Esotouric to offer Philip Marlowe tour

Raymond Chandler Bus Tour Reveals Startling New "Real Philip Marlowe" Theory

WHAT: Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Bay City" bus tour

WHEN: Saturday Oct 18, 12pm-4pm

WHERE: Departs from outside the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City

COST: $58/person including coffee and snacks

MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

SAVE: Next month, Esotouric offers NOIR NOVEMBER, a special discount package: ride any three of Esotouric's five November tours for just $135 (regular $58-$63 each).

On October 18, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a rare west side tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler. "Raymond Chandler's Bay City," a companion to the Downtown/Hollywood tour "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles" (rolling from Vroman's Bookstore on October 11). Get on the bus to experience Chandler's uniquely poisonous portrayal of Santa Monica (AKA Bay City) for a tour which reveals secret historic spots that still survive in the modern city, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved writer.

And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve 49 yearsafter his death, the October 18 "Chandler's Bay City" tour features the debut of a startling new theory developed by Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper. Passengers will be introduced to an idealistic Los Angeles policeman whose one-man crusade against the evils of his own department is among the most convincing cases for a real life prototype of the Philip Marlowe character ever proposed. And you won't hear about him in any of the Chandler biographies, but only on the Esotouric bus.

ABOUT THE TOUR: RAYMOND CHANDLER'S BAY CITY was crook town, run down, shabby town, gambling town. Chandler naturally gravitated to sin and debauch, so sleazy Santa Monica was a frequent stop for Philip Marlowe. This tour has it all, from doctors feelgood to second wives with pasts to crooked cops with a loathing for a mouthy PI. Chandler's canonization of sin, wealth and sunshine on L.A.'s West Side fed the abiding myths of the American hard-boiled genre and play into the popular conceptions of the community.

Focusing on Chandler's middle period ­ "Farewell My Lovely," "Lady in the Lake" and a few short stories upon which these novels are built, "Bay City Blues" among them-- this four hour bus tour will explore Chandler's take on the Westside, the real life rackets and murders which gave Bay City its wild reputation, and the elements of the old community that have survived layer upon layer of gentrification. Featured stops include the Thelma Todd death cafe, historic homes rented by Raymond and Cissy Chandler, the Miramar Hotel and other scenes associated with Chandler's life and work.

This tour also features the unveiling of Esotouric's exciting new real-life Marlowe theory. Get on the bus for a revealing time travel journey into the literary history of Los Angeles, and discover the places and people who inspired Raymond Chandler's timeless novels, screenplays and stories.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule:
Sat Oct 4 ­ Bodhi Tree ­ Visionary Hollywood
Thurs Oct 9 - The Hippodrome (Downtown LA Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Oct 11- Vroman's Bookstore - Raymond Chandler's LA
Sat Oct 18- Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 25 ­ Halloween Horrors with Crimebo the Clown
Sat Nov 1- Noir November: The Real Black Dahlia
Sat Nov 8- Noir November: The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's SoCal Nightmare
Thurs Nov 13 ­The Hippodrome (Downtown LA Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Nov 15- Noir November: Wild Wild West Side
Sat Nov 22- Noir November: Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat Nov 29- Noir November: Blood & Dumplings
Sat Dec 6- Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Dec 11- The Hippodrome (Downtown LA Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Dec 13- Pasadena Confidential

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com