Dateline>City of Angels

I just put the finishing touches on my little “weekend project” of constructing a blogroll. It took some playing with the code, but I finally got it to display the categories just as I wanted. With any luck, you’ll see it grow significantly in the coming week or two. (Feel free to e-mail me any additional suggestions via the comment link.) In the meantime, there are a number of interesting sites to check out.

It hasn’t been a good week for preservationist-minded Angelenos. First came the word that the historic downtown Herald Examiner Building now faces demolition. Then came news of the actual destruction of the oldest home in Van Nuys. (Originally built circa 1911, the old Sylvan Street bungalow was first erected to attract potential suburbanites to the community.) Now there’s word that the paddle boat franchises at the Echo and MacArthur Park lakes may be sinking fast. Granted the fiberglass boats aren’t the most historic things in town. Still, they’re a slice of local life that would be a shame to say goodbye to.

This past year saw the demolition of L.A.’s celebrated Ambassador Hotel. Sadly, the coming year may see the destruction of another historic downtown landmark. LAObserved reports that the classic Julia Morgan-designed Herald-Examiner Building now faces the wrecking ball. (In a town already widely known for bulldozing its architectural heritage at every turn, this news can’t be sitting well with preservationists.) The building, which allegedly boasts a spectacular interior, has stood forlorn near the corner of 11th and Broadway since the Hearst newspaper folded in 1989, essentially leaving the Los Angeles Times to run amok as the city’s sole paper.

It’s hard to say which ending is more ignoble — that of the building or the newspaper itself. During its waning years, the once-proud Herald resorted to a level of dumbed-down, sensationalist reporting that would even make today’s local TV news teams wince. In 1987, for instance, when a disgruntled passenger brought down a PSA airliner in Central California, other media outlets tactfully used words like “gruesome” to describe the debris field. By contrast, the Herald compared the carnage to “raspberry jelly.”

With Griffith Park’s recent fire, the tale of the Feliz Curse is as topical as ever. For about a century now, every time disaster strikes the park, the legend re-emerges. I first came across this infamous piece of ghostlore several years ago when I moved to Silverlake, not far from the park. Ever since, separating fact from fiction has become a personal obsession, taking me on a quest through numerous books, articles and Early California vital records. I first wrote/posted the following (lengthy) article on my original blog, Oct. 5, 2005…
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Last week I received an e-mail from Mary Bingham, a historian-writer for the Tubac Villager in Arizona. Her message read in part:

I recently started to do stories on the Anza Expedition families and what happened to them after they left Tubac on Oct. 23, 1775. Your articles and Internet info about the Feliz family, the Los Feliz land grant and the family curse have been a real joy to find. Have you had any luck in finding the link between Jose Vicente Feliz and Juan Jose Anastacio Feliz?

She was referring to articles from my former blog, which crashed about two months ago. With her e-mail, Ms. Bingham graciously included a copy of her excellent article, Baby Born at La Canoa. That touched off a frenzied exchange of notes, articles and other historical data regarding the Feliz family, the Anza Expedition, Rancho Los Feliz, Griffith Park and the alleged Curse of Dona Petranilla.

I learned a lot from Ms. Bingham’s research on Jose Vicente Feliz (a Los Angeles founder) and the Anza Expedition that brought him to Southern California. The exchange also lit a fire under me to re-post my previous blog’s Angeleno history and ghostlore pieces, including the Dread Feliz Curse, starting this week. Stay tuned…

Over the weekend I got to return to my erstwhile research into Angeleno ghostlore. (Visitors to my old blog know it’s a favorite topic of mine.) Among the most intriguing stories I’ve uncovered over the years is the notorious White Lady of Elysian Park, a prudish spirit with an alleged aversion to amorous parkgoers. According to local legend, groping couples are occasionally shocked by a ghostly female who peers into their car and shrieks. When they bolt up for a quick getaway, they find their engine (among other things) suddenly impotent. Despite the legend’s popularity in the Echo Park area, very little has been written about it — until now.

Or should I say, until about three months ago? Yes, I’m late to the party on this one, but Metroblogging L.A. included the White Lady among its “Top 25 L.A. Legends,” posted in March. (Also making the list was another fave of mine, the dreaded Curse of Dona Petranilla.)

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