Category Archives: Uncategorized

There’s two weeks till Hallowe’en and it’s time to put your Hallowe’en gift-giving into overdrive! (Yes, I know, you’re mostly buying things for yourself, but who better deserves them?) Might I suggest a copy of Bunker Noir! It’s a true crime compendium replete with murder, suicide, bootleggers, serial killers, bar brawls, deadly fires, lizard men,Continue reading “Bunker Noir October Sale!”

I’ve always had a fondness for the Astoria: The Astoria was, of course, featured prominently in one of my first posts for OnBunkerHill, about Robert Nixon and his fiendish visit there. The hotel was thereafter a key part in this expanded retelling from 2022, and naturally it showed up in both BHLA and Bunker Noir!Continue reading “New Astoria Images Emerge!”

Last post involved people I couldn’t identify, so, here I am doing that again. This time we’ve got a couple Kodachrome slides from August 1968, of a young couple outside the Courthouse (as seen on p. 17 of Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill) with a novelty sign: Naturally, my impulse was to go and shootContinue reading “Getting Hitched at the Courthouse, 1968”

I look at a lot of slides, hunting for images of Bunker Hill architecture. The Hill’s built environment had character, which was documented, fortunately, because photographers shot images of the Hill — especially in its declining days, so as to capture the area’s rich personality. Less evidenced in the photographic record are the Hill natives,Continue reading “Who is this Bunker Hill Fellow??”

Bunker Hill was, of course, featured in many a splendid noir picture. That (along with the Hill’s depiction in hardboiled prose) is the subject of Jim Dawson’s indispensable Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero! (If you do not own this book, remedy that immediately.) Once in a greatContinue reading “Bunker Hill in “Abandoned””

Angels abound! This is the City of Angels, after all. And I do work at Angels Flight. It seems only fitting that I should become steward of the most magnificent of our angels. A fallen angel, at that. I speak, of course, about a Richfield Angel. Born at the high point of interbellum Los Angeles,Continue reading “I Got a Richfield Angel!”

Norman Chandler gave me a ring on the Ameche and said “Marsak! Our best man from City Desk is on his way to the Whizbang Lounge to interview you! Be at your booth by 11:00am sharp!” and I always do what a Chandler tells me, so, here are the results— Read it for yourself byContinue reading ““Freeways” in the Los Angeles Times”

This Sunday! The Los Angeles City Historical Society presents yours truly, as part of the Marie Northrop Lecture Series; LACHS cosponsors with the History Department of Central Library. I’ll be talking all about Arnold Hylen’s curious life, the process of chasing down lost archives, the genesis of America’s post-Panic of ’93 visual language, and muchContinue reading “Free Lecture, this Sunday!”

I’ve written a lot about Cooper Donuts.  Reading all of it, though, can be a bit of an exercise, with its 10,000 words stretched out over five separate blog posts (We Need to Talk About Cooper Do-Nuts, Cooper’s Do-Nuts—Addenda, Cooper Do-Nuts Pt. III, Cooper Do-Nuts…AGAIN, and Cooper Do-Nuts FINALE — six blog posts, if youContinue reading “My Final Words on Cooper Donuts”

Let’s talk the lobbies of Bunker Hill! Of course there’s no returning to the Melrose or Trenton or Fremont, so you’ll have to content yourself with the modern lobbies of post-redevelopment Bunker Hill. You’ve likely been inside some of Bunker Hill’s more important and sublime interiors, like the Music Center; other lobbies are well-documented online,Continue reading “Bunker Hill Lobbies”