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In July 2013, LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association launched a series of six monthly walking tours along Broadway meant to raise consciousness about the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the pending implementation of Strategy One, Phase One of the City of Los Angeles’ Broadway Streetscape Master Plan. Each walking tour follows and departs from the free LAVA Sunday Salon.

Tour guides are Richard Schave (Esotouric/LAVA) and Stephen Gee (author of Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles). 

This month’s tour focused entirely on the history of the development of Bullocks department store starting at 7th & Broadway, up west along 7th to Hill and then half a block north on Hill.  The expansion takes place over the course of about 20 years, consumes eight buildings, and is a fascinating window into downtown’s retail history. 

Read about this tour here, and watch video of the walk below.

On the last Sunday of each month , LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.

At the November 2013 Salon, Pepper Aarvold presented “Backstage at the Follies.” Pepper Aarvold says: “I grew up backstage of a burlesque theater from the tender age of four through my teens. I’ll tell you what it was like being the grand daughter of burlesque veterans Lillian Hunt and Leon DeVoe. Gramps was a straight man and Granny went from chorus line choreographer to a successful agent for strippers having ‘discovered’ Tempest Storm among others who were ‘graduates’ of her famous school for strippers which was conducted in the rehearsal hall at the Follies. From the orchestra pit to the wings where I often caught strippers’ costumes as they were ‘shed,’ I’ll provide a perspective most little girls never have the good fortune to experience. And if asked, I can teach you a few classic moves…”

For more about the November Salon, click here. 

On the last Sunday of each month , LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.

At the November 2013 Salon, author and librarian Christina Rice discussed her 15-year quest to uncover the life and career of Ann Dvorak, an actress who was positioned to be one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but instead countered the powerful studio system -– and suffered the consequences. When Christina Rice checked out a VHS copy of Three on a Match from her local library in 1995, she just expected to enjoy Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in a snappy 1932 pre-Code film. Instead, she was blindsided by the raw performance of the little-known Ann Dvorak. This encounter would ultimately shape the course of Rice’s adult life, culminating in the publication of the biography Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel from University Press of Kentucky (2013).

For more about the November Salon, click here. 

On the last Sunday of each month , LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.

At the October 2013 Salon, Paul Rood spoke about his research into philanthropist Lyman Stewart, including the funding of a small army of spiritually-inspired female social workers who provided aid to the poor and troubled of early Los Angeles. For more about the October Salon, click here.

On the last Sunday of each month , LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.

At the October 2013 Salon, Leslie Zemeckis spoke about her Behind the Burly Q film and book projects, celebrating the golden age of American Burlesque. For more about the October Salon, click here.

Between talks at the recent LAVA crime lab program Los Angeles 1920-1947: The Birth of Forensic Science, we were delighted to welcome Dan Watson, the 4th generation Watson newspaper photographer, with a presentation on the historic camera gear used by his ancestors to document some of the most fascinating crimes in Los Angeles history.

For more info on the Watson Family Photographic Archive, visit www.delmarwatsonphotos.com

On the last Sunday of each month , LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.

At the September 2013 Salon, social historian Joan Renner gave a presentation on the celebrated Los Angeles crime reporter and city editor Aggie Underwood, and her groundbreaking newspaper career which began in the 1920s. For more about the September Salon, click here.

In July 2013, LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association launched a series of six monthly walking tours along Broadway meant to raise consciousness about the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the pending implementation of Strategy One, Phase One of the City of Los Angeles’ Broadway Streetscape Master Plan. Each walking tour follows and departs from the free LAVA Sunday Salon.

Tour guides are Donald Spivack (CRA), Nathan Marsak, Ed Rosenthal (the poet broker) and Richard Schave (Esotouric/LAVA), with a musical interlude from Flannery Lunsford.

This month, we walked along South Broadway, between 9th and 8th Streets, focusing on the theaters as well as the original retail stores along the block. Stops include Clifton’s Cafeteria, Hamburger’s Department Store, the Eastern Columbia Building and the United Artists Theatre.

Read about this tour here, and watch video of the walk below.