Los Angeles in 7 Days

Posted on June 23, 2010 by lmharnisch
I’ve been looking for a copy of “Los Angeles in 7 Days” since my friend Carolyn Strickler, former head of The Times’ History Center, showed me a copy of the 1932 book. Bookfinder has a few copies, but for more than I care to pay. Fortunately, it can be downloaded from Google Books. Notice that I’ve opened the digitized copy to the section on the Los Angeles Public Library. Ahem.

Former Times reporter Lanier Bartlett, who wrote “The Spoilers” for Selig Polyscope, and his wife, author Virginia Stivers Bartlett, cover quite a bit of ground rather quickly, so there aren’t extended entries on most of the sights, but they do provide some excellent details on many landmarks that have changed or vanished in the intervening years.  Notice that it provides a detailed description of the Biltmore.

But what’s this? “We were moving very slowly in congested traffic and had time to chat about days gone by.” And yes, this was in 1932, before freeways, in the golden age of public transportation with the Los Angeles streetcar system.

About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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3 Responses to Los Angeles in 7 Days

  1. Mary mallory says:
    June 23, 2010 at 7:16 am

    I’ll have to check this out, particularly to finish reading what they say about the library. THE SPOILERS was one of Selig’s first features, a big hit for them. Didn’t know of the Times connection.

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  2. CatM says:
    June 23, 2010 at 8:00 am

    I didn’t even know there WAS a Women’s Athletic Club. It’s a shame it’s gone, it looked like a lovely building, and what an unusual rooftop garden. Sigh. My kingdom for a time machine.

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  3. MichaelRyerson says:
    June 23, 2010 at 9:05 am

    Minor quibble. I notice, Larry, that you rarely pass up a chance to float a little snide comment about the popular streetcar system or more accurately that the early congestion existed alongside the streetcars as though the streetcars were somehow derelict in their sworn duty to clear up the glut of cars which has plagued our fair city almost from the beginning of the motor-age. I, for one, remember them fondly, as they served to give us a way around the city when my father was at work. By walking a couple of blocks, my mother, without a driver’s license, and without a second car anyways, could safely go shopping up in Hollywood or downtown with two small children in tow for what seemed to me a small amount of money. As a child I didn’t realise the big red cars were supposed to be clearing the streets of excess traffic, I just thought they were a neat way for us to get around. I still think so.

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