L.A. neighborhoods get the historic crimes they deserve in Esotouric's final
2011 bus tours
WHAT: Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic tour company, reveals the criminal
history of L.A.'s fascinating neighborhoods with the PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL /
EAST SIDE BABYLON crime bus tour weekend and HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET
VICE
WHEN: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" tour Saturday, December
3, 12-4pm; "East Side Babylon" tour Sunday, December 4, 12pm-4pm; "Hotel
Horrors & Main Street Vice" tour Saturday, December 10, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" departs from Fair Oaks
and Arlington Street, Pasadena, CA 91105; "East Side Babylon" and "Hotel
Horrors & Main Street Vice" tours depart from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd.
Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
COST: Pasadena Confidential or East Side Babylon tickets $58/person (weekend
pass for Pasadena and East Side tours $90/person); Hotel Horrors and Main
Street Vice tour tickets $58/person.
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com , 323-223-2767
Ask the average person to name a true crime location in Los
Angeles and you'll hear about Nicole Brown's Brentwood condo, the Manson
Murders scene in the Hollywood Hills or Bugsy Siegel's Beverly Hills death
house.
But when the crack researchers of Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic bus tour
company, go crime hunting, they throw out the map to the stars homes and
cast their eye to less glamorous L.A. neighborhoods that prove to be packed
with bizarre crime histories. True crime buffs have already heard the famous
stories a dozen times before on cable TV, but the forgotten crimes Esotouric
digs up are fresh, fascinating and truly chilling. And to close out their
2011 calendar, Esotouric offers three different tours packed with the
weirdest crimes ever committed in three of L.A.'s most iconic communities:
the old money suburb of Pasadena, the gritty working class neighborhoods on
the East Side of the L.A. River and the city's Historic Core.
TOUR #1:
First up, on Saturday, December 3, it's Esotouric's popular, occasional
PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL WITH CRIMEBO THE CLOWN tour, a true crime bus
adventure delving deep into the weird and horrible past of one of L.A.'s
most exclusive suburbs. Making a special appearance on this tour: it's
Crimebo the Crime Clown capering as only Crimebo can. This is Crimebo's
first appearance on the crime bus since he was featured in Daily Candy and
gained thousands of new fans.
Crime fiends will enjoy a four-hour guided luxury bus tour to the darkest
recesses of Pasadena history, with vintage photos and film clips show to set
the scene. From celebrated cases like the Robert Kennedy assassination
(Sirhan Sirhan was a local Pasadena resident), "Eraserhead" star Jack
Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons'
death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to
fascinating obscurities, the tour's multitude of murders, arsons,
kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happenings provide
an alternate history of Pasadena that's as fascinating as it is creepy.
Crime Bus passengers will tour the old Millionaire's Row on Orange Grove,
boggle at the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic
Hall, thrill to the misadventures of one very poorly-behaved (but
beautifully dressed!) chimpanzee and discover why people named Judd and
rocket scientists should think twice before moving to Pasadena. They'll also
enjoy the offbeat charms of Crimebo the Crime Clown as he leads passengers
out onto Suicide Bridge for a personal look down into the gorge that tempted
dozens of tormented souls to their demise. Riders on this eye-opening, funny
and informative tour will forever see Pasadena in a new light. It is highly
recommended for natives and newcomers alike, crime and history buffs and
anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.
Tour guide Kim Cooper, who researches and writes all of Esotouric's true
crime tours, says, "I believe every neighborhood gets the crimes it
deserves, and Pasadena's dark side is suitably rife with rocket scientists
driven mad by their work, wealthy eccentrics spoiling their pet chimps and
bears, seemingly respectable families misbehaving behind tall hedges and a
general air of genteel psychic decay."
TOUR #2:
Then on December 4, a select crew of urban explorers will climb aboard for
EAST SIDE BABYLON, the latest addition to Esotouric's popular crime bus tour
series. Passengers on this unusual bus adventure will discover fascinating,
little-known historic neighborhoods and the grim memories they hold. With
crimes spanning the 20th Century, some hideously gruesome, others weird and
frankly unbelievable, the tour provides a new way of discovering the city,
via crime scenes and oddities that make ordinary houses and intersections
seem to vibrate with a mysterious energy. Come visit Boyle Heights, where
Night Stalker Richard Ramirez was captured and a mad dad ran amok. Roam the
hallowed lawns of Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery and home of some
memorable haunts and strange burials. Visit East Los Angeles, where a
deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you
can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. Explore the
ghastly streets of Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes
will shock and surprise. Visit Montebello, for scrumptious milk, eggnog and
cookies at Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case
of child murder. All this, and so much more on EAST SIDE BABYLON,
Esotouric's exploration of L.A.'s most horrifying forgotten crimes and
offbeat oddities.
Tour #3:
The final tour of the year comes on December 10, with HOTEL HORRORS AND MAIN
STREET VICE, a tour meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that
cling to the streets and structures of the historic core.
The HOTEL HORRORS section of the tour is steeped in true crime and oddities,
featuring some of the wildest, weirdest, goriest and most memorable
happenings in historic hotels like the Alexandria, Hayward, Barclay, King
Edward and Cecil. Join the tour and you'll step inside several of these
legendary locales, and find out where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez slept,
which hotel saw a visit from the Skid Row Slasher, where two traveling
chocolate salesmen laughed so hard they fell backwards out a window to their
deaths. You'll also explore the fiery curse that repeatedly leveled the St.
George Hotel, and hear some light hearted stories to help the blood and gore
go down.
The MAIN STREET VICE section is a social history lesson celebrating the
ribald, racy, raunchy old promenade where the better people simply did not
travel, but kicks were had by all who did. Burlesque babes and dirty picture
parlors, mummified western outlaws and old time tattoo parlors, wax museums
and pawn brokers, "professors" offering sex lectures and magazine peddlers
with nudie Marilyn Monroe calendars under the counter, sophisticated steak
houses and nickel donut dives -- these were the pleasures and the people to
be found along Main during the first half of the 20th century, a street that
every Angeleno knew offered more (yet less) of what could be seen anywhere
else. We'll visit the scenes of some more unforgettable debaucheries and
share stories of crime, smut, passion and commerce.
Climb aboard for a time travel journey back to the downtown that's not there
anymore, and the surprising number of gems that survive.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sun Nov 27 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at www.lavatransforms.org)
Sat Dec 3 Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown (weekend pass
available)
Sun Dec 4 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat Dec 10 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sun Dec 25 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 7 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California
Nightmare
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sun Jan 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass
available)
Sun Feb 5 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles (weekend
pass available)
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Feb 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper, Joan Renner and Michael "Crimebo the
Clown" Perrick are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries
Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
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