For immediate release
June 29, 2012
Celebrate the lost L.A. neighborhood of Bunker Hill with George Mann's debut photo exhibition, historic talks
WHAT: Bunker Hill historians (and one former resident) discuss L.A.'s most beguiling lost neighborhood, during the Downtown Art Walk opening night celebration of the debut Los Angeles gallery exhibition of the photographs of Vaudeville star George Mann (1905-1977). Exhibition features rare color images of downtown's Bunker Hill from the 1950s and 1960s. Framed prints are $100.
WHERE: Gary Leonard's Take My Picture Gallery, 860 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90014
WHEN: Thursday, July 12 7-9pm with historic presentations at 7:30pm and again at 8:30pm
MORE: And on Saturday, July 14 from 6-10pm, Jim Dawson signs his new book "Los Angeles's Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's Ground Zero!" in the gallery. Bunker Hill historians and George Mann's daughter-in-law/archivist Dianne Woods will be present to answer questions about the photos.
INFO: For info about the July 12 event, contact Kim Cooper at 323-223-2767 or amscrayATgmail.com. For info about the July 14 event or for general info, contact the gallery at 213-622-2256 or infoATtakemypicture.com.
LOS ANGELES- George Mann just might be the most interesting Los Angeles photographer you've never heard of. His color scenes of the lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill, taken just before it was demolished fifty years ago in a misguided urban renewal project, have transformed our understanding of downtown through their presentation on the On Bunker Hill history blog.
Now on Bunker Hill and LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association are delighted to announce the debut Los Angeles gallery exhibition of the photographic work of the late George Mann (1905-1977). Mann's rediscovered color images of mid-century Los Angeles are astonishing, and a must see for anyone who loves the city and wants to know it better.
The exhibit of George Mann's Lost Bunker Hill opens at Gary Leonard's Take My Picture Gallery for the Downtown Art Walk on Thursday, July 12, followed by a signing for Jim Dawson's brand new book "Los Angeles's Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's Ground Zero!" on Saturday, July 14. George Mann's photos of Bunker Hill will be on view at the gallery during regular hours and by appointment, and framed prints are available for $100/each. Call 213-622-2256 for more info.
JULY 12 OPENING - http://lavatransforms.org/mann7122012
July 12 event (7-9pm): During the Downtown Art Walk, join On Bunker Hill bloggers Richard Schave (Esotouric bus adventures) and Nathan Marsak (author of "Los Angeles Neon"), and Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison--whose family owned the last two iconic Victorians left on Bunker Hill, The Salt Box and The Castle--for an informal presentation and Q&A on the rise and fall of downtown's most beguiling residential neighborhood, from the mansions of silver kings to the era of grand hotels, the rooming house years, the looming threat of redevelopment, the fight to save Angels Flight, the evictions (Bunker Hill is the largest eminent domain land grab in American history), the hill's flattening, the slow process of redevelopment and how Bunker Hill still resonates in the imagination almost fifty years later. On Bunker Hill blog creator Kim Cooper (Esotouric bus adventures) will also be present to answer questions about George Mann's 3-D photographic viewing machines and the rediscovery of his photographs. The presentation will begin at 7:30pm and repeats at 8:30pm.
JULY 14 BOOK SIGNING - http://lavatransforms.org/mann7142012
July 14 event (6-10pm): Join writer Jim Dawson as he signs copies of his new book "Los Angeles's Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's Ground Zero!" (The History Press, 2012). Also present during some or all of the evening and available to answer your questions will be George Mann's daughter-in-law and keeper of his archive Dianne Woods, On Bunker Hill bloggers Richard Schave and Kim Cooper, and Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison.
ABOUT BUNKER HILL, the ON BUNKER HILL blog and GEORGE MANN:
Bunker Hill in the 1870s was early Los Angeles' most distinguished address, an enclave of grand Victorians, gorgeous gardens and clear-skied views out to Catalina and beyond. By the 1910s the wealthy had moved on, and the Hill's mansions became rooming houses. Up on the Hill, life moved at a different pace. Writers Raymond Chandler, John Fante and Charles Bukowski came and were captivated by the place. Painters Leo Politi, Kay Martin and Millard Sheets made its rotting hotels and sad-eyed residents the subject of their art. And down at City Hall, planners schemed about how Bunker Hill could be declared a slum, its old houses pulled down, its people moved along, leaving a blank slate where skyscrapers could grow. By 1970, Bunker Hill was a field of dirt. In 2008, the time travel bloggers of 1947project.com turned their attention to Bunker Hill. Over a year, the blog grew into a house-by-house survey of the great old downtown residential neighborhood that was demolished to create the high rise district that shares its name, but none of its charms. The blog's contributors, including authors, historians, librarians and tour guides, delved deep into historic archives to uncover the most fascinating tales of more than a century of life on Bunker Hill. 1947project is the brainchild of Kim Cooper, pop music historian ("Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth"), tour guide (Esotouric bus adventures) and preservation activist (Save the 76 Ball). She was joined ON BUNKER HILL by author Nathan Marsak, LAPL history librarian Mary McCoy, Esotouric's Joan Renner, LAPL photo collections manager Christina Rice, Esotouric's Richard Schave and author John Toomey.
George Mann's Los Angeles photos were discovered in his archives by daughter-in-law Dianne Woods in 2010. While researching the images, she found the On Bunker Hill blog, and offered to let the blog feature Mann's Bunker Hill images, online and in archival prints for sale. Since then, Mann's family has also shared with On Bunker Hill some of the short films he made featuring fellow Vaudevillians like The Three Stooges and W.C. Fields, and dozens of photos of landmark Los Angeles restaurants.
Born in Santa Monica in 1905, by his early 20s George Mann was a vaudeville star as the hilariously taller half of the comedy dance team Barto & Mann. Of their east coast debut, "Zit's Theatrical Newspaper" raved "Ten minutes before they went on at the Palace last Monday afternoon nobody thought very much about Barto & Mann; ten minutes after they came off stage, the whole Broadway world was talking about them." As Vaudeville faded, Barto & Mann joined the Broadway cast of "Hellzapoppin" with featured billing from 1938 through 1942. The team split up in December 1943.
In his post-performance life, George Mann turned his imagination to entrepreneurial enterprise and professional photography, which brought him to Bunker Hill. In the late 1950s, when the neighborhood's days were known to be numbered, he arrived atop the peak with his camera to document some representative scenes, returning in November 1962 for additional shots. These long forgotten color images of old Bunker Hill were originally displayed in 3-D viewers of Mann's own design, which were leased to various Los Angeles restaurants, bars and doctor's offices. Mann would swap out the photo selection every two weeks, so if these evocative scenes of Bunker Hill weren't available, one might peep at Calico Ghost Town, Catalina Island, Descanso Gardens, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Pacific Ocean Park, Watts Towers or Palm Springs.
In his Bunker Hill set, created to distract anxious patients and hungry tourists, George Mann captured a seldom seen side of this lost Los Angeles neighborhood: the gracious avenues and genteel decay, the old people, their cats and their gardens, abandoned newspapers, vacant lots, the shadows and the sunlight. We are in his debt.
To see George Mann's rediscovered Los Angeles photographs and learn about his fascinating career that took him and his diminutive sidekick Dewey Barto (real-life pop of TV's "Rhoda's" mom Nancy Walker) from the stages of west coast vaudeville to the Great White Way, visit all the On Bunker Hill blog's George Mann pages at http://onbunkerhill.org/taxonomy/term/507
See Barto & Mann dancing in "Broadway Through A Keyhole" (1933)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVojP9GDCc&t=4m31s
For more info about ON BUNKER HILL, please visit http://www.onbunkerhill.org
Explore lost Los Angeles history on these upcoming Esotouric bus adventures: Pasadena Confidential (7/14), Eastside Babylon (7/15), The Real Black Dahlia (7/28), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (8/4), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA (8/5), Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (8/11), Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (8/18), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley (8/25), Weird West Adams (9/8), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown (9/15), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (9/22)
On Bunker Hill bloggers Richard Schave, Nathan Marsak and Kim Cooper are available for interviews, as are author Jim Dawson, Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison, George Mann's archivist daughter-in-law Dianne Woods and his son Brad Smith. To schedule interviews, contact Kim Cooper, amscrayATgmail.com, 323-223-2767.
