From 1901 to 1969, Angels Flight was America's most famous incline railway, familiar from its many appearances on postcards and in pulp fiction and film noir. It inspired the titles of five novels, including a 1999 best seller, and three films. Angels Flight's two colorful trolleys glided up and down the side of Bunker Hill in the heart of Los Angeles, carrying 100 million passengers between a downtown business district and a Victorian aerie that gradually deteriorated into a gritty slum. When the city turned Bunker Hill into an acropolis of skyscrapers, Angels Flight was packed up like a boy's electric train set and stored away for nearly 30 years. After a restoration in the mid-1990s that led to a fatal accident, Angels Flight has reopened and is now ready to claim its next chapters in Los Angeles history.

A field guide for seeing and understanding the City of Angels, this book includes candid commentary, sprinkled with anecdotes, history and little known facts. Written for career diplomats stationed in Los Angeles, it is a vehicle for understanding America's second most populous metropolitan area and its diverse population. It is also a lexicon of Los Angeles's well known and not so well known sites.

You don't need a car to see the best of L.A., just a sense of adventure and curiosity. L.A. Adventures makes it easy and fun to discover Los Angeles in ways you never thought possible - by rail, by bike and by imagination. With fourteen easy to follow day trips for every budget and interest, plus three bike tours to get your blood moving, L.A. Adventures debunks the myth of Los Angeles as a must-have-a-car-city. From tourist icons to Japanese tacos, from Old Town Pasadena to the oldest occult shop in America, where they'll customize a magic spell for you, this guide takes you to the heart of L.A. and beyond. Along the way you'll uncover the city's best kept secrets. Did you know you can listen to the world's largest church organ for free? Get a traditional Asukari Korean body scrub at three in the morning? Or lunch on imaginative Mexican-fusion cuisine prepared by reformed gang members? L.A. Adventures takes you step-by-step from sunrise to sunset - what to see, where to eat and how to get there without burning a gallon of gas, or battling freeway traffic. Touring L.A. has never been easier. In this guide you'll find: 14 Day Trips that crisscross the L.A. Area including Hollywood, Pasadena & Long Beach 40 easy to follow color-coded walking and cycling maps Tourist landmarks and Off the Beaten Path Attractions Restaurants with vegan and vegetarian options Metro-convenient hotels listed by neighborhood Complete information on where to park near the metro stations How to get to and from L.A. area airports by rail Three bicycle Tours A bonus guide to L.A.'s most peaceful places Side bars that illuminate fascinating and forgotten aspects of L.A. culture and history

An illustrated history of the iconic Hollywood neighborhood featured in numerous film noir classics—and the shadowy story of how it disappeared. When postwar movie directors went looking for a gritty location to shoot their psychological crime thrillers, they found Bunker Hill, a neighborhood of fading Victorians, flophouses, tough bars, stairways, and dark alleys in downtown Los Angeles. Novelist Raymond Chandler had already used its real-life mean streets to lend authenticity to his hardboiled detective stories featuring Philip Marlowe. But the biggest crime of all was going on behind the scenes, run by the city’s power elite. And Hollywood just happened to capture it on film. Using nearly eighty photos, writer Jim Dawson sheds new light on Los Angeles history with this grassroots investigation of a vanished place.

With details on everything from the Hollywood Bowl to the Sunset Strip, this is the only guide a native or traveler needs. The Not For Tourists Guide to Los Angeles is the essential urban handbook that thousands of Los Angelenos rely on daily. The map-based, neighborhood-by-neighborhood guidebook divides the city into 57 mapped neighborhoods and pinpoints all of the essential services and entertainment hotspots with NFT’s user-friendly icons. Want to drive around the palm tree–peppered concrete jungle like a pro? NFT has you covered. How about sunbathing on a beach? We’ve got that, too. The nearest Hollywood club, holistic health practitioner, sports outing, or shopping destination—whatever you need—NFT puts it at your fingertips. The guide also includes: • A foldout highway map covering all of Los Angeles • Over 150 neighborhood and city maps • A guide to TV and movie studio locations • Listings for the best shopping destinations Everything from supermarkets, cafés, bars, and gas stations, to information on 24-hour services, beaches, public transportation, and city events—NFT will help you find a boutique for an Oscar gown and then show you how to get there.

Here's what to see and do, and where to eat, drink, shop, stay, and play in the "City of Angels"-from glitzy Hollywood to posh Beverly Hills, from Santa Monica's surf to Pasadena's parade, and beyond! An amalgam of mini cities connected by a web of freeways and boulevards, Los Angeles is at once classic and eccentric. In this indispensable city guide, ''Top Picks'' direct you to not-to-be-missed attractions. 10 maps detail favorite neighborhoods, and include an L.A. Metro Map.