THE WAY WE WERE: LOS ANGELES

Cover photo from: California: A Guide to the Golden State

Advertisting the California State Guide

Los Angeles Volumes

¶ California Guide

¶ Los Angeles City Guide

The Los Angeles entry is a rarity among the American Guides as it is written almost entirely as a tourist’s guide to the city. Combining history, geography, and cultural attractions, a visitor in the day would have been well served. Smog, earthquakes, and traffic congestion – main concerns of Angelinos today – are glossed over. Rather, the city is described as “a curiously exciting combination of massive mountains, blue sea, Spanish romance, and Hollywood glamour.”

It would seem that the Depression missed Los Angeles entirely. However, the authors do provide a small recognition of the troubles. Some newcomers are said to have been “driven from their homes by depression, droughts, and dust storms.” Lacking in their motives for moving were sun, beach, and the aforementioned “Hollywood glamour” which compose the contemporary vision of Los Angeles

The entertainment industry was well established in the 1940’s. It was so influential that Hollywood, “motion picture capitol of the world and a name that has become synonymous with extravagant entertainment” is treated as a city, despite being an “integral part of the city of Los Angeles.” Hollywood itself gets more attention than the cities of San Diego or San Jose, underscoring just how much they have grown

As related in the Hollywood entry, Cecil B. De Mille first intended to open a studio in Flagstaff, Arizona. He moved on to Hollywood because Flagstaff at the time did not “look western enough.” Certainly tAdvertisting the California State Guide hose roles would be reversed today.

California: A Guide to the Golden State
Compiled by the workers of the Writers’ Program of the Works Progress Administration in the State of California – F.859.3.F4 – First published 1939