Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles

317 Pages·2013·6.68 MB·English

by  Vincent Brook

Land of Smoke
and Mirrors
(cid:1)

Land of Smoke
and Mirrors
(cid:1)
A Cultural History of Los Angeles
Vincent Brook

r utgers university press
new br unswick, new jerse y, and lond on
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brook, Vincent, 1946–
Land of smoke and mirrors : a cultural history of Los Angeles / Vincent Brook.
p . cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978–0–8135–5457–0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–8135–5456–3
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–8135–5458–7 (e-book)
1. Los Angeles (Calif.) — History. 2. Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) — History.
3. Popular culture — California — Los Angeles — History. 4. Los Angeles (Calif.) —
In literature. 5. Los Angeles (Calif.) — In motion pictures. 6. Motion picture
industry — California — Los Angeles — History. 7. Cultural pluralism — California —
Los Angeles — History. 8. Minorities — California — Los Angeles — History.
9. Los Angeles (Calif.) — Social conditions I. Title.
F869.L857B762012
979.4’94 — dc23
201200990 2
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2013 by Vincent Brook
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission
from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick,
NJ08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defi ned by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typesetting: Jack Donner, BookType
For Karen always and forever

C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
Introduction 5
PART I
Original Si(g)n
1 TheRamona Myth 2 5
2 Ramona Revisited 4 3
PART II
Si(g)n City
3 “City with Two Heads” 6 7
4 What Price Hollywood? 8 3
PART III
L.A. Noir
5 Bright and Guilty Place 1 05
6 Neo-noir 126
vii
viii Contents
PART IV
Multicultural L.A.
7 LAtinos 1 53
8 bLAcks 1 70
9 LAsians 1 89
10 LAnglos and LAGBTs 2 09
Conclusion 2 33
Notes 2 43
Index 2 81
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
This book grew from a course on the “Rhetoric of Los Angeles” I have been
teaching at the U niversity of Southern California’s Annenberg School of
Communication since 2006. Ur-thanks thus go out to the Annenbergians who
provided the opportunity: Sarah Banet-Weiser, Larry Gross, Abby Kaun, and
Imre Mezsaros. Two of my teaching assistants in the course, Peter Chow-White
and George Villanueva, from whom I lear ned a great deal, deserve special
mention. Myriad others contributed in myriad ways to the book’s completion,
including (with apologies to those I inadvertently omitted): Joe Abbott, Bernie
Acuna, Cecilia Acuna, Conrad Acuna, Charles Alvarez, Cindi Alvitre, Sandra
Ball-Rokeach, Cynthia Becht, Maria Benitez, Tiffany Bowers, Lisa Boyajian, John
Cahoon, Marilyn Campbell, Linda Candelaria, Lena M. Chao, David Delacruz,
Victor Dominguez, Mary Feirro, Matt Gracia, Rene Garcia, Brian Gatlin, Brian
Glover, Felix Gutierrez, Marsha Hagadorn, Margaret Hardin, John Harris, Celone
Hawkinson, Stephen Holguin, Vincent Holguin, Stephen C. Jett, Wes Joe, John
Johnson, Robert Johnson, Claudia Jurmain, David Kipen, Jim Landry, Beau
Layne, Bill McCawley, Doris McKently, Rose Mitchell, Rachel Morales Jackson,
Andy Myers, Summer Myers, Jane Nakasako, Octavio Olvera, Rene Ortiz, Liz
Perez, Pamela Peters, Gary Phillips, Carmen Ramirez, Irene Reynoso, Barbara
Robinson, Al Sanchez, Christopher Shaw, Barbara Sherlock, Jonathan Stein,
Alison Stenger, Dace Taube, Bud Thomas, Mark Thompson, Cynthia Vallejo,
Anita Venegas, and Michelle Weling.
Institutions that helped with photo acquisition include the A C Bilbrew Los
Angeles County Library, Bison Archives, the Japanese American Museum, the
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, the Los Angeles Public Library,
Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, the National Archives, ONE Archives, Photofest,

and the University of Southern California Special Collections Library.
ix