Flying Saucers Over Hollywood! (Also, Beatles.)

Hey, kids! Beatle John wants you to rush out and buy Ringo's new album... before he apparently leaps to his death from the top of the Capitol Records building.

[via Vintage Los Angeles]

'One man's eyesore is another man's paradise'

Former architectural drafting student Ice Cube loves Charles and Ray Eames.
Via Chairfag.

L.A. Babylon.

I don't care what the haters say, I love Los Angeles. Especially mid-20th century Los Angeles, the seedier the better. That's why I love today's post at Pulp International with a treasure trove of photos of the noir side of the City of (Fallen) Angels, circa 1930-1950. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch "The Blue Dahlia" and read "Day of the Locust."

Advice for the Embryo Trainman.

A Los Angeles streetcar conducting training film from 1914. Too bad they left out the part about not texting while driving the Metrolink train.

[via Hidden Los Angeles.]

Lizard People Under Los Angeles!

The always entertaining Strange Maps has the story of pseudo-scientist/huckster G. Warren Shufelt, who tried to convince the fine people of Los Angeles in the 1930s that they were living above a secret community of lizard people. (The original L.A. Times clipping can be found on Flickr.)

Happy New Year, You Funky Chickens!

Carla Thomas & Father Rufus Thomas - Do the Funky Chicken
Uploaded by DaDDy_sHug_1972. - Explore more music videos.

from the 1973 filmed concert, WATTSTAX.

Cal Worthington

His commercials have made him a local legend here in SoCal. I've only been here for five years, so there's a lot that I've missed. Luckily there is an archive! Watch Cal with a seal! Watch Cal with an elephant! Watch Cal ride a whale!

Photographs of Black Los Angeles from the Walter Gordon Collection

"Billie Holiday stands with LAPD Detective Gosline in front of a courtroom while awaiting trial in the early 1950s. Holiday was singing “Strange Fruit” (a song about the lynching of African-Americans) in a West Hollywood club, when a member of the audience proceeded to heckle her. She left the stage midway through the song, allegedly slashed the heckler with a knife, and resumed singing. She was charged with assault and battery but the case was dismissed when the victim, under cross-examination by Walter Gordon, refused to give his name and address."

Life As He Knew It - Photographs of Black Los Angeles from the Walter Gordon Collection