Vintage L.A.-centered cult film series Tinseltown Tarnish debuts with "Spider Baby"

WHAT: Esotouric pals Jeremy Kasten and Elijah Drenner present Tinseltown Tarnish: director Jack Hill introducing "Spider Baby: Director's Cut"
WHEN: Thursday, February 18, 7pm
WHERE: Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 W 7th St., Los Angeles, CA 90014
COST: Free, reservations required from www.spiderbabyonline.com

Introducing Tinseltown Tarnish, a provocative new film series curated by filmmakers Jeremy Kasten ("The Wizard of Gore") and Elijah Drenner ("American Grindhouse"). Tinseltown Tarnish features favorite cult films that capture vintage Los Angeles locations.

The series debuts on February 18 with a free 7pm screening at the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club in downtown Los Angeles of "Spider Baby: Director’s Cut." This highly influential cult classic from writer-director Jack Hill ("Switchblade Sisters," "Foxy Brown") tells the demented and darkly comic tale of the Merrye children -- all of whom suffer from a rare genetic malady that causes its victims to mentally regress to a condition of "pre-human savagery and cannibalism." Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Sid Haig and Carol Ohmart and shot in 1964, this black and white horror/comedy was partially filmed on location in Highland Park and utilized the large Victorian Smith Estate, which still stands to this day, that was built in 1887.

The public is invited to join Jeremy Kasten, Elijah Drenner and special guest "Spider Baby" writer/director Jack Hill for this rare screening, followed by a Q&A about the film and its locations.

This event is free and open to the public. You must RSVP for this event by visiting Spider Baby Online. Make sure to put "Spider Baby screening RSVP" in the subject header. Space is limited to 200 people, so please put your RSVPs in as early as possible. Each guest name must be included in the email. Please note that audiences who come to the event without RSVP-ing cannot be allowed in. RSVP Deadline is Wednesday, February 17th at 10 pm.

Parking: 3 Hour Parking validation is available with a purchase of food or drink at the Olive Street parking lot, just north of 7th St.

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Just off Rosemead Boulevard in a quiet, semi-industrial section of the San Gabriel Valley is the unexpected sight of the oldest Protestant cemetery in Southern California, Savannah Memorial Park.

Operated on a volunteer basis by descendants of the pioneer residents and considered a source of bad luck by superstitious Asian neighbors, the graveyard desperately needs your support and attention if it's to remain open for public visits, and well maintained.

Next Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 10am, Savannah hosts its Annual Meeting at the El Monte Historical Museum, 3150 Tyler Avenue, El Monte, California. We'll be rolling with our Weird West Adams tour that day, but encourage interested folks to attend and get involved with this extraordinary southland gem.

For more info, visit the cemetery website. More photos from our recent visit are here.

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

Source: Flickr

1922 Los Angeles--the biggest boomtown in the history of the United States, a city growing so quickly that residents can't even agree on how to pronounce its name. (To the old guard, it is "Loce Ahng-hail-ais," to others "Loss An-jy-lese," "Lows An-y-klyese," or "Loss An-jy-lus.) Fifteen-story skyscrapers line Spring Street, the so-called "Wall Street of the West." Dazzling electric signs proclaim L.A.'s next goal--"2,000,000 Population by 1930!" On a typical workday, some 260,000 cars jam the intersection of Adams and Figueroa, making it the busiest in the world. Every day the intraurban Yellow and inter-urban Red lines move another half a million people through downtown. "All of the talk was `boom,' `dollars,' `greatest in the world,' `sure to double in price,"' marveled the author Hamlin Garland, who visited L.A. in 1923. "I have never seen so many buildings going up all at one time\ldots. There are thousands in process in every direction I looked."

And no wonder. The city (to say nothing of its underworld) was a carnival. In downtown Los Angeles, the theaters and movie palaces that lined Broadway attracted thronging crowds to motley performances that mixed vaudeville performers, singers, dancers, chorus girls, acrobats, even elephants, with silent films by stars like Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford. Then as now, starstruck tourists could sign up for "star tours" that took them past the homes of their favorite celebrities. Streetcars packed with bands and draped with advertisements crisscrossed the city, announcing new towns every month.

"If every conceivable trick in advertising was not resorted to, it was probably due to an oversight," wrote one early philanthropist.

In 1922, two extraordinary figures arrived in downtown Los Angeles. The first was a 17-year-old from Deadwood, South Dakota, named Bill Parker. The second was young hoodlum named Mickey Cohen. Parker was working as a movie usher; just around the corner, Cohen was commencing on a career of violent crime. Five years later, Parker would join the LAPD while Mickey moved into the world of professional boxing and the rackets. In the 1930s, the two men would serve as top lieutenants to the Chief James "Two Gun" Davis and mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Siegel and Cohen were determined to organize Los Angeles "on Eastern lines." Parker was determined to break the hold of corrupt politicians and the underworld on the LAPD. In the 1950s, Parker and Cohen clashed directly, in a struggle for control of the city.

Now Esotouric and John Buntin, the author of L.A. Noir: The Struggle for Control of America's Most Seductive City, have teamed up to explore the haunts, hits and harems of the L.A. underworld where Parker, Davis, Cohen and Siegel waged their deadly struggle. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to duck-and-cover. It's an explosive ride.

John Buntin's L.A. Noir tour debuts on Saturday, September 19. Seats are going quick, so reserve your spot today. Or meet John for a cocktail party and celebration of Jack Webb, Dragnet lore and historic L.A. crime at Morton's the Steakhouse in Downtown L.A. (Friday September 18, 6-8pm, free admission/happy hour pricing). Click for more info.

Source: Flickr