Cinco de Mayo at Los Angeles City Hall, California, 1945.
Cesar Chavez gives a Cinco de Mayo speech at UCLA in Westwood, California, 1979.
Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Los Angeles, May 5, 1960. The 1862 Battle of Puebla is recreated with a tug o’ war.
A pro-Khomeini demonstrator swings a stick at an anti-Khomeini demonstrator during clashes near the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, California. June 29, 1980. Photo by Chris Gulker. (Off the top of my head, something like half of the Iranian-American population in the United States lives in California.)
The late Roger Ebert on Fight Club (1999):
“…the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-star movie since ‘Death Wish,’ a celebration of violence in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink, smoke, screw and beat one another up.
Sometimes, for variety, they beat up themselves. It’s macho porn — the sex movie Hollywood has been moving toward for years, in which eroticism between the sexes is replaced by all-guy locker-room fights. Women, who have had a lifetime of practice at dealing with little-boy posturing, will instinctively see through it; men may get off on the testosterone rush. The fact that it is very well made and has a great first act certainly clouds the issue.”
Read more at Roger-Ebert.com.
The earth is rocking tonight. The U.S. Geological Survey agrees.
Young girl, musket, and chalkboard that reads “California Girls Sewing Club”, undated, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Storefronts in the Little Armenia neighborhood of Los Angeles, 2004. Photos by Martin Krieger. (Every year on April 24, Armenians gather in the area to take part in a protest for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.)
Armenian-American woman in Armenia, 1991. From the Shades of L.A. collection of the Los Angeles Public Library.
A student protest seeks recognition of the Armenian genocide. Little Armenia, Los Angeles, 1988. From the Shades of L.A. collection of the Los Angeles Public Library.
“TWO-GUN DAVIS” — James E. Davis (1889-1949) in a Los Angles Herald-Examiner photo dated April 19, 1931. Davis was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1926 to 1931, and from 1933 to 1939. According to the LAPD’s very own website, he created a “gun squad” staffed with 50 cops, publicly pronouncing that “the gun-toting element and the rum smugglers are going to learn that murder and gun-toting are inimical to their best interest.” In terms more friendly to an action film, Davis also declared the LAPD “would hold court on gunmen in the Los Angeles streets; I want them brought in dead, not alive, and will reprimand any officer who shows the least mercy to a criminal.” His time as chief saw widespread police brutality, political corruption, red-baiting thuggery, and bribery. Davis’ controversial reputation, along with the fact that he was a prize-winning marksman, helped to earn him the nickname “Two-Gun Davis”.
(Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library. Information from here and here.)
Los Angeles, 1929. The children of LAPD Chief James E. Davis pose with Lobo the police dog.
Los Angeles, October 1, 1910. Rubberneckers gather to witness the devastation after the bombing of the Los Angeles Times Building. The 1 a.m. attack killed 20 employees and and injured about 100. According to the LA Times Framework blog:
The attack didn’t stop the Oct. 1, 1910, issue of The Times; it was printed at the Los Angeles Herald.
The city of Los Angeles hired private detective William J. Burns to catch the bombers. His work led to the arrest of two brothers, John J. and James B. McNamara — members of the International Assn. of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers union.
Clarence Darrow defended the McNamaras only to lose the case when the brothers changed their pleas in open court to guilty. After the trial, Darrow was twice tried on charges of jury tampering. The first trial ended in acquittal, the second in a hung jury.
(LAT)
VIKINGS INVADE LONG BEACH — Vikings ships sail into Long Beach Harbor during the 1928 Pacific Southwest Exhibition on the California coast. They demonstrate the two ways a Viking moves on the water — by wind or by sweat. In the background, note the storage tanks for Union Oil Company. You can’t hide modernity.
A photo by Mark Rosales featured in the Los Angeles Times L.A. Now blog:
As part of a project focusing on public transportation, Mark Rosales caught this photo of pensive bus passengers and the reflection of a pizzeria on Feb. 19 at the corner of Broadway and 8th Street in downtown L.A. He used a Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with an Olympus OM 24mm Prime Lens.
Rosales typically shoots through the windows of subways and buses, and always asks himself where his subjects are coming from and what their stories are.
“Such a mix of people all coming from different places that led them all to such a confined space and every each one of them going to their own different destinations,” he wrote. “You never know what you’re going to witness.”
