Unlike the more forthrightly mythic origins of other urban
centers—think Rome via Romulus and Remus or Mexico City via the
god Huitzilopochtli—Los Angeles emerged from a smoke-and-mirrors
process that is simultaneously literal and figurative, real and
imagined, material and metaphorical, physical and textual. Through
penetrating analysis and personal engagement, Vincent Brook
uncovers the many portraits of this ever-enticing, ever-ambivalent,
and increasingly multicultural megalopolis. Divided into sections
that probe Los Angeles’s checkered history and reflect on
Hollywood’s own self-reflections, the book shows how the city,
despite considerable remaining challenges, is finally
blowing away some of the smoke of its not always proud past and
rhetorically adjusting its rear-view mirrors. Part I is a review of
the city’s history through the early 1900s, focusing on the
seminal 1884 novel Ramona and its immediate effect, but also
exploring its ongoing impact through interviews with present-day
Tongva Indians, attendance at the 88th annual Ramona pageant, and
analysis of its feature film adaptations. Brook deals with
Hollywood as geographical site, film production center, and frame
of mind in Part II. He charts the events leading up to
Hollywood’s emergence as the world’s movie capital and explores
subsequent developments of the film industry from its golden age
through the so-called New Hollywood, citing such self-reflexive
films as Sunset Blvd.,Singin’ in the Rain, and The Truman Show.
Part III considers LA noir, a subset of film noir that emerged
alongside the classical noir cycle in the 1940s and 1950s and
continues today. The city’s status as a privileged noir site is
analyzed in relation to its history and through discussions of such
key LA noir novels and films as Double Indemnity, Chinatown, and
Crash. In Part IV, Brook examines multicultural Los Angeles. Using
media texts as signposts, he maps the history and contemporary
situation of the city’s major ethno-racial and other minority
groups, looking at such films as Mi Familia (Latinos), Boyz N the
Hood (African Americans), Charlotte Sometimes (Asians), Falling
Down (Whites), and The Kids Are All Right (LGBT).
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