Murder in the Blueprints of Frank Lloyd Wright

The legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright never wore his heart on his sleeve. For better or for worse, he dressed up his blueprints in his feelings, and nowhere is that reflex so painfully clear than in his handful of mysterious, pre-Colombian-inspired houses built in California in the early 1920s. You could call them “the…

Her Biggest Secret Made Her One of a Kind

The world almost never knew the real Merle Oberon. For the old Hollywood set she circled in, the actress was just another leading lady, a go-to choice for directors of big-budget flicks like The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) and The Dark Angel (1935), for which she received an Oscar nomination. Her charisma was infectious, and she…

Old Hollywood’s Playground Island

Ah, the joys of an island vacation. Feet in the sand, a piña colada in hand and…a herd of buffalo by the palms? On a small island off the coast of L.A., a curious population of non-native buffalo has been thriving since 1924, when they were brought over for a silent Hollywood film– and left there to save…

The Mad Hatter Is Real and He lives in Venice Beach

Once upon a time in America, hidden behind the beach where they attempted to rebuild the canals of Venice, you’ll find him… Look for the twinkling lights, the dream catchers and the crooked sign with a fedora and there, through an open door of the mystic den all in black, the mad hatter awaits. His…

Don’t Call Her the Dragon Lady: Hollywood’s First Chinese American Star

Wong Liu Tsong was born on Los Angeles’ Flower Street in 1905 – a rather befitting location for a gal whose Cantonese name meant “frosted yellow willow.” Most U.S. moviegoers, however, would get to know her under a more American moniker: Anna May Wong, the “Dragon Lady” of Hollywood. Wong was just your average California girl…

The Real Downtown LA Murder Hotel that Inspired Lady Gaga’s American Horror Story

You don’t need to have watched the new season premier of American Horror Story Hotel to be fascinated by the chilling real-life location that inspired it. I was instantly hooked on the setting for this season: a haunted Art Deco time capsule in Downtown, Los Angeles. The fictional Hotel Cortez is a budget hotel turned residence for transients where a…

That time the Hollywood sign got High

On January 1st, 1976, Hollywood residents woke up to read their famous hilltop sign a little differently. Local prankster Danny Finegood had indulged in some large-scale wordplay and changed the sign to say “Hollyweed“. It was to be the first of many pranks on the Hollywood sign by Danny and coincided with the day less restrictive…

The Hollywood Canteen where Movie Stars were at your Service

Hours away from being shipped off to Europe’s battlefields or back on US soil for a brief reprieve, there wasn’t a single American serviceman passing through Los Angeles in the 1940s that wouldn’t have lined around the block for an evening at the Hollywood Canteen. Set up in an abandoned nightclub near Sunset Boulevard, if you were wearing…

Date Night at the Moonlight Rollerway

So here’s pretty much how my morning went on the internet. First, it gave me this 1970s photograph of a rapunzel-esque babe on roller skates ↓ After some googling of “long-haired roller skating girl”, I eventually find out the girl was Debra Jo Fondren, playmate of the year 1978, which later led me to this video ↓ of Playboy’s Roller Disco…

The Underground Travelling Tiki Bar

Tiki, unlike disco, is not dead. It may have been sleeping off a hangover in a cabana somewhere since the mid 1970s, but the kitsch phenomenon is alive and well… Pictured above is one of Los Angeles’ most iconic tiki bars of yesteryear, Vagabond’s House, during its heyday on Wilshire Boulevard in the 1950s. In the 1970s,…