Posts tagged as:

Lore

L.A.’s Forgotten Lizard People

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 [...]

View full item →

Those Devilish Santa Ana Winds

Whether summery hot or wintry tepid like the ones shown above that are currently ravaging Pasadena and the Greater Los Angeles area, Southern California’s fiendish Santa Ana winds are the stuff of legends.
In his story Red Wind, Raymond Chandler described them as “those hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain [...]

View full item →

Hanging With the Legendary Tiburcio Vasquez

Names and Faces

Today marks the 136th anniversary of the hanging of Tiburcio Vasquez, notorious California outlaw and folk legend.
According to Los Angeles A-Z, my bible for everything L.A., he was the “last of the Mexican bandit leaders who roamed Southern California from the 1850s to the 1870s. Along with Joaquin Murrieta and Juan Flores, Vasquez was the [...]

View full item →

Lost and Found: Original 1927 Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Footprints

Life in Angel City

NBC Los Angeles reports that concrete slabs bearing the original footprints of Sid Grauman, Douglass Fairbanks and Mary Pickford have been found in — of all places — a local airport hanger. Along with the still-lost footprints of Norma Talmadge, the silent-era imprints date to 1927 and, through a quirk of fate, were the very [...]

View full item →

If You’ve Ever Wondered How an Urban Legend Gets Started…

Here at Dateline>City of Angels we love to dissect and examine historic ghostlore and other longstanding urban legends. However, it’s not very often that we get to see a real, living example of an oddball tale taking root. Yet here you have it, a Hollywood Hills mansion on its way to being known as “cursed.”
Perched [...]

View full item →

Time Warp: William Desmond Taylor’s Sensational Death Scene

Today it’s a Ross parking lot, but on the evening of Feb. 1, 1922, the tract at 404. S. Alvarado was a Mediterranean bungalow court — and the setting for Movieland’s first real-life murder mystery.
Sometime before midnight, two shots rang out, killing famed actor-turned-Paramount-director William Desmond Taylor from behind. Neighbors shrugged off the noise as [...]

View full item →

L.A.’s Ouija-Inspired Bradbury Building

“Take Bradbury Building. It will make you famous…” That was the message George Wyman supposedly received from his dead brother, courtesy a Ouija board.
A mere draftsman, Wyman had been approached by millionaire Lewis Bradbury, who desired a structural marvel bearing his name in the downtown Los Angeles area. Wyman fretted over the assignment, but the [...]

View full item →

Check It Out: The Haunting of America

From time to time your humble blogger likes to share some of his library finds with Dateline>City of Angels visitors. This week I finished The Haunting of America, a fascinating look at our nation’s ongoing obsession with the paranormal, from the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini’s attempts to unmask modern Spiritualism.
It’s a strangely perfect [...]

View full item →

Tripping Out to Pentecostalism’s Birthplace

Angeleno Sights

Believe it or not, this little Victorian in Los Angeles’ historic Filipino Town is widely recognized as the birthplace of Pentecostalism.
Yes, before Aimee Semple McPherson’s celebrity revivalism, the Spirit took hold of a small band of fervent religionists here at 216 N. Bonnie Brae in 1906, allegedly inspiring them to speak in tongues not heard [...]

View full item →

Aliens Implicated in Mysterious Cattle Slaughter

While the rest of us were carving up our turkeys for the holiday, it appears someone — or something — in southern Colorado was engaging in an otherworldly animal carving ritual of their own.
According to this Associated Press story, “a creepy string of calf mutilations” has left local ranchers and sheriff’s officials “mystified:”
“Four calves were [...]

View full item →

Saturday Matinee: Bigfoot Roams Elysian Park!

A purported sighting of the elusive Sasquatch along the trails of Los Angeles’ oldest city park near Dodger Stadium. Obviously this little clip is intended as a spoof, but even if it weren’t, there’s a glaring flaw in the video that should raise astute Angeleno eyebrows.
Can you guess what it is? Here’s a clue: Look [...]

View full item →

Ghosts and GHOULA at Olvera Street’s Casa La Golondrina Mexican Cafe

Readers with a thirst for spirits — both the distilled and paranormal kind — should consider some monthly barhopping with GHOULA, the Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles.
Last night the group’s “Spirits With Spirits” gathering descended on Olvera Street’s famous La Golondrina Mexican Cafe for dinner, drinks and an impromptu tour of the not-so-public upstairs [...]

View full item →

Altadena’s Weirdly Mysterious “Gravity Hill”

Recently your humble blogger picked up a copy of the wondrously offbeat Weird California (left), a “travel guide to California’s local legends and best kept secrets.” Written by folklorist triumvirate Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle and Mike Marinacci, the 2006 book devotes several pages to so-called “Gravity Hills” throughout the Golden State, including one in [...]

View full item →

Rudy Valentino’s Cryptic DeLongpre Park Memorial

Hollywood is known for countless oddball pairings: Laurel and Hardy. Spanky and Alfalfa. Sonny and Cher.
But in my mind one of the oddest has to be Rudy Valentino and DeLongpre Park. There is no historical connection between the two. Yet here in the pocket park commemorating the famous floral artist Paul DeLongpre, you’ll find not [...]

View full item →

No Bull: The Ring Was Here!

Angeleno Sights

Next time you visit L.A.’s Chinatown, stroll to the northwest corner of College and Hill, close your eyes, open your mind, and listen ever so carefully. If you’re psychic enough, you just might hear shouts of “Ole!” echoing from the past.
That’s because within a few yards of here, on the grounds of the Pacific Alliance [...]

View full item →

Marian Parker’s Mystery House

I have wanted to visit this L.A. landmark for quite a while and finally had the opportunity recently. At first glance, this rather nondescript house that straddles the West Adams and Koreatown districts would appear no different from the many late-Victorian homes dotting the city. However, it has quite a storied past, being connected with [...]

View full item →

History, Murder and Intrigue in the 90210

Though it happened nearly eight decades ago, Beverly Hills officials make it their policy not to discuss the tragedy of Greystone Manor. They’re even less inclined to acknowledge the numerous ghost tales surrounding the property. Off the record, however, many familiar with the estate have plenty to say about eerie lights and gruesome visages in [...]

View full item →

LA River