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Film Noir is moody, sexy, dark and dangerous, the nightmare flip side of the sun-drenched mid-century Southern California dream.Join Esotouric on a walk that celebrates Film Noir and its abiding influence through visits to select filming locations, sites connected to artists who shaped the genre, and places where real life noir narratives were captured by dogged crime reporters, bringing inspiration to Hollywood screenwriters in their daily newspaper.
Starting from Grand Central Market in the Historic Core, we’ll visit the Bradbury Building and some iconic locations off Pershing Square before plunging into old Skid Row between Main and Los Angeles Streets. This lost world of pawn shops, burlesque halls, all-night movie theaters, “slave market” job boards, shooting galleries, b-girl bars, rescue missions and decaying residency hotels is where the writers Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain found inspiration for books that were adapted into Noir screenplays like “Double Indemnity” (1944) and “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946).
And of course we’ll visit Bunker Hill, the sprawling Victorian neighborhood of aging boarding houses and shadowy back alleys that was Hollywood’s favorite back lot when the screenplay called for a gritty mixed use set—until the redevelopment agency evicted 9000 people and tore it all down.
We’ll ascend on Angels Flight Railway, a short ride with a long filmography. Up on the hill, historian Nathan Marsak, author of Bunker Hill Los Angeles, Bunker Noir!, and Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill brings the lost neighborhood to life. And Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison explains how by playing up its sinister appearance, Hollywood helped feed the urban renewal PR engine that sealed his beloved neighborhood’s fate.
If you’re interested in movies, urban history, true crime and the creative process, you won’t want to miss it.
This walking tour is illustrated with rare images you can view on your smartphone.
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Event Venue
Grand Central Market, Grand Central Market, 317 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013, United States
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