Automobiles with fins cruising broad boulevards and open freeways; street cars and paper boys; well-dressed people lining up to dine at the Pantry; industry and commerce — these are just a few of the sights recorded in this nostalgic view of 1950s Los Angeles. If you grew up Angeleno during that era, enjoy the trip down memory lane.
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The KCRW Shortcuts blog has a new post exploring the facts and fiction surrounding Los Angeles’ oft-ignored network of underground tunnels. The post includes links to several in-depth features on the topic by local news outlets.
Worthwhile as the item is, however, it unfortunately left out an entertainingly bizarre story about L.A.’s subterranean landscape: the mysterious Lizard People and their underground city.
Yes, as the Los Angeles Almanac reports, there really is such an urban legend, and over the decades it has lured many a would-be Indiana Jones on a futile search for the ancient caverns.
The whole idea seems to be based on a 3,000-year-old Hopi myth about a race of humans who chose to dwell deep within the earth. It’s not clear if they actually resembled reptiles or were called the Lizard People merely for their burrowing behavior. Either way, even prominent Angelenos have bought into the legend, including (allegedly) Charles Lummis, the famously eccentric writer-researcher of Native American culture.
The search for the Lizard People’s lost city apparently reached a fever pitch in 1934 when geophysicist and treasure-seeker G. Warren Shufelt sank a 250-foot shaft into Fort Moore hill, sure that he would find it. According to this January 29, 1934, Los Angeles Times article, Shufelt was led to the site by extensive “scientific” research that included radio X-rays.
Sadly, like numerous explorers before and after, all Shufelt ever dug up was dirt.
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Colma mausoleum. (M. Imlay)
On my recent holiday jaunt to San Francisco, I was fortunate enough to visit the nearby city of Colma. Founded in 1924 and billed as the “City of Souls,” Colma has a unique history — it’s basically San Francisco’s necropolis, boasting 16 crowded cemeteries within its approximately 2-square-mile jurisdiction.
Colma monument. (M. Imlay)
In 1900, San Francisco outlawed burials within its city limits. Twelve years later, it went further and “evicted” all the dead, with the exception of those buried in two historic graveyards at Dolores Mission and the Presidio. Just a few miles to the south, sleepy Colma became the destination of choice for those seeking eternal rest. (Residents now like to quip that their municipality has more than a million and a half residents, about 1,700 of whom are actually living.)
As you might expect, Colma’s many cemeteries are filled with notable personalities. William Randolph Hearst, Wyatt Earp, Joe DiMaggio and William Henry Crocker are just a few of those taking their big dirt naps within the city’s boundaries.
A lion guards a plot at Colma. (M. Imlay)
The above three photos were taken at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, one of the town’s larger cemeteries. Established in 1892, the place brims with the sort of artistic headstones, monuments and crypts that once defined American cemeteries before mundane “memorial parks” like Forest Lawn ruined all their ambiance.
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Foothill and Altadena. Photo: M. Imlay.
The aftermath of Wednesday night’s Santa Anas lingers on in Pasadena, which was hit hard by the blusters. This morning I came across the above scene at the intersection of Foothill Blvd. and Altadena Drive: Cleanup from a triple-car collision caused in part by a pair of non-functioning signals that were both snapped in two by the high winds.
Photo: M. Imlay.
This second photo to the left offers a closer look at one of the mangled light standards.
Driving around town, I didn’t see a single neighborhood that wasn’t significantly beat up in some way. Pasadena is a foothill city known for its streets lined with vintage homes and big old pines, stately cedars, gnarled oaks and other tall trees — and every block seemed to have at least one of them dangerously twisted or uprooted. (Many of which displaced sidewalks, gas, electric and water lines when they fell.)
Like many Southland residents, I’m “stunned” at the wind carnage. Road closures are everywhere, and power has yet to be restored to many neighborhoods. The cost in terms of damaged homes and buildings will be astronomical.
Unfortunately, I can’t see this region fully recovered for a very long time.
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Unless otherwise specified, all Dateline>City of Angels photos and content © Michael Imlay under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
