The Last Bookstore Presents….
The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles
Due to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this Saturday and April 21st and Sunday April 22nd, we will have the HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101 2 hour walking tour on Saturday April 21st at 2 PM and at 4:30 PM - and on Sunday April 22nd, at 2 PM and 4 :30 PM, we will have the HOW DOWNTOWN LOS ANGLES INVENTED THE WILD WEST (and why no one knows it) walking tour.
There will be no 11 AM tours this weekend - and this weekend only - so everyone can attend the morning events at the LA Times Book Festival at USC. Then next weekend Saturday April 28th and Sunday April 29th, the tours will again be at 11 AM and 2 PM on both days
For the next two weekends - see below for days and times) will be two DIFFERENT guided walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles’ secret past, its present - and its future.
If you are a participant in Saturday's 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built, the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton, actor Ryan Gosling and more. And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.
You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral. At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.
Due to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this Saturday and April 21st and Sunday April 22nd, we will have the HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101 2 hour walking tour on Saturday April 21st at 2 PM and at 4:30 PM - and on Sunday April 22nd, at 2 PM and 4 :30 PM, we will have the HOW DOWNTOWN LOS ANGLES INVENTED THE WILD WEST (and why no one knows it) walking tour.
There will be no 11 AM tours this weekend - and this weekend only - so everyone can attend the morning events at the LA Times Book Festival at USC. Then next weekend Saturday April 28th and Sunday April 29th, the tours will again be at 11 AM and 2 PM on both days
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| BRADBURY BUILDING |
All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.
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| Wyatt Earp |
If you are a participant in Saturday's 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built, the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton, actor Ryan Gosling and more. And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.
You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral. At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.
You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown. You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.
And if you take the "How Los Angeles Invented The Wild West (and why no one knows it"tour, you will discover that long before the famed Western cowtowns and mining camps Tombstone, Dodge City, and Deadwood existed, Los Angeles was the first town where everything that happened in the Wild West, happened here first and that everyone from Wyatt Earp to Judge Roy Bean came to Los Angeles first before going east to help start the Wild West. You will also discover LA was a far ‘wilder’ town than any Western town that followed after it.
And besides ‘inventing’ the original Wild West, Los Angeles also remained part of the Wild West for far longer than other place (from 25 years to over 90 years - compared to the average period of 3 or 4 years to 10 years of most cowtowns) and LA was also one of the few towns built upon both cattle and mining.
And if you take the "How Los Angeles Invented The Wild West (and why no one knows it"tour, you will discover that long before the famed Western cowtowns and mining camps Tombstone, Dodge City, and Deadwood existed, Los Angeles was the first town where everything that happened in the Wild West, happened here first and that everyone from Wyatt Earp to Judge Roy Bean came to Los Angeles first before going east to help start the Wild West. You will also discover LA was a far ‘wilder’ town than any Western town that followed after it.
And besides ‘inventing’ the original Wild West, Los Angeles also remained part of the Wild West for far longer than other place (from 25 years to over 90 years - compared to the average period of 3 or 4 years to 10 years of most cowtowns) and LA was also one of the few towns built upon both cattle and mining.
Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com. All credit card orders will be processed at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour. All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.
Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request for groups of four or more.
We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.
We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.
For future updates and more information go to www.historicdowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com
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