Lost L.A.

At more than 4,500 acres, Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. Its founder, the controversial and complicated Griffith J. Griffith, donated the land to the city as a public recreation ground for all the people—an ideal that has been challenged over the years.

Despite the trauma of their incarceration during World War II, Japanese Americans built new lives while detained at concentration camps like Manzanar.

There is always lore ingrained in a city’s history, particularly one like Los Angeles. It is no secret that throughout the Prohibition Era individuals living in the city continued to enjoy their vices as much, if not more, than they ever had before. But it is how they subverted the law that still remains unclear. In this episode, we explore the myths of subterranean Los Angeles, crawl through claimed prohibition-era bootlegger tunnels and visit some of the city’s oldest speakeasies along the way. We also speak with Louie Ryan, owner of Town House and Del Monte Speakeasy; Chris Kasten, owner of King Eddie; and Cedd Moses, owner of many L.A. saloons.

Although best known for designing the homes of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, the pioneering African-American architect Paul Revere Williams also contributed to some of the city’s most recognizable civic structures — all while confronting racial barriers. In this episode, we visit LAX’s iconic Theme Building with Rebecca Choi who studies politics, culture and representation of urban space and architectural form; a Williams-designed church with photographer Janna Ireland, who is training her lenses on many of the architect’s surviving projects; and the Pueblo del Rio public housing project.

As recently as a century ago, scientists doubted whether the universe extended beyond our own Milky Way — until astronomer Edwin Hubble, working with the world’s most powerful telescope in the mountains high above Los Angeles, discovered just how vast the universe truly is. Visit the underground vault of the Carnegie Observatories, where paradigm-shifting discoveries are annotated by hand on glass photographic slides; and the historic Mount Wilson observatory. Learn more at Carnegie Observatories.

The Watts riots (also known as the Watts Rebellion or Uprising) left South Los Angeles in social and economic distress. In its wake, Operation Bootstrap, a non-profit community-based organization was formed, with hopes of facilitating change through community empowerment. This episode explores the lasting impact of one Operation Bootstrap initiative, the Shindana Toy Company, which left a lasting mark on the American doll industry by manufacturing ethnically correct black dolls. We visit doll collector Billie Green, meet with former Operation Bootstrap organizers David Crittendon and Marva Maxey, and hear about the enduring legacy of Operation Bootstrap from the women of the Conner family, who once made clothing for Shindana dolls, It’s a story of community strength and economic revival — and one that, outside South L.A.’s black community, is barely known.