This is the City: Mayor Frank Shaw, the Combination, and the Real L.A. Noir
The Los Angeles City Historical Society and the History Department, Los Angeles Public Library Invite You to the 18th Annual Marie Northrop Lecture Series: “Growth, Graft, Grandeur: Three Los Angeles Mayors” at the Mark Taper Auditorium of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library 630 West Fifth Street (between Grand Avenue and Flower Street). Lecture #2 in the series: John Buntin on Mayor Frank L. Shaw, 1933-1938
ABOUT THE LECTURE: In 1933, Mayor Frank Shaw became the Mayor of Los Angeles, ushering in an era of corruption that scandalized the city and inspired writers from Raymond Chandler to James Ellroy. Yet in recent years, historians have begun to paint a more benign picture of L.A.’s most notorious chief executive. In his talk at the Central Library, John Buntin, the author of L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City, will take up the subject of Mayor Shaw and his relations with the LAPD. In the process, he’ll discuss some of Los Angeles’s most well-known lawmen — Chief James “Two Gun” Davis and his aide de camp, Lt. Bill Parker as well as some of Los Angeles’s most notorious criminals, among them Guy “Stringbean” McAfee, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, and Mickey Cohen. Drawing on primary source research and historical photographs, Buntin’s talk promises to be a fast-paced spin through the real Los Angeles underworld.
