LA Stories - History of LA talk
LA Stories - History of LA talk
Hats off to Westerns. One of the reasons movie studios moved to Los Angeles in the early 1900s because its desert scenery was great for filming then-popular Western movies, said current Yalie Julie Kripke. In LA for the summer, Yale students Julia and Sean McBride '03 talked about their History of Los Angeles seminar class papers with nearly a dozen alums at the appropriately historical Canter's Deli on Fairfax in Hollywood Sunday August 4.
A Yale professor with ties to Southern California teaches the seminar class every other year to offer more than dozen students a SoCal perspective in a East-coast dominated curriculum. About two-thirds of the students in this year's class were from the Los Angeles are, making it like a reunion, Sean said. Julia's paper focused on the development of movie studios in the LA area. Other reasons studios moved to LA include: working around a filming patent and LA's range of location shooting - from beaches to mountains to desert - that was new for East Coast audiences. Sean discussed the development of Watts and Compton, tracing the overflow of low-income African Americans from Watts into Compton and the efflux of Caucasians into the Valley and San Bernardino, to its current Hispanic/ African-American mix. While LA is statistically one of the most diverse cities, ethnicities tend to stay in their own neighborhoods, due in part to a weak public transportation/rail system. Sean and Julia also answered interested attendees' questions.
Addendum Ken Dean was unable to attend the Canter's Deli meeting, so he wanted to share his paper topic as well. Ken researched the history of car customization in the LA area, classifying California car cultures into three groups. First, the "hot rodders" started drag racing on California's long, straight, flat desert roads. Then the "low-riders" became popular among Hispanics and African Americans. Finally, customizers used their post-war mechanics knowledge to add souped up bells and whistles to their cars. Today, Asians have fused elements of all three car cultures by customizing fast, low-riding Hondas and Acuras, as documented in the Fast and Furious movie. Thanks to Sean, Julia, Ken, and our attendees for a great discussion! |
The movie Fast and Furious (2001) documents the resurfacing of a vibrant car culture in Southern California. |
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