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The Arts

RIP for Famous Puppetry Theater?

Life in Angel City
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Unfortunately, it may indeed be curtains for Echo Park’s world-renown Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Built in 1953, the old cinder-block building at First Street and Glendale Blvd. is considered by many to be America’s longest-running puppet theater, and was declared a Los Angeles historic-cultural landmark in 2009. Nevertheless, the theater has been floundering since 2008, [...]

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Before “The Artist” Came “Wings”

Odds and Ends
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As everyone knows by now, “The Artist” was named best picture at last night’s 2012 Oscars — the first (mostly) silent film to win such honors in 83 years. The last silent movie to receive similar accolades was “Wings,” a 1927 flick about World War I fighter pilots starring “It Girl” Clara Bow and Charles [...]

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Lost and Found: Original 1927 Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Footprints

Life in Angel City
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NBC Los Angeles reports that concrete slabs bearing the original footprints of Sid Grauman, Douglass Fairbanks and Mary Pickford have been found in — of all places — a local airport hanger. Along with the still-lost footprints of Norma Talmadge, the silent-era imprints date to 1927 and, through a quirk of fate, were the very [...]

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That’s Our Lady: Needing a Hand in Echo Park

Angeleno Sights
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Though locals call her “Our Lady of the Lake,” this WPA-commissioned statue overlooking Echo Park Lake was actually entitled Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles (Our Queen of the Angels) when designed in 1934 by Ada Mae Sharpless.
In this Art Deco depiction, our city’s patroness stands atop a pedestal featuring iconic reliefs of the harbor, City [...]

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Metropolis: A Must-See for Cinema Buffs!

Odds and Ends
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Seeking 2 hours and 45 minutes of golden silence on the silver screen? You can’t do any better than Fritz Lang’s historic 1927 film masterpiece Metropolis, now playing on the Laemmle’s Theatre circuit.
Set in the 21st Century, the silent classic envisions a futuristic world in which a seductive female android goads subterranean proletariat workers to [...]

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The Bricks and Mortar of Feminist Power

Angeleno Sights
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Who says L.A. has no history? Open your eyes (or in this case your camera lens) wide enough, and you’ll literally discover it in the most out-of-the-way corners of town.
While shooting the Broadway viaduct the other day, I parked my Jeep in front of this old brick building on N. Spring Street, thinking little of [...]

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A Tale of Two City Murals

Life in Angel City
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It’s either the best of wall art or it’s the worst of wall art, depending upon your perspective. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But if you ever needed a demonstration of the self-evident principle that murals mirror the life and cultural assumptions of their respective communities, this is it.
This first [...]

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Rudy Valentino’s Cryptic DeLongpre Park Memorial

Cryptic L.A.
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Hollywood is known for countless oddball pairings: Laurel and Hardy. Spanky and Alfalfa. Sonny and Cher.
But in my mind one of the oddest has to be Rudy Valentino and DeLongpre Park. There is no historical connection between the two. Yet here in the pocket park commemorating the famous floral artist Paul DeLongpre, you’ll find not [...]

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Did Uncle Walt Leave Mickey in the Public Domain?

Names and Faces

They say turnabout is fair play…
Having argued for years that their company has legally appropriated characters in the public domain for its cartoons (i.e., Bambi and Peter Pan), Disney officials may soon be in the uncomfortable position of fending off challenges to their own copyright on none other than The Mouse himself.
According to an extensive [...]

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Pop Quiz: Ready For Your Sunset Blvd. Close-Up Challenge?

Angeleno Sights

The Film: Sunset Blvd., the 1950 film noir classic co-written/directed by Billy Wilder and starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson.
The Scene: After leading two repo men on a high-speed car chase along a winding stretch of Sunset Blvd., down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis (Holden) ditches them with a quick turn into [...]

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