About this season
Much of Los Angeles's past is lost to history, but through the region's archives, we can uncover the inspiring dreams and bitter realities that built the modern-day metropolis.
Episodes (6)
1. Griffith Park: The Untold History
Aired 15 October 2019 • 27 min
At more than 4,500 acres, Griffith Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. Its founder, the controversial Griffith J. Griffith, donated the land to the city as a public recreation ground for all the people -- an ideal that has been challenged over the years.
2. Three Views of Manzanar: Adams, Lange, Miyatake
Aired 22 October 2019 • 27 min
Despite the trauma of their incarceration during World War II, Japanese Americans built new lives while detained at incarceration camps like Manzanar. Three renowned photographers captured scenes from the camp: outsiders Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams and incarceree Tōyō Miyatake who boldly smuggled in a camera lens to document life from within it.
3. Bootlegger Tunnels: A Journey Through LA’s Prohibition Lore
Aired 29 October 2019 • 27 min
Prohibition may have outlawed liquor, but that didn’t mean the booze stopped flowing. Explore the myths of subterranean Los Angeles, crawl through prohibition-era tunnels, and visit some of the city’s oldest speakeasies.
4. Paul Revere Williams
Aired 5 November 2019 • 27 min
Although best known for designing the homes of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, the pioneering African-American architect Paul Revere Williams also contributed to some of the city's most recognizable civic structures -- all while confronting racial barriers.
5. Discovering the Universe
Aired 12 November 2019 • 25 min
Edwin Hubble, working with the world’s most powerful telescope in the mountains high above Los Angeles, discovered just how vast the universe truly is. Visit the underground vault of the Carnegie Observatories, where paradigm-shifting discoveries are annotated by hand on glass photographic slides, and the historic Mount Wilson observatory.
6. Shindana Toy Company: Changing the American Doll Industry
Aired 19 November 2019 • 27 min
Explore the lasting impact of the Shindana Toy Company, created out of the need for community empowerment following the 1965 Watts uprising, whose ethnically correct black dolls forever changed the American doll industry.