Tour LA's Secret Heart through True Crime, Chandler, Fante and '60s Rock

[esotouric]

Esotouric Press Release

LOS ANGELES- A fascinating city gets the bus tours it deserves. The team behind 1947project, the critically acclaimed time travel blog and its sold-out Crime Bus Tours, are expanding to include literary, musical and (soon) architectural themes. Passionate expert guides host these provocative tours on comfortable coach class busses. Tours wind through fascinating, neglected neighborhoods and feature vintage slide shows, original research, eclectic snack stops and a mix of laughter, poignancy and rich historical fact.

Cost: $55/person (includes snacks), or $190 for a four-tour season pass ($30 savings).

UPCOMING TOURS

The Real Black Dahlia (May 5): Our most popular Crime Bus tour, The Real Black Dahlia spans the city from downtown to Hollywood to South Central, visiting the actual scenes of Elizabeth Short's brief life and 1947 death in Los Angeles, and those places that have become attached to her in the ever growing mythology of the Black Dahlia murder. The major and minor theories of Short's murder are explored and debunked and passengers are introduced to a little known and quite convincing suspect with ties to the body dump scene near 39th and Norton.

Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (debuts May 12): Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s L.A., which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow. Join us as we go down the mean streets that shaped his fiction, and in turn his hard-boiled times. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, we trace Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink. This tour is hosted by Kelly Kuvo and Richard Schave.

Pasadena Confidential (May 26): The Crown City masquerades as a calm and refined retreat, where well-bred ladies glide around their perfect bungalows and everyone knows what fork to use first. But don't be fooled by appearances. Dip into the confidential files of old Pasadena and meet assassins and lepers, kidnappers and slashers, Satanists and all manner of maniac in a delightful little tour you WON'T find recommended by the better class of people! From celebrated cases like the RFK assassination (with a visit to Sirhan Sirhan's folks' house), "Eraserhead" star Jack Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons' death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to fascinating obscurities, the tour's dozens of murders, arsons, kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happening sites provide a alternate history of Pasadena that's as fascinating as it is creepy. Passengers will tour the old Millionaire's Row on Orange Grove, thrill to the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic Hall, wonder about the unknown fiend who sneaked past a little girl to poison her father's beer and discover why people named Judd should think twice before moving to Pasadena.

John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill (debuts June 16): Before Kerouac and Bukowski, there was John Fante, author of five Arturo Bandini novels, including "Ask the Dust," chronicles of a neighborhood teeming with immigrants, criminals and dreamers. Bunker Hill is gone now, redeveloped by corporate and civic interests. But the same stories still play out downtown, where artists and writers find their voices, some making it big and others breaking up on the reef. Arturo Bandini is alive and well, his lament as relevant as 75 years ago. Join us as we follow in his footsteps, to the Goodwill, King Eddie's, Clifton's Cafeteria ("pay what you can") and other evocative scenes of old L.A. Along the way, we'll visit the scenes of some of the most peculiar crimes to befall downtown's denizens, and invite their ghosts to join us on our time travelers' jaunt between the 20th and 21st centuries. This bus and walking tour is hosted by Kelly Kuvo, Kim Cooper and Richard Schave.

Riot on Sunset Strip (debuts June 23): On the Sunset Strip in 1965-66 an electrifying scene exploded into creativity and just as suddenly, vanished. So much remarkable music, art, and social upheaval erupted, it's difficult now to grasp how it all happened, and why it all, so suddenly, stopped. This tour tells the story of that astonishing time. Nightlife on the Strip was a heady mix of modernist design, pop art, and beat aesthetics. Pop art and rock'n'roll combined, and the new fusion quickly permeated TV, animation, and New Hollywood's indie cinema. Riot on Sunset Strip is partly based on Domenic Priore's forthcoming book of that name, and is hosted by Priore and Kim Cooper.

Upcoming Esotouric tour schedule:

Sat May 5 - The Real Black Dahlia

Sat May 12 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place

Sat May 26 - Pasadena Confidential

Sat June 16- John Fante's Dreams of Bunker Hill

Sat June 23 - Riot on Sunset Strip

For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com, email tours[at] esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767