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Exposing Sin City: Southern California sense of place and the Los Angeles anti -myth

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Exposing Sin City: Southern California sense of place and the Los Angeles anti -myth

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EX PO SIN G SIN CITY: SO U TH ER N C A LIFO R N IA SE N SE O F PLACE
A N D T H E LOS A N G E L E S ANTI-M YTH
Copyright 2002
by
Sharon E. Sekhon
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY’ O F TH E G R A D U A T E SC H O O L
U N IV ERSITY OF S O U T H E R N C A L IFO R N L \
In Partial Fulfillm ent o f the
Requirements o f the Degree
D O C TO R O F PH ILO SO PH Y
(HISTORY)
May 2002
Sharon E. Sekhon
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UMI Number: 3073846
Copyright 2002 by
Sekhon, Sharon Elaine
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
The Graduate School
University Park
L O S ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90089-1695
This d isserta tio n , w ritten b y
Sharon E. Sekhon
U nder th e d irectio n o f A J r £ . D issertation
C om m ittee, a n d a p p ro ved b y a ll its m em bers,
has been p re se n te d to an d a ccep ted b y The
G raduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm en t o f
requirem ents fo r th e degree o f
DOCTOR O F PHILOSOPHY
---------------------
Dean o f Graduate S tu dies
A lig n g r 7009
DISSERTA TIO N COM M ITTEE
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D E D IC A T IO N
To Margarete Liebe Sekhon
1944-1999
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many have helped me in completing this study. My dissertation committee,
George J. Sanchez, Kevin Starr, and D ana Polan, guided m e through this process, as
scholarly powerhouses and men o f integrity. George Sanchez, a great mentor, brought
a depth o f criticism to mv work, enabling me to expand its analyses in unforeseen ways
and found support for my work through the D epartm ent o f History and the Program in
American Studies at USC. Throughout our exchanges. Kevin Starr unbelievably treated
me as an equal and mv work as worthwhile and im portant. His encouragement gave me
newfound curiosity and the drive to finish. From our first meeting, D ana Polan raised
my level o f engagem ent, urging me to “run” with my ideas. Each treated me with an
unquestioned faith in mv abilities, and I truly believe no better com m ittee could exist.
Also at L SC, T ern- Seip advised me with wisdom and patience. Archivist and
L.A. expert, Dace Taube talked to me about my dissertation, sharpening my knowledge
of local history and showing me that the devil, and the best stuff, is in the details. I am
also grateful to La Verne Hughes, Lori Rogers, Brenda Johnson, and Sheila Starr for
their thoughtful conversations on the nature and progress o f my research.
From the Am erican Studies Departm ent at California State University Fullerton,
I have profited from the continued m entoring o f Terri L. Snyder, w ho challenges m e to
be a better scholar by her example. Terri, with Jesse Battan and Mike Steiner, helped
me— from suggesting I present my findings to reminding m e o f the im portance of
interdisciplinary work in their continuing research and their teaching philosophies.
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I also thank the D epartm ent in American Studies for giving me the opportunity to teach
for them while still a Ph.D . student and, in so doing, trusting me with an important
responsibility.
While several fellow graduate students lent support and companionship, five
deserve special mention. Jim Welch, Christine Acham, Carol Bunch, Richard Edwards,
and Anne Marie Kooistra read earlv chapter drafts, discussed my ideas, and challenged
me to go beyond the research exercise. By conducting work that I find worthwhile and
important, these scholars required me to keep up with the Joneses, not an easy feat. I
also thank Dan Gebler, Pete La Chapelle, Kate Porteus, Matt Roth, Lynn Sacco, and
Chris West for creating a stimulating graduate student cohort.
The support o f mv family and friends has always been invaluable. Beatrice
DeGea, Jerry Gordon, Joan Jacard, Shirley Kurata, Kate Russell, Chamara Russo, and
Terri Snyder (again) kept my eyes on the elusive prize, reminding me o f my initial
reasons for pursuing graduate school. My dad Kalwant Singh Sekhon reminded me of
the temporary nature o f graduate school and lent me financial support, for which I am
thankful. I give thanks to my mom Margarete Liebe Sekhon for ensuring I remained
true to myself, a powerful standard in any form, and by putting graduate school in a
larger life context through her life experiences. Finally, my much loved husband, Bob
Drwila withstood the entire graduate school experience, helped look up elusive
information on microfilm, watched numerous memorable and forgettable films with
me, listened patiendy to my various forms o f anxiety, and (best o f all) spooned me even7
night. For this and everything that went beyond the call o f duty, I thank everyone.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii-iv
Abstract vi-vii
Introduction 1
Chapter One:
Southern California Boosterism & Its Historv o f Hvpe, 1870-1920 19
Chapter Two:
The Hollywood Novel & Hard-boiled Fiction, 1927-1955 84
Chapter Three:
Legitimating the Legend: Los Angeles Stories, Objective Reporting,
& Tabloid Traditions, 1940-1955 122
Chapter Four:
Fatal Projections: Los Angeles Film 165
Chapter Five:
Comparing Cities in Postw ar Film: New York, Chicago, Boston
& the Los Angeles Road Film 238
Chapter Six: Screenwriter Visions in a World o f Inequitv, 1927-1955 291
Chapter Seven: Sin City Exposed: Southern California Placelessness 332
Conclusion 377
Works Consulted 385
Appendix 424
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ABSTRACT
EX PO SIN G SIN C m ': SO U T H E R N CA LIFO RN IA SENSE O F PLACE
A N D T H E LO S AN GELES ANTI-M YTH
This interdisciplinary study explores the relationship between mass media
sources and national and local attitudes towards specific regions, specifically sense of
place, demonstrated through the example o f Southern California. Throughout the 20th
century, Los Angeles developed an at once conflicted image; known as a place where
impossible dreams could be achieved within the confines an agreeable climate,
simultaneously, the Southern California region became known as a haven for
conspicuous consumption, anti-intellectualism, lax sexuality, and violence. The origins
o f this imagery and how these portrayals influenced and continue to affect regional
attachm ent to place are the central concerns of this study.
Powerful arms o f the mass m edia disseminated Los Angeles' primarily negative
stereotype to the American public and to the residents o f the region. Reacting in part to
booster claims o f the late 19th century, regional fiction from the 1930s and 1940s voiced
criticism o f the Southern California m vthos and the film industry, a place manv writers
knew well. This literary trope was visually translated to film noir o f the 1940s and
1950s during one o f the highest periods o f film-going attendance. Additionally,
regardless o f a search for journalistic objectivity, non-fictional sources o f the same
period used language and subject m atter evocative o f the region's anti-myth. This
triangulation o f sources created a potent vacuum in which a vision o f Southern
California became reified and normalized in American consciousness, but more
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importantly in the vision o f its residents.
Re-invented in various fictional forms to the present, this stereotype goes largely
unquestioned in the popular culture, ultimately fostering a dim inished sense o f place
among Los Angelenos. Involving extensive research in local and national archives, this
dissertation is based on historical texts ranging from prom otional literature, personal
writings, mainstream fiction, poetry, and mainstream news sources to tabloid
journalism, film production notes, and finally, the films themselves. This dissertation
builds on extant writing on Los Angeles and the historiography o f popular culture by
taking seriously the political repercussions o f media-made places.
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IN TR O D U C TIO N
In the Summer o f 2000, commuters exiting the 110 freeway at Exposition just
south o f downtown Los Angeles were greeted by a compelling billboard.1 Advertising
the tequila brand, Sauza, the billboard showed a presumably typical scene from an L.A.
nightclub, with a slick young man chatting up two wom en. While the bar setting o f the
billboard may not have been surprising, since it was, after all, selling alcohol, the
tequila’s copy was startling to at least one Los Angeles motorist. The ad’s most visible
text, in red against a lime green background, read, “N othing stays pure in L.A., well,
almost nothing.” The ad apparendy sought to highlight the tequila’s purity—
underneath this m ore prominent observation, another read, “Sauza. Stay Pure. 100° o
Pure Agave Tequila.” But the billboard’s most visible line, that which in illuminating
the purity of its product actually negated the character o f the population to which it is
marketed, provides an interesting glimpse into Los Angeles’ contem porary media made
image and its relationship to its residents. Nor only does the billboard reflect an
historically developed vision o f Southern California and its population, but it assumes
that its residents agree with these negative appraisals to the point that it can function as
a marketing tool.
The 2000 Sauza tequila billboard positioned in the center o f Los Angeles stands
historically at the end o f a long trajectory of imagery about Southern California that
began in earnest in the 1920s and has been re-fashioned since then in various fictional
and non-fictional forms. Southern California’s general stereotype, with some variations,
1 See Figure 1 in Appendix.
1
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describes a region that though a paradise in terms o f its climate, is a haven for vacuous,
conspicuous consum ption, anti-intellectualism, violence, lax morality, and sexuality.
WTule these depictions create the themes o f recent “ L.A.” films— from Steve Martin’s
L.--I. Story (1991) to the neo-noir L..1. Confidential (1997), they also measure, at times,
the manner in which residents and visitors have been taught to respond to Southern
California. In effect, this Los Angeles imagery mediates the region’s sense o f place.
Sense o f place, the connection between an exact site and public and personal
his ton', occurs through collective and individual experiences with a particular space.2
As this dissertation will show, sense o f place and mass m edia’s influence upon it are
both difficult but worthwhile relationships to measure. Sense o f place is the attachment
an individual and a group may form between a specific place and is mitigated by
personal and public history. The lessons one learns about his or her surroundings are
manifested in a place’s physical features, from established naturalscapes to public
monuments and buildings. In addition, individuals learn about their environments in
school and from the media. Sense o f place is an im portant relationship to both the
person and the place. As geographer Yi-Fu Tuan asserts, “ Place supports the human
need to belong to a meaningful and reasonably stable world, and it does so at different
levels o f consciousness, from an almost organic sense o f identity that is an effect o f
habituation to a particular routine and locale, to m ore conscious awareness o f the values
2 For an eloquent exploration on sense o f place in relationship to community progress
sec Dolores Hayden’s The Rower oj Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge:
M.I.T. Press, 1995).
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o f middle-scale places such as neighborhood, city, and landscape, to an intellectual
appreciation o f the planet earth itself as home.” ''
Mass media also contribute to the wavs in which we approach places. Mass
media, from a variety o f means— film, television, popular literature, have created visual
associations o f specific regions by using recognizable architectural forms, landscapes,
and notable landmarks. For example, Chicago is often recognized by its skyline and the
prominent Sears Tower, New York for its lost twin towers o f the W orld Trade Center
and Empire State Building, and Los Angeles for the Hollywood Sign. And, often with
these visual stereotvpes come repeated value associations with particular locales. For
example, while Los Angeles may be known as a dark com er o f the American continent,
other regions are known for other characteristics. Boston, for example, is often cited as
“ America’s Athens”— the reservoir o f the nation’s thinkers and where its true forefathers
resided.4 Conversely, while Chicago may be known for its history o f gangsters, it is also
considered the capital o f the M idwest and o f American wholesomeness. The mass
media, in building off o f real and imagined historical visions o f a place, create what
geographer D.W. Meinig terms “symbolic landscapes,” that function performatively in
national consciousness.3 But, w hat role do these stereotvpes have in the form ation o f a
1 \i-F u Tuan. "Place and Culture: Analeptic for Individuality and the World’s
Indifference." In Mapping .-1metrican Cultun edited by Wayne Franklin and Michael
Steiner. (Iowa City: University o f Iowa Press, 1992), 44.
4 Gerard L. Alexander. A'icknames oj American Cities. (New York: Special Libraries
Association, 1951), 17.
3 Hie Interpretation oj Ordinary Landscapes, edited by D.W . Meinig (Oxford University
Press: New York, 1979).
3
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region’s sense o f place, and specifically a place like Southern California which has been
and continues to be subject to an ever present series o f newcomers r
This dissertation explores how media made representations affect national and
local attitudes towards specific regions, using Los Angeles as an example. Throughout
the last century, Los Angeles has developed an image with deep historical roots that is at
once conflicted. K now n as a place where seemingly impossible dreams can be achieved
within the confines o f an agreeable climate, at the same time Los Angeles and Southern
California are known as havens for conspicuous consum ption, anti-intellecrualism,
sexuality, and violence. WTiile these individual attributes are not exclusive to Southern
California, in conjunction with the region’s continual state of flux with new migration,
they provide a potent combination. This investigation delves into the meanings o f
symbolic landscapes and unearths the historical influences that shaped Los Angeles’
celluloid representation, from fictional and non-fictional sources, from popular culture
and sometimes high art, from the late 19th centurv to the present, with an emphasis on
the late 1920s to the mid 1950s.
Powerful and different arms of the mass media disseminated Los Angeles'
primarily negative stereotype to the American public and to the residents o f the region.
While this assessment emerged bv the earlv part o f the twentieth centurv bv earlv
detractors, it gained m om entum when it was mass produced in regional fictional
writing. First, fictional writing of the 1930s and 1940s created a trope in which the city
and its environs em bodied many o f the struggles newcomers faced after witnessing the
various regional hyperbolic booster campaigns from the late 19th and earlv 20th
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centuries. This writing was also a reflection of how authors perceived the film industry,
a growing com ponent to Southern California’s exported identity. This literary trope was
visually translated to film noir o f the 1940s and 1950s during one o f the highest periods
o f film going attendance, direcdy after W orld W ar II and before the rise o f television.
Additionally, regardless o f a search for journalistic objectivity, mainstream non-fictional
sources o f the same period used language and subject m atter evocative o f the region's
literary mvthos. This triangulation o f mass mediated sources created a potent vacuum
in which a vision o f Southern California became reified and normalized in American
consciousness, but more im portantly in the vision o f its residents. Re-invented in
various fictional forms to the present, this stereotype goes largely unquestioned in the
popular culture, contributing ultimately to a diminished sense o f place among Los
Angelenos.
Since the 1920s and the emergence o f the Los Angeles anti-myth, Southern
California’s identity has been largely linked to its Hollywood counterpart. Indeed, as the
film industry quickly grew. Southern California stories centered around it. whether these
narratives were about its glam our or its dangers, its beauty or its superficiality, its
potential to create overnight successes or its neglect o f true talent. While these
narratives provided interesting copy and compelling dramas for the rest of the nation to
consume, they only represent one subsection Southern California’s population. This
trend to see the region as either a playground or Potter’s Field for the film industry both
glamorizes a place which could be known for other, less salacious demographics, such
as the region’s continued suburban growth, and neglects its real racial, ethnic, and class
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tensions, which have riddled its past since Anglo American conquest in the mid
nineteenth century. In conjunction with the region’s history o f continued migration and
“erasure” o f its true past, these narratives gain an im portant foothold in the
imaginations of the region’s residents.
This imagery gains particular importance when understanding Southern
California’s place as a magnet for migration. Since the late 1870s, the region has
experienced wave after wave of newcomers, from different parts o f the L’S and the
globe. First lured out by promises by the place’s supposedly restorative climate from
commercial and individual interests, predominandv Midwestern Anglo migrants came to
find cures for their varying ailments, m ost notably tuberculosis. N ext, in conjunction
with its agreeable climate, the region’s business interests began to tout Southern
California for its agricultural fertility and promises o f easy prosperin'. While these nvo
forces continued to provide a constant lure, the arrival o f different film companies in
the 1910s issued another image o f Southern California, one which was broadcast vividly
across the country through film. Hollvwood and the rise o f the star system with its own
media machine, complete with fan magazines, newspaper colum ns, and newsreels
prom oting the film industry, invited would-be celebrities from across the country to try
their luck at stardom. Concurrent with the development o f Hollvwood, the country’s
shedding o f its Victorian restraints and the emerging worlds o f leisure and conspicuous
consumption made Southern California an ideal locale in which to practice this new
behavior. As a place where one could enjoy this liberation, Southern California
continued to attract new arrivals. In addition to its Anglo American migrants. Southern
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California has at different historical moments attracted people from Mexico and Central
America, the Asian Pacific basin, as well as immigrants from all over the planet.
Between 1870 and 1950, Los Angeles County's population rose from 15,309 to
4,151,687 inhabitants, dem onstrating the power o f its lure.6
This huge expansion in population had an immense impact on the region in
industry, real estate values, and m ost importandy in the developm ent o f Southern
Californian sense o f place. The constant flux o f new people to the region encouraged,
with their lack o f a shared history and experience in the place, both a diminished
attachment to the region and m ade it more vulnerable to the power o f its mass
mediated image. As various scholars have shown, from Dolores Havden to N orm an
Klein, Los Angeles’ sense o f itself has historically been forgotten or erased bv
narratives which do not sample its authentic his ton- and by various waves of city
planners and commercial developm ents, who throughout the vears have replaced
historic districts with newer, m ore efficient, but relatively ahistorical buildings.7 Thus,
for a place whose own history is sublimated or ‘erased’, the stories it does hear gain
particular credence.
Because o f this dearth in historical, place markers, the stories Southern
Californians learn about their region are derived primarily through the mass media.
Though two dimensional and often derogatory, the story o f Southern California’s mass
6 Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt, eds., Las Angeles A to Z: A n Engclopedia oj the City and
County. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1997), 403.
' Dolores Hayden. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public H istog. (Cambridge:
M.I.T., 1995) and Norm an Klein. The Histoty o J ~ Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure oj
Memoty. (London: Verso: 1997).
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mediated narratives, as this dissertation shows, is linked to the region’s history and this
placelessness tradition brought by its immigrants. M ost importandv, these literarv and
visual tropes, with other demographic factors, contribute to a continued regional
placelessness.
Historical exploration o f the media made construction o f urban place remains
an important but underdeveloped realm o f study. H ow cities are characterized, the
motivations behind particular urban characterizations, and the ramifications o f specific
characterizations on audience participation remain im portant questions that demand
investigation. D o negative assessments o f cities affect civic pride, which in turn mav
affect voting pattem sr Do negative depictions alter a resident's sense o f responsibility
to a region' Do generally unsympathetic assessments o f a region affect national
attitudes towards a place and subsequendy national policy? While the extant scholarship
has begun to inquire into each question, few have integrated the image, liistoricized its
creation, and linked it with its cultural ramifications.8 This investigation builds on
H Historical work that has focused on popular images o f the city has looked at
boosterism in Southern California and a sense o f civic identity am ong residents of New
York. For work on Southern California's boosterism see Mike Davis’ City o f Quart
Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. (New York: Vintage, 1990); Robert Fogelson. The
fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles. 1850-1930. (Berkeley: University o f California Press,
1993); Carey McWilliams. Southern California: A n Island on the Land. (Santa Barbara:
Peregrine Smith, 1973); Carey McWilliams. California, the Great Exception. (Santa Barbara:
Peregrine Smith, 1976); Remi Nadeau. City-Makers: the Story of Southern California's First
Boom. 1868-~6. (Corona del Mar: Trans-Anglo Books, 1965); Kevin Starr. Material
Dreams: Southern California through the 1920’ s. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990);
Kevin Starr. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1985); Kevin Starr. Americans and the California Dream. 1850-1915.
(Santa Barbara: P. Smith, 1973). For work on New York City, see William R. Taylor, In
Pursuit of Gotham: Culture and Commerce in A ew York (New York: O xford University Press,
1992).
8
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extant scholarship on the city in fiction, film noir, and Los Angeles history bv looking at
this subject in a cross-disciplinary fashion. Using tools and methodologies from historv,
geography, literature, film, and at times political science, this dissertation traces the
hitherto largely ignored role the media plavs in the building or destruction of sense o f
place, historicizing Southern California imagerv on an industry, regional, and national
level. Towards this larger goal, this investigation’s chapters attack these various facets
using different and equally compelling strategies.
Beginning in the 1870s, C hapter One: Southern California Boosterism and Its
History o f Hype, in part traces the origins of the region’s contemporary lackluster
image. This chapter briefly lavs out regional imagery disseminated bv various Southern
California agencies and individuals— health-seekers, the Southern Pacific, the Cham ber
o f Commerce, real estate associations, agricultural industries, and the m otion picture
industry. This chapter documents how its boosters projected an extreme and
unrealistically positive depiction o f life in the region, from its climate to employment
opportunities in order to lure tourists, potential residents, and commercial interests. In
the early 20th century, Los Angeles was often viewed as the penultimate in modernity
and was framed as a model of things to come; the developm ent o f this characterization
is o f particular im portance when understanding later critiques o f the city. This chapter
also briefly lays out the "realities" many newcomers confronted when they actually
arrived. This chapter establishes tw o goals. First, these extremely positive portrayals o f
the region created unrealistic expectations for its immigrants. Southern California’s
inability to live up to these representations fostered resentment among various migrants.
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Second, newcomers manifested their disappointm ent in different ways— one im portant
manner o f expressing resentm ent occurred through regional literature, the subject o f
Chapter Two.
Covering the late 1920s through the m id 1950s, Chapters Tw o and Three work
in tandem; one looking at the region’s fictional stereotype, the other its non-fictional
mirror. C hapter Two. the Hollywood Novel and Hard-boiled Fiction, 1927-1955,
chans the literary perceptions o f the region in various forms including through the
genres o f the Hollywood novel and hard-boiled detective fiction. A reaction against the
region’s booster image and the confines of the studio system, the Hollywood novel
describes Los Angeles as a space o f inequity— explicidy targeting the film industry. The
Hollywood novel uses portrayals o f Los Angeles symbolically, as a direct analogy to the
tilm industry in descriptions o f architecture, immigrants to the region, and the values o f
Los Angelenos. Hard-boiled fiction, seen as a reaction to 1930s and 1940s societal
tension, at times integrated actual historic events into its stories. Further, because o f
Los Angeles’ growing reputation as a m odem citv, critiques o f Los Angeles imbedded in
hard-boiled fiction sometimes work as an interrogation of the nation’s direction.''
Chapter Three, Legitimating the Legend; Los Angeles Stories, Objective
Reporting, and Tabloid Traditions, 1940-1955, examines how various news sources and
presumably “objective” writing began to reflect this fictionalized vision of the region,
'' This builds on observations made by historians not specifically focusing on Los
Angeles. Both George Lipsitz and Michael D enning successfully argue that some
elements o f popular culture o f the 1940s often provided critiques o f modernity, visions
ot progress, and capitalism. See George Lipsitz. Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in
the / 940s. (L rbana: University o f Illinois Press, 1994) and Michael Denning. The Cultural
hront: the Laboring of American Culture in the Tu>entieth-Centuiy. (London: Verso, 1996).
10
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despite apparent differences. From mainstream news magazines like Xeivsweek to
salacious tabloid scandal sheets like Confidential,reports on Southern California
maintained similar themes, following the trajectory created bv fiction o f the 1930s and
1940s. Additionally, this investigation looks at competing sources which continued, to a
certain extant, the booster trajectories and the celebratory narratives o f the film
industry.
Chapters Two and Three perform similar missions. First, they docum ent how
both fictional and non-fictional portrayals o f the region tended to blur the identities o f
Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hollvwood (the film industry), establishing for
many in the nation, Los Angeles and the film industry as synonymous spaces. Second,
the overall vision o f the region, fictional and non-ficnonal, highlighted the absurd, the
ostentatious, and the sexual, establishing a vision that contrasts with the booster image
put forth in the earlier part o f the centurv. Third, these chapters show a normalization
o f a second-class vision of Los Angeles by its widespread adoption in mainstream news
sources. This vision competed with variations o f the booster image which continued to
be disseminated by tourism sources and the film industry and, in some cases, managed
to powerfully eclipse Southern California’s sunny image. Though not all sources o f
information on Southern California showed a hellish place, many shared similar
characteristics, contributing to a growing regional stereotype.
The following chapter. Chapter F o u r Fatal Projections: Los Angeles Film, takes
up where Chapters Two and Three left off bv examining the wav the region and the
film industry were represented in Hollvwood feature films, spanning films specifically
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using Los Angeles from 1940 to 1955 and confirming that a growing tendency emerges
in its filmic characterization, using close textual readings as well as an exploration into
story origins. Contemplating over forty films, this chapter examines, when possible,
budgetary concerns and production factors which may have shaped the choice o f Los
Angeles as a setting.1 " Some film historians argue that filmmakers, housed in Southern
California, chose to simate films in Southern California for primarily financial reasons,
and that setting maintains no narrative significance. Although Los Angeles undoubtedly
was used in this wav in some films, the specific use o f any setting requires further
scrutiny. For though a few mav have used Los Angeles bv default, many movies filmed
in Los Angeles were constructed to take place narratively in another city or location.
An example o f a film illustrating this issue is Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 film De/our. This
extremely low budget film, shot over six days, used rear projection to establish its Los
Angeles setting; demonstrating that economic constraints do not always determine a
Los Angeles locale. In addition to looking at the films, this chapter also surveys studio
generated publicity surrounding the films to show how the Los Angeles celluloid image
was re-inscribed.
Chapter Five continues an exploration o f the region’s celluloid characterization
by canvassing films that use the region alongside other cities or places and surv eying
films that primarily feature other cities. Specifically, this chapter looks at films taking
place in New York, Chicago, and Boston, during the same period, outlining how
different cities are variegated on screen. These differences shape popular new s o f the
For a complete list o f the films exam ined, please see the Works Consulted.
12
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city, in conjunction with other experiences and mediated imagery. This comparative
exploration centers on what the films explicitly and tacitly reveal about the citv through
dialog, what the films sav about the nature o f the city, and action, what actually
transpires in these films. Further, this chapter demonstrates that municipal
governments sometimes recognized the power of this depiction and fought to change
their celluloid characterizations. Im portandv for Los Angeles, though institutions in the
city- were concerned with their filmic portrayal, because o f its ties to the film industry
the city- itself largely refrained from protest.
Chapter Six: Screenwriter Visions in a World o f Inequity-, 1927-1955 turns the
focus o f this larger study imvard and looks at the industrial backdrop to the filmic
Southern California. This chapter surveys the industry related use of Los Angeles in
film and hypothesizes over the use o f film content as a way to assess poyver and
resistance in the studio system. The filmic characterization o f Southern California
provides an excellent example o f such a sphere. Because criticism of the film industry
was not tolerated in studio produced film and because Los Angeles’ public identity yvas
inextricably linked to Holly-wood, negative appraisals o f Los Angeles in film should be
assessed. L.A. scholar Mike Davis proffers that through noir screemvriters could
critique the national consensus that affirm ed capitalism as the path to progress and
success." Davis’ brief examination o f noir screemvriters provides entry into a neyv
realm o f scholarship. This chapter expands Davis’ theoretical target; negative
" Mike Davis. City of Quarty: Excavating the Future in E>s Angeles. (Neyv York: Vintage,
1990), 36-42.
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depictions of Los Angeles could w ork as critiques o f the studio system. Bv using Los
Angeles as a stand in tor Hollywood, screenwriters were able to critique a system that
otherwise provided no room for self-critique.
The 1950 production o f Sunset Blvd. provides a telling example o f unspoken
rules in the film industry o f the period. Directed by Billy W ilder, this film tells the story
o f an aging actress's dalliance with a has-been screenwriter, resulting in the writer’s
death. Although nominated for best picture, studio heads at Param ount were said to be
angry with W ilder’s portrayal o f the film industry, charging that W ilder should not “bite
the hand that feeds him.” 1 ’ Because filmmakers w ere discouraged from criticizing the
film industry directly, this chapter argues that writers used setting as a way to critique
Hollywood. As Los Angeles and Hollywood were blurred in identity, writers may have
used a negative representation o f Los Angeles to earn* out an indictm ent o f the film
industry. By looking at the real and perceived inequities writers confronted in the film
industry, this chapter furthers that the choice Los Angeles as a setting may have served
a political purpose to an often vulnerable group o f workers.
1 2 Darns’ observations on film noir are underdeveloped in City of Quarty. He cites only a
few films and looks to noir’s subversive, anti-capitalist imagery m ore than to the
depiction o f Los Angeles. Like A ndersen’s film gris, film noir presented a world that
was not satisfied with the domestic ideal presented by dom inant culture during the
1940s and 1950s. Davis’ work on the Hollvwood N ovel and hard-boiled fiction,
however, presents new and im portant ways o f historically assessing the Los Angeles
fiction.
n Oscar information obtained from the Internet M ovie Database. “Awards: Sunset
Blvd. (1950).” Internet Movie Database at http: / / www.imdb.com on N ovem ber 19,
1999.
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Apart from the uncritical adoption o f stereotypical news, why does
understanding the impact o f media-made places matter? The final chapter o f this
exploration answers this question by linking the image to its influence on sense o f place.
Chapter Seven, Sin Citv Exposed: Southern California Place(less)ness, in addition to
briefly delineating the celluloid construction of Los Angeles post 1955, posits that these
historically rooted, recycled, repetitive representations o f Southern California as a place
o f litde worth must contribute to the region's diminished sense o f place. This chapter
accomplishes an elusive feat: gauging sense o f place and doing so dem onstrates the far
reaching ramifications o f media-made places. Although this chapter cannot
comprehensively explore this issue o f audience reception, it poses several questions that
confront reception: How does the continued negative depiction o f the region affect
local attitudes to place? How are these attitudes manifested in regional pride or
responsibility? How does this mass m ediated image influence national attitudes towards
the city and region? Can this attitude play itself out in national legislative debate or the
national hierarchy o f cultural values? This chapter acknowledges other factors that may
both encourage and discourage place-making in the region, aside from its media-made
representation. Finally, as this dissertation draws to a close, its Conclusion points to
ways residents may better foster sense o f place on an institutional and individual level.
W hile this study sharply interrogates the wide array o f negative imagery that
Hollywood and various writers have created to represent Southern California as a
whole, it does not suggest that criticism o f Los Angeles o r the region is not ever
deserved. Indeed, this investigation asks its readers to deconstruct the Los Angeles anti
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myth in order to get at the region’s real struggles and asks the region’s critics to form
any arguments against the place with its real demographics in mind. Instead o f
concentrating on the num ber o f oxygen bars or bikini shops in Los Angeles, this studv
asks critics to look at the city’s more im portant and increasingly complex issues: from its
current housing shortage which affects the region’s poor in often undocum ented wavs,
to its ethnic and racial tensions which are both rooted in economics and cultural factors,
to its bureaucratic and ill suited form o f city representation, to its reliance on
undocumented workers in many spheres o f industry, to the problems facing the Los
Angeles L'nified School District, to name but a few. If Southern California is to be
represented as problem-plagued, it should be these conflicts which form the image, not
one which only focuses on the absurd.
A qualification o f terms is necessary in understanding the aims o f this project.
For purposes of this dissertation the terms ‘L.os Angeles’ and ‘Southern California’ at
times perform synonymously, though in reality the two are hardly equals. The term
‘Hollywood,’ unless otherwise noted refers to the film industry. Obviously, Los Angeles
is the city which dom inates the Southern California region, but because various media
sources predominantly melded the two in popular discourse up until the mid 1950s, in
part because Los Angeles did not emerge from the region as a major entity until the 20th
century, this dissertation treats the amalgamation o f the two. Indeed, im bedded in the
core arguments o f this study is the m anner in which mass media sources collapsed the
identity o f Los Angeles, Southern California, and Hollywood into one entity. After the
mid 1950s and the surfacing o f Southern California’s youth culture and the region’s
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growing suburban populations, articulated m ost clearlv in the them e park Disneyland
which opened in the summer o f 1955, a subde delineation between Los Angeles,
Hollywood, and Southern California entities began to unfold. This clarification
continued with the rise o f urban conflicts associated with Los Angeles’ core, m ost
notably the 1965 Los Angeles riots. These two trajectories in Southern California
history in m m influenced the m anner in which the citv and region were differentiated in
the mass media. Yet, concurrent with this post 1955 delineation, the amalgamation
known as Southern California culture continued to exist and be represented in popular
culture.
The goal o f this dissertation is twofold. First, it hopes to spur new questions
and answers in the creation o f sense of place and the fostering o f regional responsibility.
Second, this research is concerned with understanding the role the media plays in
shaping public attitudes about places and their subsequent consequences, both good
and bad. These goals are basic; they are about building a better understanding o f place
on an individual and collective level in order to facilitate social change. Los Angeles,
indisputably one o f the most im portant cities in the United States and the world, suffers
from a lack o f community cohesion that influences political behavior in informal and
formal ways. Though this dissertation presents ways for community participants from
academics to polio- planners to create place-making programs, there are undoubtedly
more ways to accomplish this social imperative. Indeed, future studies on this topic
must ferret out more tangible avenues toward place-making, if not to encourage
political behavior, then at least to help Southern Californians recogni2e and understand
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how the existence o f a Sauza billboard advertisement in their midst can insult
audience while also asking it to buv its product.
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CH A PTER O N E:
SO U TH ER N CA LIFORNIA BOOSTERISM A N D
ITS H ISTO RY O F HYPE, 1870-1920
“ .. .(I)t is a magic land, our California o f the South, so kindly to those whom it shelters
in its warm bosom O f all the lands G od fashioned, it is the best. And, as o f old, its
arms are wide with welcome, its heart unwearied in its love. To live long, and to live
gladly, there is no other place to com pare with it. And it his where he who will may
find it, in the glow o f the hills o f glory and the sunset flame o f the sea.” 1
|ohn Steven McGroarty,
Los Angeles Booster and author o f The Mission Play (1914)
“Sign o f Intelligent Life in L.A.” 2
Application copv for Los Angeles Public Library
campaign encouraging librarv cards (2000)
These observations on Southern California, written 86 vears apart, reveal two o f
its extremes in the public imagination. While both texts are obvious exaggerations, each
represents a popular, rarely critiqued, assessment o f Los Angeles for its respective
historical period. M cGroarty’s vision, written for the Southern California Panama
Expositions Commission, was used in conjunction with a myriad o f other texts—
pamphlets, letters home, novels, romanticized histories, magazine advertisements and
articles— to encourage tourism, perm anent migration to Southern California, and the
consumption o f California specific products in the earlv 20th-century. Conversely, the
1 John Steyen McGroarty. "Southern California," in Southern California: Comprising the
Counties oj Imperial’ Las Angeles. Orange. Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, V'entura. (San
Francisco: Southern California Panama Expositions Commission, 1914).
2 Brochure for library card application from Los Angeles Public Library obtained May
10, 2001.
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application from one o f Los Angeles’ major public institutions, the Los Angeles Public
Library (LAPL) which was meant to encourage lib ran- card enrollment, implies that
such signs o f “ Intelligent Life in L.A.” are normally in short supply and refers to a very
different but also popularly held stereotype about Southern California; chiefly, that Los
Angeles is a place o f anti-intellecmalism and superficiality. Moreover, the LAPL
brochure coexists with similar media generated texts about Los Angeles. What
happened within this space o f nearly a century to create such disparate images? As this
dissertation shows, the two identities are interconnected; specifically, our current, less
celebratory vision o f Southern California hinges on its much earlier, illustrious image.
This chapter begins with the rise o f Southern California’s early booster image in
the 1880s and ends in the mid-1920s with Hollywood’s growing influence on the
region’s identity in popular consciousness. It docum ents the building o f Southern
California, and later as it grew, Los Angeles’ exported image. This chapter uses the
terms interchangeably because though Los Angeles emerges as an urban center in the
early twentieth-century, in public perception the two were often treated as one entity in
promotional literature. And because o f this early joining in the public’s imagination, the
two continue to remain intertwined. This study briefly lays out the images o f Southern
California put forth by various Los Angeles agencies, from the Cham ber o f Commerce,
real estate associations, agricultural industries, and the film industry. The region’s
boosters projected an extreme and unrealisticallv positive depiction o f its life, from its
climate to employment opportunities. O ften touted as the citv m ost representing
modernity, Los Angeles was considered a model o f the future— an im portant
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characterization when understanding later critiques o f the city. Within this studv I lav
out the “realities” that many newcomers confronted w hen they actually arrived.
This chapter examines forty years o f Southern California imagery and covers
several forms o f regional prom otion to show the extent to w hich the phenomenon
occurred and to note the prevalence o f common images. Although some of these
sources may overlap in terms o f period and image, this chapter hopes to show the
evolution o f this earlv Southern California mvth. This investigation begins with the
health-seekers who came in search o f a cure for tuberculosis and other wretched
diseases as the result o f prom otional campaigns highlighting the curative wonders o f the
climate. Within this discussion is the examination o f the efforts o f railroad companies
like Southern Pacific who sought to supply transportanon for tourists and to create a
consumer base o f emigrants who would continue to use its services through both
explicitly sponsored texts and ones in which their sponsorship remained hidden.
Concurrent with the prom otional campaigns featuring the region’s curative powers were
the advertisements, both sponsored and written bv individuals with no profit in sight, o f
the place’s agricultural superiority.
As this study nears the 20th-century, it takes up the continued advertisement of
the region in terms o f its climate and abundance beginning with the growth o f the citrus
culture. After discussing the use o f environment and climate in earlv advertising, this
investigation turns to the form ation o f the “mission m vth” bv the 1884 publication o f
Ramona by Helen H unt Jackson. Ramona and texts like it, though initially intended to
produce awareness o f the plight o f Native Americans in the United States, contributed
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to the formation o f a romanticized, false historv of Southern California. Finallv, the
chapter ends with the move o f the m otion picture industry to Southern California, how
regional leadership viewed this new commodity, and the dissemination o f the Southern
California image as another form o f regional booster.
This investigation paints the backdrop to understanding the century’s later
vision o f the Southern California region and spends time delineating its prior, largely
booster image in order to explore three main goals o f the dissertation. First, these
extremely positive portrayals created unrealistic expectations for new arrivals, and the
region’s inability to live up to them fostered resentment. Undoubtedly, many w ho came
were too ill to partake o f the restorative powers the region’s climate provided. And,
while the region’s relatively dry weather could relieve som e o f the weakening effects o f
some ailments, some diseases, such as tuberculosis had no cure. Similarly, many arrivals
did not experience a lush, verdant oasis with fruit and vegetables just waiting to be
picked that its boosters had promised. Instead, thev found vast areas needing irrigation
and roads built or real estate values that had far exceeded their budgets. A nd in the case
of the film industry, many came expecting to find easy, available work at comparatively
high salaries or easy fame, instead to find differing concepts o f writing, as in the case o f
screenwriters, the subject o f Chapter Six, or thousands o f other hopeful actors and
actresses with little to no chance at stardom. Second, newcom ers manifested their
disappointment and resentm ent in different wavs which were widely disseminated in
varying forms, from fictional writing to filmic portrayals. The late 1920s and 1930s saw
the emergence o f two powerful genres in Southern California writing: the Hollywood
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novel and hard-boiled detective fiction. Hollywood adopted this vision o f Southern
California in films o f the 1940s and 1950s, most notablv in the noir cvcle o f films.
Finally, this chapter establishes that Los Angeles’ popular image changes under different
historical contexts. As Los Angeles and Southern California underwent
transformations, so too did its image subdy reflect these demographic changes. In
addition to building on previous visions, by adapting to the region’s historic changes.
Southern California imagery was able to be more believable and palatable to its
consumers.
REFLECTING ON THE BOOSTER M YTH:
This study builds on the extant scholarship on the boosting o f Southern
California, which in its various incarnates is quite comprehensive. Indeed, this period o f
Los Angeles history has long been considered significant in understanding the waves o f
newcomers who moved to Southern California.' From studving the region’s role as a
’ Various historians have examined this period in order to understand the foundations
o f Southern California history. See Carey McWilliams. Southern California: A n Island on
Land. (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Books, 1990) originallv published in 1946. O f primary
importance are Chapters Four, Six, Eleven, Thirteen, and Sixteen; Judith Wilnin Elias.
"The Selling o f A Myth: Los Angeles Prom otional Literature, 1885-1915." (Master's
thesis., California State University Northridge, 1979) and book Los Angeles: Dream to
Reality 1885-1915. (Northridge: Santa Susana Press, California State University
Northridge Libraries, 1983). Kevin Starr. Inventing the Dream: California through the
Progressive Era. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985) and Kevin Starr. Material
Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s. (New York: O xford University Press, 1990);
John Baur. The Health Seekers of Southern California. (San Marino: the Huntington
Library, 1959). John Parris Springer. "Hollywood Fictions: The Cultural Construction
of Hollywood in American Literature, 1916-1939." (Ph.D. diss., University o f Iowa,
1994) and book Hollywood Fictions: the Dream Factory in .'bnerican Popular Literature.
(Norman: University o f Oklahoma Press, 2000).
2 3
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magnet for the infirmed in the late 19,h century to the developm ent o f its agricultural
interests, to the discover.' o f oil at the tum -of-the centurv to the rise o f Hollywood and
its force in relaying images o f Southern California, manv have examined this earlv
period in Los Angeles history. Historians have examined the impetus behind individual
and group migration, looking at the efforts o f commercial interests such as the Southern
Pacific Railroad and health resorts to the exhortation o f individuals who found a health
paradise in Southern California. Others have examined the experience o f business
leaders and their efforts at developing Los Angeles and its corresponding exported
image. Finally, manv studies have delved into the im portance o f earlv Hollywood in
creating a Southern California mvthos. W ith this reservoir o f secondary sources and
relevant primary' sources, this chapter paints the background to this dissertation’s focus:
Southern California’s exported, historical image from the 1920s through the 1950s.
The years immediately preceding the focus o f this chapter dem onstrate the
significant demographic and cultural changes that took place in Southern California
between 1880 and the early 1920s. In 1850 California gained statehood. W hile the
region did experience some sporadic periods o f growth between 1850 and 1880, these
episodes could not compare to the phenom enal land boom s o f the later period.
Historian Glenn Dumke notes that the rush o f gold-seekers provided som e increase in
population, the manipulation o f real estate by Californios, and the railway propaganda
issued to gam er support for the construction o f the Southern Pacific railroad all
afforded some growth.4 And, while the California as a whole had embarked on various
4 Glenn S. Dumke. The Boom of the Eighties in Southern California. (San Marino:
Huntington Library-, 1944), 42-43.
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promotional efforts, these were centralized in northern California.5 The establishment
o f Los Angeles Count}- in 1850 did not guarantee a peaceful transition from Mexican to
United States rule; rather, ethnic tensions were often unnecessarily exacerbated.6
Relatively speaking, Los Angeles and Southern California remained a place
whose population was dispersed across an immense geographic space. Remi Nadeau
describes the streets o f Los Angeles in the 1860s as one o f savagery and chaos:
About four hundred m ongrel dogs, almost half o f which had no
owners, infested the town, chasing ychicles and snapping at
horses' heels. They were so num erous in the business district that
one had to be alert lest he stum ble oyer some flea-bitten cur. W hen
a dog would nip at a horse's leg it was not uncom m on for the rider
to flash a pistol and shoot the animal on the sp o t With such
confusion in the streets, runaway teams were daily occurrences.
Anything from cans on dogs' tails to Chinese firecrackers might
send a team o f frightened horses stampeding dow n the street,
scattering citizens to right and left.
In addition to an underdeveloped downtown, relationships between new Anglos and
the existing California population were often at odds with one another over the use o f
questionable land claims on Californio (the existing Spanish and Mexican settlement)
3 Richard J.Orsi. “Selling the G olden State: A Study o f Boosterism in 19th Century
California.” (Ph.D. diss., L'niyersity o f Wisconsin, 1973), 114.
6 Robert Fogelson. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930 (Berkeley:
L’niyersity o f California Press, 1993), and Douglas M onroy. Thrown Among Strangers: the
M aking oj Mexican Culture in Frontier California. (Berkeley: L'niyersity o f California Press,
1990).
Remi Nadeau. City-Makers: The M en Who Transformed Los Angeles from I 'illage to
Metropolis during the First Great Boom. I868-I8~6. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1948), 7.
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ands and excessive taxation bv the new Anglo g overnm ent/ The 1871 Chinese
Massacre, when a m ob o f 500 Anglos lynched nineteen Chinese nationals in Los
Angeles, represents the extent to w hich racial tension had increased during this period/
The coming o f the railroads to Southern California did much to change the
demographics o f the population and the Los Angeles image. Early dtv planners
understood the importance o f this new form o f transportation and in 1873 formed the
first Chamber o f Commerce to lure the Southern Pacific line through Los Angeles
instead of its southern neighbor, San Diego. Though this first incarnation o f the
Cham ber dissolved in 1877, it was revived in 1888.1 ,1
In 1887, the region experienced the first o f three major land and population
boom s, the second and third occurring in 1906 and 1923, respectively. This initial
boom resulted from the completion o f the Santa Fe railroad to Los Angeles, which
created a rate war with the existing Southern Pacific line and the different promotional
campaigns simultaneously at work in the region. In addition to pro-Southern California
pamphlets and newspaper stories sponsored by railroad interests, campaigns extolling
the place’s restorative value for the sick were run by individuals ranging from those who
experienced its curative powers, to medical authorities, to upscale hotels designed to
cater to the invalid population. Alongside and often overlapping these efforts were the
s Robert Fogelson. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles. 1850-1930 (Berkeley:
University o f California Press, 1993), 12-14.
’ ’ Alexander Saxton. The Indispensable Enemy: Labor and the Anti-Chinese Movement in
California. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1995).
"' Judith W'ilnin Elias. "The Selling o f A Myth: Los Angeles Promotional Literature,
1885-1915." (Master's thesis, California State University Northridge, 1979), 55.
26
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efforts of local agricultural and business organizations that heralded the region’s fruits
and vegetables. Finally, the publication o f Helen H unt Jackson’s Ramona, though not
necessarily luring in new residents to Southern California, did facilitate the rise o f
tourism with its rom antic description o f the place’s history, people, and landscape.
All o f these elements com bined to create a new Southern California in size and
type o f population. Between 1886 and 1888 the increase in population far exceeded the
expectations o f business and civic interests. According to one estimate, between 1880
and 1890 Los Angeles’ population increased from approximately 11,000 to 50,000."
The population increase led to a boom in real estate. While initial newcomers who
came for the region’s often touted health benefits were from the East and Midwest,
increasingly the population who traveled to Southern California were middle-class to
upper middle-class farmers from the Midwest seeking to transplant their largely middle
class Victorian culture to an agreeable climate. This change in demographics resulted
from the targeting o f Midwestern populations by the region’s boosters.'2 These new
arrivals came to Los Angeles as families and sought permanence— and bought land,
contributing to the period’s real estate boom.
The growth o f the real estate market and industry was so profound in this
period, that Southern California’s image soon became entwined with the industry'.
W riting in 1914, Edwin Markham recalled that in 1886 a proliferation o f real estate
offices altered Los Angeles’ physical landscape:
1 1 Fogelson, 67.
1 2 Elias, 6.
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In Los Angeles the real estate offices were sprinkled as thick as
daisies in a field. Each office was divided into red-curtained pens
where suave gendemen with speculation in their eyes discoursed
o f lots and tracts and terms of sale to long processions o f eager
customers. Carriages and carrvalls dashed through the streets o f
the dty continually, convoying investors with throbbing pocket-
books, manv o f them going out to purchase lots that were staked
out on the sea-sand or on the barren mesa. From the street comers
and from moving wagons, brass bands invited your attention to
emblazoned transparencies that announced great auction sales o f
lands and lots "at Eden Heights," "at Ocean Ridge," "at Paradise
Valley." The red paint reinforced the invitation with an offer o f
free tickers to the auctions and the promise o f a barbecue to
follow.1 ''
N ot surprisingly, not all o f the agents used honest means to achieve their sales and
residents soon referred to realtors as “ fiends in our midst.” One Los .-Ingules Times
editorial referred to the more deplorable examples:
The man who locates a townsite in the heart o f a swamp, or sand-
wash; in the bed and track o f a winter torrent, or, as in the case o f
the Manchester fake, on the rockv declivity o f a bald m ountain, and
who foists the same upon the people o f distant localities as "lovely
spots ot lovelv Los Angeles," is a public enemv. An enemv to the
people he deceives and an enemv to the future welfare o f Los
Angeles county. It is the dutv o f everv honest man to expose such
schemes and to squelch such schemers....1 4
1' Edwin Markham. California the Wonderful: Her Romantic His/or)'. H er Picturesque People.
Her 1 1 ild Shores. Her Desert Mystery. Her I ’ alley Loveliness. Her Mountain Glory, including Her
I 'aned Resources, her Commercial Greatness, her Intellectual Achievements. H er Expanding Hopes,
II ith Glimpses oj Oregon and Washington. Her S o rt hem Xeigbbors. (New York; Hearst's
International Librarv Co.,1914), 229.
1 4 Letters from the People: the Los Angeles Times Letters Column. 1881-1889. (1999) Online
book at h ttp ://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/^ re sh a ffe r/copvrtx.htm accessed on
February 16, 2001, letter from Ralph E. Shaffer from Nov. 15, 1887 to the newspaper.
28
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Because of the increase in agents— one estimate finds that 2,000 realtors haunted Los
Angeles during the late 1880s— the city council sought to increase the licensing fees from
$5.00 to $50.00 for real estate agents in order to gamer more revenue and, it seems, to
curb the migration o f m ore agents to the region.1 3
The interest in Southern California real estate inflated property values beyond
reason and led to a collapse in the market. Historian Robert Fogelson writes, “The
influx precipitated such wild speculation in southern California that within a year real
estate transfers increased from 6,000-14,000 and from S10 million to $28 million T he
funous exchange o f property accelerated in 1887. Transfers rose to 33,000 and S95
million, and prices tor lots soared far beyond any rational estimates o f their
productiyity.” 1 '’ The speculation eventually ended in 1888 and busted the market, but
new residents continued to moye to the region, building the population and commercial
base. As Southern California grew urban in the early 20th-century, its association with
real estate represented, in one way, the region’s new identity as a place with a new
cultural order that rejected producerist, Victorian ideals. This vision o f the place, m ore
closely to its affiliation with Hollywood, helped to position it as a place more in tune
with the future and America's changing value system. But it also became a target for
those who were uneasy with this cultural transition.
1 3 Letters from the People: the Los Angeles Times Letters Column, 1881-1889. (1999) Online
book at http: / / www.intraner.csupomona.edu / - reshaffer/copyrtx.htm accessed on
February 16, 2001.
I(’ F ogelson, 67.
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The initial lure o f Anglo Midwesterners was fueled in part by the agrarian
possibilities in Southern California and its presumably corresponding Yictonan belief
svstem. The late nineteenth-centurv prom otion o f the region as place where
Midwesterners could reproduce their producerist, Y ictonan worlds, albeit in a much
m ore conducive climate, appeared m ore possible as the city of Los Angeles had vet to
develop into an urban core. W hen the citv began to take on the appearance o f its urban
reality in the earlv twentieth-cenrurv, promoters attem pted to continue to frame the
place along a Midwestern, small town ideal even after considerable development in the
early twentieth-cenrurv. In 1907 Dana Bartlett published his “sociological study o f a
m odem city” and used Los Angeles as its model and demonstrates the uneasy transition
Los Angeles endured in becoming a model m odem citv.1 Though Barden extols the
city and its possibilities o f greatness through its American people, commercial
prospects, and technological advancements (according to Bardett it is “the first citv in
the Union to light its streets entirely with electricity”), Los Angeles’ greatest asset, its
climate, links the place back to a better, more moral ideal. W riting on the climate and
its assistance in dealing with the demand for housing, Bardett offers.
This climate has its sociological bearing on the housing problem—
for here the tendency is to open and not to crowded quarters; on
morality, for those who cultivate a taste for natural pleasures are
not tempted to the grosser sins.1 8
1 Dana W. Bardett. The Better City: A Sociological Study of A Modem City. (Los Angeles:
the Neuner Company Press, 1907).
1 8 Bardett. 20.
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Los Angeles, then, at least for a tim e period could promise what others American cities
could not: the benefits o f urban living in an environm ent conducive to the building o f a
better morale character, one that w ould not be tempted bv the devils available when
living in the close confines o f the typical city. As the place continued to grow,
promoters found it more difficult to present this Victorian ideal.
Between 1900 and 1920, Southern California continued to expand with the
success of existing industries and the introduction o f new ones. The discovery o f oil in
downtown Los Angeles in 1892 increased its economic production and image to
outsiders. Although drilling had begun in earnest in the mid 1870s bv California Star
Oil, which would eventually becom e Standard Oil o f California, the 1892 discovery,
along with the increase in use o f the fuel, heralded a new era in oil production for
Southern California.1 '1 Similarly, the citrus industry, which began to advertise to a
national market in the earlv 1900s. increased the region’s desirability through its
promotional campaigns detailing the beauty and fertility o f Southern California. Finally,
the entrenchment o f the film industry to the region in 1917 created vet another source
of regional boosterism— one that ushered in a new culture o f consum ption and leisure,
creating a new Hollywood style closely associated with Southern California. This
Southern California imagery contributed to the region’s increase in population and the
building of commerce and industry. In addition, city boosters continued their efforts to
publicize the climate and opportunity through organizations like the Cham ber of
Commerce and All-Year Club.
Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt, eds.. Las Angeles A to Z: A n Encyclopedia o f the City and
County. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1997), 364-365.
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Southern California’s m ythos. because o f its embodiment o f a new cultural
order, became a loaded image. The larger cultural transition taking place across the
United States changed its hierarchy o f values from a Victorian-centered world to one
centering on modernity. This m ove was both a psychic and physical one. As America
grew more urban in the early part o f the twentieth-century, both from foreign and
domestic migration, its larger dom inant culture began to shift away from Yictorianism
and its trappings— a producerist ethic centering around deferred gratification, restraint,
and bifurcated gender roles to a m odem sensibility with emphasis on instant
gratification, leisure, consumption, and the blurring o f gender lines. Historian Roland
Marchand links the rise o f m odernity to industry’s like adycrtising and obsen es,
“modernity implied youthfulness, m obility, optimism, and a tolerance for diyersiry and
speed of change.. .”2 " Hollywood reflected and reified modernity in the films it
produced and in the behavior o f its stars. And, because o f its affiliation with
Hollywood, Southern California began to increasingly symbolize modernity.
By the early 1920s dissenters o f the place’s hyper-positive boosterism began to
increase in number. Historian Carey McW illiams marks 1920 as the time when “the
tide began to rum” in attitudes on Los Angeles.2 1 No doubt, this change resulted from
the increasingly exaggerated claims m ade about the region, the disappointment
newcomers experienced with its reality, and Los Angeles’ growing affiliation with a
2 1 1 Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making U i/y for Modernity.
(Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1985), 2-3.
2 1 Carey McWilliams. Southern California: A n Island on Land. (Salt Lake Cm -: Peregrine
Books, 1990) originally published in 1946, 108.
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culture o f consum ption and changing value system through the film industry and its
reputation as a tourist center. In order to understand how profound the
disappointm ent went and how Southern California cam e to embody a new cultural
order, we m ust begin with one of the region’s first prom otional campaigns.
Climatology and L.A. for invalids
After the state’s gaining o f statehood in 1850, Southern California did not
receive a substantial influx o f Anglo immigrants until the late 1870s and earlv 1880s
when it gained a reputation as a place for healing that m ore people journeyed across the
continent.— I'p until this period, m ost o f California’s population resided in Northern
California, in part brought there by the G old Rush. Building on the increasingly
popular scientific concept o f climatology, the belief that environm ent could
substantially influence physical well-being— especially for the infirm— physicians and
the region’s proponents noted that Southern California’s drv, Mediterranean climate
held the key to treating consum ption, the term for tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis, then termed consum ption, was one o f the primary diseases
plaguing Southern California’s health-seekers. In the his to n - o f its treatment, the
growth o f medical climatology and the use o f sanitariums during the mid 19th century
— W hile the region did receive some run-off population from the discovery o f gold at
Sutter’s Mill in northern California in 1849; some steady grow th in real estate valuations
as a result “ realty manipulation;” and growth from the news o f the construction o f the
Southern Pacific to Los Angeles, it wasn’t until Southern California gained a reputation
as a place for healing that m ore people journeyed across the continent. Glenn S.
Dumke. The Boom oft.be Eighties in Southern California. (San Marino: Huntington Library,
1944), 42-43.
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encouraged the migration o f many o f the infirmed to areas with drver climates, like
southern Europe and Southern California. 2 3 The discovery o f the bacteria responsible
for the disease in 1882, though an im portant step in the eventual treatm ent o f the
disease, did not diminish the belief in the climate’s curative effects on the disease until
the 20th-century. A 1916 entry from Cambridge educated physician, F.C.S. Sanders
illustrates this continued process. W riting o f the region’s benefits to overall health,
Sanders posits: “The Census shows that o f ten children who die in the Eastern cities,
three might be saved by keeping them in California for their first four summ ers.”2 4
And, as many first hand narratives demonstrate, the climate, depending on the
advancement o f the disease, could be a restorative experience. WTiile the region’s
climate could not cure consum ption, anti-tuberculosis therapy would not be not
successfully developed until the 1950s, its relatively dry climate could provide some
alleviate some suffering.
Climatology and its relationship to California, according to historian John Baur,
had its beginnings in the mid-19th century when a few invalids came as a result o f the
Gold Rush and a G erm an visitor, J. Praslow. Praslow observed the state’s positive
climate and “predicted unexcelled health for a large population” in Slate o f California: .1
Medico-Geographical Account?* In addition to the fledgling medical discourse on the role
2 2 Thomas Dormandy. The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis. (New York: New York
University Press, 2000).
2 4 F.C.S. Sanders. California A s Health Resort. (San Francisco: Bolte & Braden Co.,
1916), 45.
2 5 John Baur. The Health Seekers of Southern California. (San Marino: the Huntington
Library, 1959), 3-4.
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of climate and disease, which reinforced the view that California could be a health
mecca, several individuals who had experienced the firsthand benefits o f California’s
climate sought to spread the word o f their seemingly miraculous cures. These m ore
authoritative sources were supplanted by prom otional materials from businesses with
local interests like the railroads and Southern Californian hotels, which were constructed
primarily to attend to this new infirmed population. As a result, the region appeared to
deliver hope to the hopeless, an enticing promise.
During the 18~0s and 1880s hundreds o f sources praising Southern California’s
curative virtues, ranging from testimonials o f the cured to sponsored newspaper articles,
flooded the United States. Chock full o f examples, W. M cPherson’s 1873 pam phlet
illustrates the tactics used. Cited as one o f the earliest texts advocating a joum ev to
Southern California. Homes in Los Angeles... prophesizes, “O ne o f the m ost im portant
attractions of Los Angeles County is the salubrity o f its climate, and if its advantages in
this respect were known throughout the United States, it would become the Sanitarium
of the L'nion.”2 0 Included in this pam phlet are tables starkly comparing Southern
California cities against Eastern ones, specifically with rates o f mortality in which
Southern California averages 13 deaths per 1,000 while its Eastern counterparts average
2 6 W. McPherson. Homes in Los Angeles City and county, and Description Thereof. W ith
Sketches oj the Tour Adjacent Counties. (Los Angeles: Mirror Book and Job Printing
Establishment, 1873), 6. This pamphlet was reissued in 1961 bv the Southern California
Chapter of Antiquarian Booksellers Association o f American who considered it, “ the
first promotional pamphlet printed in Los Angeles."
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between 24 and 29 deaths p er thousand.2 7 M cPherson’s text is also peppered with
quotes from well-known climatologists supporting his assertions along scientific
grounds and a firsthand account from one F. S. Miles who actually experienced the
region’s restorative powers. After explaining why all o f Europe and the Eastern U.S.
were inadequate in treating “pulmonary diseases”. Miles proffers, “Southern California
presents a m ost gloriously invigorating, tonic and stimulating climate, so yen- superiour
to anything I know of, the air is so pure and so much drier than that o f M entone
[Southern France| or elsewhere; and although it had those properties, it had a m ost
soothing influence on the m ucous m em brane.. .”ls Miles, a seeming authorin’ on
climatology, offers a first person account o f the curative powers o f Southern California.
While M cPherson’s pam phlet may be the earliest text intended to encourage the
migration o f invalids to Southern California, Charles N ordhoff s work is repeatedly
cited as the most influential o n the subject. Unbeknownst to his readers, N ordhoff was
not as disinterested as they may have hoped— Southern Pacific actually paid him to
aggrandize the region’s benefits. Originally published as an article in Harper’ s magazine,
N ordhoff s 1874 book endded California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence details the best
places to visit for their healing powers to impart “a sendee. ..to many invalids
concerning the places.. .little known as vet in the East.”-J N ordhoffs chapter endded
2 7 Specifically, according to M cPherson, New York averaged 29 and Boston and
Chicago both averaged 24 deaths per thousand.
2 S F. S. Miles in W. M cPherson, 20.
- J Charles Nordhoff. California: For Health, Pleasure, and Residence. A Book fo r Travelers and
Settlers. (New York: Harper Brothers, Publishers, 1874), 110.
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“Southern California for Invalids” begins dramatically by invoking the miracles that
coming to Southern California bring;
A friend and neighbor o f my own, consumptive for some years...
came last O ctober to Southern California. He had been
“losing ground,” as he said, and as his appearance showed, for
two vears, and last summ er suffered so severely from night sweats,
sleeplessness, continual coughing, and lack o f appetite, that it was
doubtful whether he would live through the winter anvwhere__
In January I was one dav standing in the door-wav o f a hotel at
Los Angeles, when I saw a wagon drive up; the driver jumped
out, held out his hand to me, and sung o ut in a hearty voice,
“How do you dor” It was my consumptive friend, but a changed
m an.'1 '
N ordhoff elaborates on his friend’s improvements— that in the three m onths he spent
in Southern California he had added ten years to his life, thanks to the climate.
Interestingly, N ordhoff includes a chapter on “Southern California for Consum ptives”
which mcludes the same letter invoked in M cPherson’s earlier pamphlet from F.S.
Miles.
C . aliform a: to r Health. Pleasure, and Residence and texts like it were powerful
testimonies for Americans across the country suffering from debilitating diseases such
as tuberculosis. O ne health seeker, Margaret G raham , cites it as influential in making
her decision to travel from Iowa with her ailing husband. She writes:
During the Centennial summ er o f 1876, w hen the face of the
traveling public was turned eastward, mv husband’s failing health
led our physicians and friends to suggest that we see a more
favorable clim ate.. .we read with eagerness everything obtainable
concerning [California]. Charles N ordhofPs “California for
Pleasure and Profit” we studied with great interest ’’,I
Nordhoff, 109.
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Graham also cites letters she received from a friend who was teaching in Los Angeles as
an impetus for her move west.
Prom otional pamphlets and books gained further credence to their readers
when authored by medical experts supposedlv well versed in climatology. Consider the
1888 text by Lindley and Widney who list their credentials as medical doctors.3 - In
California of the South the two span the list o f who mav profit from Southern California’s
weather.
... (T)he feeble and invalid from whatever cause; those who find
the drain upon vitality in a harsh climate too great for them; who
have need to spend a considerable portion o f each day in the open
air; yet who in their own climate are prevented from doing so bv
the inclemency of the weather; those who need clear skies and
sunshine; to whom the refreshing sleep o f a cool, bracing
night is a necessity after the warmth o f the summer dav; those to
whose enfeebled digestion or to whose capricious appetites a
market stocked with fresh vegetables, fruits, and berries, every
m onth o f the year, is o f importance. For such, and for all who
are suffering from the nervous prostration o f overwork, there is
probably no better climate to be found.
In addition to those generally fatigued in this era of the Victorian work ethic, even
finicky eaters might discover a haven in Southern California. Adding to this inclusive
definition, the physicians listed specific ailments: “subacute rheumatism and neuralgia”;
“person(s) suffering trom malarial poisoning”; those with “kidnev troubles” ; and
’• Graham’s account is docum ented in Raitt, Helen and Wavne, M an’ Collier, eds., We
Three Came West: A True Chronicle. (San Diego: Tofua Press, 1974), 5.
Walter Lindley & J.P. Widney, California o f the South: Its Physical Geography. Climate,
Resources. Routes o f Travel, and Health Resorts. (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888), 69.
It is unclear, based on the book’s information, whether or not this J.P. Wfidnev is Joseph
P. W idney w ho was the city’s first health officer and president o f CSC, though based on
the dates and subject matter, it is most likelv.
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asthma. Though the two do indicate that those with consumption will not find a cure,
coming to Southern California could alleviate its sym ptom s.’'
Firsthand accounts by cured invalids were also persuasive, particularly when
framed in language protesting their veracity. Kate Sanborn’s 1893 account o f her
curafiye experience in Southern California, .1 Truthful Woman in Southern California,
implies in its very name that she will give her reader’s the G od’s honest truth, appealing
in pan to Victorian concepts o f the sanctity of wom anhood. She begins her account as
follows:
Why did I comer Laryngitis, bronchitis, tonsillitis, had claimed
me as their own. G rip .. .clutched me twice— nay, thrice; doctors
shook their heads, thum ped my lungs, sprayed my throat, douched
my nose, dosed me with cough anodynes and nerve tonics, and
pronounced another w inter in the North a dangerous experiment.
Some o f you know about this from personal experience If this
hits your case, do not be deterred; just come and be made over into
a joyous, healthful life. ’4
Appeals to audiences with an inform al stvle like Sanborn’s also implied truthfulness in
their forced intimacy with the reader. Sanborn included in her book a letter from
another cured sojourner, W.B. B ern', originally from Montclair, New |ersey. After
detailing his success as a result o f com ing to Southern California in battling ailing health,
Bern- ends with, “I came with gargle and note-book but long ago gave up the former;
and as for these jottings, I offer them to those who want to see this much-talked o f
Lindley and Widnev, 69-71.
'4 Kate Sanborn. .1 Truthful Woman in Southern California. (New York: D. Appleton and
Company, 1893), 2-3.
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Earthly Paradise as in a verbal mirror.” '3 Implied in both Sanborn and Berry’s messages
is a moral obligation on their part to tell would be sufferers o f the hope available to
them by coming to Southern California.
While many o f Southern California’s supporters like Bern- expressed a duty to
inform the public o f the region’s superiority in order to alleviate the miserv o f their
fellow man, many o f the texts extolling the region’s virtues in terms o f its curative
powers had hidden financial backers. In addition to writers like N ordhoff who were
backed by the railroads, local businesses with a vested interest in the land used various
means, both forthright and duplicitous, to encourage m igration to Southern California.
Scholar Judith Elias notes.
News articles in Los Angeles papers were often unacknowledged
paid advertisements for realty projects and railway land offerings,
sometimes for land secredy owned bv publishers. T he Southern
Pacific had a num ber o f writers on its payroll, though this was not
public knowledge, and thev produced a flood o f books and
articles, ficnon and nonfiction, praising southern California.V l
The effects o f these altruistic and self-serving promotional texts presented a new vision
o f Los Angeles and Southern California to the rest of the world. Historian John Baur
summarizes the ideal that man}- newcomers expected to find:
1 3 Sanborn, 191-192. Letter written from Riverside, California and dated Mav 2, 1893.
v > Elias, 6. John Caughev also notes the prevalence o f railway sponsored prom otional
literature in California: A Remarkable State !r Life Histoiy. (Englew ood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970), 345. Caughev writes “The stam p o f the railroad subsidy is
unmistakable in Charles N o rd h o ff s California fo r Health. Pleasure. and Residence: A Rook for
Trawlers and Settlers (1873) and A Guide to California the Golden State (1883), and also in
Ben C. Trum an’s Homes and Happiness in the Golden State o f California (1883), I.N. Hoag’s
California the Cornucopia o f the World (1884), and Madden’s California: Its Attractions fo r the
Invalid. Tourist. Capitalist, and Homeseeker ( \890).
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M any.. .expected to find a land free o f rain, fog, wind, and clouds,
endowed with 365 davs a vear of warm sunshine and enjoyable cool
nights, offering a cure for all sufferers in the last stages o f any malady
imaginable and a remedy for even- trouble in Pandora’s box or
Satan’s m ind.v 7
Extolling the region in such terms, o f course, resulted in disappointm ent to
many. Selling the region as a curative spot held out hope to those without any real
chance of recuperation. And, depending upon the exaggerated claims made by medical
authorities and “objecnve” witnesses, many believed coming to the region could enable
immigrants to partake in a sort o f fountain o f youth. The migration of so many sick
people also changed, to some extent, the culture o f Southern California. The massive
influx o f the infirmed to the region created a demand on resources such as lodging and
transportation that manifested itself in vanous wavs. Writing to his friend |o h n Bvxbee
o f Meridan, Connecticut, California visitor Ratcliffe Hicks feared the impact that
consumptives would have on healthy persons in public places, such as on the train.
It will undoubtedly be necessary for the State o f California to
adopt stringent regulations for isolating the disease, disinfecting
the railroad stations, cars, hotels, and boarding houses, and to
compel the overland railroads to furnish hospital cars especially
fitted up for invalids and provided with com petent nurses. It is
a great annoyance to the traveling public, the wav the sick and
well are herded together on trains. Sometimes people die on the
trains. As an ocean steam er has a doctor, and a hospital, so every
well equipped overland train should be compelled to have the
same provisions for the protection o f the healthy and the welfare
of the sick. In a few hotels and many boarding houses, the
prevalence o f the disease is fairly nauseating.
'7 Baur, 20.
v S Ratcliffe Hicks. Southern California or the Lund of...the Afternoon. (Springfield, \LA:
Springfield Printing and Binding Company, date unknown) from letter written in late
1890s.
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Hicks’ sobering observations are reinforced bv the rates o f mortality in Southern
California. O ne study of the phenom enon hypothesizes that in the 1870s one in five
deaths could be attributed to tuberculosis in Los Angeles and one in three for San
Diego and Santa Barbara.w And in 1887 the first crematory “west o f the Rockies" was
built in Los Angeles to attend to the needs o f the dead.4 "
The influx o f the infirm also changed the social atm osphere o f Southern
California. WTiile early sojourners delighted in the hospitality shown to them by
Southern California residents, this changed with the increase in population o f the sick.
Citing first hand accounts, historian Thom as Dormandy writes.
As sooner or later happens to all refugee populations, everywhere
in the west the health-seekers were put off by the army o f their
fellow consum ptives....The army o f breathless, hawking invalids
became a living testimonv against the mvth o f a miracle cure.4 1
Yet. as Dorm andy notes, outside o f the region, stories o f success overshadowed the
tragic ones o f failure, luring a constant source o f migration to Southern California. The
potency o f the image of Southern California as health idyll was reinforced by
consecutive sources o f promotional literature geared at highlighting the region’s
agricultural fertility.
v' Baur, 12.
4 1 1 Lindley and W’idney, 98.
4 1 Thomas Dormandy. The While Death: A History oj Tuberculosis. (New York: New York
Cniversity Press, 2000), 121.
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Agricultural Abundance
Tied to the movem ent o f health-seekers to Southern California because o f its
climate were the promotional campaigns featuring the region’s agricultural bounty. In
addition to the region’s growing citrus crops, it boasted o f many other fruits and
vegetables including almonds, apples, apricots, beets, cherries, grapes, lima beans,
peaches, pears, plums, and walnuts, to name a few. Historian Carey McWilliams notes
the very real fecundity o f the region awed visitors, “ It was not onlv the size but the
rapidity with which things grew in Southern California that amazed newcomers.”4 2
And, the completions of the Southern Pacific railroad linking Los Angeles to San
Francisco in 1876, its linking Los Angeles to the East in 1881, and the Santa Fe railroad
connecting Los Angeles to the East in 1885 provided for the relatively easv exportation
o f the region’s agricultural products.
With the actual fruits and vegetables themselves, visitors to the region supplied
further dissemination o f the representation through letters home that were read
privately or when publicly published in local newspapers. One example o f such an
account comes in W illard M cKinstry’s 1887 editorial in his local paper the Fredonia
Censor o f New York state. WTiile traveling across the country, McKinstrv regularly sent
back letters intended to be published in the Censor, describing the scenery and events
around him. O n Southern California, McKinstrv reports,
4 2 McWilliams, 102.
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Scattered over the expanse for miles are groves o f orange trees now-
loaded with the golden fruit and covered with fragrant white blossoms,
the harbingers o f the next year's crop. It takes to oranges about one
year to grow and mature, hence fruit and flowers mingle in luxuriant
profusion on the same tree— There are never any violent storm s of
rain or wind to injure the fruit; oranges hold tenaciously to the tree and
are suffered to remain there till about April, w hen they are gathered
and shipped to market. There are also large orchards o f apricots, prunes,
peaches, pears, olives, and nuts, also large vinevards, all doing well.4 3
N o doubt, the bounty and fecundity o f the region’s exotic fruits coupled with his florid
description were exciting inform ation to M cK insm ’s readers. Though prone to
exaggeration, McKinstrv’s statem ents actuallv represent a more conservative example of
the discourse abounding on the region’s agriculture.
In comparison to M cKinstry’s example, Ratcliffe Hicks presents a sampling o f
the hyperbole present in much o f Southern California literature tied to agriculture. In
1898 visitor Ratcliffe Hicks boasted in a letter both o f the region’s fruits and vegetables
and o f its flowering plants in a letter home:
Just think of a countrv where daisies.. grow in bushes as large as
quince trees; rose bushes grow as large as apple trees.. .There is a
rose bush in Los Angeles sixteen feet high, and has grafted on it
twelve varieties o f roses Local florists have raised lilies fourteen
feet high— Geraniums looking like trees are com m on You often
see here squashes that weigh over three hundred pounds and
measure four feet one wav, potatoes weighing seven and eight pounds,
onions weighing four pounds, pumpkins, ten o f which will make a
wagon load o f a ton or over, and cabbages weighing fortv-five
pounds.4 4
4 3 Willard McKinsktry. Selections o f Editorial Miscellanies and Letters. Published in the Fredonia
Censor at I 'arious Times Between 1842 and 1894. (Fredonia, N.Y.: Censor Printing Office,
1894) 153, from a letter written M arch 28, 1887.
4 4 Ratcliffe Hicks. Southern California or the Land of...the .-Iftemoon. (Springfield, NL\:
Springfield Prinnng and Binding Com pany, 1898). From a letter written from Santa
Barbara, CA March 20, 1897.
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Imagery like Hicks’ arboreal geraniums and cabbages weighing over the com bined
weight o f four bowling balls were actually more com m on than estimates that were
closer to the truth. Carev McWilliams notes, “In the 'eighties it began to be said that
Southern Californians 'irrigate, cultivate, and exaggerate.’ N or was it only the climate
that was reported on with exaggeration. In particular, the products o f the soil, its
Brobdingnagian vegetables, loomed larger than life in tourist reports.”''5 Individual
yams o f Southern California’s largesse were also supplem ented bv the efforts o f
business organizations with local interests, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the
Los Angeles Cham ber o f Commerce.
Letters published in the local paper were persuasive to readers back hom e,
whether that was the East Coast as in the case o f M cKinstry’s letters or the Midwest as
in the case o f other institutionally organized prom otional campaigns, lending an air of
authenticity to the appeals. In fact, the Southern Pacific encouraged its readers to write
up the experiences in Southern California for their local papers. Sunset, the railroad’s
magazine, was founded in 1898 as an advertising source for the railroad but also
focused on California’s commercial and agricultural commodities, as well as tourist
destinations across the West. In an 1899 edition o f Sunset, the magazine urges.
4 3 McWilliams, 101.
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It should not be forgotten however that unnumbered thousands are
waiting to hear the story o f your advantages and success— That
which is commonplace to vou is a w onder to vour cousins across the
range.. .The local paper must take the initiative in telling the world
that the best grazing land in the state is in yonder mountains, that
the finest ledge o f building stone in the West lies at vour doors; that
the rich bottom lands are capable o f producing immense crops o f
sugar beets \\”hatever vou excel in see that the world hears o f it
and bears ojten.M ' (italics added)
The magazine’s urgings end blithelv with, “D o not hide vour talents, nor w hat is
equivalent, permit them to go unnoticed,” implying that the reader’s relationship to his
community was a source o f personal achievem ent and pride. Sunset also contributed in
the formation o f a W estern identity am ong its Western readers that such exhortations
played apart m. According to historian Kevin Starr, “Sunset has helped its readers— in
this case, the educated people o f the Far W est— discover and define, in the course o f
the thousands o f articles presented in this bibliography, the values and lifestyles; the
intellectual, emotional, and imaginative context; indeed, the verv psvchological center o f
the region in which they were pursuing their lives.”4 While Sunset featured stories and
advertisements that overtly prom oted the place, it understood the power th at personal
narratives often brought to a description o f Southern California, like those o f travelers
Willard McKinstrv and Ratcliffe Hicks.
The revitalization o f the Los Angeles Cham ber o f Commerce in 1888 aided in
the exportation of Southern California imagery and its agricultural highlights. Originally
4 ( 1 "Tell It Often." Sunset. Vol. Ill, Septem ber 1899, No. 5 , 164.
4/ Kevin Starr. “Sunset Magazine and the Phenom enon o f the Far West.” In Sunset
Magazine: .1 Century of Western Liang. 1898-1998. Historical Portraits and Bib/iograply. An
Online Book and Bibliography, Stanford University Library, 1998, accessed on February
13, 2001 at http: / /sunset-m apazine.stanford.edu/indcx.htm l.
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created in 1873 to cham pion the building o f the Southern Pacific line to Southern
California, the first Cham ber of Commerce dissolved in 1877. Its second organization,
founded bv N X ”. E. Hughs, Major E. V C ’. Jones, W illiam H. W orkman, and Colonel
Harrison Grav Otis o f the Los Angeles Times, saw the institution reorganized to confront
the recession that followed the boom o f 1887.4* Under the guidance o f Frank Wiggins
and Charles Dwight W illard, the Chamber targeted the Midwest through various means,
including tradition literature and a special “California on Wheels” train that traveled to
key Midwestern cities and carried “agricultural exhibits, scenic photographs, models o f
California homes, and statistical charts.”w
The Cham ber sought to strengthen the power o f local businesses, placing a
concerted effort on the region’s agricultural interests. In Charles Dw ight W illard’s 1901
history o f I.os Angeles, he notes the Cham ber’s emphasis on exhibits and fairs in
promoting the place’s agricultural interests:
A primary object o f the chamber in the establishment o f the display
o f local products was to enable the farmers to compare their work
and thus gain by one another's experience in this new strange
country. F or this same purpose citrus fairs were held during the
years from 1890 to 1895. One o f these fairs, that o f 1891, was sent
to Chicago and exFiibited to an attendance o f 120,000 people in the
old exposition building on the lake front. These fairs and the
display made at Chicago in the Columbian exposition helped to
stimulate orange culture, and to regulate and improve the industry.5 "
4* Elias, 122.
4 ’ ’ McWilliams. 129.
Charles Dwight Willard. The Herald's History of Los Angeles City. (Los Angeles:
Kingsely-Bames & N euner Co., 1901). Originally published from July-Decem ber 1901
in the Sunday magazine o f the Los Angeles Herald.
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Through fairs, exhibits, and publications, the Cham ber of Commerce dem onstrated its
drive to prom ote the region’s agricultural prowess.
In addition to the C ham ber o f Commerce, local newspapers aided in
popularizing the region’s fertility. According to historian Richard Orsi, beginning in the
18~0s a myriad o f local presses pushed their own communities while also building a
larger picture o f the region:
Particularly vociferous booster journals were the Los Angeles Star.
the Herald, and later in the 1880s the Times and Mirror, the San
Diego I nion. the Riverside Press and Horticulturist under the
editorship o f L.M. Holt, and the Santa Barbara Press Along
with dav to day propaganda, many newspapers published annual
promotional issues and pamphlets which were distributed as
widely as possible in libraries, reading rooms, hotels, colleges, and
chambers o f com m erce.’ 1
These efforts indubitably added to an evolving identity among Southern California
residents vis a vis the state’s agricultural strengths, but their effects are questionable in
terms of exporting the representation outside o f its environs. O ne impressive source of
Southern California mvth-making that did move beyond the region’s borders and that
expressed Southern California’s agricultural wonders was the growing citrus industry.
The nse o f Southern California’s citrus culture rested on the technological
changes in mass transportation, the completion o f the railroad lines to the region, and
on farming methods o f the crop, including the irrigation o f Riverside countv in the early
1870s. According to historian John Caughev, the introduction o f the W ashington navel
orange to the region in the early 1880s proved “fundamental to the success o f the
'll Richard |.Orsi. “Selling the G olden State: A Study o f Boosterism in 19th Century
California.” (Ph.D. diss.. University o f Wisconsin, 1973), 478-479.
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California citrus industry” in the trees’ heartiness and relatively quick production o f
fruit.3 2
In its early years the commercial citrus industry suffered from internal failings,
resulting from the lack o f a cohesive leadership organization and clear-cut industry
method. Indeed, the early 1890s were considered precarious “red ink” years for the
industry. One 1925 citrus industry researcher observes:
[F.Q.j Storv states that in 1892, with a cost o f production o f not
less than 50 cents a box, he sold his seedlings on the tree for 10
cents a box o f “0 pounds. Speculators had free paw The grower
was forced to accept whatever offer might be made him by these
local handlers or consign it to commission m en in the East.
Either way ruin stared him in the face. His desperation
culminated in 1892-1893, when 'Ted ink" returns occurred in such
alarming numbers as to force him to action if he desired to continue
in the business o f orange growing, it being frequendv the case that
the larger the crop a grower had, the more he was indebted to his
pacer at the end o f the season.”
After a series o f failed protective union and organizations beginning in the mid 1880s,
the California Fruit Growers Exchange was incorporated in 1905. which was formerly
the Southern California Fruit Growers Exchange that had begun in 1895.5 4
3 2 John Caughev. California: A Remarkable State's Life History. (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1970.), 354.
3' Rahno Mabel MacCurdy. The History oj the California Fruit Growers Exchange. (Los
Angeles: n.p., 1925), 15.
3 4 Eliot J . Coit. Citrus Fruits: A n Account oj the Citrus Fruit Industry with Special Reference to
California Requirements and Practices and Similar Conditions. (New York: the MacMillan
Company, 1915), 8. The various protective organizations and their respective successes
and failings are detailed in Rahno Mabel MacCurdv’s The History o f the California Fruit
Growers Exchange, see pages 10-17.
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In 1907, the California Fruit Growers Exchange formally agreed to invest an
initial S10,000 in advertising their product, and the group’s president F.Q. Story
approached his good friend E.O . McCormick o f the Southern Pacific Railroad for ideas.
McCormick agreed to m atch the Exchange’s initial investment and the two form ed a
joint advertising adventure. Spanning five months, the shared project would feature
special Iowa bound trains solely devoted to oranges and centered on an advertising
frenzy with the slogan “O ranges for Health— California for Wealth.” In addition to
proclaiming Orange day and O range week in California and Iowa respectively, the
campaign ensured advertisements and recipes featuring oranges which riddled local
Iowa papers.
The joint effort m et with enorm ous success. Historian Josephine Jacobs
describes the victories o f the project:
The five m onth cam paign was carefully checked for results. Orange
sales in the rest o f the country rose by 17.7 percent while sales in
Iowa gained by 50 percent during the rest o f the campaign. The
General Manager reported to the Board o f Directors that the total
advertising costs for the 1907-1908 season had been only S.00105
per box The success o f this first major excursion into advertising
led the directors to approve a budget o f $25,000 for expansion o f
the territory to be covered by publicity in the 1908-1909 season.5 5
Fresh on the heels o f this success, the California Fruit Growers Exchange soon adopted
the name Sunkist to represent its product and featured it on the labels that w rapped
individual oranges.
” Josephine Kingsbury Jacobs. “Sunkist Advertising.” (Ph.D. diss.. University o f
California, Los Angeles. 1966), 25.
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Though the creation o f crate labels began in the early 1800s, on the W est Coast
the development o f the crate label occurred between the 1870s and 1890s to serve as
windows into what the product actually looked like and where it was produced,
featuring the growers’ and shippers’ name. Fruit crate labels were first used in Southern
California in the 1880s, and labels were not relegated to citrus or fruits; vegetables also
had crate labels. As the practice o f using labels increased, competition between growers
also expanded to create a wide array o f beautiful examples, that depending on locale,
featured different e le m e n ts .T h e labels helped to develop brand-name awareness and
initially images catered to wom en consumers and showed traditionally feminine
themes— women, children, and flowers. However, according to one studv, in 1918 the
Fruit Growers Exchange realized that the real consum er market that m attered for labels
were the jobbers, wholesalers w ho then distributed the product, at the auction. As such,
after 1918 growers used a m ore rugged approach and featured stereotypical California
frontier representations.3 7
While labels featured a variety o f subjects from animals to attractive women, the
labels highlighting Southern California’s magisterial landscapes or featuring California
missions added a visual reinforcem ent to other sources o f its exported image. Between
1885 and 1920 California’s fruit crate labels underwent a period which concentrated on
‘naturalism,’ according to G ordon T. Mclleland and Jay T. Last, that reflected the
3 6 From “A History o f Sunkist” at the corporate website at http: / / www.sunkist.com
accessed on Februarv 15, 2001.
” From online history o f California citrus labels at http: / /sketch.com . accessed on
February 15, 2001.
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personal concerns o f individual growers, showing their homes, orange groves, and
families.3 *
This initial m odel soon transformed to follow different themes: specific
Southern California scenes; Mexican cultural scenes often with mission motifs; frontier
and Native American imagery, and labels featuring attractive women— from the genteel
Victorian to exotic uniquelv Southern Californian ethnic choices like the Geisha Brand
from Covina, California, which showed a presumably Japanese woman in full kimono
carrying an umbrella or the Gypsv Queen Brand representing the California Citrus
Union that showed an attractive Slavic woman wearing a red kerchief.5 '' These ethnic
images were particularly alluring to the audiences to which thev were marketed in the
Midwest and East Coast in their showcasing o f an exotic, unknown world. Bv alluding
to an unknown O ther, such imagery built on extant stereotypes regarding the ethnic
sexual laxity or just difference, here in the case o f Asian and gypsy women. Juxtaposed
against the late 19th Victorian cultural ethic in which sexual propriety infused all aspects
o f womanhood, these ethnic women managed to be safe and tantalizing to their Anglo
American end user. Labels that romanticized the region by using landscapes or ethnic
elements aided in both the creation and the reification o f the exported Southern
California image. California scenes were usually com posed o f yast panoramic yistas—
displaying the yerdant quality of the landscape and its diyersity, for example, featuring
snow-capped m ountains framing an orange grove situated in the foreground. O r,
3 8 G ordon T. Mclleland and Jay T. Last. California Orange Box Labels: .-In Illustrated
History. (Beverly Hills: Hillcrest Press, 1985), 9-21.
3 '' Mclleland and Last, 21.
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scenes included the beach or ocean with palm trees framing the label/’ " Scenes that
featured mission ruins or beautiful Native American or Mexican American women
played upon the mission myth and its romanticization o f California history. Finally, the
scenes o f the fruit itself, particularly o f oranges, presented an alluring image in their full
round ripeness. All o f these lush images contributed to forming a portrait o f Southern
California to outsiders.
The labor structure behind the citrus representation, however, dem onstrated the
existing radalized barriers to those seeking to take advantage o f the place’s
opportunities. The rise o f the citrus industry was possible onlv through the Anglo
conquest o f Southern California ranchos that led to the decline o f the existing
Californio and Native American populations. The decline o f Southern California’s
indigenous populations began with the Spanish occupation and missionization process,
and as Douglas M onroy observes, “ the American era quickly finished them off.”"1
What few lands Native Americans still held were claimed by new American setders, and
the racist orientation o f American courts provided little room for redress for Native
peoples. Anglo American setders used Narive Americans as labor, and when this source
dried out, turned to Mexican and Chinese laborers, the latter population declining after
the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. And, because o f internal problem s within Mexico, an
"" Mclleland & Last, 10-11.
6 1 Douglas Monroy. Thrown Among Strangers: the M aking oj Mexican Culture in Frontier
California. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1990), 237.
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increase in Mexican immigration to Southern California occurred after 1890, supplying a
workforce for the region’s agricultural industry.6 2
Though the citrus industry advertising face in the early 1900s contributed to an
extant image o f Southern California, its promotional efforts helped reify the Southern
California vision o f one o f beauty and fertility from its exportation as a physical
commodity to the crates which housed the fruit. Its influence has been two-fold;
providing a prom otional image to potential tourists but also as a source o f agricultural
income.6'' Vet, as this chapter has shown, competing representations o f Southern
California supported each other despite their targeted objective. Thus, the potency o f
the citrus image both contributed to and was supported by earlier observations on
Southern California's agricultural advantages. C oncurrent with the citrus image
developed by the California Fruit Growers Exchange was the emergence o f the mission
myth with the 1884 publication o f Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona.
The Mission Myth
While Southern California’s reputation grew intermittendv in the late 19,h
century as a place whose agreeable climate was unsurpassed in its restorative and
productive powers, another vision complemented this idyll— the 1884 publication o f
Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.. Although intended to be the Native American cause’s
equivalent to slavery’s L nc/e Tom !r Cabin, Ramona succeeded in reframing Southern
6 2 Monrov, 257-258.
McWilliams. 213.
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California history’s mission history in a nostalgic, romanticized manner. And, instead o f
calling attention to both the period and then contemporary Anglo American
subjugation of native peoples, the novel unwittingly continued the practice by
portraying a fictional Franciscan missionary as a benevolent character. The novel’s
success spurred on similar fictional works including John Steven M cGroarty’s The
Mission Play and the entry o f a new, pastoral ideal in manv regional histories in the
mission myth. Historian John Pohlm ann defines the mission myth as.
The mission myth is essentiallv the idyllic, nostalgic notion that the
Franciscan padres, led by the heroic Junipero Serra, successfully
civilized, Christianized, and uplifted the lowly “Digger” Indians o f
California. As teachers, architects, musicians, and practical
administrators, the yersatile padres allegedly taught the heretofore
lazy and naked aborigines proper respect for discipline, work, religion,
clothing, and marriage. Hospitality “became a religion,” dispensed
unsdndngly to all who chanced to be in the vicinity. According to
an extreme version of the mission myth, the world o f the “happy,”
childlike neophytes was “a sheer utopia.”w
In addition to relatively passive texts like books, the form ation o f the mission myth
created a new industry that appeared to saturate different levels of cultural
production— from the re-writing o f history, to the enactm ent o f popular pageants, to
the revitalization o f mission architecture, to the choice o f preservation o f historic
buildings.
Based on real Southern California series o f events, the story o f Ramona details
the story of a half-Anglo, half-Narive American orphan, Ramona, unaware o f her
lineage, who falls in love with a N ative American sheepherder, Alessandro. Her
adoptive mother renounces the m atch because o f her own racism, but they elope.
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Ramona goes to live with Alessandro’s people and discovers the double standard set up
for Native Americans in the United States. In addition to forced re-locations by the
federal government, the couple’s child dies due to lack o f adequate medical treatment
and, Alessandro is gunned down bv an Anglo man. Although Ram ona witnesses the
event, she understands that justice will not prevail in a system that privileges one race
over the other to such an extreme, especially in its court svstem.
Through Ramona. |ackson intended to humanize the Native American plight she
had already documented in her 1881 account .1 Century o f Dishonor. This investigation
detailed the broken promises nddling the American governm ent’s history with its
indigenous peoples. |ackson’s activism prompted Congress to appoint her “special
commissioner o f Indian Affairs” in 1882. In 1883, (ackson, along with A bbot Kinney,
issued a report suggesting a polio,- o f atonement. Unsurprisingly, her suggestions went
unheeded by the federal government. In 1884, Jackson published Ramona in the hopes
of putting a human face to the struggles of Native Americans.
While |ackson’s vision of Southern California painted a rom anticized ideal, her
early impressions o f Los Angeles bespeak her own ambivalence to the citv and its
environs. While researching Ramona in 1882, Jackson began a correspondence with
Jeanne Smith Carr o f Pasadena. Carr, who served as assistant superintendent o f public
instruction in the mid 1870s when her husband Ezra Slocum Carr was elected state
superintendent, helped |ackson research her novel. It appears one dav the two got their
signals crossed and Carr traveled to Los Angeles to see Jackson, while Jackson traveled
w John Ogden Pohlmann. "California’s Mission Myth." (Ph.D. diss., LT niversity o f
California Los Angeles, 1974), v.
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to Carr’s hom e in Pasadena. Though undoubtedly a frustrating event, Jackson’s letter
reveals her unsetded feelings about the region and her own part in boosting it:
I am sorry I have seen Pasadena again— poor dust draggled—
sand smitten cypress— I can hardly believe my eyes— & I had been
boasting.. .that it was a green bow er from beginning to end— __
— I d o n ’t know how you endure this dry heat & dust — it would
drive me insane in a month: even- nerve I possess is on edge
yesterday & today— a shower o f rain would set me all right in an
hour. To think that there will be no drop o f rain m ore sets me
wild!6 3
Jackson’s statem ents were probably representative o f part o f the population o f Southern
California but not one heard frequendv. Interestingly, Jackson admits to have
exaggerated the place’s claims, for what reason remains unclear— whether it be to set
otf envy in those still on the East Coast bv affirming the m vth or to ensure a sellable
landscape for her novel.
O ne year later, Jackson’s public picture o f Southern California had dramatically
changed. In Glimpses of California and the Missions, Jackson describes Los Angeles,
The City o f Angels is a prosperous citv now. It has business
thoroughfares, blocks o f fine stone buildings, hotels, shops,
banks, and is growing daily. Its oudving regions are a great circuit
o f gardens, orchards, vineyards, and corn-fields, and its suburbs
are fast filling up with houses o f a showy though cheap architecture.
But it has not yet shaken off its past. A certain indefinable,
delicious aroma from the old, ignorant, picturesque times lingers
still, not only in byways and com ers, but in the very centres o f its
new est activities.
6 3 Letter from Helen Hunt Jackson to Jeanne Caroline (Smith) Carr [ca. May 9 or 10,
1882] from Valerie Sherer Mathes, ed.. The Indian Reform Letters o f Helen H unt Jackson,
18~9-1885. (Norman: University o f Oklahoma Press, 1998).
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Mexican wom en, their heads wrapped in black shawls, and their
bright eves peering out between the close-gathered folds, glide
about evervwhere; the soft Spanish speech is continually heard;
long-robed priests h u m - to and fro; and each dawn ancient,
jangling bells from the Church o f the Ladv o f the Angels ring
out the night and in the day.6 6
Though quite different from |ackson’s attitude in her correspondence with Carr, this
contemporary description was m ore in line with the past Jackson was conjuring for
Ramona, which in Mav o f 1884. the following year, was published in the Christian Union
in serial form.6 7 This excerpt reveals a call to the past that Jackson’s fictional work
would rely on in romanticizing Southern California, when before the coming o f the
Americans, Southern California enjoyed a lost tranquillity.
In her own novel. |ackson describes Southern California in much more glowing
terms, no doubt, to set the stage for its romantic plot. Consider the following excerpt:
Father Salvierderra drew near the home o f the Senora M oreno late
in the afternoon o f one o f those midsummer days o f which
Southern California has so many in spring. The almonds had
bloomed and the blossoms fallen; the apricots also, and the peaches
and pears; on all the orchards o f these fruits had come a filmv tint
of green, so light it was hardly more than a shadow on the grav. The
willows were vivid light green, and the orange groves dark and
glossy like laurel. The billowy hills on either side o f the valley were
covered with verdure and bloom ,— myriads o f low blossoming plants,
so close to the earth that their tints lapped and overlapped on each
other, and on the green o f the grass, as feathers in fine plumage
overlap each other and blend into a changeful color.6 8
6 6 Helen Hunt Jackson. Glimpses oj California and the Missions. (Boston: Litde, Brown, &
Company, 1923, originally published in 1883), 177.
6 John O. Pohlmann, "The Missions Romanticized" adapted from dissertation in
Caughev, John & Laree, eds., Los Angeles: Biography of a City. (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1976), 242-243.
6 8 Helen Hunt Jackson. Ramona: .1 Story. (Boston: Litde, Brown, and Co., 1937), 44-45,
originally published in 1884.
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This description, the first specifically on Southern California in the novel, while
establishing the m ood for lackson’s romance, while importandy different from the
region’s extant image does tap into the stereotype already generated about Southern
California by health promoters and agriculture proponents in its focus on the
agricultural bounty. But as in Jackson’s non-fiction, this Southern California is much
slower, more backward looking than the literature on the region’s climate or agricultural
potential. This change o f pace and vision is manifested, in part, in the time in which the
no\ el is set but also in the use o f m ore conseryative figures, from Father Salvierderra to
the older Senora M oreno, instead o f the younger ethnic women showcased on fruit
crate labels.
The differing tone and types o f characters that Jackson employed were
narranye imperariyes to her story and reflectiye o f her intended audience and her own
values. Ramona takes place prior to the secularization o f California’s mission system in
the 1830s and her characters are in part about this lost world. But, the original goal o f
the book, to illuminate the plight o f America’s Native Americans to the Amencan
people, required a less salacious and m ore respectable approach in portraying Southern
California’s different ethnic players. Similarly, Jackson, an activist and respectable
Victorian woman, would not describe the allure of the region in the same wav as health
or agricultural promoters.
And, as proved the case with previous image-making of the region, it seeped
into non-fictional descriptions as well. Ramona's influence on Southern California’s
image were both immediate, in the popular success o f the novel itself, but also in the
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numerous Ramona spin-offs both fictional and non-fictional. The tvpes and num ber o f
these re-workings of the mission myth created a large bodv o f work saying the same
thing about Southern California.
Quasi non-fictional histories fell prcv to the mission mvth, reinforcing in their
assumed objectivity its legitimacy and veracity. While the flower}- language o f manv o f
the texts underm ine the force o f their observations, their preponderance and framing
do lend them credibility. M cG roam ’s Mission Alt'/nones offers such an example.
Although published in 1929, Mission Memories is representative o f the types o f historical
revisionism that Southern California underwent. McGroartv writes:
This wonderful bodv o f trained Franciscan missionaries who came
from Spain up through the mvsterious Mexican Peninsula to the
bright shores o f the Bav o f San Diego wrought upon the desert with
magical hands. Thev took an idle race and put it to work—a useless
race that they made useful in the world, a naked race and thev clothed
it, a hungry race and thev fed it, a heathen race that thev lifted up into
the great white glorv o f G o d /''1
M cG roam ’s ethnocentric language contradicts the goals set bv Helen Hunt Jackson,
and his romanticization of the mission period erroneouslv depicts and simplifies a
complex and difficult period in California historv. McGroartv waxes:
It was around the old Missions that the colorful social life o f the
early Spanish inhabitants centered. Song and laughter filled the
sunny mornings. There was feasting and music, the strum o f guitars
and the click o f castanets under the low hanging moons. Toil was
easy and the burden o f existence light. It was a sheer Utopia.
N othing like it ever existed before, nor has anv approach to it
existed since.7 "
'''* John Steven McGroartv. Mission Memories. ( Los Angeles: N euncr Corporation,
1929), 7-8.
" McGroartv, 8.
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In addition to authoring “The Mission Plav,” McGroartv, one o f the region’s m ost
notable boosters o f the period, served as the has Angeles Times ch ie f editorial writer
under Harrison Grav O tis.'1 “The Mission Plav,” like Ramona, generated its own
pageant and was shown at the Mission San Gabriel.
The glorifving o f Southern California’s mission mvth in historiographic and
fictional form influenced the m anner in which Los Angeles now rem embers its his ton-.
In addition to popularizing the mission stvie architecture that dom inated much o f the
building of the earlv 20th centurv in Southern California, the m yth also prioritized what
parts o f Los Angeles historv were preserved through the form ation o f the Landmark’s
Club in 1895.7 2 The brainchild o f Charles Fletcher Lummis, the Landm ark’s Club
sought to preserve Southern California historv through its built environm ent and began
in 1895 with Mission San | uan Capistrano. Lummis, who w orked as the citv editor for
the Los Angeles Times and editor o f the Land of Sunshine which later becam e Out West, was
eventually appointed the citv librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library. Lummis was
also instrumental in the founding o f the Southwest Museum. A lthough the Landmark’s
Club did more than preserve the missions in Southern California, it continued the
mission myth, to some extent, in its prioritization o f the institutions over other
buildings and m its educational campaigns. Citv boosters, m indful o f the distance
between missions, were quick to capitalize on Lummis’ efforts w ith the rise in the use o f
1 John Steven McGroartv. Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Sea. (Chicago: American
Historical Society, 1921) 401.
2 Patricia A. Butz "Landmark's Club" in Daniela P. Moneta, ed., Charles F. Lummis: the
Centennial Exhibition. (Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 1984), 68-70.
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automobiles. The missions quickly became tourist stops in the early part o f the 20th-
century, prom pting Lummis to declare, “ ...m ore tourists visited the missions in
automobiles than visit the historic landmarks o f any other State o f the L'nion.” ''
All-Year Club
Building from early promotional effort that focused on the natural world of
Southern California, the creation o f the All-Year Club added another voice in Los
Angeles’ chorus o f prom oters. In 1921 in an effort to publicize Southern California's
year round agreeable climate and create a corresponding tourist industry that did not
end with the closing o f summer. H am - Chandler o f the Los Angeles Times organized the
city’s commercial tourist interests to form the institution.’4 W hile this organization’s
work did not begin until the 1920s, its trajectory followed the prom otional imagery
established in the late 19th century, using a more rigorous and systematic advertising
saturation, as a result in part from the burgeoning o f the advertising field in
understanding commercial techniques and different consum er audiences.7 3 These new
methods are evidenced in the manner with which the All-Year Club kept precise
records o f how well it had promoted its various advertising goals. Referring to its
advertisements as “invitations,” consider the summary o f its goals for 1929, which
included the following, italics added:
In John O. Pohlm ann, "The Missions Romanticized" in Caughev, 242-243.
4 McWilliams, 136.
5 Roland Marchand. Xdvertising the American Dream: .Making W ayfor Modernity, 1920-
1940. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1985).
6
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99. 444. ~95 invitations to the increasing thousands o f travel-
minded folks in the United States and Canada, to make a pleasure
trip to Southern California this winter or next summer, will appear
as advertisements in twenty-seven selected magazines o f
nation-wide circulation between now and next June. This will be the
All-Year Club's eighth annual campaign for the development o f
winter and sum m er tourist travel to Southern California....
82 leading newspapers in 57 key cities in the United States and
Canada will earn- ~1.029.500 invitations between now and January
15th to prospective Southern California visitors in the form o f
advertisements in the All-Year Club's fall and winter newspaper
advertising campaign. Magazines and newspapers supplement
each other.7 6
The All-Year Club used imagery building both from the region’s fruit crate label model
and its larger prom otional movement, showing uniquely Southern California vistas,
those engaged in leisure, and attractive women, albeit in this case, Anglo American
women. In addition, the organization employed a variety well-known Americans—
stars, journalists, and captains of industry— who made Southern California their home
like screen star Douglas Fairbanks, H earst newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane, and
William Wrigley the chewing gum mogul. And, because of its product, the
organization targeted middle to upper class visitors— those with the disposable income-
- by advertising in upscale publications like Harpers Ba~aar. Town z~ Country. I 'unity Farr.
6 All Year Club internal document, entided "Facts on Tourist Travel for N ovem ber
Authentic data for Subscribers to the All-Year Club o f Southern California." date
unknown but assume 1928 based on text in docum ent, from collection housed at the
Urban Archives Center and Special Collections o f California State University
Northridge.
All Year Club internal document, entided "All-Year Club Letter" August 2, 1926
Letter No. 1, from collection housed at the Urban Archives Center and Special
Collections o f California State University Northridge.
63
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I ogue. House and Garden, Harpers Scribner's, and the Atlantic \lontbiy.~* The All-Year
Club, in conjunction with previous Southern California imagery helped to reify the
mythos surrounding the place, while at once seeking a different, m ore affluent visitor.
But, in the early 20rh century, Southern California publicity received support from a new
source that appealed across class lines— the film industry, which through broadcasting
an image onscreen within a darkened theater could do in seconds w hat print media
previously could do in a much longer time. Bv actually showing the region’s beaches
and beautiful vistas, film could show much more vividly what o th er texts could only
describe. Further, as America underwent a transition in values and demographics from
a more Victorian, agrarian reality to an increasingly non-producerist, urban one, film
narratives began to reflect and usher in a new cultural era. Southern California, because
it was the setting for much o f these challenging storylines, began to embody this cultural
transition.
Hollywood
The move o f the film industry' to Southern California provided the region with
another powerful source o f imagery, both negative and positive. WTule audiences across
the world could now see firsthand the beautiful scenery- and new leisurely lifestyles
enjoyed by many residents, and that this vision was reinforced in m any o f the plots
H All Year Club internal document, entided "Facts on Tourist Travel for November:
Authentic data for Subscribers to the All-Year Club o f Southern California." date
unknown but assume 1928 based on text in docum ent, from collection housed at the
Urban Archives Center and Special Collections o f California State University
Northridge.
64
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specifically involving Southern California, the place also becam e a symbol of the
nation’s cultural transition from a Victorian, producerist w orld to a consumer culture.
And with this transform ation came changes in traditional gender roles and ideas about
sexuality, where Victorian ideas o f restraint and propriety w ent by the wavside in the
advent o f the flapper and the increasingly shrinking bathing suit. In this world, few
chaperones existed for newly arrived women seeking stardom and the perils of the
casting couch were dangerous markers o f the industry itself and the new “Public
W om an” o f the twentieth-century. While early Hollywood films demonstrated the
waning influence o f the Victorian model o f womanhood, m ost notably in the films o f
DAY. Griffith, as the century progressed movies often were the arena in which new
models o f gender were displayed, both alleviating and creating cultural tension. By the
1920s, this new woman focused on the present and her im m ediate needs, rather than
deferred gratification and the needs o f others. According to cultural historian Larv Mav,
on film this new system o f value overturned concepts o f the hom e and the workplace in
film:
W hether she was an emancipated wife or flapper played by Clara
Bow, Mae Murray, Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, o r N orm a or
Constance Talmadge, she portrayed a restless young wom an eager
to escape an ascetic home. Seeking a new role, she could take a
job in search o f freedom and money, but would never identify with
the low level work available— These and other heroines find their
real emancipation in short skirts, glamour, and innocent sexuality.
They love to go out on the town and rub elbows w ith m en, where
they smile, flirt, and dance the Charleston to black orchestras.7 9
9 Larv May. Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry.
(Chicago: the University o f Chicago Press, 1980), 218-219.
65
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Further, because o f the sexual politics that famously dominated the industry in high
profile scandals, from unsolved murders, rumored suicides, and marital break ups,
Flollywood and Southern California became a target for reformers and moral crusaders
wishing to curb this tumultuous change.
Though audiences could receive glimpses o f Southern California through small
shorts taken as early as 1898 with clips like “Dogs Playing in the S u rf’ which featured
San Diego’s opulent Hotel Del Coronado, Southern California was used first in a major
film in 1907 when Francis Boggs o f Chicago’s Selig Company came to shoot a sequence
from the Count o f Monte Cristo (1908).*" Boggs returned in 1908 to shoot the first film
shot entirely in Southern California, The Heart of the Rare TrackM W ithin the next few
years, a handfiil o f movie companies moved to Southern California for a variety o f
reasons: its climate and the ability to film all year long, its “open shop” labor reputation,
its relatively cheap source o f electricity, and its distance from the already entrenched
film industry based on the East Coast, which required them to pay licensing fees for
technolog} developed by Edison.
WTiile film companies were scattered across Los Angeles during the film
industry’s early years, the establishment of the first studio by Horsley N estor’s film
company in 1911 in Hollywood began the move o f many production companies to the
same geographic area. This transition was eased by the efforts o f real estate boosters
s" Bebe Bergsten, ed., Biograph Bulletins. 1896-1908. (Los Angeles: Locare Research
G roup, 1971), 260. According to John Pashdag, the Selig Company actually filmed
“The Pigeon Farm ” in 1903, John Pashdag. Holly woodland US.-I: the Moviegoers Guide to
Southern California. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1984).
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like Ham - Culver, who in 1914 actually gave tracts o f land to Triangle Studios, believing
that the studio would, through employment opportunities, supplv potential hom e and
propertv buvers.*2
In addition to Culver’s efforts, Southern California boosters courted the film
industry in different ways. According to film historian Kevin Brownlow, in 1919 the
Los Angeles Cham ber o f Com m erce actually issued advertisements to Eastern based
tilm companies, highlighting the climate’s conduciveness to creative efforts. The ad,
cited here from Brownlow, reads.
Environm ent certainly affects creative workers. You realize surelv
the importance in such essentially sensitive production as the
making o f Motion Pictures the vital importance o f having even-
member o f an organization awake in the m orning and start to
work in a flood o f happy sunshine....Cold rain and slushv snow
do not tend to the proper mental condition for the best creative
work*''
Interestingly, this ad points o u t Southern California’s climate, not for its ability to
provide year round filming, b u t for its other old standard, restorative powers. Judith
Elias also notes that the Cham ber was quick to point out the advantages o f Los
Angeles’ relatively cheap electricity supply. The 1908 Los Angeles Aqueduct supplied
so much excess hydroelectric pow er that in 1911 the citv voted to make this source
available through a municipally owned system. To filmmakers like DAY'. Griffith whose
K I John Pashdag. Hollywoodland C S. l: the Moiie goers Guide to Southern California. (San
Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1984).
8 2 May, 180.
s’ ’ Ad for Los Angeles Cham ber o f Commerce from 1919 1 1 ID's Year Book. 127, in
Kevin Brownlow. The Parade's Gone B)’ ...(New York: Bonanza Books, 1968) 30.
6 "
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use o f lighting was pivotal to his artistic style, the offer was particularly enticing.*4 This,
along with the Eastern pow er shortages during World W ar I, encouraged the movement
of filmmakers across the continent. Bv the 1920s, eighty percent o f films were being
done in Southern California.*3
Initially, residents o f Hollywood's existing com m unity did not embrace
filmmakers. This wariness is attributable to its residents’ relatively conservative
worldviews in contrast with the m otion picture industry’s lifestyle. Developed in the
late 1880s by H.H. W ilcox, Hollywood was composed o f wealthy Midwesterners who
had created a comm unity founded in conservative Midwestern Protestant values.
Calling on Victorian preconceptions about actors and the theater, rather stodgy
residents o f Hollywood saw the newcomers as nuisances and. in many wavs, not
respectable because o f their status o f actors and their affiliation with this new culture o f
consumption. This exclusion manifested itself in the barring o f motion-picture people
from country clubs and exclusive apartm ent buildings.*6
The ambivalent relationship between Los Angeles and H olhw ood during this
period demonstrated the continued reliance upon regional prom otion its leaders
historically practiced, but the cultural m ores o f Hollywood's filmmakers placed these
leaders in an awkward position. Though boosters profited from the affiliation, they also
recognized the flipside to having the region associated with the film industry. Leaders
* * Elias, 52. Elias cites an ad analyzed in Benjamin B. H am pton’s A His/or}’ of the Movies.
(New York: Covici-Friede Publishers, 1931), 52.
S :i Brownlow, 5.
* * ’ Brownlow, 5.
68
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promoted the climate and its conduciveness to all year filming and cheap
hydroelectricity, and boosters recognized the Hollywood's pow er in prom oting tourism.
Historian Carey McW illiams proffers that Los Angeles has profited from the location o f
movie studios in Southern California bv prom oting “so near and vet so far” relationship
that highlighted its celebrity. This relationship contributed to the formation o f a
Hollywood style linked to Southern California but apart from it:
For example, if the m otion-picture industry had m erged with the rest
o f the comm unity it would long ago have become impossible to
place a special prem ium on m otion-picture patronage. But under
the existing relationship Hollywood patronage o f a particular shop
or cafe or hotel o r bar or art gallery can be made to pay dividends—
T o vulgarize the concept it has made possible the distillation o f a
pure essence, Hollywood, used to sell clothes real estate, clothes,
ideas, books, jewelry furniture, cold creams, deodorants, and
perfum e.H
The formation o f the Hollywood style created its own publicity machine. Bv 1947
historian Robert Cleland observed, “Los Angeles has more than fifteen "style-reporting"
agencies, which report to stores all over the world and "send out weekly bulletins,
sketches, samples, and tips on who is wearing what.”* * Yet, the formation o f
Hollywood as style center and center o f dreams also diminished Los Angeles’
reputation— first, through its relationship with consumption and second, through its
reputation as a demoralizing place for would-be starlets. O ften the two w ent hand-in-
hand.
s7 McW'illiams, 338.
M H Robert Glass McClelland. California in Our Time. (New York: Alfred A. K nopf, 1947)
276-277.
69
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The extent to which female newcomers inundated Southern California was
overwhelming and early efforts were made to stem the ride. In 1915 the Hollywood
Businessmen’s Club donated S I500 for the lease o f the Twist M ansion that was to be
used as the YWCA Hollywood Studio Club, which specifically catered to respectable
young women seeking em ploym ent in the film industry.8 ’ ' |ohn Parris Springer’s
exploration o f Hollywood's literary image details further efforts made to quell the flood.
A plethora o f stories in national magazines im plored America’s core o f would-be
starlets to stay home, noting th a t, “ ... in 1924 the Hollywood Cham ber o f Com m erce
mounted a national publicity campaign to discourage California-bound youngsters by
placing ads in newspapers and train stations warning of their poor prospects for success
in the film industry.”''’1 Despite these efforts, m ore and more young men and women
flooded the city.
Many high profile scandals erupted in the film industry early and influenced the
way others began to see Southern California.1 ' 1 In 1920, aspiring actress Olive Thom as,
the sister-in-law o f Man- Pickford— the nation’s “sweetheart”— was found dead o f an
overdose o f heroine. And, oft-cited as the scandal that first changed the industry’s tenor
to the outside world, the Fatty Arbuckle trials and eventual acquittal for the 1921
murder of Virginia Rappe were immediately sensationalized bv the press and the actual
w Information gleaned from the YWCA Hollywood Chapter collection housed at the
Urban Archives Center and Special Collections o f California State University
Northridge.
Springer, 251. In addition to the Chamber’s efforts, Springer notes stories in Colliers
and Photoplay.
'M Michael Munn. The Hollywood Murder Casebook. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987).
"0
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event remains clouded bv rumors o f sexual depravity. The mainstream press, m ost
notably. William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner, in its drive to sell
newspapers, fabricated much o f the storv and publicly condem ned Arbuckle. Similarly,
the still unsolved murder o f William Desm ond Taylor, director for Famous Players,
attracted its own press coverage and newspapers speculated on Taylor’s sexual
dalliances and problems with alcohol and drugs. These scandals, among others, drew a
new picture o f Hollywood that influenced the way Southern California began to be
perceived.
This change in filmmaking location, coupled with the new star industry, which
emerged in the mid 191 Os, in which individual actors and actresses were groom ed and
publicized through newsreels and fan magazines, created an immense impact on
Southern California’s exported image in scope and tone. The mcreasing popularity of
the film medium ensured that more and m ore audiences across the world would
witness, seemingly firsthand, all the benefits Los Angeles and its environs had to offer.
N ot only did filmmakers take advantage o f the natural landscape, but they also featured
Southern California’s more unique elements as narrative enhancements. Filmmakers
took advantage o f the region’s climate and natural landscapes to engage in location
shooting and to build variegated storylines, employing the beach, the citvscape, or the
local mountains.
Through the evolution o f the star system. Southern California’s new culture of
consum ption could also be witnessed in self-referential Hollywood texts apart from the
films themselves. Along with this celebrity making machine, top stars demanded
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exorbitant salaries— in 1917 Charlie Chaplin and M an- Pickford each commanded a
million dollars for their work respectively.''2 Magazines and newspaper articles detailed
the ostentatious hom es and cars o f Hollywood’s stars and com m ented on the stars’
personal relationships themselves. Southern California appeared tailor-made to this
new culture in its actual physical appearance. Historian Larv Mav notes the affiliation
with this new lifestvle with Southern California:
As early as 1915, fan magazines showed how the star's domain
reflected T he Southern California style. In a city that contained few
m onum ents o r buildings reflecting the 19th-centurv Anglo-Saxon
culture, there seemed to be a release from the restraint o f tradition. ' 1
Southern California in its exotic Mediterranean foliage, in its foreign architecture, in the
behavior o f its residents, and in its lack o f similarities to Eastern citvscapcs became the
perfect em bodim ent o f a new, and often threatening, world o f consum ption, leisure,
and new sexuality. As America entered the 1920s, films represented the growing
changes in America’s larger cultural order with storylines featuring flappers, ambitious
corporate women, and new ideas about sexuality. And, because Hollywood was located
geographically in Southern California, the region became synonymous with these new
ideals.
While filmmakers used the place’s environm ent to suit whatever their scripts
called for, films using geographic features stereo typically associated with Southern
California had corresponding themes. The new scenerv afforded by Southern California
'2 Zelda Cini & Bob Crane. Hollywood Land and Legend. (W estport, Ct: Arlington House,
1980), 72.
,n May, 190.
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encouraged the displaying o f new behavior representative o f the country's changing
cultural climate in films. For example. M ack Sennett’s Bathing Beaut}- Brigade, begun in
1917 and initially filmed in Venice, pushed the limits o f appropriate swimwear.1 ,4 And
Sennett’s Keystone Cops, modeled after a real experience with the Los Angeles Police
Department, encouraged the questioning o f authority and policing institutions. The
slapstick o f the Keystone Cops represented in physical form a rejection o f restraint and
control so vital to the now diminishing Victorian sensibility.1 '5 Charlie Chaplin’s 1914
Twenty Minutes o f Lore exemplifies this new attitude. Filmed at Wesdake Park (now
MacArthur Park) by the Keystone Film Com pany, the film features a group o f lovers in
the park. The film’s summary reads, “A girl asks her beau for a love token. Idle beau
steals a pocket watch from a sleeping man, Charlie gets it away from him and gives it to
the girl. He later gets it back and tries to sell it to his original owner who calls a
'M Deems Taylor. .1 Pictorial History of the Mories. (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1950), 55-56.
‘ h Remi Nadeau, "Enter the Moviemakers" developed from Los Angeles from Mission to
Modem City (New York: Longmans, Green & Company, 1960), 204-210 in John & Laree
Caughey’s Los Angeles: Biography o f A City. (Berkeley: University o f California Press,
1976), 258-259. According to Nadeau, filmmakers like Sennett were notorious for the
public stunts in the attempts to catch som ething interesting on film. In 1912 Sennett
staged a stunt taking advantage o f a Shriner’s Parade. Sennett had actress Mabel
Normand behave as a jilted lover, having her wave a doll around and demand that the
father step forward to take responsibility. Sennett arranged for an argument to erupt
and, "Several Los Angeles policemen, com plete in round-shaped helmets and brass-
buttoned uniforms, descended on Ford [the plant). He naturally insulted them and ran
off-past the camera, o f course. They gave angry chase, billy clubs in the air.. .Grabbing
their camera, the Sennett gang sped immediately for the new studio....As for the Los
Angeles policemen, they never caught up w ith their quarry but were soon immortalized
on film. "G od bless the police!" Sennett later wrote. "They were the first Keystone
Cops.""
~3
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policeman. Many park visitors wind up getting tossed into the lake.”1 '6 Like Sennett’s
efforts. Twenty Minutes oj I Jive exemplifies how filmmakers used local Los Angeles
scenery in films that challenged Victorian ideals.
In addition to comedies that featured the landscape, dramatic narratives also
used Southern California in meaningful wavs. The popularity o f the mission mvth in
1910 influenced filmic fictional narratives, building on the region’s historical image.
Helen Hunt |ackson’s Ramonavcas produced filmicallv in 1910, 1916, and 1928, and
other early films shared the themes associated with the mission mvth.'1 7 Between 1910
and 1911 four films were produced following the Ramona model including The Thread o f
Destiny: .1 Story of the Old Southwest (1910), In Old California: .1 Romance of the Spanish
Dominion (1910), .1 Romance of the Western Hills: Civilisation .-Is It Appealed to the Indian
Maiden (1910), and The Chiefs Daughter: On the Cactus Fields of Southern California (191 l).w
These films, along with their non-filmic fiction and non-fiction counterparts, reified the
mission myth first introduced in 1884 and spotlighted the Southern California
landscape. These films, largely from the Biograph studio, were earlv favorites of
director DAV. Griffith according to Kevin Starr, w ho notes, “G riffith’s use o f an
1 ,6 Film information and summary accessed from the Internet Movie Database on
February 10, 2001 ( http://w w w .im db.coni).
" Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona or some version o f it was actually reproduced several
times in film history including 1936 and 1946. Source: the Internet Movie Database,
accessed on February 10, 2001.
w These films and their respective plots are described in Bebe Bergsten, ed., Biograph
Bulletins. 1896-1908. (Los Angeles: Locare Research G roup, 1971), 174, 175, 185, 197,
& 289.
" 4
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eighteenth-century mission myth to explore and demonstrate the possibilities o f a new
art medium is in itself svmbolic.”w
The combination of these images— the beautiful natural landscape, the exotic
built environment, the trappings o f leisure, m adcap comedies, and rom ances— all
culminated in a revision o f Southern California’s image, that, because o f film’s wide
reaching capabilities, proved much more powerful. And this imagery, while at once
advertising the place to tourists, filmmakers, and future residents, also beckoned a new
cultural order that rejected Victorian concepts o f deferred gratification, restraint, and
stricdy bifurcated gender roles. As Southern California became emblematic for this new
world o f modernity, it quickly became a target for those not willing to follow the
transformation.
All o f these factors— the em bodim ent o f Southern California as a new culture
o f consumption, the changing moral landscape o f the Southland as a result o f
Hollywood scandals, and the influx o f different populations to the region— culminated
tn a change in Los Angeles’ overall image to outsiders. While vestiges o f its form er
glorified self remained within the image. Southern California became a potentially
dangerous place in its modernity. While Los Angeles was not unique in this respect;
New York and Chicago were famously also targeted by reformers for their sex districts
and urban problems, Los Angeles’ affiliation with the film industry had its indiscretions
broadcasted with a larger megaphone and eclipsed the region’s other attributes, unlike
America’s other big cities who continued to be known for their other industrial or
'w Kevin Starr. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1985), 292.
~5
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cultural institutions. Thus, for New York Citv, while an emergence o f various sex zones
emerged in the theater district, the city also began to be identified as a center for
commerce, advertising, and art.1 0 " Thus, the American public could learn about New
York’s growth as a commercial center or Chicago’s reputation as a center for social
studies concurrendv with their respective urban problem s. Southern California’s other
burgeoning industries, such as aviation or its extant agricultural interests, were often
eclipsed by the wavward behavior o f its film stars.
As Hollywood’s reputation became tarnished, as a result o f its own scandals
and questionable sexual politics, beginning in the 1920s, so did Los Angeles’ image.
Carev McWilliams’ notes that around 1920, Los Angeles’ vision took a turn for the
worse and that earh detractors used the place’s m ost precious article o f trade as its
Achilles heel: “W hen the tide o f national opinion began to turn sharply against southern
California around 1920, it was always the climate that was denounced. ‘Under the
benign sun.’ wrote Life, ‘the people o f Southern California grow lax and almost
The rise o f discrete sex districts in major American cities has a developed
historiography. Some notable examples include George Chauncev’s Gay S ew York:
Gender. I rlran Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. (New York:
Basic Books, 1994); Lewis A. Erenberg. Steppin' Out: S e w York Sightlife and the
Transformation of .American Culture. 1890-1930. (W estport, Conn.: G reenw ood Press,
1981); Angus McLaren. The Trials of Masculinity: Policing Sexual Boundaries, 18^0-1930.
(Chicago: L mversity o f Chicago Press, 1997); Kevin J. Mumford. Interpones: Black/ White
Sex Districts in Chicago and Mew York in the Early Twentieth Century. (New York; Columbia
University Press, 1997); Kathy Peiss. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in
Tum-of-the-Century S ew York. (Philadephia: Temple University Press, 1986); Kevin
White. The First Sexual Kemlution: the Emergence of Male Heterosexuality in .Modem America.
(New York: New York University Press, 1993), am ong others. For work on the
different reputations other US cities may have cultivated see Chapter Five o f this
dissertation.
"6
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hysterical.’""" The trend to use the climate as an explanation for its residents’
shortcomings became a standard in Los Angeles criticism that continues, to some
extent, into the present. Southern California’s climate, its exceptional commodity, and
later its natural landscapes became inversions to their form er glorified states. In novels
o f the late 1920s and 1930s, the climate becomes debilitating, rather than invigorating;
the landscape is rendered hazardous terrain, instead o f inviting playground.
CONCLUSION:
A summary o f the Southern California promotional mvths from the mid-1870s
through the 1920s reveals an evolving tableau, centering on its climate and landscape,
and later contrived rom antic history. Depending on the needs o f the prom oter,
whether guided bv profit or altruism, this vision featured the region’s restorative values,
its fertility and abundance, its leisure activities, or its glamour and new consum er
culture. And, advertisers presented this image in different degrees o f hyperbole,
framing their claims using different pathos. W hether they employed first hand
narratives from dow n-to-earth folk willing to share their miraculous experiences or
whether they were from scientists and medical authorities who cited dry but impressive
figures, advertisers tugged at the heartstrings o f Americans, mosdv M idwesterners, to fill
railway cars, hotels, and land lots. As America’s overall value structure underwent
change at the beginning o f the 20th-century, from a producerist, Victorian order that
valued deferred gratification, restraint, and romantic love to a consum er culture that
appreciated instant gratification and the blurring of boundaries in both gender roles and
1 1 " McW illiams, 108.
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sexuality, so too did the Southern California mythos. In the late 19th century, the
promoters used traditional Victorian themes to push the place, from Helen Hunt
Jackson’s romantic novel to the refined society implied in the restorative experiences at
hotels and resorts and the patriarchal lifestyle alluded to in the fruit crate label. In the
early 20th-century, prom oters focused on the region’s flourishing tourist industry— still
using climate as a lure, and Hollywood films celebrated the new standards o f
consumption and leisure so easily accessible in the region. And. at times, the two
coexisted.
W'Ttilc those who came to Southern California often met with disappointment
when faced with the reality over the myth, which seemed to occur more frequendy as
the 20th-century progressed, it is im portant to note that many came and some had their
expectations met. Importandy, success within the region often broke down along racial
and ethnic lines. Throughout the various promotional campaigns and their respective
promises, individuals were satisfied and often overjoyed with what Southern California
had to offer, becoming boosters themselves. For example, both Harrison Gray Otis
and Harry Chandler, instrumental forces in the building o f the Los Angeles Times in the
early 20th-century, found seemingly miraculous success when they had failed in other
places. Otis, before com ing to Los Angeles in 1882 and buying the Times. had twice
failed in the newspaper business in the East. By focusing on local news over the wire
stories as his competitors did, Otis grew the newspaper into a regional powerhouse with
control in local real estate. Similarly, Chandler, who would marry Otis’ daughter and
join his team at the Times, came to Southern California also in 1882 for health reasons.
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Judith W’ilnin Elias writes, “Chandler had contracted tuberculosis and his parents,
impressed by Los Angeles' prom otional literature, sen t him there for the advertised
curative properties o f the southern California clim ate. He not onlv regained his health
eventually, he ended up controlling the Times ” Io:: In the cases o f Otis and Chandler,
their experiences in the Southland led to their boosting o f it.
The agricultural abundance and opportunitv available to the right individuals
also existed in Southern California and throughout the stare, for that matter. As the
citrus industry’s successes illustrate, under the right commercial framework and with the
right advertising, both agricultural bounty and financial success could be achieved. The
region’s agricultural maturation resulted from advances in technology and a continued
supply o f an affordable workforce. Southern California’s agricultural abundance for this
penod proves phenomenal— between 1915 and 1926 the orange crop increased from
over 21 million boxes to nearly 34 million and lem ons grew from 880,000 in 1899 to 6.6
million boxes in 1919.ll,; This legacv lives on. A ccording to one estimate, the state’s
contemporary contribution in providing fruits and vegetables to the rest o f the nation
far exceeds “ the entire total agricultural income o f th e states o f the Far W est
combined,” averaging annual earnings over 14 billion dollars in 1990.1 1 ,4
l,c Elias, 63.
I < 1 '’ Douglas Monrov. Rebirth: Mexican Los Angelesfrom the Great Migration to the Great
Depression. (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1999), 97.
1 1 1 4 Allen Carpenter, ed.. The Encyclopedia oj the Far W est. (New York: Facts on File,
1991), 9. Here the “ Far W est” includes the states o f California, Oregon, W ashington,
Idaho, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, and Alaska.
"9
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The visual image presented o f Southern California represented a knowable
reality to many. VXhile the images disseminated through film could hardly be contested
in terms o f their veracity in this earlv era o f “seeing is believing,” the colorful fruit crate
labels extolling the region’s panoram a’s often seemed like a technicolor scene from The
\Y \a rd of0~ . C olor aside, these labels were evocative o f Southern California vistas.
Kevin Starr notes.
Today, a half centurv since citrus culture passed its peak, surviving
evidence— old photographs especially— come forward to justify
that orange crate label pastoralism; the groves themselves first and
foremost, extending from seashore to mountain range, and the
great packing sheds adjacent to them, sweeping, open structures,
forcefully aesthetic in their utility, banked by stands o f eucalyptus
trees which channeled the breezes to an advantageous angle as the
fruit rem ained piled high in storage 1 ,1 5
As Starr shows, these visions and the lifestyles they implied for owners o f orange groves
were a reality to many growers between the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Yet,
the accessibility to this pastoral ideal in terms o f ownership and the labor required to
maintain it rem ained very different realities.
The success o f these vanous promotional claims and the contentm ent migrants
found can be measured in the sheer volumes o f people who came to Southern
California and stayed between 1880 and 1930. In the course o f sixty years, the city o f
Los Angeles’ population grew from 5,728 in 1870 to 1,238,048 in 1930. Similarly, the
count}- of Los Angeles increased from 15,309 individuals in 1870 to 2,208,492 in
"b Kevin Starr. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1985), 143-144.
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1930.1 "6 In addition to the Anglo Midwestern migrant, the place witnessed an increase
in population from existing and incoming ethnic peoples, from Mexicans, Japanese,
ethnic Europeans, and African Americans, who often upheld the Anglo paradise by
providing its agricultural and domestic workforce. The proportion o f newcomers from
other states, mosdv M idwestern, facilitated the formation o f state societies,
organizations in which new Southern Californians met with people from “back
home.” 1 0 7
Though the truthful aspects of some o f the Southern California m vthos served
to satisfy many o f its Anglo newcomers, not all found happiness based on the promises
of promotional campaigns. Obviously, depending on the depth to which claims were
exaggerated and w hether individuals came to Southern California with a dose o f healthv
skepticism influenced their experiences. Indeed, the exaggerated nature o f manv o f its
promoters' claims begged for a critical eye. Yet, some historians argue that the
atmosphere o f boosterism squelched any dissent. According to Robert Fogelson, in the
early 1900s this enthusiastic environment o f plugging the region was a reflection o f the
residents’ own insecurities. Fogelson posits.
Pitt and Pitt, 403. They cite Howard J. Nelson. The Los Angeles Metropolis. (Dubuque,
Iowa: K endall/H unt, 1983), 136.
1 0 7 Emerging in the late 19th-century and becoming increasingly popular into the early
20th, state societies served both social and sometimes political functions. Carey
McWilliams observes, “To be sure, the federation [state society] became, and to some
extent still remains, a prom otion agency, giving information to tourists and
homeseekers, routing newcom ers to the right real-estate offices and banks, and
indirecdy sponsoring the “right” candidates for public office.” McWilliams, 168.
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First, having repudiated certain traditional values in choosing
southern California, they felt a compulsion to justify their decision
that could be relieved only by steadfast dedication to Los Angeles.
They became unparalleled boosters.1 "8
V CTiile Fogelson does have a worthwhile point, the very atm osphere o f constant
boosting created an “em peror’s new clothes” environm ent that uncritically reified the
myth. Consider Helen H unt fackson’s initial views o f Southern California and the wav
she admitted to prom oting its mvthic image in correspondence hom e. But, to friends in
the place and in the know, so to speak, jacksoris candor could be m ore representative
o f the Eastern response to its dry climate and largely unpopulated expanses. And,
considering the success o f so many o f its early newcom ers, the region may have framed
its own version o f a self-fulfilling prophecy for this period.
Though this atm osphere may have muffled any complaints newcomers may
have had, as Fogelson contends, this attitudinal climate was not strong enough to arrest
the sway in opinion that occurred dramatically in the late 1920s. T hen, the mythic
booster image of Los Angeles and Southern California quickly transform ed into a more
ambivalent and sometimes dam ning portrait as the 20th-century progressed. Using
many o f the same themes that boosters employed— the climate, leisure, and landscape,
its countless attractive women, its detractors began to paint Los Angeles as the
embodiment o f all that was w rong with America. T hough some scholars righdv see Los
Angeles and Hollywood working as a “symbolic m icrocosm o f the best and worst in
American life,” within this new imagery, its detractors also position Southern California
1 1 1 8 Fogelson, 189-190.
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as distinctly different from the rest o f America in both fictional and non-fictional texts,
the subject o f C hapter Tw o.1 "1 '
KW c
Springer, 5.
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CH APTER TWO:
T H E H O LLY W O O D N O V EL AN D H A RD -BOILED FIC TIO N , 1927-1955
“Well, we finally arrived in Southern California and it’s raining. Hollywood is situated
in the foothills, but as far as I’m concerned it’s an in-grown toe-nail.” 1
Letter from Major to Dixie
from Dog Gone Hollywood (1930).
In 1930 A 1 Martin published his short storv. Dog Gone Hollywood, the adventures
o f Major, a German shepherd who goes to Hollywood to seek stardom with his
mistress. Dog Gone Hollywood is chronicled through a series o f letters written from
Major to his girlfriend, Dixie in New York, and though Major never becomes a canine
star, despite his effort, including the attempts o f one director to disguise him as a lion,
the storv ends happily w hen Major and Dixie are reunited in Hollywood. After creating
a successful theater career for herself in Major's absence, Dixie has reached stardom and
comes to Hollywood to conquer the film industry.
A seemingly innocuous publication. Dog Gone Hollywood appears geared to both
an adult and children's audience, and in forty-seven pages manages to encompass some
o f the key elements o f the Hollywood novels o f the 1930s and demonstrates, to some
extent, the normali2ation o f a specific Hollywood image. M ajor comes to Hollywood
from the East Coast. He fails at becoming a film star, while o th er less worthy dogs
succeed. A duplicitous local dog named Babe attempts to seduce him but fails when
1 A 1 Martin. Dog Gone Hollywood. (Hollywood: Martin Publishing Company, 1930).
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Major realizes she is searching for her 14th husband. Major allegorizes local
architecture to categorize the tvpe of people w ho come to Hollvwood in a negative
manner. He comments that one ingenue, Olga, "reminds m e o f a Hollywood
Bungalow. She's shingled in the back and nothing upstairs."2 Finally, Major notes the
impermanence o f the region and comments on its lack of place: "N ow I'm a native
Californian! My definition o f a native is one w ho hasn't the price to leave the state." ' 1
Dog Gone Hollywood serves as but one example o f the hundreds o f fictional stories
generated about Southern California between 192~ and 1955 that contributed to a new.
darker vision in contrast to the booster mvth. This chapter charts the development o f
these fictional perceptions o f Los Angeles through the genres o f the Hollvwood novel,
hard-boiled detective fiction, and other fictional writings on the region. These sources
create an image o f Southern California that influences Los Angeles film of the 1940s
and 1950s.
In order to evaluate to what extent these Southern California characterizations
took place this chapter samples both known and lesser known fiction. Although a
general focus on prom inent authors might delineate a portrayal o f the region and
establish the goals o f this chapter, this dissertation takes a step further. This chapter
seeks out other means to demonstrate the evolution and saturation o f the Los
Angeles/Hollywood image. Importandv, as author Erik Hazel has argued, this literary
trope did take hold within the genre of the Hollywood novel— specifically in the writing
2 Martin, 29.
' Martin, 43.
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of Hollywood novels by individuals who never visited the region.4 Thus, this study
looks at prom inent authors such as Raymond Chandler, John Fante, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
and N athanael West b u t also investigates writers who never won over large audiences.5
And this survey includes other fictional forms o f writing on the region, like poetrv and
short stories.
These sources contribute to the formation o f Los Angeles' symbolic landscape.
Each fictional form, w hether the Hollywood novel or hard-boiled detective fiction, was
a reaction to an experience o f Los Angeles itself and often also tapped into larger
American trends. A response against the booster image o f the citv and the confines of
the studio system, the Hollywood novel drew the region as a space o f inequity—
explicidv targeting the film industry. The Hollvwood novel at times used a depiction of
Los Angeles as a direct analogy to the film industry in descriptions o f architecture,
immigrants to the region, and the values of Los Angelenos. Hard-boiled fiction, often
as seen as a reaction to societal tension, at times integrated actual historic events into its
storylines. This chapter shows that the fictional portrait o f Southern California, despite
genre or audience, m aintains similar characteristic, building a regional stereotype which
in part inverted its earlier booster incarnations. In addition to painting the place as an
im perm anent space w ith roodess residents, such fiction continues an erasure o f the
4 Erik. R. Hazel. “The Hollywood Image: An Examination o f the Literary Perspective.”
(Ph.D. diss.. Case W estern Reserve, 1974), 32.
3 Please note that while I include Nathanael W est in this discussion as a more known
author, his Hollywood novel The Dcry oj the Locust was not a commercial success at its
first publishing. But, his revival in the recent past does contribute to our current
understanding o f Los Angeles.
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region’s history began in the writing o f Helen H unt Jackson in the late nineteenth
century, though a markedly different version o f it.
Additionally, these fictional portrayals earn’ on an ethnic and sexualized portrait
o f Southern California but for very different purposes that are tied to the elusive,
booster dream. As literary critic Carolyn See argues in her work o n the Hollvwood
novel, along with the pervasiveness o f sex in Southern California, com es a
corresponding sexual im potence to many of the first-person, male Anglo American
protagonists According to See, m ost Hollywood novels use the imagery o f sexual
impotence to symbolize the real impotence o f the protagonist in Southern California.
It is negative, pessimistic, its main characteristic being a loss o f
enthusiasm for the dream; its main manifestation impotence; its
main result an apathy and inertia which colors the remainder o f
any given novel. This tradition o f impotence is not so m uch an
attack on, as passive resistance to, the Hollywood dream itself/'
Ihis assessment, though written for the Hollywood novel, may often be applied to
much writing on Los Angeles. W hether to dem onstrate an overall demeaned or amoral
population by showing how easily sex could be acquired or to build upon an assumed
sexual proclivity in its intended audience, regional fiction repeatedly describes Southern
California as a place where beautiful women are sexually available and were presumably
disposable. While this portrait can be traced to the thousands o f young women who
flocked to the region in search o f stardom, the sexualizadon o f Southern California
through fiction is based in ethnic and racial stereotypes first engendered in the
6 Caroline See "The Hollywood Novel: An Historical and Critical Study." (Ph.D. diss.,
L’niversity o f California, Los Angeles, 1963), 223.
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nineteenth cenrurv. Los Angeles’ nexus for different Asian and M exican communities
made it a ripe and safe place to explore sexual deviancy.
Finally, because of Los Angeles’ growing reputation as a m odem city, critiques
o f Los Angeles imbedded in hard-boiled fiction sometimes work as an interrogation o f
the direction o f the nation as a whole. This overview will establish that a new vision
o f the region emerged by the 1940s, contrasting with the booster image put forth in the
earlier pan o f the century, documenting the acceptance o f a second-class Los Angeles.
Though not all sources vilified Southern California, all share similar characteristics,
contributing to a symbolic landscape.
REVIEWING LOS ANGELES FICTION:
Past scholarship on Los Angeles fiction has designated three dom inant genres:
the crime novel, the Hollywood novel, and the disaster novel.8 But, as, critic Mike
Davis observes, scholarly emphasis on Los Angeles’ literary representation has
privileged the vision put forth bv hard-boiled detective novels from writers such as
Mike Davis first proffered this vision in City oj Quart i^ : Excavating the Future in Los
Angeles. (New York: Verso, 1990). O thers have contributed to this observation in more
general ways. Both George Lipsitz and Michael D enning successfully argue that some
elements of popular culture o f the 1940s often provided critiques o f modernity, visions
o f progress, and capitalism. See George Lipsitz’ Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in
the 1940s. (L’rbana: University o f Illinois Press, 1994) and Michael D enning’s The
Cultural Front: the Laboring oj American Culture in the Twentietb-Centuty. (London: Verso,
1996).
8 David Fine’s m ost recent work. Imagining Los.-ingeles: .-I City in Fiction. (Albuquerque:
University o f N ew Mexico Press, 1999), does, though relatively briefly, include other
authors that do not neatly fall under these three themes.
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Raymond Chandler.1 ' Yet, substantial exploration has occurred on crime novels outside
o f this category, particularly o n the Hollvwood novel. Since the 1960s a mvriad o f texts
have explored the Hollywood novel as a genre and its specific authors, m ost notablv
Carolyn See.1 " Further, Kevin Starr and David Fine have taken up the task o f surveying
Los Angeles fiction in The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s and Imagining Los
Angeles:.-I City in Fiction, respectively.1 1
Scholars have linked authorial setting choice to local, Los Angeles history as well
as to a sense o f disappointm ent that pervaded the region at the time. David Fine
observes, "The brand o f detective fiction that took hold in Southern California. ..was an
exploration o f the dark side o f the dream, the side that encouraged the rape o f the
'' Mike Davis. Ecology oj Fean Los .-I nge/es and the Imagination of Disaster. (New York:
Metropolitan, 1998). 280.
Among others including David Fine’s recent work, see already cited Caroline See;
Newton Baird. A n Annotated Bibliographj of California in Fiction (Georgetown: Talisman
literary Research, Inc., 1971); Nancy Brooker-Bowers. The Hollywood Xovel and Other
\o vels About Film. 1912-1982: A n Annotated Bibliography: (New York: Garland
Publishing, 1985); |onas Spatz. Hollywood in Fiction: Some I 'ersions o f the American Myth.
(The Hague: Mouton & Co, 1959); Anthony Slide. The Hollywood Xovel: A Critical Guide
to Over 1200 Works. (Jefferson: MacFarland, 1995) Walter Wells. Tycoons and Locusts: A
Regional Look at Hollywood Fiction o f the 1930s. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1973). David Fine, ed.. Los Angeles in Fiction. (Albuquerque: Lniversitv o f New
Mexico Press, 1984) and his m ore recent Imagining Los Angeles.
1 1 Kevin Starr. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. (New York: Oxford
L'niversiry Press, 1997) and David Fine. Imagining Los Angeles: .-I City in Fiction.
(Albuquerque: University o f N ew Mexico Press, 1999). See also David M. Fine’s
“ Beginning in the Thirties: T he Los Angeles Fiction o f James M. Cain and Horace
McCoy” in Los Angeles in Fiction: A Collection o f Essays edited bv David Fine
(Albuquerque: University o f N ew Mexico Press, 1984); Paul Skenazv’s “Behind the
Territory Ahead;” Robert E. Skinner’s “Streets of Fear the Los Angeles Novels o f
Chester Himes;” and Gilbert H . Muller’s “Double Agent: The Los Angeles Crime Cycle
o f Walter Mosley,” in the same volume.
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landscape and then allowed the plunderers to retreat into palatial homes, their crimes
buried in the past."1 - Such a view mav be applicable to other American cities with a
scandal-plagued past. While some have ferreted out connections between events in
novels and corresponding events in Los Angeles historv, inherent in Fine’s observation
is the idea that novelists faced a sense o f disappointm ent in “the dream,” the booster
myth promised earlier in the centurv. Los Angeles detective fiction uses the region
much in the same m anner as the Hollvwood novel does and responds to the region’s
hyperbolic boosterism.
Yet, most historiography on Los Angeles fiction has focused on the region's
more celebrated authors in all o f the genres surveved, from James M. Cain to |ames
EUroy.1 3 And, while understandable, this focus fails to address one of the main
questions o f this dissertation: To what extent did certain imagery on Los Angeles
saturate the national consciousness bevond the confines o f its literary sources? Towards
this end, we can begin by looking at more forms o f Los Angeles fiction. In a similar
study, John Parris Springer, in studving Hollywood's image, points to the need to
explore Hollywood's portrayal in short stories, essays, and editorials on Hollywood in
addition to the Hollvwood novel in order to gauge the pervasiveness of an image.1 4
Fine, 18 (1984).
1 3 Exceptions include surveys of literature that include short summaries o f novels such
as Anthony Slide's The Hollywood novel: A Critical Guide to Over 1200 Works. (Jefferson:
MacFarland, 1995).
1 4 Springer, John Parris. "Hollywood Fictions: The Cultural Construction o f Hollvwood
in American Literature, 1916-1939." (Ph.D. diss., U niversity o f Iowa, 1994), 39. See
also his book Hollywood Fictions: the Dream Factory in American Popular Literature.
(Norman: University o f Oklahoma Press, 2000).
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Similarly, Kevin Starr does address other fictional sources for Hollywood in his
investigation, but does not explore other founts o f Los Angeles imagery from
mainstream sources.1 3 This chapter will attem pt to build on this scholarship to include
samplings from a wider sampling o f both better and lesser known texts in order to
ascertain better the extent o f the Los Angeles image.
The Hollywood Novel
Perhaps the most prolific and anti-booster vision o f Southern California arose in
the Hollvwood novel. The Hollywood novel appeared as a popular, literary form in the
1920s and continued up through the 1950s.u' According to one study, between 1930
and 1952 three hundred and twenty novels were published1 W hile the genre may have
had its beginnings in the early 1920s, the rone o f the Hollvwood novel undergoes a
radical shift after 1927 and, it is this version that dominates later writing and is the focus
o f this chapter. As David Fine posits, though novels about Hollywood emerged in the
1920s, early works were often "inoffensive satires on the pretensions and masquerading
1 3 Kevin Starr. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. (New York: O xford
University Press, 1997), 265. However, please note that the goal o f Starr's study was an
exploration o f California writing and that this lapse is understandable.
1 6 The creation o f the Hollvwood novel continues to the present Anthony Slide argues
in his comprehensive The Hollywood Sore/:.-I Critical Guide to Over 1200 Works. (Jefferson:
MacFarland, 1995) finds the Hollywood novel beginning as early as 1912 and has
examples to 1993.
1 Hazel, 32. This quantitative scrutinization is reinforced bv the categorization o f the
Hollywood novel as a major rubric in I pda ting the Literary West, an encyclopedic review
o f Western fiction.— sponsored by Western Literature Association (Fort W'orth, Tex.:
Texas Christian University Press, 1997).
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of the movie crow d.. W hereas, the emergence o f the genre in the 1920s saw
lighthearted stories about the film industry, the Hollywood novel between the 1930s
and 1950s centers around the film industry, the studio system, and how success within
this system required a reversal o f traditional “American” values— honesty, hard work,
character, and individualism.1 ''
But, the general version o f the Hollvwood novel as we understand it developed
as a result o f shifts in film history. The 1927 implementation o f sound into film
changed the trajectory o f the Hollywood novel. This technological modification altered
filmmaking, requiring dialogue and writers to compose new scripts. This influx
contrasted sharply with previous writers in Hollvwood; this new breed came to the
region with promises o f easy money. It was often these newly im ported writers w ho
penned Hollywood novels like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Horace McCoy and Nathanael W est,
among others. The bleaker Hollvwood novel taps into a certain American Zeitgeist
specific to the Depression, and later, post-Hiroshima America. More specifically, per
historian Kevin Starr, the genre m irrored larger, national themes:
(T)he Hollvwood novel participated in a num ber o f fundamental
American modes: the Horatio Alger success story most
frequently turned against itself; the muckraking investigative tract,
with the studios functioning as a parallel to the Chicago stockyards
in I ’pton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906); the jeremiad, lamenting lost
opportunities; and the Indian captivity narrative, in this case, the
captivity o f a sensitive artist-intellectual by the crass studio system.2 "
1 8 David Fine. Imagining Los A n g e les:1 City in Fiction. (Albuquerque: University o f N ew
Mexico Press, 1999) 63-64.
"'Jonas Spatz. Hollywood in Fiction: Some I ersions of the American Myth. (The Hague:
Mouton, 1969), 116.
2 " Starr, 301.
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Similarly, Jonas Spatz posits: "The vision o f Hollvwood is b o m o f expectation and
disappointment, external success and inner failure. The tone o f the Hollywood novel,
as a result, is frequently ironic and angry."2 1
Hollvwood novels characterize the film industry as a hardened place where the
talent-less succeed and the gifted are trodden upon and forgotten. Characters within
the genre are usually painted as self-serving and ambitious, som etim es absolving the
main protagonist o f these sins, sometimes not. O ften, thev are about screenwriters who
provide the voice o f narration in the novels and recount the individual's impotence in
such an environm ent.— However, not all novels are written sympathetically for or are
even told from this perspective. F. Scott Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby Stones, originally
published for Esquire in 1940 and 1941, chronicles the life o f a largely unsympathetic,
hack screenwriter and is seen as an example o f Fitzgerald's self-mockery.2' Horace
McCoy's They Shoot Horses. Don't They? (1935) and I Should Hare Stayed Home (1938)
center on extras working in the film industry. And Nathanael W est's Tod Hackett is a
set designer in The Day of the Locust (1939).
Hollywood novelists use the geographic and temporal space o f Los Angeles
allegorically. O ne o f the essential conflicts in the Hollywood novel contrasts the place
the protagonist has left with Los Angeles. This relationship, often construed as
character (the past, the East coast) versus personality (the present, Los Angeles)
2 ! Spatz, 116.
— Spatz, 21.
2 3 Walter Wells. Tycoons and Locusts: A Regional Look at Hollywood Fiction of the /930s.
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973), 104.
03
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dichotomy, explores the duality o f the contrast in M anichean terms.:4 Specifically, the
Hollywood novel presents the past as a just m eritocracy and the present and the film
industry as its inverse. The genre paints the past in term s o f its authenticitv, the present
in terms o f its superfioalin-; the past where the individual could attain relative success.
the present where either failure or unjustified incredible success abounds. Set designer
Tod Hackett in The Day o f the Tocust remembers the counsel his friends on the East
Coast gave him to n ot come to Hollvwood for fear it w ould ruin him as an artist. And,
the main character o f Octavius Cohen's Star of the Earth (1932) notes that in Los Angeles
even one "lived, talked, and thought in superlatives", m aking Los Angelenos appear
more like figures from a slick advertisement campaign rather than real people.2 5 Star o f
the Earth also includes a scene capturing the disappointm ent o f many who came to
Hollywood. D escribing a group o f beauty contest winners from around the countrv
who have been prom ised a chance at stardom, Cohen writes:
As a m atter o f fact, each of them was experiencing a keen sense
o f disappointm ent. Announced as winners o f the various contests,
they had visioned themselves received in H ollvwood by all the
great stars o f the firmament; wined and dined at the various
mansions— and eventually tendered long-term acting contracts.
Instead they had been greeted at the station by a half dozen
extremelv bored publicity and camera-men, w ho had herded
them into cars— 2 6
2 4 This interpretation has been used by T.J. Jackson Lears’ Fah/es of Abundance: A Cultural
History of Advertising in America (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 7 and Warren Susman’s
Culture A s History: The Transformation of .-imerican Society in the Twentieth Century. (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1984). Though neither deals direcdy with the Hollvwood novel,
the themes presented in the literary genre m irror M odernist concerns over the rise o f
mass media and consum erism in the earlv 20th centurv.
2 5 Octavius Rov C ohen. Star o f the E.arth. (New York : D . Appleton, 1932), 3.
2 f’ Cohen, 10-11.
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Instead o f meeting their promised stardom, o f course, the girls hardly splash the waters
o f Hollywood and are slated to return hom e at the end o f the week. Star of the Earth
implies that the arrival o f busloads o f beautiful girls had by 1932 become routine, as
though a bus arrived at the same time each week, dem onstrating the entrenchment o f
the film industry's hold on the American imagination in its ability to create stars
overnight.
In the Hollywood novel, the region's superficiality is so pervasive that it affects
architecture and landscapes. A variant o f geographic determ inism seems to drench the
Hollywood novel— garish architecture signifies the gaudv sensibility o f the region's
inhabitants. Nathanael W est spends much time detailing the region's incongruous and
absurd architecture in The Day o f the Locust. In describing one character's house, he
writes:
The house was queer. It had an enorm ous and very crooked stone
chimney, little dorm er windows with big hoods and a thatched
roof that came down very low on both sides o f the front door.
This door was o f gum wood painted like fumed oak and it hung on
enormous hinges. Although made bv machine, the hinges had
been carefully stamped to appear hand-forged. The sam e kind of
care and skill had been used to make the ro o f thatching, which
was not really straw but heavy fireproof paper colored and ribbed
to look like straw.2 7
For West, the painstakingly created built environm ent o f Los Angeles conveys the
extent to which Los Angeles and its residents are artificial. His version begs the reader
to note that using the real thing would have no doubt saved tim e and money, but in Los
2 Nathanael West. The Day oj the Locust. (New York: Penguin, 1983) originally
published in 1939, 53.
9 5
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Angeles the fake outranks the real. Again, this relationship acts as an analog}- to the
film industry. Novelists also use clothing to illustrate the absurdity- o f Southern
Californians. Fitzgerald describes one Los Angeleno's clothing as "magenta pants,
cense shoes and a sport article from Vine Street which resembled nothing so m uch as a
cerulean blue pajama top" in The Pat Hobby Stories. Fitzgerald adds, "(he) was not a freak
nor were his clothes at all extraordinary for his time and place."2 8
The natural environm ent also mirrors the absurd in the Hollywood novel. Elmer
Rice's I oyage to Purilia (1930) exemplifies this tradition to the extreme. An odd blend of
science fiction and fantasy, I oyage to Purilia represents Hollywood in the fictional town
o f Purilia which when seen from an airplane looks like "pink smudge."2 0 Similarly, West
in The Day of the Loeust depicts natural phenom ena using conflicting terms, describing
the sky as "enameled" or the light cast from a sunset as "neon." '" Liam O'Flaherty's
Hollywood Cemetery (1935) proffers an explanation for the superficiality o f the region,
tying it back to the actual natural world o f Southern California. The writer observes,
"But man in Southern California, living in a completely artificial environment, no
seasons, no natural calamities except an occasional earthquake, no poverty as it is
understood, had to invent artificial goods." ' 1 The natural world then works as both a
2 8 F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Pat Hobby Stories. (New York: Collier Books, 1970) originally
published through Esquire from 1939-1941, 71.
Elmer Rice. 1 oyage to Purilia (New York: Cosm opolitan Book Corp, 1930).
'" West, 26 and 23, respectively.
M Liam O'Flaherty. Hollywood Cemetery. (London: V ictor Gollancz Ltd, 1935), 133.
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cause and reflection o f the people w h o live in Southern California, serving as a model
for and model o f absurdity, superficiality, and a non-Eastem world.
Racial and ethnic difference also figures importantlv in the Hollvwood novel, as
in all Los Angeles fiction o f this period. As Mike Davis has shown in the apocalyptic
Los Angeles novel, the presence o f racialized entities justifies Los Angeles'
destruction. '- In the Hollywood novel, however, writers generallv employ race and
ethnicitv to highlight the sexualized space o f Los Angeles. Hollvwood novels frequently
note the Asian residents o f Los A ngeles and their servile positions, but in highlighting
the profusion o f Asian immigrants, writers evoke longstanding assumptions about
"Oriental" exoticism. Anti-American legislation, like the 1875 Page Law, which
explicitly barred the entry o f C hinese, Japanese, and Mongolian prostitutes, helped to
create a sexualized image o f Asian immigrants. In the Hollvwood novel, however,
Asian characters generallv represent servile positions, a reflection o f their place in
Southern California’s ethnic hierarchy. As such, they are an exotic stand in to the East
Coast African American dom estic m odel, and they are typically masculine.
Usually written from an E ast Coast point o f view and presumably East Coast
audience, Hollvwood novels tap into a largely unknow n reality for many readers and a
sexualized image established by the late 19th century in the American imagination. In
one case, an Asian character steps in to replace a position typically held by African
Davis argues this trend exists in novels beginning in the 1900s to the 1940s. But
overall, this use o f race takes on m o re popularity after the bom bing o f Pearl H arbor in
1941. Further, the popularity o f the genre o f the apocalyptic novel is more pronounced
after 1950. Between 1900 and 1950 twenty-two novels were published com pared to
one hundred sixteen between 1950 a n d 1996. Mike Davis. Ecology of Fear Las Angeles
and the Imagination of Disaster. N ew York: Metropolitan, 1998), 281.
9"
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Americans. In The Day of the Locust, Tod Hackett visits the hom e o f Claude Estee, a
successful screenwriter. Estee's house is m odeled after a Southern plantation and his
servant m ust follow the same Southern trappings: "WTiile T od m ounted the steps to
reach his outstretched hand, he shouted to the butler. "Here, vou black rascal! A m int
julep!" A Chinese servant came running with a Scotch and soda."1 * Interestingly,
writers replace African American positions with their regional, radalized counterpart,
despite the substantial African American population in Los Angeles. Indeed, between
1900 and 1930 Los Angeles witnesses a marked rise in its African American population,
from ~,000 to 38,000 residents. This ethnic replacement corresponds with Los Angeles'
stereotypical ethnic face that featured more Asians and Mexicans due to the influx o f
Asian immigration to the nation's west coast and Mexico's proximity to the region.
Asian servants serve two roles in the Hollywood novel— they are the adornments
o f the successful when protagonists are at their peak, but Asian servants also mark the
depth o f descent o f the protagonist’s plummet. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Pat Hobby
S tories explains this relationship. Hobby, a once-respected screenwriter with
connections to studio big wigs and luxurious accoutrem ents, reminisces about his lost
days o f glorv:
He was remembering a certain day over a decade ago in all its
details, how he had arrived at the studio in his car driven by a
Filipino in uniform; the deferential bow o f the guard at the gate
which had admitted car and all to the lot, his ascent to that long
lost office which had a room for the secretary and was really a
director's office..
1 1 W est, 36.
1 4 Fitzgerald, 116-11"
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To Pat, his Filipino chauffeur is an appendage, like his swimming pool, o f success in the
film industry. Asians do not only occupy subservient positions in the Hollywood novel.
F. Scott Fitzgerald also depicts an Indian visitor o f roval lineage as "sultry".’5 But the
Asian immigrant is not the only radalized presence in Hollywood novels— Mexican
characters also appear prominendv.
In comparison with Asians, Mexican male characters are presented in a much
more sexualized and threatening m anner in the Hollvwood novel. In West's The Da)’ o f
the Ljhust Miguel, or "the Mexican" as the novel m ore frequendv calls him, is presented
in overdv sexualized descriptions, following stereotypes o f the "rapist greaser" long used
in Anglo-Mexican discourse.*’ Miguel maintains a bevy o f fighting cocks, a universal
symbol o f masculinity according to anthropologist Clifford Geertz, and eventually
seduces the m uch-coveted female character in the book, Faye G reener." And, like
novelist uses o f Asians, writers also tap into national racist ideas concerning Latin
Americans.
The Hollvwood novel’s dangerous, hyper-masculine Mexican is not unique to
the genre nor to ficdon. Historian Antonio Rios-Bustamante reports that while
Fitzgerald, 62.
v’ W illiam Anthony Nericcio. "O f Mestizos and Half-Breeds" in Chicanos and Film:
Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance, edited bv Chon Noriega. (New York:
Garland Publishing, Inc, 1992), 58.
Clifford Geertz. "N otes on a Balinese Cockfight" in The Interpretation of Cultures.
(New York: Basic Books, 1973.)
Rosa Linda Fregoso. The Bronpe Screen. (Minneapolis : University o f Minnesota Press,
1993), 61.
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Hollywood did revive the Ramona narrative in some o f its earlv films, bv the 1930s,
filmmakers reverted to long held stereotypes concerning Latino sexuality and violence:
Always just beneath the surface o f the romantic Latin image,
were the older, more negative nineteenth-centurv stereotypes
o f the vicious “greaser with a knife” and the “greaser girl o f easv
virtue,” which the early silent films had incorporated from the
dime western and western novel. A fter the decline o f the
romantic Latin image in the earlv 1930s, these older stereotypes
would be even more fully revived in the form o f the “Mexican
bandit” and the “cantina girl who falls for the Gringo.” w
This model o f the Mexican male provides direct opposition to his Anglo American
counterpart and is a manifestation, to a certain extent, o f the savagery o f Southern
California with its less urban landscapes and its propensity for attracting the world’s
outcasts.
Some Hollywood noyelists use race as a way to delineate to the extent to which
the city- is mongrelized. In A fter Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) Aldous Huxley
paints his characters obseryations upon entering Los Angeles:
The first thing to present itself was a slum o f Africans and
Filipinos, Japanese and Mexicans. A nd what perm utations and
combinations o f black, yellow and brown! What complex
bastardies!*'
Huxley's version goes onto detail the oddities observed while entering Los Angeles,
from vacuous looking women walking along the street to incongruous architecture
w Antonio Rios-Bustamante. “Latino Participation in the Hollvwood Film Industry,
1911-1945.” In Chicanos and Eilm: Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance. Edited bv
Chon A. Noriega (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992), 24.
*' Aldous Huxley from A fter Many A Summer D ies.-1 Swan (1939) excerpted in Yangelisti,
Paul, ed., with Evan Calbi. L~-l. Exi/e: A Guide to Eos Angeles Writing 1932-1998. (New
York: Marsilio Publishers, 1999).
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corresponding to the purpose o f the building. His character witnesses "Catholic
churches that look like Canterbury Cathedral and synagogues disguised as Hagia
Sophia." Like the "bastardization" o f its people, Los Angeles buildings are misformed
as well.
The vision o f Los Angeles and Hollvwood in the Hollvwood novel then
presents a com plex but consistent image. First, the region dem onstrates litde sense o f
permanence, from the instability o f employment to the residents who all seem to come
from another place. Second, because m uch of Anglo society consists o f the
newcomers, the region's past is largely unknown or not appreciated bv its residents.
This ahistorical condition permeates the architecture, landscape, and clothing of L.A.'s
inhabitants. These elements maintain litde reverence for Eastern sensibilities and
borders on the absurd in color and torm. Racial difference performs importandv in the
genre as both markings o f social order as well as yardsticks from which to measure a
protagonist's descent. Novelists also employ racial stereotypes prevalent to the region,
focusing on Asians and Mexicans, over African Americans. And writers use racial
stereoty pes as a further way o f sexualizing the region. But the vision o f Los Angeles
presented in the Hollywood novel is not so easily classified as unique to the genre;
rather, hard-boiled fiction also maintains some o f the elements presented in the fictional
form. The Los Angeles o f hard-boiled fiction continues a variation o f this
characterization, attesting to the saturation o f the image in regional writers.
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Hard-Boiled Fiction
A second genre using Southern California as a setting is hard-boiled detective or
tough guv fiction. Emerging between W orld W ar I and World W ar II, this writing
featured stories that explored society's underbelly, with lone protagonists navigating
dark worlds. In 1941 critic Edm und Wilson was the first to remark on the new crop o f
writing about California in his oft-cited essay, “The Bovs in the Back Room.”4 1 Calling
these writers the “poets o f the tabloid murder,” Wilson surveys various authors writing
on California.4- Wilson notes that m any o f the texts are written by screenwriters (citing
James M. Cain, Richard Hallas, and Horace McCoy) and the texts prom ote “a kind o f
Devil’s parody o f the movies.” Clearly, Wilson links the Los Angeles settings o f these
works to the film industry.
Many consider the solidification o f the genre in terms o f snle and populantv to
have taken place through the publication o f the pulp magazine Black M ask. The Black
M ask began in 1920 by H.L. Mencken when his highbrow magazine Smart Set needed
re-financing. However, Mencken had litde interest in the magazine, having started it in
order to make money to support his other publications.4 4 It wasn't until 1926 under the
editorship o f jo e Shaw that the new school o f detective fiction emerged. Shaw wanted
its prospective writers to break away from the mvsterv "who dunnit" model o f detective
4 1 Edm und Wilson. “The Boys in the Back Room” in Classics and Commercials. (New
York: Farrar, Strauss, 1950), 19-56.
4-W ilson, 21.
4 4 William F Nolan., ed.,. The Black M ask Bo)'s: Masters in the Hard-Boiled School of Detective
Fiction. (New York: William M orrow and Company, Inc, 1985), 20.
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fiction to follow Dashiell Hammett's model of detective writing, urging writers to create
plausible storylines that demonstrated a sense o f realism.4 4 Replacing the English model
o f detective fiction where the process o f solving the crime drew the m ost attention, this
new experiential breed o f writing spent more time detailing the violent underworld of
the novels. Notable authors for the magazine include Raymond Chandler who
published his first short story in it, Dashiell Ham mett. Horace McCov, and Erie Stanley
G ardner who created the character o f Pern- Mason.
Heroes in hard-boiled or tough guv fiction can be private detectives or merely
individuals trying to cope with an unjust world. And while stories mav deal with
criminals, acrual crime is not as relevant as the individual's attem pt to survive. As David
Madden points out, "The characteristics o f the tough vision are determined, o f course,
by the world it perceives, but it reflects that world in a wav that is at once an objective
description and implicit judgment o f it."4 5 Thus, the hard-boiled school o f fiction is
often seen as an indictment against society and sometim es as sympathetic to the
criminal's point o f view. These stories explore the struggle o f the individual in an unjust
world. They interrogate the path society has taken in its celebration o f conspicuous
consumption. Los Angeles, in its commercial markets and leisure activities, symbolizes
this direction and is used as a vehicle to illustrate its problem s.
Setting is an im portant element in tough guv fiction. While most stories take
place in urban environments, the actual characterization o f the citv contributes to the
4 4 Nolan, 25. From editorial from June 1927 issue o f Black M ask.
4 3 David Madden. , ed.,. Tough Guy Writers o f the Thirties. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press Feffer & Simons, Inc., 1968), xvii.
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effectiveness o f the plot. Ju st as anonymous cities were used to create a specific effect
in different novels, so too did cities with distinct identities. For pulp writers using Los
Angeles, this remained an im portant facet o f their storylines. W riters used locale to
build on nationally recognized ideas about the city based on actual Los Angeles' history
or its developed symbolic imager}' from other fictional sources, including the
Hollywood novel.
James M. Cain's Los Angeles novel Mildred Pierce (1941) provides an example o f
how the city functions in hard-boiled fiction. The novel begins with a disclaimer that
inadvertently focuses on the issue o f setting:
The locale o f this book is California, and the Californian will find
much in it that is fam iliar to him; the characters, however, are
imaginary, as are the situations, and in one instance, a whole
neighborhood; they do not represent, and are not intended to
represent, actual persons, events, or places.4 6
Yet, Cain cannot completely write this story in a non-Southern California based locale;
he ties historic events into the plot progression. Indeed, his characters appear as pawns
o f historical circumstance. F or example, one protagonist, Bert Pierce, embodies the Los
Angeles dream /nightm are. H e meets with great success in Los Angeles real estate but
then loses his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash. But his initial success frames his
vantage, rendering him incapable o f future progress. Cain explains:
He had become so used to crediting himself with vast acumen
that he could not bring him self to admit that his success was all
luck, due to the location o f his land rather than to his personal
qualities. So he still thought in terms o f the vast deed he would
do when things got a little better.4 7
4 4 1 James M. Cain from Mildred Pierce republished in Cain X 3 (New York: Knopf, 1969),
103. The original novel was published September 22, 1941.
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Cain's Southern California is integral to the ups and dow ns o f his characters— Bert easily
makes money through real estate boom s inherent to the region, giving him a false sense
o f self-worth. Then, the capricious market falls, taking away Bert's wealth and self-
respect. Although not damning, Cain's portrait o f a haphazard Southern California
where the individual's autonomy remains limited aids in the progression o f the novel's
plot.
As with the Hollvwood novel, pulp writers use the city's trappings as allegories
to its residents in both hard and natural scapes. Again. Los Angeles' eclectic and
mundane architecture is highlighted for its absurd entries that are symbols for the
people who live in the city. In The Little Sister (1949) Chandler's Phillip Marlowe sees
the city's character symbolized in its use o f neon lights.
I smelled Los Angeles before I got to it. It smelled stale and old
like a living room that had been closed to long. But the colored
lights fooled you. The lights were wonderful. There ought to be
a m onum ent to the man who invented neon lights.'*8
This description o f the environm ent as barom eter o f a place's level of moral depravity is
not unique to Los Angeles fiction. For example, writing about Florida, novelist Travis
McGee uses swamplands as Chandler uses urban spaces to establish place but also
4 7 Cam, 109.
4 8 Raymond Chandler. The Little Sister. (New York: Vintage Books, 1988) originally
published in 1949, 81.
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measure the corruption o f a society.4'' For Los Angeles based hard-boiled fiction, both
natural landscapes and man-made ones establish this relationship.
As in the Hollywood novel, the city often is represented as an extension o f the
film studio lot. Richard Hallas, author o f You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up (1938)
includes the following exchange in his noir tale o f one m an’s spiral into crime in Los
Angeles. This repartee occurs between the book's main character, Dick, and his friend
Genter, a famous director
G enter "You see those mountains too just like I do. And you know
what?"
Dick: I shook mv head.
G enter "They're not there," he whispered. "We onlv think they're
there. And they're not. It's just a movie set. If vou go
round the other side o f that mountain, you'll see nothing but
two-by-fours that hold up the canvas."
"And you see this restaurant? Well, it isn't here. It's a
process shot. All Hollvwood is a process shot. It's a
background just projected on to ground glass. And the
only reason nobodv knows that is because we're all m ad."3 "
This interchange dem onstrates the literary use o f natural scapes as m irrors for the actual
character o f the place but also highlights another com m on belief about Southern
Californians— that insanity dominates the region, again providing another inversion o f
the nineteenth century booster mvth that highlighted the place’s health value.
4 '; Steve Glassman and Maurice O'Sullivan, Maurice, eds., Crime Fiction and Film in the
Sunshine State: Florida Xoir. (Bowling Green: Bowling G reen State University Popular
Press, 1997), 119. M cGee's books include .1 Flash oj Green and Condominium.
5 ,1 Richard Hallas. You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up. (Boston: Gregg Press, 1980)
originally published in 1938, 71-72.
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The city as annex o f the film industrv is apparent in the use o f characters
connected to the industry in different novels Jam es M. Cain's Cora Smith Papadakis in
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) originally comes to Hollvwood to become an
actress after winning a beauty contest in Iowa. Paul Cain's short story "Murder D one In
Blue" (1933) features a form er stuntman turned private detective as its main
protagonist. And Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister (1949) mixes the underworld
crime of Bav City, modeled after Santa Monica, to rising movie starlets.
Hollywood’s presence m such writing may cause one to wonder if writers were
merely mirroring their own surroundings. W hile this was probably the case for many
writers who also worked in the film industrv, such a scenario isn’t applicable to all
writers on Los Angeles Indeed, photographer Sam Bluefarb’s study o f regional fiction’s
use o f architecture docum ents how writers,
.. .chose to scramble scenes and place-names in order to
rearrange them out o f their ordered, and occasionally disordered
timespace frames. For such cases photographs o f representative
locations became proximations, thinlv disguised overlays of the
real thing.’1
Blufarb’s frustrations in documenting Chandler’s Los Angeles or West’s Hollywood
demonstrate the fluidity with which writers used the region to meet their narrative goals.
W hat is probably more at play here that writers used Los Angeles spaces to evoke one
o f their realities; but a world specifically tied to professional, film-related environment.
Cornelius Schauber’s study into the homes o f notable European emigres in Southern
California in the 1930s notes that such writers and artists lived throughout the region,
'll Sam Blufarb. Set In L.I.: Scenes of the City in Fiction. (Blumar Press: 1986), 5.
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from the Hollywood Hills to the beach to downtown Los Angeles.3 2 Equally important,
this vision is sometimes borne o f writers with no experience in the film industry, as Erik
Hazel documents, arguing that the Hollywood novel’s vision had become so saturated
in the American consciousness that writers never having visited the region began to pen
such novels from other places.3'
Despite where a writer was actually geographically located, the Los Angeles he
was reflecting upon remained, for the m ost part, one specific part o f a larger population.
While analogizing Los Angeles to the film industry in fiction, and later on in film, create
a potent source o f imagerv and plodines, undoubtedly this trend did not represent the
Southern California population that did not prescribe to the glamorized and vapid
lifestyle much o f these works describe. The repercussions o f this trajectory, in building
a Southern California landscape, would be the repeated reinvention o f the trope to the
present and would haunt the place’s ability to generate its own, more authentic identity.
An overt sexualization o f Los Angeles' actual urban space is sometimes more
discernible in hard-boiled writing. Richard Hallas1 You P/ay the Black and the Red Comes i p
analogizes California to a whore in the thoughts o f his main character Dick:
I remember him saving that some lands were a father to a man,
and beat him; and some were a m other to him, and loved him;
and some were a wife, and had to be loved; but California was just
a whore who dropped her pants down to the first m an that came
along with a watering-pot.5 4
3 2 Cornelius Schnauber. Hollywood Haven: Homes and Haunts o f the European Emigre's and
E.\iles in Las Angeles. Translated by Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg. (Riverside, CA: Ariadne
Press, 1997).
5 5 Hazel, 32.
5 4 Hallas, 209-210.
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Genter's characterization o f other lands in terms o f familial relations juxtaposed against
California as a prostitute demonstrates b oth the sexualized visions o f the region but also
its outsider status. But G enter's observations contain a glimmer o f pin- for the region,
rather than outright condem nation o f Southern California. Rather, G enter seems to
argue that California deserves better, if she only knew it.
In Los Angeles-based hard boiled fiction characters use race and ethnicity as a
standard from which to measure their ow n relatively low social standing. As in the
Hollvwood novel, characters point out the subservient positions held bv m ost people of
color. African American writer Chester Him es noted that the racism in Los Angeles
was so obvious that it served as a wake up call for him personally. The character o f
Robert [ones in If hie Hollers Lf/ Him Go (1945) voices the fear he learned in Los
Angeles:
.. .maybe it wasn't until I'd seen them send the Japanese awav that
I'd noticed it. Litde Riki Ovana singing "God Bless America" and
going to Santa Anita with his parents next day. It was taking a
man up bv the roots and locking him up without a chance. W ithout
a trial. W ithout a charge. W ithout even giving him a chance to sav
one word. It was thinking about if they ever did that to me, Robert
[ones, Mrs. Jones’s dark son, that started me to getting scared.5 5
Himes’ narrative attacks tragedy at play in Los Angeles with the racist, paranoid mass
internment o f patriotic Japanese American citizens. Himes also notes the m anner in
which African Americans were relegated to domestic jobs, and this had an emasculating
effect.
Chester Himes. I f He Hollers Let Him Go. (New York: Signet Book, 1945), 7.
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As in the Hollvwood novel, racial difference indicates a sexualized nature,
however, in hard boiled fiction, defining whiteness also becomes an issue. In James M.
Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice Cora must repeat that she is not Mexican to her
lover, Frank. Frank, attem pting to understand his attraction to her, surmises that it is
her ethnicity that is the cause o f their magnetism. After understanding her response,
Frank then connects her non-whiteness to her marriage to the Greek Nick Papadakis.
I knew for certain, then, w hat I had just taken a chance on w hen I
went in there. It wasn't those enchiladas that she had to cook, and
it wasn't having black hair. It was being married to that G reek that
made her feel she wasn't white, and she was even afraid I would
begin calling her Mrs. Papadakis.3 6
Here, Cora becomes non-white by her association with her first generation, Greek
husband. Vet, racial difference holds an irony in this story. Cora detests her association
with non-whiteness but it is precisely this difference that attracts Frank. The potency of
this connection is highlighted in the colonial space o f Southern California that is
repeatedly described in terms o f its isolation and difference from the rest o f the nation.
Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister presents a similar account o f racialized,
sexualized difference in the character o f Dolores Gonzales. A sexually lax Hollvwood
starlet, Gonzales speaks in a forced Mexican accent, practically ending every uttered line
with 'amigo.' She only wears black. Marlowe describes her as:
Sexy was very faint praise for her. The jodhpurs, like her hair, were
coal black. She wore a white silk shirt with a scarlet scarf loose
around her throat. It was not as vivid as her m outh Two thick
braids o f her shining black hair lay one on each side o f her slim
brown neck. Each was tied with a small scarlet bow. But it was a
long time since she was a little girl.5 7
3 6 James M. Cain. The Postman Always Rings Twice. (New York: Vintage Books, 1992)
originally published in 1934, 7.
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Though Marlowe does not attribute Dolores' palpable sexuality to her ethnicity, she
does. Repeatedly, she unsuccessfully propositions Marlowe, and, when Marlowe calls
her on her ethnic act. she ignores him. It is as though, to her, her attractiveness is
wrapped up in an imagined Latina identity.
Hard-boiled fiction presents a similar version o f Southern California as the one
in the Hollywood novel. The genre continues to explore the absurdity o f the region bv
using descriptions o f architecture, the environment, and clothing as symbolic for Los
Angelenos. Los Angeles operates again as an extension o f the film industrv, and
characters have real connections to Hollvwood. Authors present the citv in sexualized
tones, and, like the Hollywood novel, use racial difference as articulations o f the city's
sexuality. And this genre is also about the struggle o f the individual in an unjust world,
mirroring the plight o f the protagonist in the film industrv o f the Hollvwood novel.
Lone protagonists battle a corrupt system in which crime is rampant. But the real crime
these stones allude to are not about criminal acts themselves. Instead thev question
society's overall role in driving men to greed, lust, and murder. Los Angeles, in its
emphasis on conspicuous consum ption and neon commercialism, acts as a constant
reminder o f where society is fatally headed. Again, though other urban centers play this
role, Los Angeles, because it becomes centrally about this image and not its other
demographic realities, is a potent symbol for all cities.
’ Raymond Chandler. The Little Sister. (New York: Vintage Books, 1988) originally
published in 1949, 69.
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O ther Fictional Sources
While the Hollywood novel and hard-boiled fiction serve as major sources o f
the Southern California image betw een 1927 and the mid 1950s, other examples o f Los
Angeles fiction in this period exist. These works o f poetry, short fiction, and non-genre
based writing are worthy o f exploration here in order to establish to what extent the
image permeated the fictional imagination o f the period. These examples point to the
recurring theme o f disappointm ent in what Southern California really has to offer
against the booster and Hollywood myth. For example, John Fante's A s k the Dust
clearly expresses this defeat.
After a while, after big doses o f the Times and the Examiner, you
too will w hoop it up for the sunny south. You'll eat hamburgers
year after year and live in dust)- vermin-infested apartments and
hotels, but even- m orning you'll see the might sun, the eternal blue
o f the sky, and the streets will be full o f sleek women you never
will possess, and the hot semi tropical nights will reek o f romance
you'll never have, but you'll still be in paradise, bovs, in the land
o f sunshine.5 K
lik e the Hollvwood novel and hard-boiled tradition, this fictional account explores the
contrast benveen the myth and reality. Again, whether written for a m ainstream market
or an elite audience, these examples demonstrate the continued normalization o f Los
Angeles' identity as a second class city.
Bertolt Brecht's poem "O n Thinking About Hell" also embodies some o f the
themes o f Los Angeles fiction. Having fled Nazi Germany, Brecht spent 1941 through
1947 in Los Angeles when his stay ended with his testimony before the House
^ John Fante. ,-lsk the Dust. (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1980) originally
published in 1939, 46.
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Committee o f Un-American Activities as an unfriendly witness.5 '' In the poem, Brecht
concludes that Hell "must be still m ore like Los Angeles." excerpted here:
In Hell too
There are. I've no doubt, these luxuriant gardens
With flowers as big as trees, which o f course wither
Unhesitantlv if not nourished with very expensive water. And
fruit markets
With great heaps o f fruit, albeit having
Neither smell nor taste. A nd endless processions o f cars
Lighter than their own shadows, faster than
Mad thoughts, gleaming vehicles in which
Jolly-looking people com e from nowhere and are nowhere bound.
And houses, built for happy people, therefore standing empty
Even when lived in/1 "
lik e other Los Angeles writers, Brecht uses description o f the landscape to characterize
the region’s inhabitants. Transplanted exotic flowers belving a fragility that can be
protected only bv the ridiculous— "expensive water." a truth in Los Angeles, and
bountiful produce whose taste and smell do not correspond to appearance both work as
allegories to Los Angelenos in the Hollvwood novel/pulp tradition. And, his roofless
y* O tto Friedrich. City of Sets: .1 Portrait o f Hollywood in the 1940s. (Berkeley: University
o f California Press, 1986) 331-332.
6 ,1 Bertolt Brecht. "O n Thinking A bout Hell" reprinted in Paul Yangelisti, ed., with
Evan Calbi. C .I. Exile: A Guide to Eos Angeles Writing 1932-1998. (New York: Marsilio
Publishers, 1999), 40. The entire poem reads: "On thinking about HeU, I gather/ My
brother Shelley found it was a place/M uch like the city o f London. I/W h o live in Los
Angeles and not in L ondon/Find, on thinking about Hell, that it m ust b e / Still more
like Los Angeles./In Hell to o /T h ere are, I've no doubt, these luxuriant gardens/W ith
flowers as big as trees, which o f course wither/Unhesitantlv if not nourished with very
expensive water, A nd/fruit m arkets/W ith great heaps o f fruit, albeit having/N either
smell nor taste. And endless processions o f cars Lighter than their own shadows, faster
than/M ad thoughts, gleaming vehicles in which/Jolly-looking people come from
nowhere and are nowhere bound./A nd houses, built for happy people, therefore
standing empty Even when lived in ./T h e houses in Hell, too, are not all uglv./But the
fear o f being throw n on the street W ears down the inhabitants o f the villas no less
than/T he inhabitants o f the shantv towns."
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"jolly-looking" residents mirror the vapid consumers painted by other writers, like W est
and his voyeuristic m ob waiting outside a movie prem iere in The D ig of the Locust.
W illiam Faulkner's short story "Golden Land" also contains typical Los Angeles
fictional elements. Having worked in Hollywood as early as 1932, the already then
nationally respected author conversely appreciated the relatively high salaries he
com m anded at the studios and despaired o f working in the soul-less film industry/’1 His
story reflects his feelings as an unwilling transplant to the region. W ritten in 1935
"Golden Land's" protagonist Ira Ewing is a migrant from Nebraska and lives a
materialistically comfortable existence in Beverlv Hills. Despite having the
accoutrements o f success, Ewing leads a life of spiritual decay with a loveless marriage
and distant relationship with his children, and his m ost intimate relationship is with his
Filipino manservant. Faulkner uses the theme of sexual dysfunction to illustrate
Ewing's isolation to the rest o f his family. Faulkner accounts Ewing's reaction to
discovering his teenage son Yovd's penchant for wom en's undergarments:
...the son who one afternoon two years ago had been delivered
at the door drunk and insensible by a car whose occupants he did
not see and, it devolving upon him to undress the son and put him
to bed, whom he discovered to be wearing, in place o f underclothes,
a woman's brassiere and step-ins. A few minutes later, hearing the
blows perhaps, Yoyd's m other ran in and found her husband
beating the still unconscious son with a series o f towels which a
servant was steeping in rotation in a basin o f ice-water. He was
beating the son hard, with grim and deliberate fun*. W hether he
was trying to sober the son up or was merely beating him, possibly
he himself did not know.6 2
6 1 Paul Yangelisti, ed., with Evan Calbi. JL.-1. Exile: .1 Guide to Los Angeles W riting 1932-
1998. (New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1999), 117.
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Faulkner details sense o f Ewing's impotence in the face of son with this taboo fetish.
Clearly, the hidden nature o f Yoyd's proclivity stands in stark contrast to the open
sexuality o f the 1920s, following the theme put forth in the Hollywood novel first
proposed by Caroline See. Faulkner's account, though not a Hollywood novel,
continues a trajectory beginning in the genre. This continuation o f theme, though a
characteristic o f m uch o f Faulkner's stories, complements the story taking place in
Beverly Hills.
And Faulkner uses plants symbolically and literally to decry the region's
superficiality, roodcssness, and precariousness, again inverting the booster vision o f the
region’s fertility. After contemplating his discovery, Ewing scans his terrace:
The terrace, the sundrenched terra cotta tiles, butted into a rough
and savage shear of canvon wall bare yet w ithout dust, on o r against
which a solid mat of flowers bloomed in fierce lush myriad-colored
paradox as though in place o f being rooted into and drawing from
the soil they lived upon air alone and had been merely leaned intact
against the sustenanceless lavawell by som eone who would later
return and take them away/”
The ethereal quality o f the plants coupled with their seeming imperm anence describe
the region in term s o f its residents' newly arrived, roofless status and their quest for
Hollywood dreams. While Faulkner's use o f description does not stray from his other
fictional writing, it does remain in the Los Angeles tradition. In both Absalom! Absalom'.
,,;:William Faulkner. "Golden Land." reprinted in Paul Vangelisti, ed., with Evan Calbi.
L_-l. Exile: A Guide to Eos Angeles Writing 1932-1998. (NewT York: Marsilio Publishers,
1999), 122-123.
Faulkner, 123.
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and The Sound and the Fury Faulkner uses plants to symbolize the danger o f the setting,
particularlv with the poisonous Southern vine wisteria.6 4
John Fante's .-Isk the Dust depicts Los Angeles' plant life in similar terms. Here,
a tortured palm expresses Arturo Bandini's, the main protagonist, sense o f impotence.
Through that window I saw my first palm tree, n ot sixth feet awav,
and sure enough I thought o f Palm Sunday and Egypt and
Cleopatra, b u t the palm was blackish at its branches, stained bv
carbon m onoxide coming out o f the Third Street Tunnel, its crusted
trunk choked with dust and sand that blew in from the Mojave and
Santa Ana deserts.6 3
. • \sk the Dust centers around the personal drama of struggling writer Arturo Bandini who
alternately views him self as better than his surroundings and as a loser. Fante analogizes
the palm's state to Bandini the writer's; a once revered entity suffocating in its current
situation.
Fiction outside o f the noir and Hollywood novel tradition, also, to some extent,
sees the city as a sexualized space. John Fante's Arturo Bandini seems to find
prospective sexual partners around even- com er in A s k the Dust (1939), despite his own
anxieties about actually consummating the act; alluding to Carolyn See's concept of
sexual failure as larger emblem o f social impotence prevalent in the Hollywood novel.6 6
As in the Hollywood novel and in hard-boiled fiction, race and ethnicity are
performative and are m ore about creating an exotic hierarchy in which African
6 4 In both Absalom! Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury Faulkner uses plants to
symbolize the danger o f the setting, particularly with wisteria.
63 Fante, 16.
6 6 Caroline See. "The Hollywood Novel: An Historical and Critical Study." (Ph.D.
diss.. University o f California, Los Angeles, 1963), 223.
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Americans are absent. .-Isk the Dust's Arturo Bandini mocks a Mexican American
woman. Camilla Lopez, he is attracted to, asking her contemptuously, "Do you have to
emphasize the fact that you always were and always will be a filthy little Greaser?"6 7
Bandini's harsh words appear perplexing, especially when he is hurt at being called a
"dago." Later, Bandini explains his use o f "Greaser":
But I am poor, and my name ends with a soft vowel, and they
hate me and my father.. .and I am voung and full o f hope and
love for my country and my times, and when I say G reaser to you
it is not my heart that speaks, but the quivering o f an old wound,
and I am ashamed o f the terrible thing I have done.6 8
Hence, Bandini's racial prejudice reflects his at once conflicted self-image. Having
internalized his own perceived racial inferiority, Bandini grapples with self-hatred, self-
love, and a sense o f superiority in his own whiteness against that o f Mexican American
Camilla. Fante uses race as an embodiment o f the book's them es but also realistically
documents Los Angeles' racial climate. For example, Camilla cannot visit Arturo at his
apartment in Bunker Hill; Mexicans aren't allowed in the building.
Southern California fiction can be examined without the barriers o f genre.
Across the board, writers evoking Los Angeles have maintained similar themes that all
contribute to the creation o f a literary trope o f the region. Generally, these fictional
themes express disappointment in Southern California that is manifested in
observations about regional architecture and the landscape. W riters depict the city in
sexual terms and sexual promiscuity or depravity crops up throughout literary works.
6 Fante. 44.
6 8 Fante, 47.
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Thus, while texts m ay appear geared to different audiences, "high-brow" or "low-brow",
a consistent image o f Southern California is reinforced.
Undoubtedly, the vision borne o f much o f these works was rooted in the
experience o f the writers themselves, both in and out o f the film industrv. Raymond
Chandler’s well-known tortured relationship with the region describes one model.
Reliant on Los Angeles for fodder and his sustenance. Chandler’s depictions o f the
place articulate his disdain for it. In 1951, writing o f an English actress who had
decided to leave Hollywood. Chandler commented,
I hear she is giving up California and going to live in Capri. She
seems to feel about Los Angeles verv much as I do: that it has
become a grotesque and impossible place for a human being to
live in.'’ ''
Understanding this relationship better contexrualizes Chandler’s characterizations o f
Southern California. Similarly, author o f They Shoot Horses. Don ’ / ’ They? and I Should Hare
Stayed Home, Horace McCov used his fictional work in autobiographical wavs. Film
historian Thomas Srunak links McCov’s early failures in the film industrv to his
portrayal of the region in his fictional writing:
In terms o f his career as a novelist, McCov’s own experiences in the
dow n-and-out world o f the Hollywood extra during the earlv
thirties were crucial and determinative. Besides providing him with
raw materials for two books, the initial shock o f failure and the
struggle for success set the emotional bent o f his creative
imagination in all o f his subsequent serious fiction.7 "
Frank MacShane, ed., Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler. (New York: Columbia
L niversity Press, 1981) Letter from Chandler to Hamish Hamilton, Chandler's English
publisher, from M arch 19, 1951, writing o f actress G rade Fields.
" Thom as Sturiak. "H orace McCoy's Objective Lyridsm." in M adden, David, ed.,.
Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press Feffer &
Simons, Inc., 1968), 137.
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Regardless o f intent, the writings o f discontented individuals and those who
unquestioningly adopted the extant stereotype about Los Angeles forged a regional
stereotype that blurred the identity o f Los Angeles with that o f the film industrv.
CONCLUSION:
As this chapter has established, in the early 1940s and clearly by the mid 1950s
Los Angeles became synonymous with Hollywood in the region’s literature and in the
nation's imagination. The complex image blended notorious accounts o f Hollywood
injustice and hedonism along with the fatalism attached to hard-boiled fiction. This
new vision o f Los Angeles as a place of conspicuous but vacuous consumption, lax
sexuality, and superficiality contrasted sharply against the image exported bv city
boosters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, num erous fictional sources
suggest that viewing Los Angeles as a second-class city had becom e an unquestioned
proposition, particularly in comparison to the East Coast, as in the East-West trajectory
o f the Hollywood novel. In this duality, the East Coast represents strength o f character,
hard work, earned respect, and Los Angeles and Hollywood represents its inverse:
moral lapses, easy success, eventual self-loathing.
The penod from 1927 through 1955 solidified the blurring o f the two entities.
In 1929 Los Angeles Mayor John Porter expressed Los Angeles' relationship to
Hollywood in a speech given to the Hollywood Boulevard Association: "Los Angeles is
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a great city, but without Hollywood it would just be a tvpical American citv."7 1 Though
Porter does not clarify how much of a com ponent Hollywood is to the city, it is evident
that the film industry com posed a substantial and influential percentage o f Los Angeles’
identity. By 1949, the relationship between the two becam e clearer. Raymond
Chandler's Phillip Marlowe commented on it in The Little Sister.
Real cities have something else, some individual bonv structure
under the muck. Los Angeles has Hollywood— and hates it. It
ought to consider itself damn luckv. W ithout Hollywood it would
be a mail-order city. Everything else in the catalogue you could
get better somewhere else. 2
This assessment delineates the growth o f the two cities blurring o f identity.
The dom inant Southern California yision produced by these sources is complex.
All sources share characteristics that yield a place known for conspicuous consumption,
beautiful and sexually ayailable women, and rampant crime. Texts consistently
represent Southern California as a brightly colored world where the climate and
naturalscape are exotic or just plain superficial. Writers illuminate the region's ethnic
makeup, noting racial difference that helps to explain the behavior of the residents,
playing upon stereotypes ascribed to Asian and Latin immigrants as being subservient or
sexually aggressive, respectively. Finally, it is the combination o f all o f these
characteristics that reinforce the danger o f Los Angeles. T he danger implies that one
may be lured by the region's beauty but, eventually any seduction will end in the
1 Hollywood Boulevard Association, December 21, 1929, docum ent from Los Angeles
Chamber records from L’SC's Regional History Archive.
2 Raymond Chandler. The U ttle Sister. (New York: Vintage Books, 1988) originally
published in 1949, 184.
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symbolic rape o f its victim — either bv participating in an industry that rewards
mediocrity as in the Hollywood novel or bv struggling with the impotence o f a corrupt
world as in hard-boiled fiction. The motivation for such portrayals rests, to some
degree, in the actual experience writers had in Los Angeles and the film industry, the
subject o f Chapter Six.
The popularity o f the Los Angeles locale as literary setting grew during this
period to the point that Raymond Chandler commented on it to his friend, (essica
Tyndale. In a letter w ritten in 1956, Chandler mused: "I was the first writer to write
about Southern California at all realistically Now half the writers in the country
piddle around in the sm og."'' The measure o f the potency o f these fictional accounts
may be better expressed in the adoption o f their themes in attitudes of non-ficrional
writing on the region and in films featuring Southern California, the focus o f the
following chapters. WTiile a potent source for Los Angeles' noir image came through
the dissemination o f film, undoubtedly the normalization o f the image was helped bv
the proliferation o f m ainstream and supposedly objective journalism that mirrored
fictional writing.
J Letter from Raymond Chandler to Jessica Tyndale from July 12, 1956, in MacShane,
405.
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CH APTER T H R E E :
LEG ITIM A TIN G TH E L E G E N D : LOS A N G E L E S STORIES, OBJECTIVE
R EPO R TIN G , A N D TABLOID TR A D ITIO N S, 1940-1955
Seems like nobodv enjoys cracks about Los Angeles as much as the residents of Los
Angeles.1
W AX'. Robinson (1942)
In 1942 historian W.W’ . Robinson published a compilation o f “cracks” on Los
Angeles, entided W hat They Say A bout the Angels in w hich he gathered quotes about Los
Angeles and Southern California from as early as 1769 to 1941, and undoubtedly
contained more negative entries than Robinson had anticipated. W riting on the cm ’s
popular vilification, Robinson surmises, “ If the com m ent upon Los Angeles in the later
years has become excessively corrosive, it is because Los Angeles in the later vears has
become what one com m entator calls a “ front-page citv.”- Believing that its negatively
held opinion was the result of its big-city developm ents, Robinson’s compilation
documents observations made o f Los Angeles by outsiders and residents alike that
mirror their fictional counterparts, the focus o f C hapter Two, and scratches the surface
of a wide body o f non-fictional writing on the region. Such writing plays a strategic role
in the building of Southern California’s media-made landscape and stereotype. Chiefly,
the adoption of the anti-myth by sources of non-fictional texts such as supposedly
“objective” news reporting demonstrates to what extent the Los Angeles legend had
1 WAV. Robinson. “Preface.” What Thtry Say .About the Angels. (Pasadena: \ alT ref2 Press,
1942).
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been swallowed hook, line, and sinker by the American press and provides another wav
audiences were inculcated into accepting a less than rosv vision o f the city and region.
Non-fictional accounts o f Los Angeles follow the trajectory set forth by the
plethora o f fictional sources presenting this negative appraisal o f Southern California.
W hether these similarities were a direct result o f life imitating art or whether thev
tapped into a larger understanding o f the region, by the 1940s non-fictional articles on
the region saw Los Angeles through a similar lens as regional fiction. A survey o f the
various non-fictional sources “reporting” on the region will delineate to what extent the
Los Angeles fictional image influenced other regional writing. This chapter will
examine a variety o f non-fiction, including observations o f the cin- bv cultural critics,
federally-sponsored travel guides, historians, and a sampling o f entries from Time,
,\Vti'sweek, and local Los Angeles papers. In addition to focusing on the eclectic
architecture and the region's duplicitously sunny weather, writers demonstrated an
inclination to write more about Los Angeles using fatalistic tones or highlighting the
region's crime, mirroring the Hollywood novel and hard-boiled fiction and Los Angeles
film of the same period.
This chapter also traces the rise o f tabloid scandal sheets, such as Confidential. ,
Exposed. and Hush Hush, and their focus on Hollywood to demonstrate the bridging o f
often anonymous Hollywood scandals relayed in regional fiction to real world events,
otherwise untold. Further, the highly publicized legal wranglings o f Confidential o f the
late 1950s supplies another forum in which the region’s residents’ moral lapses and
bizarre behavior received a public airing outside o f the pulp pages o f the magazine.
2 Robinson, xiii.
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Though the libel lawsuits sometimes righted wrongs printed in the publication, the
public discussion and court trials at times legitimated the story’s original content. As
such, the proliferation o f these scandal sheets with their verv public trials helped to
again transmit a vision o f Los Angeles and its environs that jibed with, or even took a
step further, fictional accounts. W hether or not this concentration o f topics on
Southern California reporting was the result o f it being the nexus o f the nation’s
entertainment industry, and as such housed more entertainm ent reporters than
traditional journalists, this dom inant trajectory helped shape how filmmakers began to
use the dtv, a focus o f Chapter Six. This chapter also examines the wavs in which
Hollywood attempted to counteract its negative media-made image through its own
public relations campaign. Finally, this investigation attempts to situate the Los Angeles
mythos within its historical context by briefly examining the crimes and scandals that
dominated its image o f the 1920s and 1950s.
Ultimately, this chapter docum ents how, in conjunction with film noir o f the
same period, Los Angeles’ overall image across the nation took on noir tones that
mirrored previous fictional writing on the region and what began to take place on
screen. The adoption o f noir tones and attitudes about Los Angeles bv objective
writing by mainstream news sources and tabloids alike, in conjunction with film noir
and regional fiction, created a powerful force in spreading this vision o f the region and
influencing its residents’ attitudes. W ith other im portant demographic factors like its
decentralization and constant influx o f newcomers, this imagery gained potency,
impinging the region’s developm ent o f community attachm ent and sense o f place.
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WRITING THE REAL--LOS ANGELES NON-FICTION:
As in the historiography for Los Angeles fiction explored fully in C hapter Two,
most o f the work on non-fictional writing has suffered from limitations in scope.
Norman Klein’s The Histoty o f Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure o f Memory alludes to
news reporting on the citv, but ultimately fails to docum ent any trend.' Chiefly, no
writer has systematically taken on the non-fictional mass o f writing on the citv and
region or sought to explore the extent to which specific imagery on Los Angeles
saturated the national consciousness beyond the confines o f its literary sources for this
time period. Though several studies document the booster image in its various
constructs, beginning with the rise o f climatology in the late 1870s and ending with the
Ramona myth and mission m ovem ent o f the 1920s, no study takes on the region’s
negative vision along non-fictional lines.4
' Norman M. Klein. The History oj Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure o f Memory.
(London: Verso, 1997). W riting o f 1920s Los Angeles, Klein notes, "Bv 1923, a spate o f
articles appeared in the national press on the evils o f tourism in Los Angeles; as a
metonym for the seamy underbelly o f all consumer activities, about idle hands and the
devils workshop. The phrasing already presaged noir, and probably lured even m ore
thrill seekers out west, described by the S ew Yorker as 'a huge aimless, idle m ob, milling
about in search o f amusement.'", 75. However, the footnote for this rem ark lists but
one article from the Saturday Evening Post, leaving the reader begging for m ore.
4 Carey McWilliams. Southern California: A n Island on Land. (Salt Lake City: Peregrine
Books, 1990) originally published in 1946. O f primary importance are C hapters Four,
Six, Eleven, Thirteen, and Sixteen. Judith Wilnin Elias. "The Selling o f A Mvth: Los
Angeles Promotional Literature, 1885-1915." (Masters thesis, California State LT niversitv
Northridge, 1979) and book Los Angeles: Dream to Reality 1885-1915. (Northridge: Santa
Susana Press, California State University Northridge Libraries 1983). K evin Starr.
Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. (New York: O xford L'niversitv
Press, 1985) and Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990). John Baur. The Health Seekers o f Southern California. (San
Marino: the Huntington Library, 1959). John Parris Springer. "Hollywood Fictions: The
Cultural Construction o f Hollywood in American Literature, 1916-1939." (Ph.D . diss.,
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Scholars have examined Hollywood's image in non-fictional sources for
different research goals. John Parris Springer looks at Hollywood's image in both
fictional and non-fictional accounts to show how the film industry began to embody the
fears and hopes associated with m odernity.5 Similarly, Kevin Starr’s work does address
Hollywood's campaign in the 1940s to present a more respectable vision to the rest of
the nation/’ This chapter will attem pt to build on this scholarship to systematically
examine non-fictional writing on the region from many sources to better judge to what
extent Americans and Southern Californians saw Los Angeles and Southern California
Mainstream News Sources
The extent to which Los Angeles' fictional stereoty pe infected mainstream
national news magazines supplies a surprising glimpse into the power o f the region’s
fictional trope, be it from literary or filmic sources. Indeed, news writers quickly
adopted authorial attitudes about Los Angeles that reified many short stories, novels,
and films. Bv the 1940s Time's stories on Los Angeles focused mainly on the region's
visual blight or its affinity with crime, which in terms o f other cities was not
L'niversitv o f Iowa, 1994) and book Hollywood Fictions: the Dream Factory in American
Popular Literature. (Norman: University o f Oklahoma Press, 2000).
3 John Parris Springer. "Hollywood Fictions: The Cultural Construction o f Hollywood
in American Literature, 1916-1939." (Ph.D. diss., University o f Iowa, 1994) and book
Hollywood Fictions: the Dream Factoy in American Popular Literature. (Norman: University o f
Oklahoma Press, 2000).
' Kevin Starr. The Dream Endures: California Enters the !940s. (New York: Oxford
L ’niversitv Press, 1997), 265. However, please note this was not the goal o f Starr's
study, which was an exploration o f California writing.
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extraordinary.7 W hether discussing the citv planners' hopes to curb urban sprawl or the
capture o f gangster Mickev Cohen, articles rarelv share a positive o r hopeful vision of
the city. Indeed, journalists sometimes employed the rapt staccato o f noir narratives in
relaying crime stories about the city. Consider this entrv, titled simplv "The Killers"
from O ctober of 1946:
During his 16 vears in Los Angeles, short, sharp-eved Bennv the
meatball grew chubbv and genial and almost quit earning a rod.
Los Angeles was a paradise for a wrong gee with the tight
connections. The sun was warm, suckers stood under even* palm
tree, and the cops obliginglv kept Eastern hoods out o f tow n.8
The news sto n chronicles the rise and fall of hood Bennv Levinson w ho was
presumablv shot bv rival gangster Mickev Cohen, seen driving awav from the scene in a
black car. The article continues, "The cops didn't think thev would find out who rode
off in it, bur thev had an idea that Los Angeles might get quite noisv in the next few
months." and features an italicized captioned photo o f Levinson reading, ".’ You’ , more
noise?' This ominous and casual treatm ent of crime creates a vision o f the citv as crime-
ndden, that such events are commonplace, that danger suffuses Southern California.
Actual crime rates contradict this attitude concerning how prevalent crime
saturated Southern California, and by the earlv 1950s the countrv grew concerned over a
general nation-wide "crime wave" extending bevond Los Angeles' citv limits. Kewsweek
Articles include "Dream City" in Time 10 Nov. 1941 (vol. 38, 19), 45; "The Killers" in
rime 14 Oct. 1946, 26-27; "Down Adela's Alley" in Time. 16 |une 1947; "The 'Inside' on
Bugsy" in Time. 7 July 1947, 59; "Brenda's Revenge" in Time. 11 Julv 1949, 20-21; "Clav
Pigeon" in Time. 1 August 1949; 14-15; "Hollvwood Award" in Time. 26 Februarv 1951,
56; "Crisis in Hollywood," in Time. 13 September 1948, 100-102; and "California the
Pink Oasis," (cover sto n ) in Time. 4 |uly 1949 (vol. 54, 1) 8-13.
8"The Killers" in Time. 14 Oct. 1946, 26.
12"
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did print at least two articles that attempted to put Los Angeles' statistics in realistic
comparison with other cities.1 ' One 1954 article outlining police chief William H.
Parker's clean up o f the LAPD spends an equal amount o f space comparing crime
waves across the country as well as the m ost heinous crimes in recent memory. The
storv chronicles the growth o f criminal activity:
And vear bv year, the statistics are becoming more terrifying. In
the first six m onths o f last vear. the num ber of crimes comm itted in
that nation's cities was 33.4 per cent above the 1937-1939 average.
Even more om inous is the fact that m ost o f the increase has been
in crimes o f violence— aggravated assault, negligent manslaughter,
murder, and rape."'
In addition to delineating general crime waves in cities such as New York, Chicago,
Detroit, and Dallas, \ew sw eek's article also noted the prevalence of corrupt law
enforcement systems. In its rankings of the "Most Shocking Postwar Crimes;"
including the Kansas City, Missouri kidnapping and murder o f a six vear-old-child and
the Camden, New Jersey gunning down o f thirteen victims bv their psychotic neighbor;
the news source failed to include one Los Angeles entry.1 1 As news sources did
occasionally report, Los Angeles' crime does not stand as an anathema to the rest o f the
nation. Despite this fact, sensationalist reporting o f Southern California reified the noir
vision proposed in regional fiction. Often, this reportage focused on the bizarre.
"City o f Angels: It's Still an Age o f Miracles." Sewsweek. 3 August 1953, 64-55 &
"'Best Police Force vs. W orst Crime Wave." Xewsweek. 8 February 1954, 50-53.
"City o f Angels: It's Still an Age of Miracles." Semweek. 3 August 1953, 64-55 &
'"Best Police Force vs. W orst Crime Wave." A ewsweek. 8 February 1954, 50.
1 1 “Best Police Force vs. W orst Crime W ave." Sew s week. 8 February 1954, 51.
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One Time 1951 article entitled “California, Death o f a Man from Mars,”
illustrates how readers accepted bizarre explanations for events in Southern California.
Apparendv, Ray Colson, a form er Monterey Park policeman— fired for using his
influence as an officer to attract and seduce wom en— had unsurprisingly turned to
crime. Colson had stolen m ore than $50,000 from different supermarkets in Southern
California using a bizarre disguise:
[Colson’s] face was covered by a black mask, dark goggles and
gas respirator. [Colson] w ore a black helm et decorated bv three
metal antennas and a skull & crossbones, was dressed in a black
shirt, black pants, black boots, and black gloves.1 2
Colson also arm ed himself with a .38, a shotgun, and a bandoleer o f shotgun shells.
According to the article, Colson had successfullv robbed stores for m ore than ten
months partly because, “in Southern California eccentrics were so com m on that
supermarket clerks refused, until too late, to get excited at the appearance of a Man
from Mars.” Finally, at his last robbery, Colson was shot and killed by a patrolman.
Police found m ore than SI 3,000 on his person. Hearing o f Southern Californians’
indifference and propensity for the bizarre from one of the nation’s leading news
sources. Time Ijoa^ne, aided in the acceptance o f the Los Angeles’ mythos.
Even stories intending to be positive on the city 's growth contain vestiges o f the
Hollywood novel's understanding o f the region. O ne 1949 Time article outlining the
city’s optimistic commercial grow th depicts the region in tones not dissimilar to the
Hollywood novel. "The Pink O asis" begins:
1 2 “California, D eath o f a Man from Mars.” Time. 22 O ctober 1951, 26.
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The optic nerves grow submissive before the red glare o f geraniums,
the flash o f windshields, the sight o f endless and improbable vistas
of pastel stucco. Even on his first, casual, hundred-mile drive the
pilgrim achieves a kind o f stunned tranquilitv, and gazes
unblinkingly at the palace-studded mountains, rat-proofed palm s,
and superm arkets as big as B-29 hangars.''
This supposedly favorable view o f Los Angeles is contradictory. W hile the article goes
on to detail the new postwar industry flourishing in the region, its initial version o f the
city contains them es from both the Hollvwood novel and hard-boiled tradition. In fact,
this assessment hinges upon a stereotype created bv regional fiction; nowhere else could
have geraniums “glared” or windshields "flashed" so brighdv as in Southern California.
Sewsuvek's articles on Southern California followed suit.1 4 In one 1942 storv on
police round up ot Mexican Amcncan youths, the magazine painted the city- as an
amoral spot in the nation. In recounting the words o f the arrested zoot suiters, the
magazine focused on Los Angeles' lawlessness:
They told lurid stories of week-end orgies o f violence, when the
gangs.. .roam ed in search o f trouble and loot. Some admitted to
smoking marijuana before their foravs. One gang called itself the
"Black Legion"; sweethearts o f its members were the "Black
Widows." The "legion" dressed in black trousers and shirts and
r' "California the Pink Oasis," (cover storv) in Time. 4 July 1949, 8.
1 4 A plethora o f articles paint the region in similar terms between 1940 and 1955. See
Raymond Moley. "Los Angeles Roundup" in Sewsweek. 20 April 1942; ’"Black Legion"'
in Sewsweek. 24 August 1942, 34-35; "Counsel for the Defense." Sewsweek. 28 Februarv
1944, 42-43; "Crime: M urder for a Doll" Sewsweek. 19 August 1946, 24-25; "Cities:
Culture Comes to L.A." 'S.ewsweek. 10 March 1947, 30; "Crime: W ho W as Bugsy"
Sewsweek. 7 July 1947, 26-28; "Crime: O d o r in Los Angeles." Sewsweek. 18 July 1949,
19; "New Dahlia?" Sewsweek. 24 O ctober 1949. 27; "Crime: Filmland Fleecing."
Sewsweek. 8 May 1950, 27; "Cities: Beatings in L.A." in Sewsweek. 31 March 1952;
"California: B-Girl Crackdown." Sewsweek. 15 June 1953; Raymond Moley. "Revolt in
Los Angeles." Sewsweek. 8 June 1953, 108; "'Best Police Force vs. W orst Crime
Wave." Sewsweek. 8 February 1954, 50-53.
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sombreros; the "widows" in green blouses and shoes, with black
skirts. Girls told casuallv how thev had carried nail files as
weapons while enjoving their favorite sport— the raiding o f social
gatherings.1 5
.\ ewsweek also reported on Hollvwood crime, from Charlie Chaplin's trial for violating
the Mann Act with underage loan Barn- to the m urder of gangster Bugsv Siegel in
Beverly Hills to a domestic dispute ending in m urder at a bowling allev in Hollvwood.1 6
In the last article, again the tone mimics the stvle o f hard-boiled fiction. From 1946 and
entitled "Crime: Murder For a Doll" the article includes imagined dialogue between two
o f the players in the drama. A nd the writer o f the article supplies background
information in the same curt sty le of a pulp fiction detective:
This Joe's full name is |oseph K. Smith. He's 34 and runs a
poolroom in Santa Monica. The other one is Marvin W illiam
Ashley, 43. a good professional bowler. Night before, thev scrap
over Hazel and Ashlev shines up one o f Smittv's eves. That
gives you the background.1
Apparcndy "Smitty" came into the bar-bowling allev and shot Ashlev dead. The article
spends more time documenting the casual wav the police and witnesses to the crime
treat the incident over the event itself. Patrons at the bar continue to drink and enjov
themselves as if nothing happened.
Another waitress, D orothy Wallace, is hustling drinks, stepping
around the corpse carefully. The photographers take her picture
and she blinks and cracks, "Why didja do that?" All the people
look up surprised— surprised bv the flash bulbs, that is.1 *
1 5 "’Black Legion'" in 'S.ewsweek. 24 August 1942, 34-35.
1 6 "Counsel for the Defense." Sewsweek. 28 Februarv 28, 1944, 42-43; "Cnme: W ho
Was Bugsy" in Sewsweek. 7 Julv 1947, 26-27; & "Crime: M urder For A Doll" in
Sewsweek. 19 August 1946, 24.
1 "Crime: M urder For A Doll" in Sewsweek. 19 August 1946, 24.
1 3 !
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The article ends with a quote from a witness attesting to the commonplace occurrence
o f these events and a description o f the bustling bowling allev.
While the stories about Los Angeles' crime problem were based, to a certain
extent, on real occurrence, the tone in which thev were reported demonstrates the
pervasiveness o f Los Angeles' noir image. The press was called onto the carpet at least
once for embellishing the truth when reporting on Hollywood crime. In 1951 Ronald
Reagan protested the irresponsibility o f the press at a Photoplay awards banquet.
Specifically, Reagan cited one instance in which two actors walked past a crime scene on
their way to work. A photographer took their picture and published it in the paper with
the tide "Film Stars G o to Scene o f Lonely Heart M urder-Suicide."'1 ' Bur national news
magazines were not the only source for noirish Los Angeles tales.
Local papers often joined in characterizing Los Angeles and Hollywood as
places prone to crim e or superficiality. Matt Weinstock, columnist for the Los ,-lngeles
Daily Xews noted the propensity in 1947.
Los Angeles is the most insulted citv in the world. Its climate, its
architecture, its people are worth a rib anytime. The magazines
knock o ff an article a year on it as a m atter o f course. Their
beaters incessandy pore over Cham ber o f Commerce files for new
approaches, all emphasizing the crackpot phases. But you don't
have to read a magazine to learn about this terrible place. The
most eloquent critics live here.2 "
1 8 Ibid, 24.
|y "Hollywood Award" in Time. 26 February 1951, 56.
2 ,1 Matt Weinstock. M y L . i (New York: Current Books, Inc. A.A. Wvn, Publisher,
1947) 2.
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Ironically, though W einstock notes the unjust frequency o f the characterization, he
lightheartedly joins in. He defines the typical Angeleno as som eone taken over by
apathy and aimlessness. W einstock elaborates on this state, "It may be that he is, in
some obscure way, a product o f the acitinic ravs o f the sun beating dow n on his skull,
the thing mad dogs and Englishmen stay away from. He has no particular vocation. He
may have been, at one time or another, a grocerv clerk, insurance m an, hotel clerk, ad
salesman, new spaperm an, bookmaker, o r actor."2 1 W’ einstock's assessment relates
directly to the rootless image o f the typical Southern Californian and to a certain extent
is a reflection o f the fictional portrayal o f the region.
O ther Non-fiction
Journalists were not the only ones describing Los Angeles along fictional lines.
Cultural critic E dm und Wilson's hyperbolic early 1932 comm entary entitled "The Citv
of O ur Lady Q ueen o f the Angels" reads more like a Hollywood novel than a realistic
appraisal o f the region. In this account, both style and content follow the route carved
by regional fiction.
The residential people o f Los Angeles are cultivated enervated people,
lovers o f m ixturesque beauty-and they like to express their
em otivation in hom es that symphonize their favorite historical films,
their best-beloved actresses, their luckiest numerological combinations
or their previous incarnations in old Greece, romantic Egypt, quaint
Sussex or am ount the priestesses o f love o f old India. Here you will
see a Pekinese pagoda made o f fresh and cracklv peanut britde— there
a snow-white marshmallow igloo— there a toothsom e pink nougat in
the Florentine manner, rich and delicious with em bedded nuts.—
2 1 Weinstock, 153.
2 2 Edmund W ilson, rhe American Jitters. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932), 226.
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Wilson goes on to outline some o f the scandals plaguing the city, highlighting recent
sensational trials involving corrupt public officials. M eant to be a "tour" o f Los
Angeles, Wilson's critique works m ore as a blending o f Hollywood novel exaggeration
with a true crime twist.
Similarly, literary scholar Leo Spitzer took on Sunkist advertising in 1948,
demonstrating the saturation o f the Southern California idyll in popular culture and the
turn in intellectual circles to criticize it. Known for his interpretation o f such literarv
canons as John D onne, Voltaire, and 17th century literature, Spitzer turned his attention
away from Europe to the United States and applied his interpretive m ethod on popular
art in his influential essay, “American Advertising Explained as Popular Art.”-1 Using
an admittedly ahistorical approach, devoid of context, Spitzer examined one o f Sunkist’s
pastoral images, a typical example in which an oversized glass o f orange juice sits in an
orange grove, framed by snow-capped mountains, under an immense sun. In addition
to deconstructing the name ‘Sunkist’ and finding it in part “calculated and delimited,”
Spitzer notes the incongruity o f the advertisement with its industrial reality:
We are left, then, with the realization that the advertiser has fooled
neither us nor himself as to the real purpose o f his propaganda. That
glass o f orange juice as tall as the mountains o f California is a clear
testimonial to the businessman’s subjective estimation o f the
comparative importance o f business interests. Indeed, when we
review the violence done to N ature in our picture.. .we see how, in
a very artistic manner, this procedure has served to illustrate, in a
spirit, ultimately o f candid self-criticism, the very nature o f business
which, while associating itself with Nature, subordinates her
to its purpose— and to ours.2 4
2 3 Leo Spitzer. “American Advertising Explained As Popular Art.” In A Method of
Interpreting Literature. (New York: Russell & Russell, 1949).
2 4 Spitzer, 112-113.
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While the intellectual turn to question Los Angeles’ promises had occurred in other
forms by the mid 1940s, Spitzer’s essav documents one interesting example. Though
Spitzer’s aim was to look at American advertising, his choice to use Sunkist and
underscore the “propaganda” behind its Southern California ideal represents a trend
occurring in many other texts, fictional and non-fictional alike.
While one mav expect such writing from a cultural critic such as Wilson or
Spitzer, a similarly negative tone is discernible in later texts seeking a presumably more
objective or even favorable vision o f the citv. For example, one text that explicitly
strives to present Los Angeles "truthfully and objectively", is the travel guide sponsored
by the Works Progress Administration. Los Angeles: A Guide to Its E nnrvnsA First
published in 1941 and reissued ten vears later, Los Angeles unsuccessfully attempts to
address the journalistic trend to ridicule the citv:
For many decades the citv has suffered from journalistic superficiality;
it has been lashed as a citv o f sin and cranks; it has also been strangled
beneath a damp unrestrained eulogy. The book shows Los Angeles
as a composite, a significant citv, the fifth largest in the L'nited
States.2 6
Despite its stated goals, and perhaps because it was penned by out-of-work
screenwriters during the Depression who could not refrain from dissecting Los Angeles
from the film industry, Los Angeles fails miserably, at times sinking into the literary trend
o f highlighting the eccentric and waywardness o f Los Angelenos. For instance, in
2 3 Workers of the Writers' Program o f the Works Projects Administration in Southern
California. Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its En/.irons. (New York: Hastings House,
1941 and 1951), vi.
2 6 WPA, vi.
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describing the dress habits o f residents, the text reads, "E ven in their evervdav attire,
Angelenos sport the brightly colored and the bizarre. G irls wear flapping, pastel-tinted
slacks. Housewives go to market with furs thrown over cotton dresses. Bovs blaze
forth in multihued silk shirts. Beach costumes are seen o n urban streets thirtv miles
from the sea. Schoolgirls wear gailv colored kerchiefs tied peasant-stvle over their
heads."2 7 '[h e book goes on to document a score o f o th er attire that Los Angelenos
frequendy wear, including fringed cowboy outfits and N ative American costumes. So,
instead o f breaking apart some o f the Los Angeles m yth, this text reinforces it— doublv.
Because it states it will clearly paint the true picture o f the region, its embellishments
appear even more authoritative.
Especially Carey McW illiams, the region's m ost celebrated historian, joins in the
characterization and creates a meta-narrative for viewing Southern California, repeated
histonographically, arguably to the present. L'sing O gden Nash's poem "D on't Shoot
Los Angeles," McW illiams begins a chapter in his 1946 Southern California: A n Island on
l^and in a similar vein.2 * Nash's poem reads:
Is it true what they say about Los Angeles, that Los Angeles
is erratic.
That in the sweet national svmphony o f com m on sense Los
Angeles is static'
Yes, it is true. Los Angeles is not only erratic, n o t only erotic;
Los Angeles is crotchety, centrifugal, vertiginous, esoteric, and
exotic.
Many people blame the movies and the movie-makers for Los
Angeles' emotional rumpus.
But they are mistaken; it is the compass.
Certainlv Los Angeles is a cloudburst o f non-sequirurs, and of
2 ' WPA, 5.
2 h McWilliams, 249.
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logic a drouth (sic).
But what can vou expect o f a city that is laid out east and
west, instead o f north and south?
Nash contends that Hollywood has nothing to do with Los Angeles’ illogic; rather, he
attributes the region's oddities to geographic determ inism — the citv's geographic location
and layout. Regardless o f cause, his poem reinforces a foreign and sexualized view o f
Southern California. McW illiams devotes the chapter to a survev o f the region's more
infamous religious cults.
McW illiams’ adoption o f this attitude both created a framework from which
future Los Angeles historiography would emerge and is a reflection o f his own
worldview which stressed an activist vision and unham pered wonder at Los Angeles
differences, its exceptionalism, with the rest o f the nation. Arriving in 1922,
McWilliams attended the University o f Southern California where he earned his law
degree and became a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. W riting o f his interest in the
myriad o f occult in religious groups in the region, McWilliams, in his autobiography,
notes that his writing existed alongside many others:
It [Los Angeles) was a “now ” city that piqued curiosity and interest, a
city without a past whose emergence coincided with new modes of
transportation (the autom obile and the airplane) and new forms of
communication (m otion pictures and radio); it was, in fact, destined
to become the media capital o f the world. The effect o f this upsurge
o f interest and attention was to create a growing market for “L.A.”
stories which those o f us who were just beginning to write were only
too happy to supply — The range of interesting subject m atter was
fantastic. It was in Southern California that I first acquired a
reporter’s interest in religious cults and occult movements.-^
Carey McWilliams. The education of Carey McWilliams. (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1978), 46.
13'
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As his autobiography relates, McW illiams’ writing on Los Angeles was part o f a larger
trajectory o f writing on Los Angeles in the mid 1940s, and it is interesting to note the
differences in his writing on Los Angeles from his 1946 Southern California: A n Island on
Land and his 1978 autobiography. Specifically, his later autobiography details the many
intellectual circles that he frequented, the lively comm unity o f scholars and artists that
inhabited various com ers o f Southern California o f his days, and his Island on Land
merely scratches the surface of.
Presumably, McW illiams’ vision o f Los Angeles was intended, in part, to
provide a constructive criticism of a place he held dear, as much o f his other work, both
in and out o f print did. Publishing over a dozen books and coundess articles over his
lifetime, McWilliams highlighted some o f Southern California’s worst social conditions
and events, trom the Mission Myth to Japanese American relocation post Pearl Harbor.
One o f the most eloquent voices o f the American Left in the 20,h century, after leaving
Los Angeles McWilliams went on to serve as editor for The S a t ion, but when seen in the
larger body o f non-fictional writing and in this mid-century context, some o f his
observations may inadvertendy continue a sensationalized, dismissive treatm ent of
Southern California. Indeed, it is in the writing o f the “crackpot” elements o f the
region that McW illiams can seem to share com m on ground with such disparate forces
as tabloid journalism o f the same period.
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Tabloid Sensationalism
The rise in popularity o f sensationalist magazines in the 1950s contributed to
the media-made image o f Southern California in their spotlight on the film industrv.
While manv o f these magazines such as Confidential, Top Secret, Suppressed, Husb-Hush,
L'ncensored, Bare— the S a k e d Truth, Inside Story, and the Lowdown featured stories from
around the globe, bv the mid 1950s most o f their stories centered on Hollywood's
lapses in moralitv. which reified themes first introduced in Hollvwood and Los Angeles
fiction. Further, Confidentials much publicized libel suits provided another arena in
which the film industry's exploits were paraded. That the publisher o f Confidential
repeatedlv insisted on the truthfulness of its stories in his magazine and in court helped
to legitimate the magazine’s standing as a newsworthv source. These less reputable
magazines, in this context, supported fictional images o f the region.
The sheer popularity o f this tabloid journalism cannot be underestimated in the
reification o f Los Angeles’ fictional and non-fictional stereotvpe. Perhaps the m ost
known o f all the sensationalist tabloids. Confidential illustrates the development o f a new
type o f Los Angeles reporting in the 1950s. Launched in 1953, Confidential initiallv
attracted only 150,000 readers but by March 1955 had surpassed such American
standards as The Ladies' Home Journal, The Reader’ s Digest, and The Saturday Erening Tost in
sales at over 3 million copies.3 0 At first unquestioned in its veracitv, Conjidentia/s
publisher, Robert Harrison, claimed to, “tell the facts and name the names,” and
maintained a workforce o f private detectives and lawvers. In fact. Time actually
3 0 “Sin, Sex, and Sales.” Ifiewsweek. 14 March 1955, 88. According to the article the
three magazines in question averaged less than 2 million sales per issue.
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legitimated some o f the magazine’s text in a July 1955 article writing, “Manv a
Confidential story is based on facts that new sm en know and could print.” -1 O ne m onth
later the tide had turned against Harrison, and the magazine was charged with the first
o f manv lawsuits, with charges ranging from libel to obscenity charges from the US
Postmaster. '- By April o f 1956 at the same tim e as Confidential was ranked the num ber
one single copy newsstand seller, it had over S9 million in libel suits pending.
Always preachy and self-righteous in tone. Confidentials stories appeared to
criticize the subjects o f their exposes by show ing how unlike the norm they were and
exposing their hypocrisy. Importandy, the m agazine repeatedly expresses an “in the
know” attitude that frames the justification, in p a n , for its exposes, correcdv implying
that such information would be impossible to obtain otherwise as the magazine often
stooped to less reputable means to gather stories. Throughout its pages were claims to
authenticity and followed a model o f “we can’t help what the truth reveals” polic\-.
W hile undoubtedly no story focused solely on Southern California, many of its exposes
on filmdom’s celebrities featured specific locations and street addresses, rooting the so-
called crimes into real spaces. At first. Confidential threw a wide net in snaring subjects
for its magazines, expressing the worst in 1950s American attitudes, highlighting
political figures. New York socialites, and athletes in addition to Hollywood celebrities.
Stories usually were exposes on well-known figures ranging from hidden homosexuality,
“Success in the Sewer.” Time. 11 July 1955, 90.
,J “Sewer Trouble.” Time. 1 August 1955, 48; “ Lid on the Sewer.” Time. 19 September
1955, 74; “Cat-o’-Nine-Tale.” Time. 8 August 1955, 66; “Confidential vs. the U.S.”
\ewsweek. 19 September 1955, 96; “Confidential W ins A Round.” Time. 17 O ctober 1955,
91; “Ssh!.” Time. 2 April 1956, 86; “Confidential Revisited.” Time. March 1957, 74.
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communist affiliation, miscegenation, or otherwise deviant sexual behavior.1 '' For
example, in N ovem ber of 1954, the magazine included articles on a secret secretarial
pool at the W aldorf Hotel alleging it was reallv a prostitution service, an incidence o f
cowardice bv cinema’s tough guy Humphrey Bogart, and an editorial on the accuracy o f
W alter W inchell’s stock market prophecies. In its earlier issues, the magazine had a
section devoted to Hollywood.1 4 As the magazine developed, it began to devote more
space to Hollywood scandals and outrageous behavior. Depending on the amount o f
articles on the film industry, the issue’s section on Hollywood either collapsed into the
magazine as a whole or remained a separate entity.
Manv o f these tabloids’ celebrity-centered articles furthered the noir association
with Southern California in their use o f noir actors and filmmakers in similar real-life
1 1 The following is a sampling o f stories from the magazine’s early years: Brooks
Martin. “The Lavender Skeletons in TV’s Closet,” Confidential. Vol. 1 N ’o.3, }ulv 1953,
34; Gene Huffman. “Bad Bovs o f Tennis,” Confidential. Vol. 1 N o.3, July 1953, 44; John
B. Swift. “Why Sinatra Kicked Ava and Lana O ut o f the House.” Confidential. Vol. 1
No.3, July 1953, 24; Randolph W ebb. “Duke and Duchess o f W indsor Are They
Really Married?” Confidential. Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1954, 12; Aldo Cellucci. “O rson
Welles: Why He Bit the Lip o f Eartha Kitt.” Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 1, March 1954, 41;
Brad Shortell. “Diana Barrymore: A Chippie o ff the O ld Block?” Confidential. Vol. 2,
N o. 1, March 1954,8; Hewitt Van Horn. “How Social is the Social Register?”
Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 1, March 1954, 24; |av W illiams. “The Sex Book Kinsey D idn’t
Sign.” Confidential. Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1954, 32; Kenneth Frank. “ Homosexuals, Inc.”
Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 2, May 1954, 18; Mrs. Billy Daniels. “W hite W’omen Broke Up
My Marriage to Billy Daniels.” Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 2, Mav 1954, 26; Jim Doherty.
“Why the Mob Protects Bobo Rockefeller.” Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 3, July 1954, 8;
Alfred Garvey. ‘T he Skeletons in Red Skelton’s Closet.” Confidential. Vol. 2, No. 3, July
1954, 20; Audrey Minor. “Operation Hollywood: Custom-Tailored Bosoms.”
Confidential. Vol. 2, N o. 3, July 1954,13.
1 4 Jay Breen. “Scandal at the W aldorf.” Confidential. Vol. 2, No. 5, N oyem ber 1954, 10;
John Griffith. “W hat Made Bogart Run?” Confidential. Vol. 2, No. 5, Novem ber 1954,
22; and “Walter W’inchell W ’as Right About the Stock Market.” Confidential. Vol. 2, No.
5, Novem ber 1954, 12.
1 4 1
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scenarios. Actors such as Hum phrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Sterling Havden, Rita
Hayworth, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Marilvn M onroe, and O rson Welles came
under the magazine’s inspection. A nd the tabloid also included reports on Michael
Curtiz, director o f Mildred Pierce (1948), and Nicholas Ray, who directed, among other
films, In .1 L onely Place (1950). O ften, stories echoed the plots o f tvpical film noirs. For
example. Confidential reported on the unsuccessful blackmail attempt o f Marilvn M onroe
by a Los Angeles policeman for nude photos taken earlier in her career. '5
Suppressed connected an actor’s celluloid image to his or her personal lives in
explicit ways. In N ovem ber o f 1954 Suppressed published, “W hat’s W rong with
Hollywood Morals: Many Dare to Flaunt Convention,” and in critiquing the activities o f
actors like Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, and Garv Cooper, the article
questions how audiences continue to support them bv attending their films:
Specifically, a glamour girls like Lana Turner or Rita Havworth, who
depicts the bad woman on the screen, mav do so in her personal life.
She may make international jaunts with her heartthrob o f the
moment though she is not wed to him. She mav even drag her child
along on these unconventional trips as both Rita did, prior to her
marriage to Aly Khan, and Lana, before she officiallv tied the knot
with Dan Topping.
Then when the marriages go up in smoke and both girls seek new
partners they will suffer no box office ill effects. In fact, thev will
go unscathed as long as they continue into their personal life what
comes naturallv on the screen.'6
'3 Howard Rushmore. “When A C op Tried to Blackmail Marilvn M onroe.” Confidential.
Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1955, 23.
v. “What’s W rong with Hollywood Morals? Manv Dare to Flaunt Convention.”
Suppressed. Vol. 1, No. 6. N ovem ber 1954, 45.
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In assessing how scandals influence the box office. Suppressed concludes that thev
actually help an actor’s celebrity, but bad behavior will be translated to their choices in
roles. W riting o f actress Susan Havward’s reputation as being difficult to work with, the
article surmises, “So far, Susan’s transgressions have been onlv those o f wild
temperament. W here she goes from here will depend on how she wants to be
associated with the role which she portravs.” The article points out that this association
works both wavs. Conversely, for actors like G regory Peck w ho maintain private lives
presumably bevond reproach, “highly sympathetic parts” await.
Another 1956 Suppressed article links noir onscreen roles to offscreen behavior.
Entitled “Gloria Graham e’s Secret Problem: Even ‘O scar’ C ouldn’t Make Her Behave,”
the article warns her marital problem s with third husband comedv writer Cv Young
mark a new low in Graham e’s life. ’’ In addition to detailing G raham e’s ascent and
descent in Hollywood and describing her two previous marriages. Suppressed also notes
her inattention to her phvsical appearance is another warning o f things to come. O ne
photo caption reads, “Today, at thirty-one, G .G . is a dissipated looking, nonconform ist
type.” Most importandy, the article ties G raham e’s onscreen noir roles to her personal
decline.
Around for a full ten years now, Gloria’s roles have gone from the
floozie to the “other woman.” Her parts all seem cut from the
same bolt o f cloth. Never the leading ladv, she m ost frequendy is
featured in a second-lead role. Her first big assignment was a
smalltown floozie with James Stewart in “ It’s A W onderful Life.”
Then she was a tart in “Crossfire,” the torrid adultress in “N o t As
A Stranger,” the problem-woman in “C obw eb” and “The Bad and
the Beautiful.” She seems to be tvped forever now as a ladv with
v “Gloria Graham e’s Secret Problem: Even ‘O scar’ Couldn’t M aker H er Behave.”
Suppressed. Vol. 3, No. 3, Mav 1956, 21.
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a shadowed name, and or the victim o f alcoholic tendencies.
Naturally, this has had its effect. ’8
Here, interestingly, the article reverses the typical assum ption regarding a star’s onscreen
persona, implying that such roles have reduced G raham e to corresponding behavior in
the real world. G raham e starred in various L.A. noirs including In A Cone/y Place (1950),
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and The Big Heat (1953).
O ther articles took the noir parallel a step further. O ne 1955 Confidential issue
featured the story. “Why was Lizabeth Scott's Nam e in the Call Girls’ Call Book?” 3 0
According to the Confidential article, Scott, the veteran o f several Los Angeles noir films,
was listed along with her phone num ber as a prostitute in a call-girl’s phone book
during a raid.4 " Though the investigation was inconclusive, in addition to implving
Scott’s lesbianism, the article ended bv suggesting her guilt:
Insiders began putting together the pieces o f the puzzle that was
Lizabeth Scott and it didn’t take them long to get the answer. Thev
know the shocking fact that m ore than one o f the screen's top
glam our girls are listed in the little black books kept bv Hollvwood
prostitutes. And, unlike Los Angeles’ n e e cops, the insiders don’t
have to ask what the monickers o f such seductive females are doing
in such surroundings. Thev’ve known for vears...N ow vou do too.4 1
By placing noir filmmakers in stories similar to tvpical plots o f Los Angeles noirs,
Confidential encouraged the continuation o f filmic association o f Hollvwood plavers into
w Ibid, 23.
v > Matt Williams. “Why Was Lizabeth Scott’s Name in the Call Girls’ Call Book?”
Confidential. Vol. 3, No. 4, September 1955, 32.
4 1 1 Lizabeth Scott was in Los Angeles based noirs / W alk Alone (1948), Pitfall (1948), Too
Late Tor Tears (1949), among manv others noir films.
4 1 Williams, 50.
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real world scenarios. In this way. Confidential helped to strengthen the existing media-
made Southern California stereotype.
The stories behind the magazine revealed equally titillating fodder. Confidentials
stories were so inflammatory to som e of its subjects, that in 1956 one man, Richard
Weldy, whose wife had been featured in an expose on John Wavne as W ayne’s lover,
shot and wounded Robert Harrison, the publisher o f the tabloid. N o charges were ever
filed.4 2 And in March o f 1957, witnesses admitted to “keyhole-peeping” and using
“listening posts” to obtain information on its subjects for the magazine’s stories.4 3
Confidential faced several legal challenges, its m ost notable in July o f 1957 when
Confidential; Whisper, its sister magazine; eleven individuals; and the magazines’ parent
corporation Hollywood Research, Inc. were indicted on the following charges:
conspiracy to publish criminal libel, conspiracy to publish obscene and indecent
material, conspiracy to disseminate information about abortion, and conspiracy to
disseminate information about “male rejuvenation.”4 4 In the Los Angeles-based court
case, over 100 movie stars were subpoenaed and reluctandv testified to the truthfulness
o f stories about them.
4 2 “ Reader Response.” Time. 17 September 1956, 76 and “Jungle.” Sewsweek. 17
September 1956.
4 3 “Gutterdammerung?” Time. 11 March 1957, 67.
4 4 Charles Sigmund, ed. “The Confidential Story.” Inside: Exposing People and Headlines.
Vol. 2, No. 12, D ecem ber 1957, 10.
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Testimony from various informants and a form er editor for Confidential revealed
the magazine would seek out the m ost "lewd and lascivious” stories for publication.4 5
Informants for the two scandal sheets were o f the m ost dubious sort. According to
Time .\lagafine.
Tips for stories were handed...for the crudest motives— cupidity,
jealousy, publidty-hunger— by a shadowy legion o f informants
who ranged from call girls and press agents to the free-lance writer
who testified.. .that he earned S I50 from Harrison bv reporting the
amorous escapades o f an actor neighbor. Storv leads came from
ex-husbands or wives, or embittered lovers like the small-time
movie actor who in 1955 told Confidential a story o f the sexual
eccentricities o f a fast-rising voung actress w ho jilted him.4 6
O ne informant. Francesca de Scaffa, confessed her willingness to sleep with different
male celebrities in order to create stories for the magazine.4 7 After a parade o f witnesses
on both sides the trial eventually resulted in a hung jury.
Confidential made one of its missions to de-bunk the Hollvwood publicity
machine. In lanuary o f 1956, the magazine’s storv, "W hat Thev ‘Forgot’ to Say About
Kim Novak,” illustrates this process.4 H Listing quotes from Life and Cook and Novak
herself on her serendipitous beginnings in the film industry, the article debunked each
one on its veracity, beginning: "There m ust o f have been half a dozen Hollvwood
wolves who choked on their highballs while reading such undiluted malarkev about the
4 : 1 "Putting the Papers to Bed.” Time. 26 August 1957, 61.
4 6 Ibid, 61.
4 "Judge and a W itness.” Xewsweek. 19 August 1957, 83.
4 * Robin Sharry. "W hat They ‘Forgot’ to Sav A bout Kim Novak.” Confidential. Vol. 3,
No. 6,Januarv 1956, 31.
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cheatv, little Czechoslovakian curie they knew back in the good old davs when her name
was Marilyn Novak.”4'' And, in response to the trial, the 1957 Septem ber magazine
cover was blazoned with the super title, “ Hollywood vs. Confidential." Harrison charged
that the film industry was engaged in a large conspiracy to do awav with the magazine
for its failure to abide bv its rules:
“ Hollywood” is in the business o f lying. Falsehood is a stock in trade.
Thev use vast press-agent organizations and advertising expenditures
to “build up” their "stars.” They “glamorize” and distribute
detailed— often deliberately false— information about private lives.
Because o f advernsing m oney, in these “build -u p s ” they have the
cooperation o f large segments o f the daily press, many magazines,
columnists, radio and TV. They have the cooperation o f practically
even- medium except Confidential.. .They can’t “influence” us. So they
want to “get” us. The trouble with “build-ups” is that thev create a
phony atm osphere which spoils some of those who are “built-up.”*'
As such, the magazine continued to insist on its veracity and present itself as the victim
in the larger Hollvwood publicity machine. This public insistence, along with its refusal
to settle libel suits out o f court, helped to present the magazine’s work in a more
legitimate light.
Harris’ mission to demystify- and render true much o f Hollywood's glamour
build up, though destructive in its m eans and outcomes, has im portant basis. As the
star system evolved in the 1920s so to did the publicity machine that helped to create
these sometimes instant celebnties in the promulgation o f often false histories of
America’s darlings via fan magazines, newsreels, publicity stunts, and Hollvwood
columnists in major newspapers. Indeed, writing in 1960 o f Marilyn M onroe’s 20th
4 I ) Sham -, 31.
3 0 Robert Harrison. “Confidential.” Confidential. Vol., 5, No. 4, Septem ber 1957, 23.
14“
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Century Fox beginnings, Maurice Zolotow writes that the starlet on the rise must deal
with “treatm ent,” excerpted in detail here:
But the studio gives all the starlets the “treatm ent,” and the starlet
thinks it has a meaning that it does not have. There is, first, publicity.
The might engine o f studio propaganda begins squeaking out a few
litde column items about her; maybe her picture is planted in a fan
magazine. It seems terribly exciting to the starlet, but it isn’t the real
build-up. A “build-up,” that’s when the engine begins roaring, and
it only roars for the star or for those who, in the opinion o f the front
office, have “ star quality.” For the starlet it only whispers__
Roy Craft, who was to become Marilyn’s m ost trusted liaison with
the press, was the man who was sent to interview her. To him it
promised to be just another boring day’s work, for even’ starlet told
the same tale, signifying nothing but an itch for money and fame.
But as Marilyn began to talk. Craft sat up. She unfolded the storv o f
her life— no father and not mother. The poor, lonely, orphan girl__
Craft, hearing the story o f the orphanage and the foster homes,
was naturally both saddened and delighted. Saddened for Marilyn,
but pleased that he had a nice hook on which to hang some publicity.
Usually somebody in the press department had to invent a Cinderella
story. But here was one ready made. The trouble was that Marilyn
kept on talking, telling more and more o f her troubles, and it became
too much of a bad thing. This wasn’t Cinderella. This was Oliver
Twist in girl’s clothing. How could you sell custom ers sex with all
this tragedy' So in his first short studio biography. Craft played down
the miseries o f her past. “ I thought it would do her more harm than
good,” he says. “ It wasn’t until nineteen fiftv-rwo that we played the
orphan bit for all it was worth. By then, she was becoming a solidly
established sex symbol, and the story of her unhappy childhood got
space because it was a terrific switch.”5 1
Zolotow ’s observations also underscore how exceptional M onroe’s background was to
the typical studio press man. Her grooming bv the studio publicity m achine conveys
the im portance o f information and myth in the building o f celebrity personalities during
5 1 Maurice Zolotow. Marilyn Monroe. (New York: H arcourt, Brace & Company, 1960),
52-53.
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the late 1940s and 1950s. While Monroe’s own tragic life provided a compelling
narrative on which the studio could build, this storv was leaked in pieces, when it
seemed suitable to an appropriate point in her career. And, as time has shown us, this
treatment o f her past, in part, helped to undermine her own psychological well-being as
she had to deal with the mvth o f “Marilvn M onroe.” 'X’ hile undoubtedly Harris’
intentions were not linked to creating a safe space for Hollywood's plavers, M onroe’s
build-up exemplifies the false narrative Hollvwood created in order to make a star more
bankable, a box office draw.
But Confidential had seen its glorv davs o f expose pass. As part o f the agreement
to end the series o f libel suits in its much publicized California case. Confidential
underwent a massive re-haul and issued a public statement, not in its own magazines, in
November o f 1957 to proclaim this change in content. In a small three inch bv 1 and
half inch box, Richard H am s announced in the nation’s papers, a message which was
much m ore revealing than Confidential s own announcement:
The publisher of Confidential and Whisper magazines publicly
announces, that effective with the March, 1958 issue o f Confidential
and the April, 1958 issue o f Whisper magazines and all succeeding
issues thereafter, there will be a changed format in these magazines,
so as to eliminate expose stories on the private lives o f celebrities —
While we have never felt that such stories violated anv laws, in
spirit o f cooperation with Edmund G. Brown, attorney general o f
the State o f California, and William B. McKesson, district attorney
o f Los Angeles County, we have agreed with them to so change
our form at.. ..We are confident that our millions o f readers will
find the new format interesting and exciting.5-
Los Angeles Examiner, Nov, 10., 1957. clipping from the Hearst Los Angeles Examiner
morgue. Regional History Archive, University o f Southern California.
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The April 1958 issue o f Confidential outlined its new format in a statement bv Harrison
announcing, “W e’re quitting the area o f private affairs for the arena o f public affairs.
Some found fault with the private affairs. Some criticized. But many eulogized and
admired.” 3 5 And with that, the magazine began to criticize “whisper m crchants”-o th e r
tabloid magazines, Hollywood columnists like Louella Parsons, and expose journalists
like “TV Inquisitor” Mike Wallace, later o f 60 Minutes fame.5 4 Stories now fixated more
on political conspiracies, well-known convicted criminals, and health fads. Though
from time to time the tabloid did focus on celebrity problems, its focal point now was
much m ore sympathetic in nature or on celebrities like Robert Mitchum w ho found
themselves making public spectacles o f themselves and the subject o f non-tabloid
journalism.
Though Confidentials reign o f terror against Hollvwood diminished in the late
1950s, other tabloids continued its original mission, supporting both Confidential earlier
claims and the Southern California noir mvth. The legitimacv o f this sensationalist
journalism no doubt was diminished in the increasinglv outlandish stories featured in
Top Secret, Suppressed, Uncensored, Inside Story. Private Lives, and Hush-Hush. The ridiculous
nature o f many o f stories became so pronounced that at one point one enterprising
3 5 Robert Harrison. “Confidenrial’s New P o lio .” Confidential. Volume 6, N o. 1, April,
1958, 9.
5 4 Edward G. Bannister. “The Whisper M erchants.” Confidential. Volume 6, No. 1,
April, 1958, 10; Paul C. Kent. “Thev Lead the Lambs to Slaughter.” Confidential.
Volume 6, No. 1, April, 1958, 34.
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publisher came up with the tabloid Cockeyed. '' A sp o o f on its tabloid counterparts.
Cockeyeds m otto was “ Makes up the facts and blames the names,” and included stories
like “Mae West Exposed as Marilyn M onroe’s Grandma!” and “Uncovering Long
Island’s Amazing Fourth Sex!”
The rise o f sensationalist, Hollvwood-centered scandal sheets helped to reify the
Southern California media-made mvth bv linking actors, especially noir actors, to
scandals and behavior outlined in earlier regional fiction. The much publicized 1957
Confidential trial also encouraged the association o f scandal to the region bv the airing o f
Hollywood’s dim - laundry in an institution such as a court o f law and bv the publisher’s
refusal to admit guilt. Finally, the immense popularity o f these texts demonstrated that
this Southern California vision reached more people than a magazine such as Time or
Xemweek. This mass dissemination, along with film noir, aided in the creation o f
Southern California’s symbolic landscape.
Hollywood Fights Back:
Despite the sheer amount o f anti-Los Angeles and and-Hollvwood material
abounding, an opposing voice actually supporting the film industry did surface in the
late 1940s and early 1950s. N ot surprisingly, these glowing reports came primarily from
the film industry itself. Since the twenties a plethora o f scandals tarred the industry's
image, including the sensational trials o f Fatty Arbuckle for rape in 1921, the murder o f
William Desm ond Taylor in 1922, and the killing o f screen star Rav Raymond bv his
” Cockeyed. Confidential. Top Secret. (Whitestone Publications, 1955).
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wife's lover and fellow actor Paul Kellv in 1927.5 6 Com bined w ith the sexual legends o f
Hollywood's leading actors, the film industry attem pted to negate its maligned image.
Historian Kevin Starr notes that its new self-generated image highlighted the wavs in
which Hollvwood was m ore like middle-America instead o f its form er exoticized and
sexualized identity. Starr notes:
Hollvwood decided upon the strategy o f prom oting an image of
itself as a wholesome, even winsome sort o f place: as mid-America,
only more so. Hollywood, ran the new argument, was a workaday
district o f Los Angeles, a factory town, as well as a state o f mind.
It had a Cham ber o f Commerce and a Bank o f Hollywood as well
as a mythic dim ension.3
This image was reified by radio shows that highlighted the family life o f stars including
the Jack Benny Show, Will Rogers, as well as "The Screen Guild Show" which aired
through NBC.5 *
This newly m inted vision also appeared in print media as well, from books to
newspaper accounts, to stories penned by the stars themselves. Consider the coffee
table book Hollywood A lbum published in 1947. Designed to show how Hollvwood
"really isn't so different," Hollywood Album consists o f essays from stars and Hollvwood
industry folk from make up artists to costume designers to cartoonists to casting
3 < ’ See Michael Munn. The Hollywood Murder Casebook. (New York: St. Martin's Press,
1987) and Craig Rice, ed., Los Angeles Murders. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce,
1947) for more detailed accounts o f these trials.
3 Kevin Starr. The Dream Endures: California En/ers the 1940s. (New York: O xford
University Press, 1997). 265.
5 K Starr, 268-269.
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directors discussing how their lives are just like those o f any other American.3 9 The
book, in its insistence that Hollywood is more like middle America than one would
guess, surprisingly acknowledges the industry's negative reputation:
Everyone has his o r her own opinion o f Hollywood, but it might
prove o f interest that, according to a recent study, only eleven per
cent o f those em ployed in the film industry are women, in spite of
the emphasis given feminine beauty. The majority o f top stars are
in their forties. T he divorce rate among film stars is a trifle lower
than that o f the rest o f the nation. Eight}- per cent o f the
Hollywood people believe that the world, through its newspapers
and magazines, gets an incorrect impression o f life in the film
industry. Fifteen per cent o f film stars are teetotalers. Thirty per
cent do not smoke, and fort}- per cent do not go to nightclubs/’ "
Repeatedly, the text com pares Hollywood statistics against the norms for the rest o f the
country, concluding that the Hollywood community is actually more conservative than
the average American. Am ong its finding was the statistic that m ost in Hollywood did
not agree with the way the film industry is portrayed, demonstrating the prevalence o f
the region's negative image. N ot surprisingly, though the book does include many o f
the industry's lesser known and well-known positions, it does not include an essay by a
single writer.
In addition to books like Hollywood Album, the industry found support in more
informal sources, specifically from the stars themselves or the gossip columns o f
Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. For the marketing o f White Heat (1949), actress
3 9 Ivy Crane Wilson, ed., Hollywood Album : The Wonderful City and its Famous Inhabitants.
(London: Sampson Low M arston & Company Ltd, 1947), 6.
Wilson, 7.
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Virginia Mayo penned an essay describing her Hollywood life. W riting o f her husband
Mike O ’Shay and her Hollvwood friends, Mavo obsen'es:
Mike and I and the friends we have work hard, pav o u r share o f the
tax load, try our best to keep up with local, state, national and world
conditions, appear at benefits when we are asked, try to create the
best possible impression when we travel the country, as som e o f us
so often are called upon to d o /’1
Describing her regular church attendance along with those o f o th e r notable celebrities,
Mayo expands upon the difficulties o f being part o f Hollywood; not because o f the film
industry itself but on the regional stereotype which com bined th e w orst o f all of
Southern California’s worlds, real and imagined:
We out here may live in Van Nuvs, Culver City, Malibu, San
Fernando or Watts. But when those black headlines com e out, and
those radios start to buzz and chatter, and when some m obster gets
shot in the back out in some darkened spot in this big jigsaw Los
Angeles countv. we all automatically become “ H ollyw ood.”
And the m erchants, clerks, bank tellers, dentists, druggists,
housewives w ho actually do live in the Hollvwood area o f Los
Angeles becom e “ Hollvwood,” too.
All of us cringe, mentally, and feel a sweep o f anger and sham e.6 2
She concludes by asking readers to put the “awful” articles and news about Hollvwood
in “ fair perspective.” Neady avoiding the industry's tarnished scandal-plagued past,
Mayo asks readers to distance normal Hollvwood from the Los Angeles’ notorious
crimes, instead o f vice versa. WTiile Mayo’s 1949 exhortations prefigure the rise of
6 1 “By Virginia Mayo.” from White Heat production notes (undated) 2, accessed from
W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
6 2 Mayo, 3.
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tabloid magazines like Confidential, they demonstrate the growing vilification and knee-
jerk assumptions associated with Southern California.
Similar to M ayo’s claims, columnist efforts by Louella Parsons and Hedda
Hopper celebrating the industry began earlv. Like-minded accounts exist as earlv as
1933 opposing the negative and increasingly popularly held assessment o f the film
industry. For example, in the bos Angeles Herald Examiner notable Hollywood columnist
Louella Parsons writes:
Coundess stories are whispered and printed about famous writers
who come here and leave, raising their hands to heaven against
Hollywood....W hat about the well-known authors who come here,
work, hard and contribute stories and find Hollywood a grand place
in which to live?6’ ’
Parsons goes on to herald screenwriters who are “California enthusiasts.” A similar
response is evident in a 1938 Los , -lngeles Times storv entided “Helping Hands Numerous
m Land of Films," written bv Kay Campbell:
Hollywood is known as a hard-boiled town where gold is the
symbol o f everything but hearts. Vet even- studio gate could tell
time worn tales o f coundess kindly acts. And manv a star or
feature player owes all he is or hopes to be to the helping hand
extended by another, more influential plaver.6 4
“ Helping Hands” enum erates famous actors who received help from other notable stars
in gaining their foothold in the film industry. The substance o f both articles reveals a
reaction against the portrayal o f Los Angeles as articulated in the Hollvwood novel and,
Louella Parson. Los Angeles Herald Examiner. 22 Januarv 1930. Taken from clipping
morgue at Regional Archive Center, L’niversitv o f Southern California, Los Angeles— no
page number available.
M Kay Campbell, “ H elping Hands Num erous in the Land o f Films,” Los Angeles Times. 6
March 1937. sec. Ill, 1.
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as such, reaffirms the potency o f the image. And, the efforts o f such columnists
received tacit approval from the film industry itself which is in line with their m ove to
present a more wholesome Hollywood image. Biographer George Ells comm ents on
Parson's relationship to the film industry and her attempt to protect it:
Louella had always been-and continued to be-pro-Hollvwood in
attitude. W hether the problem was drug addiction am ong stars
(Mabel Norm and, Alma Rubens, Wallace Reid), manslaughter or
murder (Fatty Arbuckle, Paul Kellv) or guilt by association (Marv
Miles Minters), Louella was sympathetic, and the industry
welcomed her public relations w ork/’ 5
When Time named Parson the industry's "M other Superior" in 1952, her implicit power
as a Hollvwood columnist was entrenched/’ 6
Another source o f pro-Hollywood imagery came in Life magazine. In an
attempt to be the nation's leading magazine for middle-class Americans, Life regularly
featured light-hearted stories on the film industry and provided publicity for the studios
through behind-the-scenes articles on different film s/' Indeed, according to art
historian Erika Doss, the magazine used entertaining stories on the industry in order to
lighten up issues that featured bad news/’ * IJ/e s tacit support o f the film industry
remained so vigilant that in 1937 it rejected a painting it had commissioned bv Thom as
Hart Benton o f the film industry. Hollywood departed from Life's traditionally favorable
6 3 George Ells. Hedda and Eouella. (New York: P.P. Putnam's Sons, 1972), 139.
6 6 Ells, 279.
f " Erika Doss. Benton. Pollock, and the Politics o f Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract
Expressionism. (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, 1991), 195.
6 S Doss, 195.
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view o f the studio system and likened it in some wavs visually to the text o f a
Hollvwood novel. As Doss argues, although intended to show how the filmmaking
process could follow a producerist ethic instead o f being a harbinger o f the worker's
loss o f autonomy, a prevalent fear as the country m oved from a culture o f character and
deferred gratification to one of personality and instant gratification, Hollywood features a
behind-the-scenes view o f a Hollywood set. A half-naked blond actress stands in the
forefront o f the painting and a backdrop featuring a burning building can be seen the
background, rem inding the viewer o f W est's Tod Hackett and his desire to paint a
mural o f a burning Los Angeles in Duy of the Locust. In between the actress and the fire
are different types o f machinery and men working to create film magic.
Instead o f publishing Benton's Hollywood, U fe opted for a m ore upbeat Hew o f
the film industry presented through the paintings o f Doris Lee. Doss notes,
Lee's paintings showed a movieland exacdv as Life first described it
in May 1937: a "wonderful place" o f smiling stars, exotic
architecture, and fame and fortune. L'nlike Benton's Hollywood\ Lee's
cheery pictures did not challenge broader cultural expectations about
movie culture or movie workers/'"
The artempts o f U fe and different Hollvwood-based sources to clean up the film
industry's image reaffirms the extent to which Hollywood's reputation remained
tarnished.
Despite the efforts o f pro-Hollvwood supporters, Los Angeles' alter-ego
continued to a large degree and became more pervasive at the same time through
sensationalist trials and high profile crime. In reviewing the dissemination o f this anti-
Doss, 220.
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favorable view o f Los Angeles it is im portant to determine to what extent fictional
forms fed off o f each other and to what degree these depictions had basis in reality.
W hile undoubtedly the Hollywood novel and the hard-boiled fiction genres generated
more writing about Southern California, Los Angeles' historv is not without its criminal
blemishes. Sensational scandals plagued both the film industry and Los Angeles' local
government.
In spite o f its protests that Hollvwood was more wholesome than tabloids
suggested, the film industry had its fair share o f headline scandals between the late
1920s and earlv 1950s. A m ong others, one such scandal featured screen star Paul
Kelly, who in 1927 killed popular song and dance man, Rav Raymond, from The 7.iegtield
hollies because Kellv was having an affair with Raymond's wife, Dorothv MacKave. " In
1935 popular comedienne Thelma Todd was found dead in her car after attending a
party bv actress Ida Lupino the night before. Authorities were unable to determ ine if
her death was a suicide or not. 1 And in 194~ gangster Bugsv Siegel was gunned down
in the Beverlv Hills home o f his girlfriend Virginia Hill.
Civic governm ental institutions and law enforcement were considered corrupted
throughout the earlv decades o f the twentieth centurv. In 1930, Los Angeles District
Attorney Asa Keves was sentenced for one to fourteen years for bribery conspiracy. In
1938 the city underwent a recall election o f its m ayor, Frank L. Shaw because o f his
purported ties to various forms o f corruption— from graft to collusion with the city's
" Munn. 66.
’’ Munn, 73.
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criminals, the first recall o f its type in the nation’s historv.7 - And the Los Angeles Police
Departm ent underwent a massive re-structuring after the appointm ent o f Fletcher
Bowron in 1938 and later with the appointm ent o f William Parker. Under the Shaw
administration it was discovered that the LA PD was used as a tool to stop threats to the
mayor's rule. In fact, the administration targeted Clifford Clinton, an outspoken
reformer, by bombing his hom e and the investigator Ham- Ravmond in 1938.
Eventually three LAPD officers were indicted on malicious use o f explosives and
attempted murder. '
Plenty o f non-Hollywood based crime affected the region between 1927 and
1955. From Winnie Ruth |udd, also known as the “ trunk m urderess” (because her
victim was found leaking from a trunk outside the railroad station) in the earlv 1930s to
the infamous 1947 murder o f “Black Dahlia” Elizabeth Short, Los Angeles experienced
its fair share o f headline creating crime.7 4 O ne highly publicized trial centered on the
Walburga Case. Although the original crime took place in 1922, it wasn't until 1930 that
the Los Angeles District Attorney, Buron Fitts, knew all o f the details surrounding the
killing o f Fred Oesterreich. In this odd scenario, Oesterreich's widow Walburga was
2 “ Keyes Speeding Toward Prison” in Los Angeles Times. 12 March 1930; “Keves Enters
San Quentin.” Los Angeles Examiner. 13 March 1930 and Thom as Joseph Sitton.
"Urban Politics and Reform in New Deal Los Angeles: The Recall of Mavor Frank L.
Shaw." (Ph.D. diss.. University o f California Riverside, 1983), 60.
' Sitton, 181-183. The Shaw administration used the LAPD as a tool and organized the
bombing o f the investigator Harry Raymond in 1938 and earlier o f Clifford Clinton
(though Sitton suggests it may have been planted bv Clinton himself).
4 “San Q uentin for Killer: Clara Phillips Heads N orth.” Los Angeles Times. 2 June 1928;
“ Murderess’ Plea Vain” Los Angeles Times. 21 June 1931; “W innie Ruth Judd Will Never
Escape,” in Case book of True Mysteries, 13 April 1952.
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originally charged with the crime but her case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
However, in 1930 W alburga Oesterreich's former attorney attested that the real killer
was O tto Sanhuber, Walburga's lover who lived secredv in the Oesterreichs’ attic.
According to the Los Angeles District Attorney's historian, Tom McDonald, the case
made headlines while it was still before the Grand Jun . '3 Although the court eventually
dismissed the case because the jury remained deadlocked, it provided sensational
headlines across the nation. In a storv foretelling lames M. Cain's Double Indemnity
(1944) in 1936, Robert S. lames killed his pregnant wife for her insurance policy.
Having her bit by a rattlesnake and then drowned in order to collect on her S 10,000
accidental death life insurance polio-, |am es opened a grisly chapter in crime history.
Interestingly, in 1947 a group of notable pulp fiction writers wrote a book detailing Los
Angeles' m ore sensationalist crime. 6
The heightened paranoia o f outside invasion in Los Angeles as a result o f W orld
War II contributed to a growing and-Asian and ann-Mexican worldview in the citv. Led
by local papers, Los Angelenos began to question the fidelity o f the country's |apanese
American population because o f the W est Coast's proximity to the war in the Pacific.
After the bom bing of Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelt's issuance o f Executive
Order 9031 causing the internment o f 90,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans in
World W ar II, Los Angeles' paranoia was re-directed to its Mexican American
population. In the Spring o f 1942 at the same time Japanese internment had begun, the
3 Inform ation gleaned from personal interview with Tom McDonald, Summer o f 1999.
( ' Craig Rice, ed., Los Angeles Murders. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947).
Authors for the book include Erie Stanley Gardner, Guv Endore, and Eugene Williams.
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Hearst newspaper the Los Angeles Examiner began to focus on a new "Pachuco" crime
wave led by Mexican Americans. The Sleepy Lagoon Case in which the LAPD initially
arrested 300 Mexican American juveniles for the murder o f Jose Diaz in August o f 1942
provides another example o f Los Angeles' growing anti-Mexican sentiment and the
LAPD's overzealousness. The sensationalized trial in the following year had narrowed
the defendants to 23 and used scientific racism to justify m otive m the killing. Although
the verdict was eventually overturned on appeal, 17 o f the 23 were originally convicted.
The infamous Z oot Suit Riots in the summ er o f 1943 also documents Los Angeles'
racial climate. Again, sensationalized— and som e argue instigated— bv the Hearst papers,
this conflict occurred betw een Mexican American servicemen and Mexican American
youth. For three to four nights servicemen sought out zoot suiters, named after their
style o f suit, and stripped them naked. The LAPD responded bv watching the de
nuding and then arresting the victims. Eventually the L'.S. military stepped in to stop
the disturbances by making the Hearst Press tone down its coverage.
While Los Angeles history mav be replete with incidents highlighting the
region's problems, the portrait it paints does not necessarily jibe with the version put
forth by Los Angeles fiction. Crime in the citv took all shapes from the glamorous to
the m undane. Los Angeles' persistent problem with a corrupt cm- government did not
present itself as a popular them e in hard-boiled fiction. Rather, most stories were more
closely tied to the region's affiliation with the film industry. Further, it is im portant to
understand this gloomy morass o f crime against Los Angeles’ growing suburbia and
industrial growth. Indeed, the postwar years saw another boom in Los Angeles'
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population and fully 9° o o f those discharged from the armed services came to
California. The massive postw ar migration contributed to a housing shortage in the city
that by 1946 Mayor Bowron asked the N ational Association o f Secretaries o f State to
discourage their residents from coming to Los Angeles.7 7 D ue to increased postwar
defense spending, Southern California became one o f the nation’s largest industrial
centers. Between 1945 and 1955 over a million and a half people migrated to Southern
California.7 8 By 1955 Los Angeles' suburban grow th grew enough to create the middle
class market for Disneyland.
CONCLUSION:
As various texts from a wide gamut o f sources demonstrate, non-fictional
writing on Southern California echoed fictional writing on the region. From
mainstream news sources such as Time and Sem w eek to travel guides, writers even when
seeking to demonstrate objectivity m inor fictional themes and attitudes about Los
Angeles that contribute to its media-made stereotype.
Clearly, by the 1950s, Southern California’s noir stereotype had a foothold in the
American imagination. By 1947 Las Angeles Daily 'Sews columnist Matt Weinstock
Matt W einstock. My L~-l. (New York: C urrent Books, Inc. A.A. W’vn, Publisher,
1947), 234.
s George Lipsitz explores the growth o f suburbia in Southern California in terms o f
Disneyland’s early success in “The Making o f Disneyland” in True Stories from the
American Past, edited by William Graebner (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993) The
massive migration o f peoples to Southern California cannot be underestimated.
According to Lipsitz, “M ore than a million and a half people m oved to Los Angeles, a
total then equal to the com bined total populations o f Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Figures
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observed the extent to which the city’s image had been damaged, the proliferation o f its
use in the media, and its inextricable ties to Hollvwood:
Los Angeles, or rather Los Angeles plus Hollywood, is second only
to W ashington as a news source. If Lana T urner sits down too hard,
the wire services have her in the hospital with contusions, abrasions,
and complications, thus presenting each client paper a fine
opportunity to print a new photo o f her expressive but saddened
derriere. The wire sendees aren't so eager to spread across the
nation the strictly Los Angeles stories, unless they're crackpot enough.
As a m atter o f fact, a wire-service bureau chief will tell vou if it
weren't for the stuff pouring out o f the m otion-picture publicity
factories, Los Angeles would be as dull as Chicago.7 ''
Weinstock's views are doubly im portant. First, he righdy measures the climate o f the
late 1940s vision o f Los Angeles. As this renew has shown, a pejorative view of the
region dominated both literary and non-fictional founts o f Los Angeles imager,-.
Nevertheless, W einstock highlights the media-made and media-reinforced nature o f this
vision— that a symbolic landscape had developed and ingrained itself into the national
imagination.
But the m ost potent source for Los Angeles' noir image came through the
dissemination o f film. The ability to reach wider audiences and use the power o f images
over the limitations o f texts was a powerful force in creating the region’s media-made
landscape. Chapter Four spans a sampling o f available films specifically using Los
Angeles from 1940 to 1955 and posits that a growing tendency emerges in its
characteri2ation, using close textual readings as well as an exploration into story origins
from production notes and biographical records. In addition to looking at the films,
from the 1950 census reveal that m ore than 50 percent o f the residents o f Los Angeles
in that year had lived in the citv for less than 5 years.” 203.
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this chapter examines, when possible, budgetary concerns and production factors which
shaped the choice o f Los Angeles as a setting.
Weinstock, 156.
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CH A PTER F O l'R :
FATAL PROJECTIONS: LOS A N G ELES FILM
The pleasure o f film lies partially in its ability to create its own cinematic geography, but
so too does its power. The cinematic landscape is not, consequendy, a neutral place o f
entertainm ent or an objectiye documentation or mirror o f the "real," but an
ideologically charged cultural creation whereby meanings o f place and society are made,
legitimized, contested, and obscured.1
-Jeff Hopkins, G eographer & Cinema Scholar
Com e to Los Angeles. The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inyiting, and the
orange groyes stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty and land is cheap.
Eyery working man can have his own house, and inside e\*ery house, a happy all-
American family. You can haye all this, and who knows, vou can eyen be discovered,
becom e a movie star, or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles. It's paradise on
earth, (laughing) That's what they tell vou anvway, because they're selling an image.
They're selling it through movies, radio and television. In the hit show "Badge o f
H onor," the L.A. cops walk on water, as they keep the city clean o f crooks. Yep, you'd
think this place was the Garden o f Eden. But there's trouble in paradise.:
-Sid Hudgeons, tabloid journalist in L~-l. Confidential(1997)
Both o f the above observations, one academic and one fictional, on the
perceived power o f film and mass media to potentially teach its audience faulty visions
o f place, attest to the burgeoning growth o f the study o f the city in film and the
comm onsense reasoning that backs this new field o f study. As this dissertation has
outlined, the various literary and presumably non-fictional sources o f Los Angeles
reporting from the late 19th and early to mid-20th century dem onstrate mass media’s
1 Jeff Hopkins. "A Mapping o f Cinematic Places: Icons, Ideology, and the Power o f
(mis)representation." in Aitken, Stuart C. and Zonn, Leo E., eds., Place. Power, Situation,
and Spectacle. (Boston: Rowman & Litdefield Publishers, Inc., 1994), 47.
2 Z —-I. Confidential. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Perfs. Russell Crowe, Kim Basinger, Kevin
Spacey. Warner Brothers. 1997.
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immense ability to shape similar print media and future rhetoric on the region and
provide the back drop to why filmmakers chose to continue a regional stereotype in
film. And as C hapter Six theorizes, these films suggest an unforeseen avenue for
filmmakers, especially screenwriters, to react to and resist to their diminished position in
the hierarchical studio system. While Southern California has a wealth o f imagery to
pull from, drawn from a black and white binary apdy coined “Sunshine and N oir’’ by
influential L.A. scholar Mike Davis, as this dissertation has argued throughout its pages,
relatively few studies have concerned themselves with the ramifications o f the noir
vision on sense o f place.4 This chapter pieces together one o f the last sections o f the
Los Angeles anti-mvth puzzle: its dissemination in film. The projection o f this
pejorative vision is arguably the m ost potent force in the spread and normalization o f
the stereotype due to its historic context. The immediate postw ar years, directly after
the Depression and before the rise o f television created a golden era in movie going
attendance.4 While the Depression and the rise o f television detracted from movie
going behavior, in contrast, the space in between, 1940-1955, provided an arena in
' See Chapter O ne o f D an s’ City oj'Quart^_ entitled “Sunshine and Noir.” Mike Davis.
City oj O uarty Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. (New York: Verso, 1990). M ost
studies of Southern California’s exported image concern itself with either the booster’s
exaggerated claims in luring o ut newcomers or the variation in the Los Angeles image
with little focus on this negative portrayal’s influence.
4 Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts note that movie attendance dropped 40° o by 1934 as
a result of the Depression. Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts, cds., Hollywood's America:
United States History Through Its Films. (St. James: Brandywine Press, 1993), 16.
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which film’s perv asiveness carried m ore strength than the periods immediately
preceding and following it.3
In terms o f Southern California’s characterization, this chapter takes up where
Chapters Two and Three left off and spans films specifically using the region from the
1940s to the mid 1950s, delineating how a growing tendency emerges in its
characterization. In addition to close textual analyses, this chapter examines production
factors and aesthetic choices that shaped filmmaker use o f Los Angeles. Some
reasonably argue that Los Angeles, because it housed the film industry, became a default
environment due to financial restraints. But though filmmakers undoubtedly employed
this strategy in some films, the specific use o f any setting requires further scrutiny; while
some may have used Los Angeles by default, obviously many movies filmed in Los
Angeles take place narratively in other locations. This chapter also spans studio
generated publicity surrounding the films to show how the Los Angeles celluloid image
was re-inscribed.
To achieve these goals, this chapter uses a far-reaching strategy. Beginning with
a definition o f film noir and Southern California noir, this study explores the
methodological and historiographical challenges facing this argument concerning the
role o f film. Documenting change over time, this chapter briefly scans the p re-1940 use
o f Southern California in film. Next, it categorizes different Southern California films
3 According to Lynn Spigel, the postw ar period saw television’s rise, but television’s
national distribution in the early 1950s was uneven. Because o f federal legislation,
Spigel notes that “television was not actually a viable reality for most Americans until
1955, by which time it was installed in a majority o f households in all areas o f the
country.” Lynn Spigel. A lake Room For T lT e le v isio n and the Family Ideal in Postwar
America. (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, 1992), 32.
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based on use of the region in terms o f storylines, aesthetic goals, and budgetary
concerns. In exploring what Los Angeles films say about the region, it traces the ways
in which Southern California noir differs from the traditional film cycle. This chapter
bridges the literary and non-fiction print dissemination o f the Southern California
stereotype to film. In addition to building off o f its literary precursors, Southern
California film manipulated the region’s history in order to fulfill its narrative goals.
And unlike print media, film gave the Los Angeles anti-myth more punch with its large
scale projection, vivid imagery, and o f course, its wider disseminating force. W hether
an act by filmmakers to critique the film industry, as C hapter Four theorizes, Los
Angeles film, as the Hudgeons quote from L~-l. Confidential (1997) illustrates, created an
ultimately destructive response to the region’s earlier prom oters, contributing to the
evolution of its diminished sense of place.
VISITING THE CITY IN FILM :
Despite the apparent importance o f setting, particularly urban setting in film, it
has not been until the very recent past that scholars have systematically’ turned to
studying how cities work in film and this tardy emergence remains surprising
considering the importance of setting to film. W'riting o f this glaring dearth in 1997,
film scholar David B. Clarke observes.
So central is the city to film that, paradoxically, the widespread
implicit acceptance o f its importance has mitigated against an
explicit consideration of its actual significance. Indeed, those film
theorists who have sought to place the city in the foreground
have been widely regarded as making an innovative argument.6
6 David B. Clark. “Introduction.” The Cinematic City edited by David Clark. (London:
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Fortunately, as Clarke’s own work attests to, the last decade has produced a profusion
o f studies that substantially augment the former void. Within this naissance different
realms o f dtv representation have been explored, from the aesthetics o f citv design in
the overall film to how particular representations m irror their corresponding Zeitgeist.7
This larger move in him studies has influenced recent studies on noir.
Roudedge, 1997), 1.
See the 1997 publication o f I Vide Angle dedicated to this new field, edited bv Clark
Arnwine & [esse Lemer. Wide Angle 19.4 (1997). Articles included "Site-seeing;
Architecture and the Moving Image." bv Giuliana Bruno; Tom Gunning. “ From the
Kaleidoscope to the X-Ray: L'rban Spectatorship, Poe, Benjamin, and Traffic in Souls
(1913).”; Edward Dimendbcrg. "From Berlin to Bunker Hill: L'rban Space, Late
Modemitv, and Film N oir in Fritz Lang's and Joseph Losev's A/.": David Serlin and
Jesse Lemer. "Weegee and the |ewish Question."; and Scott Macdonald's "The Citv as
Motion Picture: N otes on Some California Citv Films."
In addition to the Wide .-Ingle publicarion see also Smart C. Aitken and Leo E. Zonn,
eds.. Place. Power. Situation, and Spectacle. (Boston: Rowman & Litdefield Publishers, Inc.,
1994); Giuliana Bruno. Streetwalking on a Rs/ined Map. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
I ’niversity Press, 1993); the aforementioned The Cinematic City edited bv David Clark.
(London: Roudedge, 1997); Anne Friedberg. Window Shopping: Cinema and Postmodemity.
(Berkeley: U niversity o f California Press, 1993); Llovd Rodwin and Robert M. Hollister,
eds.. Cities of the Mind: Images and Themes of the City in the Social Sciences. (New York:
Plenum Press, 1984); Frednc [ameson. Postmodernism, or. The Cultural Logic of Tate
Capitalism. (Durham: Duke L'niversirv Press, 1991); Douglas Muzzio. “’D ecent People
Shouldn’t Live H ere’: the American Citv in Cinema.” journal of i'rban Affairs, vol. 18,
N um ber 2, 189-215; Mark Shiel and Tony Fitzmaurice, eds., Cinema and the City: Film and
t ’ rban Societies in a Global Context. (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2001).
Texts on Los Angeles in film include Paul Arthur. "Film Noir as Primal Scene." Film
Comment, v.32 n.5, 77-79; Paul Arthur. "Los Angeles as Scene of the Crime." Film
Comment, v.32 n.4, 20-26; P. Arthur. “The W estern Edge: O ut o f LA and the Machined
Image.” Millenium, n.12, 8-28, Fall/W inter 1982/1983; T odd Bovd. “The W rong Nigga
to Fuck Wit: Sweetback and the Dilemma o f the African-American Avant-Garde.”
Scratching the Belly o f the Beast: Cutting-edge Media in Cos Angeles. 1922-94. Los Angeles: Film
Forum, 1994; M.W. Bruno. “LA: L na Citta Per Fiction.” Segnocinema n.49, 9-11,
M ay/June 1991; Stanley W. Cloud. “Los Angeles is not La-La Land.” Time. 18 Mav,
1992; Mike Davis. City oj Quartcy: Excavating the Future in Eos Angeles. (New York:
Vintage Books, 1990); Russell Ferguson. L'rban Remions. (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press,
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Mirroring film studies larger historiography trends, within the studv o f film noir,
the cm- receives usually a marginalized status. Again, while it is often viewed as an
integral com ponent to the various plots o f the film cycle and as essential to the films’
overall tone, tvpicallv definitions o f the cm- suffer from lack o f development. O ne
representative example comes from film scholar, Nicholas Christopher, who defines
noir as inextricably linked to the city: that noir is:
[T]he dark underside o f American urban life— the subterranean citv
— from which much crime, high and low culture, raw sexual energy*
and deviations, and other elemental, ambiguous forces that fuel the
greater society often spring. Reflecting the infernal, complex lower
depths o f American urban life, which is composed in shifting parts
of blood and cement, nightmares and iron.*
While his definition is enticing, Christopher makes the common mistake com m itted by
many noir students by problematically posing 'the noir citv' as a monolithic, anonymous,
labyrinthine, urban space. Christopher’s definition excludes a variety o f noir that take
place in rural and semi-rural settings. Films like .1 Touch of Fail 958), The Killing (1956).
Gun C ray (1949). among others, have variations o f urbanity mixed with rural and semi-
1994); A. Klein, A. “LA Stories.” American Film. 15:52-53, December 1990; Donald
Lyons. “Laws in the Iris: The Priyate Eye in the Seventies.” Film Comment July/A ugust
1993, 44-53; R. Natale. “LA Plays Itself.” I illage I'oice. 6 December 1988, 67; John
Powers. “Los Angeles: A W orld Apart.” Sight and Sound May 1991 6; David Reid. ed.
Sex. Death, and God in L.-1 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992); R. Reinhold. “ H orror
for Hollywood.” S ew York Times. 29 March 1993, A 11 29; Tunstall Walker. Media Made
in California: Hollywood. Politics, and the Sews. (New* York: Oxford University Press, 1981);
B. W’einraub. “New Films Depicting a Tougher Los Angeles.” S ew York Times. I
February 1992, C l 1 -C l2; B. W einraub. “Tarnishing Tinseltown.” Screen Actor. 31:39 n.l
1992. M. Wilmington. “The Rain People.” Film Comment. Jan-Feb. 1992, 17; Peter
Wollen. “Delirious Projections.” Sight and Sound. August 1992, 25-26.
* Nicholas Christopher, Somewhere in the Sight: Film S o ira n d the American City (New York:
Free Press, 1997), 36.
r o
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rural settings. And, while a film mav use the country to illuminate the city’s depravity as
in Out o f the Past (1947), often the rural is as saturated with evil as the city as in A Touch
of Evil. As such, our understanding o f urbanity in noir should be complicated to include
an assessment o f nature in noir. Towards complicating our notions o f noir and the noir
city, film historians have begun to assess celluloid cities in terms o f their national and
regional identity, rather than viewing all noir cities as dangerous sites o f consumption.
Towards this end, Dana Polan's Power and Paranoia: Histor)'. A amative, and the
American Cinema. 1940-1950 provides an early and im portant contribution to
understanding the role o f the city in 1940s film. ' Heavily historical, Polan argues that
the particular tensions o f this period created a cinema replete with contradiction,
influencing how cities are created. Polan elaborates on the performative role o f the city
in film:
The city functions for narrative not so much as a fixed symbol but
as a site o f symbolisms, a device that allows a plethora o f narrative
possibilities...The city is not onlv a subject o f the films but a device
for the narration o f films.1 "
F or film noir, the citv is an analogous symbol of the film’s storyline, and the
contradictions o f the 1940s celluloid dry are tied to the tim e and place in which these
films emerged. Polan shows how films o f the American 1940s were in no way
monolithic. H e emphasizes the ambivalence o f noir (justice, the space o f the dty, the
righteousness o f authorin', the worth o f the “good life”) but roots noir’s central place in
" Dana Polan. Power and Paranoia: Histor)1 . Sarrative, and the American Cinema. / 940-1950.
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).
1 , 1 Polan, 236.
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the space o f forties’ film. As such, all film o f this period is characterized bv this same
uncertainty. Though Polan focuses on all film during this penod, his observations are
particularlv pertinent to film noir because hitherto scholars have viewed noir as a
disruption to classical Hollywood cinema, rather than a cvcle o f films with striking
similarities to the perceived norm. But Polan’s srudv does not extend into detailed
analyses o f citv use, particularly Los Angeles, and this subject remains a potentially
fruitful field o f inquirv. O ften, as in noirs using Los Angeles, New York, or San
Francisco, the cities’ various reputations work in conjunction with the filmmakers’
motivations.1 1 While a few studies that tie citv identitv to narrative an d /o r filmmaker
motivation have emerged since Polan's 1986 studv, it remains a largelv untapped field.1 2
Forrunatelv, o f the cities examined Los Angeles has received the lion's share of
the attention, beginning with a plethora o f film reviews from the late 19~0s into the
1980s that note how the city’s refashioning in then contemporary films borrow ed from
1 1 Filmmaker m anipulation o f a setting’s reputation occurs on a varietv o f levels— from
the classical Hollywood's vilification o f the American South as the reservoir o f the
nation’s racist attitudes (and subsequendv white washing the rest o f the countrv) to noir
films which often have reversed what a viewer may expect o f a citv. For example, in
The Killers (1946) the film toys with perceived expectations o f a small town, Atlantic
City, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the film the small town is unsafe,
Adantic Citv holds saindy characters, and it is Pittsburgh that is replete with violence
and betraval.
1 2 Yanous film scholars have begun to look at authorial motivation in specific city
depiction. For example, am ong others see Edward Dim endberg’s studv o f Joseph
Losev’s M; James N arem ore brilliant study into the ending o f Double Indemnity.; J.P.
Telotte’s research into The X a ked C ity and Jeff Schwager’s studv o f Out o f the Past. James
Naremore. “Straight-Down-The-Line: Making and Remaking Double Indemnity .”
Film Comment. Vol. 32, N o. 1 (Jan-Feb), 1996, pp. 22-31; Jeff Schwager. “T he Past
Rewritten.” Film Comment. Volume 27, Num ber 1, 12: January 1991;J. P. Telotte
I 'oices in the Dark.: The 'S.arratine Patterns of Film \o ir . (L’rbana: Lniversitv o f Illinois
Press, 1989).
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earlier renditions. But it wasn’t until 1987 w hen scholar Tina Lent Olsin began to
systematically identify noir films and their recognizable Los Angeles settings that
scholars began to search for meaning behind the use o f the city.1’ Covering great
distances in the span of an article, Lent’s w ork, with its interest in geographic identifiers,
refrains from plumbing the literary and filmm aker origins o f specific films or tracing the
specific long term repercussions o f the region’s media-made landscape on sense o f place
or civic responsibility.
In a different vein, L.A. scholars Mike Davis and Eric Avila have brought about
a new understanding of Los Angeles’ place in m ainstream film. Davis adds to research
by histoncizing Los Angeles film noir in his highlv influential City of Q uarts Excavating
the Future in Los Ange/esA Again, as with m ost o f the work done on the subject. City o f
Quart~ does not specifically tackle the use o f Los Angeles in film but centers upon the
history o f Los Angeles. Davis examines the Los Angeles m vth/anti-m vth and the
specific m otivations of emigre filmmakers w ho saw the city as representative of
modernity, finding a black/white, utopic/dystopic dichotomy shaping the Los Angeles
legend. (Ironically, Davis perpetuates the dvstopic imagery o f Los Angeles— a
photograph o f downtown’s M etropolitan D etention Center graces the book’s cover).
Film noir, as its name suggests, reveals a dvstopic view o f the city. But Davis’ foray into
1 ’ Tina Olsin L ent’s “The Dark Side o f the D ream : The Image o f Los Angeles in Film
Noir,” Southern California Quarterly (Winter 1987, N um ber 4). Olsin argues Los
Angeles becomes established as an explicit setting in the noir cycle through identifiable
locales, including the beach, characteristic architecture, and landmark imagery.
u Mike Davis. City of Quartet Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. (New York: Verso,
1990).
1~3
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film is an extension o f his analysis o f Los Angeles 1940s literarv fiction; Davis uses films
to buttress his arguments on fiction and are not central to his analysis.
Equally worthy o f discussion is Davis’ more recent work on Los Angeles
literature and film, Ecolog)' of Fear Eos Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster.1 3 Here, Davis
argues that the literary them e of Los Angeles as disaster site or as space vulnerable to
invasion is as predominant as noir tales and often overlap with such texts.1 6 Disaster
novels involve the destruction of Los Angeles through many means that change over
time, from the invasion o f Asian immigrants, to natural disasters, to technological
decimation. Breaking dow n the genre into nine categories with their respective periods,
Davis observes that the tone and narrative patterns o f each are re-negotiated in
relationship to the city's particular racial climate. Davis’ investigation into this genre
provides new and im portant insight to Los Angeles’ depiction in both literature and
film. His historicization o f the racialized enemy in relation to the city’s his ton,'
eloqucndv opens up new paths of inquiry. Indeed, Davis’ analyses beg the re
examination o f other Los Angeles fiction in order to assess their potential racial tension.
As if in response to the newly carved avenues o f inquiry proposed by Davis,
Eric Avila’s look at Los Angeles in postw ar film represents another glimpse into the
region’s muldvalent celluloid face.1 7 Examining seven films, Avila explores how the city
Mike Davis. Ecology oj Fear Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. (New York:
M etropolitan Books, 1998).
1 6 Davis, 280.
1 Enc Avila. “Reinventing Los Angeles: Popular Culture in the Age o f White Flight,
1940-1965.” (Ph.D. diss., University o f California Berkeley, 1997).
I "4
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straddles a dual position in these films, at once uniquely tied to Southern California
history and also representative o f the typical American dtv, and as such a “m etaphor for
contemporary society .” Avila’s focus includes themes o f domesticity and suburban
malaise, the decline o f Hollywood, and national political crisis. Avila breaks new-
ground when analyzing how two films Them! (1954) and W ar o f the Worlds (1953)
simultaneously articulate national and regional concerns concerning race and invasion:
These films provided a metaphoric arena for public anxieties about
rapid social and economic change at a time when people o f color,
Mexican and Southern Blacks in particular, crowded in Los Angeles
in unprecedented num bers.1 8
Avila righdv ties these works to the historical and political m om ent in which each
emerged on a national and local level, defdv composing a complex argument. Vet,
while he notes the popularity o f these films, missing in Avila’s overall analysis is a
conclusive look into audience response and authorial motives. Ultimately, Avila
concludes these films, whether expliddv about Los Angeles or the L’S in general, reflect
popular consensus that the “world was in decline.” 1 ’ '
All o f the previous work on Los Angeles in film provides foundational support
to the goals of this investigation. This chapter builds on extant scholarship on the city
in film, film noir, and Los Angeles in film in three important ways. First, bv
histoncizing the imagery in Los Angeles film on an industrial, regional, and national
level; this study traces the factors that shaped a particular image, from screenwriter
agency to local crime to national atmosphere. This study unearths the literary origins o f
ls Avila, 55.
Avila, 93.
1" 5
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many Los Angeles films o f the 1940s and 1950s in an attem pt to ascertain their original
authorial intent. This chapter illustrates how filmic city imagery is not a monolith, by
focusing on the ways in which the Southern California image is developed and
sharpened. Filmmakers plaved upon certain citv reputations in their choice o f setting
and used city characterization as a narrative com ponent, aside from framing Los
Angeles as a representative L'S citv. In conjunction with Chapter Seven, this chapter
points to how the continued use o f specific Southern California and Los Angeles
stereotypes in these films contributed in immense ways to the normalization o f this
myth in the minds o f Americans across the country and most importandy, in the
region’s residents, affecting their comm itm ent to the region.
SORTING THROUGH CINEMATIC CITIES:
Within the current methodological confines o f cinema studies, delineating where
films take place narratively, aside from where they are shot, remains a difficult feat.
While the growth o f scholarship on the citv in film is promising, the relative scarcity o f
material and attention to the subject is reflected in film reference manuals and indices.
N oir or not, contemporary scholars do not consistendy acknowledge where a film takes
place. This problem becomes amplified when understanding that m ost films during the
1940s and 1950s were filmed in Southern California, despite taking place narratively
elsewhere. For example, one search on the Internet Movie Database demonstrates the
problems presenting Los Angeles film scholars. O ne recent investigation for films
produced between the years 1941 and 1955 allowing for location to be “Los Angeles”
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resulted in 65 entries. O f these 65 onlv 27 take place in terms o f plot specifically in Los
Angeles or Southern California.2 " The explicit setting for 15 is unknown, and 23, over
one third o f the list, take place elsewhere. This tendency also plagues film reviews of
the 1940s and 1950s. Arguably, between twenty and fifty percent o f the films shot in
Los Angeles and narratively taking place in the immediate postwar era were o f the noir
cycle.2 1
In addition, defining Los Angeles noir also presents a methodological challenge.
As Dana Polan has shown, noir themes often cut across genres and are more closely
rooted in the cultural sensibility o f an era. This investigation is not relegated to one
source, in this instance film noir. Instead, it examines Los Angeles film across the
board during this period to ascertain whether specific visions of the region were onlv
available in noir narratives or existed in more traditionally upbeat film genres.2 2 Hence,
2 " For the Internet Movie Database, the term “Los Angeles" includes a variety of
Southern California locations including the St. Francis Dam, the Olympic Auditorium,
Sunset Boulevard, Santa Monica Blvd, San Fernando Yallev, the Dorothv Chandler
Pavilion, and the Shrine Auditorium. For a complete list, see the Appendix, Figure 4.
2 1 Tina Olsin Lent’s “The Dark Side o f the Dream: The Image o f Los Angeles in Film
N oir,” Southern California Quarterly (Winter 1987, N um ber 4), 337. Lent writes,
"Although budget limitations necessitated many wartime noir films to be made in the
studio, and while other were shot to evoke either a g e n e ra lis e d urban setting or another
specific city (e.g. New York), between the mid-1940s and the mid-1950s approximately
twenty per cent of the film sin the noir cycle were set in and filmed on location in Los
Angeles, and are identified as such in the narratives." My own research using the A.F.I.
Catalogs reveal an even larger percentage. O f the one hundred eleven films produced
between 1940 and 1950 that expliddy use Los Angeles as a setting, fully 51° o (57), the
largest percentage tallied, can be categorized as film noir. American Film Institute. The
.■Imencan Film Institute Catalog oj Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. (New York:
R.R. Bowker, 1998).
2 2 For complete list o f films investigated with full citation, see the W orks Consulted.
r ~
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while this studv explores manv noir films, it also looks at musicals and other genres to
establish its goals. This analysis orients itself along a noir vantage for other reasons.
Because so many films fall under what film reference manuals consider the noir cycle
and because of the region’s affiliation with noir literary themes, this studv looks at the
proposed films from the noir vantage. Undoubtedly, as Davis argues and because o f
the multivalent nature o f the city in film, other equally fruitful studies may be done from
another point of view. W hat is most im portant in this studv and the goals o f this
dissertation is understanding how these celluloid representations instruct their audiences
on the worthiness o f the region, hindering or facilitating sense of place. But before we
can begin examining how these films see Southern California, we must begin bv
defining noir.
What is noirr
Film noir refers to a cycle o f films produced in Flollvwood between 1941 and
1958. Film historians generally cite The Maltese Fa/eon (1941) as the cycle’s emergence
and .1 Touch oj F n l in 1958 as its terminus.-’ ’ Though versions of noir famously
reappear in film throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, such as Chinatown (1974), Blade
Runner and L - l. Confidential(1997). the original cycle is historically situated and
2 3 Technically, film noir includes some generally agreed upon traits. Defined by their
use o f low key lighting, noir films are usually filmed in black and white, though color
noirs such as Lea re Her to Heaven (1945) also exist. Noir narrative structures usually
involve a convoluted sense o f time, typically through the use o f flashback. Noir
framing is determined by its privileging o f verticalitv over horizontalitv. Although m ost
noir films fall under the category of ‘B movies’ indicating low budget and studio
investment, some film noir have bigger budgets such as Sunset Blvd. (1950).
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very different from its later reinventions. Defining the essential noir traits is a difficult
endeavor that film historians have attem pted since its emergence in the 1940s, finding
few wholly agreed upon elements applicable to all films.2 4
For the purposes o f this chapter, film historian J. P. Telotte’s basic definition o f
the cycle is appropriate. Telotte delineates four major discursive formations in noir: (1)
the classical, third person narration; (2) the voice-over/flashback stvle: (3) the subjective
camera technique; and (4) the docum entary mode. In terms of audience response, the
author explores the subjective camera technique in depth and argues that the cvcle
“promised viewers a far more radical sense o f shared consciousness, bv literallv giving
them a character’s vantage on events.”2 - '' Also, noir’s narrative patterns expand viewer
participation by creating uneasv, subjective stories.
2 4 Raymonde Borde and Etienne C haum eton. “Toward A Definition o f Film N oir.”
(1955) and “Twenty Years Later Film N oir in the 1970s.” (1975); Jean Pierre Chartier.
“ Hie Americans Are Making Dark Films T oo.” (1946); N ino Frank. “The Crime
Adventure Stone A New Kind o f D etective Film.” (1946); Henri-Francois Rev.
“Hollywood Makes Myths Like Ford Makes Cars (last installment): Dem onstration by
the Absurd: Film Noirs.” (1948); Jam es Damico. “Film N o ir A M odest Proposal.”
(19 /8); Raymond Durgnat. “Paint It Black: The Familv Tree o f Film Noir.” (1970);
Paul Schrader. “N otes on Film N oir.” (1972); Robert G . Porfirio. “N o Wav Out:
Existential Motifs in The Film N oir.” (1976); All o f the above articles were reprinted in
Barton R. Palmer, ed., Perspectives on Film S o ir. (London: Prentice Hall International,
1996). See also Patrick Cattrysse. Pour une tbeorie de fadaptation filmique: le film noir
americain. (Berne: P. Lang, 1992); F. Chiacchiari. “Black on Black, Hollvwood Between
Blacklist and Film N oir.” Cinefiorum. Vol. 26, No. 5, 1986, 25-38; Foster Hirsch. Film
\o in The Dark Side oj the Screen. (San Diego: Da Capo, 1981); James Naremore.
“American Film N o ir The His ton- o f an Idea.” Film Quarterly. Volume 49, N um ber 2,
996: 12 and Narem ore’s More Than Sig h t: Film S o ir in Its Contexts. (Berkelev: University
of California Press, 1998).
2 3 J. P. Telotte I 'oices in the Dark: The Sarrative Patterns o f Film Soir. (LYbana: Universin-
of Illinois Press, 1989), 13.
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N oir, after all, not only confronts us with the images and events
that possess as cultural beings, that weave us into their narrative;
in the process, it also casts in relief the discursive practices that
lead us to see ourselves as the creators, possessors, and narrators o f
these things.
Borrowing from Althusser, Telotte concludes that this produces a more inquisitive
spectator, who when seeing noir on the screen is asked to reflect on the noir elements
o f his/her own existence.
Towards this end, noir explores the alienation o f the individual. Characters
represent maladjustment and often dem onstrate an inability to accept or become part of
an inherendv unjust world o r svstem. These characters are em bodied in scenarios that
feature a lone, m isunderstood protagonist battling others (from complex organizations
or bureaucracies to individual predators) such as the private detective trying to make
sense out o f a chaotic world as in The Big Sleep (1946) or Kiss Me. Deadly (1955); the
returning war veteran who is forgotten in the new postwar, capitalist world as in Criss
Cross (1949) or The Blue Dahlia (1946); or the insurance salesman forced to link the
concerns o f the individual with the capitalist goals o f the company as in The Killers
(1946). N oir themes include anxiety, disillusionment, anger, and various stages o f
paranoia.
A central characteristic o f the noir cycle is crime. W hether it is against social,
familial, or personal codes o f behavior, films are concerned with the violation of
different forms o f ethics. Explicit crimes range from murder, bank robber}’ , or adulter}'
and are often portrayed in a sympathetic o r n o t damning light. As such, noir heroes can
-6 Telotte, 35.
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function as anti-heroes. In these storylines, the explicit crime is not the focal point o f
interest; rather, plots focus on the ensuing or resulting psychological torm ent leading up
to or causing the crim e o r the resulting guilt and paranoia. Because crim e is sometimes
presented as justified, noir films can paint a world that is at base morallv corrupt. Films
often allude to other implicit crimes in their storylines— for example, the injustice o f a
world that could turn its back on someone who had just prepared to die for it, as in the
case o f the veteran w ho finds his home in shambles upon his return.
Noir manifests the social tensions o f its time, which includes L S involvement in
W orld W ar II, the postw ar period and the emergence o f the Cold War, and emerging
crises in traditional gender roles and sexual behavior. L’S involvement in W orld War 1 1
provides ample fodder in discussing issues o f moral ambivalence, themes clearlv
discernible in film noir. The psychological costs o f warfare have long been documented
in various forms, however, the experience o f W orld W ;ar II had perhaps a m ore
disquieting effect in the abuses observed in Nazi concentration camps and in the L'S use
o f atomic weaponry. T he ability to decimate thousands in a matter o f seconds, as
evidenced in the bom bings o f Hiroshima and Nagasaki sobered observers and changed
the stakes o f future conflict. Similarly, the Cold W'ar era and the turn to domesticity
brought their own set o f societal tensions, evident in film noir.
Southern California noir follows the trajectories put forward bv larger noir
traditions but because o f its ties to Los Angeles maintains some distinctions, as this
chapter will show. Like the overall noir cycle, Southern California noir is not so neadv
defined. Just as the noir cycle undergoes change, so too does Los Angeles noir, and.
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within the realm o f Southern California noir are different uses o f the city. But
understanding how noirs featuring Los Angeles differ requires a brief survey o f earlier
film treatment o f the region.
Southern California in Film Prior to 1940s
As introduced in C hapter One, prior to the 1940s films featuring Los Angeles as
a narrative com ponent, w hether composed o f trivial, lighthearted stories or
documentaries using location shooting, contributed to the region's already established
eden-like stereotype. Films incorporating geographic features stercotvpicallv associated
with the region had related them es. W ith displays o f conspicuous consumption and
leisure, as in Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties and Keystone Cops, and developed plots
from the region's romantic stereotype, as in the 19th century Helen Hunt lackson novel
Ramona. which sparked a cottage industry all its own, from historical writing to
architecture, these films supported Southern California's extant booster image. These
idyllic depictions continued into the 1930s and aided in the efforts o f regional boosters
and the film industry to paint the region a paradise.
W .C. Fields' 1934 feamre It's.-I G ift exemplifies this m eta narrative.^7 A
Paramount Pictures creation, this comedy follows the hapless journey of Harold
Bisonette, played by Fields, across the country from New Jersey to Los Angeles.
Bisonette, a hen-pecked husband and grocery store owner in N ew Jersey, is lured out to
California with the dreams o f owning an orange grove. By using an inheritance and
:T It's .1 Gift. Dir. Norm an Z. McLeoud. Perfs. W.C. Fields. Film. Paramount Pictures,
1934.
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selling the store, Bisonette buvs a grove, site unseen, and moves his familv across the
countrv. Throughout the trip the family suffers from Bisonette's carelessness and
clumsiness; thev accidentallv lunch on a private estate and are throw n out bv the local
police, and thev narrowly miss accidents with other cars. Bisonette himself is a phvsical
wreck, often with food spilled on his front. And he is constandy the victim o f
miscommunication and Murphv's Law, bearing his misfortunes silendv.
Predictablv, when the Bisonettes reach California thev find the orange grove he
has bought is a worthless piece o f land, incapable o f growing anvthing. But the story
cannot end in such misery, and as luck would have it, a developer is interested in the
land in order to build a race track grandstand on it. (He had already purchased the
adjoining property for the track). The two strike a lucrative deal in which Bisonette
makes a huge profit and obtains the cherished fertile orange grove he has so long
dreamt of. The film ends with him seated at an outside table, presumably at his orange
grove. In the background, the new er sees the vast panorama o f the San Gabriel
mountains, framed in the mode o f fruit crate labels of the same period. Immediately
behind his chair are lush, fruit-ladened, orange trees. Bisonette leans over and
effortlessly pulls an orange from a tree, squeezes its juice into a glass to which he adds a
generous splash o f vodka, and toasts himself, implying that even a buffoon such as
Bisonette can strike it rich in Southern California. I t’ s A G ift embodies the filmic
counterpart to booster promises, but this glowing portrait undergoes transformation in
the immediate postwar period.
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As this dissertation docum ents, as criticism o f the falselv hvped place and the
film industry grew, it manifested itself through regional fiction, which in turn influenced
how mainstream news sources reported on Los Angeles. This growing attitude about
Southern California began to wend its way through film. And, while a dominant vision
emerges from films about Southern California, this vision is not a monolith but one
influenced bv authorial motives and budgetary concerns. VC'ithin the bodv of films
focusing on Southern California and Los Angeles there are four dom inant classifications
labeled here as Southern California noir, Hollywood films, Los Angeles as default
setting, and the Road movie, introduced here and expanded upon in Chapter Five,
which compares the ways Los Angeles is used against other cities in film. As is the case
in the noir cycle these classifications are loosely created and often times a film may
overlap into multiple categories, for example Detour (1945) may be seen as both a Road
movie but also a film, to a lesser extent, about the entertainment industry.
Southern California Noir
As its name implies. Southern California noir includes films that take place in
Southern California and follow the patterns o f the classic noir cycle. These films use
Los Angeles and its environs as a backdrop, turning its bedroom communities and even
its natural landscapes places o f ambivalence and moral darkness, including the beach,
parks, and outlying desert. Protagonists include private detectives, policemen, returning
war veterans, and non-Hollywood based characters. Perhaps the m ost inclusive in
terms o f defining parameters, this category includes seemingly divergent storylines as
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evidenced in two films here, Mildred Pierce (1945) and The ProwIer{ 1951). Despite the
discrepancies o f their plotlines, these films relate the same story about Southern
California.
Mildred Pierce f1945)
Los Angeles noir is not restricted to the city’s limits but encompasses all o f
Southern California, Mildred Pierce presents another example o f Los Angeles noir that
uses Los Angeles’ environs, both urban and natural, to form a regional identity.
Directed by Michael Curtiz and based on a 1941 novel bv |ames M. Cain, Mildred Pierce
(1945) delineates the demise o f its m ain character, Mildred Pierce. Although the film
opens with the m urder o f Monte Beragon and the LAPD’s attempt to discover his
murderer, the central storv of the film focuses on Mildred’s failure as a m other and the
indirect results o f that failure. In an effort to provide “all that she herself has been
denied” to her children Veda and Kay, Mildred maps her own downfall. As with most
tilms in the noir cvcle. Mildred Pierce functions outside o f noir as well; in this instance, as
a women’s melodrama. In any case, Mildred Pierce uses Los Angeles and its environs in
meaningful wavs.
After separating from her husband over an argument over an expensive dress
bought for the elder daughter Veda and his unwillingness to spoil the children, Mildred
goes to work waitressing during the day and baking pies at night. Wildly successful,
Mildred eventually starts her own chain o f restaurants. Along the wav, she meets up
with Monte Beragon, a symbol o f old, Pasadena money and has an affair. After losing
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her youngest daughter to pneumonia, Mildred puts all her effort in pleasing Veda
through material gifts. In order to meet these needs, Mildred works undauntedly at her
business, inadvertendv neglecting Veda’s upbringing. M ildred quickly learns that Veda
has developed some wavward habits and attributes this behavior to Monte. Quickly,
she breaks ties with Monte but it is too late: Veda has alreadv married a local millionaire
and duped his family into believing she is pregnant. His family quickly pays her ten
thousand dollars to agree to an annulment. Mildred, learning o f Veda’s trickery,
dramatically breaks with her. Eventually the two reconcile, but this reunion requires
that Mildred m any Monte to gain the vestiges o f old m oney to please Veda’s elitist
sensibility. Finally, Mildred learns Monte has ruined her business, and Veda has
aggressively succeeded in seducing Monte: both clear rejections.
While the original Cain novel manipulates Southern California’s reputation as a
boom city more deleteriouslv. the film does not entirely abandon a negative association
o f the region.3 In particular, the film appears to present the city’s growth and decline
in terms almost analogous to the plights o f the characters. Early in the film, the
audience learns that Mildred’s first husband Bert has lost his job due to the collapse of
the real estate market. This type o f decline, as well as the spurts in growth,
characterized the city, in varying degrees, from the 1860s to the present. Mildred, in
voice over, recounts this process:
3 Albert LaValley notes that in the novel Cain characterizes Mildred in terms o f her
class status and the fact she lives in Southern California: “O ften she is the stereotype of
the lower-class Southern California housewife with aspirations bevond her status. Cain
mocks her Spanish-style bungalow and the astrologicallv acquired names o f her
children, Veda and Moire (Rav)...” in the film’s screenplay, Albert J. LaYallev. ed.,
(Madison: University o f Wisconsin Press, 1980), 17.
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He (Bert) and Wally Fay were partners. For a long time thev
made good money. They built a lot o f houses. Then suddenly
people stopped buying. The boom was over. And then one day
Bert and Wally split up. Wally was in. Bert was out. But I didn’t
know that. Bert didn’t tell me when he came home that dav.
The day that M ildred refers to is the day that she and Bert separate. Thus, the film
quickly hints indirecdy to the region’s part in their familial downfall. The arbitrary,
unstable nature o f employment in Southern California and the fleeting glimpses o f
wealth and com fort play into the delicacy o f the Pierce family stability, This early
insertion o f Los Angeles history onto the plight o f the Pierce family exemplifies the
im portant role o t city identity into the narrative progression of the film. O ne wonders
if, with a stable source o f income, the Pierce family would remain intact.
The sense o f reckless growth and profoundly plummeting decline appears again
in the torm o f M ildred’s chain o f restaurants. This highly successful endeavor begins
relatively easily. Although the audience knows that Mildred has put her heart and soul
into her first restaurant, it also knows the success rate for restaurants is abysmally low.
Yet, as a single m other o f two in the 1940s, Mildred is able to open five restaurants in
three years. Similarly, as a woman married into a Pasadena, old monev reputation,
Mildred is able to lose her entire fortune overnight. This example o f her ups and downs
suggests that though there is extremely easy monev to be made in Los Angeles, it is just
as easy to lose a fortune.
“Mildred’s,” the restaurant chain, provides a cogent illustration o f Southern
California culture on various levels. The chain has restaurants in swank areas from
Beverly Hills to Laguna Beach. Automobiles, particularly convertibles, are featured
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prominently w henever the restaurant is shown— Mildred charts its success in relation to
proximity to m ajor thoroughfares; she gives Veda her birthday present at the restaurant,
a convertible; and scenes introducing the restaurant scan its full parking lot. Mildred
reproduces the initial restaurant in the blink o f an eve, alluding to mass production and
Los Angeles’ reputation as a model, m odem city and mirrors, in pan, the restaurant
chain Denny’s which began in 1953 in Lakewood, California.2 9 Finallv, the action that
takes place in “M ildred’s,” literallv eating and consum ption, describes an associative
factor o f Los Angeles: city known for consumptive industries— film, fashion, leisure,
real estate, tourism .3 "
Another Southern Californian stereotype emploved in Mildred Pierce proves to
be the character o f M onte Beragon. M onte represents, in one wav, an older Los
Angeles because o f his ties to Pasadena and a Southern California aristocracy.
Pasadena, developing almost in opposition to D ow ntow n and West Los Angeles, did
cultivate a different world. Originating in the late nineteenth century and growing into
the 1930s, Pasadena was composed o f already established Midwestern farmers, seeking
to both duplicate the belief and value systems o f the Midwest and create an Eden-like
space for their later years. Residents created a self-reverential citrus culture that existed
in conjunction with the larger region economically and apart from its neighbors socially.
2 9 “ History o f D enny’s” from the H oltzm ann Corporation Website accessed at
http://w w w .holtzm ancorp.com /Pagel0084/D ennv_s_H istory/dennv_s_history.htm
on February 16, 2002.
3 1 This association is ironic in that at the same m om ent that this film was produced,
reflecting and re-inscribing the stereotype that Los Angeles was mainly a site o f
consumption, another o f the region’s leading industries proved to be agriculture.
Between 1930 and 1938 Los Angeles county was the num ber one agricultural county- in
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Monre works as a transitional character; at once part o f this past and also in the future.
The audience learns that M onte has, amongst other property, an orange grove to sell.
Veda is clearly cognizant o f M onte’s social stature. M onte realizes that this link to an
older social system remains his only power in the face o f economic devastation and uses
his ties to his full advantage.
Cain’s original novel Mildred Pierce uses setting in an interestinglv explicit
manner. ’1 The novel begins with an ironic disclaimer that instead o f focusing attention
away from the issue o f setting, places the reader’s interest clearlv onto it:
The locale o f this book is California, and the Californian will find
much in it that is familiar to him; the characters, however, are
imaginary, as are the situations, and in one instance, a whole
neighborhood; they do not represent, and are not intended to
represent, acmal persons, events, or places.3 2
But, Cain cannot completely make the setting o f the novel anonvmous for he ties
historic events into the plot progression. For example, he presents the character o f Bert
as a pawn o f historical circumstance. After working as a stunt rider for the movies, Bert
inherits a ranch which he later developed into new housing. He made “a great deal o f
money” but lost m ost o f it in the 1929 stock market crash. Bert’s past successes tied
into his inability to seek out work in the present:
the U.S.
3 1 For analysis o f novel to script revision for the film please see Albert La Valley's
introduction to the published MacDougall script in Albert J. LaVallev, ed., Mildred Pierre.
(Madison: University o f Wisconsin Press, 1980).
3 2 James M. Cain from Mildred Pierce republished in Cain X 3 . (New York: Knopf, 1969),
103. The original novel was published September 22, 1941.
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He had becom e so used to crediting himself with vast acumen that
he could not bring himself to admit that his success was all luck, due
to the location of his land rather than to his personal qualities. So
he still thought in terms o f the vast deed he would do when things
got a little better.3'
Although this portrait does not dam n Southern California, it does point to how
haphazard life could be in the region.
Vet Cain’s novel can also be read as using the setting to represent all o f
America, on a certain level— Black Tuesday had victims worldwide. The m anner in
which Cain characterizes Glendale, as “an endless suburb, bearing the same relation to
Los Angeles as Q ueens bears to N ew York,” reinforces that this community could be
Anvwhere, USA. Reviewers o f the film noted Cain’s depictions o f “uglv America.”
O ne reviewer asked o f the film’s characters,
[A]re these people us, in our own eyes \r e they, for example, who
rallied to perform this nation’s miracle o f war production? Are
they the American people w ho rose in their understanding and
political strength to reaffirm Roosevelt and his world program in
1944?3 4
Although the reviewer vehemently denies any correlation, it is clear that to many Cain’s
characters in Mildred Pierce could exist anywhere in the L’S.
That this Pasadena past works in conjunction with existing associations is
available in the film's production notes. Writers on the film tended to see Los Angeles’
neighboring cities as all part o f one larger whole and had to be advised on the need to
3 3 Cain, 109.
3 4 McManus, “Jam es Cain’s L'gly A m erica” in PM from 3 September 1945, no page
given, clipping found in W arner Brothers Archive, courtesv o f the Special Collections
Library, University o f Southern California.
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differentiate between the different cities for purposes o f authenticity. A memo dated
O ctober 30. 1944 from Herman Lissauer, the then head o f the W arner Brothers
Research Departm ent, urged Ranald MacDougall, the chief screenwriter for the film, to
distinguish between different police forces in the film:
The Los Angeles Police would not go into Pasadena to make an
arrest. Since Pasadena is a citv in its own right, the Los Angeles
Police would notify Pasadena and the Pasadena Police would make
the arrest. '3
Although MacDougall clarified his usage o f the Los Angeles Police in another memo,
Lissauer’s original missive points to a tendency to view the region as a unified whole.
Thus, the association o f an old-money Pasadena aristocracy works as a com ponent to
Los Angeles as a whole.
The Los Angeles setting o f Mildred Pierce contributes to the narrative progress o f
the film in important ways. First, from establishing that the citv is prone to booms and
declines, it sets the stage for B en’s financial demise and the dissolution o f the Pierce
family. Later, the film plays upon Los Angeles’ vision as a m odem citv with its
emphasis on the autom obile and chain restaurants. M ildred’s quick success, one would
assume, would not be so facile in an earlier world o f producers and deferred
gratification. Finally, the film uses Pasadena’s reputation as a stuffy center o f Los
Angeles aristocracy to create an unachievable social level for an independent Mildred
and Veda. Although all o f these elem ents remain part o f a meta narrative about the
’5 Interoffice Memo from Herman Lissauer to Ranald MacDougall on O ctober 30,
1944, W arner Brothers Archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern
California.
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United States in the 1940s. Cain and MacDougall manage to use Los Angeles’ historical
image to illustrate these components.
Mildred Pierce is not the only prototype for Southern California noir. indeed, each
ot the hlms brings something unique to the category and still manages to follow its
loose defining parameters: taking place in the region, using the landscape in symbolic
ways, and having characters not directly affiliated with the film industry. The Prowler
provides another glimpse into how Southern California noir can contain films with
seemingly divergent storylines and still say the same thing about the region.
The Prowler (1951)
Released six years after Mildred Pierce, The Prowlers credits read like a who's who
o f 1950s film talent and now historically significant players. Directed by blacklisted
Joseph Losey and adapted screenplay by then uncredited blacklisted writer Dalton
Trumbo, The Prowler was released by United Artists.v' Also in its impressive list of
credits is Robert Aldrich, future director o f Los Angeles noir Kiss Me. Deadly (1955),
who served as assistant director. Despite its filmmakers leftist leanings, the film does
not stray from its noir trappings and does not as overtly indict capitalism as one would
expect. Instead, the film takes on many themes that serve as social criticism and uses
Southern California as the logical backdrop to such a moral wasteland and can be seen
as a Los Angeles Road movie in addition to a Southern California noir.
v’ In August o f 2000, the W riters Guild o f America corrected this om ission and
reinstated Trum bo as the writer for The Prowler. David Robb. “W’ GA Corrects 14
Blacklist Credits.” Hollywood Reporter. 8 |une 2000.
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The film begins with the response o f tw o policemen W ebb Garwood and Bud
Crocker to the late night report o f a prowler at the hom e o f attractive Susan Gilvray.
Alone while her husband, a popular radio disc jockey is at work, Susan and her
expensive home are immediately sized up bv W ebb. Though the two policemen fail to
locate any prowler, W ebb returns later in the guise o f a routine return check-up. At this
second visit, W'ebb makes him self at home, drinks a glass of milk offered bv Susan, and
boasts of his plans to someday buy a Las Vegas motel and make effortless monev. The
two realize that thev are from the same small town in Indiana, both having come out to
Los Angeles to make a success o f themselves, albeit with limited success. While Susan
is in the kitchen, he looks into her husband's desk and reads his will, discovering that
Susan will receive the lump o f his estate, a small fortune. Webb probes Susan and
discovers that she is not content in her marriage: Gilvray is much older and has falsely
promised Susan a family; she later confides that after their marriage, thev discovered his
inability to have children.
Seeing an opening, W ebb wedges his wav into her life and begins a slow
seduction, at first just keeping her companv at night, later becoming her lover. O ne
night Webb decides to take their relationship a step further; dressed in his police
uniform, he comes to the Gilvrav hom e while both are asleep. Gilvrav, awaken bv an
outside noise, comes to the porch to find Webb with gun in hand. Gilvrav begs him
not to shoot, to no avail. W ebb shoots and kills him and then shoots himself in the
arm, in order to claim self-defense. Although Susan is suspicious, W ebb ingratiates
himself on Gilvray's surviving brother, offering financial help to Susan through him and
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expressing continuous remorse at the unfortunate “ accident.” Finally, Susan rejoins
Webb, with Gilvrav’s brother's blessing, o f course unaware o f their previous
relationship. W ebb uses Susan’s inheritance to buy his dream motel in Las Yegas;
finally happy, Susan confides to W ebb that she is pregnant. Webb, certain conception
took place during their illicit affair, convinces Susan thev must go where no one knows
them to have the baby— the notoriety and coverage o f their wedding, husband's killer
marries wife, no doubt will bring them unwanted scrutiny. They travel to the California
desert and make camp in Calico, an abandoned ghost town. Complications in the
pregnancy require W ebb to seek out a doctor, w ho W ebb plans to kill after delivering
the baby. The doctor escapes and brings the police, and an eventual shoot out kills a
fleeing Webb.
From its beginning, The Prowler's relationship to the citv o f Los Angeles is clear:
the voyeuristic first scene o f a blond pulling close her towel alludes to the sexualized
space o f Los Angeles. Indeed, the film’s poster features Susan wrapped in the same
flimsy white towel, much to the consternation o f N ew York City’s Advertising Code
who banned its use in New York papers. ^ W ithin the context o f Southern California,
such imagery seems to indicate that it’s almost as though Los Angeles’ notorious,
isolated urban sprawl and its neighboring suburbia create a place where easy peeping is
possible. Neighbors don’t know each other, the Gilvrav’s have an emptv lot in the
backyard. This is no small town, yet windows are accessible, a characteristic not usually
' I ntitled. 1 ariety. 25 (ulv 1951. According to the news blurb, despite G ordon
W hite’s urgings, the Advertising C ode Administrator, United Artists did not pull the ad,
and it ran for at least four weeks w ithout interruption.
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associated with big cities. These easily accessed windows are pivotal to the plot, causing
the peeper to peep and the object o f desire to call the police for help. Quickly, the
Gilvray’s home is referred to as a ‘hacienda,’ there is a Diego Rivera on the wall, and the
house is built in mission revival stvle architecture, giveaways to the city’s identity.
Nothing appears amiss to the patrolmen, who are presented as an odd but not abnorm al
pair. One an older, unseeing, hokey do-gooder, the other an openlv lascivious lech, we
can almost see the slobber dripping o ff his chin as he eves Susan: this flagrant ogling by
a policeman creates an unsettling experience to the viewer. W ebb is a former high
school football player, now has-been, who has come to Los Angeles from Indiana after
a humiliating college try. The sexualized object o f his gaze, Susan Gilvrav, a defeated
actress— also from Indiana, anxiously waits up each night for her ‘un-cxciting’ band
leader husband to come home.
In The Prowler the city, Los Angeles and to a lesser extent Las Vegas, plays a
dueling role with nature. Both the urban and the rural are sterile representations and aid
in the fatalism that pervades the film. Both, however, are intertwined— the desert to
Los Angeles’ and Las Yegas’ identity and Los Angeles and Las Vegas to the desert.
Thus, for The Prowler. , it is as though urbanity extends into nature (plating into Southern
California's landscape, and each urban identity contributes to the overall disjunctures o f
the film). Los Angeles and Las Yegas represent two models o f consumption, crime, and
excess. And a vast, empty desert separates the two. However, because the film
presents Las Yegas as a capitalist, albeit noisy, oasis and refuge, the role o f Los Angeles
is much more tied to the noir themes and characters o f The Prowler. The seemingly
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random course o f action that takes place in the film cannot occur in another place so
easily, and its rejected, morbid characters could not appear so naturally prominent.
The Prowler portrays L.A. as a place o f outsiders. Webb, Susan, Bud, and G rad e
Crocker all have come from somewhere else. This lack o f sense o f place intensifies the
imbalance of the film. To fill the void, each has his o r her own neurosis. W ebb is a
killer and thief. Susan is an adulteress at best, a m urderer at worst, at times the viewer
questions her lack o f complicity. W ebb's partner and his wife, Budd and G rade
Crocker, the proposed vision o f normalcy, collect rocks. John Gilvrav, Susan’s
husband, is an L.A. fixture in profession, relationship, and svmbol. He works in the
entertainment industry, a confident voice entering into homes. His voice performs
symbolically. Later, we learn that this suave voice belongs to an aging, impotent,
infertile man. His relationship with Susan appears based on the cold urban exchange o f
consum ption for companionship. Further, this W inter/Spring relationship is
commonplace in a place where starlets can’t find work.
Even the desert where W ebb is killed is ironicallv part o f an L.A. identity--huge,
dry, and infertile. It is the region surrounding the d ty and thus a part o f it bv
assodation but also a reminder o f the falsity o f Los Angeles’s lush fertility. Morally,
L.A. is also a desert, where cops stalk dtizens, widows m am - shockingly early with the
blessings o f former in-laws, and where the American dream may be transformed into a
lazv criminal’s vision.
Both The Prowler and Mildred Pierce encapsulate the components making up
Southern California noir. Both films convey the promise the region holds to its
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inhabitants and newcomers and dangles various definitions o f success before them,
relating direcdy to the region's reputation first initiated by its boosters. But the films
also rely on another image about Los Angeles— that o f m aterial success and spiritual and
moral failure. Because o f its inclusive definition, Southern California noir holds manv
films from the two sun-eyed here from The Accused (1948) to The Blue Gardenia (1953) to
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), among many others. ™ And while it plavs an
important role in the dissemination o f a Los Angeles image because of the manv films
that follow its pattern, this category m ust be understood side by side its other filmic
counterparts.
Hollywood Films
The Hollywood film features protagonists direcdv involved with the
entertainment industry, and while one might expect these films to take place in
Hollywood, they are not relegated to this geographic spot and use various Southern
California locales. This use o f the region renders the protagonists Southern Californians
to film viewers, not merely filmmakers, and creates another facet to the Los Angeles
stereotype. Characters include actors, directors, screenwriters, singers, and to a lesser
extent, radio personalities.
™ Films falling under Southern California noir include the following; The Big Sleep
(1946); The Bigamist (1953); The Blue Dahlia (1946); The Blue Gardenia (1953); Criss Cross
(1949); Double Indemnity (1944); He W alked B j Night (1948); Kiss Me, Deadly (1955);
Mildred Pierce (1945); Murder, M y Sweet (1944); The Postman A lw ays Rings Twice (1946);
Private Hell 36 (1954); The Prowler (1951); Scene o f the Crime (1949); Too Late ForTears
(1949). For detailed film citations see W orks Consulted.
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The first films that featured Hollywood and the film industry differ in subject
and tone, from their later incarnations. While early efforts consisted mosdy of
lighthearted comedies, bv the likes o f Mack Sennett or Charlie Chaplin, occasionally
m ore serious accounts emerged as well.-'9 As Chapter Six will explore through the
example of Sunset blvd. (1950), prior to 1950 films focusing on Hollywood underwent
massive self-censorship in order to present a positive and unified portrayal o f the film
industry. O n screen this m ovem ent began in the 1920s. According to film scholar Alex
Barris, the 1923 production o f Hollywood represents its first attempt:
To help improve Hollywood's sullied public image, Hays decided
to use the screen itself. It was at his suggestion that [director|
Cruze made the film .. .a mildly satirical movie in which H ope
Brown went to the film capital in hopes o f becoming a star — but
did not. For Cruze, however, it served as a vehicle in which to
sprinkle a bunch o f stars, and more im portant to show them in a
sympathetic light.'*’
In an effort to counter the industry's scandal-plagued reputation, the campaign to
demonstrate the normalcy and goodness o f the film community manifested itself in film
content through to the 1940s, exemplified in the film I'ariety G irl (1947). A star-
studded Paramount event designed to both publicize and make m oney for the Variety
Clubs, an industry based charity that helps orphans, the film features the Hollywood
dream unfolded. A former Variety Club case comes to Hollywood to break into the
movies and despite numerous mix ups is given several chances to display her talents, o f
w James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts with Gregory w. Mark. Hollywood on
Hollywood. (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1979), 3.
• * " Alex Barris. Hollywood According to Hollywood. (South Brunswick: A.S. Barnes and
Company, 1978), 19.
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course, to find fame in the end. I "ariety G irl attem pts to show the ‘real’ character o f
Hollywood's elite as generous and forgiving people who hold barbeques where
producers cook up the food for everyone from studio musicians to big stars. But this
highly positive trajectory o f Hollywood films undergoes a marked transformation in the
1950s.
The success o f Sunset Blvd. marks an ironic step in the development of
Hollywood's celluloid self-image. While at least one other studio-based film was
released prior to Sunset Blvd. that painted the industry in a less than attractive brush, the
critical and popular success o f W ilder’s film brought attention to his portraval o f the
industry and his upbraiding bv studio officials.4 1 Yet, it was also the film’s commercial
triumph that paved the wav for future, and relatively more deleterious, likenesses bv the
ever-profit motivated industrv itself. Beginning in 1952 with The Bad and the Beautiful
(1952), Singin' In the Rain (1952), The Star (1952),.! Star is Bom (1954), and The Big Knife
(1955); several o f Hollvwood’s m ajor studios began producing an d /o r distributing less
than glowing industrv backstones, including M GM , 20lh Century Fox, Warner Brothers,
and L’nited Artists.4 2 While such films help to create the cliche that now pervades
public discourse on Hollvwood, for the earlv 1950s these films were the first to suggest,
on film, that the lives of Hollvwood’s plavers were not the idvlls imagined and
4 1 See Dancing in the Dark, released bv 20th Century Fox and .\/j' Dream Is Yours released
by W arner Brothers, both in 1949. The former tells the storv of a self-centered film
star, Emery Slade, and his attempts to regain his lost fan base. M j Dream Is Yours is
about the radio industrv. For complete film citations see Works Consulted.
4 2 MGM-Tac Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Singin’ In the Rain (1952); 20th Centurv Fox— The
Star (1952); Warner Brothers-.-! Star is Bom (1954); L’nited A rtists- The BigKnife (1955).
For complete film citations see W orks Consulted.
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promulgated in its publicity machine o f fan magazines, newsreels, and gossip
columnists. And, as Chapter Three documents, bv the mid 1950s, this new celluloid
portrayal began to be buttressed bv more condem ning accounts in widely popular
tabloids like Confidential.
In A Lonely Place f1950")
Actualiv released before Sunset Bird, in Mav o f 1950 (Sunset Blvd. was released in
August), In .1 Lonely Places notoriety as a Hollywood film was probably dwarfed by the
success o f Sunset Blvd.4 ' ' Nevertheless, In A Lonely Place is a remarkable glimpse into how
one filmmaker, at least, envisioned the industry■ . Produced by Santana Productions and
distributed bv Columbia, the film was directed bv Nicholas Ray and based on a novel bv
Dorothy B. Hughes.4 4
The story is about screenwriter Dix Steele, known for his drinking and angry
outbursts. He invites Mildred, a voluptuous hatcheck girl, back to his apartment in the
guise o f helping him understand a popular novel he m ust adapt into a script. Though
intending to seduce her, Steele changes his mind and sends her hom e in a taxi. The
next morning she is found, her body brutally beaten. The police assume Steele is her
killer but he finds an unexpected alibi from his new neighbor. Laurel Gray, who tells the
police she saw Mildred leave his apartm ent alone. Steele is released and the two begin a
4 4 The film also was created by independent production company Santana Pictures.
This non-studio status may have also diminished studio criticism o f the film's portrayal
as well.
4 4 Dorothy B. Hughes. In A Lonely Place. (New York: Bantam Books, 1947).
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relationship; Steele's love for Laurel grows and energizes him to write and claim life
anew. Despite their love, Steele's insecurity returns, jealousv torm ents him, and he
suffers violent outbursts. Frightened, Laurel suspects Steele might have plaved a role in
Mildred's death. Seeing her distance herself from him, Steele grows more violent and in
a desperate m om ent. Laurel agrees to m any him, but on the wedding dav. Laurel tries to
flee. Steele catches her and tries to strangle her. As his hands encircle her neck, the
phone rings; it’s the police calling to report that thev've caught the murderer, M ildred’s
boyfriend, Henrv, also prone to jealous fits. Though Steele is absolved from the
murder, he and Laurel's relationship is over— his rage having crossed the limit.
Scholars have speculated over whether In .1 Lonely PI die should be considered
pan of the noir cycle. Film scholar Dana Polan argues the film maintains noir elements,
elements from the screwball comedy, and tendencies from the female gothic.4 5 In
understanding Southern California’s image, the film follows tvpical noir patterns for the
region. Hollywood as geographic location, site o f consumption, and film industrv
center is an integral element to the narrative progress of In a Lonely Place. Hollywood, in
fact, because o f its associations with each o f these three factors is the ideal site for anv
film noir due to the noir’s typical reliance upon the automobile, its rejection o f postw ar
modernity, and its questioning o f consumption. N oir or not, Hollywood remains
important to the film in ways similar to noir’s use o f place.
Beginning with the film’s tide, place emerges as an im portant spiritual them e in
terms of the characters’ emotional dispositions and the space in which thev m ove.
Several characters reflect a sense o f isolation and lack of attachm ent in differing degrees:
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Dix until his meeting with Laurel has been aimlessly searching for love; Laurel appears
to have no familial or friendly ties (save for her maid M artha whose appreciation for
Laurel appears to go unreciprocated in depth and possibly direction); Mildred, the
hatcheck g irl though romantically attached to Henry easily “breaks” dates with him, as
is the case when she goes to Steele’s apartm ent.
Yet, ‘lonely place’ also refers to the Hollywood industry. The film continually
alludes to good men who become drunk has-beens based on the frivolity o f audiences
or stupid producers. This transform ation o f talent to desperation appears quick and
merciless: Dix teeters on it and his agent, Mel, alludes to his own potential career
demise. Though this sense o f loneliness illuminates the shift from an older, stable
Hollywood to a new, de-centralized dog-eat-dog industry since its slow dissolution
following the 1948 Param ount Act and the rise of television, it also alludes to
Hollywood itself, particularly in relation to screenwriters. As Chapter Six explores in
m ore detail, the dismissal o f true talent (exemplified here with allusions to
Shakespearean acting and thespians) and recognition o f tripe {Althea Bruce the book Dix
must revise) has long been a bone o f contention among screenwriters. The relegation
o f the A n (with a capital W ') of writing to the factorv-like conditions o f studio writing
pools degraded writers with loftier notions o f their skill. This put forward, In a Lonely
Plate also refers to the studio space w here merit is replaced bv mediocrity.
Hollywood as a geographic location further develops the characterization within
the film. Known as a de-centralized space dependent upon the automobile, Los
Angeles is a perfect place for Dix to w ork out his rage. D ix’s automobile is a literal
Dana Polan. In A Lonely Place. (London: BFI Pub., 1993).
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vehicle for his rage: the beginning sequences o f the film dem onstrate a confident
machismo attached to his car, enabling him to defend his honor on the spot; he squeals
out o f the beach parking lot to express his frustration; and he viciously fights with a
L'CLA student over an automobile accident. M ore morbidly, geographic decentralitv
figures prominently— the dum ping of Mildred’s bodv takes place in the foothills as does
DLx’s skirmish with the student.
In m any wavs. In .1 Lonely Place, is representative o f m anv movies about the film
industry. W hile it more overtlv critiques various Hollywood players than the typical
Hollywood film. Dix's destruction is clearly o f his own making. The film uses various
Southern California locales to show the plav spots o f the Hollywood set and relies upon
Los Angeles' affiliation with consumption and leisure for narrative details. Hollywood
as a site o f seemingly ‘normal’ consumption also plavs upon characterization in the film.
Known as a place of both commerce and as vacation spot bv the late 1920s, these two
characteristics tie into the film’s depiction o f the region— Paul’s restaurant, DLx’s need
to buy Laurel her own little car and a ring, plus the fleetinglv carefree time spent at the
beach— are posed significantly. However, bv the late 1920s Southern California also
boasts a reputation o f lust, fertile agriculture and an association with water.
In term s o f their role in the overall vilification of the film industrv, Hollywood
films are not as damning as one would expect. While the n ew er gets a behind the
scenes glimpse in the process o f star-making, these films place blame awav from the
system o f Hollywood and onto the shoulders o f the victim or the movie-going public.
Usually, the films feature problematic players, from the dem ented or spoiled star, such
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as Norm a D esm ond in Sunset Bird, to temperamental hothead screenwriter Dix Steele in
In .-I Lonely Place to Lina Lam ont in Singin' In the Rain, who are responsible for h is/h e r
own failures.
Those in Hollywood's highest echelons o f power are rarelv vilified within the
Hollywood film o f the 1950s. At worst, producers and directors are justifiably heartless-
-Tbe Bad and the Beautiful* s Jonathan Shield must romance Georgia Lorrison in order to
get her best performance and give her the stardom she so richlv deserves. W riting o f
the film's conservativism, film scholar (ames N arem ore notes:
The film correcdv describes the old Hollywood as a patriarchy, but
it suggests that the only wav to personal health is through
acceptance of the system, coupled with a "mature" understanding
o f the lessons taught by the founders o f the industry.4 ^ ’
This observation is applicable to m ost Hollywood films o f the 1950s. But on an
individual level, visions o f normalcy within the studio system abound. Consider the
kindly, paternal Cecil DeMille who gendy steers a misguided N orm a Desm ond to her
car and outside his soundstage in Sunset Blvd. A nd in The Other Woman (1954), the story
sympathetically tells of a duped director, who is blackmailed by an actress, as though
detailing the many horrors vulnerable directors m ust endure.
The studio system avoids blame in the destruction o f its players in other ways.
Scholar Christopher Ames concludes that such cautionary tales condemn not the studio
system, but the viewers themselves:
In these films at least, the devil is not the studio (which is characterized
with unbelievable benevolence), the devil is the audience. In asking us
to identify with and sympathize with the star, these movies vilify the
4 (' |ames Naremore. The Films oj I 'incente Minnelli. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993), 122.
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audience. At som e points the vilification o f the audience or the public
is mediated through the press, which becomes the surrogate villain.4 7
Often, these films even manage to leave the industry with a hint of its mystique and
glamour intact. Indeed, in the case o f The Star (1952) the departm ent store chain The
May Com pany was so comfortable with the film's atm osphere that it allowed scenes to
be shot in one of its stores and built an advertising campaign around the film, featuring
blown up scene stills in its window displays.4 8
In at least one instance, the self-censorship im posed by the unspoken
Hollywood system may have provided creative inspiration. According to D ana Polan,
In .1 Lone/y Place's director Nicholas Ray. "wanted to experim ent with the rules of
Hollywood storytelling and rebel when those rules constrained and to endorse the
studio system as the only context possible for feature filmmaking. "4 ‘ , This conflicting
vision o f the filmmaking process mirrors the depictions o f the industry in the
Hollywood novel. Consider West's in Day o f the Locust descriptions o f the vast studio
lots with increasingly grandiose sets alongside one another. Though a study in the
superficiality of the system, the false fronts holding symbolism— such facades are also
4 Christopher Ames. A lories About the Monies: Hollywood Reflected. (Lexington: The
University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 38. Ames' observations apply specifically to A
Star Is Bom, What Price Hollywood? , and The Star.
4 8 "May Co. Plugs 'Star' in Full-Page Ad." The Hollywood Reporter. 12/26/53 from
clippings file on The Star Margaret Herrick Library, Academy o f Motion Pictures Arts &
Sciences, Hollywood California. The May Co. also took o u t a full-page ad plugging the
movie. The ad appeared at least once in the Los Angeles Time on 12/29/52.
4 V Polan, 49.
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impressive; the stories they adorn are epic and inspiring to their viewers, drones or
m obs aside.
By the mid 1950s, the studio response, or lack thereof, to these types o f industry
stories created a new climate for their creation. Perhaps the result o f the studios’
weakening power, stemming in part from the 1948 Param ount Act which facilitated an
end to the industry's hold on both vertical and horizontal industrial m onopolies, the
case o f relatively late The Big Knife (1955) documents the loosening up o f strictures in
terms o f the industry’s portrayal on film. Based on a play by Clifford O dets the film
was directed by Robert Aldrich, noted for other L.A. based films, who also
independendv produced the film.5 " W hen it emerged as a plav six years prior The Big
Knife, a vehicle for O dets’ feelings after working briefly in the film industry, received the
film industry’s condemnation. As a film, however, in 1955, though a few industry-
related groups protested it, for the m ost part the Hollywood press corps treated it fairly,
prom pting Odets to com m ent in The A ® York Times that such treatm ent was, “a sign o f
Hollywood’s new maturity.”5 1
R obert Aldrich also directed Kiss Me. Deadly (1955) and was the Assistant Director on
The Prowler (1951).
3 1 Clifford Odets. “ In Praise of a M aturing Industry.” Sew York Times. 6 Novem ber
1955. For press corps response see Dick Williams. “ ’Big Knife’ Rips Hollywood.”
Mirror Sews. 29 O ctober 1955— Williams renew takes on the technical aspects o f the
film, praising its acting, questioning its dialogue, but refrains from condem ning
filmmakers for an unfair portray. Philip K. Scheuer. “ ’Big Knife’ Cuts Into
Hollywood.” Los Angeles Times. 18 Septem ber 1955; “ ’Knife’ Poised.” S e w York Times.
24 April 1955; “Synopsis.” Beivrly Hills Citizen. 20 O ctober 1955.
A group o f Hollywood organizations did protest the film but none, it appears, were
direcdy connected to the film industry, the most notable o f the group was Brigham
Tow nsend, a public relations director for the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “ H ’wood
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A star studded venture, indicating perhaps the acceptance o f these supposed
exposes. The Big Knife centers around N ew York actor, Charles Casde, now a Hollvwood
star who decides to break his contract with his studio, but cannot. The studio head
begins to blackmail him to coerce his return over the studio arranged cover-up o f an
auto accident death in which Casde was at fault, but someone else took the blam e.5 2
O det’s described the plot in this wav:
“The Big K nife” is the storv o f a movie actor w ho has sold his soul
to the devil, in the form of a movie-producer. They cover up a
hit-and-run fatality lest it dim the box office luster o f the star’s name,
and it is onlv when thev connive at outright m urder that the
protagonist overcomes his selfish desire for glorv and takes a stand
for moral right.’'
Indeed, Hollywood’s toothless response to the film seemed to take the air out of O det’s
sail. By its conclusion, O det’s Xew York lim es piece ends,
(T)he solid and impressive fact is that Hollvwood is changing for
the better. Better stones and novels are being bought bv better
producers. Fresher and better directors are assigned to handle better
actors, and the trend accelerates as Hollvwood discovers that this
whole process results in wider and more awakened audiences and,
naturally, better grosses.5 4
W hether this acceptance o f Hollvwood films was the result o f a new “maturity,” a profit
m inded strategy with the commercial success of such ventures, or because o f the
Com m ittee Protests ‘Knife.” Hollywood Reporter. 24 O ctober 1955.
’2 Actors in the film included Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Shelley Winters, and Rod
Steiger, among others.
” Clifford Odets. “ In Praise o f a Maturing Industrv.” X ew York Times. 11/6/55.
5 4 Clifford Odets. “In Praise of a Maturing Industrv.” Xew York Times. 6 November
1955.
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studios’ waning pow er, Hollvwood narratives repeated regional stereotypes evidenced in
their non-industry related filmic counterparts. Even the m ost acerbic o f these films. The
Big Knife, illustrates to a degree that these films are about the individual's role in h is/h er
moral lapse, inadvertendy shifting responsibility awav from the industry itself. Even
O det’s explanation o f the film’s storv indicates that Charles Casde is in charge o f his
life, that he makes his own decisions.
Hollywood films, then, rather than centrally being about the film industry,
continue storylines first initiated by the noir cycle and contribute to Southern California
narratives about lost possibility and consum ption. Similarly, for the m ost part thev
position the male protagonist’s own weaknesses as the cause o f his downfall, whether
through substance abuse, insecurity, or base motivations. And because thev do not
locate blame for the protagonists’ decline upon the film industry, but on the individual
themselves or on the audience and press corps which feeds fandom’s hunger for m ore
gossip, these films contribute to the abstract anti-myth about the region. Instead o f
having a clear cut villain, Hollywood films seem to say, along with other Southern
California movies, that this narrative is endemic to the region. Others which feature
Hollywood along these lines include films like .1 Star is Bom (1954), The Bad and the
Beautiful (1952), am ong others The Big Knife (1955).5 5
The previous two categories. Southern California N oir and Hollvwood Films,
tell im portant stories that are at once inextricably linked to the film industrv but imply a
representation o f the entire region. Indeed, Southern California noir, though not
” See The Bad and the Beautiful (1952); The Big Knife (1955); Darning in the Dark (1949), In
.1 Ijonely Place (1950), S ly Dream Is Yours (1949), The Other Woman (1954), .1 Star is Bom
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explicitly about the film industry describes the place in ways that mirror fiction intended
to be solelv about Hollvwood, despite their lack o f rootedness to a Hollvwood,
geographic site. These films build from earlier imagery in its portrayal o f the lost or
elusive dream and explore how while one mav achieve material rewards in Southern
California, it is often at the cost o f spiritual and m oral failure.
Even though they may not include film industry players. Southern California
noir films are as about the film industry as Hollywood films. And in relaying Southern
California’s media made image, they continue anti-Hollvwood visions begun in regional
writing. The correlation between Southern California noir and its anti-Hollvwood
undercurrent is o f particular importance when relating this image back to the region as a
whole. In continuing this vision, the celluloid stereotype at once mav have glamorized
the place but also diminished the Southern California’s real demographics— its history o f
diversity, o f ethnic and racial conflict, its growing suburban communities, its real social
problems. Though films which use Los Angeles w ithout intended narrative meaning
typically do not have the same portrayals and consequences, the following category, Los
Angeles as Default Setting, explores how such stories may inadvertently continue noir
portraits in unforeseen ways.
Los Angeles As Default Setting
In this category, films use Los Angeles or Southern California for budgetary
a n d /o r aesthetic reasons, for example by giving the film a sense o f realism and
authenticity through location shooting. In such films though setting mav be recognized
(1954), The Star (1952) and Sunset Blvd. (1950).
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as Southern California, the plot could take place anvwhere. And, often these films use
Los Angeles as representative of the rest o f the nation. For example, in the film The
X ext I 'nice You H ear( 1950), filmmakers explicitly use W estwood residents as
embodiments of "average" and "typical"— the main protagonist is even nam ed Joe
S m ith .In other cases, the films do not overtlv use Los Angeles as typical or
representative o f the nation. Here, filmmakers use Los Angeles for the desire to shoot
on location, to create a more authentic feel to the film o r in order to save costs.
Films which fall under this categorv include arguably RebeI W ithout .1 Cause
(1955) which though it famously uses Los Angeles’ Griffith Park O bservatory does not
explicidy root itself in the city, among others.3 ' More importandv, Nicholas Ray,
director o f Rebel W ithout .1 Cause researched the problem o f juvenile delinquency across
the country in order to truly understand the then perceived national crisis. Though Los
3 ,1 "James WTutmore, Nancy Davis O ffer Glowing Portraval in M-G-M's Provocative
"The N ext Voice Y ou H e a r . . Al.G.M . Press Book The X e x t I 'o ic e You Hear. 1950 &
"Synopsis" from the same issue.
3 7 Because filmmakers chose to employ location shooting does not indicate these were
Los Angeles as Default films. The Accused (1948) m ade m uch of its location shooting
but is narratively rooted in Los Angeles. See— “Local Scenery Adds Interest to New
Film: L'CLA Campus Provides Main Background for ‘The Accused.’” loos Angeles
Citizen X e w . 10 D ecem ber 1948; “ 18 Locales Used for ‘The Accused.’” Paramount
Xews. 24 May 1948; “All Types Camera Equipm ent L’sed for Wallis’ ‘A ccused.’”
Paramount Xews. 14 June 1948.
Though the film features many memorable scenes o f downtown Los Angeles, A ct of
1 io/ence's story trajectory is similar to that o f Crime Wave's. The script bv Collier Young
dated September 24, 1947 indicates no particular city o r region. The tow n that main
character Adams lives in is described as “a small provincial city” and does not mention
Los Angeles as the tow n Adams travels to. Production N otes on A ct o f I 'io/ence.
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy o f M otion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Hollvwood
California.
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Angeles was experiencing its own wave o f juvenile delinquency as local and national
papers attest to, it was framed as emblematic to the rest o f the nation. Historian Kirse
Granat Mav writes, “Discussions o f California' youth m irrored national trends. The
Saturday Evening Post chronicled the California Youth Authority's difficulties in dealing
with a youthful wave o f transients "geographically at the end o f the line."5 8 And in
doing research for the film, filmmakers scored the nation for appropriate material.
Records note:
An eight-month research project, dating from the conception o f
the story to the first day o f shooting, contributed heavily to the
earthy realism o f the drama. Producer Weisbart, with director Ray
and screenwriter Stewart Stem , spent many hours traveling all
over the country interviewing hundreds o f police officers, judges,
youth leaders, juvenile hall authorities and welfare agency heads to
gather material for the film.3 ''
Additionally, the film used UC Berkeley-based professor and psychiatrist Douglas
Kelley, who also was the chief psychiatrist at the Nuremberg Trials, to judge the
authenticity o f the film’s portrayal o f youth problems. The film intended to present this
issue as a national one and not one relegated to Southern California, as publicity
packages and stories attest to /’ " A nd in surveying these films one wonders at their
38 Kirse G ranat May. "Suburban Eden: California Youth Images in Popular Culture,
1955-1969." (Ph.D. diss.. The University o f Utah, 1999).
y' “Production Notes.” Rebel W ithout. -1 Cause undated but probably part o f a publicity
release package accessed from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Teievision Library,
University o f Southern California.
“Production Notes on ‘Rebel W ithout A Cause’”, undated, care o f W arner Brothers
Archive, Cinema-Television Library, L’niversitv o f Southern California. In this press
release, the document notes, “An eight-m onth research project, dating from the
conception o f the story to the first day o f shooting, contributed heavily to the earthy
realism o f the drama. Producer W eisbart, with director Ray and screenwriter Stewart
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inclusion in this investigation, but as the 1954 Crime Wave reveals, even under such a
rubric the backstories to some o f these low budget films who appear to use location
shooting in a clear cut fashion are not so tidv tales.
Crime Wave (1954')
1954’s Crime Wave directed by Andre de T oth is an excellent example o f a noir
film using the region for budgetary concerns and aesthetic motivations rather than as a
narrative component. Again, following the noir trajectory, crime plays a prominent role
in the film. However, the publicity surrounding the film builds m ore from celluloid
associations than from historical events in creating its Southern California. Here, Los
Angeles is disengaged from its relationship to Hollvwood, and the citv stands as a
starkly dangerous environment, continuously vulnerable to the criminal element— the
film's plot reveals its different assessment o f the region.
The film’s main character is Steve Lacev, a now married, ex-con trying to keep
his life on the straight and narrow in Los Angeles. Three former cellmates break out o f
San Quentin and proceed to hold up various gas stations in their flight. When robbing
a Los Angeles gas station, one o f the escapees shoots a policeman. T he policeman,
before dying, manages to wound one o f the convicts. Thev then search out Steve in
order, at first, to have his wound treated, and then later, after he dies, to find another
accomplice for a bank heist. They coerce Steve into joining their group, but Steve
Stem, spent many hours traveling all over the c o u n tn interviewing hundreds o f police
officers, judges, youth leaders, juvenile hall authorities and welfare agency heads to
gather material for the film.” 4.
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manages to leave w ord to a local police lieutenant, Sims, o f the planned robbery. The
police intercept the robbery and pretend to arrest Lacev, and the film’s finale ends with
the police releasing Steve and keeping his part in the round up secure, ensuring he w on’t
be executed bv loval cons.
In terms o f plot, the setting o f Crime 1 X'ave is not tied to anv particular locale.
Steve Lacey could be a recuperating felon anvwhere. Although he works as an airplane
technician and could be linked to the region because o f its postwar boom in the aircraft
industry, Steve’s occupation is not terribly important. The escaped convicts break out o f
San Quentin but could have just as easily escaped from another prison. Turning to the
film’s literary origins and the process in which writers at W arner Brothers situated the
film provides a glimpse into the rationale behind the film’s eventual use o f Los Angeles.
Based on a story by John and Ward Hawkins entided “Criminal’s Mark,” the
process in which Crime Ware eventually used Los Angeles is undoubtedly a journey
many stories underw ent before becoming a film. Originally, when it appeared in the
Saturday Evening Post in 1950, the short storv did not have an explicit setting. Rather,
judging from the fact that the authors were from Portland, O regon and the only
references to place in the story referred to a “G reat W estern Trucking” line, one can
infer that it was to take place in the Pacific N orthw est/1 ' After W arner Brothers
purchased the story, a variety o f screenwriters toved with where to place it. A n initial
M John and Ward Hawkins, “Criminal’s Mark” in the Saturday Evening Post (8 April 1950)
care o f Warner Brothers Archive, Cinema-Television Library, L’niversitv o f Southern
California.
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outline drawn in March o f 1951 saw the film taking place in no identifiable citv/’ - O ne
m onth later, the storv had a new name. Don't Cry Baby, and was to take place in “New
City” in the M idwest/’ 3 In July o f 1952, the following year, for the first time the story
was revised to take place in Southern California, but in a suburb— not Los Angeles
proper. Screenwriter Bernard G ordon sketched what the setting and what a then
contemporary suburb would look like:
This is a tvpical Southern California “suburb.” The streets are laid
out in careful squares, with street signs, lights and sewers—
everything but houses. The sandy lots on either side are returning
to nature after waiting twentv futile years for the real estate
subdivision to blossom into “another L.A.”M
ITie final film does not appear to be related to this rendition of Los Angeles in anv wav,
marking again the potential revisions a script could undergo in terms o f setting. In
September o f 1952, two m onths after Gordon, another writer, Richard W ormser again,
altered the setting o f Don’ t Cry Baby. W'ormser shifted the main setting o f the film back
to a generic community, but had one scene in which crime occurs, taking place in Los
Angeles/0 For a period o f a few m onths at the end o f 1952, Don’ t Cry Baby was
renamed The C iy is Dark. Finallv, the script was re-written again bv Crane W ilbur in
Outline done on 3/17/51 o f “Criminal’s Mark” care o f W arner Brothers archive,
Cinema-Television Library, Lniversitv o f Southern California.
',3 Draft from 4 /6 /5 1 entided “D o n ’t Cry Baby” from W arner Brothers archive,
Cinema-Television Librarv, Lniversitv o f Southern California.
Draft of Don't Cry Baby written bv Bernard G ordon from 7 /1 /5 2 care o f Warner
Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
Draft of Don't Cry Baby written by Richard W'ormser from 9 /3 0 /5 2 from W'amer
Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
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October. In W ilbur’s version the storv finally takes place throughout the citv o f Los
Angeles, citing specific landmarks and roads.6 '' It was also at this point that the film’s
tide changed to Crime U"are.( l T
It remains difficult to assess how the film ended up taking place in Los Angeles.
Production notes do not explain whv a particular writer felt one place would be more
suited than another. An undated teletype found in Warner Brothers production
records, perhaps a publicity release, docum ents the choice as almost serendipitous:
SEEMS T H E W ARNERS ARE .\L \K IN G A FILM TITLED
‘TH E CITY IS D A RK” A N D ITS D A N K ATM OSPHERE O F
GA NG STERDO M N E E D E D SO M E O U TSID E SHOTS O F A
CITY O M INO USLY B O G G E D D O W N BY AN
IM PENETRABLE A TM O SPH ER E IN W HICH T H E SUN IS
COM PLETELY BLO C K ED O U T.
"W HAT ABOU T D O W N TO W N LOS ANGELES?”
SCREAMED AN EX C ITED LO C A T IO N SCOUT. “ IT W O U LD
BE IDEAL.” THUS T H E U N IT BOARD BUSES A N D TRUCKS
AND IS S PE N D IN G DAYS A N D N IG H TS SH O O T IN G
AROUND LOS A N G ELES CITY’ HALL, OLVERA STREET
AND U N IO N STA TIO N .6*
Although this story’s credibility is challenged by its unknown origins and its hyperbolic
tone, it does point to, with the chronological script revisions, possible reasons why
filmmakers chose to situate the film. L'ndoubtedly strained by budge tan- limits.
6 6 Crane Wilbur revision o f D on’ t Cry Baby bv Crane Wilbur from 10/25/52 accessed
through the W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f
Southern California.
Interoffice memo from 10/20/53 from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television
Library, University o f Southern California.
6 8 Undated teletype bv Nana Heffem an, no apparent tide found in W arner Brothers
archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
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himmakers probablv sought out wavs in which to make this film innovative and m ore
marketable.
Moreover, publicitv used Los Angeles in different wavs to prom ote the film.
First, the film boasted of an authentic vision o f police work. Clearly both a police
procedural and a noir. Crime Wave was filmed at the actual dispatch headquarters o f the
Los Angeles Police Departm ent and had a policeman. Captain R.A. Lohrman, serve as
technical adviser in order to give the film an air o f authenticity/’ * ’ Second, as the
previous teletype alludes to. Crime U are was lauded as the first film to use Los Angeles
smog as an aesthetic com ponent to gain a grittier feel. One seem ing planted newspaper
story relates this event:
Smog, that combination o f fog, smoke and chemicals which dims
the Los Angeles skyline and worries the Cham ber of Com m erce,
fitted the mood o f certain scenes in the picture and D irector Andre
De T o th — the grev-brown atmosphere added a note o f impending
trouble... "
As such, the filming seemed to follow the serendipitous theme earlier described. It
appears that on one level, filmmakers used Los Angeles as default, but in others the
linking o f the film to the citv is m uch more pronounced.
Filmmakers ingeniously used location shooting to both m ake and publicize the
film. According to production notes, de Toth used a concealed camera in a disguised
van to shoot “realistic” scenes o f urban life. Records note.
From docum ent entitled “Production N otes” for Crime Wave from W arner Brothers
archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
Author and publication unknow n, “Smog Discovered in Crime Film,” from “N ew s”
from 5 Mav 1953, accessed from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Li bran -,
L’niversitv o f Southern California.
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The camera was hidden in a small, unobtrusive black truck whose
four paneled sides opened to any width so the scene m ight be
photographed without attracting undue attention. Players went
about the streets and in and out of buildings while the camera on
its rolling base followed their actions un-noticed.7 1
Yet filmmakers were not always successful in hiding their motives, and one w onders to
what extent this location shooting was done for publicity purposes. A plethora o f
newspaper accounts docum ent different location shoots for the film .'2
But the film is not an open and shut case o f using Los Angeles for location
shooting and budge tan- concerns onlv. Crime ITiz/r’s use o f Los Angeles is complicated
by the official, studio-generated publicity. Posters for the film advertise it bv calling
attention to L.A.’s alreadv form ed noir stereotvpe. Phrases such as “Sin stalks the
sidewalks! Crime crawls in shadow! Dim-lit temptation and kill-madness bust loose in
the backwash o f a terror-nddled Crime W ave,” juxtaposed against recognizable L.A.
buildings paint a pronounced portrait that contrasts with the plot’s actual depiction. In
the forefront o f these posters stands a couple. The woman o f the pair is dressed in a
strapless gown with large hoop earrings— the universal symbol o f loose sexuality, her
hands raised protectively. The man has his hands outstretched as if to grab her. The
1 From document entided “Production Notes” for Crime Ware from W arner Brothers
archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
2 Articles included are “Iris Plays Moll” from the Mirror on 4 D ecem ber 1952, no
author, notes; “Business As Usual” from Variety from 5 Decem ber 1952, again no
author noted; an untided article by Sidney Skolskv from the Citizen from 8 Decem ber
1952; and “Specially Disguised Camera Car Used in ‘City Is D ark,” in I 'alley Times from
9 December 1952. Articles accessed from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television
Library, University o f Southern California.
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caption underneath them reads, “Scream, babv-I d o n ’t mind!” '' While there is one
prom inent female character in the film, Steve’s wife Ellen (plaved bv Phvllis Kirk), her
character in no wav is represented as a morally com prom ised individual. Indeed, for the
m ost part she wears a turtle neck throughout the film. Another poster exclaims over
the “gang-girls” o f the film, vet none exist in the movie. Posters for the film plav upon
larger, filmic renditions o f the citv as a way to lure potential audiences into a totally
unrelated movie— perhaps movies such as Mildred Pierce, The Scene o f the Crime (1949) or
The Blue Gardenia (1953). The apparent self-reflexive nature o f Los Angeles films
appears to gain a foothold with Crime Wave.
Crime W ave's Los Angeles then shows another vision o f the citv, building an
entity that is less historicized and m ore monolithic. Although filmmakers used the citv
in various promotional ways— from integrating smog into the film to hiring the LAPD
as technical advisors, the film’s actual storv remains unrelated to a Southern California
setting. This union is complicated by how Warner Brothers marketed the film and
linked its location to “sin citv.” Publicists were able to have their cake and eat it too—
marketing an otherwise tame film along sexualized line by falsely invoking the Southern
California stereotype. W hile understandably few films can fit the backstory mold that
Crime 1 1 ave creates in its unique weaving o f location shooting and various levels of
publicity, narratively a few films follow its generic use o f Los Angeles in term s of
plotline.4
'' Poster from publicity package for Crime W ave care o f W arner Brothers archive,
Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern California.
4 Films sun eyed here using Los Angeles or Southern California as a default setting
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What distinguishes Los Angeles from the noir archetype?
As the following chapter will highlight in greater detail in its com parison of
other city depiction o f the same time period, Southern California’s image is markedly
different from film-made places. But from this survey o f Southern California-based
films free from comparisons to other cities in its narrative there emerges some
tendencies that repeat themselves in different incarnations. Chiefly, the region’s
portrayal differs in three key areas: in the lost possibilities that each film encounters and
in its implementation o f local history, its portrayal of w om en, and its depiction o f
people o f color. The lost dream and its connection to local his ton' that pen-ades the
Southern California filmic narrative both relies on earlier fictional portrayals o f the
region but reflects how filmmakers themselves often viewed the film industry. In this
trajectory o f elusiye success. Southern California represents the counterpart to
traditional places in the Cnited States w here success is never easy but assured through
hard work, whether clearly delineated in the Road Movie, as the following chapter will
explore, or unspoken. As such. Southern California functions as the inverse to the
American dream. As does other regional fiction. Southern California noir uses women
as markers o f this inversion. Though sometimes building o ff o f notorious crimes, like
the Black Dahlia murder, the film industry’s use of women in Los Angeles film sees
them as beautiful, as easy to bed, and as easy to forget and arguably as representative o f
Southern California’s postcolonial status. Finally, as this next section explores, Los
include The Accused (1948); A ct of Iiolence (1949); Crime Wave (1954); The X e x t I 'one You
Hear (1950); and Rebel Without A Cause (1954), though undoubtedly there are many
others.
2 1 9
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Angeles films treat racial and ethnic differences in wavs that significandy depart from
other films. While Southern California film does not use race and ethnicity
representatively, as m ost Hollywood movies, filmmakers did include significant
numbers of Asian, Asian American, and Latino characters in order to further extant
regional stereotypes. These films, m ade for white audiences, plaved on existing racial
stereotypes concerning the alternate servile or oversexed natures o f different non white
natures. Though m ade for white audiences, these films were and continue to be
consumed bv, am ong others, Los Angelenos who are not just w hat these films portray
along ethnic, race, class lines or sexual proclivities. Each o f these elements build on a
foundational reality (i.e. history) but also on fictional tropes first created in the late
1920s and 1930s.
Lost Possibilities and Local History
Central to films that explicidy use Southern California is the prevailing them e o f
lost possibilities inextricable to Los Angeles, that mirrors the critique in regional
literature. Building from the booster promises o f the region's curative powers or the
film industry's legends o f finding stars such as Lana Turner sitting in Schwab's waiting
to be discovered, the region represents the place o f possibilities, the penultimate in
unuttered hope. In Los Angeles noir this hope is dashed awav. N ow here else could
characters envision such lofty goals— from the perfect heist in Criss Cross to Mildred
Pierce's entrepreneurial success. It is the logical destination for actors seeking fame and
stardom, as in the case o f misfit, Indiana migrants in The Prowler ox the New York and
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Louisiana hopefuls o f Detour. It is where criminals flee to spend their monev or find
refuge, as in The Scene of the Crime (1949) or Gun Crazy. It is a magical place where
unusually fortuitous events can happen to everyday people, as in the case o f Too Late for
Tears (1949) w hen a couple finds a satchel full o f money, S60.000 worth, throw n mto
their car. But Southern California films show that it is precisely this space o f limitless
possibility that enables the downfall o f its residents. The hope enables the unchecked
flourishing o f greed and self-interest over comm on sense or individual codes o f ethic.
The base pursuit o f fame and money for their own sakes, devoid o f moral center, is its
own reward and punishm ent for many characters in Los Angeles film.
In addition to the region's reputation, the use o f its history, albeit selectively
gathered and exaggerated for dramatic purposes, renders many films uniquely Southern
Californian. As Mildred Pierce exemplifies, nowhere else could protagonists believably
succeed and fail so dramatically than in a region known for its promises and perils, its
booms and busts. The blue Gardenia (1953) is another example o f local history being
integral to the film’s plot. The film establishes its setting immediately. The opening
credits feature a recognizable Los Angeles citv hall, the first scene opens to a newsstand
advertising the Los Angeles Chronicle, and the first scene takes place at West Coast
Telephone. At one point in the film one character, Casev Mayo, asks another, N orah
Larkin, if she is a “ Los Angeles” girl. Norah responds: “I don’t know where I am from.
I live here but it’s not my hom e.” Although N orah’s character is in a state o f anxiety,
such a statement works with preconceived ideas about the region in terms o f its
migratory patterns and presumably placelessness.
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Though the film’s plot, which deals m ore with N orah’s potential date rape and
m urder of her would-be attacker, has little to do with the infamous Black Dahlia
murder, publicity releases also point to an affiliation between the two. Apparendy
planted stories in trade journals link the film to a local, Los Angeles m urder case known
as “the Black Gardenia,” probably following the lead o f the 1947 local m urder known
as “The Black Dahlia” (ironically named after another Los Angeles film noir The Blue
Dahlia (1946)). In introducing the film The Box Office Slant reported:
Los Angeles’ “Black G ardenia” m urder mystery, still unsolved,
provides the basis for this story, but Miss Caspary has put it in
reverse, with the male rather than the girl the m urder victim. It
all begins in a telephone exchange where three girls work together
on the long-distance switchboard, transfers to the apartm ent they
share, then on to the hom e o f the slain artist.7 5
Interestingly, various searches for the “Black G ardenia” murder came up with no results
in nadonal and local newspapers. 6 Further, Vera Caspar,-, the storv’s originator, does
not mention the film in her autobiography, The Secrets o f Grownups.7 1 Filmmakers
probably used the reference to a local murder as a publicity draw, undoubtedly inspired
by the notoriety caused by the 1947 Black Dahlia case. While it is possible that journals
confused the name o f the scandal, actually reversing the Black Dahlia case provides an
1 “ ITie Blue Gardenia,” in The Box Office Slant from 14 March 1953 provided by the
W arner Brothers Archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern
California.
r ‘ A spot search was done based for the Los Angeles Times as no subject index exists for
the paper in terms o f crime. T he Los Angeles Public Library's index on local crime held
no record o f the case. A search in the Sew York Times through its subject index was also
futile, as well as a search in various crime encyclopedias.
Vera Caspary. The Secrets of Grownups (New York: M cGraw /H ill, 1979).
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unbelievable scenario. If the film was a reversal o f the Black Dahlia m urder in which
then unknown actress Elizabeth Short was murdered and her body hideously mutilated,
it would require that she be the attacker and would-be rapist. In addition, the
acceptance o f the possibility o f a female rapist, still scoffed at in current public
discourse, would hardlv occur in the late 1940s, a tim e o f infamous backlash against
women outside the traditional domestic sphere. Under such scrutiny, it appears that
the link served onlv promotional and narrative motives.
But die use o f a fictitious local murder provides a twofold example o f how Los
Angeles history works explicidy into the film’s ideas about the region. First, its
inclusion plavs upon an histoncally infamous case in which sex played an important
part, at least in the rum or surrounding the case. The victim in the Black Dahlia case,
Elizabeth Short, was immediately under sexual scrutiny following the identification o f
the body, though recent reports indicate she was physically incapable o f completing
coital penetration. s Newspapers speculated on her status as a prostitute and,
importandv, an actress. That the film played upon this union is apparent, understanding
the Dahlia crime and the publicity surrounding the Gardenia film. Although the Short
family stridendv opposed such characterizations o f Elizabeth as a sexual deviant from
the beginning o f the coverage, associations of her as has-been actress turned prostitute
still abound, m ost prominendy in the twisted misogynist writing o f Jam es Ellrov,
purveyor of contem porary Los Angeles noir, who writes from N ew York. Yet, it
s|ohn Gilmore. Severed: the True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder. (Los Angeles: Amok
Books, 1994). See also the documentary Case Reopened: the Black Dahlia with Joseph
W'ambauoh. Dir. Kevin MacCarthv, 1999.
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remains safe to assume that the film used this rendition o f Los Angeles as a backdrop to
advertise the film.
Undoubtedly, filmmakers used the Southern California locale in part for the
region’s factual his ton' and in part for the fictional stereotype that preceded Los
Angeles postwar film. Additionally, filmmakers, whether consciously or consciously,
manipulated the public’s understanding o f Los Angeles and its history by tying plotlines
to supposed actual events, both jusdy and unjusdv. The result o f this portrayal o f the
past was an ease in the normalization and acceptance o f the noir Los Angeles stereotype
as real and, o f course, the continuation o f the stereotype along celluloid lines.
Southern California W omen
As the aforem entioned analysis o f The Blue Gardenia alludes to, women figure
importandy in Los Angeles films, differentiating these films from others. First, wom en
are presented as beautiful, plentiful, usually compliant, and ultimately disposable, no
doubt tying the region to its reputation o f having discarded starlets at every com er and
o f its hideously real crimes like the Black Dahlia. While the beauty o f these films’
female protagonists may be rooted in that most films feature attractive women, Los
Angeles’ everyday women are different. From the different sirens that throw
themselves at Phillip Marlowe at even- conceivable com er (save the public librarian but
not the bookstore clerk) in The Big Sleep (1946) to the availability o f self-deprecating and
pathetically available women to Mike Hammer in Kiss Sle, Deadly (1955), the region
appears oversaturated with sexually willing, if not needy, females. In the latter, for
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instance. Private Investigator Hammer uses his girlfriend, Yelda, as both secretary and
bait to the philandering husbands he investigates on behalf o f their concerned wives.
Interestingly, in some ways the film adaptation of Mickev Spillane’s Kiss Me. Deadly
renders Hammer even m ore o f a misogynist than H am m er o f the novel, already known
for its woman-hating overtones. In the novel, which takes place in New York, Hammer
describes his attraction to Yelda:
I could never get tired of looking at her, I thought. She was everything
you needed just when you needed it, a bundle o f woman whose
emotions could be hard or soft or terrifying, but whatever they were
it was what you wanted. She was the lush beauty o f the jungle, the
sleek sophisticate o f the citv. Like I said, to me she was everything,
and the dull light o f the room was reflected in the ring on her finger
that I had given her. ’’
Here, Spillane compares Yelda to New York’s sexy sophistication, implying admiration
and respect. Yet, in the film, though Ham m er tracks dow n the kidnapped Yelda in the
film’s finale, there is no overt romanticization of their relationship on his part, there is
no mention o f a ring; rather, Yelda constantly pines for an unavailable Ham m er and is
willing to do anything to attain his attentions. One wonders if in the book to film
conyersion, the New York to Los Angeles transition required this change. It is in this
celluloid space where Southern California women differentiate themselves from other
noir females.
Southern California noir's women complicate traditional notions o f the noir
female in their failure to comply with either the ‘spider w om an’ or ‘ bland housewife’
Mickey Spillane. Kiss Me. Deadly. (New York: Signet Books, 1952), 30.
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model o f female behavior.*’ Though m ost disagree over w hether gender depictions
subvert their corresponding ideals in mainstream cinema o r remained consistent with
them, thev identify two trajectories for women in noir— sexualized femme fatales and
safe, domestic w o m e n /’ For example, author Svlvia Harvev describes these two sorts
o f women as “exciting, childless whore” and “boring, potentially childbearing
sweethearts.”s2 Carl Richardson defines the typical female character in the noir cycle:
Instead o f the more familiar portrayal o f femininity as an anchor of
domestic tranquility, film noir depicts spidery wom en answerable
to a host o f misdeeds and misadventures. W om en connive, steal,
and m urder. Thev are not "fallen women," victimized bv
patriarchal exploitation. Thev are fully responsible for their actions.
Thev are ambitious exploiters, whose misdeeds m erit punishm ent
(in accordance with the Production Code), doled out in
disappointm ent, grief, and sometimes— as in the case o f Dark. Passage
(Delmer Daves. 1947)— d e a th /'
Fortunately while few scholars see past these binaries, Bernard F. Dick initiates a new
grouping.*4 In looking at Columbia Studio’s treatm ent of wom en, Dirk coins the term.
*’ See Elizabeth Cowie. “ Film N oir and W omen.” in Joan Copjec, ed., Shades oj 'Soir.
(London: Verso, 1993); Bernard F. Dick. “Columbia's Dark Ladies and the Femmes
Fatales o f Film N oir.” Literature Film Quarterly. Volume 23, N um ber 3, 155: 1995; Frank
Krutnik. In .-I Lonely Street: Film \o ir . Genre. Masculinity. (London: Roudedge, 1991);
Ann E. Kaplan., ed.,. Women in Film ISoir. (London: British Film Institute, 1980); F.
Laffort. “A Film -Noir Bibliography.” Avant Scene Cinema, N o. 329, 1984; N.C.
Leibman. “The Family Spree o f Film Noir.” Journal oj Popular Film and Telension. Vol.
16, No.4, 1989, 168-184; |ames F. Maxfield. The Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in
American Film S o ir. (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson I'niversitv Press, 1992).
Sylvia Harvey. “W om an’s Place: the Absent Family o f Film N oir.” and Janev Place.
“Women in Film N oir.” both published in Ann E. Kaplan, ed.. Women in Film A oir.
(London: British Film Institute, 1980).
Harvev, 22.
s' Carl Richardson. Autopsy: A n FJement o f Realism in Film S o ir. (Metuchen, N.J.: the
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1992), 45.
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“ femmes noires,” and defines these women as not femme fatales, but as a seductively
destructive vet doom ed female protagonists. Dick inadvertently challenges noir
historiography by placing In A Inanely Place firmly within noir and calls Dix’s character an
“homme noir.” to Yet, this study, in its cross studio scope, shows that female
protagonists that challenge traditional noir definitions are not studio-based. Instead,
thev may be linked more clearly to where films are situated.
W 'Taile som e of the m ost memorable noir spider women have come from Los
Angeles films, consider Phvllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (1944) or Cora Smith in
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), in surveying Los Angeles noir, female characters
are not so easily pigeon-holed. Rather, thev are often victims o f larger patriarchal orders
or social structures, and these films demonstrate how domesticitv in Southern California
is either warped or threatened. For example, Mildred Pierce m the film o f the same
name, cannot elevate herself sociallv because of class and gender stratification but
through marriage, despite her wild entrepreneurial (and ever-so emblematic o f the
American dream) success.
Or, Southern California females are the would-be target o f wolfish men and
rapists alike as in the case o f The D eiil Thumbs A Ride (1947) or The Blue Gardenia. H ( : In
w Bernard F. Dick. “Columbia's D ark Ladies and the Femmes Fatales o f Film N oir.”
Literature Film Quarterly. Volum e 23, Num ber 3: 1995; see also Nina Leibman. N.C.
“The Family Spree o f Film N oir.” journal of Popular Film and Teletnsion. Vol. 16, No.4,
1989, 168-184.
s :s Dick, 155.
S ( ' See also Once A Thief (1950) in which June Havoc's character, Margie a shoplifter,
flees to Los Angeles from San Francisco and decides to leave crime. She becomes a
hard-working girl but falls to the wily charms of Mitch, who steals her monev and
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the former, Agnes Smith is presumably murdered fighting off her attacker; in the latter,
Nora Larkin attacks her date-rapist Harrv Prebble with a fire poker, passes out. and
awakens to find him dead beside her. The film focuses on her paranoia at potentially
being his murderess and eventual discovery; but in its resolution, it is revealed that
another one o f Prebble’s victims, a jilted pregnant ex-lover has killed him for his refusal
to help in her crisis. In The . ■ Leased (1948) we find a similar plot— L'CLA psychology
professor W ilma Tuttle, in fighting off one o f her amorous students, accidentally kills
him. The rest o f the film deals with her guilt, paranoia, and fear o f discovery, liven
Mike Hammer’s Velda o f Kiss Me. Deadly is not the hardened force one would expect;
she regularly practices ballet and her toy poodle sleeps on the pillow next to her. She
visibly yearns for Mike's callous attention. And finally, consider the sexualized peril
presented in the posters for the Los Angeles as default film Crime 1 1 are.
Women in Southern California postwar film, while at time conforming to
traditional definitions of the noir spider woman, are more often presented as in
abundance but also in danger. This tendency in Los Angeles narratives explains why so
many of these films are considered simultaneously film noirs and women’s films,
including Possessed (1947), M ildred Pierce (1945), In A Lonely Place (1950), Once .1 Thief
(1950), and The Blue Gardenia (1953), among others, whether that danger is represented
in the loss o f domestic stability or in the real violence women face in a world o f sexual
predators. This depiction contributes to extant regional stereotypes that use the Black
Dahlia murder as the representative crime against women. Conforming to presumably
informs on her to the San Francisco police. He also makes the moves on her best
friend. Discovering his treachery. Havoc kills him. For complete film citations see
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male audiences o f the time, these films seem to indicate that Southern California
women are attractive and disposable.
Race & Ethnicity in Los Angeles Films
In conjunction with the wav female sexuality is represented in Southern
California films, so too are the issues o f race and ethnicitv. Though probablv
attempting to ground the stories more firmlv within their setting because o f Los
Angeles’s racial demographic, filmmakers used racial and ethnic stereotypes to enhance
themes o f sexuality and exoticism prevalent in manv storylines. Scholars writing on Los
Angeles’ postwar film often mistakenly assume that these films fail to ever include
people o f color, namely because o f industry self-censorship, such as the process o f self-
regulation the industry underw ent after its 1942 meeting with the NAACP when
Hollywood agreed to refrain from representing African Americans in degrading roles.
Yet, one glimpses various examples of people o f color and whiteness in Southern
California films: from the working class G reek mechanics in Kiss Me. Deadly to the
presumably Polynesian waiters in The Blue Gardenia to the Chinese head water in The
Bigamist, a story in which a m arried man falls for Phyllis M artin, an Anglo-American
working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant. Indeed, it is in part this studio self-
regulation vis a vis African American representation that shifts these traditional African
American stereotypes to other racial and ethnic others. These representations also
follow earlier regional fiction which does the same reversal. Recall Nathanael W est’s
W orks Consulted. W orks Consulted.
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producer in Day o f the Locust who has his Chinese servant dress as a plantation slave and
calls him a “black rascal.”
The results o f this scholarly assumption in film studies are often historically
incomplete interpretations. While the region’s exotic architecture is often rightfully
highlighted in scholarly analyses o f various films, there are im portant instances where
actual people represent their own race and ethnicity. Indeed, Eric Lott’s somewhat
famous essay on the “whiteness” o f film noir, though righdv re-working previous
deracinated visions o f Los Angeles postwar film, fails to emphasize that race and
ethnicity are sometimes portrayed through actual people in Southern California film,
albeit not representatively o f the entire population. Lott focuses on the visual style o f
noir and analogizes noir’s shadows and accoutrements to expressions o f racial
difference; in interpreting Double Indemnity, Lott observes,
From the beginning, N e ff s adulterous partnership with Phvllis
D ietnchson takes the form o f a passage out o f whiteness. Phyllis
lives in a “California Spanish house” built, N eff surmises, in the
m id-1920s, a m om ent o f racial exoticism and primitivism appropriate
to Phyllis’ designs. W hen N eff first sees her, she has been
sunbathing, and this relatively new white interest in fashionable
self-othering— together with the redoubtable signifier o f Phyllis’
anklet or “slave bracelet”— makes even m ore necessary her
cosmetic masquerade to get her “face on straight.”* 7
L sing often presentist notions o f race and ethnicity, Lott builds airy analyses that would
instead possibly bear fruit if all films were devoid a people o f color.K H A better
investigation should consider how noir’s characters o f color actually operate.
s Eric Lott. “The W hiteness o f Film Noir.” American Literary History, Vol. 9, no 3
(Fall), 1997.
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Contrary to what some film scholars see as a total “white-washing” o f race and
ethnicity in Southern California film, filmmakers occasionally did include racial
minorities in films. Filmmakers did use racial difference as ways to enhance storylines
by building o ff historical associations o f the region and sexist stereotypes concerning
people of color and ethnic whites, whether it be in the “Va-va-Voom!” exclamation
Mike Hammer’s Greek mechanic greets when seeing him and their discussion o f cars
using the pronoun “she,” to the various people represented in The blue Gardenia. which
uses race to build on its themes o f sexuality; its setting is linked to exoticism, and the
film’s centerpiece, the Blue Gardenia restaurant, illustrates this association. As in the
case of The blue Dahlia, the film is named in part after this restaurant/nightclub and the
flowers that decorate both places. Elaborately decorated in a Polynesian style with
bamboo furniture and hothouse flowers, the restaurant furthers an exotic tendency in its
waiters who are all Asian or Hawaiian and its entertainment: African American N at
King Cole sings the song “The Blue Gardenia.”
8 f t See also Julian Murphet. “ Film Noir and the Racial Unconscious.” Screen. Volume
39, No. 1 Spring 1998: 22-35. N oir’s invention o f a new white, male protagonist in
relation to the femme fatale illustrates the ‘logic o f U.S. racism,’ according to Murphet.
He explains this in the following: “The most significant achievement o f this cycle o f
films was to have invented (principally in the person o f H um phrey Bogart) a new kind
o f character, a new white man, whose existential grayin’, misogyny and hard-boiled
cynicism cohered into a new and arresting paradigm o f American identity (from which
African-Americans are perforce excluded, and to which the French intellectuals o f the
period were inordinately attracted). Yet precisely because o f the exaggerated volatility’
o f this new subject-particularly in relation to its structural anti-type, the femme fatale-it
invariably performs more than the embittered petit-bourgeois misanthropy that is its
manifest content.” (24) M urphet defines noir’s chronotype as the exclusively masculine
streetscape. W omen, according to the author, function as surrogate African Americans
positing that “sexism and racism are so intimately connected as to be inextricable.”
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In som e cases ethnic agents are vehicles for the female protagonist’s downfall.
For example, in The Bad and the Beautiful married Rosemary Bartlow is secretly lured
away from her author/screenw riter husband by Victor ‘G aucho’ Ribera, as planned by
studio head Jonathan Shields, so that her husband James Lee can finish a script.
Gaucho fully seduces Rosemary, and the two die in a plane crash en route to Acapulco.
In a related twist. Once .1 Thief s Margie is duped bv a con man, played bv Cesar
Romero. Though Romero's character is presumably Anglo, based on his nam e— Mitch
Moore, one wonders if audiences recognized him as Moore, or as Cesar Rom ero, or his
previous character archetype— prior to Once A ThieJ'he had immediately only played
overtly foreign, dangerous, and sometimes sexualized characters/1 ' And, as film
scholars have argued, race and ethnic difference do manifest themselves in other forms
in Southern California films.
As Lott righdy posits, there are clear indications when the region’s built
environment provides an extension to the film's use o f race and ethnicity. In the Blue
Gardenia, again, the architectural sty le of the Blue Gardenia, tiki, manages to m eld the
three dom inant themes of the film’s Los Angeles: exoticism, sexuality, and a Playboy like
masculinity and bachelorhood.'"1 Emerging in the 1950s, tiki architecture originated in
S l' While Rom ero has had an incredibly productive career playing a variety o f roles, in
the years immediately preceding Once A Thief {\95D) Romero was in hove That Brute
(1950) where he played the character of Pretty Willie; The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful
Bend (1949) where he played Blackie |obero; Deep Waters (1948) where he played Joe
Sanger; Lad)' in Ermine (1948) where he played Mario; Julia Misbehaves (1948) w here he
played Fred Ghenoccio; Carnival in Costa Rica (1947) where he plaved Pepe Castro; and
Captain from Castile (1947) when he played Hernando Cortez. For the most part, these
characters are lotharios, thugs, o r overtlv not the Anglo American ideal.
It is worth noting that Playboy was first published in 1953, the year The Blue Gardenia
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California and quickly spread across the nation using tropical plants, pools and
Polynesian statuary. Although used in a few homes and professional buildings, tiki
architecture was used immensely in apartm ent buildings and eventually becam e a
symbol for a new, masculine sexual freedom.'^1 This sense o f exoticism and otherness
again gains an aura o f eroticism w hen we learn that N orah’s fiance has left her for
another woman, a nurse in the army. Although this woman is probably white and not
an exotic other, the foreign space o f Korea makes such an indiscretion possible. But,
though some films include portraits o f people o f color in Southern California, overall
films tailed to include a realistic m irror o f the region’s demographics, rendering
credibility to analyses from scholars like the aforementioned interpretation o f Lott.
The m anner in which Southern California’s diversity became m isrepresented or
whitewashed caused at least one viewer to write in, exclaiming over the lack o f
representation o f ethnicity in the highly hyped as “authentic” Dragnet (1954). In
September o f 1954, C.A. Sim m ons wrote disgustedly to the president o f W arner
Brothers over the film’s (and television series’ ) lapses:
I’m for jack W’ ebb, D ragnet, et cetera, 100° o. But— PLEASE-
when will Jack W ebb, W arner Brothers et all, reallv come to life in
the quest to make all o f this so authentic? Really authentic?
Every time I see the program , and I saw the picture, but I have vet
to see shown- what I call- O N E BLACK F A C E .. OR O N E
MINORITY! At the rate the series is going- it should be called the
PALEFACE SERIES. I’m not being facetious either.
I love California, lived there for quite a few years, have many
friends and acquaintances on the police force there, which is really
was released.
M Information accessed from The T ik i Kews at
wAvw.indieweb.com/tiki/destinations.html on April 28, 1998.
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the finest. I defy you to get into the city hall, the stations in the
trouble areas, without seeing persons o f color or o f minorities
working in all sorts o f capacities...both male and female. It makes
you quite proud to see all those colors and creeds working together,
but not as Jack W ebb portrays them.';-
Simmons concludes bv urging W arner Brothers to add “som e color and mix-up” to
alleviate the “m onotonous” “paleface” variety and reallv represent the region.
Unsurprisingly, representations o f race and ethnicity model larger stereotypic
assumptions available in the region’s literary tradition, where race and sexuality are
intertwined, and in national attitudes. The highlighting o f racial and ethnic difference,
then, contributes to the sexual overtones expressed in female characters o f Southern
California film. This portrait, hardly representative o f the region’s population, fulfills a
destructive end. In addition to failing to show Southern California as it was (and is),
such representations deny its residents a true glimpse of w ho thev are, impeding an
attachm ent to their diverse and highly remarkable place.
Clearly. Southern California film maintains striking similarities that instructs its
audiences’ on Los Angeles’ worth. Bv manipulating the region’s history and building on
pre-existing stereotypes. Southern California films describe a site where enorm ous
material opportunity abounds at the cost o f moral compromise. If what film scholars
posit is true, that noir in its subjective and uneasy storylines welcome viewer
identification, the oft-cited escapist nature o f cinema is diminished. The “it’s just a
movie” refrain is weakened in the noir incarnation because as film scholar J.P. Telotte
1 , 2 Letter from C.A. Simmons to H. M. W arner dated Septem ber 29, 1954, accessed
from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern
California.
2 3 4
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argues, “ (i)t also casts in relief the discursive practices that lead us to see ourselves as the
creators, possessors, and narrators o f these things.”1 '5 Telotte’s theory, though hardly
tested, appears to have substance; in late 1948 one em bezzler purportedly turned
himself in after viewing the psychological torment the main protagonist o f The Accused
(1948) underwent awaiting to be discovered for her accidental killing, commenting, “A
guy’s a sucker to think he can get awav with it.”'* 4
I f noir asks the viewer to place herself in the storylines presented in the films,
how does that translate to sense o f place in the doom ed resolutions o f m ost noir cycles
where its residents, despite the efficacy o f law enforcement, are proposed as mindless,
sometimes soulless, individuals following a course o f self-destruction based on their
own need for instant gratification and material needs?1 '5 More specifically, as Chapter
Seven investigates, does this depiction o f the typical Southern Californian encourage
consideration o f one’s neighbor or interest, not to m ention a sense o f responsibility, to
the region itself?
CONCLUSION:
The body o f films produced from the 1940s to the mid 1950s taking place
narratively in Southern California can be broken down into four categories: Southern
‘ '5 Telotte, 35.
1 ,4 “Movie Stirs Surrender.” Los Angeles Daily S em . 29 D ecem ber 1948, 7.
'h O f course, not all films about Los Angeles have such ambivalent endings. See for
example, The Deni Thumbs 1 Ride (1947) in which the police are presented unequivocally
as the heroes; they m ust stop the m urderous and remorseless rampage o f its villain,
Steve Morgan.
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California noir, the Hollywood film, Los Angeles as default setting, and the Road
movie. In differing degrees, they contribute to a general celluloid stereotype that at
once borrows from earlier regional literature, manipulates Southern California history,
and formalizes the stereotype by repeatedly showing similar tales in a wider
broadcasting force. This assessment generally sees Southern California as a place o f
peril, inequity, o f unfathom able wealth, and o f loose or deviant sexuality. W om en, in
particular, are largely portrayed as beautiful and disposable figures to be used in
accordance to m an’s wants; further shaping the space as a place where dom estic
harmony, a central ideal o f postwar America, is threatened.
The historic location o f these films in terms of film’s overall disseminating
power, along with other mediated forces explored in Chapters Two and Three, helped
to inculcate this vision in the minds o f Americans across the country and in the
residents themselves, with movie going attendances at their highest rates. While other
celebratory images o f the region emerged in conjunction with these films that focused
on travel, leisure, and Los Angeles’ growing suburbia, often times films integrated these
elements into their plot, altering the positive intentions behind this imagery. Most
importantly, while Los Angeles was used symbolically as the typical American citv in
some narratives, for example, in Rebel Without A Cause, the overall Southern California
stereotype differed gready from Anywhere, LT .S.A.
Though looking at Southern California films that stav in the region mav
demonstrate growing patterns in the way the place, women, and ethnicity is relaved,
undoubtedly these various factors must be judged against the way other city depictions
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correspond. As such. Chapter Five provides a comparative look at Los Angeles film
through a deeper investigation into the Road movie and a survey o f the wavs other
major L’S cities are portrayed by Hollywood during the same period.
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CHAPTER FIVE:
CO M PA RIN G CITIES IN POSTW AR FILM. N EW YORK, CH IC A G O , B O STO N
A N D TH E LOS ANGELES ROAD FILM
A city has many faces—
The N aked City (1948)
As the previous chapter illustrates through Los Angeles, The N aked City’ s
pronouncem ents on the multivalent nature of cities, especially celluloid cities, is an apt
observation. Los Angeles’ role in 1940s and 1950s film can take on manv guises,
complicating our understanding o f Southern California film. But as Chapter Four has
also shown, within the variability o f stories set in one geographic place, there often
anses repeated themes and characterizations in place portrayal. This chapter will show
that other celluloid American cities follow suit; while each dtv could be used in
divergent plotlincs, filmic places tell similar tales, differentiating these places from other
specific locales. These portrayals accomplish the impossible; at once expressing the
heterogeneity o f urban living while also showing universal experiences rooted in a
specific site and also carving out distinct celluloid identities for the places in question.
Filmmakers used dry portrayals in order to situate appropriate stories and in so
doing, built on literary and historic dvic imagery in extending these stereotypes to the
screen. And, as this study documents, these urban stereotypes were manipulated in
accordance with filmmaker sensibilities. The emergence o f different celluloid dtv
stereotypes became so pronounced that by 1947, W arner Brothers began to create a citv
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sound library, prom pted in part with the production o f Possessed' a film taking place in
Baltimore and Los Angeles. Indeed, Los Angeles’ stereotype can be discerned in the
sounds assigned to it w hen compared with other celluloid cities. According to a studio
publicity release, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, London— all have
distinctive sounds in the movies, italics added:
Baltimore, according to Hal Shaw, librarian o f sound effects at
W arner Bros. Studios, has more than its share o f church and other
bells. Baltimore will be able to hear itself on the screen when
“Possessed” arrives there.
As for Los Angeles, its most distinctive noise, according to the
same authorities, is a chorus o f automobile horns mixed with
shrieking sirens. Also, it has an uncom m on num ber o f flat
wheeled street cars which add to the distinctive hubbub o f the
West Coast city—
New York, says Shaw, has a sound effect all its own. This is made
up o f distant steam boat whistles, the low rumble o f the subway,
bells and whisdes at certain hours, and whisper of hurrying millions
anxious to get some place else in a hurry. Chicago is marked bv
the overhead roar o f the elevated and the sound o f the wind from
or toward Lake Michigan.
London’s background noises are punctuated bv the sound of Big
Ben telling the public the time, the clap-dap o f horse-drawn
vehicles on cobblestone pavements. ..1
While these aural indicators are rooted in an urban reality, Los Angeles’ dependence on
the car, for example, these selections demonstrate the two dimensional ways filmmakers
often envisioned places. Describing Los Angeles automobile “noise” as “shrieking”
1 ‘‘W arners’ Studio Library Records City’s Noises.” Possessed publicity package, accessed
from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern
California. At the tim e. Possessed was called The Secret.
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compared with the “whispers” o f eight million hurrying New Yorkers is evocative o f
how the film industry used these cities, aside from storylines.
As does this sound library, this survey reveals the wavs in which filmmakers
treated American cities, showing demonstrably different characterizations between New
York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. In exploring how other m ajor LT S cities are
used, this study shows that settings perform significant narrative purposes and that
Southern California’s particular purpose, while integral in explaining a protagonist’s
choices or fated demise, does not create an admirable regional identity. These
representational differences shape popular views o f a region or citv with other
experiences and mediated images. A nd as the following chapter traces in detail, Los
Angeles’ media-made identity deleteriously instructs its residents on the merits o f the
region, influencing the ability o f Southern Californians to forge meaningful attachm ents
to place.
This chapter is organized to highlight how differentiation occurs in filmic urban
depiction and to show how Southern California’s portrayal exists with other urban
themes, beginning with an exam ination o f how other cities are represented in film,
specifically New York, Chicago, and Boston. These cities are used because, along with
Los Angeles, they rate among the m ost known in the nation with extant literary work
and developed histories that are linked to concepts o f “America.” It begins in part with
New York because in addition to Los Angeles, New York is one o f the m ost frequently
used cities in this period o f Hollywood film. Next, it then turns to Chicago and Boston
to show that even though these cities are featured in relatively few films, their
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representations follow specific trajectories. Finally, this study turns to the Los Angeles
Road movie, introduced in Chapter Four, and shows how in Los Angeles films where
more than one specific site is used, setting takes on m ore explicit narrative purposes. In
exploring the Los Angeles Road film Detour (1945), analysis delves into the literary and
historical foundations that filmmakers relied upon in situating films, and in turn helped
to bolster future regional fiction.
City characterization in Am erican postwar film is an integral elem ent to each
film’s narrative motives. As film scholar Dana Polan argues, “The city is not only a
subject o f the films but a device for the narration o f films.”2 This chapter’s survey
reinforces Polan’s assertions; for each city explored here there exists a postwar film that
explicitly uses the city as em bodim ents o f the film’s story, either as through dialog or
symbolically through its characters. From The N aked City’s (1948) contention that the
film shows, “the face o f New York City.” to 1953’s The City That Never Sleeps where a
Chicago police sergeant plays the “voice o f Chicago,” to, as Polan notes, the listing o f
Los Angeles as a plavcr in Once A Thief (1950). ' And, like Southern California
narratives, these portrayals build on a place’s pre-existing literary and historical identity.
But, as this chapter also traces, com pared with Southern California centered narratives,
these films are m arkedly different in relaying the worth o f the place to movie going
audiences.
•Dana Polan. Power and Paranoia: History, Narrative, and the American Cinema, 1940-1950.
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 236.
' Polan, 235.
2 4 1
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COMPARING FILMIC CITIES:
This chapter spans over fifty films using different American locales, from New
York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, via the Road movie which includes multiple
sites.4 While it does not exhaustively explore why filmmakers used each city in the wavs
they did, its does show that patterns emerge, encouraging urban stereotypes. This
comparative study focuses on specific verbal articulations on the nature o f the city in
each film and the general historic context of each place at the time o f production. This
investigation uses close textual analysis, plot summaries, and at times surveys
production factors which shaped a city’s use in film. Because this chapter is ccntrallv
about Los Angeles and its celluloid image and because it deals with four cities and
numerous films, it moves rather quickly from dtv to city, ending in an overall analysis
that is geared to a deeper understanding of Southern California film. As such, the
orientation o f this investigation reflects the underlying goal o f this study, understanding
Los Angeles’ filmic presence, in a comparative manner.
New York City: the Great Equalizer
In numbers alone, the popularity of New York City’s filmic use clearly reveals
the importance o f setting to filmmaker goals. Between 1941 and 1950 over four times
as many films take place in the Big Apple as in the city o f Los Angeles during the same
period, according to the American Film Institute. This percentage is even more striking
considering that location shooting was not a requisite in determ ining narrative
4 For complete list o f films investigated, please see the Works Consulted
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placement for these num bers.5 1948’s The N aked City is lauded as being the first feature
film shot in New York City, attesting to the infrequency o f the practice. The rate with
which filmmakers set their stories in the dty is a reflection, in part, of its extant popular
image.
New York’s image in popular discourse prior to the 1940s dates back to late 18th
century in literature. And, according to the Entyclopedia o f New York City, in the 19th
century the city’s affiliation as a democratic space was bolstered by the poetrv o f W alt
Whitman and observations o f Edgar Allan Poe, who both lived there.6 While its
current vision is an amalgam o f various historic factors mixed with literary and filmic
renditions that dilute the potency o f its presumably democratic nature; recent filmic
traditions, like the work o f W oody Allen, and national tragedies, the September 11
terrorist attacks on the Tw in Towers, have reinforced the d e w o f the cm- as all-
American, bustling with activity, and a patriotic place with character. But, New York
City’s public impression was not always celebratory; Progressives used the dtv as an
illustration o f the perils o f urban living and unchecked capitalism.7 In the first half o f
5 Approximately 998 films took place in New York City betwreen 1941 and 1950, and
148 took place in the d ty o f Los Angeles. The Los Angeles numbers do not represent
films shot in other Southern California locales and this reference is not exhaustively—
failing for example to m ention the 1945 Mildred Pierre which in addition to Pasadena
takes place in downtown Los Angeles. American Film Institute. American Film Institute
Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1941-1950 Indexes. (New
York: R. R. Bowker, 1998), see 906 and 929-932.
6 From entry entitled ‘Literature’ from Kenneth T. Jackson’s (editor) The Entyclopedia o f
New York City. (New H aven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995), 680.
' We may all recall how prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the N Y PD
had gained a reputation for race based violence from several high profile altercations
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the twentieth-century, New York Citv became increasingly known as a center for literary
activity, as its growing publishing industry and pockets o f literarv circles attest to. This
association was disseminated in various wavs: The S e w Yorker began publication in 1925,
the Harlem Renaissance flourished in the citv in the 1920s and 1930s, and the 1940s saw
the surfacing o f various literarv m ovem ents that featured the citv from the plavs o f
Tennessee Williams to the Beat M ovement.8
By the 1950s with these fictional associations o f the citv, which in various
degrees painted the citv as a vibrant space, New York was also known as the nation’s
center for tourism, commerce, and advertising. T he 1951 book Sicknam es ojAmerican
Cities contained the following entries for New York City, listed in order o f popularitv,
am ong others:
America's Leading T ourist Resort, Fatherknickerbocker, Gotham ,
the Babylonian Bedlam, the Big Apple, the Big Burg, the Big Citv,
the Big Tow n, the Burg, the City, the Citv o f Orchestras, the City
of Skvscrapers, the Citv o f Towers, the Commercial Citv, the
Empire City, the Friendly City.9
While these nicknames indicate that the dty did n ot only hold an elevated place in
American consciousness, for example # 4 “the Babvlonian Bedlam,” thev do show the
general trajectory with which Am ericans increasingly saw New York Citv— a place o f
and trials. Jackson, 681. The reference lists the photography o f Jacob Riis and the
literature o f Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser.
8 Jackson, 683.
9 Gerard L. Alexander. Sicknam es o f American Cities. (New York: Special Libraries
Association, 1951), 25-26. O th er nicknames include , the Frog and Toe, the Mecca o f
Telephone Men, the Melting Pot, the Metropolis, the Metropolis o f America, the
Metropolitan Citv. the M odem G om orrah, the University o f Telephony, the World's
Capital Citv.
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energy and m ovem ent, ranging in commercial and intellectual interests. Writing o f New
York’s popular persona rooted in the citv’s use in literature, scholar Ralph Willett
compares New Y ork and Los Angeles,
If the discourse o f LA ... is constituted bv conditions, that o f New
York is derived from people— W hitman, Sticglitz, la Guardia,
Rockefeller, Moses. Gam bino; places— Coney Island, Harlem . Park
Avenue; and architecture— the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chrysler and
Empire State Building.1 0
Undoubtedly, by the 1940s already New York’s identity in public discourse and
literature is grounded in real people and recognized buildings, know n as exemplars o f
great architecture. Though writing on New York fiction across the twentieth-centurv,
Willett’s observations apply to the filmic use o f the city.
As one o f the m ost used identities in postw ar film. New Y ork narratives range
in nature and tone from A ll A bout Eve (1950) a dram a about theater society, to How to
M any A Millionaire (1953) a movie centered around the efforts o f three models to find
wealthy— millionaire— husbands, to Little Fugitive (1953) the story o f a little boy who
escapes to Coney Island after erroneously believing he has killed his brother. Despite
their dissimilar storylines, New York films represent the place as a democrauc space
where individuals may rise from obscurity to greatness, or chose not to. Most
importandy, filmmakers tend to present the city in nostalgic overtones. W hether this
nostalgia is the result o f the Hollywood-based filmmaker's personal experience or that it
builds on earlier N ew York-centered fiction, this sentimentality provides a framework
1 ( 1 Ralph Willett. The Flaked City: Urban Crime Fiction in the U SA . (M anchester
Manchester University Press, 1996), 49.
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from which to observe the dty. Two films express the m anner in which a nostalgia
seeps into New Y ork films: The N aked City (1948) and the Seven Year Itch (1955), the
former about the successful police investigation o f a murdered blond m odel, the latter
the story o f an ad m an’s imaginative daydreams featuring his upstairs neighbor, also a
blond model.
The N aked Citv (19481
The N aked City, as its tide suggests, is as about the city in which the storv takes
place as it is about the plot, tagged, “The Most Exciting Story o f the W orld's Most
Exciting City!” A nd, like Dragnet (1954), The N aked City, a police procedural, went on to
inspire the 1950s television series of the same name. Produced bv famed N ew York
theater columnist Mark Hellingcr, directed by later blacklisted Jules Dassin, screenplay
by later blacklisted Albert Maltz and D ad d Wald, The N aked City com m unicates the
political and em otional sensibilities o f its filmmakers with its focus on the sentimental,
the ordinary, and the quotidian. In particular, producer Mark Hellinger was popularly
known for his over-romanticizing d a his Broadway colum n in William Randolph
Hearst’s Daily Mirror- with a readership at its height at over 18 million.1 1
From its beginnings, the viewer understands the d ty ’s diversity* and multiplidty.
As the camera provides a birds’ eye \5ew o f the city, the opening \*oiceover, prodded by
producer Mark Hellinger, announces,
1 1 Malvin Wald. “T he Anatomy o f Hit.” In Matthew J. Bruccoli, cd., Malvin Wald and
Albert Maltz. The N aked City, (screenplay) (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1979), 135.
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As you see, we are flying over an island, a city. A particular cirv.
And this is a story o f a num ber o f people. And a story also o f the
city itself. It was not photographed in a studio.. .This is the citv as
it is, hot summer pavem ents, the children at plav, the buildings in
their naked stories, the people without m akeup...
Hellinger introduces the various filmmakers and highlights that the citv, with its people
and edifices, is the film’s m ajor player. After this introduction, the film begins to
anthropom orphize the city through a series of rhetorical questions:
A dty has many faces— It’s one o ’clock in the m orning now—
And this is the face o f N ew York City— when it’s asleep— on a
hot summ er night— D oes m oney ever sleep, I wonder? Does a
machine become tired? O r a song? Docs stone ever feel weariness?1 2
The film then switches, p rodding a window into the thoughts and conversations o f
various New Yorkers as they start the day— the inner complaints o f a bank teller, the
musings o f a housewife, the announcem ents o f a disc jockey, the lunch hopes o f a
telephone operator (not liverwurst). Immediately, the viewer understands the multitude
o f accessible experiences in the dry. As it switches from person to person, the film’s
point of view rests on the strangulation murder o f a w om an by two men. The film’s
narrator then notes that in a citv o f 8 million, scenes such as this can also be “called
routine,” also a grim rem inder o f how democracy may also be manifested.
With such an unsettling opening, one may w onder how this vision may be
transformed into something sentimental or merely positive. Yet, interspersed with the
story on solving this crime are various New York scenes, and there are well over a
dozen featuring babies or children at play throughout die course o f the film. And, the
film pulls at the viewer’s heart strings through its portrayal o f police work, highlighting
1 2 Bruccoli, 3-4.
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the successes o f the N ew York Citv Police Departm ent in glorious detail, this
characterization fostered bv writer Malvin Wald’s dealings with them. Writing of his
portrayal, Wald describes how working with the N Y PD was a transformative
experience, excerpted at length here:
They did not greet me with open arms. I felt like a criminal suspect
as the various detectives eved m e with cold appraisal. They brusquely
informed me that thev harbored litde affection— or respect— for
Hollywood screen writer, especially those w ho wrote murder mysteries
based on the books o f Dashiell Hammett o r Raym ond Chandler.
In too many fictional movies, police detectives were shown as lazy,
comic characters, who wore derbies indoors and spoke out o f the
side o f their m ouths like ex-cons. Thev were portrayed as hopelessly
inefficient buffoons and bunglers who could n o t find a sailor in the
Navy Yard w ithout the help o f Sam Spade o r Philip Marlowe. In
m ost films, they were unable to solve even the simplest murder
without the assistance o f the wise-cracking private eye and his leggy
blonde secretary. And this in the face of the fact that not a single
m urder had been solved bv a private detective in the last quarter-
century.1 3
W ald’s memories are important, o f course, in understanding the film’s depiction o f the
N Y PD , but his recollections are even m ore compelling when remembering that the
locales for much o f these Hammett and Chandler private-detective centered films were
Southern California and, to a lesser extent, San Francisco.1 4 In response to Wald’s
outline for the film, Hellinger praised his romanticization o f New York, calling his use
1 3 Bruccoli, 138.
1 4 See Los Angeles based Double Indemnity (1944), Murder, Aly Sweet (1944), The Big Sleep
(1945), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Pitfall (1948). For San Francisco, note the 1930s Charlie
Chan films which usually take place in San Francisco along with The Maltese Falcon
(1941). James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts. The Great Detective Pictures.
(Meruchen, N.J.: the Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1990).
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of voiceover, “the kind o f rom antic Walt-Whitman-tvpe narration.” 1 5 That Wald’s
screenplay used this nostalgia and worked against previous police portrayals is important
in understanding The N aked City's disjunctives with Southern California film and placing
this portrayal in the larger body o f New York fiction.
Aside from showcasing the painstaking work o f the N Y PD , The N aked City
manages in odd m om ents to illustrate the city’s presumably democratic spirit. In one
scene a newspaper boy democratizes a billboard by penciling in a moustache on a
celebrity ’s image, figuratively taking down the star a peg or two in the swish o f a pencil.
In killer and wresder Willie G arzah’s apartm ent the audience can hear his neighbor
practicing scales on die violin, juxtaposing the refined against the coarse. Even the
film’s villains, Frank Niles and Willie Garzah reach across class and ethnic lines in
forming their partnership; according to the screenplay Niles is a pampered Anglo
playboy and Garzah is an ethnic, w orking class thug.
Filmmakers were unabashedly happy with the film’s portrayal; Hellinger
purportedly called the film his “celluloid m onum ent to New York.” 1 6 And this
nostalgic worldview influenced the film in interesting ways. Scholar Michael Grost
notes that this attitude frames m ost o f the film, from the cam era’s point o f \iewr, to the
way the New York City Police Departm ent are presented as com m on folk;
1 3 Bruccoli, 142.
1 6 Bruccoli, 146.
2 4 9
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Thev are shown as a collection o f shrewd, honest, but m uch more
human people. The police tend to be married, and have functioning
bonds with women. N o one's closest relationship is with a partner.
N o one on the police seems to be deep in military discipline as a life
style.1 7
The focus on the ordinariness o f the city reinforces its vision as a place of democratic
equality. But the city shows that the ordinary and democracy are n ot homogenous
entities, articulating the 1950s pluralistic, melting pot ideal.
The film’s homage to the city and police force did not go unnoticed at its
release. Film historian Carl Richardson notes, at least one film critic noticed the film’s
pervasive “rose-colored” perspective concerning New- York City. Richardson w-rites,
P.\I Daily s reviewer found the New- York City o f The N aked City one
that had been filtered through Hellinger's "rose-colored glasses."
Peering through these spectacles, "we see a home town that belongs
to us, our ow n hom e tow n, its irritations and hostilities transformed
into darling eccentricities, the wrinkles in its face become lines o f a
friendly beauty."1 8
The N aked City’s vision o f postw ar New York works in tandem with other examples in
film, reflecting the city’s literary traditions and the ideas filmmakers held o f the citv.
Yet, the film appears to accomplish the impossible— creating a nostalgic place where
violent m urder can be “routine,” a departure from the noir narrative and placing the
film solidly w-ithin the realm o f a police procedural. O f a different subject entirely,
though still featuring a beautiful blond model, The Seven Year Itch (1955) provides further
1 7 Michael E. G rost. “Film N o ir The Semi-Documentary, Jules Dassin.” Classic Film
and Television Site. At h ttp ://m em bers.aol.com /M G 4273/semidoc.htmaccesscd
November 20, 2001.
1 8 Carl Richardson. Autopsy: A n Element of Realism in Film Noir. (Metuchcn, N.J.
Scarecrow- Press, Inc, 1992). Source-Cecilia Ager. "Hellinger Film is a Love Song to
NYC," PM Daily, 5 March 1948: 15.
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illustration o f New York that though much m ore lighthearted maintains similar attitudes
about the citv.
The Seven Year Itch ('1955^1
Released seven years after The N aked City, The Seven Year Itch describes New
York in related nostalgic terms. Directed by Billy Wilder and based on a play bv George
Axelrod, The Seven Year Itch is usually recognized as a vehicle for Marilrn Monroe, whose
character is so objectified that she is never properlv nam ed, merelv referred to as “The
Girl.” But, the film also retells important N ew York stories, in ways similar to other
New York fiction. The film is about Richard Sherman, a publishing man with an over
active imagination just like another literary and celluloid N ew Yorker, Thurber’s Walter
Mitty. As the film opens, it is the beginning o f summer Sherm an is on the brink o f
facing his seventh vear o f marriage, a marital period noted as when most husbands strav,
called “the seven vear itch.” And, the film tells us, as is the tradition of most N ew York
families, during the summer husbands remain in the hot city to work while their wives
and children go to the country for a cool respite. Richard Sherm an’s already challenged
marriage (due to the seven year itch) is exacerbated bv the arrival o f “the Girl” upstairs,
a model who is subletting the apartment above Sherman’s for the summer, on the day
the Sherman family leaves the city for Maine.
The film’s opening aligns it immediately along the lines o f earlier New York
fiction, bv focusing on the everyday experience o f the typical resident, suggesting the
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place’s long standing historical traditions. Showing a tribe o f Native Americans, a voice
over narrates:
The island o f M anhattan derives its name from its earliest inhabitants
-th e M anhattan Indians. They were a peaceful tribe, setting traps,
fishing, hunting. A nd there was a custom am ong them. Every July
w hen the heat and the humidity on the island became unbearable,
they would send their wives and children awav for the summer, up
the river to the cooler highlands, or if they could afford it, to the
seashore. The husbands of course, would remain behind on the
steaming island to attend to business, setting traps, fishing, and
hunting.
The scene shows that as soon as their wives are o ff screen, the Native American men
pursue an attractive maiden. The film then transitions to contem porary N ew York, to
Grand Central Station, as hundreds o f New York husbands are seeing their families off
in the same way Native Americans supposedly did five centuries earlier. The film
informs its audience,
Actually, our story has nodiing whatsoever to do with Indians. It plays
500 years later. W e only brought up the subject to show you that in
all that time, nothing has changed. M anhattan husbands still send
their wives and kids away for the summer and they still remain
behind in the steam ing city to attend to business, setting traps, fishing,
and hunting.
Paralleling the two civilizations and focusing on the presumably universal New York
nuclear family unit (instead o f realistically portraying the Native Am erican extended
family) positions New Y'ork and its inhabitants as typical, ordinary7 , and also
unquestioningly American.
T hough the film does not deny that New York holds its fair share o f
eccentricities— the vegetarian restaurant that also celebrates geriatric nudity, for
example. The Seven Year Itch is more about the universality o f the fears and temptations
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o f its mostlv male cast. W hat links seemingly divergent groups, in terms o f class or
ethnicitv. is m an’s wolfish desire. This lustful behavior crosses racial and ethnic lines in
the case o f the film’s opening parallel o f Native American and Anglo American men
and with Sherman’s dealings with his building’s maintenance man, Mr. Kruhulik. These
encounters also illustrate the collapsing o f class divides. Also a “ sum m er bachelor”
Kruhulik stops by the Sherman apartment to complete a task requested earlier by Mrs.
Sherman. Kruhulik boasts o f his planned escapades later on in the evening with a maid
up the street, the one with the “great big poodle,” providing a double entendre for
Sherman and the audience. Though to Kruhulik and initially in private Sherman does
not agree with his crassness nor his plans, in his hyperactive imaginative dav dreams
Sherman slowiy adopts Kruhulik’s attitudes concerning his plans at seducing “the Girl.”
While Sherman eventually makes his fantasies reality in the plav, film production
codes prohibited an onscreen seduction. Instead, the film portrays Sherman as too
insecure and inept to pull off the coup; either he is too clumsv, knocking her off a piano
bench, or too guilt ridden to approach her along such lines. Yet, the film does not leave
Sherman’s character unappreciated by “the Girl.” In the film’s final scene, we see her
comforting Sherman, assuring him o f his desirability: She confides:
How do you know- what a pretty- girl wants?...You and your
imagination. You think even- girl’s a dope. You think a girl goes to
a party-, and there's some guy, great big lunk in a fancy- striped vest,
strutting around like a tiger, giving you that 'I'm so handsome, you
can't resist me look.' And from this, she's supposed to fall flat on
her face. Well, she doesn't fall on her face. There's another guv in
the room, way over in the comer. Maybe he's kind o f nervous and
shy and perspiring a little. First y ou look past it, but then you sort
o f sense, he's gende and kind and worried. And that he'll be tender
with you. Nice and sweet. That's what's really exciting! If I were
your yvife, I'd be very- jealous o f you. I'd be very, very- jealous.
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As she ends, “the Girl” leans over and kisses him, and in so doing, elevates the ordinary
as the New York film does, allowing the audience to envision such a woman with
Sherman, instead o f with M onroe’s then real life husband baseball legend Joe
Dimaggio.1 9 Similarly, in an earlier scene, the film shows “The Girl” taken by
Sherman’s pounding o f the mundane and accessible “Chopsticks” on the piano, instead
of the high and inaccessible art o f Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto as she is in
Sherman’s fantasies. The film concludes as Sherman rushes off to join his family in the
country.
In many ways, as The Seven Year Itch attests to, if Los Angeles represents lost
possibilities in postwar film, New York may suggest its inyerse: the realized potential o f
the individual. Here, the individual is not lost in mass society; rather, man has the
accoutrements o f this world in check and manages to rise aboye the crowd. And, these
success stories are molded along American ideals o f the period. In The Seven Year Itch,
for example, Sherman returns to his family but is assured o f his desirability by M onroe’s
character. Similarly, the final scene o f The N aked City is about the birth o f another child
and promises the city holds for him, representing the turn back to the domestic postw ar
paradigm. New York films show the American dream realized in surprising ways. In
stories that are not necessarily about happy endings, for example in A ll About Eve
(1950), one sees through Eve H arrington’s and Margo Channing’s characters that
anyone can make it in New York regardless o f lowly beginnings o r warped motiyes. In
1 9 On the Town (1949) also showed models as being accessible to the common man. In
this film, sailor Gabev is able to track dow n his billboard fantasy, Ivy Smith (a.k.a. Miss
Turnstiles) to discover she is just like him.
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The Clock (1945), Corporal Joe Allen visits the city' on a two dav furlough, and within
that time meets and marries the love o f his life, Alice Mayberry. Similarly, How to Marry
A Millionaire (1953) documents how three New York models successfully look for love,
though only one finds the millionaire, w ho deceptively behaves like a “gas pump
jockey”, dressing in sports clothes and eating at diners.2 0
O f course, while not all films set in New Y ork follow a pattern in which the
ordinary is elevated and the citv is about possibility, in general films set in New York
supply such a contrast with their Southern California counterparts in the postwar
period.2 1 These trajectories of New York stories relay industry and Southern California
attitudes about the city. Just as Los Angeles film m irrors the messages presented in the
Hollywood novel, so too do celluloid representations o f New York. If in Southern
California fiction the region is a place o f unrealized grandeur in the midst of mediocrity,
New York represents the past this misplaced individual has erroneously left behind and
place he will hopefully return to. Undoubtedly, the sheer number o f transplanted and
2 0 Similarly, in The Girlfrom Avenue A (1940) MacMillan Forester, an “upper crust”
writer, cats at Galupi’s Spaghetti House.
2 1 In K ubnck’s The Killer's Kiss (1955) the audience is presented with a world where
people have become entirely commodified. Characters, Davy and Gloria function as
cogs in a cheap, amusem ent machine. They appear to only serve as entertainment for
the other characters in the film. (Davy from being a prom ising and then defeated boxer
and then as a butt o f two drunks' prank. Gloria is a dim e dancer and even for Davy
serves as a voyeuristic outlet). That the two lead protagonists function in these ways
shows the debilitating effects o f the city. This urban quality is enhanced in terms o f the
temporal urgency o f the film and the hopes o f salvation and peace in rural W ashington
state. The race to get Davy and Gloria to W ashington is a race to save their souls. This
lesson is taught when we see Gloria immediately reject her affiliation to D aw and
pleads for her life. The ending where the two reunite at the train station appears tacked
on after fully understanding the film’s lesson.
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probably homesick N ew Yorkers in the film industry aided in the creation o f a nostalgic
rendition o f it on film. While New York provides a compelling example o f the way
Southern California is treated as differendy, contrasting Los Angeles narrative with
other cities, Chicago and Boston, carries this analysis a step further.
Chicago: Broad Shoulders Bearing It All
Unlike Los Angeles and New York, films taking place in Chicago are not as
numerous and drawing patterns from them are often m ore difficult. — O f course, as
with the case o f Southern California based narratives, methodological challenges
abound in determining where a film is set. Further, the patterns that we can discern
from the films we do locate may be less potent in the overall scheme o f mass media’s
formative torce. Still, with the few that we do know of, it is important to note the ways
filmmakers use Chicago. O f the films located, a fewT themes emerge, from corrupt to
All-Amencan city. Chicago narratives can be about sports heroes; for example, The
Babe Ruth Story (1948) and B a y Living (1949) are stories about sports heroes, baseball
and football respectively, in addition to others.2 3 And they can center on fallen women.
There are also a plethora o f gangster centered films from Lady Scarface (1941) to M ad at
~ The American Film Institute lists 79 films for the period o f 1941-1950 as taking place
in Chicago. American Film Institute. American Film Institute Catalog o f Motion Pictures
Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1941-1950 Indexes. (New York: R. R. Bowker,
1998), 816.
2 3 Other sports films in Chicago between 1940 and 1955 include The Great Dan Patch
(1949), It Happens IS very Spring (1949), The Stratton Story (1949), and The Golden Gloves Story
(1950), among others. For a complete citation on all Chicago based films investigated
here, see W orks Consulted.
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the World (1955).2 4 These narrative themes are rooted in the d tv ’s historic and literary
foundations. According to the city’s historic society, for the first half o f the twentieth-
century Chicago is m ost known for its 1893, tum -of-the century, Columbia Exposition:
the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal in which the baseball team threw the W orld Series;
and its association with gangsters from the 1920s, m ost notably A1 Capone.2 5 In terms
o f films, while it is Chicago’s affiliation with organized crime that takes precedence and
influences its celluloid portrait, they are also influenced bv writing on the citv.
Chicago has long maintained a reputation as a place o f urban decav, emerging
m ost notablv during the Progressive reforms o f the tum -of-the centurv. But, as urban
historian Mark Haller notes, throughout the late 19th and earlv 20th century the d ry ’s
demographic changes helped shape such a likeness. But when moral Progressives
rumcd to the d tv ’s slums and d e e problems they brought the city’s problems into
public discourse, both within the city and the nation— thus highlighting Chicago’s
affiliation with urban malaise. Haller writes,
The concern for the moral dangers o f the d ty grew, at least in
part, out o f a moralistic value system shared by many Americans.
There was, so they believed, a close connection berween moral
character and success in life — Those w*ho frequented saloons,
gambling dens, and bordellos risked being drawn perm anendy into
a life o f dissolution and crime.2 6
2 4 O ther gangster films set in Chicago between 1940 and 1955 include Tall, Dark, and
Handsome (1941), A ever A D ull Moment (1943), Violence (1947), Tore That Brute (1950), and
The l \ arrow Margin (1952), among others.
2 5 “Chicago Historical Sodety’s History Files.” Chicago Historical Sodetv Website,
h ttp ://www .chicagohs.org/histon / accessed N ovem ber 24, 2001.
2 6 Mark Haller. “ Urban Vice and Civic Reform. Cities in . American History. Edited by
Kenneth T. Jackson and Stanley K. Schultz. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 290-
291.
2 5 7
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Like Hollywood films o f the 1920s, in the early part o f the twentieth centurv Chicago
presented a microcosm o f the nation’s changing cultural order. A nd w hen moral
crusaders such as Jane Addams called the city’s vice dens into question, they did so with
the belief that these places fostered activities that facilitated m ankind’s fatal decay. And
it is w orth noting that before the film industry becam e entrenched in Southern
California, between 1907 and 1917 Chicago housed som e o f the nation’s top
filmmakers, from organizations like the Selig Polvscope Company to film leaders such
as Charlie Chaplin.2 7 As in the case o f the film industry’s a ffiliatio n w ith Southern
California, Chicago also, to a certain extent, represented challenges to the established
cultural order for the same reasons. These concerns also influenced writing about the
cm-.
This complex identity m anifested itself in writing on the citv. W hile Chicago
has entertained its fair share o f writers (Langston H ughes, L'pton Sinclair, Ernest
Hemingway) who developed a literary Chicago, the novel most frequently associated
with Chicago and the basis for one metanarrative o f postw ar Chicago film is Theodore
Dreiser’s 1900 novel Sister Currie.2 * Based loosely on the experience o f one o f Dreiser’s
sisters, Sister Carrie tells the story o f Carrie Meeber, an innocent country girl who travels
to Chicago to find work and eventually becomes a theatrical star, in a tim e when
actresses were equated with prostitutes. This connection has a basis in Dreiser’s
2- June Skinner Sawy ers. Chicago Sketches: Urban Tales, Stories, and Legendsfrom Chicago
Historv . (Chicago: Wild O nion Books, 1995), 187.
2 S Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie. (New York: Doubledav, 1900).
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account— am ong her experiences are two affairs, a scandalous story then to America’s
reading going public. In addition to showing the changing hierarchy o f American
popular values, from a Victonan, producerist ethic to one o f conspicuous consum ption,
Dreiser’s novel docum ented the country ’s changing demographics, as men and women
increasingly m oved to the cities, leaving small towns and farms and becoming m ore
urban. As scholar Richard Daniel Lehan observes, the dty in Sister Carrie is an
important element: “ In the tradition o f Balzac, Dreiser saw the d tv as a magnet luring
young men and w om en from the provinces because only there could thev realize the
fullest sense o f self.”2 9 As Sister Carrie warns, this attraction often proved the downfall
to innocents. Despite the criticism mounted against it and its initial failures (in its initial
attempt to be published and its popularity with readers), by the 1920s the novel became
increasingly fam ous as D rdser’s other writings gained prominence; its staying pow er can
be witnessed in the plethora o f Chicago-based 61ms that follow its pattern showing dtyT
as demoralizing agent, though as this chapter will show this them e undergoes
transformation when translated to the screen.3 0
Chicago postw ar films showing the immoral transformation o f women because
o f their travels to or within the citv include Beyond the Forest (1949), Chicago Deadline
2 9 Richard Daniel Lehan. The City In Literature: A n Intellectual and Cultural Histoty.
(Berkeley, CA: University o f California Press, 1998), 200.
5 1 ' James L. W. W est III. “The Composition and Publication o f Sister Carrie." Dreiser
W'ebsource. h ttp ://www .library.upenn.edu/special/dreiser/scpubhist.htm l accessed on
November 24, 2001.
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(1949) and Carrie (1952), an adaptation of Dreiser’s novel.3 1 Chicago Deadline begins with
the discoverv o f a dead prostitute and a reporter’s quest to discover her true character
through her diary, often com pared to the sim ila r search in Laura (1944). Generally
these films alter Dreiser’s original tone, instead aligning these wom en with the
traditional noir spider wom an, who lures the unsuspecting male victim in to a deadly
seduction. In Carrie, for example, Carrie is portrayed as a self-indulgent wom an who
uses men in order to satisfy' her material needs, rather than Dreiser’s victim w ho is
powerless— even from a clothing display, that tantalizinglv appear animated in her
longing. And in Beyond the Forest, Rosa Moline, wife o f small town doctor, is bored by
the place’s inactivity and begins an affair with a visiting Chicago businessman, for whom
she eventually leaves her husband. And in Divorce (1945), molded citv girl Francis
returns to her hometown to break up a marriage. These films point to the general
postwar celluloid characterization o f Chicago women as manipulative users.
This Chicago woman is no doubt influenced by the Chicago gangster film o f the
1930s, in addition to Dreiser’s history-based story. From the 1930s forward, Chicago
has been featured in several films using gangster driven crime as the central focal point,
including the 1927 Underworld, The Doorway to H ell (1930), The Public Enemy (1931),
among others.3 2 This filmic association continues into the 1940s era in films from Gangs
3 1 Carrie. Dir. William Wyler. Perfs. Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert.
Paramount Pictures, 1952. B yond the Forest. Dir. King Vidor. Perfs. Bette Davis,
Joseph Cotton, David Brian. W arner Brothers, 1949.
3 2 The Widow From Chicago (1930), The Bishop Misbehaves (1935), Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo
(1937).
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o f Chicago (1940) to The Chicago Syndicate (1955), in addition to others.3 3 Tvpically, these
films are about heists, treachery within the gangs, the group’s attempt to flee from law
enforcement, and their eventual demise. G angs may be tightly organized groups with
complicated histories, a loose grouping o f criminals, or one corrupt leader with his
henchmen. O ne example w hich demonstrates the importance o f Chicago to
understanding the film’s story is City That Never Sleeps (1953).
City That Never Sleeps f19533
Directed and produced by John H. Auer, City That Never Sleeps was written by
longtime noir scenarist, Stephen Fisher, w ho contributed to / W ake Up Screaming (1941)
and Hell's H alf Acre (1954), am ong other films. In terms o f Chicago’s importance City
That Never Sleeps implicidy and explicitly calls upon the citv to explain how- the world
works. In addition to the way the protagonists repeatedly describe the city, the film
features a character, Sergeant Joe, who is the city incarnate; the spirit of the city made
flesh in the guise o f a policeman.
The film is about the struggles o f one policeman, Johnny Kelly, which extend
from his growing disgust for his job to his marriage where he is henpecked by his
mother-in-law and threatened by his wife’s ability to earn m ore money than he. Having
chosen the force to please his father who is also a policeman, Kelly meets and begins an
affair with a burlesque queen, Sally “Angel Face” Connors. Sally spurs Johnny on to
3 3 Gang related plots include Chicago Syndicate (1955), Dillinger (1945), Duke o f Chicago
(1949), The Earl o f Chicago (1940), Gangs of Chicago (1940), Lady Scarface (1941), Love That
brute (1950), The Narrow Margin (1952), Tall, D ark, and Handsome (1941), Undercover Man
(1949), Violence (1947).
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make drastic changes in his status quo. She is sick o f Chicago and urges him to run
away with her to California where Johnny dreams o f com m anding a fishing boat. The
film begins with Johnny’s decision to chuck it all and run away with her. But before he
can com plete his mission, he is propositioned by a corrupt lawyer, who wants Johnny to
run Hayes Stewart, one o f his henchmen w ho has turned on him, out o f town. So, the
film begins as Johnny is about to finish his last dav on the job as a policeman, also the
day he m ust run Stewart out o f town. As Johnnv receives his assignment for the dav, an
unknown older police officer informs him that his partner is out sick and he, Sergeant
Joe, is slated to work with him that night. Sergeant Joe turns out to be quite an officer.
Sergeant Joe is intended to be the em bodim ent o f Chicago in human form, but
he surprisingly functions in an almost angelic capacity. Like Clarence o f I t ’ s A Wonderful
Life (1946). Joe helps Johnny out o f tough spots almost magically. He is omniscient and
at the film’s finale, Joe disappears into thin air and no one knows who [ohnny is talking
about w hen he m entions Sergeant Joe. Throughout the film, Joe makes emotion
ladened pronouncem ents on Chicago, remarking on the “grief o f the city” after hearing
of a series o f crimes over the police radio. The film begins with Joe’s voice, narrating
the opening scene a la The N aked City but also in a style all its own:
I am the city. H ub and part o f America. M elting pot o f evert race,
creed, color, and religion you can imagine. From my famous
stockyards, to my towering factories. From my tenem ent districts
to swank Lake Shore Drive. I am the voice, the heartbeat o f this
giant, sprawling, sordid and beautiful, poor and magnificent city,
citadel o f civilization. And this is the story, just one night in this
great city. Now' meet my citizens...
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So, like The N a ked City, this film opens up bv clearly situating it in one specific place,
Chicago— the references to Lake Shore Drive cem ent it, but instead o f being framed by
one o f the film’s makers— like the Hellinger narration, this voiceover is the dty.
Imbedded within this introduction is the main them e which defines Chicago in film: the
contrariness o f the place, the poor and rich side-bv-side, the d ty ’s industrial history, its
American core. But perhaps what is most typical o f Chicago is to deem the city the
“great melting pot.”
While N ew York is also called the melting pot, as is the entire United States,
Chicago is m ore closely affiliated with this identity, in film and in national
consdousness, the latter no doubt stemming from the Chicago School of Sociology’s
focus on immigration and race relations in the United States in the early twentieth
century. The term ‘melting p o t’ originated with British Jew, Israel Zangwill. Zangwill
used ‘melting p o t’ in 1908 to describe the United States and its immigration to be not
one in which multiple sodeties conform to one, but one in which each social group
affects the other in a changing, melting pot.5 4 Headed by sodologist Robert E. Park,
the Chicago School dom inated critical race and immigration theory for the early part o f
the twentieth century and while the melting pot m odel was not the central focus o f
Park’s work, he did acknowledge it as a process.5 5
5 4 William C. Fischer, David A. Gerber, Jorge M. Guitart, and M axine S. Seller, eds.,
Identity. Community, and Pluralism in American Life. (New York: O xford University Press,
1997), 10.
5 : > In 1923, writing on another academic’s work on the West Indies, Park commented,
“ It directs attention, however, to what is, from the point o f dew- the student o f hum an
nature and o f sodety, the m ost interesting and unique feature o f the islands, namely, the
radal situation. As Professor Weatherly has said, “Perhaps nowhere else is there a better
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The film shows that the idea o f a melting pot can have positive connotations, as
in the opening voice-over, to the complaints o f Sally, who sees the process as
debilitating. Another w om an who has been lured to Chicago and not had her hopes
realized, Sally whines, “I am sick o f this town. I’m with you, Johnny. W hen I first came
to this town— . Oh, there were alot o f things I was going to do. Become famous. But
Chicago’s the big melting pot and I got melted, but good.” H er words highlight the
city’s affiliation with heterogeneity and homogeneity, but imply that the individual has
no say in the melting pot progression. And. ironically in terms o f its treatm ent o f race
and ethnicity-, though in line with Hollywood traditions, the film does not paint the city
as the popularly conceived construct o f a melting pot, but rests on sociological
constructions o f this entity which largely excluded Afiican Americans from this process.
Though there are Irish policemen, with noticeable accents, African Americans in City
That Never Sleeps are relegated to servant positions, criminal characters, or duped
gamblers.
City That Never Sleeps, however, does show an albeit white family o f man. Like
gangster narratives, this film is about brotherhoods and familial relations. The police
force is shown as a brotherhood where different players look out for each other, from
opportunity7 for securing definite evidence bearing on the opposing theories o f race and
contact as factors in cultural growth.” Every island, in fact, is a separate racial melting-
pot in which the mingled cultures and races o f Europe, Africa, and Asia seem to be
gradually, very gradually, simmering down to a single cultural, and eventually, also, to a
single racial, blend.” Robert E. Park. “Magic, Mentality, and City Life.” (1923) at
“Social Knowledge Systems Community Theory Data Set Robert E. Park Magic
Mentality and City Life,” at the Website for Social Knowledge Systems at
http://ww w.socialknowledge.com /publishing/sam ples/park_m agic.htm l accessed on
December 1, 2001.
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relatives in the force to other cops. Johnnv Kellv becomes a policeman to please his
father, “Pop” Kelly, who is also one. In the film’s m om ent o f crisis, “ Pop” Kelly is
gunned down by Hayes Stewart because he is presum ed to be Johnnv, and Johnny’s
younger brother, Stubby, who is one o f Stewart’s lackeys, is beaten up later by Stewart
as well. Finally, Sergeant Joe operates as a quasi guardian angel, in the guise o f a
policeman, extending the police force fraternity to heaven. In a related sense, the film
shows Johnny successfully delivering a baby while on the job, the third in the last two
months, and another cop affirms the frequency o f the experience, suggesting the larger
family in which policemen operate.
In the body o f films using Chicago betw een 1940 and 1955 there exist
contrasting themes that may at first appear problem atic in gauging celluloid cities, from
the corrupted female newcomer to the gangster picture to the struggles o f one
policeman, as in the case o f City That Never Sleeps. But, on close examination, these
contradictions become the city’s dom inant filmic them e. These divergent topics in
themselves describe the place: in 1951 Chicago’s m ost popular nickname was
“America’s Most Contrary- City.”3 6 Along side being known for its gangsters, Chicago
was also known as poet Carl Sandberg’s “The City o f Broad Shoulders,” an unblinkingly
coarse world. Excerpted here, Sandberg’s 1919 poem “Chicago” communicates this
contrariness:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them , for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
3 6 Alexander, 10.
2 6 5
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And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunm an kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: O n the
faces o f wom en and children I have seen the marks
o f wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those w ho
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Com e and show me another citv with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil o f piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities.. ,3 7
In many ways, Sandberg’s 1919 poem articulates the unapologetic message that
Chicago films express about the place, managing to mingle place pride in the most
unexpected portrayals. As this larger study conveys, o f course, Chicago’s filmic
stereotype manifests the place’s long standing literary and historic identity. As City That
Never Sleeps rem inds us, Chicago is a “sprawling, sordid, and beautiful, poor and
magnificent city— " But, unlike Los Angeles, this identity finds a sense o f place not
despite its myriad social problem s but because o f them — that with the problem s flung
at them, Chicagoans will prevail, illuminating yet another way in which Southern
California film distinguishes the region from other celluloid places. Turning to another
prominent American city, Boston, and its position in 1940s and early 1950s film again
illustrates the inferior worth o f Los Angeles in film o f the same period.
3' Carl Sandberg. “Chicago.” Chicago Poems. (New York: Henry Hold and Company,
1916). Accessed online at http://eserver.org/Poetrv/chicago-poem s.txt on Novem ber
24,2001.
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Boston: City on a Hill
Considered one o f the nation’s first cities and hom e of the American revolution,
Boston has long enjoyed an association in popular discourse with trulv legitimate US
history, patriotism, and religious freedom. Movements based in Boston and New
England have been recognized as im portant elements in the formation o f the
“American Adam,” the consensus driven model o f the US character.3 8 And it is
necessary to turn back to the colonial period to understand the city’s mid-20th century
filmic image.
The seeds o f this oft self-proclaimed identity began before Boston was actually
founded, when Puritan John W inthrop wrote the 1630 “A Modell o f Christian Charity”
onboard the Arbella en route to the then largely uncharted land of the “New World.”
Writing o f this promising new community, this city on a hill, W inthrop outlined his
goals:
For wee m ust consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill. The
eies o f all people are uppon us. Soe that if wee shall deale falsely with
our G od in this worke wee haue undertaken, and soe cause him to
withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a
by-word through the world. Wee shall open the m outhes o f enemies
to speake evill o f the waves o f God, and all professors for G od's sake.
3 8 Defined by Richard Lewis in the mid-1950s, the American Adam was the archetype
for the American character w hich saw' this male individual as a forward-looking rugged
independent whose spirituality' was derived in part from an appreciation for nature, as
the American continent so powerfully provided, and a skepticism toward European
traditions. Lewis’s work looks at this figure in 19th century' literature and New' England
is important in this formation through the w'ork o f W alt W hitman, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Richard Lewis. The American Adam : Innocence.
Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century. (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press,
1955).
2 6 7
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Wee shall shame the faces o f many o f God's worthy servants, and
cause theire prayers to be turned into curses upon us till wee be
consumed out o f the good land whither wee are a goeing.3 9
W inthrop’s great visions for this altruistic Puritan community saw its center, Boston, as
the place to work toward and em body this model. From its 1630 inception, Boston’s
founders recognized the importance o f Boston’s image and role in uplifting the rest of
the world, and they positioned themselves as above the fray.
This idea o f B oston’s moral exceprionalism, right or wrong, informs how the
city has been perceived since the 17th century, from the basis of its revolutionary
ideological underpinnings to Boston’s focus on high art and refined public spaces,
particularly in the 19th century. This focus manifested itself in the literary nexus o f
power known as the Boston Brahmins, a group o f socially elevated m en o f letters who
maintained prominence from the mid to late 19th century.4 1 ’ By the early 1950s, this
association was firmly entrenched— its m ost popular nicknames indicating as such.
After "Beantown," Boston was m ost popularly known as "the American Athens," "the
Athens," "the Athens o f America," and "the Athens o f the New W orld."4 1 In addition
y > J ohn Winthrop. .*1 Modell of Christian Charity (1630). In Collections o f the Massachusetts
Historical Society. (Boston, 1838), 3rd series 7, 44-46. Accessed online on November 27,
2001 at http://history.hanovcr.edu/texts/w inthm od.htm l.
4 n See Frederick Law O lm stead’s plan o f Boston’s public park system, called the
“Em erald Necklace,” and the opening o f Boston’s Public Library in 1848, the first o f its
kind to the public.
4 1 Alexander, 17. It was also called "the Bay Horse," "the Bitches' Heaven," "the Citv
of Baked Beans," "the City o f Bean Eaters," "the City o f Kind Hearts," "the Citv o f
Notions," "the Classic City," "the Hub," "the Hub o f N ew England," "the Hub o f the
Solar System," "the H ub o f the Universe," "the Hub Town," "the Literary Emporium,"
"the Metropolis o f New England," "the M odem Athens," "the Pandhandler's Heaven,"
"the Puritan Citv," "the Trim ountain City."
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to Boston's history o f social and moral elevation, the city was also recognized as a site
for learning, housing the country's top university. H arvard, as well as several other
colleges. These attributes, considered by most as positive, take on less than glowing
features in 1940s film. Indeed, it is Boston's high status in all o f these spheres which
creates the basis for conflict— be it class based or culturally rooted.
Like Chicago, films featuring Boston remain relatively few in com parison to
New York City and Southern California.4 2 However, unlike Chicago films, where
numerous plot patterns emerge, in surveying Boston movies one main them e emerges:
films use Boston’s social and class divisions as pivots on which to m m film plotlines,
from comedies to dram as, relying on the cm 's reputation for moral elitism, a la the
Boston Brahmin.4 3 Films seem to take up the contested space between the inherent
4 2 According to the Am erican Film Institute, between 1941 and 1950, 29 films were set
in Boston which diverges gready from Los Angeles at 184 and New York Citv at nearly
one thousand (998). Am erican Film Institute. American Film Institute Catalog o f Motion
Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films. 1941-1950 Indexes. (New York: R. R.
Bowker, 1998), see 805, 906 and 929-932.
4- ’ As the case o f Boston illustrates, there arc other interesting pathways to explore in
looking at dty celluloid identity, specifically, the case o f the character "Boston Blackie."
Though not situated in Boston, stories involving Boston Blackie point to how
characters may or may n ot embody a city's identity via his or her name. Boston Blackie
first emerged in popular discourse in the early nineteen teens in the short stony “The
Price o f Principle.” Charles Laughlin, Arlene Osborne, & Hal Hubin. “The Ultimate
Boston Blackie Log.” A t http://wAx-w.lofcom.com/nostalgia/boston_blackie_log.pdf
accessed on N ovem ber 24, 2001. The story was by Jack Boyle and appeared in The
American Magazine in its July 1914 issue. Since then, the character has been used in radio
serials, in other short stories, in film, and eventually in television in 1951. Between 1940
and 1950 several films featured the character o f Boston Blackie, in part helping to make
the character a household name. Boston Blackie was an ex-thief and inform al
investigator (he is often drawn into investigations bv friends seeking his help), and
stories featuring Boston Blackie are lighthearted in nature. He eventually becomes a full
private investigator w hen introduced on radio. “Boston Blackie.” The Thrilling Detective
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distance in the identities o f "Beantown" and "the American Athens." though there are
few examples o f filmic Beantowners; rather, other cities serve as examples o f this
presumably working class group.4 4
The city’s elevated social classes provide the main source o f conflict in films
featuring Boston from the 1940s and early 1950s. From Roughly Speaking (1945) to L et’ s
Dance (1950), Boston films characterize the city as a feminized Victorian world where
ludicrous social customs m ust be obeyed.4 3 And, if characters do not or cannot abide
by the regimes put before them , they are quickly ostracized or punished. In Rough/j
Speaking for example, a film set in tum -of-the-ccntury New England, independent
thinker Louise Randall Pierson is upbraided by her college headmistress for wearing a
“loud”, “ short” skirt (it is tweed and shin length), for whistling in the corridor, and for
talking to a policeman in public. The headmistress warns Louise on the gravity o f her
errors: “There’s a brilliant future ahead o f you but you may ruin it if you persist in this
independent attitude. It’s time you learned that public opinion cannot be disregarded so
cavalierly.” And in L e t’ s Dance high spirited L'SO entertainer Kitty McNeil marries a
Website, h ttp ://www.thrillingdetective.com/index.html accessed on Novem ber 24,
2001.
4 4 Though the term “B eantow n” originates with Boston’s colonial industry— the city
was part o f the triangular trade with England and the West Indies. Boston received a
lionshare o f molasses from the W est Indies which residents reportedly like to eat with
beans. The historic origins o f the term are not necessarily part o f its twentieth-century
understanding; rather, the term seems to only apply to the popularity o f this dish.
4 3 Other films showing a society with divisive social divisions include Banjo (1947), Eadie
U 'as A Lady (1945), The Great Moment (1944), The Judge Steps Out (1949), Now, I 'oyager
(1942), Ruthless (1948), The Shocking .Miss Pilgrim (1947), Two Sistersfrom Boston (1946),
You’ re My Everything (1949).
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Boston bred Everett while overseas. When he dies in com bat, Kitty and their child
Richard m ust live in Boston with Everett’s overbearing grandm other. Serena. Serena
criticizes Kirn ’s rearing o f her son, questioning her “cuddling and horseplay” and
decides for the six-vear-old Richard that he will attend Harvard. Kittv, alarmed bv these
squabbles and concerned by the absence of a male figure in Richard’s life, eventually
escapes in the dead o f the night for the democratic dry space o f New York. But, while
these films mav paint this social chasms as destructive, often they also allow for the
conversion o f the repressed Bostonian; in L e /’ s Dance Serena eventually sees the light
and gives Kittv her country home, redeeming the people and the dty. The Judge Steps
Out (1949) provides a cogent example of this redemptive transformation.
The Iudae Steps Out fl 9491
Directed and written by Boris Ingster, this 1949 film is about, in part, the midlife
crisis of its main character Judge Thomas Bailey. In this cross country storv, Judge
Bailey grows disgusted with both his career as a probate judge and his family— wife,
Evelynn, and daughter, forget his birthday and spend m oney on extravagances for
themselves. Though relatively wealthy, Bailey opts for a m ore simpler existence and
eventually flees to California. But before he leaves for the W est Coast, Bailev tries the
notorious W inthrop custody case, whose name conjures up the Puritan ideal, in which
widowed Joan W inthrop is fighting for the custody o f her son from her wealthy and
influential father-in-law. Jo an ’s speech indicates her w orking class origins and Bailev,
following the course o f the law, automatically rules in favor o f her father-in-law. Thus,
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the film presents two conflicts stemming from class consciousness that m ust be
redeemed bv the film’s finale. Though Bailey finds love on the W est Coast, his wife has
undergone a transformation in his absence that causes him to re-think his plans; he opts
for returning to his Boston life. W hen he gets to Boston, he rights the w rong in the
W inthrop case and Boston is restored.
T he film’s treatm ent of Boston and Boston society follow typical filmic
trajectories. It opens up by showing a snowy Boston street, and a policeman bitterly
complaining over the latest antics o f a group o f Harvard students— the dressing up o f a
statue in clothing, complete with bottle o f liquor, implying that this is the worst crime
the city routinely faces. Similarly, in Let's Dance in New York, Kitty describes Boston as,
“quaint and old-fashioned.” Yet. this crimelessness, as both films show us, is the result
of strict, alm ost ludicrous, informal social controls. W hen on the stand stating her case,
Joan W inthrop describes the hell that living with her father-in-law entails. Justifying her
alcohol consumption, she pines:
Well, who wouldn’t take to drink? Cooped up with a frozen face
slice o f cold. [Presumably imitating him] “W'e don’t do this, we
d o n ’t do that.” It drove me crazy, 1 tell you.
In a related sense, Tom cannot fathom the supposedly required extravagances o f his
daughter’s forthcoming nuptials, though he must abide by them according to his wife.
Though the film illuminates the social strata and propriety required o f B oston society, it
walks a m iddle ground. While the individual Bostonian is painted as ridiculous, overall
society is not, though we know these players work within a larger system. And after
Evelyn’s transform ation though the film implies the social hierarchy still exists, Tom
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can envision a return to this world. Yet, as this chapter's discussion o f the Los Angeles
Road Movie investigates, the worthiness o f Boston is qualified by the unworthiness o f
its counterpart, in this case the California coast where Tom finds love.
Most films using Boston o r New England use this metanarrative. Following the
traditions put forth in films about N ew York and Chicago, Boston narratives allow for
the fostering o f place in its predictable redemption o f its flawed inhabitants. Though
they mock the extremes o f B oston’s social strata, these characterizations ultimately
allow audiences to retrieve som ething human and laudable from the citv, an event that
does not occur as frequently in Los Angeles narratives, a point plum bed more deeply in
the following section.
The Los Angeles Road Movie
The final category o f Southern California film is the Los Angeles Road movie,
but because it involves a multiplicity o f locations it provides a compelling example of
the filmic differences betw een celluloid places. As its name implies, the Road film
includes a story that involves travel from one destination to another, and im portant in
this equation is the site o f origin, the final terminus, the “symbolic end o f the road,” and
the road between them. For Los Angeles films, obviously one o f the destinations is Los
Angeles an d /o r Southern California. Narratively, each destination and starting point
and the road itself offer im portant elements in the spatial and m oral progress o f the
protagonists.
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Road movies are im portant for various reasons. Firsdy, because they offer clear
compansons and contrasts o f city character, they demonstrate that filmic cities are not
intended to be monolithic, anonymous, urban backdrops. Road films featuring
Southern California use the region in specific ways, in their migration from N orth to
South or from East to West.4 6 In the former, films feature the protagonist’s joumev
often from San Francisco, a site often associated with domesticity, to Los Angeles, a
place that threatens domestic harmony. In the latter, the movement East to W est
mirrors the fictional journeys o f protagonists in the Hollywood novel, where the
continental move Westward charts a moral descent into a lesser world. The film De/our
(1946) provides an example o f this latter parallel.
Detour (19451
Released in 1945. Detour has long been the subject o f scholarly interest for a
variety of reasons. Based on the novel by Martin Goldsmith, Detour was directed by
German emigre Edgar G. L’lmer. The budgetary constraints o f the film are legendary; it
was shot in six days with visibly cheap accoutrements— L’lmer used large amounts o f
fog and street signs to convey N ew York and rear screen projection to show Los
Angeles. Similarly, the voice over narration o f its main character which can be taken at
face value or interpreted as the quickly constructed alibi of a guilty murderer is another
o f the film’s innovations scholars have explored. The film’s use o f setting provides
another facet worthy o f study.
4 6 Sometimes, though much m ore infrequendy, the Los Angeles Road moyie features
migration from the region, as in the case o f The PnW274
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Told in flash back and from the point o f view o f its main character, A1 Roberts,
De/our exemplifies the importance o f setting to its filmmakers. New York-based pianist
A 1 Roberts decides to leave for Los Angeles, following his girlfriend singer Sue.
Lacking monev, he hitchhikes across the country. Midway across, somewhere in the
Arizona desert, A1 accepts a nde from a scratched up wealthy Charles Haskell, who
alludes to "tussling with the most dangerous animal in the w rorld— a wom an." Haskell
suffers a heart attack and dies, and A 1 assumes his identity and property, justifying the
choice because the police would assume he killed Haskell anywav. The next day,
Roberts picks up a female hitchhiker, Vera, who warily accepts his offer. A few hours
into the ride, Vera confronts Roberts on Haskell’s whereabouts and R oberts’ role in his
disappearance. It rum s out she is the “dame with claws” Haskell previously scrapped
with. She begins to blackmail Roberts and forces him to stay with her once they reach
Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Yera reads that the now deceased Haskell has a fortune
w aiting for him from his estranged dving father. She dreams up a scheme in which
Roberts will impersonate Haskell after his father’s death in order to claim the
inheritance. But before thev can realize her dream, Roberts accidentally kills her. Now,
sure that he cannot evade prosecution, Roberts is on the run. The film ends.
It is said that B movies bring the art of narration to its bare essentials; that
without funding filmmakers use the m ost basic tools to tell their stories. W orking from
this assumption, urban setting, particularly Los Angeles, becomes a kev com ponent to
the B movie Detour. For economic and cultural reasons, the idea o f setting as allegory to
larger regional views becomes pivotal to the film’s plot. The film takes place in three
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main geographic places: a N ew York City nightclub, the Arizona desert, and Los
Angeles, R oberts’ final known destination is Reno, Nevada in the film.4 7 For the New
York space, in pan the filmmakers rely on dialogue (Sue tells A1 he’ll make it to
Carnegie Hall) to convev place. For the A rizona desert, the film is actually shot in a
desert like spot. But, for Los Angeles, the presum ably easiest and cheapest place to get
new footage for the movie, the filmmakers use stock footage. Thus, we can assum e that
Los Angeles as a symbolic destination is a narrative imperative to Detour and not an
industn- convenience. Urbanity in general does not seem to plav a substantial role:
violence takes place both in the rural and urban worlds. However, the urban form in
specific idennty is important to the plot.
Essentially Los Angeles and New York m ust be seen as integral urban narrative
devices to Detour. New York is presented in a seemingly unproblematic wav. While this
may seem contradictory in that characters leave it, Detour shows that those who do seek
other places have inherent character flaws, either not willing to go the distance and
achieve celebrity status through the hard work o f the theater as in Sue’s case, or
characters are portrayed as so self-pining and incapable of accepting responsibility, as in
Al, that they do not have the stick-to-itiveness o r moral fiber that this true citv requires.
Those who leave New York for Hollywood o r Los Angeles are consistendy portrayed as
sell-outs. Al expresses frustration towards his existence there, as his piano plating talent
is wasted in a cheap cabaret. But through the progression o f the film, New York
becomes a site o f nostalgia and rom anticization— it is the only place where he and Sue
4 The script alludes to Las Yegas as Roberts' final destination point., in the movie it is
Reno.
2 7 6
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are together, where he can aspire to true artistic greatness (Carnegie Hall). Here, he
describes him self and Sue as ‘healthy’ and ‘normal.’ These two characterizations are
inverted w hen Al finally makes it to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, we find a portrayal that mirrors other noir renditions o f the dtv
as in The Prowler. The city is hell. W hen not locked in the apartm ent with an alternating
abusive and affectionate, inebriated Vera, Al spends time in typical L.A. institutions: a
carhop and car dealership. While some argue that Ulmer’s use o f such places are
indicative o f his budgetary restraints, the director’s hands are not completely tied. And
in reading Goldsmith’s script, it is clear that Los Angeles is a narrative necessity to the
story. Using automobile centered spaces ties the film to the region’s celebrated use o f
the car and its geographic decentralization along the lines o f Mildred Pierre, Kiss Ale,
Deadly, or the carhop where Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester works in A Star is Bom.
Finally, although Sue is tantalizingly, almost torturously close, Al never is able to escape
Vera or his fate and meet up with Sue. The residents of Los Angeles that we see are all
pathetic desperate hopefuls, tied to a glamorized but grim- place.
As Al travels East to W est, his resolve, confidence, and direction slowly erode,
and the process is key to the film’s progression. First, with when Haskell dies in the
Arizona desert, Al is shaken but recovers. W hen Vera confronts him and accuses him
o f Haskell's murder, he is forced into her schemes but quickly composes a getaway in
his mind; light still shines at the end o f the tunnel. Finally, with the eycnts that take
place in Los Angeles, there is no future ahead o f him and he m ust backtrack. T he film’s
title, Detour, alludes to this hellish, final endplace, suggesting a surprising and unwanted
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outcome. In accidentally killing Vera, Roberts knows no one will believe him now on
any account and will assume he is a double murderer. In so doing, he seals his fate in
the eyes o f the law, and the inevitable and socially legitimate use o f the death penalty.
Taken in this way, Los Angeles represents Al’s total undoing and death. Al tells us that
once he flees Los Angeles he cannot no longer return, and he can no longer return to
New York, leaving him wandering in a desperate but doom ed daze.
In term s o f history Detour’s plot provides an interesting forav into the building
o f symbolic landscapes and the dissemination o f the authentic Southern California
story. Undoubtedly, De/our builds on a fictional foundation in its East West progression
and the characterization o f New York and Los Angeles. As in the Hollywood novel of
the late 1920s and 1930s, the film secs the East Coast as the space o f true artistic
integrity and the W est Coast as a selling out o f that integrity for base reasons like wealth
and fame. The film, based on the Martin Goldsmith novel and screenplay, follows the
writer’s direction in many ways.4 8 For Los Angeles' geographic identifiers, the
Goldsmith script called for typical Hollywood symbols--"Hollywood and Vine," "the
Brown Derby," "Hollywood Boulevard," "Grauman's Chinese," and "Neon sign
4 8 Goldsm ith’s wife, Estela Goldsmith complained in the August 15, 1999 Letters to the
Editor in the Dos Angeles Times o f contemporary assessments o f the film and their failure
to acknowledge her husband. Goldsmith writes, ..It well m ight be worth repeating
that the writer in Hollywood is continually being shortchanged as the creative source for
many a movie. My late husband, Martin Goldsmith, sold the rights to his 1939 novel o f
the same name to Producers Releasing Corp. on condition that he would write the
script. That script was written in detail complete with lighting, camera angels, types o f
shots and basically with all that the film needed to be completed. A comparison
between novel, script and finished film gives credence to G oldsm ith’s rightful claim as
the creator o f this “masterpiece.” It is interesting to note that Ulmer was chosen as
director only after the script was completed.” Estela Goldsmith. “’Detour’ A uthor.”
Letters to the Editor. Los Angeles Times. 15 August 1999.
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reading: All Roads Lead to Hollywood."4'' While the film refrains from using these
identifiers, Al verbally indicates they have reached Hollywood. Similarly, in the script,
the couple's terminus is labeled Hollywood and not Los Angeles, but in the film Al uses
Los Angeles and Hollywood interchangeably, indicating Los Angeles to Haskell and
Vera on the road, when Yera and Roberts arrive he savs Hollywood.
Did the Goldsmith novel and screenplay mirror G oldsm ith’s experiences in the
film industry ? ' The film, though not about the industry, mirrors the themes o f the
typical Hollywood critique. And while this proved to be some o f the struggles
screcnwnters and actors grappled with when they warily chose to come to Hollywood, it
was not their sole defining experience. The question remains, is the film following the
fictional foundation o f Los Angeles history or an authentic understanding o f the city
based on real experience in the place? In a 1963 interview. Goldsm ith’s recollections o f
the film industry demonstrate an assessment that jibes with the vision borne o f the
Hollywood novel. Relaying a conversation with H am - Cohn, head o f Columbia,
Goldsmith recounted:
Cohn asked me what I thought o f it [a scriptj and I said, "I would
rather ask you how m uch money you have tied up in it." And this
got him very much upset. I'd never m et him before. Anyway, I
told him the truth about it. Later, he told me ,"vou know, you are
the m ost dangerous man I ever m et.. .because you have nothing to
4 '' Martin Goldsmith. "Detour" (script) reprinted in Scenario Magazine. Vol. 3, N o. 2
from Summer 1997, 163.
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lose I can't do anything to you. Nothing.5 ,1
This memory demonstrates that at least hindsight, Goldsmith felt he did not fit the
Hollywood screenwriter mold and that this difference was kev to his survival in his
dealings at Columbia. Ulmer’s direction o f Goldsmith’s work blurred some the author’s
original intentions.
Had the film remained entirely true to the Martin Goldsm ith novel the film’s
linkage to Southern California history would have been even m ore delineated. In the
novel and script, Vera must go to Los Angeles because she is dying from consum ption.
She hopes to get to Southern California, well known for its restorative climate since the
late 19th century, to find a cure. A nd, she plans on using the m oney gained from
Haskell’s inheritance to pay for her hospitalization.5 1 In the film, Vera does admit to
dying o f consumption in a round about manner, and we increasingly see Vera coughing
and becoming more emaciated before her death. Though Vera’s doom ed outcom e
explains in part her hostility, her voyage to Los Angeles reifies the false promises o f the
region when confronting its reality.
As compelling as the E ast to W est Los Angeles Road movie is, as Detour shows
us, regardless o f direction, Los Angeles Road movies indicate a space where criminals
flee to or already reside. In This G un For Hire (1942) psychotic yet sympathetic hitman
Philip Raven travels from San Francisco to Los Angeles to seek revenge on the client
who double crossed him and paid him in marked bills. In the verv black The Devil
5 0 "A Dangerous Man." in Scenario Magazine. Vol. 3, No. 2 from Sum mer 1997, 181.
5 1 David Hayes. “D etour Revisited.” Moiie Collector's World., No. 256, 23 January 1987,
22.
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Thumbs A Ride (1947) unsuspecting Jimmy Ferguson picks up hitch hiker Steve Morgan,
who is fleeing San Diego, where he com m itted murder during a robbery, for Los
Angeles. In D .O -T (1950) though poisoned in San Francisco, Frank Bigelow must
travel to Los Angeles to unearth his killer, where his killer is based. And in Gun Cra^y
(1950) fugitive bank robbers Bart Tare and Annie Laurie Starr in their flight stop in Los
Angeles, where they enjoy a few moments spending stolen m oney in the city’s
consumer hotspots before the law eventually catches up with them elsewhere.5 2 But,
not all Los Angeles Road movies see Los Angeles in only the blackest o f terms. In The
Narrow Margin, for example, a gangster’s wife m ust travel from Chicago to Los Angeles
to give testimony, implying that Chicago justice is not as swift for its gangsters. And in
a related sense, Thomas Bailey flees Boston for the California coast, midway between
San Francisco and Los Angeles, in his midlife crisis in The Judge Steps Out, though he
returns to Boston. ' But this hopeful vision o f the region is a rare occurrence in the Los
Angeles Road Movie.
5 2 The film’s use o f setting is incredibly complex, taking on forms from the country, the
citv-, and the road. Its use o f the rural and the urban must be understood in conjunction
with the road. Gun Cra^y presents a new’ dichotomy: the country and the city
symbolically represent the opposing ends o f the spectrum o f contemporary definitions
o f ‘civilization.’ The road and the carnival (a manifestation o f the road) present the
transition between these tw o points in the characters’ regression and progression.
5 3 Though this California destination is not Southern California is does express how the
state functioned as a hopeful destination, an escape from the confines o f a socially
acceptable but horrific marriage. In the film, although he finds happiness in California,
Judge Bailey returns to Boston to resume his familial and judicial responsibilities,
regaining his respected position.
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Assessments of destinations in Road movies rely on the other various sites
within each film. As Detour shows us, Los Angeles’ status as hellish endpoint is
illuminated by New York’s hopeful characterization, along different levels. In Los
Angeles Road film, San Francisco, though also a site for crime, is not where the criminal
evil is based. O ther Los Angeles films which fall under the category o f Road movies
include A c t o f Violence (1949), The Bigamist (1953) among others.5 4
Los Angeles in Comparison
As this brief survey highlights, New York, Chicago, and Boston, along with Los
Angeles, maintain very different filmic identities in films o f the 1940s and early 1950s.
And in this larger comparison with Chapter Four, Hollywood generally treated Los
Angeles and Southern California as inferior to these other m ajor cities. The Los
Angeles Road film gives audiences the clearest evidence o f this urban, filmic hierarchy
as these films direcdy show where the city stands in contrast to other locales. Although
there are undoubtedly other ways this hierarchy is played out, the differences are
perhaps m ost clearly evinced in its female characters.
Com paring how Southern California wom en are represented in the Los Angeles
Road film generally shows that films represent the region’s females as inherendy inferior
to their counterparts across the country. In Detour for example, Vera’s pathedc, almost
comedic, low self-esteem is m anifested in dialogue. When Roberts asks her if she is
from Phoenix, Vera replies, “ Are Phoenix girls that bad?” A few m om ents later, in
5 4 Other Los Angeles Road Films include The Bigamist (1953), D O A (1950), Gun C raty
(also known as Deadly Is the Female) (1950), Once A Thief (\950), Possessed (1947), This Gun
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deciding where she will go, she concludes, “I guess L.A. is good enough for me,”
implying in part that the city must rise to meet her wretched level. M ore interestinglv,
the Los Angeles Road m o d e also demonstrates how romantic love and the domestic
ideal are perceived to be threatened in Southern California, building o n the danger films
like The Blue Gardenia allude to. Consider The Bigamist (1953), directed by veteran noir
actress Ida Lupino, a Los Angeles Road movie in which an unhappily married traveling
salesman, from San Francisco, Ham* Graham, begins an affair with a wom an he meets
in Los Angeles, Phyllis Martin. After he discovers she is pregnant, he secredy marries
her and leads a double life. His first marriage undergoes transform ation and his love for
his first wife. Eve, is re-kindled. The film’s conflict unfolds, who will Graham pick?
The differences between the two women are conveyed in im portant ways that
highlight the geographic and moral distance between them. Eve, the San Francisco
wife, is savvy and self-reliant, capable o f helping Graham run the family business. But,
unlike Phyllis, Eve cannot have children o f her own, and the couple seeks to adopt.
Conversely, L.A. based Phyllis works as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant and meets
Ham* on a tour o f Hollywood homes, both take in an effort to abet loneliness. Where
else are people portrayed as so lonely? Both wom en are also differentiated by class
status; dressed in sm art suits, Eve is from the middle to upper echelons; Phyllis' simple
house dresses and uniform s visibly convey working-class. Yet, instead o f resolving its
proposed dilemma, The Bigamist ends in the court room just as the judge has announced
he will render the verdict the following week. Both wom en are still in love with
For Hire (1942).
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Graham, and, as H am - has expressed, he loves them both. T he camera lingers on both
women and their pleading expressions directed at H am -. W ho will he decide upon?
While The bigam ists juxtaposition o f wom anhood mav arguablv appear as a true
dilemma to contem porary audiences, the issue o f m otherhood in the 1950s renders this
comparison an uneven balance. Though opting for divorce mav have been universally
rejected and avoided in public discourse, proposing a scenario in which a child would
grow up without a father appears an even m ore abhorrent state. Family historian Elaine
Tyler May elaborates on the postwar elevation o f procreation.
Along with the baby boom came an intense and widespread
endorsem ent o f pronatalism— the belief in the positive value o f
having several children. A major study conducted in 1957 found
that most Americans believed that parenthood was the route to
happiness. Childlessness was considered deviant, selfish, and
pitiable.5 5
In addition to having his child, Phyllis’ working-class status and emotional dependence
on Harry make her situation even more compelling. But, as the body o f Los Angeles
based films before and after The Bigamist reveaL, women in Southern California are not
judged to be as worthy as the girls thev left at home, transform ing the scenario into a
filmic dilemma. W here else could such a decision be debated? This parallel is not
unique to The Bigamist. In The Judge Steps Out, Judge Thomas Bailey must chose between
his new and sure love, California Peggy and his formerly self-centered, now transformed
wife. He opts for the latter.
Though the m anner in which Los Angeles women are ranked in these films
provides but one o f m any instances o f the celluloid demarcation o f Southern California,
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it is a powerful one. As this chapter has thus charted, be it condemning or glowing,
Hollywood filmmakers characterized different American cities in almost predictable
ways, borrowing from extant literary renditions, inserting their own sensibilities, and
repeating filmic stereotypes. Yet, despite these patterns, few instances exist where citv
powers overtly questioned the m anner in which Hollywood filmmakers chose to
represent their city, indicating perhaps the film industry’s pow er and/or the city’s
recognition o f film in shaping public attitudes. In the cases that do exist, especiallv for
Los Angeles, it is worthwhile to see how and why these interventions occurred.
Municipal Recognition of Celluloid Cities
As Chapter Four notes, the power o f film to shape public opinion did not go
unnoticed by municipal governm ents. For both The N aked City and The Sleeping City,
New York’s mayor O ’Dwyer exerted force over production, from the inclusion o f
police advisers in the former to a direct say in how the city was portraved in the latter.5 6
3 3 Elaine Tyler May. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War. (New York:
Basic Books, 1988), 137.
3 6 According to Alain Silver and Elizabeth W ard, New' York City Mayor O ’Dwyer
allowed Universal-International to film in N ew York City only if the film’s director,
George Sherman, inserted a spoken prologue into the film stating that the “ story does
not describe any particular U.S. city.” Film N o ir A n Encyclopedic Reference to the American
Style. (Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1979), 257. The American Film Institute also notes
the new introduction was added because the studio broke an agreement to not mention
the hospital of the film, Bellevue, in any publicity materials. The city awarded the
studio, according to AFI, “O n 8 Sep 1950, Hollywood Reporter reported that The
Sleeping City won a Certificate o f Civic Merit from New York City for making a
"significant contribution to the civic, cultural and commercial advancement o f the City
o f New York." American Film Institute Catalog, entry for The Sleeping City accessed at
h ttp ://afi.chadwyck.com /cgi/full_rec?action=single&SUBSET=591 & F IL E = .. / session
/1007244668_14416& ENTRIES=746#Sum m arv on Decem ber 1, 2001.
285
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While Los Angeles’ municipal leaders refrained from reacting to its portrayal after a 61m
was already released, during production and when invited to do so by 61mmakers, Los
Angeles agencies did respond. When 61mmakers were working on the Los Angeles 61m
Dragnet (1954), they w rote Los Angeles Police C hief Parker in February to arrange for
his approval and cooperation. The letter highlights the industry's recognition o f the
power o f 61m in shaping public opinion, over other forces o f mass media, including the
Dragnet radio serial and emerging television show”
W e feel that D R A G N ET has done more for the City of Los
Angeles, the Los Angeles Police D epartm ent and for police work
in general, than any single picture, television o r radio program in
entertainment history.
In a feature length motion picture we will be able to tell the story
o f police work on a broader canvas than can be done in a half hour
television program. Furthermore, with the D R A G N E T tradition
for technical perfection and accurate portrayal o f the honest, hard
working, even- day police of6cer, we believe that our picture will
reach even m ore people than the num ber one popularity the
television program has achieved.5 7
The letter’s message reached responsive ears. In addition to providing advisors to the
61m, Parker surveyed each episode o f the television series to ensure the right message
was being sent about his police force.
Carl Richardson explores O ’Dwyer’s surveillance and approval o f The N aked City in
much depth: Carl Richardson. Autopsy: A n Element o f Realism in Film Noir. (Metuchen,
N.J. Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1992).
3/ Letter written February 1, 1954 to C hief W. H. Parker. The letter’s author is cut off
in the copy in Warner Brothers production records, but it can be inferred that it was
penned by or authorized by Jack W ebb, the 61m’s director and star and one o f its
writers. Letter accessed from Warner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library,
University o f Soudiem California.
286
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Similarly, when asked to advise on the production o f Possessed (1947), Los
Angeles G eneral Hospital was quite vocal. The storv o f Louise Howell, a wom an found
wandering the streets o f downtown L.A. in a psychotic daze, Possessed explores the then
medicine o f m ental illness and was lauded for its portraval o f the mentally ill.3 8 Howell
eventually confesses a m urder to her psychiatrist after being treated with a “ narco
hypnosis” drug. A nd the film features scenes shot in the hospital. But, hospital officials
were clear in their desire to not have the hospital named in the film and included
specific changes in street names, in addition to the hospital’s nam e change to ensure
audiences w ould not associate the filmic hospital with its real counterpart.5 9 This
insistence, based on the hospital’s fear o f potential malpractice suits, is especially
interesting w hen learning that the hospital’s psychiatric departm ent advised filmmakers
on the authenticity o f the film’s portrayal o f medical practices.
These tw o examples point out the wavs in which Los Angeles’ municipal powers
recognized the pow er o f Southern California’s filmic depiction but also indicate that any
3 8 Production records include letters from Hewers who praised the film for even
broaching the subject o f mental illness in a somewhat sympathetic manner. Letters
accessed from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f
Southern California.
3 9 Despite its favorable reception, filmmakers found many problem s with Possesseds use
o f the hospital’s psychiatric medicine that W arner Brothers research head Herman
Lissauer wrote to producer Jerry W ;ald in May o f 1946, advising him to re-set the film in
a non-specific city. Lissauer’s two main reasons included the use o f the new drug
narco-hypnosis and the fact that in the film the psychiatrist does not immediately report
Howell’s m urder confession to the police, something that would be expected o f
psychiatrists at the time. Inter-Office Com m unication, Censorship M emorandum from
Herman Lissauer to Jem - Wald. Subject: “The Secret”, from May 14, 1946, accessed
from W arner Brothers archive, Cinema-Television Library, University o f Southern
California. At the time, Possessed was called The Secret. Despite Lissauer’s urgings, the
film continued to be set in Los Angeles.
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opinions such organizations held remained unspoken unless invited by the film industry
itself. This reticence to com m ent on Los Angeles’ portrayal was not so much a failure
to recognize the power o f film, as D.A. Howser's concerns over radio in the 1940s
confirm, but m ore so an indication o f the film industry’s hold on the region, a point
explored in C hapter Four.
CONCLUSION:
As Chapters Five and Six have explored in different wavs, during the 1940s and
early 1950s Southern California’s celluloid portrayal differed gready from the way other
cities were represented in film. N ew York Citv was relayed in nostalgic terms, girting
significance to the ordinary and showing how the city’s democratic nature enables the
realization o f the individual's potential, depending on the protagonist’s choices.
Chicago films, on the other hand, while seeing the place as a center for underworld
activities and where the naive may be swallowed up, manage to retrieve a sense o f city
pride. Almost unapologetically, Chicago narratives show that despite the brutality its
streets mav support, true episodes o f fraternity may also emerge, whether in the
brotherhood o f the gangster o r o f the policeman. Similarly, Boston films play upon the
can ’s identin- as the repository o f the nation’s moral forefathers, o f its thinkers, and o f
its respectable American past. This city on a hill positioning is manifested in the social
and class divides that characterize the films’ plotlines. Finally, the Los Angeles Road
movie provides the m ost compelling illustration o f the differentiation that occurs
beuvcen filmic cities and how these characterizations build from and contribute to
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extant ideas about specific locales, delineating where Los Angeles lies in the national
hierarchy. While all o f these depictions contain less flattering portraits o f the cities in
question, Southern California stories provide the m ost debilitating examples in the
process o f place form ation, instructing audiences on the total worthlessness o f the
place, with little opposition within filmic narratives. This celluloid characterization, on
its own, mav appear to be just a narrative device, but with the region’s other threats to
placelessness (its false histories, its geographic decentralization, its constant flux of
newcomers) this body o f film gains increasing importance.
Municipal governm ents acknowledged the pow er that onscreen urban
representations carried and sometimes tried to affect the wav filmmakers treated their
city, from New Y ork’s Mayer O ’Dwy er to Los Angeles’ Police Chief Parker. While a
systematic regulation o f urban depiction did not occur through the film industry,
Hollywood too recognized the urban stereotypes associated with different film cities, as
W arner Brother’s sound library suggest. The following chapter turns its focus on the
film industry itself and explores how and why screenwriters chose to position Los
Angeles as it did.
W as the choice to filmically portray Los Angeles and Southern California just a
continuation o f an extant literary and mainstream image, or by using setting did
filmmakers ferret out new ways o f uncensored expression within a usually heavily self
regulated industry? Chapter Six investigates the way screenwriters played upon the
blurring o f Los Angeles' and Hollywood's identity in film content in order to criticize
the confines o f the studio system, an option not available along traditional lines within
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the film industry. The filmic vision o f Los Angeles and Hollywood helped to reify an
image already established in fictional and non-fictional print media, creating a symbolic
landscape in A m erica’s imagination and in the attitudes o f its residents. In addition, the
decision to use specific setting in filmic narrative provides a potent site in which to
explore writer intentionality. In short, Chapter Six links the m alcontent that many noir
screenwriters experienced with the actual depiction o f Southern California, materializing
an unforeseen avenue o f agency, adding a new' dimension to the Los Angeles anti-myth.
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C H A PTER SIX:
SCREENW R ITER VISION S IN A W O RLD O F IN EQ U ITY , 1927-1955
The 1950 film Sunset Blvd. opens with a crime scene at the hom e o f an aging,
Hollywood actress. A voice over begins, describing the scene, how “ the body o f a
young man was found floating in the pool of her m ansion with two shots in his back
and one in his stomach. Nobody im portant, reallv. Just a movie w riter with a couple o f
B pictures to his credit.” Later, in a flashback sequence, the same writer explains the
outcom e of his latest script: "The last one I wrote was about Okies in the
Dustbowl....You’d never know because when it reached the screen the whole thing
played on a torpedo boat." These first few moments from Sunset B/vd encapsulate the
popularly perceived status o f screenwriters in Hollywood that continues, arguably, to
the present.1 The insignificance o f a screenwriter’s death and the lack o f screenwriter
control over the outcom e o f his w ork refer to understood phenom ena within
1 Am ong other examples o f this contem porary assessment, consider the ironic
complaint by Estela Goldsmith in the August 15, 1999 Letters to the Editor in the Los
,-lngeles Times. Goldsm ith, widow o f the late Martin Goldsmith, wrote to complain
about the paper’s then recent hailing o f Edgar G. Ulmer, director o f Detour (1945).
Martin Goldsmith wrote the novel from which the film was based on and the
screenplay but the film is largely heralded as “Ulmer’s masterpiece.” Goldsmith writes,
“ .. .It well might be w orth repeating that the writer in Hollywood is continually being
shortchanged as the creative source for many a movie. My late husband, Martin
Goldsmith, sold the rights to his 1939 novel o f the same name to Producers Releasing
Corp. on condition that he would w rite the script. T hat script was w ritten in detail
complete with lighting, camera angles, types o f shots and basically with all that the film
needed to be completed. A com parison between novel, script and finished film gives
credence to Goldsm ith’s rightful claim as the creator o f this “masterpiece.” It is
interesting to note that Ulmer was chosen as director only after the script was
com pleted.” Estela Goldsmith. “’D e to u r’ Author.” Letters to the Editor. Los Angeles
Times. 15 August 1999.
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Hollywood.2 Vet. at the same time, as this chapter explores, this assessment o f
screenwriters put forth bv the film reveals contested terrain.
This chapter will examine how screenwriters used Los Angeles as a setting for a
form of agencv, a wav to rebel against their unrecognized contribution to the film
industry. As the previous chapters survey, the region experienced a complex
relationship to the film industry in American consciousness prior to World W ar II. At
first, extolled for its climate, fertility, and potential for vast prosperity in the late
nineteenth century and early twentieth century, in the early 1920s criticism focusing on
the region’s false promises emerged with the rise o f the film industry and the inability of
many to fulfill any o f the boosters' exaggerated claims. Bv the 1940s Hollywood
became an inextricable com ponent o f Los Angeles through the proliferation o f the
Hollywood novel, Los Angeles boosterism, and popular fiction. Los Angeles boosters
continued to allow location shooting in the citv with little resistance, using such
instances as publicity for the citv.
Bv using Los Angeles as a synonymous stand-in for Hollywood, screenwriters
were able to critique a system that otherwise provided no room for self-critique. The
1950 production o f Sunset Bind provides a telling example of unspoken rules in the film
industry o f the period. Directed and co-written bv Billy W'ilder, this film tells the storv
o f an aging actress's dalliance with a has-been screenwriter, resulting in the writer’s
death. Although nominated for best picture, Hollywood studio heads were angry- with
2 For the purposes o f this dissertation ‘Hollywood’ signifies the film industry- centralized
in Southern California.
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Wilder’s portraval o f the film industry, charging that Wilder should not “bite the hand
that feeds him.” ' After viewing the film at its premiere, Louis B. Maver reportedly
called for Wilder's banishment from the industry, his harsh reaction reflecting the
previously unspoken rules o f the film industry.4 Because filmmakers were not allowed
to criticize the film industry direcdy on the screen, this chapter argues that writers used
setting as a way to critique Hollywood. As Los Angeles and Hollywood tended to be
blurred to becom e synonymous, writers used a negative representation of Los Angeles
to function as an indictment o f the film industry. While this practice may infer a sense
of intentionality on the pan o f the screenwriters themselves, this investigation posits
that in this case a conscious decision to portray Southern California in less than positive
wavs is not requisite. Because Los Angeles had become synonymous for Hollywood, in
continuing extant fictional and non-fictional literary attitudes about Southern California
on film, screenwriters were able to form a celluloid critique o f the film industry, an
arena of cntidsm not available until the mid 1950s. Lamentably while this yision o f
Southern California ga\ e writers a way to resist the degradation the studio system often
imposed, this celluloid mirror o f Hollywood helped to create a media made stereotype,
which was hardly exemplars o f the entire Southern California region.
’ The film did win Oscars for best screenplay, best score, best art direction; and the film
was nominated for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress, best
cinematography, best film editing, best supporting actor, best supporting actress. Oscar
information obtained from the Internet Movie Database at h ttp :/ Avww.imdb.com on
November 19, 1999.
4 O tto Friedrich relates the incident in City o fS ets: A Portrait of i ioliywood in the 1940s.
(Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1986), 421.
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Screenwriters, including those responsible for many Los Angeles noirs,
repeatedly expressed dismay with the studio system other than through film content.
This consternation took on many forms— from the formal to the inform al, in radical
political activity to seemingly mundane practical jokes. By looking at the real and
perceived inequities writers confronted in the film industry, this chapter argues that the
choice of Los Angeles as a setting mav have had intentionally or unintentionally served
political purposes to an often vulnerable group o f people, screenwriters. But before we
can assess the ways in which writers affected noir films content in term s o f setting, an
investigation into the motivations for such depictions is necessary.
The issue o f screenwriter agency in the Southern California film industry has
sparked discussion in several spheres: as fodder for historiographical debate, in
discussions within the him industry itself, and as the object of governm ent agencies
during the House L'n-American Activities Committee o f the late 1940s. Though debate
on the subject has provided substantial speculation on the authority o f screenwriters
working in the studio system, it generally concludes that screenwnters exercised little
power in shaping a film’s content final outcome. Exploration o f screenwriter agency
has, however, only looked at more obvious imagery defined by overtlv traditional
political rhemes in films o f the time period. In sum, historiographical debate has only
approached the subject in a limited manner.
This chapter will show that screenwriters did exercise unforeseen power
through the unfavorable characterization o f Los Angeles and Southern California in
film noir. While noir has generally been heralded for the social criticism it provides in
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relaying sympathetic criminals, often presented as driven to crime bv the conspicuous
consum ption that marks postwar America, in relating an image o f Southern California
that fosters a sense o f regional pride, film noir is a destructive agent. Bv 1941, the noir
cycle’s generally accepted beginning date, Los Angeles’ identity as a movie-making
capital had become fully entrenched into American consciousness, and that in
portraying Southern California in a pejorative m anner screenwriters helped to create a
negative assessment o f Hollywood on movie screens and to American movie-going
audiences. The marriage o f the two identities— the film industry and Southern
California— provides a hitherto an unforeseen avenue o f agency for noir screenwriters o f
this period. In negatively portraying Los Angeles in film, screenwriters created an
allegorical site in which to criticize surreptitiously and cinematicallv the studio system.
In order to understand how a filmic element such as narrative setting can take
on such importance, this chapter paints what professional life in the studio system could
be like for both lesser and well know screenwriters, detailing the inequities many of
them felt and contrasts the differences with which the film industry treated writers
against other professions, such as journalism. Next, building off o f existing scholarship,
this investigation maps out the various forms of resistance screenwriters used to
alleviate their frustrations, from formal, group political organizing with long term
results, to individual, less constructive acts, like the lampooning o f studio executives
that provided immediate relief to writers. Although this examination o f screenwriter
existence may appear overly extended, its inclusion here is param ount to the overall
argum ent o f this chapter. Chiefly, screenwriters did not find many avenues in which to
2 9 4
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express their disgust and outrage at the studio svstem, and the avenues thev did can e
out were often m et with vehem ent studio resistance. Because o f these difficulties, this
srudy argues that bv turning our attention to the screen and the specific portrayal o f
Southern California scholars mav be able to ferret out unforeseen strategies o f
resistance.
ON THE BOTTOM RUNG:
Studies on the role o f screenwriters have been few and far between, relatively to
m otion picture directors and actors, mirroring their status within the studio svstem. The
exception is scholarship done in the last fifteen years. What does exist prior to 1985
largely includes anecdotal and biographical glimpses into Hollywood's more successful
writers.3 While these works have provided im portant insight into some of the
experiences o f Hollywood's elite circle of writers, they did not bring forward an
understanding o f the everyday writer. This dearth in scholarly attention is at once
linked to the status o f writers in Hollywood and the reign o f auteur theory in film
studies. As its name implies, auteur theory privileges the director o f a film as its author,
despite the confines o f the studio svstem, its various levels of approval and the many
other individuals involved in creating a film. Beginning in Europe in the mid-1950s
with Francois Truffaut's essay "A Certain Tendency in French Cinema," and in the
3 The most noteworthy studies include Richard Corliss, compiler. The Hollywood
Screenwriters. (New York: Discus Books, 1972) and Corliss' Talking Pictures: Screenwriters in
the American Cinema. I92~-I9~3. (Overlook Press. W oodstock, NT". 1974).
295
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United States in the early 1960s with Andrew Sarris' "Notes on A uteur Theory in 1962".
auteur theory remains a popular theoretical paradigm within film and literary studies.6
While auteur theory broke apart the mold that films produced within the studio
system were simply formulas free from human influence, a notion upheld in genre
theory, it continued to neglect the screenwriter's im pact on film content. Auteur theory,
in fact, followed a larger hierarchical trajectory put forth bv Hollywood practice with
on-screen credits and relative compensatory salaries. In the earlv 1970s scholars began
to question the limitations of auteur theory in understanding film creation. Most
notablv, Richard Corliss contends.
The effect o f the auteur theory was to steal back whatever authority
(and authorship) the writers had usurped: at best, it was proposed,
the writer writes a script but the director makes the film. T he two
crafts were seen as nding on opposite sides o f a seesaw, with the
weight o f contem porary critical opinion deciding which group was
to be left stranded in the air.7
Towards this end, Corliss' work in the 1970s spans notable screenwriters in order to
advance his criticisms o f auteur theory.
It was not until the mid-1980s with the publication o f Richard Fine's Hollywood
and the Profession o f Authorship, 1928-1940 that an historical look at screenwriting as a
6 Both articles appeared in Cahiers du cinema. Francois Truffaut. "A Certain Tendency in
French Cinema." Cahiers du cinema, (trans. Nichols), 1954 Vol. 2 and Andrew Sarris.
"Notes on the A uteur Theory in 1962." Cahiers du cinema. (1962-1963, in Mast, Cohen,
and Braudy) 1962. Information found in Michael G roden and M artin Kreiswirth eds.
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory z r Criticism. (Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1994), 270.
Richard Corliss, Compiler. The Hollywood Screenwriters. (New York: Discus Books, 1972),
xxvii-xxviii.
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profession on all levels emerged.* In the earlv 1990s Fine and others continued this
scholarship and attem pted to look beyond the big names in screenwriter historv and
examined the process under which Hollywood writers worked.1 ' In conjunction with this
interest in the everyday writer, scholarly studies on screenwriters also addressed the
events leading up to and following the House Un-American Com m ittee and the
blacklisted Hollywood T e n .1 1 1 W ithin this realm o f screenwriter historiography, film
historians have im portandv taken up the debate concerning the real power screenwriters
exerted in order to inject subversive messages into mainstream American film.1 1
A useful way o f gauging how the studio’s higher echelons scrutinized film
content and mapping how film scholars have overlooked less overtlv political elem ents
can be observed in the debate concerning screenwriter power specific to recent
* Richard Fine. Hollywood and the Profession of Authorship. 1928-1940. (Ann A rbor UMI
Research Press, 1985).
Richard Fine. West o f Eden: Writers in Hollywood. 1928-/940 (Washington: Smithsonian
Press, 1993); Ian Hamilton. Writers in Hollywood. 1915-/951. (London: Heinemann,
1990); Frederica Sangor Maas. The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: .1 Writer in E . arl y Hollywood.
(University Press o f Kentucky, 1999); David Wilt. Hardhoiled in Hollywood. (Bowling
Green, Ohio: Bowling G reen State University Popular Press, 1991).
1 0 The House Un-American Com m ittee will be called HCUA throughout the rem ainder
o f this chapter.
1 1 Works falling under this category include Thom A ndersen’s ’’Red Hollywood” in
Suzanne Ferguson and Barbara G roseclose’s Literature and the I 'isual A rts in Contemporary
America (Columbus: O hio State LT niversity Press); K enneth Lloyd Billingsley. Hollywood
Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s. (Rocklin,
CA: Forum, 1998); Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund’s The Inquisition in Hollywood:
Politics in the Film Community. 1930-1960 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983);
Lester Cole. Hollywood Red. (Berkeley: Ramparts Press, 1981); Victor Navaskv. flam ing
flam es (New York: Viking Press, 1980); Nancy Lvnn Schwartz. The Hollywood Writers'
Wars. (New York: K nopf, 1982).
29"
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scholarship on the 1940s House Un-American Committee and the exorcism of leftist
elements from Hollywood. While this scholarship has focused upon the ability or
inability o f screenwriters to insert pro-Com m unist messages within mainstream movies
and does not deal with the idea o f using setting as a means o f resistance, this scholarship
does confront the weaknesses with which all screenwriters dealt with in shaping a film’s
final outcom e or message. Further, H C U A ’s effect upon Hollywood and the increase in
studio self-censorship, aids in dem onstrating that one must look beyond the more
obvious forms o f rebellious imagery to m ore subde filmic symbols and allegories, such
as setting. In 1947 the House Un-American Committee began issuing subpoenas to
individuals within the film industry known for their associations with Communists or
Communist sympathizers. Working from the assumption that screenwriters actively put
pro-Communist messages into the screenplays, ultimately to influence public opinion,
HCUA members acted severely, blacklisting ten screenwriters and indelibly shaping the
Hollywood community. The validity- o f HCUA’s motivations, the belief that writers
could shape the final outcom e o f a film’s message has been rigorously questioned in
recent years. An in-depth foray into this historiographic debate will both demonstrate
new inroads in this scholarship and address direcdy one o f the key subjects o f this
chapter: the ability o f screenwriters to inject messages into film content.
At the time o f the HCUA hearings studio producers steadfasdy denied the
plausibility that studio-generated films could contain “anti-American” and pro-
Communist messages.1 2 Elaborating on the levels o f approval in the studio system—
1 2 Ceplair and Englund, 299.
298
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from co-writer to producer, studio heads argued that any such imagery would be
squelched out before it could reach American audiences.1 3 Scholarship has generally
reinforced the notion o f the impotent writer in a closely m onitored studio svstem.
Notably, Larry Ceplair and Stephen Englund have buttressed this assessment, arguing
that in addition to self-imposed censorship, studios had to m eet the requirements o f the
censorship boards Havs and Breen, financial limitations, and the need to create
marketable films.1 4 Ultimately, Ceplair and Englund conclude that, try as they might,
the Hollywood Ten generated films that were “politically indistinguishable from the
films made from the scripts o f non-radical screenwriters.” 1 5
Historiographic debate on the subject often hinges upon the discussions that
played out in the Com m unist Party during the 1940s. Blacklisted screenwriters Paul
Jam co and John Lawson disputed the possibility- o f the inclusion of this imagery in
studio made films. |arrico recalls:
There were big fights in the Pam - on this issue betw een the people
(like Lawson) who said, “you guvs are kidding yourselves; you can’t
influence film...the producers are not going to let you get away with
anything that is really radical,” and their opponents, like myself who
believed that...if you could change their attitude toward women,
workers. Blacks, and minorities in general— and you could— then
that was an im portant contribution.K l
1' A film’s content was monitored, in varying degrees, by many people working in the
studio before it reached its final film audience— collaborative writers, directors, actors,
producers, studio heads, advanced screening audiences.
1 4 Ceplair and Englund, 304.
I'1 Ceplair and Englund, 324.
u’ Ceplair and Englund, 301.
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Between Lawson’s vision o f ‘radical’ and Jarrico’s ‘change (in) attitude’ lies a hazv space,
opening up possibilities o f interpretation.
Film historian Thom Andersen recognizes this space and its possibilities,
realigning the debate concerning the power o f the Hollvwood Ten. Andersen re
examines the power screenwriters have exercised and contends that pre-HCUA film
sent anti-capitalist messages that indirecdy supported comm unist values.1 7 Andersen
classifies thirteen such films bv various leftist filmmakers as 'film gris,' citing their
important commonality in which the American success storv is questioned.1 8 Bv
providing examples o f the American dream gone sour, film gris serves as a filmic
criticism o f capitalism— that capitalism, through breeding false wants, almost
normalizes criminal behavior. Andersen’s investigation provides a m uch needed new
approach to the assessment o f screenwriter potency and. in particular, the ability o f the
Hollvwood Ten to indoctrinate naive American audiences. Vet, A ndersen’s approach is
far trom complete. A ndersen’s analysis does not look at enough films or themes. In the
more in-depth film Red Holly Wood, Andersen examines the following: mvths, war, class.
1 Thom Andersen’s ’’Red Hollvwood” in Suzanne Ferguson and Barbara Groseclose’s
Literature and the I 'isual A rts in Contemporary America (Columbus: O hio State University
Press, 1985) and the video Red Holly Wood (1995) written and directed bv Thom
Andersen and Noel Burch, presented by Nathanael Burton and Aurora Floyd.
l s Robert Rossens’ Body and Sou! (1947), Abraham Polonski ’s Force o f F iil (1948), Jules
Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (1949), Nicholas Ray’s They Live By X ight (1949), Rav’s Knock on
A ny Door (1949), John H uston’s We Were Strangers (1949), and The A sphalt Jungle (1950),
Dassin’s Xight and the City (1950), Michael Curtiz’s The Breaking Point (1950), Joseph
Losev’s The Lawless (1950), and The Prowler (1951), Cvril Endfield’s Try and Get Me
(1951), and |ohn B ern ’s He Ran A ll the Way (1951).
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sexes, hate, crime, death. These realms, while important, fail to address the multivalent
theme o f setting.
Los Angeles critic Mike Davis directly takes up the issue o f Los Angeles noir in
City ofQ uart” Excavating the Future in Los Angeles.V ) Though Davis' studv deals with films
only marginally, he focuses on regional literature, he links European filmmaker
intentionalitv to Los Angeles film noir. D ans posits that using Los Angeles was more
about criticizing modernity and postwar America rather than the Hollvwood studio
system:-1 '1
W ithout necessarily subscribing to the ’nightmare1 anti-myth o f noir,
the exile sense o f Los Angeles was unremittinglv pessimistic. Here
was the ultimate city o f capital, lustrous and superficial, negating
even classical value o f European urbanity. Driven by one epochal
defeat o f the Enlightenm ent to the shores o f Santa Monica Bav,
the m ost unhappv o f the exiles thought they discerned a second
defeat in Los Angeles as the ’shape o f things to come’, a m irror of
capitalism's future.2 1
That Los Angeles film noir mav have fimcuoned as a critique o f modemitv and Western
progress is not in question. The multi-positionalin- o f film noir provides room for such
an interpretation. Davis' vision is reinforced further bv the leftist persuasion o f many
Los Angeles noir filmmakers. However, not all Los Angeles noir screenwriters were
politicized or European exiles. While this studv does not contradict Davis' vision, it
suggests that another interpretation o f Los Angeles noir is in order. Namelv, the
Mike Davis. City o f Quartet Excavating the Future in Eos Angeles. (New York: Yerso,
1990).
2 " Davis' studv largelv focuses on noir novels.
2 1 Davis, 21.
3 0 1
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working conditions o f screenwriters, their inability to find a uniform manner of
resistance to obstacles in the studio system, and the ability o f filmmakers to present a
pessimistic vision o f Hollvwood gives films using Southern California new meaning.
Writing in the Studio
"The Screenwriter's Marching Song"
I
Arise, ye movie writers, and cast away your chains.
Executives are hum an after all!
Shall they still rewrite our scripts, the children o f our brains?
And shall we be a supervisor's thrall?
No! No! No! No! A million, million no's!
N ot in vain our foundation pens are filled!
The writers all will join
and executives will loin
To monkev with the Screen W riters Guild.
II
ITiey pav us weekly salaries, a measly grand or two.
And think we ought to work because we're paid!
Shall we yield and do our job? Will you? Will vou?
Defend the rights the tvrant would invade!
Up! Up! Up! Up! Attack them from the rear!
Never shall the voice o f art be stilled!
Through gorv batde scenes
Drive your gleaming limousines!
Ye heroes o f the Screen Writers Guild!
III
Ye Gendcm en and Ladies that push the fervent pen.
The time has come and Freedom is in sight.
The cudgeled brain grows wean-. W hen a botde is in your yen,
Have at it! And remember, write is write!
Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! Write a masterpiece!
Till twenty thousand pages have been filled.
Theyl’all be thrown away
But the producers have to pay
To members o f the Screen Writers G uild."—
- Henry Myers. "Screenwriter's M arching Song," in Schwartz, Nancy Lynn. The
Hollywood Writers' Wars. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 33.
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In order to ascertain the types of resistance screenwriters exerted, it is im portant
to understand the screenwriter's plight in the studio svstem. As the lyrics to the
"Screenwriters' Marching Song" attest to, a writer's view o f his or her position in the
studio svstem was complex. Popular among writers in the m id 1930s, the
"Screenwriter's Marching Song" attempted to encapsulate the m ood writers endured
while establishing a stronger Screen Writers Guild (SWG). W hile few were paid the
"measly grand or two" to which the song refers, the song alludes to several o f the issues
facing Hollywood writers. The motivations behind writer migration, the confines o f
authorship m the system, the dismissal of'm asterpiece' writing, and the low status o f
writers contributed to an overall negative perception o f the film industry among
screenwriters. Screenwriters arrived in significant numbers after 1927 and the successful
integration o f sound into film with The Singer.'
In the 1930s and 40s m ost writers came to Hollvwood with the expectation o f
earning a large salary writing screenplays. Several notable writers, including fames Cain,
John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ben H echt, Dorothy Parker,
and Nathanael West, as well as hundreds o f less notable writers openly acknowledged
financial impetus as the sole factor for moving to Southern California.2 4 While Ben
Hecht, one o f Hollywood’s most For Hecht, receiving a telegram from screenwriter
Herman Mankiewicz marks the pivotal moment shaping his relocation to Los Angeles.
The oft cited telegram read:
2 4 Gerald Mast. .1 Short History o f the Monies. (New York: MacMillan, 1992), 185.
2 4 Richard Fine. West oj Eden: Writers in Hollywood, 1928-1940. (Washington: Smithsonian
Press, 1993), 95-100.
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W ILL YOU ACCEPT T H R E E H U N D R E D PER W E E K TO
W O R K FOR PARAM OUNT PIC TU R ES STOP ALL EXPENSES
PA ID STO P TH E T H R E E H U N D R E D IS PEA NU TS STOP
M ILLIO N S ARE T O B E GRABBED O U T H E R E A N D YOUR
O N L Y C O M PETITIO N IS ID IO TS. D O N T L E T TH IS G E T
A R O U N D .2 5
Though not a Hollywood booster, Mankiewicz’ missive summarizes the hvpe boosters
exported about the Los Angeles region and w hat some writers expected to find in
Hollywood. However, while the expectation existed for writers to receive an inflated
salary, its fulfillment reached only a modest few.2 f‘
W ith few exceptions, Los Angeles noir screenwriters came to writing from other
professions. A few came from non-literarv careers before turning to screenwriting.
Charles Brackett, screenwriter for Sunset Bird, for example, w orked as a lawyer in New
York before coming to Hollvwood.2 Some, such as Raymond Chandler, and William
Faulkner w rote screenplays in addition to writing novels. O thers, like Niven Busch
screenwriter on The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) came from a journalistic
background, either as newspaper reporters o r editors. Busch actually worked under
James M. Cain at The Sew Yorker before becom ing a screenwriter.2 ,x
For those who came to the profession from other form s o f writing, the
transition in status could be a jolting and hum iliating experience. Multiple Oscar
^D oug Fetherling. The Five IJves o f Ben Hecht. (Toronto: Lester and Orpen Limited,
1977), 88
2 f'Hortense Powdcrmaker. Hollywood the Dream Factory: A n Anthropologists Took at the
Sloiie-Makers. (Boston: Little, Brown, and C om pany, 1950), 132.
2 Ian Hamilton. Writers in Hollywood, 1915-1951. (London: Heinemann, 1990), 354.
2 K Interview from Backstay 1: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood1 s Golden Age. Edited
by Patrick McGilligan (Berkeley. University o f California Press, 1986), 101.
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nominee, W'.R. Burnett, author o f the novel Little Caesar (1930) and screenwriter for
This Gun For Hire (1942), was disgusted with Hollywood's perception o f the w riter.-J
Burnett recounts:
I'll never forget the premiere [of Little Caesar] out here
[Los Angeles]. They had even- goddam ned person on stage— the
actors, the director, the cameraman— and when they were finished
introducing all o f them , Ben Lvon, the emcee, finally says, "Oh
yes, the writer. There always had to be a w riter.".. ..That's one o f
the things that made it very rough for me when I came to
Hollvwood. I realized what the status o f the writer was. '"
Similarly, in the early 1930s literary critic Edm und Wilson obsen'ed o f the studio
system:
The writers, shut up bv day in little cells in big buildings with armed
guards at the doors, made to collaborate in twos as a pair o f weavers
is given so many looms to tend and reporting like school children to
supervisors w ho com m end or censor or suppress, they still keep in
their lives outside the studios the psychology o f school children or
mill-hands— people who are allowed no choice in the nature o f the
subjects they work at or the quality o f the products they turn out. ’1
Wilson's assessment continued to ring true for many observers in the years following.
Almost a decade later in 1940, after arriving in Hollvwood to work as a screenwriter,
acclaimed playwright o f Waiting For Lefty. Clifford Odets wrote in his journal o f his
experience:
Burnett was nom inated for co-writing the original screenplay to Wake Island (1945)
and in 1931 screenwriters Francis Faragoh and Robert Lee were nominated for their
adaptation o f Burnett's Little Caesar. and Ben M addow and John Huston were
nominated for their adaptation o f Burnett's The Asphalt jungle in 1950. Patrick
McGilligan ed. Backstory 1: Interviews with Screenwriters o f Hollywood's Golden Age.
McGilligan, 56.
McGilligan, 58-59.
M Edm und Wilson. The American Jitters. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932),
247-248.
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I am reminded that the Hollvwood producer or director usually puts
the w riter (moi!) in the same relationship as his wife. This outrages
m e— M ost o f these m en treat their wives as something half human,
walls o r cushioned sofas to lean against. Pah!3 2
In addition to working on other films, Odets w rote the original plav for the 1955
production o f Hollywood noir The Big Knife, explored in Chapter Four. Yet their low
link on the studio chain was one o f the issues screenwriters had with the studio svstem.
Screenwriter Conflict
A uthorship within the studio svstem conflicted with the popular held tradition
o f writing as an art form. Although most film writers did not pretend that their
employers construed o f their writing as art. the change in status o f their craft left
indelible marks upon their esteems and fiction. Horace McCov, screenwriter and author
o f famed Hollywood novel. They Shoot Horses. Don't Thej? struggled with this throughout
his literary career. According to Thomas Sturak, this conflict influenced his fiction:
McCoy struggled with a compulsion to fulfill a heightened
conception o f him self as an artist. The class o f this rom antic
illusion and the inexorable realities o f rime and existence resulted
in deep feelings o f guilt, self-doubt, and self division. Transm uted
by his imagination, these reactions inform ed all o f his fictional
dram as as failure, success, corruption, and unrequited am bition.3 3
In addition to their own self-doubt and the change in status o f their craft, the studio
writing process undercut their sense o f autonom y— writers suffered from constant
revision and criticism from producers, directors, and fellow screenwriters. And, writers
3 2 Included in Odets entry recorded on August 29, 1940. Clifford Odets. The Time Is
Ripe: 1940 Journal. (New York: Grove Press, 1988).
3 3 Thomas Sturiak. "Horace McCoy's Objective Lyricism." in M adden, David, ed.,
Tough Guy Writers o f the Thirties. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois LT niversitv Press Feffer &
Simons, Inc., 1968), 144-145.
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received credits for films in an arbitrary m anner. Screenwriters learned that success in
the film industry often depended m ore on hvping their ideas than writing well. Film
historian Richard Fine observed: "Soon after arriving at the studio gate, many writers
were shocked to leam that most producers didn’t read; hence their reliance on
conferences. Writing well, authors decided, was less im portant than the ability to talk
up a storm ."'4 In addition to revising a script to meet a producer’s vision, writers were
expected to work collaborativelv with o th er writers. O ften as many as eighteen writers
could work on one script, and on each film few received formal credit.'5
Screenwriters typically saw the studio svstem as a place where hard work went
unacknowledged and writers with litde talent often received unwarranted accolades.
Writing for The Atlantic, famed Los Angeles noir novelist and screenwriter Raymond
Chandler articulates the inconsistency prevalent in the studio svstem:
Its (Hollywood's) conception o f w hat makes a good picture is still as
juvenile as its treatment o f writing talent is insulting and degrading.
Its idea o f "production value" is spending a million dollars dressing
up a story that any good writer would throw awav. Its vision o f the
rewarding movie is a vehicle for som e glamorpuss with two
expressions and eighteen changes o f costume, o r for some male idol
o f the muddled millions with a perm anent hangover, six worn-out
acting tricks, the build o f a lifeguard, and the mentality o f a chicken-
strangler.v'
Chandler’s observations o f the film industry provide a basis in which to view film noir’s
appraisal o f Southern California. While Chandler's prestige as a novelist allowed him
5 4 Richard Fine. West oj Eden: Writers in Hollywood, 1928-1940 (Washington: Smithsonian
Press, 1993), 113.
5 3 Powdermaker, 160.
v’ Ravmond Chandler. "Writers in Hollywood." The Atlantic. Vol. 176, N ovem ber
1945^ 52.
30"
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the freedom to air his grievances in nationally respected magazines such as The Atlantic,
m ost writers with less clout often suffered for their criticisms.
In other respects, screenwriter expectations w ent unfulfilled in the film industry.
Advancement proved a difficult feat in a system w here writers were judged by their
salaries rather than talent. Daniel Fuchs, screenwriter for noir Criss Cross (1949),
confronted this obstacle when a screenplay he w rote was rejected bv a producer. Eager
to discover the reason for its rejection, Fuchs learned that producers assumed that a
5200 a week writer could not create anything o f value and studio executives considered
Fuchs “ two-hundred dollar trash.” ,T
Resistance
While the limitations the studio system and screenwriting process created a
confining space for resistance, writers managed to gain some elbow room . Through
unionization efforts, writers sought out tangible changes in their status focusing on
bread and butter goals. In addition to these formal m eans, writers used informal wavs
to alleviate their misery, such as working slowly or lam pooning producers. Finally, they
used or attempted to use the screen as a path o f agencs- bv altering film content.
But real criticism o f the Hollywood studio sy stem could be a dangerous
endeavor to both Hollywood insiders and outsiders as seen in its treatm ent of famed
novelist o f The Jungle, L pton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair's 1934 gubernatorial campaign
provided a demonstration of studio pow er in squelching political voices. Although
Sinclair did work as a screenwriter in the early 1930s, after penning a tell-all biography
'7 Fine, 109.
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o f Twentieth-Centurv Fox mogul W illiam Fox, Sinclair virtually ensured his banishm ent
from the industry. In 1934 former Socialist turned Dem ocrat, Sinclair formulated a
controversial m ovem ent to alleviate the state's economic woes called the End Poverty
in California plan (EPIC). Sinclair's plan proved particularly threatening to studio heads
for its recommendations to completely re-vamp the film industry. Through E PIC
Sinclair demanded the studios be held accountable for their fair share of tax revenue.
However, the m ost offensive thrust o f his plan was a governm ent intrusion into the
filmmaking process. According to historian Gregg Mitchell,
EPIC would provide for thousands o f out-of-work actors, musicians,
and craftsmen, and cheap, wholesome entertainm ent for their families.
If there wasn't sufficient demand, the movies would be released to the
general m arket— The EPIC movies, he said, would be culturally
superior to studio fare, which was generally "in bad taste." '8
The studio responded to the EPIC plan with an all out media war. In addition to
enlisting the aid o f local papers who disparaged the candidate through editorials and
cartoons, studios threatened to move the entire industry to Florida (figure l).-w W hen
this threat failed to hamper Sinclair's growing popularity, mogul Louis B. Mayer
organized a smear campaign, complete with phony documentary newsreels. Mayer also
coerced his workers into "donating" a day's wages toward the campaign of Frank
w Greg Mitchell. The Campaign o f the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race to r Governor o f California
and the Birth o f Media Politics. (New York: Random House, 1988), 63-64
Cartoon taken from Sinclair's account o f the campaign: I. Candidate fo r Governor: M nd
How I Got Lacked. Introduction by James N. Gregory. (Berkeley: L'niversitv o f
California Press, 1994. Originally published in 1934 by Upton Sinclair, 171. The
caption for the cartoon reads "From the Sacramento "Union"." Cartoon reproduced in
Appendix.
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Merriam, Sinclair's Republican opponent.4 1 1 These efforts aided in defeating Sinclair
with end votes measuring 1,138,000 for Merriam and 879,000 for Sinclair.4 1
Sinclair confronted the defeat with two publications. The first, I. Candidate fo r
Governor. A n d How I Got Licked reports o f the campaign's successes and defeats despite
its many obstacles. Sinclair sponsored the second publication, Sodom and Gomorrah: The
Stary of Hollywood, written bv Max Knepper.4 - Funded bv the Los Angeles chapter o f
Sinclair's End Poverty in California movement (EPIC), this expose o f Hollvwood
focuses nor on the political machine o f Louis B. Mayer, but on Hollywood's lax
morality. Max Knepper pointed out the difficulties in exposing the industry:
Any sincere writer trying to give an accurate description o f Hollvwood
is handicapped by having to protect his sources of information. The
status o f any studio employee is always precarious in the extreme, and
much o f the information imparted in this work has been derived from
individuals very close to the celluloid divinities. Consequendv, it has
been necessary to camouflage many incidents and situations.4 3
Hollywood's attack on Sinclair highlights the lowlv status of the Hollvwood writer.
Reportedly, Louis B. Maver dismissed Sinclair's ideas, asking, "What does Sinclair know?
He's only a writer."4 4 And the verv public Sinclair defeat proved an important
demonstration to future filmmakers with political leanings. Scholar John Russell Tavlor
posits,
4 ,1 james Lambert Harte. This Is i f ton Sinclair. (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1938), 59-
61.
4 1 Sinclair, 223.
4; Max Knepper. Sodom and Gomorrah: The Stor\' of Hollywood. (Los Angeles: End Poverty
League, 1935).
4 3 Knepper, 11.
4 4 Hamilton, 89.
3 1 0
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W hen Sinclair was roundly defeated, it was as much a defeat for
intellectual intervention in Hollvwood affairs as for proto- or crypto-
communism. The fact that a man— or w om an— gave anv evidence
of thinking was an immediate cause for m istrust, and none was
mistrusted m ore than the writers.'4 5
W ith the Sinclair episode fresh in their minds, the m em bers o f the Screen Writers Guild
forged ahead in their battles with studio heads.
Prior to the formation o f the 1930s Screen W riters Guild, writers could express
their grievances through different clubs including the Photoplay Authors League, which
was established in 1914. The Photoplay Authors League eventually changed into the
original Screen W riters Guild in the 1920s. But, according to film historian Ian
Hamilton, these sorts o f organizations were ineffective political tools:
In practice, these leagues and guilds were m ore social clubs than
labor unions, and in 1927 it was an easy m atter for Louis B. Mayer
to propose that the new Academy of M orion Picture Arts and
Sciences should have a "writers division," which would handle any
grievances, wrangles over credits, disputes about money, and so on.4 6
Because writers felt as though thev were under a svstem in which their interests were
not protected, screenwriters renewed the Screen W riters Guild with new vigor. While
screenwriters met with resistance within their own industry, studio atmosphere (and the
plight o f the writer) was also influenced by the U nited States' changing postwar
domestic polici- as dem onstrated in 1947 and 1949 HCL'A hearings.4 7
4 3 John Russell Taylor. Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Emigres 1933-1950. (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and W inston. 1983), 112-113.
4 4 1 Hamilton, 93.
4 The 1947 HCUA hearings and subsequent blacklist dem onstrate the extent to which
studios reproved critics. The collapse o f the wartime US-Soviet pact between 1946 and
1947 signaled a new era in American domestic and foreign polio-. By September o f
1946 J. Edgar Hoover, Director o f the Federal Bureau o f Investigations, began to attack
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In the 1930s, screenwriters turned to unionization as a solution. The slow
moving successes o f the 1930s revitalization of the SW G illuminate the various
obstacles facing writers who chose unionization as a m eans o f agency. In the Spring o f
1933 over one hundred screenwriters m et to revitalize the Guild and elected John
Howard Lawson president. Early goals for the guild included securing contracts that
guaranteed specific terms o f employment and minimum rates o f pav, a just svstem for
communism m ore vehemendy in public speeches and J.Parnell Thom as, the designated
chairman o f HCL'A. began to actively expose communism in areas o f influence in
American society. These formal federal developments engendered immediate
repercussions in the Hollywood community. In the Spring o f 1947 industry leaders
reacted to the new political climate. The president o f the Motion Picture Association,
Eric Johnston, testified before Congress in an effort to express the industry's anti
communist stance, and The Hollywood Reporters publisher, Billy Wilkerson used a front
page column to publish names of suspected communist filmmakers. David Talbort and
Barbara Zheutlin. Creative Differences: Profiles of Hollywood Dissidents. (Boston: South End
Press, 1978), 42-50.
In May o f 194"7 HCL A Chairman Thom as came to Hollvwood to "ferret" our
communist screenwriters from the industry. By O ctober o f the same year, ten
"L nfnendly W itnesses" were called to testify- in W ashington in order to "name names"
of other filmmakers who were communist or comm unist sympathizers. Each was cited
for contem pt w hen he refused to comply. Two years later, in the Sum m er o f 1949, the
ten were convicted o f contem pt and ordered to serve one year in jail and pay a SI,000
fine. In 1949 Hollywood underwent a second set o f HCL'A hearings. Tw o o f the
original ten, Edward Dmytryk and Michael Blank, later recanted and nam ed names;
Dmytryk in 1951 and Blank in 1952. To recant allowed one to avoid a professional
blacklist in the film and television industry. For those who refused to name names, the
blacklist lasted over twenty years. Albert Maltz, for example, was officially blacklisted
from 1947 to 1964. Although the then "L nfriendlv Witnesses," found work
intermittendy using pseudonyms, the emotional and financial devastation wreaked bv
the blacklist is well documented in various blacklist memoirs. Several memoirs have
been published docum enting their struggles including W alter Bernstein’s Inside Out: A
Memoir of the blacklist. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996); Victor S. Navaskv. Naming
\am es. (Viking Press. New York, NY, 1980); Nancy Lvnn Schwartz (1952-1978)
completed by Schwartz, Sheila. The Hollywood W riters' Wars. {Knopf. N ew York, NY,
1982); John Russell Taylor. Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Emigres. 1933-1950.
(Rinehart & W inston. New York, NY. 1983); David Talbort and Barbara ZheutliN.
Creative Differences: Profiles oj Hollywood Dissidents. (Boston: South End Press, 1978). This
list is hardly exhaustive. For more information on such works, please see Ceplair and
Englund's work.
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crediting writers, and the creation o f a closed guild shop ensuring the group’s strength
for future collective bargaining.4 *
In response to the burgeoning SW G, studio head Irving Thalberg created the
Screen Playwrights (SP), whose tactics at gaining new m em bers belied its studio
support. Catherine Turney, screenwriter on Los Angeles noir Mildred Pierre (1945)
recalled her invitation by fellow writer Mahin to join the Screen Playwrights upon her
arrival to MGM,
John Lee Mahin came into mv office and told me I should join the
SP, that they were the group to be with, since they were all the
high-priced, m ost prestigious writers. So I joined— But as soon as
I realized that they didn't have the interests o f writers, except for
themselves, at heart, I resigned. I sent Mahin a note and told him
they could keep the ten dollars I got wise when the Hacketts
sent me a furious note— how could vou hook up with that crew,
thev're in the producers' pockets— and Phil D unne came into mv
office and said, 'You look like such a nice girl, why do you want
to go with them ?'4''
Though members o f the SW G kept an alert eve on the Screen Playwright's solicitation
of new talent, the SWG found other obstacles impeding its success.
The SW'G suffered through internal dissension, studio stonewalling, and
meeting the limits proscribed under the National Industrial Recovery Act and later the
Wagner Act. It was not until 1941 that the SWG succeeded in gaining a contract from
the studios. Although som e o f the group's original dem ands were met, the contract
failed to settle the issue o f writer credits and included a no-strike clause.5 0
4 S Richard Fine. James M . Cain and the American Authors' Authority. (Austin: University o f
Texas Press, 1992), 72.
4'' Schwartz, 72-73.
5 0 Fine, 75.
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Importantly, early supporters o f the SWG included several Los Angeles noir
screenwriters. Charles Brackett, writer for Sunset Blvd. (1950), was elected Vice
President in the mid-1930s and in 1937 testified for the Guild at the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) hearings.5 1 D orothy Parker and Robert Carson, writers for the
1937 screenplay for .1 Star Is Bom. were also pivotal in founding the SW G.3 2 Indeed,
L.A. noir screenwriters George Bricker and Dalton T rum bo experienced firsthand
hostility from studio heads towards the fledgling guild, foreshadowing the attitudes
writers would face in the next decade with the HCL'A hearings.3 5 Dalton Trumbo
described studio head Jack Warner's response to the group at a mid 1930s meeting, a
meeting George Bricker also attended as a script editor. According to Trumbo:
W arner entered dressed in sport clothes, and he said he was sorry
he'd kept us waiting, he'd been playing golf.... He said he
remembered w hen he was a butcher bov and how now, when he got
up in the morning, he had to think which car to take to work. He
said that was how well the business had treated him, and that it had
treated us all verv well. Therefore, he wondered, whv were we
kicking it around?— He said our leaders were communists, radical
bastards, and soapbox sons o f bitches. He apologized to the two
ladies present and said that he hated to use that language, but it was
the truth, so he used it.
He added that as a matter o f fact, manv o f the leaders o f the SWG
were even then under investigation bv the D epartm ent of Justice
and that a lot o f them were cooked geese. He said that he,
personally, didn't care because he had five million dollars in cold
cash and that the studio could close up tom orrow as far as he was
3 1 Schwartz, 108-109.
5 2 Taylor, 114.
3 5 George Bricker contributed to the Los Angeles noir Road Block (1951), and blacklisted
Dalton Trum bo was a screenwriter for and had a brief appearance in The Prowler (1951)
and Gun C ra tj (1950). Trum bo was credited under the pseudonym 'Millard Kaufman'
for Gun Gracj.
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concerned. H e said repeatedly, "There are a lot o f writers in the
business who are active in the SWG now w ho will find themselves
out o f the business for good, and it wouldn't be a blacklist because
it would all be done over the telephone."5 4
W ith such firsthand experience, there is no doubt that many Los Angeles noir writers
viewed the Hollywood system negatively with this understanding o f the screenwriter
within its overall hierarchy.
But the Screen Writers Guild was not the only formal means in which
screenwriters sought protection from the studio system. James M. Cain, screenwriter
and author o f works like The Postman .-\Iways Rings Tudce, Double Indemnity, and Mildred
Pierce. suggested another means apart from the Guild to securing authorial rights. In
1946 Cain formulated the American Authors' Authorin' (AAA), an organization geared
to include all professional writers. D ue to changes in both mass marketed fiction and
the film industry, writers were becoming increasingly aware o f their diminishing status
as artists. In an effort to retain "the Victorian legacy o f genteel authorship", Cain
suggested the formation o f the AAA.5 5 The AAA, according to film historian Richard
Fine had ambitious goals. Cain wanted the AAA to function as a:
(C)entral copyright repository that would hold in trust its mem bers'
copyrights and the subsidiary rights to them Cain also proposed
that the AAA would keep a central record o f all rights and royalty
arrangements, freeing writers from a chore for which they were ill-
equipped. As trustee, the A uthorin' would be well positioned legally
to protect its m em bers in plagiarism or breach-of-contract cases; it
would also lobby vigorously for copyright and tax legislation m ore
favorable to writers.5 6
3 4 Schwartz, 68-69.
5 3 Fine, 59.
3 6 Fine, xi.
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His plan, due to various factors, failed-it met with hostility from writers and from the
federal governm ent who, in the wave of anti-Communist McCarthyism sweeping over
the country, deem ed his project as subversive and un-American. But Cain’s efforts
indicate that at least he believed writers needed protection in a changing marketplace.
Aside from formal, institutional means o f protection in the form o f the SWG
and the AAA, screenwriters could rebel against the confines o f the studio svstem in
informal wavs. Indeed, because o f the hostile reaction unionization attempts did evoke,
an exploration o f the less formal wavs writers negotiated their existence might better
illuminate our understanding o f screenwriter agencv, following the concept o f "hidden
transcripts" put forth bv historian Robin E. Kellev. In looking at the black working-
class in America, Kellev proffers that historians should expand their approach to
studying agency beyond recognized, traditional forms o f resistance like political
organizing and unionizing. For certain groups o f people, like the black working-class,
these avenues were not onlv rare opportunities but also may not have been designed
with the particular needs o f the group. Kellev posits that understanding resistance
requires an examination of both the resistance and the m anner in which it is received by
those in power.
The veiled social and cultural worlds o f oppressed people frequendy
surface in everyday forms o f resistance— theft, footdragging, the
destruction o f property— or, more rarelv in open attacks on
individuals, institutions, or symbols o f dom ination.3 7
3 Robin Kelley. R eece Rebels: Culture. Politics, and the Black. Working Class. (New York: The
Free Press, 1994), 8.
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Because those in power often reacted quickly and severely to "public", overt transcripts
o f resistance like union activity, oppressed groups often negotiated "hidden transcripts"
o f agency.3 *
Fortunatelv, film historians have begun to explore these informal efforts. While
these attempts have not vielded tangible results in the same respects as a contract may
have, thev no doubt lessened som e o f the stress writers endured. Richard Fine notes
that informal resistance took on manv forms— from mocking producers to becoming
producers. At M etro-Goldwyn Mayer, for example, Louis B. Maver was nicknamed
'Louis B. Manure.' As writers gained more status, thev could request specific criteria:
working independendv or affiliate themselves with a sympathetic director or producer,
such as screenwriter Charles Brackett did with director Billy Wilder.5 '' Although
scholars have pointed out that writers could leave Hollywood to pursue other careers,
and mam- did, we must turn our attention to other forms of agencv available to writers
wishing to remain in the film industrv: namely, shaping film content.
While Kellev's work sheds light on African-American resistance, his approach is
an appropriate one for the study o f screenwriter resistance in the studio system for
several reasons. Because studio leaders reacted swifdv to screenwriter attempts to
unionize or engage in traditional political activity, this closed avenue o f resistance
opened up new informal paths. Studios were not the only obstacles to screenwriter
unionization in this period, and as historian George Lipsitz argues, though the
atmosphere o f the 1940s was one in which a working class consciousness and a general
3 * Kellev, 9.
3 '' Richard Fine. West o f Eden: Writers in Hollywood 1928-1940. (Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1993), 141.
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questioning o f authorin' prevailed, federal legislation repeatedly ham pered workers in
their unionization efforts.6 " In addition to the growing anti-communism of the period,
in the late 1940s the militancy o f all unions' rank-and-file was targeted bv the 1947 Taft-
Hartley Act which, in its prohibitive stance against wildcat strikes, rendered unions
responsible for any damages incurred bv such demonstrations. This stricture enabled
union leaders to hold the kevs to power concerning worker grievances. Union leaders
who sought the best course for the life o f unions rather than really addressing specific
worker complaints often forged alliances with business leaders.
But, Lipsitz posits that this attempt to quash the rank-and-file was unsuccessful
and working-class militancy seeped into cultural production. Rather than snuffing out
militancy, quelling unionism forced workers to seek out more covert means that were
"less easily controlled forms on the shop floor and all across the country.” Lipsitz turns
to culture in order to ascertain the period's Zeitgeist and argues that film noir reflected
America's conflicted postwar period.6 1 Then, for screenwriters whose work primarily
concerned culture, film content becomes an increasingly important arena to explore,
literally “hidden transcripts.”
As expected, despite their common grievances, screenwriters were not uniform
in their approach to politics. For example, Los Angeles noir screenwriters included
leftists from the blacklisted Albert Maltz (This G un For Hire (1942) to Felix Feist (The
D eni Thumbs A Ride (1947)) w ho helped Louis B. Mayer create fake documentaries in
6 ,1 George Lipsitz, Rainbow at Midnight: Tabor and Culture in the 1940s. (L rbana: University
o f Chicago Press, 1994).
6 1 Lipsitz, 177.
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his successful defeat o f I ’pton Sinclair in 1934.62 A nd Charles Brackett, writer for Sunset
Rlvd. (1950), elected Vice President o f the Screen Writers Guild in the mid-1930s was
described by longtime partner Billy Wilder as "a right-wing Republican conservative, o f
the Trum an Bracketts o f New York."6 3 Instead o f assessing this group o f workers
through only a literal political interpretation, we m ust contextualize individual
experience within the larger cultural atmosphere described by historians like Lipsitz and
in informal action as described by Kelley.
Film C ontent As Resistance
A final place for potential resistance against the studio m achine came in altering
film content. Indeed, a logical place for resistance resides in film. As scholarship on
comm unist potential to change film content has shown, debates within Hollywood's
Com m unist Pam - took up the issue. Blacklisted screenwriter Albert Maltz, who also co
wrote Los Angeles noir This Gun For Hire (1942), published an essay explaining his
position in the debate in the Xew Masses in 1946. According to Maltz, Communist
writers should not see their writing in such a politically strategic light:
'Hie total concept, "art is a weapon,' has been viewed as though it
consisted o f only one word: "weapon." The nature o f art— how art
may best be a weapon, and how it may not be— has been slurred
over. I have come to believe that the accepted understanding o f
art is not a useful guide, but a straitjacket. I have felt this in my
own works and viewed it in the works o f others. In order to write
at all, it has long since becom e necessary for me to repudiate it and
abandon it.6 4
6 2 Schwartz, 36.
6 3 Schwartz, 108-109.
6 4 Albert Maltz. "W hat Shall We Ask o f Writers?" New Masses. 2 D ecem ber 1946.
3 1 9
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To Maltz, art is ruined when pigeon holed into one approach in order to achieve
political means and acknowledges having attem pted such political art in the past.
Maltz's essay set off a flurrv o f discussions within the Pam -, indicating the prevalence o f
the practice am ong leftist screenwriters. Maltz eventually responded to Party criticism
o f his position in The Worker a . few months later in "Moving Forward," where he
recanted m uch o f his earlier ideas: "My critics were entirely correct in insisting that
certain fundam ental ideas in my article would, if pursued to their conclusion, result in
the dissolution o f the left-wing cultural movement."6 3 Thus, in addition to studio
imposed restraints, some writers also felt the harness o f a political affiliation.
Various events in Hollywood history demonstrate the limitations screenwriters
faced in actually criticizing the system. While the Hollywood novel did flourish in the
late 1920s and 1930s, it is im portant to recognize that these portrayals developed
outside o f the studio system. And, most screenwriters who did write Hollywood novels
labored in the shadow o f the studio system, many writing anonymously or under
pseudonyms/’ 6 An important example where a relatively known screenwriter w rote a
Hollywood novel exists in Budd Schulberg's W hat W akes Sammy R un/ Schulberg, son o f
former Param ount executive B.P. Schulberg, grew up in H olhw ood, worked as a
screenwnter, and later named names during the HCL’A hearings. His damning portrait
of Hollywood in W hat Wakes Sammy Run? proved wildly successful but earned the wrath
o f the film industry. According to historian Kevin Start, Louis B. Mayer reportedly told
6 3 Albert Maltz. "Moving Forward." The Worker. 4 July 1946.
6 6 See Chapter T w o’s examination o f the Hollywood noyel to understand how this
writing could serve as resistance.
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B.P. Schulberg that Budd should be deported for his portrayal, causing B.P. to secretly
worn- about his son's plight in the industry.’ ’ 7 Schulberg's exam ple demonstrates the
political climate for those expressing criticism o f the industry outside the realm o f film.
As the previous chapters detail, Los Angeles' identity soon blurred in exported
boosterism and regional fiction, despite the very real differences between the two
places. Anthropologist H ortense Powdermaker’s 1950 Hollywood: the Dream Factory
demonstrates the blending o f the two identities in the national consciousness/’ 8
Powdermaker studied the 1940s film industry in order to assess the impact o f movies
upon society: “ 1 am concerned with opening up the general problem o f movies as an
important institution in our society. A unique trait of m odem life is the manipulation of
people through mass communications.”’''' Powdermaker recognized the film industry’s
domination o f Los Angeles by referring to each place interchangeably within her
writings. Powdermaker’s observations hold a two-fold purpose here. Clearly, she finds
the linking o f Los Angeles and Hollywood as established by the date of her findings,
1950. However, as an anthropologist Powdermaker sheds light onto the geographic and
economic association o f the two.
Hollywood itself is not an exact geographical area. It has commonly
been described as a state o f mind, and it exists wherever people
connected with the movies live and work. The studios are scattered
over wide distances in Los Angeles....! use the term “Hollywood” in
this larger sense.7 "
’“ Kevin Starr. The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997), 314-315.
Honense Powdermaker. Hollywood the Dream Factor): A n Anthropologist's lasok at the
Moiie-Slakers. (Little, Brown, and Company: Boston, 1950).
’’ '’Powdermaker, 11.
7 "Powdermaker, 18.
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Though Powdermaker establishes the interchangeability o f Los Angeles and the film
industrv in real— geographic and economic— term s, another factor established a link
between the two that further fostered the association of the two in American
consciousness— the literary and media made image o f the region. W ith this in mind,
new avenues o f agency emerge in the screenwriter condition. But before we can assess
the possibility o f the political morphology o f Hollywood into Los Angeles in film, we
must acknowledge what happened to individuals who did choose to counter Hollywood
using film.
Returning to the 1950 production o f Sunset Bird, is an excellent way o f
delineating how studios responded to celluloid criticism of the film industry. Co-written
by Charles Brackett and Billy W ilder, Sunset Bird, explores the doom ed relationship
between the eccentric, aging film star Norma D esm ond, played bv Gloria Swanson and
a younger, struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis, played by W illiam Holden. Desperate to
succeed in the film industry, the two unite engaging both the viewer's revulsion and
sympathies. W hen Norma realizes that her m uch planned comeback will not occur, and
Joe plans on leaving her, she kills him.
Wilder and Brackett kept the script a secret until the film was released, an
option available only to a Hollywood elite such as Wilder.’1 According to one Wilder
biographer, Maurice Zolotow, the decision to m ake Sunset Bird, mirrored Wilder's
feelings. Charles Bracket first came up with the story for the film and presented it to
Wilder. Wilder, at first unenthused, grew to em brace the story as he grew more
1 Friedrich, 421.
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pessimistic about life. While working on story revisions, the two called the project .1
Can o f Beans in order to avoid attention. Zolotow elaborates on Wilder’s motivations:
Wilder was convinced he had to conceal from the trade papers, the
studio executives, and the entire industry the nature o f this picture.
He feared that if the industry' suspected w hat he and Brackett were
plotting, there would be pressu re.. .to kill the movie at its inception.'2
W ilder had reason for this move; at the film's prem iere Louis B. Mayer, the head o f
M etro-Goldwyn Maver and the understood head o f the film industry at the time, was
incensed at the film's portrayal o f Hollywood. According to various sources, Mayer
expressed his feelings to Wilder at its release. Wilder biographer Kevin Lallv reports
Mayer shouted: "'You bastard! You have disgraced the industry that m ade and fed you.
You should be tarred and feathered and run out o f the country.' (Wilder also
rem embers hearing something about horsewhipping.)"- ’ Although W ilder reportedly
responded in kind to the confrontation, the object o f Mayer's criticisms remains a bit
unclear. And, though Wilder did keep the film under wraps until its release, he
purportedly could not understand w hat all the fuss was about, recalling, “ I don’t know
what the hell was so anti-Hollywood in that picture. Louis B. Mayer lived in a kind o f
dream world, unfortunately.”7 4
The actual plot o f Sunset Blvd. does not present a clear damnation o f the film
industry'. While the film does end yvith the death o f Joe Gillis at the hands o f Norma
"2 Maurice Zolotoyv. Billy Wilder in Hollywood. (New York: G.P. Gumam, 1977), 156-
160.
’ Kevin Lally. Wilder Times: The Life o f Billy Wilder. (Neve York: Henry H olt and
Company, 1996), 202.
4 Billy Wilder in The Celluloid Muse: Hollywood Directors Speak. Edited bv Charles Higham
and |oel Greenberg. (London: Angus and Robertson, 1969), 250.
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Desm ond, the him industry is hardlv skewered. Instead, Gillis and D esm ond represent
both repulsive and sympathetic characters. Even W ilder appeared mystified by the
harshness o f Maver's attack and considered the film as "not anti-Hollvwood." Rather,
Wilder pointed out the positive Hollywood portrayals imbedded in the film, from the
paternal director Cecil B. De Mille who plavs him self to the earnest female screenwriter
Bern- Schaefer plaved by N ano- Olson. Brackett and W ilder argued that the film's
negative characters could be found in anv industry. Wilder expressed, "Look, the same
thing happens in the aluminum business, it can happen in the families o f dentists." 3
And Brackett noted that the film's treatm ent o f an aging film star was intended to show
that no one escapes the aging process. Sunset Bird., argued Brackett, "merely records
that time, which flavs us all mercilessly, has not spared them." Although changes in
the film industry would alter later filmmaker ability to critique Hollywood— the HCL’A
hearings and subsequent blacklists; the 1948 Param ount decision ending the industry's
horizontal monopolies; the death o f Mayer; and the rise o f television in the early 1950s—
Sunset Blvd. paved the way for similar and more damning films o f the industry. Later
Hollywood-as-subject films include The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), the remake of A Star
is Bom (1954) and The Big Knife (1955).~ In 1950 Maver's reaction to Sunset Blvdls
relatively tame portrayal presents a clear demarcation o f what was then appropriate
storylines on Hollywood.
7 5 Lally, 202.
7 f' Lally, 206.
~ James Naremore cites these changes in explaining the backstorv to The Bad and the
Beautiful in The Films o f I incente Minnelli. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1993), 113.
3 2 4
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As C hapter Four detailed, Hollywood's characterization o f Los Angeles did not
follow such clear guidelines. Indeed, in addition to being used for location shooting for
budge tan* or aesthetic decisions, Los Angeles in films o f the 1940s and earlv 1950s
retains some o f the characteristics in public that Hollywood's negative image held in
private among screenwriters. W hile these similarities are a part o f the Los
Angeles/Hollvwood blurring that fictional and non-fictional reporting on the region
established, this depiction also serves as a form o f agency for filmmakers. Los Angeles,
then, performed a key function when used as a setting in film, functioning as a space for
criticism o f the film industry. But using Los Angeles in lieu o f Hollywood in film m ust
be understood within Los Angeles' larger history, apart from filmmaker decisions. Los
Angeles' ties to the film industry as a boosterish image continued into the 1940s. Thus,
when it became a repeated site in noir films, newspapers played up Hollywood's use o f
location shooting, rather than questioning it.
This affinity with the film industry can be discerned in the occasions w hen city
officials did question the negative effects o f popular culture. In 1946 Los Angeles
District Attorney Fred N. Howser hired investigators to look into several radio crime
dramas. Am ong others, scrutinized radio shows included "I Am a Convict," "Mr.
Keene, Tracer o f Lost Persons," "Murder is My Hobby," and "Suspense."™ Although
Howser's original goal in conducting the investigation remains unclear, investigators'
K The entire list o f sampled programs included "I Am a Convict"; "Mr. Keene, Tracer
o f Lost Persons"; "Mystery Theater"; "The Green Hornet"; "The Shadow";
"Counterspy"; "True Detective Mysteries"; "M urder is My Hobby"; "Murder Will O ut";
"Inner Sanctum"; "Sherlock Holmes"; "Bulldog Drum m ond"; "Mr. District Attorney";
"Ellen- Queen"; "Rogue's Gallery"; "Boston Blackie"; "Mr. and Mrs. North"; "True
Detective Mysteries"; "Michael Shayne"; "Famous Jun" Trials"; "Big Town";
"Adventures o f the Falcon"; "G ang Busters"; "The FBI in Peach and War"; "The
Whisder."
3 2 5
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notes judge each show and its degree o f "moral degeneracy."''' In addition,
investigators assessed to what extent the shows presented criminals in a favorable
manner, the ease of com m itting crimes, and the efficacy o f the police force. For
example, in one summ on- o f the drama "Adventures o f Michael Shavne, Private
Detective" aired on F e b ru a n 13, 1946, the investigator notes:
This program schools the listener in the art o f committing murder.
There is ample opportunity during this program to glorify the Police
Departm ent a n d give them full credit for a comprehensive
investigation. However, this is not done. The opposite impression
is given to the effect that the police inspector was merely "along for
the ride"— T h e impression is also given to the listener early in the
program that th e police are not at all times diligent in their duty to
arrest persons w hom they have reason to believe have committed
the crime. I consider this type o f program capable o f demoralizing
the listeners an d particularly those o f adolescent age who might
listen repeatedlv to programs o f this tvpe.H "
Remarkably, after exam ining over twenty-two radio dramas and their negative potential
on audiences and finding culpable programs, Howser refrained from extending his
analysis to films. The D istrict Attorney certainly had ample fodder for such an inquiry ~
by 1946 the noir ci cle was in full swing, and several popular and controversial Los
Angeles noir films had been introduced including This Gun For Hite (1942), Double
Indemnity (1944), Murder. M y Sweet (1944), Detour (1945), and Mildred Pierce (1945).
In cities outside o f Los Angeles, and presumably safe from the influence o f the
studios, the questioning o f urban depiction o f crime did occur. For example, New York
7 ,) In retrospect. D istrict Attorney historian Tom M cDonald notes that the drama'
impact on audience perception remains questionable as George Murphy, the actor o f
one drama, "Suspense." later became a U.S. Senator from California.— Interview with
McDonald conducted February 2, 2000.
H l' This information gathered through the generous help o f Tom M cDonald and the Los
Angeles District A ttorney's Office, Bureau o f Crime Prevention. Investigator's notes.
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City's response to the location shooting o f The Sleeping City (1950) illuminates concerns
o f its civic leaders. Filmed at Bellevue Hospital, the film's plot centers around two
corrupt hospital employees w ho have manipulated the hospital's staff in order to gain
illegal drugs for the black market. The film's presentation o f a corrupt medical
institution concerned city officials to the point where N ew York City mayor O 'D w yer
agreed to allow the filming o f noir The Sleeping City onlv after he was assured the film
wouldn’t explicitly use New York or “any particular U.S. citv.”8 1
Instead. Los Angeles' response to films using the city seemed to encourage such
productions, rather than m oderate them. The 1954 W arner Brothers production o f
Crime Ware illustrates this relationship. This Los Angeles noir storv centers on the
attempts of one form er con, Steve Lao,', to redeem his life and does not give a stam p o f
endorsement on the safety o f the city or o f the justness o f its law enforcem ent agency.
Although Steve has good intentions, former crime partners escape from prison and
attempt to coerce him into participating in a bank robbery. The detective in charge o f
the investigation is hardly sympathetic to the needs o f Steve Lacv. Rather, the character
o f LAPD Lieutenant Sims is portrayed as a rash, angry man with no time to weigh the
facts at hand, just to condemn a form er con.
Los Angeles' official response to the film contrasts sharplv with New York
O'Dwyer's response to The Sleeping City's tamer representation o f corruption. Instead,
Crime Wave actually was filmed at the dispatch headquarters o f the Los Angeles Police
8 1 According to Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, New York City Mavor O ’Dwver
allowed Universal-International to film in New York Citv onlv if the film’s director,
George Sherman, inserted a spoken prologue into the film stating that the “storv does
not describe anv particular U.S. city.” Film K o ir A n Encyclopedic Reference to the American
Style. (Woodstock: Overlook Press, 1979), 257.
32"
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Departm ent and had policeman. Captain R.A. Lohrman, serve as technical adviser to
give the film an air o f authenticity.*- Moreover, publicity for the film used Los Angeles'
negative reputation to promote the film. Crime Wave was lauded as the first film to use
the city's smog for aesthetic reasons.*3 The lack o f response bv Los Angeles citv
officials and residents alike to filmic renditions o f the region, however, should also be
understood within the larger trajectory o f the city's image and relationship to
Hollvwood.
As Chapter O ne has laid out, city boosters played up the film industry's location
in Southern California. Through booster organizations such as the Los Angeles
Cham ber o f Com m erce and the All-Year Club of Southern California boasted o f the
region’s climate and pro-industry environment, both organizations cited the glam our o f
the film industry as further reasons to visit the citv.*4 This relationship, coupled with the
fictions o f the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s no doubt aided in the normalization o f seeing
Los Angeles through Hollywood as place o f little w orth occurred m uch earlier through
Hollvwood fictions o f the 1920s and 1930s.
* 2 From document entided “Production N otes” for Crime Wave from W arner Brothers
archive. Cinema Library, University o f Southern California.
*3 Author unknown, “Smog Discovered in Crime Film,” from “News” from 5 /5 /5 3 ,
accessed from W arner Brothers archive. Cinema Library, University o f Southern
California.
^Clark Davis, “ From Oasis to Metropolis: Southern California and the Changing
Context o f American Leisure.” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 61, N ovem ber 1992, 371.
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CONCLUSION:
Returning to Robin Kelley's assertion that resistance must be understood in the
context o f its reception, film content takes on new meaning. First, Los Angeles noir
screenwriters repeatedly expressed frustration with the studio system. While some
chose political paths to enact this change, studio heads established early that any
changes in the system would com e at a cost, as evidenced in the 1934 Sinclair
gubernatorial campaign and the struggles of the Screen Writer's Guild. Second, while
leftist screenwriters may or may n ot haye tried to inject political ideology into film
content, producers and directors kept a sharp eye out for such inclusions and usually
censored or neutralized any socialist or communist message into a m ore liberal one.
And, as Louis B. Mayer's response to Sunset Blvd. shows, filmic criticisms o f the film
industry were nor easy to enact. Yet, a space did develop for screenwriters to criticize
the system in the form o f Los Angeles noir. The vacuum opened by Los Angeles' lack
of response to noir imagery created a filmic space for screenwriters in which to use the
city. As this chapter has shown, filmmakers used the city for aesthetic, economic, and
narrative purposes, but also for political purposes, revealing hidden transcripts.
Los Angeles noir screenwriters did express resistance to their plights in the film
industry from heading the Screen W riters Guild, form ing other organizations geared to
protect screenwriters' rights, to actually leaying. T he debate oyer screenwriter power
requires an expansion o f interpretation to include the role o f setting within film. But,
the extent o f this power in using content must be gauged by examining the actual image
and its relationship to place. The following chapter explores, alongside the power o f
media-made places, the unforeseen outcome o f the transcripts hidden within the
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celluloid construction o f Southern California. Along with other social and historical
factors, the widespread dissemination o f this stereotype from literature, news sources,
and film helped to normalize this assessment in Los Angeles’ residents, creating a heady
obstacle in the form ation of Southern Californian sense o f place.
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330
CHAPTER SEVEN:
SIN CITV' EX POSED: SO U TH ERN CALIFORNIA PLACELESSNESS
On February 11, 1997 the Brainerd Daily Dispatch o f Brainerd, Minnesota carried
a front-page article debunking the 1996 award-winning film Fargo directed by Joel and
Ethan C oen.1 A "crime thriller," the movie revolves around the botched kidnapping
and grisly murder o f a car dealer's wife and the covert corruption in the seemingly
innocuous small Midwestern town o f Brainerd, Minnesota. Step-bv-step the newspaper
article negated the authenticitv o f events and stereotypes o f the region:
No Twin Cities car dealers' wives have been kidnapped and killed
in Brainerd (not that we know of-ed). Hit men do not frequent
the city (not that we know of). N o one has been axed to death,
dismembered and fed into a wood chipper (again, not that we
know of).-
ITiough tongue-in-cheek, the paper's article navigated a serious issue: the immense
power of film in shaping popular opinion and beliefs. Citizen concern over Brainerd's
celluloid depiction was not unfounded; when visiting Seatde, the Brainerd High School
principal was asked to speak like the movie's characters, using slow deliberate speech.
1 Waller, Steve. "'Fargo' nom inated for best picture Oscar." The Brainerd Dailv
Dispatch Online, Feb. 14, 1997 at
h ttp ://www.bainerddispatch.com.fargo.fargonomreaction.html.
- The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a story on February 12, 1996 entided "You betcha
Brainerd's tired o f 'Fargo' Fever," and local station W CCO-TV, Channel 4 ran a feature
showing local reaction to the film. Various groups protested the film's depiction, led by
the city's mayor, Bonnie Cum berland who was quoted as saving, "W e're pretty tired o f
the whole thing." From February 14, 1997 edition o f the Brainerd Daily Dispatch O n
line h ttp ://w w w .brainerddispatch.com /farpo/farponom reaction.htm l. And
http://w w w .brainerddispatch.com /fargo/fargonom reaction.htm l accessed on March
12, 2001.
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complete with 'dontchas' and 'you betchas.' Starded bv the request, the principal
concluded, "It kind o f makes us the laughingstock out here." This instance showing the
repercussion’s o f Brainerd’s celluloid stereotype provides a recent example o f the power
o f such media-made places.
As this dissertation has shown, Brainerd's experience is not a new phenom enon
in America's movie-going his ton,-. ’ The form ation and developm ent o f Los Angeles
noir demonstrates that Hollywood has long created unflattering representations o f both
foreign and American regions that have helped to ingrain stereotypes linked to specific
American locales-the socially divided Boston, the unapologeticallv coarse Chicago, and
the celebration o f the average Joe in New York City. Yet, these regional
characterizations are often seen as inconsequential in the larger vision o f mass media's
influence, while other aspects o f popular culture are recognized as being infused with
power, from the representation o f gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race, to class. And
historians and film scholars have plumbed the depths of these characterizations to
show, among other things, how the mass media both reflects and reinforces negative
stereotypes through its pow er o f dissemination. The scope o f this critical lens should
be expanded to include the m anner in which places and regions are characterized in the
mass media because o f its effect on sense o f place.
But apart from the uncritical adoption o f stereotypical views, why does
understanding the impact o f media-made places matter? This dissertation posits that
’ As Chapters Four and Five have demonstrated, setting was and continues to be an
explicit part o f a film's narrative, despite the only recent academic interrogation into its
importance.
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the repeated representations o f Southern California as a place o f little worth in its
conspicuous consum ption, materialism, anti-intellectualism, and superficiality
contributes to the region's diminished sense o f place alongside o th er factors which
erode the ability to create meaningful attachments to place. Actually gauging the effect
o f media-made place-making, though remaining an ultimately im possible endeavor, will
propose that these images have far-reaching consequences on local and national
attitudes and their ramifications. This study works on the premise that just as other
places in the United States do, Southern California maintains a tradition o f diversity, o f
community, and history that is often erased or eclipsed by its m edia-m ade image, an
image which reflects only a small percentage o f a huge and yen' different population.
However, while a sense o f cultural cohesiveness and pride mav be m anifested in smaller
subcultures and individual groups within the region, residents do n o t maintain a larger
affiliation or sense o f place with the larger region, and this failure affects Los Angeles’
progress. Southern California’s popularly held stereotype based in film and media
sources is troubling not only because o f the way it negatively portrays the region, but
also in its failure to represent the diverse populations which make up the region and its
failure to portray the real problem s inflicting the region in real socio-econom ic term s
and in its more ephemeral and less easy to define, sense o f com m unity.
W hile this study has bem oaned the negative imagery that Hollvwood and
various writers have created to represent Southern California as a w hole, it does not
imply that criticism o f Los Angeles or the region is not ever deserved; rather, it asks its
navsavers to ground opposition to the place in the region’s real demographics. Instead
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o f focusing on the num ber o f oxygen bars in Los Angeles, this studv asks critics to look
at the city’s m ore im portant and increasingly complex issues: from its current housing
shortage which affects the region’s poor in often undocum ented wavs, to its ethnic and
racial tensions which are both rooted in economics and culture, to its bureaucratic and
ill suited form o f city representation, to its reliance on undocumented workers in manv
spheres of industry, to the problems facing the Los Angeles L'nified School District, to
name but a few. These types o f problems should be addressed and dealt with, but when
Southern California’s main problems are portrayed as m ore superficial and not reallv so
troublesome, such as the failure o f a cappuccino machine to make the perfect froth or a
convertible’s electric top to close, as one billboard jokes, the region’s real issues become
muffled or erased.4 The requisite knowledge and sense o f responsibilitv towards fixing
these issues come m ore naturallv when its residents have or are continuouslv building a
sense o f place.
Although this study does not comprehensivelv explore audience reception, it
attempts to explore several questions that confront reception: How does the continued
negative depiction o f the region affect local attitudes to place' How are these attitudes
manifested in regional pride or responsibility? How does this mass mediated image
influence national attitudes towards the city and region? Can this attitude plav itself out
in national legislative debate or the national hierarchv o f cultural values? Though a
myriad of factors undoubtedly shape sense o f place, this chapter suggests that the
region’s media-made place, with its other obstacles to place making, cumulate in a
4 Billboard seen at Universal Citv W alk in January 2002. See Appendix, Figure 3 for
reproduction.
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diminished sense o f regional attachm ent and responsibility. Ultimately, as personal
experience and the body o f reception studies show us, however, finding a direct
correlation betw een Los Angeles’s filmic vision and its residents’ feelings about place is
a largely impossible project. Yet, this chapter, as does this dissertation, asks its reader to
think about the possible, and probable, connections in real terms.
Towards this end this chapter begins with a discussion o f two key terms in
understanding the media’s force in influencing attitudes about places: symbolic
landscapes and sense of place. Next, this chapter turns to where this study is situated in
the larger body o f studies o f Los Angeles. Then, this chapter briefly explores the ways
in which the noir mythos has been reinvented in different fictional forms. After this
truncated survey, this chapter begins the task o f gauging sense o f place. It presents
anecdotal evidence docum enting a sense of detachm ent among Los Angelenos from a
vane tv of writers— journalists, historians, and political scientists. Next, it turns to a
1972 study in geography that attem pted to measure then contem porary attitudes
towards major L’S cities. Following this comparative approach this chapter then
evaluates Los Angeleno voting patterns against five other m ajor cities in local, mayoral
elections in order to see if there is a difference between Los Angeles and other cities.
Finally, this chapter acknowledges other factors that may both encourage and
discourage place-making in the region, aside from its media-made representation.
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SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPES & SENSE OF PLACE
Understanding the relationship between Los Angeles noir and regional
attachm ent requires an understanding o f what geographers have termed symbolic
landscapes and sense o f place. Mass-media place-making extends bevond merely the
creation o f visual forms o f identification to the formation o f stereotyped value
associations. As geographer D.W. Meinig notes, stereotyped images o f American
regions have been ingrained into Am erican consciousness through various forms o f
mass media. From greeting cards to film, typical representations exist for different
regions in the L’.S.-the N ew England town, the New York skyline. Midwest's Main
Street. Meinig contends individuals w ho haven't been to these actual places, conjure up
a media-made image that two-dimensionalizes the place. Using New England as an
example, Meinig proffers, "The image o f the New England village is widely assumed to
symbolize the best we have known o f an intimate, family-centered. Godfearing, morally
conscious, industrious, thrifty, democratic community."5 While New England's mass-
mediated image, according to Meinig, may embody these generally favorable traits, as
this dissertation has shown, Los Angeles has long represented its inverse. The potency
o f media place-making cannot be underestim ated. Filmgoers often see movie imagery
as legitimate representations, especially w hen they lack any experience or local
knowledge o f the place in question, as Brainerd’s example reveals.
In looking at the relationship betw een audience reception and Los Angeles
imageiy, it is difficult to equivocate. If we disagree that fictional imagery plavs a larger
3 D.W. Meinig. “Symbolic Landscapes” in The Interpretation o f Ordinary Landscapes, edited
by D.W. Meinig (Oxford University Press: New York, 1979).
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transformative role in how people perceive Southern Californians, one must w onder
how this imagery is perpetuated, aside from its historical origins. Consider recent
internet-based texts that ridicule Southern Californians. One w eb page presents a
version of w hat Southern California drivers license exam should look like. Entided
"New Los Angeles Driving Test," the form asks for the respondent's stage name, breast
size (in case size inhibits the driver's ability to reach the steering wheel), and frequency-
o f therapy sessions, among other questions, alluding to the more recent variations o f the
noir stereotype.'’ O r, consider the recent (2001) advertising campaign employed bv the
Los Angeles Public Library, encouraging library card enrollment. Brochures for the
library- card applicanon are blazoned with the phrase, “Sign o f Intelligent Life in L.A.”,
implying that normally such evidence would be in short supply.7 Finally, examine the
case o f Keith Sholar and Tina W ilson, tyvo Texas visitors who recendy visited the
Southland and were featured in the Los Angeles Times* The two cam e expecting to be at
times dazzled bv glitz and glamour, witness or hear about local crime, endure a horrific
traffic jam or tyvo. and observe a feyv “wackos.” W hen their trip did not go according
to expectations, they were surprised. In fact, the only “yvacko” they found yvas a man
* ’ Test found at http://wwyy-.dumblists.com on Septem ber 9, 1999. See also, "You
Know You're In LA When" found at h ttp ://www .losangelesalm anac.com /I N L \ .htm
May 1, 2001 and "Only In CA" found at http://wyvyv.after-death.com
http://yvyvw.after-death.com on September 12, 1999, both located on Index, Figures B
and C. respectively.
Brochure for library card application from Los Angeles Public Library obtained May
10, 2001.
* Martin Miller. “ Postcards from the Edge? Well, N ot Exactly.” Los Angeles Times.
Section: Southern California Living, 4 June 2001, E -l.
33"
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who “jumped on glass shards” for $5, which Sholar dutifully paid him. At the same
time as the two were pleasandy surprised by the Los Angeles that greeted them , their
expectations undoubtedly figured into how thev perceived the region, to the point that
they actually contributed to its off-beat stereotype by paving someone to fulfill its
vision.
How does this stereotype persist? Does the context for this imagery reflect
what is on screen? To believe so implies that m ost Southern Californians have
connections to Hollvwood, have had plastic surgery, and are involved in self-centered
forms o f therapy, describing a superficial and narcissistic population, that contrasts
sharply with Southern California's demographics; a leader in a multitude o f industries
aside from the entertainm ent business, its huge suburban bedroom communities, and its
real problems o f poverty and growing chasm separating economic classes, as well as its
racial and ethnic diversity. Also, if we agree that the hypodermic model o f reception
theory should not apply to Los Angeles film and believe that audiences actively
challenge and process w hat Hollywood may present before them, what would account
for a diminished sense o f place? And, while the case o f Sholar and Wilson may
document that outsiders may adopt media-made expectations o f the region, it hardly
proves that residents, with firsthand knowledge o f the place, actually experience
placelessness.
As Los Angeles’ example demonstrates, the relationship between the mass
media and a region’s degree o f place is complex and difficult to measure. Sense o f
place, the connection betw een an exact locale and public and personal history, occurs
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through collective and individual experiences with a particular space. In addition to the
hard, material stuff a place is made of-buildings, parks, roads, and public spaces, other
ephemeral elements contribute to sense o f place-memories, shared history, and the
public, media-made characterization o f a site. G eographer Yi-Fu Tuan describes
understanding place as integral to the hum an condition:
Place supports the human need to belong to a meaningful and
reasonably stable world, and it does so at different levels o f
consciousness, from an almost organic sense o f identity that is
an effect of habituation to a particular routine and locale, to more
conscious awareness o f the values o f middle-scale places such as
neighborhood, city, and landscape, to an intellectual appreciation
o f the planet earth itself as hom e.1 '
The power o f place on community developm ent and historic identity cannot be
overstated. Dolores Hayden, in her explanation o f the pow er o f place, specifies that
within the concept of place exists the idea o f place memorv-the relationship to place
and history. Building on the work o f philosopher Edward S. Casev, Havden elaborates:
It is the key to the power of historic places to help citizens define
their public pasts: places trigger mem ories for insiders, who have
shared a common past, and at the same time places often can
represent share pasts to outsiders w ho might be interested in
knowing about them in the present.1 "
And. importantly, this shared history knowledge includes all experience, positive and
negative, that occurs within a community.
'' Yi-Fu Tuan. "Place and Culture: Analeptic for Individuality and the World's
Indifference." In Mapping American Culture edited bv Wavne Franklin and Michael
Steiner. (Iowa City: I ’niversirv o f Iowa Press, 1992), 44.
1 1 1 Dolores Hayden. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public Histor): (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1995), 46.
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In terms of Los Angeles' media-made image and sense o f place, noir plavs an
integral role. Indeed, in surveying Los Angeles’s noir m vthos in novels, cultural critic
Mike Davis observes.
It is hard to exaggerate the damage which noir's dvstopianization
o f Los Angeles.. .inflicted upon the accumulated ideological
capital o f the region's boosters. .Voir, often in illicit alliance with
San Francisco or N ew York elitism, made Los Angeles the city
that American intellectuals love to hate, [italics added]1 1
How does all o f this hate influence the way residents love their place? For Southern
California, the role of its media-made image in formation o f sense of place and place
memory remains a largely unexplored but im portant factor. Building on Davis, this
chapter argues that in addition to the dismissal o f the region bv intellectuals, noir also
affects how residents develop a sense o f regional responsibility. This chapter will mine
the wealth o f regional imagery and connect it to community attachment, or lack thereof,
to place.
UNDERSTANDING PLACE AND PLACELESSNESS
Lxarmning Southern Californian sense o f place requires a forav into several
different disciplines, from Los Angeles history to the study o f audience reception. The
questions o f this chapter, and o f the dissertation as a whole, have demanded an
interdisciplinary approach that blends often isolated historiographies from various
fields. While different disciplines have tangenriallv approached the subject o f this
chapter— film to docum ent and analyze the image; history to contextualize its
1 1 Mike Davis. City of Quartty Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. (New York: Verso,
1990), 21.
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emergence; comm unications to explore its dissemination-in order to understand the
nexus o f these subjects, we must turn to geography and its continued focus on sense o f
place.1 2 Scholars such as Yi-Fu Tuan and DAV. Meinig docum ent the role between
place and individual and collective identity. More specific work vis a vis place and film
has been mined by various geographers, and while these works help to illuminate
im portant relationships, they remain largely ahistorical and do not take on Los
Angeles.1 ’
W ithin the recent past, media critic Joshua Mevrowitz began the first hard
questioning o f the role o f mass communications and sense o f place in his influential
1985 \ o Sense of Place: The Impact oj the Electronic Media on Social BehariorM Mevrowitz
feared the erosion o f community ties brought on by mass media, noting, "Media ties
compete with family, church, school, and community. Media create new
"communities," and a large portion o f their content is shared by most people in the
country. Many jokes, phrases, expressions, and events heard and seen on television
supplies a com m on set o f "experience" for people across the land."1 5 While Mevrowitz
looks broadly at how community cohesion may diminish in the face o f a homogenizing
1 2 The historiography o f urban representation in film has been explored in m ore detail
in Chapters Four and Five.
1 ' See, for example, the edited collection Place. Power. Situation, and Spectacle, edited by
Stuart C. Aitken and Leo Zonn. (Boston; Rowman & Litdefield Publishers, Inc., 1994).
u Joshua Mevrowitz, X o Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaiior.
(New York: O xford L'niversity Press, 1985).
1 5 Mevrowitz, 144.
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mass media, a refrain echoed m ore recendv with the rise o f the Internet, he does not
plunge into how media-made imagery o f place mav influence its residents' attitudes.
Two works do more closelv examine the Los Angeles' relationship to its sense
o f place and its media-made image. Architectural, public, and cultural historian and
architect Dolores Hayden, frames one wav o f answering some o f the questions o f this
studv in her inspiring The Power o f Place: L'rban Landscapes as Public History.1 This work
charts new territory in the studv o f place and public memory, exploring how the built
environment functions importantly in public memories. The Power o f Place also
documents the reasons why— that because the trajectories o f public policy and cultural
landscape his ton' have ignored ethnic, working-class, and women's expenences, much
o f these memories are forgotten in the vanishing o f the public places associated with
these groups. Unfortunately, while The Power o f Place does highlight the im portance o f
place on multiple levels, it does not include a lengthy discussion o f the role o f the media
in cultivating or harm ing public m em on.
Second, N orm an Klein's The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of
Memory fills some o f the void in Hayden's work bv looking at how Los Angeles fiction
promotes a regional cultural amnesia.1 Klein's study rightly posits that ahistorical texts
set in Los Angeles white-wash and homogenize a complex and diverse history, creating
a sense of transience and lack o f importance to the region. But, as this dissertation has
shown, initial images about Los Angeles, from the booster myths to noir, were rooted in
1 6 Dolores Harden. The Power oj Place: L'rban Landscapes as Public H ist or}’ . (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: M IT Press, 1995).
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historic events, albeit som e were greatlv romanticized or criminalized. W ith this
understanding, this chapter realigns Klein's concept o f "erasure" to envision a more
active diminishing o f regional attachm ent to Southern California bv its residents.
Specifically, this chapter posits that anti-Los Angeles media-made imagerv
teaches its viewers to regard Los Angeles and Southern California as a place o f little
worth. And, this education influences the wavs in which residents cultivate sense of
place. This research bridges two historiographic spheres that broach this subject from
different vantages-the importance o f sense o f place and its relationship to urban
representation in film-and applies it to Southern California. This chapter adds to the
existing writing on the power of place and Los Angeles bv connecting the region's
media-made image to individual and collective feelings about the place. Southern
California's repeated association in the public's imagination, both within the region and
across the nation, as a place o f questionable worth, renders its complex history into a
false and ahistoncal account, whose beginning, middle, and end follow a repeated and
doom ed pattern. Thus, this chapter weaves theory from geography, history, film
studies, and political science to provide answers and adds m ore questions to its research
goals.
Gauging Sense of Place
How do we measure sense o f place? W hat tools do we employ to systematically
evaluate a feeling, gauge a mood, or docum ent an attitude? Moreover, how do we
1' N orm an M. Klein. The History o f Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure o f Memory.
(London: Verso, 1997).
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measure a feeling that is not often verbalized or even acknowledged in mainstream
discussions o f relationships, which focus m ore on relationships between people and not
people and places? To express inequalities in sense o f place, this investigation will turn
to different sources. In order to show m ore tangible manifestations o f this
phenom enon, this chapter studies the repetition o f the imagery in later fictional texts;
mines anecdotal evidence; and finally surveys comparative voting patterns on local
issues between Los Angeles and other key American cities. Further, this chapter notes
the factors that, in addition to a media-made landscape, mav diminish regional sense o f
place.
Sense o f place is complicated by a myriad o f factors in addition to its media-
made image, which, in the case of Los Angeles, give such portrayals m ore influence.
Because the region suffers from elements which erode a larger sense o f community and
place attachm ent, the image gathers m ore strength. N ot only does the filmic and
literary image not have fictional counters, but the place itself lacks much o f the
requisites to continuous place-making. Southern California furnishes a challenging
forum in that this vision comes from the region itself and its various culmre industries,
but also in its geographic decentrality, in the continued erosion o f place markers, and in
the constant flux o f new peoples without shared histories that contribute to a weakened
sense o f place.
But the erosion o f place has long been a concern o f geographers and media
critics, from Joshua Meyrowitz's dire warnings about television in the mid-1980s to
researcher William Leach's tracing o f American placelessness to the 18th century and
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the W estern tradition o f commodifying place.Is According to Leach, the 19th century
transition to the 20th century and the rise o f industrial capitalism also figures in the
nationwide erosion o f sense o f place:
Industrial capitalism...laid the foundation for what Americans would
come to know as "mass consum er society."....But American business
did more than strive to inspire a desire for goods and to create a new
institutional landscape to sustain it; it also changed the way American
looked at and understood place. Consumer capitalism, in other
words, was n ot just shopping. Intrinsic to it was the cult o f the new,
the need to overturn the past and begin again, and to disregard all
kinds of attachm ents in the interest o f getting the "new and
improved," w hether goods, jobs, entertainment, or places.1 9
Yet, at the same time this ideological positioning that favors the new over the old and
considers place as a temporary backdrop to the present mav exist across the country,
Los Angeles' own history makes the region an even m ore cogent example o f the
process. Because the region's contemporary sense o f itself is so firmlv entrenched in the
rise o f industrial capitalism and modernity. Southern Californian sense o f place is more
rooted, ironically, to a placelessness tradition. Thus, the Los Angeles m odel o f
placelessness is reinforced by national and local economic structures and ideological
underpinnings.
Los Angeles’s shape and size make overall community building a difficult
process, which in turn renders its media-made image m ore powerful. The geographic
decentralization o f Los Angeles and Southern California’s immense acreage (Los
ls Joshua Mevrowitz. Ao Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior.
(New York: Oxford L'ruversity Press, 1985) and William Leach. Country o f Exiles: the
Destruction of Place in American Life. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999).
1 9 Leach, 12.
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Angeles County alone covers two and a half million acres) create a space where a sense
o f community cohesiveness, under the rubric o f "Southern Californian," is difficult to
attain.2 " Cultural critic Roland Barthes expands on how geographic centrality detracts
from a community ’s core both physically and psychologically:
Quadrangular, reticulated cities (Los Angeles, for instance) are said
to produce a profound uneasiness: thev offend our svnesthetic
sentiment o f the City, which requires that any urban space have a
center to go to. to return from, a complete site to dream o f and in
relation to which to advance or retreat; in a word, to invent
oneself.2 1
In the case o f Los Angeles, its invention occurs primarily through its media-made self,
and as such, is a false, not representative image. Barthes likens the citv core to a
community's hom e, its heart and implies that Los Angeles’ lack o f one creates an
untethered community, a placeless region.
Southern California’s identity as a place for tourism and flux presents another
detractor the place-making that enhances the potency o f its media-made image.
Geographer E. Relph links tourism to placelessness, and, because this identity gTew
hand-in-hand with the region, it appears inextricably linked to Los Angeles and the
m anner in which residents and visitors alike treat the place. According to Relph,
2 1 1 Los Angeles County covers 2,598,380 acres. Data gathered from California
Departm ent o f Finance at
http://w w w .dof.ca.gov/H TM L/FS_D A T A /profiles/pf_hom e.htm on April 17, 2001.
Los Angeles County’s area in miles is 4,081.58 data gathered from
http: / / www.co.la.ca.us/statisncs.htm. County o f Los Angeles statistical webpage visited
on june 9, 2001.
2 1 Roland Barthes. “’Center-City, Em pty Center’ and ‘N o Address’” from Empire o f Signs
(1970) reprinted in The City Cultures Reader edited by Malcolm Miles, Tim Hall, and Iain
Borden. (London: Roudedge, 2000), 195.
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Tourism is an homogenizing influence and its effects everywhere
seem to be the same— the destruction o f the local and regional
landscape that very often initiated the tourism, and its replacem ent
by conventional tourist architecture and pseudo-places.2 2
Relph elaborates on the role o f tourism by describing the “Disnevfication” o f places
into excitement-centered products based on ease and amusement, rather than
imagination or the historical record. Such a vision is easily discernible in one strip o f
road in Buena Park, California in O range countv, Beach Boulevard.
Beach Boulevard lies just o ff the Riverside Freewav in Buena Park, sandwiched
between Los Angeles and Anaheim. This strip seems to materially convey placelessness
and Carey McWilliams’ 1946 assertion that, "Migration spells m aladjustm ent,” in its
array o f theme park establishments from "Riplev's Believe It O r N ot" wax freak shows,
to "Wild West Extravaganzas", to a stuccoed feudal fortress called "Medieval Times", to
the glittering icon o f "Movieland Wax Museum." Even the strip’s M acDonald's
hearkens to an unknown past, with an extensive exhibit o f Germ an m iniature trains.2 3
Each o f its different entertainm ent institutions seem to re-frame his to n - along Relph’s
lines. l or example, "Wild Bill's" exists as a mightv masculine representation o f the
trying, tough days o f the West, painted in a prettv, pastoral pink with pristine white trim.
Its brochure shows a glitter)' representation o f the “cowbov davs” o f the region with all
performers wearing cheerful red, white, and blue "sparkling" costum es, and its “saloon
girls” in skimpy halter-tops with white leather boots. Beach Boulevard is a potent
example o f Relph’s process o f “Disnevfication,” and the strip is hardly representative o f
2 2 E. Relph. Place and Placelessness. (London: Pion Limited, 1976), 93.
2 3 Carey McWilliams. Southern California: Island on the Land. (Salt Lake City: Peregrine
Books,’1946), 239.
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the region as a whole. But this portion Beach Boulevard is not representative o f the
region’s overall architecture or even o f Buena Park’s built environment.
And, though a place’s built environm ent o f a place mav indicate the health o f a
community, as Yi-Fu Tuan argues, to merely see Southern California as an array o f
consumer-driven edifices reduces our understanding o f the region’s architecture to that
o f a Hollywood novel, merely noting its absurdities and excesses. Such a theory would
hazard that New York, dominated bv its skyscraper skyline reflects a population with
only hard-nosed capitalist goals.
The ahistorical condition affecting Los Angeles' sense o f itself is also created in
its vanishing historical markers in the public space. W riting about the area west o f
downtown, Norman Klein observes,
(O)ver fifty thousand housmg units were tom down in the period
1933 to 1980, leaving an em pty zone as noticeable as a m eteor’s
impact. Only some of the lots have since been filled High-rises
stand directly beside barren hills, near weedy patches o f old
foundations. Along Sunset Boulevard, the stone staircases o f
former Victorian houses now lead to nothing at all. Virtually no
ethnic community downtown was allowed to keep its original
location: Chinatown, the Mexican Sonora, Little Italy.2 4
The absence of markers from the region's shared past greadv erodes how residents
value place. According to psychologist Alan Radlev,
2 4 Klein, 7. Southern California' lack o f older buildings was the result o f a variety o f
factors-urbanization campaigns, "beautification" m ovem ents, and natural disasters such
as earthquakes. George Sanchez has also researched the role o f community
displacement caused by the building o f freeways in Boyle Heights, a community just
east o f downtown Los Angeles. G eorge J. Sanchez. Becoming Mexican-American: Ethnicity.
Culture and Identity in Chicano Cos Ansels. 1900-1945. (New York: O xford University
Press, 1993).
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We are used to the idea that objects serve as reminders or as
a focus for recalling time spent with others or in particular
places.... Objects do seemingly present themselves unexpectedly
to 'evoke memories', but they are also very much part o f the
material world ordered to sustain certain myths and ideologies,
but about people as individuals and about particular cultures.2 5
That much o f Los Angeles’ historic built environment is lost gives its residents physical
cues on the perm anence and stability* o f the place and aid in the loss o f local knowledge.
The mvriad variables at work in Los Angeles’ relationship to place offers a set o f
challenges to studying its media-made representation and its influences on sense o f
place. We cannot separate the region’s geographic decentralization, for example, from
the effects o f its noir mythos in its residents’ and visitors’ imaginations or dissect one
factor from the other in determining which influence is more powerful. Rather, it is
clear that one enhances the other. Los Angeles’ media-made representation in conjunction
m tb the other factors shaping sense o f place creates a community that is taught to
devalue and not respect the region.
Vet, measuring sense o f place presents its own challenges. Because gauging
sense o f place appears at times to be an impossible feat, a better approach might be in
measuring the region’s placelessness. Placelessness, according to geographer E. Relph,
is manifested through an “other-directedness” including landscapes o f tourism, o f
entertainment districts, o f commercial strips, and o f futurist places— all which pertain to
Southern California in different ways.2 f* Placelessness mav also manifest itself in other
physical forms, per architectural historian Michael Hough, through unbuilt lots,
2 3 Alan Radley. "Artefacts, Memory and a Sense o f the Past." in Middleton, Dave &
Edwards, Derek, eds.. Collective Remembering. (London: Sage Publications, 1990), 51.
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homogenized yet isolated housing developments, or shopping districts where parking
lots take precedence over pedestrian pathways.2' While H ough’s descriptions supplv a
beginning, gauging individual responses and reaction to place remains a much m ore
elusive matter. Documenting the ways in which the noir m vthos has been reinvented
supplies wavs to begin a measure o f place or placelessness.
CONTINUING THE NOIR TRAJECTORY
Los Angeles' continued diminution in popular culture since 1955, though on
fictional terms, continues an erosion o f regional sense o f place. As this studv has
shown, though its initial negative depiction resulted from late 19th centurv hvper-
boostensm o f the region, fears about cultural transformations, and the workplace
inequities o f the film industry, the re-negotiation o f noir throughout Los Angeles fiction
from the 1950s onward continues the normalization o f the noir or inferior appraisal o f
Southern California. A vanetv o f media— television, film, music, and literature— extend
tilm noir’s original appraisals o f the place past noir’s terminus in the late 1950s. A small
sampling o f post 1955 fiction demonstrates this practice. Immediately on the heels o f
the noir cycle (and arguably overlapping with its end) is the television series Dragnet,
created in 1954 in conjunction with the LAPD as a wav to publicize Chief Parker's new
vision o f the force, which unwittingly highlighted the pervasiveness o f crime to the
2 f’ Relph, 118. Relph also discusses other aspects that define placelessness from the
uniformin’ and standardization in places, to formlessness and lack o f human scale and
order in places, to place destruction, to impermanence and instability o f places.
2 Michael Hough. Out oj Place: Restoring Identity to the Regiona/ landscape. (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1990), 89-93.
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region bv outlining the efficiency o f the force. For in showcasing the L A PD 's strengths,
it required a criminal population from which to work. In addition, literature and
popular fiction have also continued themes first initiated in the Hollvwood novel and
pulp fiction tradition.2 , H
1960s film audiences also learned about Southern California from variations o f
the noir familv tree. Although appearing modified at the surface in terms o f suburban
setting, the 1960s cycle o f "beach movies" that glorify a Southern California suburban
existence continue noir themes o f conspicuous consumption. Films like Beach Party
(1963;. Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), How to S tu ff a Wild Bikini (1965), and Dr. Goidfoot and
the Bikini Machine (1965) continue the vision o f Southern California as a place o f leisure
with gorgeous, willing voung women abounding, as some o f their ndes indicate.
Consider the plotline o f the 1965 Dr. Goidfoot and the Bikini Machine. The lead
protagonist. Dr. G oidfoot, envisions a plan to make enorm ous amounts o f m onev bv
inventing attractive female bikini-clad robots who dupe wealthy men into signing over
their fortunes. Though obviously a comedy. Dr. Goidfoot continues Southern California
tropes by associating the region with a degraded and exploitative sexualitv and its
showcasing o f consum ption and leisure.
Similarly, music mirrors its filmic counterpart, re-inscribing unquestioned
attitudes about Southern California. The music of the Beach Bovs, for exam ple, reveals
the continuing dualin- o f the Southern California image, building on the n o ir and
2s Ronald John Schmidt, |r. "This is the City: Political Imitation in Leangles. (Ph.D.
diss.. University of California, Berkeley, 1998), 224. Schmidt notes that som eone from
the Office o f the Chief reviewed each one o f the scripts before shooting.
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booster amalgam. Even though the music at first seems to extol the region, its m ost
celebrated traits are its surfer-bachelor lifestvie and the plentiful supply o f young,
attractive, and presumably disposable women ("Two girls for even- boy!"). Yasue
Kawahara explores how the Beach Boys' Southern California presents a sexist ideal a
step further
Skillful surfers and the champions o f the drag races are also the
winners among women as a "noble surfer," the "num ber one man."
"takes his choice of honeys up and dow n the coast." In "I G et
Around," the group suggests that they want to maintain freedom in
order to date as many girls as possible, saying that they do not go
steady "because it wouldn't be right/T o leave the best girl hom e
on Saturdav night.-'
While this Lifestyle and worldview may have coincided with ideals held across the
country. Southern California is the apex o f these stereonpes. And these films depart
from the noir cycle in their light-hearted appeal and often comedic nature.
In terms o f continuing the traditional noir formula for Southern California, film
remains the m ost fertile arena for reproduction. Within film, the noir trope heavily
influenced later variations o f celluloid Southern California. Since the postwar noir cycle,
films about Los Angeles have continued its trajectory through both neo-noir and other
machinations. Chiefly, three them es have emerged in L.A. based film, often with some
overlap: Los Angeles as crime scene, as setting for the film industry, and as cultural
wasteland. There is no one pat formula for each theme, and certain traits can be
ascribed to each category that can be traced back to the original noir cycle.
Yasue Kuwahara. "The Promised Land: Images o f America in Rock Music." (Ph.D.
diss.. Bowling G reen State University, 1987), 72.
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Since the 1970s Los Angeles noir has been reinvented bv Hollywood, affirming
and often rendering m ore negative L.A.’s noir symbolic landscape. The more recent
1990s emergence o f noir like L .-L Confidential (1997) was preceded bv a crop o f films in
the 1970s and 1980s.V l 1974's Chinatown to Twilight in 1998 documents the region's
affiliation with noir themes. But Los Angeles as an urban crime center is nor confined
to film noir. The theme prevails in other, starkly different, films using Los Angeles.
Cultural critic Todd Bovd explores Los Angeles' inner city crime in African-American
avant garde films o f the 1970s, particularly Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's
Baadassss Jong (1971), which explores, "the quintessential struggling Black man who is
disillusioned by the unfulfilled promises o f migration westward to Los Angeles." ' 1
Boyd links the film to immediate Los Angeles historv:
Taking its cue from the W atts rebellion in 1965 and foregrounding
the police brutality against African-Americans that has become as
much of a Los Angeles landm ark as the Hollvwood sign, Sweetback
successfully demonstrates the m ost efficient use o f culture as an arm
o f larger political struggles.
Sweetback also expands on Los Angeles' celluloid stereotype as a place o f unfulfilled
dreams and wasted potential, a site o f crime, fomented in the noir tradition.
Please note this list is hardly exhaustive. Blade Runner (1982), Chinatown (1974), The
Tate Show (1977), To Lire and Die in L -l (1985)77v Lung Goodbye (1973) Tequila Sunrise
(1988).
’’ T odd Boyd, "The W rong Nigga to Fuck Wit: Sweetback and the Dilemma o f the
African-American Avant-Garde." Scratching the Belly oj the Beast: Cutting-edge Media in Los
Angeles. 1922-94. (Los Angeles: 1994).
Boyd, 22.
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The racialization o f Los Angeles in film began in earnest, however, in the
Blaxploitation era o f film, the 1970s. Criticized for their continuation o f negative
stereotypes, blaxploitadon films feature black characters in underw orld activities, such
as pimping and drug dealing, and are set in urban cores and ghettos. Films like Black
Belt Jones (1974), Candy Tangerine M an (1975), Dolemite (1975), and The M ack (1973)
continue, though de-politicized, Peeble's vision o f Los Angeles and center plot lines
around underworld criminal activities, in addition to blaxploitation films taking place in
other American urban cores. O n a related note, other writers observe the proliferation
o f films focusing upon class struggle and violence in Southern California in the early
1990s, citing Boy~ A the Hood (1991), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Mmerican Me (1992),
and Blood In Blood Out (1993) to illustrate this trend. ’3 This them e is reinvigorated
throughout the nineties, infamously in the 1993 Falling Down. T he film concentrates on
middle-aged W illiam Foster, played by Michael Douglas. Recently laid o ff from the
aerospace industry and in the middle o f one o f Los Angeles' infam ous traffic jams,
Foster snaps, leading him, according to film critic Robert Reinhold, “on a violent
journey through a hostile city, m uch o f it graffiti-splattered and ethnically threatening." ’4
Although films focusing on Los Angeles' ethnic urban conflicts em erge from an
3 3 B. W’ einraub, "New Films Depicting a Tougher Los Angeles." N ew York Times. 141, 3
February 1992, C l 1-C l2. In addition to Boyd and Weinraub, see Richard Natale's "LA
Plays Itself' I 'illage I 'oice. 6 D ecem ber 1988, 67; and John Powers "Los Angeles: A
W orld Apart" Sight and Sound. May 1991 for m ore discussion o f ethnic tensions in Los
Angeles films. Natale cites Zoot Suit (1981), Colors (1988), and Die H ard (1988). Powers
cites A ew Jack City (1991). Blood In Blood Out is known as Bound By Honor (1993).
3 4 Robert. Reinhold, "Horror for Hollywood." S e w York Times 142: (March 29, 1993)
All.
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historical reality evidenced in various forms, from the 1965 W ans Riots to the 1991
Rodney King beating to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, these films also build from the
noir cycle in the continued criminalization o f the region. As such, thev are instrumental
in the fostering o f placelessness to their Los Angeles-based viewers.
A second variation from the noir cycle examines films that use Los Angeles as a
backdrop for the movie industry and also informs viewers o f the region’s worth.
Though "Hollywood" movies precede film noir, films criticizing the film industry did
not emerge in numbers until the 1950s, as explained in Chapter Four. "Hollywood"
movies, like film noir, uncover hidden corruption, unchecked power, and cunning
ambition but center upon the movie industry.'3 These films include They Shoot Horses.
Don't They? (1965), .-Ilex in Wonderland (1970). Body Double (1984), Barton Fink (1991), The
Player (1992), among others. The imagery in these films focus on the superficiality,
temporariness, and wanton disregard for talent and human w orth as practiced in the
film industry and develop from the L.A. noir trope and the symbolism and behavior
first authored in the Hollywood novels o f the late 1920s and 1930s.
Similarly, a third them e associated with Los Angeles in film is the theme o f "La
La Land," or that o f Los Angeles as cultural wasteland and adds to the region’s symbolic
landscape as one ot litde value. Here, films present Los Angeles as a place o f leisure,
ignorance, and conspicuous consumption. Since the 1950s, several films have used this
1 3 Films include .-Ilex in Wonderland (1970) Barton Fink (1991), Beyond the I 'alley oj the Dolls
(1970), Body Double (1984), The Player (1992), They Shoot Horses. D on’ t They (1965), The
Lored One (1965), Star SO (1983), among others.
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theme in presenting Southern California, from Shampoo in 1975 to the m ore recent
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001) described bv one viewer as:
(A) comedy (which would suggest a bit of silliness) about Mick
Dundee's further adventures, and this time he's in America, or
specifically, L.A, one of the weirdest and most fake places in
America. This, contrary to popular belief, is a great place for Mick,
the original straight shooter and honest bloke.3 6
Films portraying Los Angeles as cultural wasteland often overlap with other themes,
often with films on the movie industry. ’7 Los Angeles as cultural wasteland affirms
themes previously explored in Los Angeles fiction; that Southern Californians are more
a people o f personality, and not o f character, with bizarre tastes in just about everything
varying from sexual proclivities to fashion sense. And, as with all Los Angeles-centered
hlms, these movies suggest that the region is, at best, a joke, or, at worst, a lost cause.
Despite the variety and predom inance o f anri-L.A. imagery, that audiences agree
with the visions set forth is hardly guaranteed. The actual reception o f Los Angeles film
does not necessarily follow the reductive vision that audiences unquesrioninglv agree
with what is projected above them in dark theaters or in the confines o f their living
rooms. Historians o f popular culture have repeatedly show n that audiences navigate
public imagery in different ways in order to meet personal and social needs, often
'u Quote attributed to "karlos-9" from New Casde. "Crocodile Dundee in Los
Angeles." At h ttp :// us.im db.com/Tide?0231402 accessed from The Internet Movie
Database on April 17, 2001. I include this quote, and not one from a newspaper or
professional reviewer, in part to show how prevalent the L.A. anri-mvth is in popular
discourse.
v Natale, 68. Natale cites 10 (1979), California Split (1974), Fast Times A t Ridgemont High
(1982), The Graduate (1967), Harold and Maude (1971), Lord Love a Duck (1966), The Loved
One (1965), Ruthless People (1986), I 'alley G irl (1983), and Welcome to L -l (1977).
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undermining the original intent o f a text.w As film historians Aitken and Zonn
contend, reception hinges on a mvriad o f factors, from changes with transformations in
historical context to age and gender o f audience m em ber, elaborating:
Although films are not referential to some reality beyond themselves,
they are clearly intertextual in that they embody other cultural texts
and. as a consequence, they produce and communicate meaning.
This meaning will be different to people o f different places,
cultures, classes, and historical moments.™
But, films do emerge from a context and anti-Los Angeles imagery should be assessed
accordingly, specifically in terms o f how audiences respond to the Southern California
stereotype. Indeed, truly understanding the role o f the media on the creation o f sense
o f place requires a measure o f that com m unity’s attachm ent to place or placelessness.
Sense o f Place Markers
Toward this end, m uch anecdotal evidence exists to document a sense o f
detachment among Southern California's residents. Linking resident attitudes to their
status as new arrivals, historian Robert Fogelson remarks that the boosterism and hvpe
associated with the early part o f the twentieth century, prior to the rise o f the media,
were in effect manifestations o f the residents' lack o f place:
,s See Lizabeth Cohen. Making A S e w Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Susan Douglas. Where the Girls A re:
Growing L'p Demale with the Mass Media. (New York: Times Books, 1995). Both texts
explore how consumers and audiences use products from mass media and interpret
mass media in ways different to what the authors and creators o f it intended,
complicating notions o f audience response.
v > Aitken and Zonn, “ Introduction.”
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First, having repudiated certain traditional values in choosing
southern California, thev felt a compulsion to justify their decision
that could be relieved only by steadfast dedication to Los Angeles.
They became unparalleled boosters.4 "
While this set o f immigrants were influenced by a myriad o f factors in their continued
celebration o f Southern California, as C hapter One explored, many earlv arrivals did
find unparalleled success in Los Angeles after failing in other cities. Yet, undoubtedly
the constant flux of new populations to the region could serve as one wav sense of
place did not form. Similarly, in the 1920s Carev McW illiams notes the growing
criticism o f the region by both residents and outsiders alike.4 1
These early observations began to fulminate bv the postwar period when the
form ation o f the Los Angeleno stereotype took shape through the various fictional and
non-fictional sources that painted the region in similar terms. This stereotype took on
greater power when disseminated through postwar film noir, as discussed in Chapter
Five. The generalizations about Southern Californians all focused on how residents
were indifferent and seemingly without purpose. In 1947 columnist for the Los Angeles
Dally Xews Matt Weinstock described the process o f becom ing a typical Los Angeleno,
Six months' residence is sufficient to give a person the Apathy.
He feels all right; he is keen, alert, and civil to his mother-in-law.
Suddenly he just doesn't give a damn. He doesn't care particularly
whether he ever votes or whether he ever washes his car or what
time it is.
4 ,1 R obert Fogelson. The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles. 1850-1930. (Berkeley:
University o f California Press, 1993), 189-190.
4 1 McWilliams, 108.
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This indifference grows and in about a year, unless he takes cold
showers or som ething, he sinks from the Apathv to the
Anonymity. H e is swallowed up in the expanse o f the city and
becomes part o f its aimlessness.42
Though this stereotype does not clearly point to a lack o f regional loyalty or inyestment
in the place, it expresses a pen'asiye detachm ent from society that logically would
extend to sense o f place. And, just as the city is described as equally “aimless,” these
characteristics causally are linked to the region itself.
In attempting to understand this indifference or ‘apathy,’ writers did not turn
their critical lens back upon themselyes but ironically blamed the region's m ain asset, its
climate, for explanation. W ritten in 1941, Max Miller’s It M ust Be the Climate traces the
climate’s ability to render Southern Californians apathetic and lazy back to its original,
indigenous people and through to the then present. Miller writes.
The abongines o f this region liyed in a coma. The first Spanish-
Mexicans soon fell into the same state. The first Americans did
likewise, as soon as their first outburst o f initiatiye was spent. They
went to sleep, happily.4’
Citing the so-called lackadaisical attitudes o f Natiye Americans and Mexicans has long
been used as a justification for L S policy o f manifest destiny, but in Southern California
the climate is seen as another causati\e agent, not merely the race o f the subject.4 4 In
4 2 Matt W’ einstock. M y L I. (New York: C urrent Books, Inc. A.A. W’vn, Publisher,
1947), 147.
4 4 Max Miller. It M ust Be the Climate. (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company,
1941), 10-11.
4 4 Scientific racism, howeyer, has long been used in the subjugation o f people o f color
in Southern California and throughout the Southwest. Douglas Sackman’s research on
Sunkist and Southern California agribusiness explores this subject, noting its use in the
takeoyer o f the land. Douglas Cazaux Sackman. “’By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know
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the same year, Edm und W ilson also employed geographic determinism to explain
Southern Californians in his highly influential essay on regional writing, “The Bovs in
the Back Room” :
All visitors from the East know the strange spell o f unreality which
seems to make human experience on the Coast as hollow as the life
of a troll-nest where everything is out in the open instead o f being
underground.. .This is partly no doubt a m atter o f climate: the empty
sun and the incessant rains; and o f landscape; the dry sun and the
vast void o f Pacific space; the hypnotic rhythms o f day and night
that revolve with unblurred uniformin', and o f the surf that seems to
roll up the beach with a purposeless expressionless beat after the
moodv assault o f the Atlantic.4 3
Thus, just as the climate served to prom ote the region in the late 19th cenrun\ it also
proved the explanation for the residents' shortcomings. This affiliation is evinced in the
city's popular nicknam es-according to the 1951 text Sicknames o f American Cities, Los
Angeles was dually noted as both the "City o f Liquid Sunshine" and the "Citv of
Dreaded |ov."4 < 1
Them ’: Nature, Culture, and G row th in California, 1869-1939.” (Ph.D. diss., University
o f California Irvine, 1997).
4 5 Edm und W ilson, “The Boys in the Back Room ,” (San Francisco: The Colt Press,
1941) in W’.W . Robinson, compiler. What They Say About the Ansels. (Pasadena: Val Trefz
Press, 1942), 72.
4 0 Gerard L. Alexander. Sicknam es o f American Cities. (New York: Special libraries
Association, 1951), 4. Los Angeles was also called the following: "A Circus W ithout A
Tent, A City o f Flowers and Sunshine, Nineteen Suburbs in Search o f a Metropolis, the
Citrus Metropolis, the City o f Angels, the City o f Flowers, the City o f Sunshine, the
D etroit of Airplanes, the Metropolis o f the West," 4.
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Like the 1947 W einstock and Miller observations o f the typical Los Angeleno is
historian Remi Nadeau's California: the A ew Society written in 1963.4 7 Though writing
generally on the state o f California, his com m ents point to Southern California's
developing stereotype. Nadeau's text is a quasi-guidebook, quasi-critique o f California
culture and his barbs extend from the typical resident’s voting patterns to his hobbies.
To Nadeau, a sense o f apathv, mixed with individualism, permeates the typical
Californian, to the point that responding to local issues becomes a nuisance:
The average Californian thinks o f him self as a sort o f permanent
tourist, with no real stake in political affairs or social problems. The
Protest groups who show up at citv council or board o f education
meetings are a tiny minority, and many people hesitate to join them
for fear o f being considered crackpots. W hen one Southern
California resident was asked to join his neighbors in opposing an
undesirable construction across the street, he simplv replied, "I'll see
how it works out and if necessary I’ll m ove."4 *
Nadeau's assessment implies that litde to no interest is given to local government or
even neighborhood problems and in so saving ironically discourages political
participation. The “minority” he refers to, w hether real or imagined, becomes
“crackpot” after his pronouncements. To make his case, he also cites anecdotal
evidence from poor turnout in local elections to jury volunteering to participation in
fraternal organizations.
A revealing glimpse into how civic leaders may have judged Los Angeleno
morality-, and measure the normalization of the noir image and sense o f place, comes
4 7 Remi Nadeau. California: The S ew Society. (Neyv York: David McKav Company, Inc.,
1963).
4 N Nadeau, 212-213.
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with the reign o f Los Angeles Police C hief William Parker, who became Chief in 1950.
Parker's zealous revam ping o f the LA PD , though partly caused bv police scandals o f the
1940s, was also a reflection o f his view o f the Los Angeles citizenrv. Per political
scientist Ronald Schm idt, Jr.:
When William Parker became Chief of Police o f Los Angeles in
1950, he argued that the Los Angeles Police D epartm ent must
provide an exemplar o f this sort, and that Angelenos must emulate
that exemplar....Los Angeles' only hope o f avoiding corruption was
the citizenry's active emulation o f a model o f civic virtue.4 ''
Parker's policies rested on the belief that Los Angeles, "was already so morally
compromised that it stood on the brink o f spiritual and political collapse" and that an
active, honorable police force could serve as a model o f appropriate ethics and values.3 "
This belief grounded his policies and his involvement in lack Webb's television series
Dragnet. Aside from such individual and anecdotal accounts o f Southern Californians,
how the place has been perceived, by residents and outsiders alike, may better explain
the region's relationship to sense o f place. Further, comparing Los Angeles’ image
against those of different American cities mav better determine how vilified Los
Angeles is in the m ainstream media. Such a comparison will help delineate how much
anti-Los Angeles rhetoric is rooted in an anti-urban sensibility tied to historic moment,
or if truly it is the city and region that conjure up negative associations. Fortunately,
Gerald Zeck’s 1972 study on city image values attem pts such a measure.
The Zeck Study
4 ‘ ’ Ronald John. Schmidt, Jr. "This is the Citv: Political Imitation in Los Angeles.”
(Ph.D. diss.. University o f California, Berkeley, 1998), 208.
5 " Schmidt, 213.
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In 1972 geographer Gerald Zeck attem pted to measure what he termed
"psychological distance" and "citv image values" o f twentv-six m ajor and small cities in
the United States.3 1 Zeck used over three thousand surveys from students, the general
population, and different geographers from across the nation to gather sufficient data.
In addition to answering close-ended questions regarding their attitudes towards
different places, respondents answered open-ended questions about how thcv felt about
certain places, including word association.5 2
Following a geocentric approach, Zeck believed that regional loyalty would
prove most potent at the site of the place, and as one moved awav from the site, loyalty
would wane. A nd Zeck's hypothesis proved true for twenty-five o f the twentv-six cities
examined. However, for Los Angeles, Zeck's findings took an unexpected mm.
Though a portion o f respondents from Los Angeles' core rated the city favorably, in
3 1 Gerald Anthony Zeck. "Images o f American Cities: A Cognitive Approach to the
Study of Environm ental Perception." (Ph.D. diss.. University o f California Los Angeles,
1972).
3 2 Zeck's methodological approach was quite sophisticated. He developed the
questionnaire after testing various prototypes at a university in California and one in
Flonda in order to ensure that the questions would be "intelligible to all respondents
and free from ambiguities." (55) Zeck tracked each respondent's gender, age,
occupation, hom etow n, estimated hom etow n population size, and educational
background. H e wanted to determine whether factors like a small town sensibility or
regional loyalty influenced the m anner in which respondents felt about other places.
O pen ended questions were modeled after "free association" techniques in order to
determine how a city may have been held in the respondent's imagination and Zeck
provided for three different answers. Finally, Zeck used three different data processes
to gauge his data's content analysis, statistical analysis, and cartographic analysis, 55-70.
Zeck does not include the specific answers he received for each city in his published
dissertation, and future investigations would benefit from his raw data for better
establishing Los Angeles' symbolic landscape for the early 1970s.
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general Los Angeles reversed the geocentric model. Zeck writes, "The inverse
relationship between distance and desirability is perhaps the m ost interesting
phenomenon recorded bv the Los Angeles desirability map. The populations from the
nearby N orthwestern States assign Los Angeles with its lowest ratings, and...rating
increase with distance from California. This pattern strongly suggests that, in specific
instances, at least, proximity- may promote disfavor."5' Zeck also discovered that states
that previously served as a source for migration to the region, m ost notably the
Midwest, now assessed the region to be "highly undesirable."5 4 In attempting to
understand the Los Angeles phenom enon, Zeck ponders:
The fact that "belonging-ness" or self identification with a place
seems to possess a spatial dimension was suggested bv the Western
populations' discrimination toward Los Angeles. A nother spatial
dynamicism associated with the evaluation of Los Angeles stronglv
suggested that increased distance may positively affect an evaluation.
If Los Angeles can be utilized as a prototype, one would suspect
that all places are liable to dynamic, spacio-temporal fluctuations
in their popularity.5 5
Respondents also included a series o f derogatory comments for the cirv, including,
"cesspool", "horrible, mistake", "should be bom bed", "plastic people", "phoney
everything", and "ugly".3 '’ Conversely, other m ajor L'S cities were described in ways
that though sometimes negative were never as inflamed as the w orst adjectives used to
3 5 Zeck, 115.
3 4 Zeck, 116. Interestingly, the only regions that viewed Los Angeles favorably included
Florida, Chicago and its environs, and New Orleans.
5 5 Zeck, 117-118.
3 6 Zeck, 214. Zeck notes that many of these highly pejorative comments were from
respondents based in San Francisco.
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describe Los Angeles. For example, Boston at its w orst is labeled as 'snob', Chicago is
considered 'violent'-recalling the then recent 1968 Democratic National Convention,
and New York is called 'dirtv' and 'crowded'.5 7 W hile such examples mav serve as
negative assessments, such epithets do not conjure up the same passion that "should be
bombed" does, indicating a m uch lower opinion o f Los Angeles that is tied to its
developed stereotype.
Though Zeck's study does not try to m easure the historicized image o f its cities,
its respondents gave their im m ediate feelings and generally answered surveys betw een
the years 1969 and 1971, the answers given built o n events from the recent past and a
city’s developed image. For exam ple, the 1968 Dem ocratic Convention figures
prominendy in the way his subjects perceived Chicago. Similarly, respondents
repeatedly recall historic landmarks in answering associations for Boston and New
York, as well as each city's sports teams. However, the potency- o f the region's media-
made imagery- and its normalization on place identity- in Los Angeles presents a different
reaction. Los Angeles' 1965 riot o r its other struggles are not associated yvith the city-,
according to Zeck.
The Zeck study on "city- image values" and "psychological distance" provides an
important, though hardly conclusive, glimpse into how Los Angeles yvas perceived by-
residents and non-residents alike. T hat o f all Zeck's subjects, Los Angeles proved the
only city- o f whose assessment im proved yvith distance, and the degree to yvhich
respondents vilified the city-, expresses Los Angeles' place in the heart o f many Southern
5 7 Zeck, 187-197.
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Californians and Americans. In some wavs, Zeck’s study complicates the general notion
that Los Angeles’ media-made representation is a com plete vilification o f the region.
Rather, the Zeck study highlights how Southern California mav be presented in
attractive ways to outsiders and simultaneouslv not in ways conducive to creating sense
o f place to its residents. The noir vision o f Los Angeles, and its various reincarnations
over the years, does present in some ways an alluring image. Cinematically, it is an
exciting, dangerous, glamorous, and beautiful place. N oir stories are entertaining, noir
characters are largely attractive actors, and Southern California’s locale as a sometimes
tropical, sometimes Mediterranean oasis is often plaved up in storvlines, featuring its
characters in different stages o f leisure and consum ption. However, as Zeck’s study
helps to show, these images cultivate an inauthentic understanding o f the place to the
region’s residents and its mirroring o f them does not paint a flattering picture.
Zeck's work does not measure the historicized image o f its cities, and clearly
there are other factors that mav diminish sense o f place. Yet, Zeck's 1972 studv does
create new pathways o f exploration. Clearlv, in gauging sense o f place, the best way
may be to measure its absence using a comparative m odel and bv looking at cities with
equally mediated images and sizable populations, such as through voting patterns or the
m anner in which residents express political participation.
VOTING PATTERNS
O ne marker o f civic loyalty, regional affiliation, and sense o f place is through
observing the way in which registered voters m m o ut for local elections. Indeed, such
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action reveals a presum ed understanding o f the role o f local governm ent in the
management o f the city and region and also displays knowledge o f the issues affecting
residents. In surveving such activity, however, a large span o f years must be used in
order to determine m ore whether particular numbers in voter turn out were the result o f
larger political issues, such as Watergate and the increase in voter apathy, or larger
trends in attitudes toward the region. In addition, merely examining Los Angeles’s
general yoter behavior for all elections does not create a compelling argument vis a vis
sense o f place because, as several political historians have documented, American voting
patterns in general have been in decline since the 1960s.5 *
As a result, this study examined fiye major L S cities from 1952-1995 in order to
gauge a more developed response o f voter turn out to mavoral elections. Though the
larger scope o f the dissertation examines the Southern California region, in order to
create more true parallels, this survey looks at only the city o f Los Angeles. In
comparing Los Angeles’ record against those o f Boston, Chicago, New York, and San
Francisco, this investigation hoped to establish a link between the city images examined
in Chapter Five and show in what wavs Los Angeles did not follow normative voting
patterns. Further, this study opted to look only at mavoral elections, instead o f
including all municipal votes, in order to build on the common feature o f all five city
governments instead o f navigating the various nuances proposed in the election o f a
5 K James E. Campbell. The American Campaign: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National
1 ote. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000); William H. Flanagan.
Political Behavior of the American Electorate. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1998); Frances
Fox Piven. Why Americans Still D on’ t I ote: A n d W hy Politicians W ant it That Way. (Boston:
Beacon Press, 2000); Ruy Texeira. Why Americans Don't I ote: Turnout Decline in the United
States / 960-1984. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987).
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council m em ber or local proposition. Because the cities in question do not share the
same mayoral election patterns, the same year in which they vote, this study has broken
down time periods in which all o f the cities vote into three year increments, beginning
in 1952 and ending in 1995.
WTiile comparing Los Angeles with Boston, Chicago, New York, and San
Francisco mav be like comparing apples to oranges, pears, pineapples, and bananas in
terms o f the distinct difference between mayoral elections (i.e. partisan vs. non partisan
elections), gauging voting turn out is a compelling start to comparing political behavior.
W ith the exception of three periods, 1 9 6 8 - 1 9 7 1 , 1972-1975 and 1992-1995, Los Angeles
maintained the lowest percentage o f registered voters turning out to mavoral election.
In addition, over the 43 vears under scrutinv, Los Angeles also averaged the lowest
voter turn out at 45° u o f the registered electorate turning out to vote; a difference o f 15
percentage points with the next lowest average voter turn out with Boston at
approximately 60“ u . O f the five cities surveyed. New York maintained the highest
average at 65° < > , a difference o f 20 percentage points with Los Angeles pattern.
Although Los Angeles’ average difference with the next lowest cirv in voter turn out
could be as little as 3 percentage points, as it was in 1984-1987 with New York, o r as
high as 20 percentage points as it was in 1976-1979 with New York, it averaged a
difference o f 11 percentage points with the next lowest city. Similarly, Los Angeles’
average difference in percentage points against the highest city’s voter turn out was
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36.38, though it reached as high as 49.42 percentage points with New York in 1960-
1963 and as low as 26.78 as it did in 1976-1979 with the same city.’"
These voting patterns, to a large extent, support anecdotal evidence about
Southern California voter apathv bur must be understood within the complexity o f
voting habits in general. In 1963 Remi Nadeau asserted that the typical Californian
could be defined as a “nonparticipant:”
Generally, he does not take part in the governmental process,
except perhaps to vote, which gives him an exhilarating sense
o f pride as though he had discharged all his dyties as a citizen for
the rest o f the vcar.. .T urnout in local elections is almost ahvavs
less than half o f the registered voters, and in some precincts has
been as low as 15 percent.
Though Nadeau writes about California in general, his comments appear especially
accurate for Southern California after knowing that on average 63° u o f San Francisco’s
registered voters turned out for mavoral elections to Los Angeles’ 45° o .
Although such figures paint a dismal portrait o f Los Angeleno attitudes toward
the voting process in terms o f mavoral candidates against the country's most prom inent
cities, as this chapter has continuously expressed, measuring place or placelessness is not
a clear cut process. How voters feel about choosing to vote or not to vote is a
complicated relationship. And there are other means in which to gauge political
behavior in the larger Southern California region, from the Valley Succession
M ovement to the resistance smaller cities exert when faced with state or federal
obstacles, as in South Pasadena’s fight against the completion o f the 710 Freeway. But,
with the overall decline in voting in general, and potentially other political behavior,
For a detailed breakdown o f the cm ' voting percentages, see Figure D in the Index.
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gauging community cohesiveness or engagement in civic and regional responsibility,
sense o f place, must be done in conjunction with different avenues of expression, as this
study has done.
CHALLENGES TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PLACELESSNESS
The idea of a shared past also complicates notions o f regional place and
placelessness and Southern California’s media-made image. First, since the 1880s,
through various spurts and declines. Southern California has experienced a steady
migration o f newcomers who do not share a past rooted in one place. Second, it is this
increase in population that challenges the m anner in which Los Angeles noir may
influence its residents’ attachm ent to the place. Different sources may create a portrait
o f pronounced, diminished, or absent regional loyalty, but continued migration to
Southern California trips up the anti-Los Angeles noir thesis. Since World W ar II, Los
Angeles has witnessed a dizzying influx o f people that may appear to undermine the
potency o f the region’s negative media-made representation. For, if Los Angeles is
com m only believed to be the "armpit o f America," as New York City was in the early
part o f the twentieth-century, whv do so many people continue to comer' And, can’t
sense o f place be measured in its desirability to newcomers?
Southern California’s population has grown both steadily and in leaps and
bounds since the 1870s and its emergence as a curative place for tuberculosis/1 "
All population figures taken from Los A ngles A-Z. Leonard Pitt and Dale Pitt. lj)s
Angeles A to Z: .In Encyclopedia of the City and County. (Berkeley: University o f California
Press, 1997), 403, with the exception o f data for the year 2000. This figure obtained
from the County of Los Angeles statistical webpage at
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Between 1870 and 1900, Los Angeles Countv’s population increased from 15,309 to
170,298. The twentieth-century saw equally unparalleled growth; from 1900-1940 the
population expanded to 2,785,643, bolstered by various factors, explored throughout
this study. O f particular importance for this investigation, however, are the vears since
noir’s fermentation on the screen and in the public imagination. From 1940 to 1960
Los Angeles Countv’s population continued to multiplv, to over six million residents bv
1960. And, the census data for the year 2000 indicates that Los Angeles Countv’s
population exceeds 9 1 2 million residents. Then, for a region that continues to grow
exponentially, how much can a mediated image be an influence on newcomer attitudes?
There have been several factors that pull immigrants to the region from
different parts o f the world and the nation in the 20th centurv. The hope and
attainment o f employment in times when other regions experienced periods o f
recession appears the main trajectory for individuals seeking a new life here, rather than
a response to any image disseminated through popular culture. Southern California
industries, from aerospace to agriculture, have offered jobs to individuals who otherwise
may have had to travel elsewhere.
Pulls to the region range from the discover}- o f oil in Los Angeles in the earlv
1900s, luring would be millionaires to share the wealth, to the emergence o f the aircraft
industry in the 1920s which developed into the postwar aerospace industry in the 1940s.
Historian G reg Hise’s study o f the postwar population boom explores the role o f the
aerospace industry- in luring individuals out West:
http: / / www.co.la.ca.us/statistics.htm. visited on June 9, 2001. Exact figure for
population is 9.802,800.
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During the interwar and post-W orld W ar II vears, people left o th er
parts o f the country for a place where they might benefit from an
expanding economy, enjoy a m oderate climate, and imbibe the
mythical California lifestyle. The defense emergency accelerated
this m igration when the promise o f high-paying jobs in shipbuilding
and the aircraft industry lured m ore than one and one-half million
people to the state as the num ber o f employed persons increased
almost 50 percent.6 1
The growth o f the defense industry in the Cold War era, and its subsidization through a
steady source o f governm ent contracts, m ade Los Angeles an alluring place. As Hise
indicates, in addition to the noir myth promulgated in popular culture, boosters through
organizations like the All Year Club continued to sell the region along similar lines
employed in the 1920s. The region has experienced manv industries, providing
employment to millions. Manufacturing in Southern California has specialized in
products from the comm onplace such as m eat packing and milk processing, to tea and
spice packing, to plastics, as famously uttered in The Graduate (1967), though used to
evoke a typical Southern California stereotype resting on superficial]tv.62 Agricultural
industries that have beckoned workers include the various citrus fruits, strawberries,
tomatoes, sugar beets, sprouts, and alfalfa, am ong others. Finally, the entertainm ent
6 1 G reg Hise. Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis. (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins L'niversity Press, 1997), 8.
6 2 Pitt, 220-221. M anufacturing industries listed here include the following: “pottery,
brewery, flour mill, m eat packing plant, soap manufacturer, coffee processor, tea and
spice packer, cookie bakery, walnut packing house, wholesale food term inal, milk
processing shed, beverage bottler, rotogravure printer, electrical cable m anufacturer,
stove assembly plant, stockyards, avocado packing plant, and electrical m otor
factory— The largest industrial employers in m odem times have been m anufacturers of
aircraft equipment, electronic equipment, fabricated metal products, industrial
machinery, food products, rubber, plastics, furniture, and fixtures, as well as those
engaged in the printing and publishing trades.”
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industry, from Hollvwood to the emergence radio in the 1920s to television have all
enticed newcomers to the region.
As some have argued. Southern California’s so-called positive image, that o f a
place of agreeable weather and beautiful people may also play a pivotal part in luring
people to visit the place and to live here, as presented in the music of the Beach Bovs or
in the television series Baywatib. But, this vision depends on the existence o f its flipside;
the beautiful people o f Southern California are never intellectual heavyweights or
engaged in responsible behavior. And in assessing such portraits, one must confront
the presumed targeted audience o f such gendered, sexist imagery. Arguably, such an
image is less likelv to be wholeheartedly accepted as well in the face of the existence o f
the noir mvthos.
Several factors plav into each argument for the state o f placelessness, from the
multiple variables influencing voter turn-out to the contrasting ideals that draw
newcomers, but all paint a telling portrait o f how Angelenos regard their place. And
instead of clearly observing an active sense o f place among the activities o f residents,
most measures o f Los Angeleno regional lovaltv demonstrate what geographer E. Relph
termed “an inauthentic attitude to place”;
An inauthentic attitude to place is essentially no sense o f place, for
it involves no awareness o f the deep and symbolic significances o f
places and no appreciation o f their identities. It is merely an attitude
which is socially convenient and acceptable— an uncritically accepted
stereotype, an intellectual or aesthetic fashion that can be adopted
without real involvement. In inauthentic experience places are seen
only in terms o f m ore or less useful features, or through some abstract
a priori model and rigid habits o f thought and behaviour; above all
such experiences are casual, superficial, and partial/^
Relph, 82.
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The uncritical adoption o f the Southern California stereotype that presents the place as
less worthy through various means, instead o f actively experiencing and learning about
the region, is the ultim ate expression o f placelessness. The region requires better in
order to meet the needs o f all o f its residents and the particular struggles which plague
it. W ithout a solid understand and continual building o f place, Southern California’s
real problems get left by the wayside; its apolitical, unrepresentative media-made image
dominates public discourse.
CONCLUSION:
Los Angeleno sense o f place maintains inextricable ties to its media-made
stereotype and the context in which this image was created. During one period, 1940-
1955, Los Angeles’ image as a place o f conspicuous consumption, open sexuality', lax
morality, and superficiality was disseminated to the American public and the region’s
residents through various powerful forms o f mass media. First, fictional writing o f the
1930s and 1940s created a trope in which the city' and its environs embodied many of
the struggles newcomers faced in the face o f unrealistic booster campaigns, both from
within and outside the film industry. This literary trope was visually translated to its
filmic counterpart, film noir o f the 1940s and 1950s, during a period o f extremely high
moyie going attendance, immediately following World W ar II and before the rise of
tele\ ision. This noir vision was buttressed by and in turn supported yarious non-
fictional sources o f the same time that used language and subject matter evocative of
the region’s fictional m ythos. This triangulation o f mass m ediated sources created a
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powerful vacuum in which a vision o f Southern California becam e reified and
normalized in American consciousness, but m ore importantly in the vision o f its
residents.
Since the termination o f the noir cvcle in the mid to late 1950s, Los Angeles’
noir mythos has been re-fashioned in television, film, music, and arguably in non-
fictional forms like billboard advertisements and lib ran,’ card campaigns. This image has
both remained the same and has changed, building on themes first presented in the
Hollywood novel and integrating recent regional demographic changes. The repetition
of the vision o f an ultimately inferior place both represents the pervasiveness o f the
imagery in the minds of its creators and presents a model for audiences o f life in the
region. While it has been re-fashioned over and over, the repetition o f the noir
stereotype does not conclusively indicate a measure o f sense o f place or placelessness;
rather, we must m m to more interactive sources to determine its effect.
Various sources indicate the region’s placelessness. Anecdotal evidence from a
gamut of experts supports a diminished view o f Southern California sense of place.
From newspaper columnists to historians, various writers have described an apathetic
populace with no ties to the place or traditional avenues o f public good, such as
fraternal orgamzanons or community volunteering. The noir m ythos influenced the
manner in which LAPD Chief Parker viewed the Los Angeles populace and enacted
public policy. Such support is also supplanted bv the 1972 study o f city image values by
geographer Gerald Zeck, who discovered that respondents farther from Los Angeles
held a favorable view o f the region than those in the W est and its immediate vicinity.
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Further, though all cities m et with some criticism in his survey, Los Angeles clearly
received the m ost pejorative descriptions, such as, “should be bom bed.” Clearlv, such
support reveals a less favorable view o f the dty and region and sense of place.
Comparing Los Angeles voting patterns in mavoral elections against those o f
four major I ’S cities (Boston, Chicago, N ew York, and San Francisco) also delineated a
decreased sense o f responsibility to react to local issues. A survey o f the turnout at
mayoral elections between 1952 and 1995 indicates that, with the exception o f two
periods, Los Angeles’ voter rum out came in last place out o f all five cities under
scrutiny. Further, Los Angeles’ average o f the vears in question placed lower than any
other cirv.
While as Los Angeles’ historiography mav indicate, the cohesiveness o f
individual communities within Los Angeles may better explain how Los Angeles’ sense
o f itself functions, this phenom enon does not supplant the need for a larger regional
sense of place. Feeling more attuned with one's neighborhood is a facet o f sense o f
place, but civic identity is also a necessity for contemporary urban centers. And, though
the root o f this practice may be partially housed in the geographic decentralization o f
the region, the increasingly isolated lives urban and suburban Southern Californians
inhabit, and the bureaucratic local governm ent that does not (and many times cannot)
meet the needs o f its diverse and burgeoning population, the continued negation o f the
region in its fictional narratives is also a player in the relationship between residents'
sense o f affiliation with Los Angeles and its environs.
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CONCLUSIO N:
N A V IG A TIN G TH E N O IR LEGACY
In N ovem ber of 2001 the John Randolph Havnes and N ora Havnes Foundation
held its first conference on the state o f Los Angeles scholarship at the Huntington
Library in San M anno, California. Yanous com m unity leaders were in attendance, from
academics to journalists, from librarians to archivists, from m useum curators to
polincians. Led by historian George Sanchez, the conference covered such worthwhile
subjects as the future o f Los Angeles' public archives and new directions in Los Angeles
scholarship, particularly history. Though the conference itself demonstrates the
academic im portance recent scholarship has placed upon the region, the fervor o f the
debates held at the event reveal contested terrain. \\"hile on the one hand, as the
testimony and writing of manv o f the participants demonstrate, the scholarly focus on
the region over the last decade has provided a “golden era o f Los Angeles historic
study,” this interest has not yet yielded a counterpart bv Los Angeles’ and Southern
California’s respecnve governing forces.1
The testimony of various conference attendees highlights this wide chasm. For
example, one session on the future o f various local archives revealed horror story after
horror story on the way the region’s records were valued by different individuals and
organizations. O ne participant related that after having visited a set o f records for
! Bill Devcrell. “W riting the History o f Los Angeles,” paper presented at the
conference, 1, available on-line at the website for the John Randolph Haynes and Nora
Haynes Foundation at http:/ / w w w .havnesfoundation.org/PDF/StateofScholarship.pdf,
accessed on D ecem ber 1”, 2001.
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research purposes, the administrator in charge inform ed her that she could take the
original files home, that otherwise thev would be throw n awav. A nother attendee
relayed accounts o f digging through the dumpsters o f another municipal institution to
recover cherished local records, after receiving a hot lead from an employee. The
failure o f Los Angeles city and countv governm ent institutions to com e up with a place
merely to house various personal papers and records reveal the wretched state o f m uch
o f Los Angeles’ public archives. Conference participants expressed frustration at these
discrepancies, and several suggestions were offered on how to remedy the current
"crisis"; from a petition drive at a local level imploring the state governm ent for help, in
the belief that Los Angeles county’s values mav not hold preserving local records at a
high level. As the debate on maintaining the region’s historical record revealed,
solutions require both an understanding o f Southern Califomia”s bureaucratic mazes
and o f presenting the importance o f this issue to the powers in charge.
And yet, having to explain the importance o f a public archive to a region’s
governing force painfully details, to a certain extent, both the diminished sense o f place
regional leaders may have and how this weakened sense o f community cyclically repeats
itself. How can residents learn about their past when the record preserving it is
continuously eroded? As a recent study done bv the California Council for the
Humanities demonstrates, Californians themselves recognize the relationship.2 Released
2 “Survey Finds Californians Feel Disconnected From Their Communities and Each
O ther. But Californians Think Telling Their Stories Will Help Bring T hem Together.”
The study sun eyed 404 English speaking adult heads o f household. A t website for the
California Council for the Humanities at http://w w w .calhum .org/ accessed on
Decem ber 17, 2001.
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in June o f 2001, the investigation revealed that Californians feel a weakened sense of
community and predom inandy feel they know “a litde” to “nothing at all” about the
history o f their city. '' Yet, this same survey group consistendv agreed when asked if
knowing fellow Californians’ stories and histories would make their citv a better place
and contribute to its sense o f community.4
The importance o f creating attachment to place through substantive means like
knowing its history and understanding its role in the state and in the nation as a whole
cannot be underestimated. Such an understanding facilitates authentic civic
participation in their place’s development. And, this practice will inform future
residents o f a place's worth. Geographer W inifred Gallagher posits that places cue
visitors and residents alike on how to treat them: “ (W)e are apt to act in certain ways in
certain places; the more clues a place provides about what we should do or not do, the
more we will conform to them .” 5 In addition to the basic foundational structures
required to do Southern California history, as in the maintenance o f its historical record,
it is feasible to create sense o f place. It is learned. Fortunately, creating sense o f place
can be an active, conscious process.
’ Respondents were asked “ How much would vou sav you know about the history o f
your city ' ” Responding ‘A lot’ 34.2% o f the time, ‘A little’ 52.2% and ‘N othing at all’
12.6° o if the time.
4 When asked to rate the following statement, “ I think California would be a better
place to live if people were m ore aware o f each other’s history and background,” 38.4%
o f respondents strongly agreed. W hen rating “Hearing people share their stories and
histories is a good way to increase feelings o f community,” 44.1% strongly agreed with
statement.
3 Winifred Gallagher. The Power oj Place: How O ur Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts,
hmotions. and Actions. (New York: Poseidon Press, 1993), 190.
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Architectural historian and cultural scholar, Dolores Havden offers several
suggestions for creating place in The Power o f Place, from urging the joint efforts between
non profit organizations, universities, and municipal organizations to the actions o f
individuals. Hayden envisions a project to help to remember the past and create new
experiences in which to anchor place: “An evocative public program, using multiple
sites in the urban landscape itself, can build upon place memory, in all its complexitv, to
bring local history, buildings, and natural features to urban audiences with a new
immediacy as part o f dailv life/’
Hayden details a few such projects to show the feasibilitv o f such m onuments,
including the Biddy Mason W all, and it is worth the space here to show how such a
project is enacted. An African American midwife, Biddv M ason lived in downtown Los
Angeles in the last third o f the 19th century and occupies an often forgotten role in the
history o f Los Angeles. Hayden claims Mason as both “typical” and “unusual” in
singling out her experience in Los Angeles. At the same time as she lived an ordinary
life, she also played a role in California history in 1856 she earned her freedom in
California court, enabling the judge to test California’s constitution and set precedent.
Mason also helped found the Los Angeles AM E church in 1871. Because o f her
intersections with larger regional and national history. Mason was a prime candidate for
a public landmark.
'■ Dolores Hayden. 7 he Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public His/on: (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: M IT Press, 1995), 227-228.
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After obtaining the location for the site near Mason’s original homestead,
Hayden and her group set up sponsors, called on different historians to begin research
and arranged for artists to create works for the site through various workshops. In
addition, the group also created H O M E/stead, a book docum enting Mason’s life. The
actual memorial site consisted o f a park and a wall that traced M ason’s history along
personal and national timelines. Integrated within the wall were images, art
assemblages, pressings o f material culture like wagon wheels, scissors, thread,
handwritten documents, and maps. The tactile nature o f the wall encouraged
interactivity. In summarizing her goals for the site and describing its opening dav.
H arden writes.
All o f us on the team hoped for an audience wider than a museum
or university could provide. Youngsters ran their hands along the
wagon wheels pressed into the wall, or traced the shapes o f the
midwife’s bag, the scissors, and the spools o f thread. Teenagers
deciphered the historic maps and puzzled over the old-fashioned
handwriting on the freedom papers. People o f all ages asked their
friends to pose for snapshots in front o f their favorite parts o f the
wall. Today, long after the meetings and the legal negotiations are
over, the wall remains as a new public place, one that connects the
life o f a remarkable woman with family history, community history,
and the city’s urban landscape changing over time.7
Perhaps what is most im portant in Hayden’s recollections is the latter part: the lesson in
local history and in place continues. Because o f the experiential nature o f the creation o f
the site and the wall itself, participants could share a sense o f history-making in
developing the memorial, as well as discovering Los Angeles history that is often lost in
the region’s media-made stereotype and in the city’s arguably underdeveloped
Dolores Hayden. The Power oj P/ace: Urban Landscapes as Pub/ic His/or)'. (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: M IT Press, 1995).
381
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historiography, which only in the last ten years has had substantial development.8
Further, the synergy o f such projects affirms sense o f place through their collective
nature, in a sense, making new memories for the place. T he Biddv Mason Spring Street
Site furnishes an excellent example of how sense of place can be created.
O ther ways in which academics have encouraged community building are
through oral history program s and local archiving projects in colleges across the region.
From programs at L’CLA and CSUF to individual historians teaching the art o f oral
history in various classes, efforts are made to link student awareness o f the recent past
to the present, highlighting a “Living History” and building sense o f place in their
shared regional space. Similarly, organized archiving davs, often in concordance with
oral histories, provide m om ents m which individuals can bring in personal items, such
as yearbooks, scrapbooks, and photographs, to be digitallv scanned for archival use and
places where students learn about local his ton.' from the players themselves.'1 Bv creating
projects in which such groups unearth forgotten Los Angeles history, the past is
s Though contentious, Mike Davis' 1990 assessment in City oj Q uart y: Excavating the
future in Los Angeles: “Virtually alone am ong big American cities, Los Angeles still lacks
a scholarly municipal history— a void o f research that has becom e the accomplice o f
cliche and illusion....Los Angeles understands its past, instead, through a robust fiction
called noir.” offers food for thought on recent developments in Los Angeles
historiography, particularly in terms o f the region's sense o f place. For, if Los Angeles'
residents and its intellectual elite do not express the m ost basic level o f interest in the
city, how can it develop a foundational understanding o f itself? City oj Quarty: Excavating
the Future in Los Angeles. (New York: Verso, 1990).
l ) An example o f one occurred in April and Mav of 2000 called “ Photo Duplication
Day” in which George J. Sanchez o f L'SC joined with form er Roosevelt High School
students to document forgotten Bovle Heights history through oral history and
photographs. Meg Sullivan. “Bovle Heights Unites Past and Present.” I SC Chronicle.
22 May 2000.
382
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remembered and new m em ories are created based in local knowledge. The teaching o f
local his to n - at the secondary level offers another realm in which sense o f place can be
taught. The current guidelines for high school his to n ' curricula focus on histories other
than those o f California and Los Angeles. According to one source, formal California
history ends in the fifth grade for California public schools.1 " Extending this education
to the secondary level w ould be another wav to teach local knowledge and to prom ote
sense o f place.
Southern Californian sense o f communitv is mitigated bv manv factors, m ost
notably its media-made idenrirv. Yet. as different historians have docum ented, people
actively challenge what is on the screen based on their own personal experience.
Fortunately, resistance to the Los Angeles anti-mvth can come from knowing its historic
and contem porary reality, from an authentic attachm ent to Southern California. This
sense ot place may also be cultivated through explicit action, through the teaching o f
the region’s past in form al and informal wavs. From the creation o f public m onum ents
that tell forgotten histories to the gathering of oral histories o f Southern California
residents, different acts o f rem em bering can cultivate new wavs o f appreciating place.
In different ways, across m any years. Southern Californians have been taught that their
stories do not matter, that the telling o f Los Angeles’ historv will fall on deaf ears. In
providing forums for the telling o f lost experiences, historians and other researchers
foster and teach sense o f place to their subjects. Finallv, having an informed populace
Inform ation obtained from Schools o f California Online Resources for Education:
Connecting California’s Classroom s to the World at
http://score.rim s.kl2.ca.us/gradelevel.htm l accessed on Mav 15, 2001.
3 8 3
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will engender a people who take responsibility for their role in local affairs through
different acts o f agency— from the institutional like voting and attending city council
meetings, to more informal forms like reading the newspaper or merely knowing one’s
neighbor.
As this dissertation has shown, sense o f place is not static. It changes over time
and as recent events indicate, the dozens o f new studies currendv underway on the
region, Los Angeles mav be gaining a better sense of itself despite the continuation of
the noir, anti-Los Angeles image. Finally, this dissertation hopes to create m ore
questions in order to further our understanding o f the link between mass m ediated
symbolic landscapes and sense o f place, and their role in Los Angeles history.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
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Newspapers & Magazines
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Herald Express
Hollywood Reporter
Hush-Hush
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Los Angeles Citizen Slews
Los .-Ingeles Daily Slews
Los Angeles Examiner
Los Angeles Express
Los Angeles Times
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PM Daily
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Hartman. Stella Elizabeth. "A Study o f Leisure-Time Habits o f Young M en and Young
W om en in Los Angeles." M.A. thesis, University o f Southern California. 1942.
HazeL, Erik. R. “The Hollywood Image: An Examination o f the Literarv Perspective.”
Ph.D . diss., Case W estern Reserve, 1974.
Jacobs, Josephine Kingsbury. “Sunkist Advertising.” Ph.D . diss., I'niversitv o f
California, Los Angeles, 1966.
Kashuba, Melinda Elizabeth. "Tourist Landscapes o f Los Angeles Countv, California."
Ph.D . diss., University of California Los Angeles, 1986.
Kuwahara, Yasue. "The Promised Land: Images o f America in Rock Music." Ph.D.
diss.. Bowling G reen State Universitv, 1987.
Kropp, Phoebe Schroeder. " "All Our Yesterdays"" The Spanish Fantasv Past and the
Politics o f Public Memory in Southern California, 1884-1939. Ph.D . diss.,
University o f California San Diego. 1999.
Mark, Mara Alexandra. “Shifting Ground: Bureaucratic Politics and Redevelopment in
Los Angeles, 1948-1998.” Ph.D. diss., Universitv o f California Los Angeles,
1999.
May, Kirse Granat. "Suburban Eden: California Youth Images in Popular Culture,
1955-1969." Ph.D. diss., Universitv o f Utah, 1999.
Richard J.O rsi. “Selling the Golden State: A Studv o f Boosterism in 19th Century
California.” Ph.D. diss., Universitv o f W isconsin, 1973.
Pohlmann, Jo h n Ogden. "California's Mission Myth." Ph.D . diss., Universitv o f
California Los Angeles, 1974.
Sackman, Douglas Cazaux. '"By Their Fruits Ye Shall K now them': N ature, Culture,
and G row th in California, 1869-1939.” Ph.D. diss., University o f California
Irvine, 1997.
Saunders, Margaret. "A Study o f the W ork o f the City's M other's Bureau o f the Los
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diss.. University o f California Berkeley, 1998.
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University o f California Los Angeles, 1963.
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Sitton, Thomas Joseph. "Urban Politics and Reform in N ew Deal Los Angeles: The
Recall o f Mavor Frank L. Shaw." Ph.D. diss.. University o f California Riverside,
1983.
Springer, John Parris. "Hollywood Fictions: The Cultural C onstruction o f Hollywood
in American Literature, 1916-1939." Ph.D . diss., University- o f Iowa, 1994.
Zeck, Gerald Anthony. "Images o f American Cities: A Cognitive Approach to the
Study o f Environmental Perception." Ph.D . diss., L'niversiry o f California Los
Angeles, 1972.
Films and Videos
■ I Star Is Bom. Dir. George Cukor. Perfs. Judv Garland, Jam es Mason. W arner
Brothers, 1954.
The . \uitsed. Dir. W illiam Dicterle. Perfs. Loretta Young, R obert Cummings.
Param ount Pictures, 1948.
A ct of \'iolence. Dir. Fred Zinneman. Perfs. Van Heflin, R obert Rvan. Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer, 1949.
A ll .-\bout Eve. Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Perfs. Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George
Sanders, Celeste Holm. 20lh Century Fox, 1950.
The Bad and the Beautiful. Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Perfs. Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas,
Walter Pidgeon. Metro-Goldwyn-Maver, 1952.
Banjo. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Perfs. Sharvn M offett, Jacqueline Wliite, W ;altcr Reed.
RKO Radio Pictures, 1947.
Beyond the Forest. Dir. King Vidor. Perfs. Bette Davis, Joseph C otton, David Brian.
Warner Brothers, 1949.
Bi^ City. Dir. N orm an Taurog. Perfs. Margaret O ’Brien, R obert Preston, Dannv
Thomas. Metro-Goldwyn-Maver, 1948.
The Big Heat. Dir. Fritz Lang. Perfs. Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham e. Columbia Pictures,
1953.
The Big Knife. Dir. Robert Aldrich. Perfs. |ack Palance, Ida Lupino. United Artists,
1955.
398
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
The Big Premiere. Dir. Edward L. Cahn. Perfs. R obert Blake, Shirlev Coates, Robert
Dilson. M etro-Gokhvyn-Mayer, 1940.
The Big Sleep. Dir. Howard Hawks. Perfs. Hum phrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha
Vickers. W arner Brothers, 1946.
The Blue Dahlia. Dir. George Marshall. Perfs. Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake. Param ount
Pictures, 1946.
The Bigamist. Dir. Ida Lupino. Perfs. Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine, Edm und Gwenn.
Filmakers Inc., 1953.
The Blue Gardenia. Dir. Fritz Lang. Perfs. Anne Baxter, Richard Conte. Warner
Brothers, 1953.
CallXorthside ~~~. Dir. Henrv Hathaway. Perfs. Jam es Steward, Richard Conte, Lee J.
Cobb. 20[h Century Fox, 1948.
Carrie. Dir. William Wvler. Perfs. Laurence Olivier. Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert.
Param ount Pictures, 1952.
Case Reopened: the Black Dahlia with Joseph W'ambaugh. Dir. Kevin MacCarthv, 1999.
Chicago Deadline. Dir. Lewis Allen. Perfs. Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, June Havoc.
Param ount Pictures, 1949.
City for Conquest. Dir. Anatole Litvak. Perfs. [ames Cagnev, Ann Sheridan. W arner
Brothers, 1940.
City That Xerer Sleeps. Dir. John H. Auer. Perfs. G ig Young, Mala Powers, William
Talman, Chill Wills. Republic Pictures Corporation, 1953.
The Clock. Dir. Vincente Minnelli. Perfs. Judv Garland, Robert Walker. Metro-
Goldwyn-Maver, 1945.
Crime 1 1 are. Dir. Andre de Toth. Perfs. Sterling Havden, G ene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
W arner Brothers, 1954.
Cn'ss Cross. Dir. Robert Siodmak. Perfs. Burt Lancaster, Yvonne DeCarlo. Universal,
1949.
Dark City. Dir. W illiam Dieterle. Perfs. Lizabeth Scott, Charleton Heston. Param ount
Pictures, 1950.
399
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
De/our. Dir. Edgar G. L'lmer. Perfs. Tom Neal, Ann Savage. Producers Releasing
Corp., 1945.
The D eni Thumbs .1 Ride. Dir. Felix E. Feist. Perfs. Lawrence Tierney, Ted N orth, N an
Leslie. R K O Radio Pictures, 1947.
Dillinger. Dir. M ax Nosseck. Perfs. Edm und Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, Eduardo Ciannelli.
King Brothers Production, 1945.
Divorce. Dir. William Nigh. Perfs. Kav Francis, Bruce Cabot, Helen Mack. M onogram
Pictures Corporation, 1945.
DO.-l. Dir. Rudolph Mate. Perfs. Edm und O ’Brien. Cardinal Pictures, 1950.
Double Indemnity. Dir. Billv Wilder. Perfs. Fred MacMurrav, Barbara Stanwyck.
Param ount Pictures, 1944.
Dragnet. Dir. [ack Webb. Perfs. lack Webb. W arner Brothers, 1954.
liadie 1 1 a s.-1 Lady. Dir. Arthur Dreifuss. Perfs. Ann Miller, Joe Besser, William Wright.
Columbia Pictures, 1945.
Faster Parade. Dir. Charles W alters. Perfs. Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford.
Metro-Goldwyn-Maver, 1948.
Easy Living. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Perfs. Victor Mature, Lucille Ball, Lizabeth Scott,
Sonny Tufts. RKO Radio Pictures, 1949.
The G irl From Avenue .1. Dir. O tto Brower. Perfs. |ane Withers, Kent Taylor, Kay
Aldridge. 20th Century Fox, 1940.
The Golden Gloves Story. Dir. Felix E. Feist. Perfs. James Dunn, Dewey Martin, Gregg
Sherwood. Eagle-Lions Films, 1950.
The Great Dan Patch. Dir. Joseph M. Newman. Perfs. Dennis O ’Keefe, Gail Russell,
Ruth W arrick. United Artists, 1949.
The Great Moment. Dir. Preston Sturgess. Perfs. Joel McCrea, Bern- Field, H am - Carey.
Param ount Pictures, 1944.
Gun Crag)' (also known as Deadly Is the Female). Dir. Joseph H. Lewis. Perfs. Peggy
Cummins, John Dahl. United Artists, 1950.
He W alked By Flight. Dir. Alfred L. Werker. Perfs. Richard Baseheart, Scott Brady, Jack
W ebb. Eagle-Lion Films, Inc, 1948.
400
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Heaven Can Wait. Dir. E rnst Lubitsch. Perfs. Gene Tierney, D on Ameche, Charles
C obum . 20th Cenrurv Fox, 1943.
Here Comes Happiness. Dir. Noel M. Smith. Perfs. M ildred Coles, Edw ard Norris,
Richard Ainlev. W arner Brothers, 1941.
Horn to .Many A Millionaire. Dir. Jean Negulesco. Perfs. Bern- Grable, Marilyn Monroe,
Lauren Bacall. 20th Centurv Fox, 1953.
In .-I Lonely Place. Dir. Nicholas Raw Perfs. Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame.
Santana & Colum bia Pictures, 1950.
It Happens Every Spring. Dir. Llovd Bacon. Perfs. Rav Milland, Jean Peters, Paul
Douglas. 20th Centurv Fox, 1949.
It Should Happen to You. Dir. George Cukor. Perfs. |udv Hollidav, Peter Lawford, Jack
Lemmon. Colum bia Pictures, 1954.
The Judge Steps Out. Dir. Boris Ingster. Perfs. Alexander Knox, Ann Southern, George
Tobias. RKO Radio Pictures, 1949.
Kiss Me. Deadly. Dir. R obert Aldrich. Perfs. Ralph Meeker. Parklane Pictures, 1955.
Lady Scarface. Dir. Frank W oodruff. Perfs. Dennis O ’Keefe, Judith Anderson, Frances
E. Neal. RKO Radio Pictures, 1941.
Liura. Dir. O tto Preminger. Perfs. Gene Tiemev, D ana Andrews, Vincent Price. 20th
Century Fox, 1944.
Let's Dance. Dir. Norm an Z. McLeod. Perfs. Bern- H utton, Fred Astaire, Roland
Young. Param ount Pictures, 1950.
Little Fugitive. Dirs. Rav Ashlev, Morris Engel. Perfs. Richard Brewster, Winifred
Cushing, Jay W illiams. Kino Video, 1953.
Lore That Brute. Dir. Alexander Hall. Perfs. Paul Douglas, |ean Peters, Cesar Romero.
20th Centurv Fox, 1950.
L .1 . Confidential. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Perfs. Russell Crow e. Kim Basinger, Kevin
Spacey. W arner Brothers, 1997.
L .1 . Story. Dir. Mick Jackson. Perfs. Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, Sarah Jessica
Parker. Tri Star Pictures, 1991.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
M ad at the World. Dir. Harrv Essex. Perfs. Frank Lovejov, Keefe Brasselle, Cathv
O ’Donnell. The Filmakers Inc, 1955.
Meet John Doe. Dir. Frank Capra. Perfs. Garv Cooper, Barbara Stam w ck, Edward
Arnold. Frank Capra Productions, 1941.
Mildred Pierce. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perfs. |oan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Ann Blvth.
W'amer Brothers, 1945.
Murder. My Sweet. Dir. Edward Dymtrvk. Perfs. Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne
Shirley. RK O Radio Pictures, 1944.
The X aked City. Dir. |ules Dassin. Perfs. Barn- Fitzgerald, H ow ard Duff, Dorothv Hart.
Hellinger Productions, 1948.
The Xarrow Margin. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Perfs. Charles M cGraw, Marie W indsor,
lacqueline White. RK O Radio Pictures, 1952.
Xew York Town. Dir. Charles Vidor. Perfs. Fred MacMurrav. M an- Martin, Akim
Tamiroff. Paramount Pictures, 1941.
The X ext 1 'oice You Hear. Dir. William A. W ellman. Perfs. Jam es WTiitmore, Nancx-
Davis. Metro-Goldwvn-Mayer, 1950.
Xow. 1 oyager. Dir. Irving Rapper. Perfs. Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
W arner Brothers, 1942.
On the Town. Dirs. Stanley D onen, Gene Kelley. Perfs. G ene Kelley, Frank Sinatra,
Bern- G arrett. Metro-Goldwyn-Maver, 1949.
Once A Thief. Dir. W'. Lee W ilder. Perfs. Cesar Romero, June Havoc, Marie McDonald.
L’nited Artists, 1950.
The Other Woman. Dir. Hugo Haas. Perfs. Hugo Haas, Cleo M oore. 20th Centurv Fox,
1954.
Possessed. Dir. Curtis Bernhardt. Perfs. Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, W arner Brothers,
1947.
The Postman Always Pangs Twice. Dir. Lana Turner, John Garfield. M etro-Goldwyn-
Maver, 1946.
Roadblock. Dir. Harold Daniels. Perfs. Charles McGraw, Joan DLxon. RK O Radio
Pictures, 1951.
402
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Private Hell 36. Dir. D on Siegel. Perfs. Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran. The Filmakers, Inc.,
1954.
Rebei Without A Cause. Dir. Nicholas Ray. Perfs. James Dean, Natalie W ood, Sal
Mineo. W'amer Brothers, 1955.
Red Holly Wood. Dirs. Thom Andersen and Noel Burch, presented bv Nathanael Burton
and Aurora Flovd, 1995.
Roughly Speaking. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perfs. Rosalind Russell, |ack Carson, Robert
Hutton. W arner Brothers, 1945.
The Prowler. Dir. Joseph Losev. Perfs. Van Heflin, Evelvn Keves. Ragle-Horizon Films,
1951.
Ruthless. Dir. Edgar G. Llmer. Perfs. Zacharv Scott, Louis H aw ard, Diana Lvnn.
Eagle-Lion Films, 1948.
Scene oj the Crime. Dir. Rov Rowland. Perfs. Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl. Mctro-
Goldwvn-Maver, 1949.
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. Dir. George Seaton. Perfs. Bern- Grable, Dick Havmes, Allvn
Joslyn. 20th Centurv Fox. 1947.
The Secret Tife o f W alter Mitty. Dir. N orm an Z. McLeod. Perfs. Dannv Kave, Virginia
Mayo. R K O Pictures, 1947.
The Seven Year Itch. Dir. Billv Wilder. Perfs. Marilvn M onroe, Tom Ewell. 20th Centurv
Fox, 1955.
Singin' in the Rain. Dir. Stanley Conen, G ene Kellev. Perfs. Gene Kellev, Debbie
Reynolds. Metro-Goldwvn-Mayer, 1952.
Slaying the Dragon. Dir. Deborah Gee. Pacific Productions; A Special Project o f Asian
W omen United in Association with KQ ED. 1987.
Sunset Blvd. Dir. Billy W ilder. Perfs. W'illiam Holden, Gloria Swanson. Param ount
Pictures, 1950.
The Star. Dir. Stuart Heisler. Perfs. Bette Davis. 20lh Centurv Fox, 1952.
The Stratton Story. Dir. Sam Wood. Perfs. James Stewart, June Allvson, Frank Morgan.
Metro-Goldwvn-Maver, 1952.
403
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Tall. Dark, and Handsome. Dir. H. Bruce Humberstone. Perfs. Shep M orrison, Virginia
Gilmore, Charlotte Greenwood. 20th Century Fox, 1941.
This Gun For Hire. Dir. Frank Tutde. Perfs. Veronica Lake, Robert Preston.
Param ount Pictures, 1942.
Too La/e For Tears. Dir. Byron Haskin. Perfs. Lizabeth Scott, D on Defore, Dan Durvea.
United Artists, 1949.
Two Sisters from boston. Dir. Henry Koster. Perfs. Kathrvson Gravson, June Allvson.
Metro-Goldwvn-Maver, 1946.
Fnion Station. Dir. Rudolph Mate. Perfs. W illiam Holden, N’ancv Olson. W arner
Brothers, 1950.
I anety Girl. Dir. George Marshall. Param ount Pictures, 1947.
I iolence. Dir. Jack Bernhard. Perfs. Nancy Coleman, Michael O ’Shea, Em orv Parnell.
M onogram Pictures Corporation, 1947.
II bite Heat. Dir. Raoul W alsh. Perfs. |ames Cagnev, Virginia Mavo, Edm und O ’Brien.
W arner Brothers, 1950.
i ou're Sly Everything. Dir. W alter Lang. Perfs. Dan Dailev, Anne Baxter, Anne Revere.
20th Centurv Fox, 1949.
Oral Interviews
Tom McDonald, Los Angeles District Attorney Office, Los Angeles, CA.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
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422
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A PPEN D IX
Figure l 1
1 Sauza Tequila Billboard from Sum mer o f 2000 at the com er o f Hope and Exposition
in Los Angeles, CA. Photograph taken by author.
424
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Figure 22
nursTOtyresnoi
- C artoon taken from Sinclair's account o f the campaign: I, Candidate fo r Governor A n d
How I Got Licked. Introduction by James N. Gregory. (Berkeley: University o f
California Press, 1994. Originally published in 1934 by Upton Sinclair page 171. The
caption for the cartoon reads "From the Sacramento "Union"."
425
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Figure 5
“L.A. Angst,” Billboard from Universal Cirv Walk.’
5 Taken February 24, 2002 at Universal City Walk, from author’s collection.
426
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Figure 4
Internet Movie Database Sample4
Locating films that use Southern California as an explicit setting remains, to a certain
extent, a challenge, indicating the relatively low importance film scholars have attached
to setting in film. For example, an Internet Movie Database Search for movies that
were filmed at location “Los Angeles” between 1941 and 1955 perform ed October 18,
2001 include the following 65 responses:
Abandoned (1949); Adventures o f Captain Marvel (1941); African Treasure (1952);
Angels in the O utfield (1951); Arm ored Car Robbery (1950); A round the World in
California (1946); A tom Man Vs. Superman (1950); Atomic City, T he (1952); Barricade
(1950); Blueprint for Murder, A (1953); Bride o f the M onster (1956); Crime Wave
(1954); Criss Cross (1949); Cry Danger (1951); D.O .A. (1950); Dancing in the Dark
(1949); Dark City (1950); Day the W orld Ended, The (1956); Days o f O ur Years, The
(1955); Desperate Hours, The (1955); Double Indemnity (1944); Elephant Stampede
(1951); Farmer's Daughter, The (1947); Fear in the Night (1947); G oing to Blazes!
(1948); Grapes o f W rath, The (1940); Green Fire (1954); Heart to Heart (1948);
Hollywood Revels (1946); Island o f Doom ed M en (1940); Julius Caesar (1953); Killers
from Space (1954); King Dinosaur (1955); Kiss Me Deadly (1955); Meet Danny Wilson
(1952); M onster and the Ape, The (1945); Mv D ream Is Yours (1949); Narrow Margin,
The (1952); N ever Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941); Next Voice You Hear..., The
(1950); Night Has a Thousand Eves (1948); One Foot in Heaven (1941); Out o f the
Past (1947); Popular Science (1948/1); Private Hell 36 (1954); Pushover (1954); Rear
W indow (1954); Rebel W ithout a Cause (1955); Red River Shore (1953); Robot M onster
(1953); Screen A ctors (1950); Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Rodeo (1949); Second
Chorus (1940); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954); Silver City (1951); Superman
(1948); Sweetheart o f the Campus (1941); Talking Car, The (1953); Tarzan and the
Amazons (1945); Ten Tall Men (1951); This G un for Hire (1942); T oo Late for Tears
(1949); Tour o f the W est, A (1955); Traffic with the Devil (1946); Turning Point, The
(1952); Union Station (1950); Unknown World (1951); War o f the Worlds, The (1953).
O f these 65 only 28 take place in terms o f plot specifically in Los Angeles or Southern
California. The explicit setting for 15 is unknown. And 22, over one third of the list
definitely take place elsewhere.
Los Angeles: A bandoned (1949); A round the W orld in California (1946); Crime Wave
(1954); Criss Cross (1949); Cry Danger (1951); D.O.A. (1950); D ancing in the Dark
(1949); Dark City (1950); Double Indemnity (1944); *Going to Blazes! (1948);
* Hollywood Revels (1946); Kiss Me Deadly (1955); My Dream Is Yours (1949); N arrow
Margin, The (1952); N ever Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941); N ext Voice You
Hear..., The (1950); *Popular Science (1948/1); Private Hell 36 (1954); Rebel W ithout a
Cause (1955); *Screen Actors (1950); * Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Rodeo (1949);
4 Search perform ed O ctober 18, 2001 at http://w w w .im db.com .
427
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"Tour o f the W est, A (1955); ’T raffic with the Devil (1946); Union Station (1950); This
G un for Hire (1942); Too Late for Tears (1949); W ar o f the Worlds, The (1953).
Unknown: Adventures o f Captain Marvel (1941); Armored Car Robbery (1950);
Blueprint for M urder, A (1953); Desperate Hours, The (1955); Fear in the N ight (1947);
’ Heart to Heart (1948); Meet D anny Wilson (1952); Monster and the Ape, The (1945);
N ight Has a T housand Eyes (1948); O ne Foot in Heaven (1941); Pushover (1954);
Robot Monster (1953); Sweetheart o f the Campus (1941); *Talking Car, The (1953);
Turning Point, T he (1952).
Definitely N ot Los Angeles: African Treasure (1952); Angels in the Outfield (1951);
Atom Man Vs. Superm an (1950); Atomic City, T he (1952); Barricade (1950); Days o f
O ur Years, The (1955); Elephant Stampede (1951); Farmer's Daughter, The (1947);
Green Fire (1954); Julius Caesar (1953); Killers from Space (1954); King Dinosaur
(1955); Out o f the Past (1947); Rear W indow (1954); Red River Shore (1953); Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers (1954); Silver City (1951); Superman (1948); Tarzan and the
Amazons (1945); T en Tall Men (1951); Unknown W orld (1951).
’ Indicates docum entary or educational short.
Though noir films were set in other locales, Southern California appears repeatedly as
an explicit setting. Indeed, a tallying o f Los Angeles-based films of the 1940s reveals a
discernible pattern connecting genre and setting. O f the one hundred eleven films
produced between 1940 and 1950 that explicitly use Los Angeles as a setting, fully 51%
(57). the largest percentage tallied, can be categorized as film noir.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Figure A5
New Los Angeles Driving Test
Since driving conditions (and culture) are unique in L.A., you may not have realized that
the California D epartm ent o f M otor Vehicles has now issued a special application and
driver's test solelv for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. Here it is below:
G REA TER LOS A N G ELES AREA D RIV ER’ S LIC EN SE APPLICATION:
Name:_________________ Stage nam e:___________________
Agent: ________________ Attorney:______________________
Sex:___ m ale___fem ale____formerly male____formerly female both____
If female, indicate breast implant size: ____
Will the size o f your implants hinder vour ability to safely operate a m otor vehicle in any
way? Yes N o ___
Occupation:
’ [ ] Lawyer
* [ ] A ctor/W aiter
’ [ ] Film-maker/Self-employed
’ [ ] Writer
* [ ] Car Dealer
*[ ] Panhandler
*[ 1 Agent
’ [ ] Hooker/Transvestite
’ f | Other; please explain:________________
Please indicate how many times you expect to have sex in a car:_______
Please indicate how much you plan to spend for this sex: S _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Please list:
Brand o f cell phone: ___________ . (If you don't own a cell phone, please explain.)
Please check haircolor:
* Females: [ ] Blonde [ ] Platinum Blonde
Teenagers: [ ] Purple [ ] Blue [ ] Skinhead
’Men: Please list shade o f hairplugs:________________
3 Test found at h ttp ://www.dumblists.com on September 9, 1999.
429
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Please check activities vou perform while driving:
(Check all that apply)
* [ ] Eating a wrap
*[ ] Applying make-up
*[ ] Talking on the phone
*[ ] Slapping kids in the backseat
* [ ] Having sex
* [ ] Applying cellulite treatm ent to thighs
*[ ] Tanning
* [ ] Snorting cocaine
* [ ] W atching TV
*[ ] Reading Variety
* [ ] Surfing the net via laptop
Please indicate how many times:
a) you expect to shoot at other drivers, and
b) how many times you expect to be shot at while driving.
If you are the victim o f a car-jacking, you should immediately:
a) Call the police to report the crime;
b) Call Channel 4 News to report the crime, then watch your car on
the news on a high-speed chase;
c) Call your attorney and discuss lawsuit against cellular phone
company for 911 call not going through;
d) Call your therapist;
e) None o f the above (South Central resident).
Please indicate if vou drive:
a) a Beamer,
b) a Lexus.
c) a Mercedes, or
d) Cabriolet.
I f your answer is D , please add six to eight weeks to normal delivery time for your
driver's license.
In the event o f an earthquake, should you:
a) stop your car,
b) keep driving and hope for the best,
c) immediately use your cell phone to call all loved ones, or
d) pull out your video camera and obtain footage for Channel 4?
430
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
In the instance o f rain, you should:
a) never drive over 5 N1PH,
b) drive m ice as fast as usual, or
c) vou're not sure what "tain" is.
Please indicate num ber of therapy sessions per week: _____.
Are you presendy taking any o f the following medications:
a) Prozac;
b) Zovirax;
c) Lithium;
d) Xanax.
e) If none, please explain: _____________________ .
Length o f dailv commute:
a) 1 hour;
b) 2 hours;
c) 3 hours;
d) 4 hours or more.
VCTicn stopped bv police, should vou
a) pull over and have your driver’s license and insurance form readv
b) try to outrun them by driving the wrong way o n the 405,
c) have your \id e o camera ready and provoke them to attack, thus
ensuring vourself o f a hefty lawsuit?
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Figure B6
YO U K N OW Y O U ’RE IN L.A. IF:
You make over $250,000 a vear and still can't afford a house.
It's sprinkling outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-
related accidents.
Y our child's third grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is nam ed Breeze.
You've been to a baby shower for an infant who has two mothers and a sperm donor.
You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown, and can taste
the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.
You know which restaurant semes the freshest arugula.
A really great parking space can move vou to tears.
The guy in line at Starbucks, wearing the baseball cap, sunglasses, and looks like George
Clooney, IS George Cloonev.
Your car insurance costs as much as vour house payment.
Your hairdresser is straight, your plum ber is gay, and your Mary Kav rep is a guy in
drag.
It's sprinkling out, and there's a report on every news channel about "STORM
W ATCH!"
O ver 85° o o f the cities, towns, and streets start with San, Los, El, La, Santa, De La, or
De Los.
Tw o overcast days in a row drive you mad.
A family o f four owns six vehicles.
Everyone who lives here knows that hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and snowstorms are
way worse than earthquakes, which are, after all, over almost as soon as you realize
what's happening.
"You Know You're In LA When" found at
http:. / www.losangciesalmanac.com/IN LA .htm May 1, 2001.
432
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Even if the store is across the street, you drive there.
And finallv...
Q. H ow many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. N one. Californians cannot afford to turn on the lights.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Figure C7
YO U KNOW W H E N YOU'RE IN CALIFORNIA W HEN:
1. Y our co-worker has 8 bodv piercings and none are visible.
2. Y ou make over $250,000 and still can't afford a house.
3. You take a bus and are shocked at 2 people carrying on a conversation in English.
4. Y our child's 3rd grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring and is nam ed Breeze.
5. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
6. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can
taste the difference between Sum atran and Ethiopian.
7. You know which restaurant serves the freshest arugula.
8. You can't rem em ber is pot illegal?
9. A really great parking space can m ove you to tears.
10. A low speed pursuit will interrupt ANY TV broadcast.
11. Gas cost 75 cents per gallon m ore than anywhere else in the U.S.
12. A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps. You don't even
notice.
13. Unlike back hom e, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and
sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney.
14. Your car insurance costs as m uch as your house payment.
15. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
16. It's sprinkling and there's a report on every news station about "STORM W ATCH
2000."
17. You haye to leave the big com pany meeting early because Billy Blanks himself is
teaching the 4:00 PM Tae Bo class.
7 "Only In CA" found on Message Boards at http://w w w .after-death.com on
September 12, 1999, both located o n index, Figures B and C, respectively.
434
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
18. Vou pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busv with their
cell phones or pagers.
19. It's sprinkling outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-
related accidents.
20. You A N D your dog have therapists.
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.
Figure D
Percentage o f Registered Voters W ho Turned O u t for Mayoral Elections fl 952-19951
for Los Angeles. Boston. Chicago. N ew York. San Francisco
Year Span Diff Diff Los
w/next
lowest
w/highest Angeles1
1952-1955 12.11 39.92 52.08
1956-1959
5.45 38.38 51.62
1960-1963
11.73 49.42 48.58
1964-1967 9.17 17.35 59
1968-1971 N /A N /A 68.5
1972-1975
N /A N /A 64
1976-1979 20 26.78 34.1
1980-1983 14 45.07 37
1984-1987 3 39.08 35
1988-1991
15.15 35 24
1992-1995
N /A N /A 45
Average % 45
Average
diff
11.326
w / lowest
Average
difT
36.375
w/highest
Boston9 Chicago1 0 New
York1 1
San
Francisco1 2
66.28 64.49 92 74.7
63.52 57.07 90 71.2
60.31 69.62 98 75
68.17 64.74
p
76.35
64.31 68.91 70 75
62.02 47.3 49 72.7
60.88 61.03 54 55.06
69.59 82.07 51 45.99
40.77 74.08 38 51.18
39.15 45.06 59 47.61
50.73 42.25 49 51.86
59.97 61.51 65 63.33
8 Los Angeles voting data gained in part from the O ffice o f the City Clerk, Election
Division for the city o f Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles A -Z : A n
Encyclopedia of the City and County. Leonard Pitt and D ale Pitt. (Berkeley: University o f
California Press, 1997), 530.
9 Boston voting data gained from the Boston Board o f Elections.
1 0 Chicago voting figures found from Chicago Board o f Election Commissioners
1 1 New York voting data gained from the New York Times and The Enyclopedia of New
York, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995),
739-744.
1 2 San Francisco voting data gained from D epartm ent o f Elections (partial) and the San
Francisco Chronicle.
4 3 6
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Sekhon, Sharon Elaine (author)

Core Title Exposing Sin City: Southern California sense of place and the Los Angeles anti -myth

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program History

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag American studies,Cinema,history, United States,literature, American,mass communications,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Sanchez, George J. (committee chair), Polan, Dana (committee member), Starr, Kevin O. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-231901

Unique identifier UC11334590

Identifier 3073846.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-231901 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3073846.pdf

Dmrecord 231901

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Sekhon, Sharon Elaine

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA