Catch a bus to the secret heart of L.A. with Esotouric Tours

Catch a bus to the secret heart of L.A. with Esotouric Tours

By Richard Davis (ricksamer66@yahoo.com)

It’s hard to get a handle on a city that was built on a desert and stolen water. A city that sprawls out across Southern California like spilt milk. One that was first owned by the Spanish, then the Mexicans and now, for the time being, the Americans. The most populated city in the most populated state — physically and culturally vast and nebulous — L.A. often clings to the kinder, friendlier myths found in its tourism ads and downplays its sun-bleached grittiness. Luckily, Esotouric Tours is here to tell us the rest of the story: the dark, the light and the gray,

Founded by Kim Cooper and Richard Schave  in May 2007, Esotouric offers more than a dozen tours “into the secret heart of Los Angeles.” It’s a great ride, even if you think you know everything about the lore and gore of this two-lettered city, there’s sure to be something that’ll surprise you.

The tours are a mix of crime and social history, rock and roll and architecture, literature and film, fine art and urban studies. Even their snack stops are unique: a Chinese dumpling picnic in a garden of concrete sea monsters, donuts in the parking lot of Charles Bukowski’s favorite liquor store, or Raymond Chandler-inspired gelato at Scoops in East Hollywood.

Besides the bus tours, which are based on original research, Kim and Richard offer off-the-bus attractions, including podcasts, a series of “time travel” blogs and LAVA, an outlet for other people doing interesting things that celebrate the city’s history and culture. Free LAVA events include the LAVA Sunday Salons, free walking tours and historic site visits. Paid LAVA events include the LAVA Literary Salons and the Cal State LA crime lab seminars. The latter benefits graduate-level forensic science study.

Upcoming tours include:

Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles – Saturday, July 13

The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California Nightmare – Saturday, July 20

The Real Black Dahlia – Saturday, July 27

South L.A. Road Trip: Hot Rods, Adobes, Googie & Early Modernism – Sunday, Aug. 4

Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles – Saturday, Aug. 10

Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley: The Hidden Histories of L.A.’s Melting Pot – Saturday, Aug. 17

The Lowdown on Downtown – Saturday, Aug. 24

Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice – Saturday, Sept. 7

Weird West Adams – Saturday, Sept. 14

Eastside Babylon – Saturday, Sept. 21

Pasadena Confidential – Saturday, Sept. 28

You can learn more about Esotouric Tours by visiting http://www.esotouric.com

Take a ride on the dark side of Hollywood with Dearly Departed Tours

Dearly Departed Tours

6603 W Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028

(323) 466-3696

http://www.dearlydepartedtours.com

We may not know where our favorite stars go after the final curtain falls. But thanks to Dearly Departed Tours, we can see where some of them were when they took their final bow. Founded in 2005 by Scott Michaels, who has been interested in death since attending a funeral at the age of three, Dearly Departed delivers. In two-and-a-half information-packed hours you’ll see where some shining stars twinkled away, and where others got taken away. I recently hopped on one of the tours and had a great time.

One thing was clear from the start. Richard wasn’t one of those part-time tour guides who blankly recite a canned speech while waiting for their “big break.” His movie knowledge was impressive, he had a passion for Hollywood history and was an entertaining speaker.

One of the tour’s first stops was the Knickerbocker Hotel. It’s where William Frawley, who played Fred Mertz in the 1950s TV show I Love Lucy, expired. He had actually collapsed from a heart attack on the sidewalk outside, and was then carried into the hotel’s lobby. We paused in silence for a moment in front of the hotel, and then (like Frawley I hope) moved on.

Under bright and cheery Spring skies, our dark tour continued, turning and twisting through quiet, wealthy neighborhoods that secreted the uneasy allure of celebrity death. We paid our respects to the last residence of Michael Jackson. Stopping near the gate of the $100,000 a month rental in Holmby Hills, Richard played a recording of the actual 9-1-1 call for us.

After that, we swung up and around the Chateau Marmont. Passing its entrance, we stopped along a long wooden fence that hid the hotel’s property. To our right was a little gate and a metal number 3. “Past this gate in Bungalow 3 is where John Belushi overdosed,” Richard announced. He then held up a dated photo. In it a van marked “Coroner,” surrounded by paparazzi, was in the same spot we were now.

As our tour continued, so did the death toll. It began to seem like every building, every corner was growing darker. Was it the shadows of mortality mixing with the bright April sunshine? Or maybe it was just getting later in the day. At any rate, I began to think that Hollywood was a dangerous place for celebrities, a Bermuda Triangle for the cinematically charismatic.

For years, Hollywood had been a factory town, producing dreams, escapism and hope for the world. And it also rocketed otherwise ordinary people into mythical gods and goddesses. Although some of these celebrities simply faded away, others exploded like starbursts. And Dearly Departed Tours does a great job of keeping those echoes alive.