening and offers erudite whisky education in between the reading of poems.

Our wonderful feature Cece Peri is the evening’s grand finale!  (Psst: there are rumors of exciting special guests!)

Cheers!

Kim Ohanneson & Karolyn Kiisel