Esotouric offers Raymond Chandler bus tour April 23

Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe's Lost L.A.

WHAT: Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus tour

WHEN: Sunday, April 23, 2011, 12-4pm (tour repeats Saturday, July 16)

WHERE: Tour departs from Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014

COST: $58/person, includes complementary noir-themed gelato from Scoops

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

In April, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a bus tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, from the downtown streets he roamed as a young oil executive to his uniquely poisonous portrayal of the city's hustlers, heavies and suckers. The tour reveals the secret historic city that still breathes under our modern streets, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved writer and his immortal white knight detective hero Philip Marlowe.

Esotouric principals Richard Schave and Kim Cooper recently took a road trip to San Diego to attend the moving Valentine's Day ceremony in which the ashes of Raymond Chandler's wife Cissy (died 1954) were finally placed in his (died 1959) grave, as both had intended. In keeping with their pledge to share interesting Los Angeles lore on their tour bus and online, video and photos from the ceremony have been posted at the Esotouric blog:
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlergrave

And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve 52 years after his death, Esotouric's Raymond Chandler tour features a startling new theory developed through Esotouric's original research. Get on the bus to learn all about the 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.

For more original Raymond Chandler research uncovered by Esotouric, see the blog post "Raymond Chandler and the Creamery" about the criminal happenings the young writer might have witnessed at his first job in Los Angeles, at the link below.
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlerandthecreamery

ABOUT THE TOUR: RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler's city, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer's bow.

Join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio's gates, and beyond. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler's search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe's struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

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. And as a special treat, the tour's complementary snack break features a selection of noir-themed gelato flavors from the creative kitchen of Tai Kim's Scoops, the most interesting and acclaimed ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops doesn't announce the featured flavors in advance, but Chandleresque offerings on past tours have have included Coffee/Jack Daniels, Bacon/Caramel, Guinness/Chocolate and even Nicotine (made with Nicorette gum)!

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

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sun March 27 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 9 ­ John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend package available)
Sun April 10 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A (weekend package available)
Sat April 16 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sun April 17 - Trace: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 23 - In A Lonely Place: Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sun April 24 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 30 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend package available)
Sun May 1 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South L.A. (weekend package available)
Sat May 14 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat May 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sun May 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat June 4 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 19 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat July 16 - Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat July 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sun July 31 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)

Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association.
http://www.lavatransforms.org